Laura Beil, “Is Your Breakfast Giving You Cancer?,” Prevention, March 29, 2010

“If there’s a nutrient it’s easy to overdose on, it’s folic acid,” writes Prevention columnist Laura Beil in this article citing research allegedly linking the synthetic form of B vitamin folate to colon, lung and prostate cancers. Beil reports that this nutrient is already a staple in most diets, partly because the government requires its inclusion in enriched grains such as white flour and white rice to reduce birth defects. Still, according to Beil, many food manufacturers have taken it further, “giving breakfast cereals, nutrition bars, and beverages a folic acid boost.” Noting that women are advised to get 400 micrograms (mcg) of folic acid daily, she registers concern that some consumers who take a multivitamin and eat breakfast are getting “a megadose before walking out the door.”

Beil focuses on studies that have purportedly linked these high folic acid doses to an increase in hospitalization rates for colon cancer. She avers that in Canada, Chile and the United States, these rates, “following years of steady decline,” increased “around the time our food was being fortified.” She also highlights two studies claiming that supplementation with 800 mcg of folic acid daily for more than three years increased the risk of developing lung cancer by 21 percent, while men who consumed 1,000 mcg daily had more than twice the risk of prostate cancer.

Beil ultimately recommends that her readers (i) avoid cereals and certain beverages, like sports drinks, that contain excess folic acid, (ii) switch to non-instant oatmeal, which is usually not fortified, (iii) choose whole grain flour, bread, pasta, and rice, and (iv) reassess their need for multivitamins. “Extra folic acid might make sense for all adults (and not just women of childbearing age) if it kept common problems like heart attacks, stroke or age-related memory decline at bay,” concludes Beil. “However, these hoped-for benefits are still in question.”