Mass medication - our daily bread

[Skyryder]

A person on a normal diet won't be short of folic acid. But NZ soil is deficient in iodine, so no diet gives you adequate iodine.

And adding folic acid to bread is NOT a cure - the average persons bread consumption would leave them short by 50%.

I my opinion the additive should be optional in both cases.

Nonetheless medicating 4,000,000 people to treat a deficiency suffured by 4,000,000 is way more sensible than medicating 4,000,000 people to half treat a deficiency suffered by 10 people who eat badly.

Read my recent posts. They are about Key's inconsistancy. Not about the merits or not of adding iodine or folic acid to bread. I've moved on from that.


Skyryder

[Mom]

Read my recent posts. They are about Key's inconsistancy. Not about the merits or not of adding iodine or folic acid to bread. I've moved on from that. Skyryder

Please return to the subject, your posts are now becoming very off topic

Happy to have the iodine/flouride debate aired in here, your personal politics do not belong.

Ta.
EDIT: Actually, just to clarify, this is about mass mediacting the populace not the government that brings it in, or allows it to happen.

[davereid]

Read my recent posts. They are about Key's inconsistancy. Not about the merits or not of adding iodine or folic acid to bread. I've moved on from that.Skyryder

Mr. Key would be inconsistant if he answered the same question and had different answers.

However, the questions are very different...

Nonetheless, IMHO medicative food additives should be non compulsory, unless their non inclusion causes a health hazard rather than a possible health benefit.

Like chlorine in water for example.

[MSTRS:Me]

A person on a normal diet won't be short of folic acid. But NZ soil is deficient in iodine, so no diet gives you adequate iodine.

And adding folic acid to bread is NOT a cure - the average persons bread consumption would leave them short by 50%.

I my opinion the additive should be optional in both cases.

Nonetheless medicating 4,000,000 people to treat a deficiency suffured by 4,000,000 is way more sensible than medicating 4,000,000 people to half treat a deficiency suffered by 10 people who eat badly.

Exactly. And with the reduction in salt consumption we have been told is happening, what other everyday foodstuff is best to be the carrier for the iodine we must have? Bread seems very logical.
Seaweed would be about the only naturally occurring source in NZ, and who eats (much of) that?

[Badjelly]

...and pass on the folate. Unless I get pregnant.

Or are likely to in the next few months.

[Skyryder]

Mr. Key would be inconsistant if he answered the same question and had different answers.

However, the questions are very different...

No the question is the same (does one section of the community need each of these additives??) but he gives a different answer.

One answer is voluntary the other is compulsary.



Skyryder

[MSTRS:Me]

No the question is the same (does one section of the community need each of these additives??) but he gives a different answer.

*SIGH*
The question is NOT THE SAME!!!
One small portion of the population needs a top-up of a vitamin, because they are too lazy/whatever to see to their own diet...the whole population needs a top-up of a (mineral?), because we all must have it and there is essentially no other source.
You never answered my earlier post re dosing of salt. I bet it wasn't voluntary...

[Skyryder]

*SIGH*
The question is NOT THE SAME!!!
One small portion of the population needs a top-up of a vitamin, because they are too lazy/whatever to see to their own diet...the whole population needs a top-up of a (mineral?), because we all must have it and there is essentially no other source.
You never answered my earlier post re dosing of salt. I bet it wasn't voluntary...

How much folate is recommended?
It is recommended that New Zealand adults consume around 400 micrograms of folate from food each day. Adults get about 250 micrograms of folate from food each day, well below the recommended intake.
New Zealand’s current policy recommends that women capable of, or planning a pregnancy, take at least 400 micrograms of folic acid daily for at least four weeks before and 12 weeks after conception. As well as consuming foods rich in folate and folic acid-fortified foods. If you have a family history of NTDs like spina bifida an even higher dose of folic acid may be necessary – particularly for women who have had a child with an NTD and are planning subsequent pregnancies.
From the NZFSA
http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/processed-f...de/page-08.htm.

As you can see from the above and from the Govt agency at that there is an across the board adult deficiency in folic acid as there is with iodine.

I can only reiterate what I have maintained in earlier posts Key has excluded one as voluntary and made the other compulsory when in fact both are needed in an adult daily diet and in which both are deficiant. You can call Keys decision any way want but those with a brain can see that Keys decision was based on political reasons not health ones and as a result the rate of babies born with NTD will remain the same whereas if folic acid had have been added to bread this would have been reduce by fifty percent or so I heard from the National Radio. I am unable to supply further details on this.
But one thing that is overwhelming is that most health professionals and those in ‘baby business are in agreement that folic acid needs to be available to pregnant mothers.
Someone mentioned that when they were pregnant free folic acid pills were available.
It would be interesting to know who and for what reason they were discontinued as a free supplement.

I don’t see the connection between re dosing salt and the current debate.

However it was first bought in 1924 and the iodine content was increased in 1938 for health reasons. I see no problem with folic acid introduced for much the same reason and as the above shows from the NZFSA website there appears to be a case where it should be introduced into an appropriate food source as iodine is with salt.


Skyryder

[Badjelly]

You never answered my earlier post re dosing of salt. I bet it wasn't voluntary...

I don't know, but I do know you can buy non-iodised salt: we have some in the cupboard.

[Naki Rat]

...... I see no problem with folic acid introduced for much the same reason and as the above shows from the NZFSA website there appears to be a case where it should be introduced into an appropriate food source as iodine is with salt.


Skyryder

The problem is that one can choose to buy iodised salt or not. The situation that was being proposed with bread provided no such choice other than paying a premium for organic bread, which would essentially be a penalty if the bread was being purchased for that reason alone.

The issue I see with using bread as the vehicle of distribution of any substance is that approximately 20% (and increasing) of the population are limiting consumption of, if not avoiding altogether, wheat breads due to dietary issues.

[MSTRS:Me]

I don’t see the connection between re dosing salt and the current debate.

The connection is that iodine is put into table salt, people are eating less of it so their iodine intake is dropping, so an alternative distribution system is being mooted.
First I've heard of folate being below RDI.
If people's intake of folate is dangerously low, then some form of compulsion may be necessary. As long as there is still choice for the consumer, as there is with salt, without paying premium prices.

[Skyryder]

The problem is that one can choose to buy iodised salt or not. The situation that was being proposed with bread provided no such choice other than paying a premium for organic bread, which would essentially be a penalty if the bread was being purchased for that reason alone.

That is a valid point.

Personally I believe the organic product is far overpriced but I suspect that most people would still purchase 'fortified' bread not only on the basis of price, but on the additional health additive too.

It is worth noting that iodine was first introduced back in the twenties and no one realy makes any fuss on that now. In time when the public gets used to the addition of folic acid no one will realy care too much either.

But this whole issue does raise a point that no one has mentioned. At what point does the addition of additives become too much.

Perhaps this is best for another thread but I suspect that most of the additives added to food are for cosmetic purposes alone and that is something that most take little notice of or complain about

But as soon as an additive is added for health reasons we get all up in arms.


Strange that.


Skyryder

[Naki Rat]

......Personally I believe the organic product is far overpriced .....

Or more to the point non-organic products are underpriced as their real cost is long term in costs to health and the environment

[MSTRS:Me]

Perhaps this is best for another thread but I suspect that most of the additives added to food are for cosmetic purposes alone and that is something that most take little notice of or complain about

Ahhhh, now we might be getting somewhere....
It is only recently that some food additives are being recognised for the problems they can cause. And alternatives are increasingly available to choose from.
It is the alternatives that are important here.