Let us consider the biggest “mass medication” in NZ. You may laugh but you need to think about it. Cheese in food.
You can hardly buy a meat pie and many other food items without cheese. Just look at the labelling (I guess you are opposed to Government compulsion to label food?). Cheese is cheap, plentiful and a food “filler”. It has seriously well documented harmful effects on your cardiovascular sytem. It has no particular benefits aside from being food albeit high in fat. Yet is almost forced into the food chain by Fonterra to dump the stuff as cheaply as possible. Try to avoid cheese in your diet for a week!

You didn’t offer to pay for the spina bifida kids by the way. Funny that. I thought this was a right wing blog site. Where is that charity eh?

The economics are straightforward. It is cheaper to give everyone a little bit than pay for
the human misery that is spina bifida. Equally I trust that all those so opposed to giving a
Vitamin to everyone in bread will be paying for the upkeep of those tragically affected by
NTDs. I don’t want to. Out with your wallets. Real right wingers vote for keeping costs down.

Finally, why does NZ always have to ignore the facts of science
(yes folks, the benefits and lack of harm of folic acid are well researched and well documented)
and reinvent the wheel? Are we that dumb? Three years to study what has been “out there” for
decades? Duh.

John Key. Pinko Jandal.

I just read in the Listener (JAne Clifton) that if it weren’t for modern processing stripping it out, bread would be full of it.

Wholegrain bread has folate. Folate and folic acid are both forms of vitamin B9, the former being the naturally occurring one. To my knowledge, the studies that suggest a link with prostate cancer are studies of folic-acid supplementation, which is what would be added to bread.

The refining of wheat is to make bread sweeter (higher GI), softer, last longer (many of the healthy elements that cause bread to go off are removed) and make things easier in the milling process (I think).

And if you watch TV and read papers and listen to talkback and look at all the postings on Stuff and the Herald all you see is balance, carefully considered opinions and COMMON SENSE?

Toad makes an important point about what we may be fed by some big businesses already – hormones and antibiotics. And how many poisons come through the food production system? No, it’s not compulsory, but shouldn’t we know about it?

There is no evidence folic acid causes cancer.

Really? Perhaps read this study where a researchers attempted to attribute a reduction in colon cancer to folic acid fortification but the results suggestion the opposite. Extract below.

Since the institution of nationwide folic acid fortification of enriched grains in the mid 1990s, the number of infants born in the United States and Canada with neural tube defects has declined by 20 percent to 50 percent. However, during the same period, the rate at which new cases of colorectal cancer were diagnosed in men and women increased, report the researchers at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts.

They claim that since the North American food supply began being fortified with folic acid, there have been four to six additional cases of colorectal cancer for every 100,000 individuals each year compared to previous trends.

“Our analysis suggests that this increase is not explained by chance or by increased cancer screening,” said Mason. “Therefore, it is important to analyze risks and benefits of fortification, and encourage scientific debate in countries that are considering instituting or enhancing folic acid fortification.”

There is a certain something lacking in Government today, and it’s called COMMON SENSE.

http://www.foodstandards.gov.au/_srcfiles/Standard_2_1_1_Cereals_v1031.pdf

July 19th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Is it just me or is it the height of hypocrisy for left wingers to be arguing about the health of an unborn child when these are the same people who support late term abortions?

Unlike the god botherers who are against abortions, and yet their god seems to perform them all the time?

[DPF: Immunisations are not compulsory. I would recommend them, but would not make them compulsory. So your example is perfect to show the stupidity of making something compulsory]

Sometimes making some things compulsory has a greater good benefit, e.g.,it was the mass x-ray programme that helped eliminate TB from western countries, something that is just beginning to creep back in as un examined immigrants from TB countries arrive.

I would confidently call that a flip flop and a bad call, not just for the professionalism of our minister but for the leadership of our PM that is consistently on the line and being questioned on a regular basis, even by members of its own camp.

You must be a partisan hack because there’s no justification for the terse comments above.

I’m not a John Key sycophant – I was a Brash backer – but I recognise he’s been remarkably successful so far as Prime Minister, especially when you consider the current economic conditions. Lets analysis:
- Sewing up the deal with the Maori party quickly and efficiently.
- Sacking Worth & avoiding the trap laid for him by Goff.
- Economic policy – avoiding a credit rating downgrade – cutting budget growth by ~ a billion dollar while still funding the bloat from Labour’s previous budgets. In fact his approach for dealing with the economic down turn has been cited in the Wall Street journal.
- Being a statesman. The former money trader did a fine job on his recent Pacific tour.
- The Beehive is employing less ‘yes man’ and spin doctors than under Helen’s reign.
- Appointing Lockwood Smith as the House Speaker – parliament is a more democratic place.
- John Key is still backing Section 59, so he is prepared to go out on a limb. He’s not a populist on everything.

And something that is important to me is how John Key treats his enemies and detractors. And so far he’s treated them with respect and decorum while making his point. Clark’s tongue was merciless from the outset.

So Fale…. do you even follow politics. It’s okay if you’re a Key hater, but don’t try and pretend it’s based on any rational assessment. This bread issue is small fry stuff.

Oh, and happiness!

MyNameIsJack, why don’t you bake your own bread just the same as I do? In other words, why don’t you setup your own bakery small business and then you can provide that demand (folic acid) in the market.

One sentence for you MyNameIsJack. Private businesses (private properties) do belong to the owners and not the consumers nor the bureaucrats at the Beehive. They conduct their businesses in the way they like to run them, not because of some fuckn’ consumer lobbying groups or politicians. Respect business private ownerships. If you don’t like what they produce for the market, then get your lazy ass out there and setup a bakery small business.

Don’t you agree we should have the right to know what we’re eating?

Antibiotics with your chicken, sir?

I go to considerable time and expense to ensure pork and chicken I eat is organically and humanely grown. (At risk of philu coming onto this thread) I hope that your commitment to animal welfare means you do too bruv.