Daily Mail article- birth defects

(Jo) #1

Another study to discredit Keto and create doubt…
:frowning:

(Candy Lind) #2

I never got enough when I was on a carbivore diet. I bet they didn’t even look at whether the subjects were taking any kind of vitamins. Admittedly, it’s better to get folate from food than folic acid, but with avocado, asparagus, spinach and liver on the list of folate rich foods, it’s silly to think a Ketonian couldn’t meet or exceed their folate needs.

#3

Disclaimer, I read the article but not the original study yet, but I’ll pipe in nonetheless.

As a certified nurse-midwife who has had many grain-free clients with whom I’ve had this very conversation, I do believe there is an issue here to be addressed, but it is not the one the author of the article spins.

As stated in the article itself: “It is estimated a fifth of US women have blood folate concentrations below the recommended level to reduce risk of neural tube defects.
For this reason, in 1998 the Food and Drug Administration began requiring that folic acid be added to enriched grain products.”

To say that fewer carbs increase risk of birth defects is just wrong. The reality is that intake of folic acid (folate better) pre-pregnancy and in the early 1st trimester (before the pregnancy is known) drastically reduces the incidence of neural tube defects. Enriching processed grain products was an easy, broad-brush method of increasing folic acid intake in a population regularly consuming such products. And yes, the incidence of NTDs went down. With reduced consumption of these products, and the concomitant reduction in folic acid intake, it makes perfect sense that there would be an increase in NTDs.

However, the solution is not to increase carbs but to increase folic acid/folate. A public health campaign to educate women of childbearing age, whether or not a pregnancy is planned, of the importance of folic acid/folate intake. MTHFR testing probably a good idea as well.

Or… to enrich all bacon with folic acid/folate!! (kidding!!!)

Edited to add that folate/folic acid intake via it’s various foods and/or supplements. Food best, or course.

(Chris) #4

Daily Mail…nuff said.

#5

@Dread1840
Yea but, University of North Carolina study, published in peer reviewed journal… it’ll most certainly show up with the same spin in more reputable rags.

(Louise ) #6

I saw this on my news feed as well - firstly, what a bollocks of an article!

Secondly, let’s not let truth get in the way of a story and selling newspapers.

Here is a link to the abstract for the research, and see what the authors have to say: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bdr2.1198/abstract

As a case controlled study over quite a few years, they did both data registry analysis and food frequency questionnaires of the mothers to establish an ASSOCIATION of folic acid and neural tube defects. It has been well established that consumption of folic acid and NTDs of course, from those healthy whole grains (and supplements) before pregnancy help reduce NTDs.

Here is a graphic of the association: Folate

And for a bit of light reading Folate.pdf (387.6 KB)

(Michele) #7

Haven’t read the article. Same issue would be true for someone with coeliac and who hates veges. Be an educated consumer especially if you are planning to have children.

(Allie) #8

Oh the Daily Fail strikes again…

(Jo) #9

I realize that this newspaper is rag, but what concerns concerns me is articles like this creates doubt and misinformation, in a broad spectrum.

When I was making babies 20 years ago (and eating lots of “healthy” carbs!) I was told to supplement with folic acid.

(Ethan) #10

It’s just the world we live in. I saw an article about pregnancy and ketogenic diets that was mean to scare people. It cited another of those “rat studies” about issues with high-fat diets with pregnant rats. The “high-fat diet” was also still high carb.

#11

That’s another article my 76 year old Dad with try, and fail, to send me from the Daily Mail via email.