Special to the American
Women are gaining a new tool to help fight birth defects that will be found in products on the grocery store shelves.
To promote increased consumption of folic acid among women of childbearing age, the March of Dimes and the Grain Foods Foundation have created a new Folic Acid for a Healthy Pregnancy seal that will be featured on select products. The seal will help women quickly and easily identify grain products that are enriched with folic acid.
Consuming folic acid every day even before pregnancy is crucial because birth defects of the brain and spine known as neural tube defects (NTDs), such as spina bifida, can occur in the early weeks following conception, often before a woman knows she is pregnant.
January is Birth Defects Prevention Month and January 7-13, 2008 was Folic Acid Awareness Week. Both initiatives share the goal of increasing awareness of the importance of folic acid in preventing birth defects.
2008 marks the ten-year anniversary of folic acid fortification to enriched flour. Since the FDA issued the mandate in 1998, neural tube defects, including spina bifida, have declined by 26 percent.
The March of Dimes urges all women of childbearing age to consume 400 micrograms of folic acid daily beginning before pregnancy and continuing into the early months of pregnancy. Bread, crackers, bagels, pasta, pretzels and tortillas made from fortified, enriched white flour are popular and important sources of folic acid.
“The Folic Acid for a Healthy Pregnancy seal will make is easier for women to choose foods that are healthy for them and their babies,” said Dr. Tahzeeba Hossain, domain assistant member, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, who leads folates research sponsored by the March of Dimes. “Folic acid is the most important vitamin women can take to help prevent serious birth defects of the brain and spine, and it’s most important that they start taking it before they get pregnant and continue to take it after.”