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The Grain Connection
Folic Acid's Role in Preventing Neural Tube Defects
By Teri Brown
Dr. Bruce Young, the Silverman Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York University School of 
Medicine, and director of the NYU Fetal Therapy Program, says folic acid has preventive value for developing the defects. "Folic acid acts to prevent the defect by improving the biochemical environment in early pregnancy," says Dr. Young.
Other countries are also ahead of the United States in getting the word out to both the medical community and mothers-to-be. "Here in Ireland, at the moment, there is an ad campaign being run by the government to promote awareness of the importance of folic acid in the diet of mothers-to-be," says Hazel Larkin, a mother of two from Dublin, Ireland. "They recommend that all women of childbearing years take folic acid supplements. Also, bread and certain breakfast cereals (the ones women are more likely to eat) have it added."
In order to get grain fortification mandated here in the United States, studies from the other countries where fortification had already occurred were presented. According to Dr. David Smith, professor of pediatrics for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the studies that preceded the recommendation for fortification demonstrated convincingly that 400 to 800 micrograms of folic acid consumed daily by women of childbearing age could reduce the incidence of neural tube defects in at-risk mothers by 65 to 80 percent.
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