Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

DHR focuses on national folic acid awareness observance

The Georgia Department of Human Resources joins the Georgia Folic Acid Coalition, the National Council on Folic Acid, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in observing National Folic Acid Awareness activities during January. The campaign, Folic Acid: You Don’t Know What You’re Missing!, focuses on making people aware of the importance of folic acid in their diet and its many lifelong benefits. Folic acid is a B-vitamin necessary for proper cell growth.

The theme of National Folic Acid Awareness initiative is especially important with the popularity of low-carbohydrate diets. Many people, who are curtailing their intake of carbohydrates such as fortified grains, may be unaware that they could be lacking folic acid and other essential vitamins and minerals necessary for health and wellbeing.

Since 1998 the U. S. Food and Drug Administration has required the addition of folic acid to enriched breads, cereals, flours, pastas, rice and other grain products. According to CDC, since the introduction of fortification, rates of certain birth defects called neural tube defects have decreased by 26 percent nationally and 20 percent in metro Atlanta.

“We know that taking 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid before and during pregnancy can help prevent NTDs by up to 70 percent. We are concerned that many women of childbearing years might not understand that by lowering their intake of enriched grains, they could be increasing their risk of having a baby with a birth defect,” said Dr. Stuart Brown, the acting director of DHR’s Division of Public Health. “Women should eat a balanced diet rich in fortified grains and take a daily multivitamin which includes 400 mcg of folic acid.”

Emerging research shows that folic acid may also reduce the risk of birth defects, such as cleft lip, cleft palate and heart defects; the risk of cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and colon, cervical and breast cancer.

To learn more about folic acid and National Folic Acid Awareness activities, visit http://health.state.ga.us/programs/nutrition/folicacid/, http://folicacidinfo.org/, or www.cdc.gov/folicacid/.