"We're from the Nanny State, and we're here to kill you."
Canadian researchers have discovered that folic acid consumed during pregnancy can alter the gene function of offspring, potentially affecting their susceptibility to disease.
The finding is part of a growing - and controversial - body of research that raises serious questions about whether long-term consumption of folate and folic acid may increase the risk of developing certain cancers in some people.
The debate is far from benign. Food manufacturers are required to add folic acid to enriched flour and grain products under federal regulations that came into force in 1998. The premise behind fortification, which was also mandated in the United States, is to ensure that women receive adequate levels of folate in order to reduce the risk of birth defects in their offspring.
A decade later, however, new research and scientific studies have found evidence that increased consumption of folic acid may help trigger the onset of colon and other types of cancer.
I have a simple request of those politicians, career bureaucrats, and other professional public policy meddlers who believe they have a special obligation to their fellow citizens to legislate what we eat, what we drive, what we say, how we play, and when to come in from the midday sun - would you please kindly go f%$# yourselves, now?
My only consolation is the knowledge that once in a while, the family member you kill might be your own.
(Note: the comments section at the G&M is particularly critical of the quality of reporting on the article quoted. It's a fine example of nanny mentality in action - public policy by lowest common denominator bureaucratic consensus, communicated by the best that uncomprehending journalism has to offer.)
h/t nv53
Link not working,Kate
Raw milk?
Man, that's two bad links in one morning. My cut and paste function is determined to ruin me...
Ok Lefties, y'see that? That is what happens when politics gets involved in science. It happens every -single-time. The truth is the truth, politics is everything else but.
This is why we mock you, and hold tea parties.
Tax cut now please. The less money government has to meddle in things like this, the better off we all end up being.
Look, so a few babies might get cancer. Theose scientists meant well. Anyway, I'm sure they're going to apologize.
"I have a simple request of those politicians, career bureaucrats, and other professional public policy meddlers who believe they have a special obligation to their fellow citizens to legislate what we eat, what we drive, what we say, how we play, and when to come in from the midday sun - would you please kindly go f%$# yourselves, now?"
You're way too kind! I'm not even going to say please. I'd like them to use a broken bottle or better yet, a chainsaw.
Black Mamba - you've misunderstood.
YOUR (purported) increased risk of cancer is traded off against less developmental abnormalities in babies.
A good trade.
Good thing you never got to choose.
Choice is bad.
You might make the wrong one.
BlackMamba; it's the ADULT pop. that's supposedly at increased risk of colorectal cancer. The babies are LESS at risk of birth defects.
http://www.cancer.ca/Canada-wide/About%20cancer/Cancer%20statistics/Stats%20at%20a%20glance/Colorectal%20cancer.aspx
Cut back on bread consumption and do yourself a favour...lose excess weight in the process.
(Not you Kate, you're perfect just the way you are! ;) )
I am still waiting for this study:
"Canadian researchers have found that receiving perfectly valid medical surgery from Dr. Henry Morgentaler during pregnancy results in serious problems with the vital signs of offspring."
See I knew there was a reason why I didnt eat bread! It really is evil!
Just remember everyone: Grains and Salad - that's what FOOD eats.
For me all these experts living off the public purse justifying their existence just doesn't add up to an unbiased decision of any kind. Even my wife gives me a bad time for being such a contrarian but I just can't understand how anyone accepts information that effects their daily lives or what they eat without question.
One thing I don't think you can dispute or question however is the sound research that has determined the healthy and nutritional value of rum.
That should have been can't dispute
Question: I'm male, 35 years old. If I consume folic acid while my wife is pregnant, does that mean the kid could be born cross-eyed?? Well duuuuh, like, it does say not to consume folic acid during pregnmancy!
DanninVan: Dutifully typed out your link, which takes me to the Canadaian Cancer Society but tells me "Content not available at this time". From the above article: "...offspring of rats that received the higher dose experienced a much higher degree of changes to genes in the colon and liver shortly after birth." So it's at least a potential rat-baby carcinogen, no?
Yes, I want to choose. If I cut down on bread I want it to be because I feel like it, not 'cause I'm worried that it's been poisoned by the feds. Seriously. High doses of Folic Acid during pregnancy are not required to ward off Spina Bifida.
Question: I'm male, 35 years old. If I consume folic acid while my wife is pregnant, does that mean the kid could be born cross-eyed?? Well duuuuh, like, it does say not to consume folic acid during pregnancy!
Question: I'm male, 35 years old. If I consume folic acid while my wife is pregnant, does that mean the kid could be born cross-eyed?? Well duuuuh, like, it does say not to consume folic acid during pregnancy!
I know I wrote it twice!! I have two wives!!
I think what this points out is the complexity of the natural world, and the fact that science does not and probably can never 'nail' it down in its full identity.
Science can't ever determine with complete accuracy and finality how X chemical affects not only Y processes but how these variables, which are all networked in varying degrees with each other, affect other chemicals and other processes far, far, far down the networking line.
Science does a pretty good job at direct causality, and even, indirect..up to a point. Then, the complexity of the millions of interactions takes over..
So, science thinks it has found the 'definitive' answer to X disease and quite possibly, it has. But then, a few years later, it finds that this definitive answer has effects on other parts of the network...unwelcome effects.
This also shows how we cannot conclude, with such vicious political and economic certainty, issues as complex as the climate - and global warming and cooling.
Multivitamins with folic acid double the risk of prostate cancer. If you are a man, stop taking them. If there was a finding that they doubled the risk of ... say.. breast or ovarian cancer, this news would have been screamed from the rooftops.
My favorite example of government meddling in science is when wheat state Senator George McGovern oversaw the creation of the "food pyramid" which recommended that we all stuff ourselves with wheat products. You can date the rise of American obesity to that moment, and you can date the slight reversal in that trend to the moment when we collectively realized that all those carbohydrates that "Big Carbs" through their fascist interconnections with Big Goverment pushed on us was making us obese, causing no end of diabetes and heart disease.
Well, it's either take the results of one study that says you *may* be at increased risk of cancer or rely on the overwhelming body of evidence that shows increased folic acid intake in women (pregnant or otherwise) significantly reduces the occurrence of congenital neural tube defects in children and associated morbidity and mortality.
It's good public health policy.
If one bad study came out saying 'don't vaccinate your kids' (which, unfortunately, has been the case) we wouldn't stop vaccinating our children until there was an overwhelming body of evidence confirming that particular study's findings (which there isn't, incidentally.)
Tim in Vermont:
Actually, you can trace the increase in western obesity to a ridiculous increase in portion sizes over the decades, a dramatic increase in the consumption of unhealthy fast food, and a decrease in the amount of daily physical activity due to increased television and video game usage and an increased usage in labour saving devices (elevators, escalators, washing machines, dishwashers, driving to the store across the street, etc.) among other causes.
If you asked your average Canadian what was in our national food guide they'd look at you with a blank stare, and the same goes for the yanks. It's silly to suggest that 'the government made us fat' (though i'm not sure if you're broaching into satire by that point).
ET Right on. I used to do biochemistry for a living so 95% confidence was the best one could say. Every now and then something does not behave the way it should leading to the very scientific expression, what the he!! happened? It is like the second hand smoke issue. I am not saying it is good but some people have genes that predispose the cancers. In other words they are susceptible to lung cancer even if they never saw a cigarette. All they have to do is live long enough.
Over 20 years ago I was asked to participate in an opinion gathering seminar conducted by epidemiologists from Sask Health concerned with developing policy to increase Folic Acid intake levels in Aboriginal and low income women. We were given the scientific 'facts' [as known at the time] regarding Spina Bifida, Folic Acid etc, [including the likelihood of a "small" increase in odds for men getting prostate cancer with higher Folic acid intake.
The researchers were I think surprised at how strongly the men on the panel objected to the idea that their health should be put at risk on the off chance that some benefit might accrue to a woman who couldn't be bothered to eat a healthy diet during pregnancy. Frankly we were made to feel like selfish Neanderthals. Note that now, 20 years later, prostate cancer rates are through the roof and Spina Bifida rate decreases have been miniscule at best.
Oh, and the 'foods' that it was thought best to lace with Folic Acid? Bread and beer!
Last post, I swear :)
From the New England Journal of Medicine
Reduction in Neural-Tube Defects after Folic Acid Fortification in Canada; De Wals, Tairou, Van Allen et al (2007) 357:135-142
ABSTRACT
Background In 1998, folic acid fortification of a large variety of cereal products became mandatory in Canada, a country where the prevalence of neural-tube defects was historically higher in the eastern provinces than in the western provinces. We assessed changes in the prevalence of neural-tube defects in Canada before and after food fortification with folic acid was implemented.
Methods The study population included live births, stillbirths, and terminations of pregnancies because of fetal anomalies among women residing in seven Canadian provinces from 1993 to 2002. On the basis of published results of testing of red-cell folate levels, the study period was divided into prefortification, partial-fortification, and full-fortification periods. We evaluated the relationship between baseline rates of neural-tube defects in each province and the magnitude of the decrease after fortification was implemented.
Results A total of 2446 subjects with neural-tube defects were recorded among 1.9 million births. The prevalence of neural-tube defects decreased from 1.58 per 1000 births before fortification to 0.86 per 1000 births during the full-fortification period, a 46% reduction (95% confidence interval, 40 to 51). The magnitude of the decrease was proportional to the prefortification baseline rate in each province, and geographical differences almost disappeared after fortification began. The observed reduction in rate was greater for spina bifida (a decrease of 53%) than for anencephaly and encephalocele (decreases of 38% and 31%, respectively).
Conclusions Food fortification with folic acid was associated with a significant reduction in the rate of neural-tube defects in Canada. The decrease was greatest in areas in which the baseline rate was high.
Thought I should cite my claims. Thanks,
Cheers
Yesterday I purchased an adult multi-vitamin and to my dismay it has a large amount of folic acid -450 mcg.
I really do not know what to believe. It seems the general population is being used as guinea pigs. Vitamin D is supposed to protect against cancer, will the next news item be that it causes some other disease?
I remember being told to place my infants on their backs to prevent SIDS, now parents are told to place infants on their stomaches, or is it the other way around?
I don't understand. Women are told to consume folic acid during pregnancy and now someone is saying don't?
What the hell?
I do wish these scientists would make up their minds.
That's awesome. My wife and I are expecting our first child in the fall... like we don't have enough to worry about as it is.
Griff, missing the point old son. Vaccination, while highly recommended, is voluntary. Fortifying of food products with folate is mandated by government, as in compulsory.
The problem is not folate per se, its the friggin' nanny state mandates. They are actively dangerous because they get imposed based on incomplete or even flatly wrong science.
Denying people choice is the problem.
Beer continues to be the only safe food.
Why don't pregnant women just take a folic acid supplement and leave the rest of us out of it?
The neural tube forms very early in pregnancy, usually before the woman knows she is pregnant. Folic acid helps it form properly. The plan to fortify foods with folic acid is to help prevent spina bifida, which happens so early the mother hasn't even bothered yet with a pregnancy test.
Bread causes cancer.
Sunshine causes cancer.
According to Suzuki, when I exhale, it's a pollutant.
Avoiding death by heating my home is destroying the world.
Keeping a neat lawn is killing the planet.
And on and on and on.
According to the papers, everything I do as a human, should be stopped.
The only thing I know that's completely safe, is tap water. The 'no plastic bottle' people have assured us of it.
Kates correct, "f@%! off".
I'd rather die of cancer than live in a do-gooder bubble.
speaking of the "Nanny State"
If you have the stomach for it, here's a quick ride around America's new and improved Pelosi-land:
moonbattery.com/archives/2009/04/a_postcard_from.html
Another fine example of the "well intentioned" not appreciating the second and third order effects of their actions.
What types of foods in Canada are currently fortified with Folic Acid?
The problem with folic acid supplementation to prevent spina bifida is that folic acid must be started pre-conception and I often see women who are 2 months pregnant and have no idea that they should be on folic acid.
Folic acid deficiency is associated with increased cancer risk. For years I've been treating cervical dysplasia in women with high dose folic acid and have seen very abnormal paps return to normal with the folic acid. Folic acid deficiency is a cause of depression as well as elevated homocysteine levels. I personally have been taking high dose folic acid for over 30 years along with an extensive cocktail of vitamins.
The problem with folic acid (and B12) is that these two vitamins are essential for DNA replication. If one has a cancer in ones body then it will grow faster when one supplements with these two vitamins. Methotrexate is a folate antagonist and anti-cancer drug. There are experimental B12 antagonists being studied as anti-cancer drugs.
While I personally take folic acid, and will continue to do so as I think the evidence for folate in cancer prevention is still quite strong, I don't believe in fortification of food with folic acid. B12 deficiency is quite common in the population and is exacerbated by taking excess folic acid. I'd be interested in knowing if the B12 levels of the people who developed cancers as a result of folate supplementation were low.
I'll research the folic acid/prostate cancer link but I would suspect that folic acid was probably making a pre-existing cancer grow. There is a very strong link between low vitamin D levels and prostate cancer and vitamin D deficiency is very widespread (one of the consequences of people worried about getting skin cancer).
Adult humans with marginal folic acid status have elevated plasma homocysteine and significantly increased risk of cardiovascular accidents. Folic acid is needed for synthesis of the purine and pyrimidine bases that make up our DNA, which does turn over all the time in rapidly dividing cells. So you don't have to be pregnant to need folic acid. And rat biochemistry is an arcane subject mostly applicable to rats.
Hey Phantom :)
I really do understand where Kate is coming from re: the the nanny-state concerns, but while general concern about an over-reaching nanny state is very much valid and justified, this case is specifically an issue of public health based on established, evidence-based science.
While vaccinations may not be mandatory, seat-belts and fluoridation of public water generally are; an extremely small percentage of people are killed in car crashes due to seatbelt usage (usually due to improper usage, but i digress) and a further small number of individuals experience tooth decay due to overexposure of fluoride. But to suggest that we should immediately repeal mandatory seat-belt laws and stop fluoridation of water would be to ignore the reality that seat-belts save thousands of lives each year, and that thanks to fluoride addition, tooth decay is no longer a major public health concern. These are mandatory public health initiatives, and they work - Well.
You are absolutely right, however, in saying that we need to ensure public health initiatives are based on sound, proven, and irrefutable science, and I public health agencies usually do their best to ensure that this is the case.
As for Kyla who asked why women just don't take supplements during preganancy, and Mike who stated that women 'couldn't be bothered to eat a healthy diet during pregnancy', I refer to HBanan who sums it up well:
"The neural tube forms very early in pregnancy, usually before the woman knows she is pregnant. Folic acid helps it form properly. The plan to fortify foods with folic acid is to help prevent spina bifida, which happens so early the mother hasn't even bothered yet with a pregnancy test.
Okay, so I lied about my previous post being the last one :)
"This also shows how we cannot conclude, with such vicious political and economic certainty, issues as complex as the climate - and global warming and cooling." - ET
Are you saying you think it's a bad idea to pump pollution into the atmosphere to fight Global Warming?
"I'd rather die of cancer than live in a do-gooder bubble." - doowleb
That's motto material.
If you don't like the results of today's study, wait for the results of tomorrow's study. News at 11.
What I'd really like to know is how there can be a million study and not one shares results with any other. Can they ALL be wrong? That a rhetorical question by-the-way.
There's a very simple way of staying healthy (at least within the limitations of your genetics.) That is to eat real food found in nature, put down the big mac, stay away from the processed dinners, and keep on your feet more than on your couch. I'd put special emphasis on that last one.
Beyond that, your genetics are probably gonna be the cause of your death.
I had been hearing rumblings from the MSM lately that fat and lack of exercise "may" be contributing to obesity.
Oh, my.
Proof read Warwick. PROOF. READ.
That is all...
The article in the Globe and Mail is quite poorly done--something pointed out by many of the commenters. By the time you sort through all the qualifiers and maybe's, there's not much left of the original claim. Perhaps folic acid supplementation should be limited to women of child-bearing age rather than requireing everyone to ingest the substance whether they can benefit from it or not. I recall some discussions over whether hormone replacement for menopausal women is good or bad. At first, the information seemed mostly positive. Then it was negative. Then it turns out that it can help fend off osteoporosis but you might be at greater risk of certain cancers. Seldom do you get a remedy is all good or all bad. What we require is good information, properly and intelligently vetted and reported, and the opportunity to decide what is good for ourselves.
Jack Frosst
"I know I wrote it twice!! I have two wives!!"
You think that's something? I wed three wives.
You youngsters out there won't get the pun.
Newspaper drones writing about "scientific breakthroughs that will revolutionize the way we all will ......................" are always a poor combination for those good folks trying to keep up their level of literacy just in case something worth reading is printed someday.
Anybody interested in the effects of water fluoridation on our health? Crickets...
AssPress has this warning* on behalf of the socialists.
What is socialism?
"Don't let the bastards call it anything else."
"Socialism is really cannibalism
Carol Negro
Apparently in our current political climate "socialism" has become a word that does not convey the horror it actually represents. It has become common and thus meaningless beyond the virtuous idea of "sharing" and "taking care of the poor".
People, especially among the ignorant -- particularly the college educated -- seem proud to call themselves "Socialists" today. And the supremely ignorant -- our politicians -- go a step further, and celebrate the word "Progressive" as though it had a glorious and honorable history.
I refuse to allow "Socialism" and "Progressivism" to be understood as benign, helpful, caring, sharing- as another way of saying "The Brotherhood of Man".
Socialism and Progressivism are cannibalism."
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/04/socialism_is_really_cannibalis.html
...-
*"Overeaters can't resist bad food, contends new book"
""It's the next great public health campaign, of changing how we view food, and the food industry has to be part of it.""
urlm.in/cdoy
"Environazis Whip Up Hatred of the Overweight
Now that the global warming hoax has caused science to be subsumed by hard left politics, anything is possible. The latest revelation from the liberal government/media/academia establishment: being overweight causes climatic catastrophes:
Scientists warned that the increase in big-eaters means more food production — a major cause of CO2 gas emissions warming the planet. Overweight people are also more likely to drive, adding to environmental damage.
Dr Phil Edwards, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: "Moving about in a heavy body is like driving in a gas guzzler."
Each fat person is said to be responsible for emitting a tonne more of climate-warming carbon dioxide per year than a thin one."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2234593/posts
Don't have time to read all these comments, however vaccinations were discussed.
Don't kid yourself that vaccinations are voluntary!
"I have a simple request of those politicians, career bureaucrats, and other professional public policy meddlers who believe they have a special obligation to their fellow citizens to legislate what we eat, what we drive, what we say, how we play, and when to come in from the midday sun - would you please kindly go f%$# yourselves, now?"
I would add flu vaccine to your list Kate.It's a huge can of worms...too large to open here.
Griff,
I don't know about you, but when I was a child, the "Food Pyramid" was part of our indoctrination in US public schools. To suggest that years of indoctrination had no effect is ludicrous. I have often been shocked at the vehemance of some people claiming that refined carbs like bread and potatoes are required for a healthy diet. I have been steadily shedding pounds for years since I stopped eating the carbs recommended by the govt. Even they have abandoned it. Now they are working on forcing their carbs into our cars to lower our mileage.
Re prostate cancer. The study suggested that it was the high bio availability of the folic acid in multi vitamins that may encourage the growth of cancers, overwhelming the immune system. The suggestion was to get your folates from leafy vegetables, perhaps time release folic acid suppliments may reduce the effect. I don't think there are any of these on the market.
Like I said, if the finding was that the suppliment increased breast cancer, the multi vitamins would have been recalled by now.