Fighting birth defects with corn tortillas

*What do you think? Sounds like a good idea … VL

By News4SanAntonio

SAN ANTONIO – There’s a push to fight birth defects by adding a special ingredient to corn tortillas. “If it’s as easy as putting a supplement inside a corn product, why not do it?” asks Nora Oyler with Spina Bifida Texas.

The advocacy group wants the government to require folic acid be added to corn tortillas and corn masa, foods that many Hispanic women eat several times a week.

In 1998, the FDA started requiring folic acid be added to enriched wheat and rice products, and since then, neural tube defects like spina bifida have dropped by 36%.

Corn was not included on the fortified list, but corn consumption has gone way up in the U.S. since then, and Hispanic women are still 20% more likely to have babies with neural tube defects.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by CIMMYT/Flockr]

 

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