Hmmm, I'm in the UK - we had Flouride in our tap water for a while! In fact i think we still do in some places. WHile it did improve dental health for some people, it actually caused some too. And all table salt is iodised to prevent iodine-deficient-goiter.
I think Folate is pretty harmless, even in large doses (we're not talking 2 or 3 loaves a day being consumed by one person right...). So from that point of view if it saves babies born to those who really didn't know about folate and didn't eat well throughout their pregnancy from having spina bifida and other neural tube defects and problems then i guess it's a good thing. BUT i think it is dangerous, instead of educating everyone in what a healthy diet is, what sort of foods a growing/pregnant/unwell body needs, and instead just putting supplements into junk food (i know bread isn't junk food realy but a diet which contains no sources of folate other than that added to bread is pretty unhealthy).
We should be educating people not just quietly taking the knowledge and the choice and giving it to bread companies, doctors etc. Solving problems this way, to me, leads in the direction of feeding all beef cattle steroids and antibiotics "just in case", which intensive farming sometimes does. I know farming is a seperate issue, and i totally support farmers, it's a difficult living to make. But i mean from the point of view that cattle can't make the decisions about when or where or what they eat or how they live, so they can't make the grazing choices the would if they were wild. This limit leads them to become ill/grow badly and that has to be treated. If we don't educate people and give them a choice the knowledge will be lost to the general population.
There are already so many women i know who think birth is a death sentence unless you're in hospital, with a doctor, hooked up to the machines and having surgery. A youngish (19 or 20) girl in my baby clinic actually said to me "you had a VAGINAL birth? I thought everyone just got c-sections nowadays" Her son was born by c-section because he was breech, but whoever had explained it had left her with the distinct impression that everyone had surgery.
We're losing touch with our bodies and what they need.
thanks for all your comments on this and I definitely think one should have the choice of what they consume not what someone else decides we should.
And education really is the key to changning behaviour.
See you all soon
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks