Folic acid; New Zealand Food Regulators are Failing Kiwi’s

Folate or Vitamin B9 is one of the 13 essential vitamins that we need to survive.

Folate is critical to methylation. An essential part of many biochemical mechanisms that happen within the body (Zheng & Cantley, 2018). Methylation is crucially responsible for cell function including gametogenesis and continued embryo development. (Menezo et al., 2022)

Most of us get folate from our diets. Foods highest in folate are hands down liver, followed by avocados, raw spinach and beetroot.

Due to concerns over Neural Tube Defects (NTD) Folic Acid was introduced into said food to bolster folate levels. Folic acid is a man-made synthetic version (Pietrzik et al., 2010) of folate.

This food fortification has shown a reduced chance of NTD and is considered a good health practise worldwide (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2016).

The problem is; although folic acid may benefit some people in reducing NTD (reducing 2-5 cases per 10,000) a reduction of 0.05% (Gluckman, Beaglehole 2018, P. 13) it is unmetabolised for up to 67% of the population (Meshkin & Blum, 2007).

One of these gene variants that limited folic acid metabolisation is “C677T” of which there are several mutations (Moll & Varga, 2015). The C677T mutation has been shown in a group of 3000 people to be an increased risk of stroke (Chang et al., 2019). Is this because of the unmetabolised folic acid (UMFA)? a question for further studies.

67% of us are unable to metabolise folic acid at least to some degree and yet folate acid is mandatory within flour in many countries around the world. Additionally, a folic acid supplements would be recommended by a good health professional to a pregnant mother.

A great health professional, however, will recommend a strong diet high in all essential nutrients as a number one priority. With possible supplementation of methyl folate the superior form of folate supplementation (Cochrane et al., 2023).

Methyl folate (Scaglione & Panzavolta, 2014) a “Naturally occurring 5-MTHF has important advantages over synthetic folic acid because it is well absorbed even when gastrointestinal ph is altered, and its bioavailability is not affected by metabolic defects seen in up to 67% of us.

67% of us have at least one mutation in our MTHFR gene (Meshkin & Blum, 2007). Appropriately named. This mutation hinders our ability to convert folic acid into the magic enzyme 5 Methyl THF.

The folic acid we ingest must be metabolised into Dihydrofolate (DHF), Tetrahydrofolate (THF), then to 5,10 Methylene (THF) and then finally into L-methylfolate (5-MTHFR) Pantanwala and co (2014) found that on their human subject’s people with the MTHFR mutation are unable to do the final step, leading to homocysteine build up and risk of liver saturation.

The Counter Argument;

New Zealand’s Chief science adviser Sir Peter Gluckman wrote a report in 2018 stating that there is no evidence that UMFA is harmful.

Gluckman’s stance is that although UMFA happens there is no direct link to folic acid consumption and an increased homocysteine level. The findings from Pantanwala and co disagree (2014). Though more research is needed. What they both agree on is that homocysteine build up is terrible and linked to many many diseases. (Clarke & Stansbie, 2001) in the early 2000s conclude that after examining a large number of epidemiological studies which included over 10,000 patients that elevated homocysteine levels is a strong predictor for cardiovascular mortality.

Tang et al., 2022 go into extreme detail on the functional difference between folic acid and 5-MTHF and that the collateral damaging effects from folate fortification are not unavoidable collateral and would be rectified by supplementing 5-MTHF over folic acid fortification.

These negative effects include:

• Increased risk of prostate cancer (Figueiredo et al 2009) (Randomised Clinical Trial)
• Increased risk of colorectal adenomas (Cole et al 2007) (Randomised Clinical Trial)
• Increased risk of cancer Mortality (Ebbing et al 2009) (Randomised Clinical Trial, 6837 Patients)
• Link to cognitive impairment (Morris et al 2007)

5-MTHF is unable to be used as food fortification because it doesn’t survive sunlight and that is why it is not used within food. Folic acid should not however be recommended by doctors. It must become common knowledge to favour 5-MTHF supplements to pregnant woman.

Because methylation is so important, and woman may not know they are pregnant for several weeks the idea to fortify food with folic acid is a fair one. Mothers will be consuming the bread containing folic acid throughout pregnancy. Until we consider that most New Zealand bread products have had voluntarily fortified our bread since 1996 and our reduction of NTD from all births and still births between 2008 – 2015 effect 10.3 per 10,000 births or 0.103% (Gluckman, Beaglehole 2018, P. 13) a hugely small percentage.

Australia has greater evidence suggesting folic acid fortification reduces 13% of NTD with larger benefits for the indigenous population. This is a much more meaningful number and is ultimately what Gluckman and co are aiming to achieve.

However, where does that UMFA go?

UMFA is associated with a decreased NK cytotoxicity which plays an important role in immune function (Troen et al., 2006), and aforementioned systemic exposure to elevated UMFA can lead to liver saturation (Pantanwala et al., 2014).

We need more clear evidence in humans to know how bad UMFA is, but I don’t think it’s fair that 60% of the kiwi population are subjected to forced fortification to have such a small impact on our NTD figures.

Another problem with folic acid is the potential for masking haematological symptoms of a vitamin B12 deficiency and through this subcutaneous degeneration of the spinal cord (Mills et al., 2018) additionally methyl folates absorption is unaffected by medication unlike folic acid (Scraglione 2014).

Prescribing folic acid can also pose as a health risk, (Ferrazzi et al., 2020) in conditions such as megoblastic anaemia, but folic acid is the first thing a doctor will prescribe a pregnant woman. Folic acid and covid boosters are what my pregnant friend Taylor was recently recommended by her doctor.

We should be aiming to reduce all NTD to zero.

Please if you are anyone. Pregnant or otherwise. You should be consuming a good diet of little to none processed foods and making sure you consume or supplement all of the 13 essential vitamins and minerals.

To in all likeliness negatively affect 60% of the people alive to potentially reduce NTD of births and still births by 0.02%. Seems to me unfair.

Not to mention 60% of mothers will be unable to metabolised folic acid. What effect will that have on their unborn child?

The goal is right, the methods seem wrong.

We hear doctors are overworked, and I think they are too over generalised to be recommending folic acid over methyl folate or a fantastic diet. In addition to encouraging a vaccine that provides zero immunity (unlike the Polio vaccine) to a disease that killed 0.0706 of the New Zealand population (2023) and of New Zealand’s 3694 deaths (which include people being hit by a bus 28 days within getting covid) very few are young children.

Of those that die of covid the above 80 age group is the most at risk. Henry et al. (2022) examined Italy’s deaths from covid and found 68% were above 80 and 97% of Italy’s covid deaths were above age 60. This trend is similar around the world (Dudley & Lee, 2020). It seems odd then that a covid vaccine booster is recommended along with folic acid to a pregnant woman.

Especially because the most common vaccine adjuvant is aluminium hydroxide (Exley, 2020) an inorganic compound derived from aluminium. A substance highly toxic to humans. Unfortunately, (He et al., 2015) adjuvants are needed in vaccines to produce the desired immune response. Creating a fair discussion around what is worse the diseases or increased dosages of the adjuvants through every shot or booster. Especially for young healthy people whose natural immune systems are strong!

Therefore, a reasonable stance such as VOLUNTARY choice and heavy recommendation for the covid vaccine to those most at risk: the over 60 year olds and those with 2 or more co morbidities (Zhang et al., 2022) would heavily dent big pharma’s recording breaking 100-billion-dollar profit in 2022 and likely I hedge; a stance that would be labelled misinformation and disinformation.

Once you begin to see behind the curtain you can’t help but be appalled by a profit driven United States medical industry. Unfortunately, that medical industry flows out and affects the rest of the world.

Upsetting for sure, but we should only allow what we can control to distress us.

You can control what you eat.

Below is a list of foods containing of the essential vitamin; folate.

Nutritional info sourced from food data central.

Our leaders, our regulators are asleep at the wheel.

This is yet another example of society literally making it harder for us to live a healthier life.

I am but one of more and more young people coming down with diseases at younger and younger ages.

We have got to start looking at what we are consuming.

Between 1990 and 2018 cancer rates have increased by over 19% for under 18s and 22% for 25-49 years olds (Cancer Research UK, 2024).

Diabetes is expected to rise from 5% of New Zealand’s population to 7% by 2040.

I cannot lay this directly at the hands of folic acid, and I am not. However we have as much knowledge as we’ve ever had, and we are becoming unhealthier. It is madness.

August 2023 our regulators mandated Folic acids within all non-organic flours. This means you cannot consume bread without folic acid unless you specifically buy organic flour and make it yourself.

It is common knowledge that fast foods are unhealthy for us. Processed foods are bad for us, refined sugar, additives and preservatives are not good for us, but most people have little knowledge about folic acid, fluoride and even mouthwash.

The former two have their place. Fluoride is a marvel of a discovery. It strengthens the bonds in-between teeth to a superhuman degree and prevents cavities (Philip, 2018), but is toxic and has been shown to reduce IQ and cause thyroid gland issues (Kheradpisheh et al., 2018).

We could get away with brushing our teeth with fluoride toothpaste, but instead our water is treated for the miniscule number of the population who are too dumb to brush their teeth.

For more information around the nuances of fluoride I recommend Andrew Huberman, a reputable figure at Standford School of Medicine as a tenured professor and neuroscientist. Who has two fantastic podcasts about improving oral hygiene, and one specifically about fluoride.

Mouthwash for example has evidence to suggest it kills bad bacteria but under a more holistic approach we can see that they also kill good bacteria. These chemicals cannot differentiate between the good and the bad and kill all bacteria (Brookes et al., 2023). Disrupting the mouths microbiome and leading to worse oral health and in time worse breath.

Heeeeellllloooooo regulators what are you doing?!

SLEEPING.

ON.

THE.

FUCKING.

JOB.

And yet I bet half of them have government work vehicles and yearly salary increases.

But I digress, this post is about folate.

So, what should we do in regard to folate,

Well, you can get a gene test to find out if you have the MTHFR variation. You can buy 5 methyl folate supplements and you can avoid flour and bread products.

Unless you buy organic flour which doesn’t require folic acid to be added and make your own bread. A solid option I recently made some awesome sour dough pizza bases but it is time consuming and hard.

You must feed a mother weekly, it is another thing to add to the list of things to do, and sometimes all I want is to be able to go to my local bakery, or supermarket and buy a delicious fresh loaf of bread without folic acid.

I maintain a steady healthy diet, why do I need to be subjected to the varying negative effects of unmetabolized folic acid including possible cancerous effects.

Join me in wanting the CHOICE to choose a bread containing zero folic acid.

I think it is reasonable to make a clear push to doctors to highlight the distinct benefits in prescribing methyl folate over folic acid to pregnant woman and keep folic acid mandates in mainline cheap breads. The evidence shows (Gluckman, Beaglehole 2018, P. 57) that those lower socioeconomic groups receive the greatest benefits from folic acid fortification. Likely due to worse and limited diet choices.

This would tick all boxes so to speak and allow people who eat healthily to be able to consume tasty bread without having to make it themselves and having zero concern about any negative impacts of folic acid.

You can control what you eat.

A good diet is the best way to be healthy. A clean diet with zero additives, preservatives, and unprocessed foods are the way to go.

Low sugar, decent amounts of healthy fats, and vegetables low in lectins.

Eat foods high in vitamins and minerals. My next blog post will be about firearms registry, the following will be about the 13 Essential Vitamins and list of essential minerals with which good foods to eat. Below is a sheet demonstrating folate levels of such foods.

Foods;

Nutritional info sourced from food data central.

Note; nutritional value will vary based off how fresh food is, but also how well feed, well lived the food is. Ie Free ranged chickens produce healthier more nutritious eggs with darker yolk colours and likely more folate than suggested here. Same with home grown vegetables as opposed to water enlarged vegetables.

Although leafy green vegetables can be good sources of folate, upon cooking they lose a sizeable amount of folate. Considering most of us eat our leafy green vegetables cooked this must be taken into account.

Funny, ask google what foods contain the most amount of folate and you’ll get “Leafy greens”, but liver is by far the most nutritious source of folate. With chicken liver recording almost 5 times the folate amount of spinach the best folate containing vegetable.

If you’re interested in health; hunting, and free ranged animals on your property that should interest you.

Knowing how good organ meat can be, must be kept in mind. As a meat hunter, I think the best way to honour an animal is to take as much edible meat as you can carry. This includes the nutritious organs.

I have recently begun making bone broth.

Which is easy, tasty and a fantastic way to boost the amino acid type, collagen. Using the bones of the animals I hunt will be yet another way of honouring the animal I have killed.

It’s time logic prevailed over emotional and dogmatic thinking. Our governments and our regulators please step up your game.

Don’t get me started on electric vehicles….

References

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Chang, G., Kuai, Z., Wang, J., Wu, J., Xu, K., Yuan, Y., & Hu, Y. (2019). The Association of MTHFR C677T variant with increased risk of ischemic stroke in the elderly population: A meta-analysis of observational studies. BMC Geriatrics, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12877-019-1304-y

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