Mass medication - our daily bread

[Badjelly]

Wikipedia is typically vague:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folic_acid

"It causes cancer. No, it prevents cancer. Shit, it's one of the two" (note, not a direct quite - just paraphrasing)

It looks like it does both, for different cancers at different stages. Why is saying so being vague?

[ManDownUnder]

It looks like it does both, for different cancers at different stages. Why is saying so being vague?

He's carrying a bucket of wees away...

[want-a-harley]

I'm more concerned about high levels of salt, sugar and preservatives added to bread rather than the addition of a trace mineral. What a bout iodization of salt and fluoridation of water?

[Badjelly]

He's carrying a bucket of wees away...

[ManDownUnder]

... removing the urine... stealing the Rheineck... taking the piss...

[Shadows]

FWIW (and don't shoot the messenger) my understanding is that NZFSA is trying to get a sweetheart deal with their Aussie counterparts for Trans-Tasman food shipments. I believe this is why they feel they can't scrap it straight away.

Which is daft considering there would be no such thing with bread anyway.

[jim.cox]

What a bout iodization of salt and fluoridation of water?

Both undesirable

Leave our food alone

[Naki Rat]

Which is daft considering there would be no such thing with bread anyway.

But NZ does import Aussie wheat flour. ???

[jono035]

For years I ground my own flour,and baked my own bread everyday - now one of my daughters bakes the same bread everyday because that's how she grew up.I think she has my flour mill too....maybe we should start grinding our own flour again too.

I'm glad I never turned in my hippy ways for money....in this day and age,growing and making your own food is a handy skill.

Gutted for when they start genetically modifying the wheat to contain folate though

I started baking my own bread (in a breadmaker, the lazy way) as of a few months ago and haven't bought bread in months. No slightly-elevated-chance-of-prostate-cancer for me, thankyou!

I think the argument goes something along the lines of: Folate is needed from very early on in pregnancies and a lot of pregnancies in NZ are unplanned, therefore everyone in NZ should be getting dosed with Folate just in case. I see the good intentions behind the idea, but didn't someone once say that the road to hell was paved with them?

Edit: Also I think a lot of people don't realise just how non-understood a lot of this stuff is, judging by the replies thus far... An interesting debate nonetheless...

[Okey Dokey]

I believe the supplement is going in flour, too, except organic flour, as the OP said in her first post. Bummer, I've been baking our family bread for decades and will definitely get a 20kg of undosed flour before they start adding crap to it.

[jono035]

I believe the supplement is going in flour, too, except organic flour, as the OP said in her first post. Bummer, I've been baking our family bread for decades and will definitely get a 20kg of undosed flour before they start adding crap to it.

Oh what? All the news articles I read said that it was going in bread damnit.

[Mully]

Which is daft considering there would be no such thing with bread anyway.

Indeed. But we must show ourselves to be subserviant to our 'strayan masters

Oh what? All the news articles I read said that it was going in bread damnit.

'Straya are putting it into flour - we are adding it to bread.

For now.

[Naki Rat]

Gutted for when they start genetically modifying the wheat to contain folate though ......

I believe the supplement is going in flour, too, except organic flour, as the OP said in her first post. Bummer, I've been baking our family bread for decades and will definitely get a 20kg of undosed flour before they start adding crap to it.

Join the dots. There's no need to add it to flour if it is GE'd to already contain it

[Ixion]

There's a VERY important (indeed, supremely important point) that I am still not clear on.

They are going to add folic acid to bread. Bad. But , one can cope. Simply don't eat bread.

But --- ARE THEY GOING TO ADD IT TO PIES?

If they start meddling with our pies, there's nothing for it but civil war.

Seriously.

[jono035]

There's a VERY important (indeed, supremely important point) that I am still not clear on.

They are going to add folic acid to bread. Bad. But , one can cope. Simply don't eat bread.

But --- ARE THEY GOING TO ADD IT TO PIES?

If they start meddling with our pies, there's nothing for it but civil war.

Seriously.

They won't bother adding it to pies, they'll just go straight to cattle-feed. Folate-fortified steak!

Then again, if you're eating your average Big Ben pie then chances are you're still safe

Edit: "It looks like it does both, for different cancers at different stages. Why is saying so being vague? " A lot of people really don't seem to understand that some of this stuff is only barely beginning to be understood, let alone seriously tested. Nothing in nature is complete black and white, so anything to do with cancer sure won't be either. Ultimately what most of it comes down to is that it's all a crapshoot anyway! I'm still waiting for someone to have a closer look at Aspartame but the inner tinfoil-hatter says that it'll never be allowed to happen.