Folic Acid.

Not bothered at all, it’s good for you in those sort of doses and naturally in leafy greens.
I’ve not see anything in the media?

Maybe it's because it's an important vitamin in early pregnancy. Putting it in flour presumably means that most pregnant women, even if their pregnancy's unplanned, will get the vitamin this way (unless they have coeliac disease I suppose).

My last blood test showed low folic acid . So I was prescribed a 3 month course, which I duly took.
I have to book another blood test soon, to evaluate the results.
Btw I am far from young. In fact I’m a grandmother. I thought my diet was pretty good, but there you go !

I take prescribed folic acid. Ignore media nonsense.

I'm pretty sure this was discussed recently on here but it may have been part of another thread.

It is in all UK flour except 100% wholemeal.

If you don't want it and don't want wholemeal you will need to buy imported flour from (say) Italy.

By the way, it's a fairly recent addition to the Niacin, Thiamin etc. that have been added to our flour for years.

I have been low in folic acid in the past and had to take 3 months course of folic acid tablets prescribed by my GP to stop it happening again I take a daily folic acid tablet everyday. I am 68.

They add lot of vitamins and minerals into food. And have done for decades . Not everyone eats a healthy diet or cooks from scratch its a way of trying to make the country healthier.

I am old enough to remember when a lot of babies where born with spina bifida( not spelt correctly) and it was found it was lack of folic acid.

I became a veggie this year not through choice but because meat,poultry and fish made me choke due to a rare hereditary neurological condition. Even stewing the meat and poultry to death and shredded still choked. I do have a heathly diet but because of my health can't cook everyday so make enough stew with Quorn mince or chicken pieces or brown sausages cut into small pieces but plenty of veg and pulses.

Since my first mammogram was told to take combined vitD ,calcium and vit K tablet.

I also take B12,cod liver oil, folic acid and vitamin C daily .

At least we don't live in USA where they have even more additives many bad for you .

I’m 80 shortly and similarly to some others was prescribed a course of folic acid… about a week or two after taking it as prescribed I began to get severe wind and arm pain. I stopped the folic acid and my symptoms stopped too.
Later I dociussec this and was prescribed a much lower daily dose, but after a fortnight milder but similar symptoms reoccurred. Stopped it again, but have yet to discuss with doc?
Anyone else get these odd side effects?

I was given folic acid throughout my first three pregnancies and avoided anaemia. The fourth time they said they were no longer prescribing it and I ended up having to have those awful iron injections.
I think we can rest assured that if they are adding things to flour it will have been throughly tested and they wouldn't wase the money doing it unless it was beneficial.

Get to know the friends and family of someone with spina bifida - caused by lack of folic acid. Heartbreaking. It is to reduce the number born handicapped. Not a bad idea.

This fake folic acid really IS harmful to you. Someone is making money out of this, and anyone who thinks 'they would not add it to food if it was harmful to you' and 'it has been thoroughly tested' has not been paying attention in recent years. There is plenty about this on the alternative media. We should all campaign for uncontaminated food and organic vegetables plentifully and cheaply available then most health problems would be far less of an issue.

I had my babies in the nineties. Folic acid was starting to be added to bread then - can’t remember the exact year - in order to bring down the numbers of babies born with spina bifida. It has made a huge difference. As this has been the case for over thirty years, it seems strange to worry about it now.

undine, organically produced fruit and vegetables cannot be produced "cheaply" or more "plentifully" because the yield is smaller and the process more labour intensive.

Though good for pregnant women, it's bad for several other sections of society - but they won't have any say.
Why do this instead of giving supplements to those who need it? Stinks of Big Pharma lobbying if you ask me.
It's not being done in most there Western EU countries. Which is odd if it is without drawbacks don't you think?

As always, follow the money.

Why would you worry?

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Reported.

Musicgirl addition of folic acid to non-wholemeal wheat flour didn't come in until November 2024 in the UK and the deadline for full compliance isn't coming till this December.

I think you are either thinking of the the NHS routinely giving folic acid to women when pregnant which started in the 1990s - initially with high risk women, - or you are thinking of In the mid-to-late 1990s, breakfast cereal manufacturers (like Kellogg's).
Kelloggs voluntarily began adding folic acid to some of their cereals and listed it on their side-panel nutrition labels.

Bread manufacturers did not follow suit.

These are the reasons we haven't done it before and have argued over it for years - 30 years!
- Masking B12 deficiency, especially in older people
- The target demographic is women who may become pregnant, (but neural tube defects happen within the first 28 days of conception),
- Colorectal cancer - it may help preexisting cancer grow
- Synthetic folic acid must be converted by the liver and van overwhelm it,
- Because the new 2024 legislation mandates the fortification of all non-wholemeal wheat flour it's essentially mass-medication.

undines

This fake folic acid really IS harmful to you. Someone is making money out of this, and anyone who thinks 'they would not add it to food if it was harmful to you' and 'it has been thoroughly tested' has not been paying attention in recent years. There is plenty about this on the alternative media. We should all campaign for uncontaminated food and organic vegetables plentifully and cheaply available then most health problems would be far less of an issue.

I don’t disagree but the reality is many people do not want to cook and eat leafy greens, legumes, liver etc.
it’s easier to give everyone folic acid than it is to reeducate.

I worked in schools 20 years ago in a strong farming community, our domestic science was sponsored by Tesco, we had their recipe cards and they delivered and discounted the ingredients.
I was appalled.

The children made pizza on ready made bases, Baileys cheesecake, macaroni cheese etc.
Everything was weighed out ready on their work benches so they just assembled the food.

It saddened me so much as I knew I could have designed a curriculum that involved nutrition, budgeting, sustainability and more.

Domestic science if taught properly spills over into the sciences, maths, geography, MFL and more.

Every child should leave school understanding nutrition.
They should be able to make a healthy meal for four on a £5
budget, cook a chicken and make 3 meals from it and finally to make bread and forage.

They are using synthetic folic acid which is not good for you, natural folic acid is fine

Synthetic folic acid is not good and is another additive to our food which is unnecessary for the vast majority - also masks vitamin B₁₂ deficiencies, potentially accelerating existing tumor growth in older adults, and raising personal choice issues for those preferring natural, unfortified foods.