Folate and disease prevention

Download or read book Folate and disease prevention written by Great Britain: Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-12-12 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This review updates the report by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy (COMA) "Folic acid and the prevention of disease" (Report on health and social subjects no. 50, 2000, ISBN 0113223048). The Committee has weighed the evidence which shows significant benefits of folic acid fortification in reducing the risk of pregnancies affected by a neural tube defect (NTD) against the evidence of potential harm in fortification in relation to delaying diagnosis of vitamin B12 deficiency and increasing the progression of bowel cancer. It recommends mandatory fortification of flour with folic acid as the most effective way to increase folate intakes of women most at risk of NTD-affected pregnancies, provided voluntary fortification is controlled and advice is given about supplement use. Such a policy is judged to be of net benefit to the UK population as it would lead to a redistribution of folic acid intakes, improving the folate intake of low consumers while reducing the intakes of high consumers.