アメリカの食パンやオーツなどには、ほぼ強制的にフォーリックアシッド（日本語だと葉酸）が添加されており（というより強化されているんです。すでにライ麦食品などには豊富に入ってるので）、それはアメリカで多くみられる、未熟児、発育不全児などの誕生を減らすためなんですね。この、強制的に強化されているというのが、日本から来た私にとってはびっくりだったんですけど（オレンジジュースにも普通にカルシウムが入っていたり、牛乳に普通にビタミンDやEが入っていたりしますね）、どうやら成果をあげているようです。もっと以前から同じことをやっていたカナダでは、件数は半分に減ったということなので、これからも減るかもしれません。
教育でどうにかしてサプリメントを飲んでもらおう、という試みが失敗したのでこの荒技に出たわけですが、確かにたとえ教育で消費者に「妊婦には葉酸が必要なんだな」と分からせたとしても、経済的な理由などでサプリメントが買えなかったり、分かっていても行動に移せない人がいたりでやっぱり仕方ないのでしょう。
日本ではこれをありがたがる人よりはきっと、「ナチュラルじゃない！」ということで反対する人のほうが多いのかもしれないと思う私です。
以下、NY Timesからの引用です。
Nutrition: For Babies, Going With the Grain
By JOHN O’NEIL
Published: March 2, 2004
Adding folic acid to breads and grains sold in the United States has cut by a third the number of fetuses at risk for birth defects caused by folic acid deficiency, a new study has concluded. Low folate levels early in pregnancy can cause birth defects called neural tube defects, including spina bifida.
The government required folic acid fortification in 1998, after efforts to persuade women of childbearing age to take folic acid supplements had not led to a decrease in the defects. The new study, led by Dr. Mark I. Evans of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan, compared 27,000 pregnancies from 1997 and 34,000 from in 2000.
Earlier studies that counted neural tube defects among newborns indicated a drop of 19 percent, a smaller change than had been predicted. But Dr. Evans argued that because the studies could not account for stillbirths or terminated pregnancies, it would be better to measure the change using pregnancy screening tests. The number of women the tests found at high risk fell by 32 percent, and the number at highest risk had dropped by 44 percent, according to the study, in the March issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Dr. Evans wrote that the findings indicated that fortification “represented the biggest single step in the reduction of birth defects to date.” Dr. James L. Mills, a specialist in the defects at the National Institutes of Health who was not connection with the research, agreed. He called Dr. Evans’s findings in line with the 50 percent drop reported after fortification in Canada.
By JOHN O’NEIL
Published: March 2, 2004
Adding folic acid to breads and grains sold in the United States has cut by a third the number of fetuses at risk for birth defects caused by folic acid deficiency, a new study has concluded. Low folate levels early in pregnancy can cause birth defects called neural tube defects, including spina bifida.
The government required folic acid fortification in 1998, after efforts to persuade women of childbearing age to take folic acid supplements had not led to a decrease in the defects. The new study, led by Dr. Mark I. Evans of St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan, compared 27,000 pregnancies from 1997 and 34,000 from in 2000.
Earlier studies that counted neural tube defects among newborns indicated a drop of 19 percent, a smaller change than had been predicted. But Dr. Evans argued that because the studies could not account for stillbirths or terminated pregnancies, it would be better to measure the change using pregnancy screening tests. The number of women the tests found at high risk fell by 32 percent, and the number at highest risk had dropped by 44 percent, according to the study, in the March issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Dr. Evans wrote that the findings indicated that fortification “represented the biggest single step in the reduction of birth defects to date.” Dr. James L. Mills, a specialist in the defects at the National Institutes of Health who was not connection with the research, agreed. He called Dr. Evans’s findings in line with the 50 percent drop reported after fortification in Canada.