Hispanic Newborns at Higher Risk of Neural Tube Defects
Kathleen Lees k.lees@scienceworldreport.com
First Posted: Jun 20, 2014 05:03 PM EDT
The findings are updated from a similar 2008 paper by the March of Dimes, a nonprofit foundation that highlights the growing number of Hispanic women who have children each year in the United States. The report found that this group has more babies each year than any other population in the country.
Unfortunately, many of these women are also more prone to giving birth prematurely or before the 37th week. This puts many of their future children at an increased risk of spina bifida and anencephaly, brain and spinal cord malformations that are a form of neural tube defects.
Many researchers believe that because corn masa flour is common staple of the Hispanic diet, some women's children in this population will be at an increased risk for certain neural tube defects because of a lack of folic acid and vitamin B in their diet. The report also found that Hispanic women are less likely to take a multivitamin than other ethnicities.
http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/15455/20140620/hispanic-newborns-at-higher-risk-of-neural-tube-defects.htm
From the comments:
stephelinda nosuprise • 19 hours ago
We've known for a long time that folic acid deficiency can cause neural tube defects. Most cereal products -- but not corn masa -- are fortified with folic acid. In addition, folic acid can be acquired from dark leafy greens, asparagus, turnip, beets, and mustard greens, Brussels sprouts, lima beans, soybeans, beef liver, brewer's yeast, root vegetables, whole grains, wheat germ, bulgur wheat, and some beans. But young Mexican American women, many of whom live on a tight budget, typically consume neither fortified grains nor quantities of fresh vegetables. So while I share your suspicion around GMOs, I think we could prevent birth defects by fortifying corn masa.
stephelinda • 18 hours ago
The original report, Fortification of corn masa flour with folic acid in the United States: an overview of the evidence, in "Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences," of which this is an attempted synopsis, can be found at
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...
(For some reason the URL is truncated when I post, but anyone interested can google it.)
Regarding the complaint that Lee used "Hispanic" carelessly, it's worth noting that the original study showed "no difference was observed between Hispanic women who reported speaking primarily English at home and white women."
In other words, the increased incidence of pregnancies with neural tube defects was found only in a population of Mexican American women who had immigrated less than 15 years earlier and who spoke Spanish at home. This is the primary target population for fortification of corn masa flour. The term "Hispanic" was far too general to be meaningful.
stephelinda's comments were in response to some racist complaints and comments but stephelinda adds some very important facts to the discussion. My question is why corn masa unlike most grain products not fortified with folic acid? It's a simple, inexpensive step that would save so many lives and so much grief.
