More problems with the data purporting to support mandatory folic acid fortification of all flour. Australia introduced folic acid fortification in 2009. The following year there was a fall just below the trend line but where has the data been since?
folic acid
Reality behind the claim folic acid could “save 200 babies”
Modelling and false assumptions have led to an inflated number Dr Clare Craig Key points The government said fortification would “help avoid around 200” neural tube defects a year and that “hundreds more babies will be born healthy”. Of the “200”, only 31 are live births, about 28 would be children living with disability and […]
The NHS’s folic acid rewrite
What an FOI revealed Dr Clare Craig The NHS has altered its online advice as to who must avoid folic acid right before it is mandated in our staple foods. Internal records show a warning to people on dialysis was cut because staff found it “confusing”. A warning that people with heart stents must avoid […]
Some people should avoid folic acid but how?
Government response to folic acid petition Dr Clare Craig There have been two parliamentary petitions regarding folic acid. Both have received a response. The NHS advises many people to avoid folic acid. The government claims people can avoid it if they need to. That claim is provably untrue and the adverse effects of medicating the […]
Why can’t Public Health U-turn?
When experts recommended removal of fortifications from flour – nothing happened Dr Clare Craig The last time public health in the UK moved to keep flour pure was 1875. Ever since, there has been a push to add more and more to it. A serving scientist employed by Unilever was handed the chair of a […]
Supporting debate on folic acid in flour
Can you help?
1. Do you know any celebrities that might use their platform to help us gain signatories
2. Can you help us achieve attention from politicians or journalists?
3. Can you distribute flyers or put up a poster (with permission)?
What you need to know about Folic Acid Part Three: Folic Acid Is Not Folate
Vitamin B9 is benign, folic acid is not Dr Clare Craig In the previous article I explained how the body only needs 100 micrograms of folate to replace daily losses. The claimed recommended daily allowance of 400 micrograms a day only came about once industry was involved in setting the allowance. This higher level is […]
What you need to know about Folic Acid Part Two: How 100 Micrograms Became 400
The dose that was doubled, and then doubled again Dr Clare Craig Ask almost any doctor how much folate an adult needs to eat and the answer will be four hundred micrograms per day. That figure is printed on supplement bottles, prenatal tablets, cereal boxes and government leaflets the world over, and it is repeated […]
What you need to know about Folic Acid Part One: The Deficiency That Wasn’t
No one needs folic acid fortification Dr Clare Craig In 1875, Parliament made it a criminal offence to adulterate flour. The Sale of Food and Drugs Act of that year was written in answer to a scandal that had been building for decades. Bakers bulked out their flour with alum, chalk and plaster of Paris, […]
Six Saved Babies. What About the Seventy Who Died?
In the only trial in healthy women, for every neural tube defect prevented, NINE babies were lost Dr Clare Craig For nearly three decades we have been told a reassuring story. Synthetic folic acid was added to food to prevent neural tube defects – spina bifida and anencephaly (where the brain does not form properly). […]
