Kimberly Mega Food Scarcity 3/25/08 11:40pm
Since 2003 folic acid has been added to bread due to chronic malnutrition in children and is distributed to places such as South Africa. The addition of folic acid to South Africa’s bread is mandatory. A British study has recently found that the increased levels of folic acid is linked to bowel cancer and heart disease. Folic acid is a man made B vitamin found in a variety of foods such as leafy vegetables and liver. The Foods Standards Agency is overseeing two large scale experiments to study the effects of folic acid on the heart and the colon. Some bread companies have already been asked to reduce the levels of folic acid in their product. Although some experts are saying that the particular diets of South Africans will allow them the room for extra nutrients because their diet is scarce as it is. I find it very interesting that one of the things that will greatly decrease global malnutrition, they are trying to take away. In my international health class the fortification of foods is a top priority to help infant and maternal hunger. If the older generations aren’t nourished how do they expect the younger children to survive. The mothers will have no nutrients in their breast milk and no one will be strong enough to work the fields.
http://www.iol.co.za/general/news/newsprint.php
4 comments:
I hope that they are looking out for the best interest of the human population by the study however it does make you wonder. Interesting article.
We wont need people strong enough to work the fields, we'll have robots to do that for us! Of course I am joking... hopefully.
I see what you are saying and fortification is a good thing, however at high levels fortification can cause many problems, and if at the levels at which folic acid is added is dangerous then by all means they should lower the levels.
It seems kind of like a tricky issue. Yes, it's really important that people get the nutrients that they need but at the same time we don't want to knowingly give them cancer. It will be interesting to see what is done to solve this problem.
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