Tacos and neural tube defects: NPR deftly explains the connection
Rating
Why Tortillas May Hold The Key To Healthier Babies
Our Review Summary
In this story, the FDA is weighing a request to add folic acid to corn flour in order to possibly prevent neural tube defects during pregnancy. Hispanic women are at higher risk of giving birth to babies with these issues. Corn flour is often consumed more than white or wheat flours in some diets. Folic acid is already added to white and wheat flours. The story does a good job of explaining the logic of adding folic acid to corn flour and what benefits it might yield. A bit more attention to the costs of such a program and the alternatives to it (e.g. vitamin pills) would have been welcome.
Why This Matters
Prevention gets short shrift in most health stories, so it is great to read this one about how some prevention (adding folic acid to corn flour) might decrease the number of babies born with neural tube defects. We would have liked the story to discuss alternative ways to get high-risk women to consume folic acid.
Criteria
Not Satisfactory
The story does not talk about any costs. There are a few places where cost might have been valuable. The story could have discussed whether refining corn flour by a different method would cost more than the existing method. The story might have included whether fortified corn flour would be equal or higher in price for consumers than unfortified.
We also would have welcomed some comment on the cost of caring for a baby born with a neural tube defect.
Not Satisfactory
The story gives the reader an idea of how many neural defects could be prevented by adding folic acid to corn flour. “And studies suggest that fortifying corn masa with folic acid could prevent an additional 40 to 120 cases of neural tube defects among babies born to Hispanic mothers each year.”
Satisfactory
The story discusses the FDA’s worry that a chemical used on corn flour could interact with the corn masa flour. It quotes the FDA which says: “The FDA is concerned that the breakdown of folic acid in corn masa flour could yield a substance that raises concerns about safety.” It would have been nice for the story to explain more clearly what concerns are raised — this seems pretty vague — but we’ll give the benefit of the doubt.
Satisfactory
The story mentions a study about the potential impact of fortifying corn flour on Hispanic women at higher risk. The study is a high-quality one.
We wish the story had talked more explicitly about the quality of the evidence.
Satisfactory
There was no disease mongering.
Satisfactory
The story quotes independent sources.
Not Satisfactory
The story never really discusses the alternative of taking vitamin supplements.
Standard preventive advice for women of childbearing age who are considering pregnancy is to take a multivitamin in order to have enough folic acid for any future pregnancy. But this advice may be unheeded, vitamins may be too expensive, or pregnancy may be unintended.
Satisfactory
The story explains that extra folic acid is already widely available in other flours. It notes that there is debate about adding it to corn flour. Concerns about the technical difficulty of adding folic acid that remains in usable effective form is a central point.
Satisfactory
There is nothing novel about the suggestion (made in 2012) that folic acid be added to corn flour, and the story explains why this issue is newsworthy now.
Satisfactory
The story quotes multiple sources and does not rely on a news release.
Total Score: 7 of 10 Satisfactory
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