By Alison Horwood
A proposal to dose our daily bread with folic acid may help others besides pregnant women and unborn children.
Research shows that besides preventing birth defects such as spina bifida, folate may help stop heart disease and strokes.
A National Heart Foundation report says folate may reduce homocysteine, a natural
amino acid in the blood which, in high concentrations, is associated with coronaries and strokes.
The foundation's medical director, Associate Professor Boyd Swinburn, says that, while the research is not conclusive, it could help a great number of people.
"Spina bifida is extremely uncommon, and heart disease is extremely common. The evidence of folate helping heart disease is less conclusive, but its potential is greater."
Folate is already added to some cereals and bread, but the Ministry of Health will this year consider recommending it as an additive to bread for health reasons, despite opposition by pure-food activists.
Another possible additive being considered for bread is iodine.
Scientists are urging the Government to find an alternative way of boosting New Zealanders' iodine intake.
They say the 70-year-old practice of adding iodine to salt is no longer working because a health-conscious generation is cutting back on salt.
Iodine prevents goitre, a swelling of the thyroid gland in the neck, and deficiencies are linked to impaired intellectual performance and hearing loss.
Because New Zealand soil has low iodine levels, goitre affected almost a third of children in some towns until the Government legislated to add iodine to salt.
Now an Otago University study which found schoolchildren deficient in iodine suggests that an alternative to salt should be found.
Auckland-based human nutritionist Dr John Birkbeck supports this because salt has become a "dirty word."
"We may need to find a new vehicle with which to supplement the diet with iodine, such as bread."
