Integrated
There has been a debate about the fortification of bread with folic acid and its concomitant benefits and detriments for women in the early trimesters of pregnancy. In the lecture, the professor discusses how none of the arguments regarding the folic acid addition are convincing. This casts doubt on the passage, which states that the addition of folic acid to flour might not be beneficial as it prevents fetal defects.
To begin with, the speaker posits that an increase in folic acid may cause some health problems; the addition of folic acid to flour is limited, controlled, and can be detected, asserting that the controlled enhancement of folic acid in flour meets the nutritional needs of pregnant women. Nevertheless, the article affirms that the addition of folic acid may cause some health issues, such as vitamin B12 deficiency, especially among the elderly demographic, and it is difficult to detect.
In addition, the speaker challenges the argument by stating that the evidence was based on elderly women, not young pregnant women. He further explained that childbearing women consume a significant amount of bread or any other food made from flour regardless of pregnancy status. Additionally, pregnant women consume the required amount of folate in the early stages of pregnancy. On the other hand, the author mentions the notion that the quantity of folic acid supplemented with flour may be insufficient to fulfill the vitamin needs of pregnant women, given the typically moderate consumption of bread derived from flour.
Finally, the professor declare the point by stating that most women do not know about their pregnancies in advance, so it is not practical to ask them to take multivitamin pills with folic acid. Alternatively, he advocates for the consumption of folic acid-fortified bread as a more efficacious means to confer the benefits of folic acid to all women. In contrast, the text suggests that the inclusion of folic acid in multivitamin tablets could serve as a viable method for pregnant to obtain the necessary nutrients during early pregnancy.