Hispanic Newborns at Higher Risk of Neural Tube Defects

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Hispanic Newborns at Higher Risk of Neural Tube Defects

Kathleen Lees [e-mail]
First Posted: Jun 20, 2014 05:03 PM EDT

The findings are updated from a similar 2008 paper by the March of Dimes, a nonprofit foundation that highlights the growing number of Hispanic women who have children each year in the United States. The report found that this group has more babies each year than any other population in the country.

Unfortunately, many of these women are also more prone to giving birth prematurely or before the 37th week. This puts many of their future children at an increased risk of spina bifida and anencephaly, brain and spinal cord malformations that are a form of neural tube defects.

Many researchers believe that because corn masa flour is common staple of the Hispanic diet, some women's children in this population will be at an increased risk for certain neural tube defects because of a lack of folic acid and vitamin B in their diet. The report also found that Hispanic women are less likely to take a multivitamin than other ethnicities.

http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/15455/20140620/hispanic-newborns-at-higher-risk-of-neural-tube-defects.htm

From the comments:

stephelinda nosuprise • 19 hours ago

We've known for a long time that folic acid deficiency can cause neural tube defects. Most cereal products -- but not corn masa -- are fortified with folic acid. In addition, folic acid can be acquired from dark leafy greens, asparagus, turnip, beets, and mustard greens, Brussels sprouts, lima beans, soybeans, beef liver, brewer's yeast, root vegetables, whole grains, wheat germ, bulgur wheat, and some beans. But young Mexican American women, many of whom live on a tight budget, typically consume neither fortified grains nor quantities of fresh vegetables. So while I share your suspicion around GMOs, I think we could prevent birth defects by fortifying corn masa.

stephelinda • 18 hours ago

The original report, Fortification of corn masa flour with folic acid in the United States: an overview of the evidence, in "Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences," of which this is an attempted synopsis, can be found at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...

(For some reason the URL is truncated when I post, but anyone interested can google it.)

Regarding the complaint that Lee used "Hispanic" carelessly, it's worth noting that the original study showed "no difference was observed between Hispanic women who reported speaking primarily English at home and white women."

In other words, the increased incidence of pregnancies with neural tube defects was found only in a population of Mexican American women who had immigrated less than 15 years earlier and who spoke Spanish at home. This is the primary target population for fortification of corn masa flour. The term "Hispanic" was far too general to be meaningful.

stephelinda's comments were in response to some racist complaints and comments but stephelinda adds some very important facts to the discussion. My question is why corn masa unlike most grain products not fortified with folic acid? It's a simple, inexpensive step that would save so many lives and so much grief.

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1. It is fortified in other countries, including Mexico.

When folic acid fortification began in the U.S., corn masa was not as popular a staple as other grains, so it wasn't included. There wasn't any testing done on the process and safety of fortifying corn masa. The FDA is now requiring its own research.

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2. Interesting - I hope the FDA adds it soon

But we also need more education so it's not an issue. Although I made the choice to never have children, since the news came out about the link between the lack of folic acid and birth defects, I've thought that every woman of child bearing age should take folic acid supplements. It's much cheaper than dealing with the consequences of not having enough during a pregnancy.

Thank you!