Panel’s Recommendations on Vitamins for Pregnant Women

According to The Times (front page, June 7, a committee of the Institute of Medicine has made some mistakes in its report on vitamins in pregnancy. The committee recommends foods rather than supplements, and says that folic acid is found in whole grains. Incorrect, folic acid was originally discovered, in India, 1931, because a diet mainly of whole grains produced folic acid deficiency in pregnant women.

“More research is needed” says the article, before supplementing with folic acid can be advised to prevent spinal cord defects in unborn babies. But such research would have to be with pregnant women, which is morally unacceptable. Enough indications have appeared, some in 1983 in the United Kingdom, that fetal deformities accompany folic acid deficiency.

Furthermore, synthetic crystalline folic acid is twice as effective in nutrition as “natural” folic acid in the typical U.S. diet, according to the U.S. National Research Council.

The article states that supplements of Vitamin A can cause abnormal fetal development. This is true only for massive over-dosage, not when a recommended daily allowance is eaten. Deficiency of Vitamin A in rats results in deformities in their offspring.

Surely physicians should recommend that pregnant women had best eat good diets and take moderate potency nutritional supplements.

THOMAS H. JUKES

Professor of Biophysics

UC Berkeley