Unfortified corn masa flour may contribute to birth defects

Healthcare providers in the state of Washington are learning what the March of Dimes has known for years, that Hispanic woman eating a diet of corn tortillas and tamales are experiencing a large number of birth defects in their newborn babies.

SEE ALSO: Rare birth defect found among Hispanics in Central Washington

“We know overall Hispanic women have a higher rate of neural tube defects no matter what because not all of the corn products that are used to make tortillas – and a lot of the products that Mexican women consume – are fortified with folic acid,” Dr. Diana Ramos, assistant clinical professor at Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California and co-chair of the newly established March of Dimes Hispanic Advisory Council, told VOXXI.

Recently more than 40 babies – 32 of whom died due to missing parts of the brain and skull – have been diagnosed with neural tube defects in the state with more than half born from Mexican-American mothers.

“Before folic acid fortification by the FDA in all of the grains and the bread products, there was a higher rate of neural tube defects and subsequently when the fortification occurred there was a decrease in it,” Ramos said.

Folic acid is found in green, leafy vegetables but it’s usually difficult to obtain the recommended daily requirement through diet alone. Conversely, the Tortilla Industry Association estimates Americans eat roughly 85 billion tortillas annually.

The CDC estimates 10,000 neural tube defect-related pregnancies were prevented in the decade that followed the mandatory folic acid fortification. That equates to a 36 percent drop in the costly birth defects, including spina bifida and anencephaly.

“The March of Dimes is one of the biggest advocates in order to get folic acid fortification into foods but more importantly education of women on the importance of folic acid before pregnancy and during pregnancy,” Ramos said. “It’s an essential nutrient for any cell that’s reproducing in the body right at the beginning of pregnancy, at the time of conception.”

The risk remains for Hispanic women, who not only take lower levels of folic acid but also have a 20 percent higher risk of neural tube defect conditions.

“One of the things that caught our eye was, while Hispanics represent 17 percent of the population, 24 percent of premature babies are Hispanic,” said Dr. Edward McCabe, senior vice president and chief medical officer of the March of Dimes, which has launched a Spanish-language site targeting Hispanic health needs.

The logical solution would be for the FDA to require folic acid fortification in corn masa, but expensive testing is required before such approval. Advocates point out the cost associated with raising a child with a neural tube defect condition is more than $700,000, justifying any high-cost associated with the testing.

“The simplest and most basic way to even approach this is to take a prenatal vitamin or multivitamin that contains a daily requirement of folic acid,” Ramos said. “The important thing is that it’s affecting not just one person, which is the baby, but it impacts families. That’s why it’s more critical when we’re looking at the impact of folic acid.”

SEE ALSO: Latinas at highest risk for folic acid-related birth defects