and continuing through the first two months of pregnancy reduces the risk of cleft palate;
taking folate through the entire pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects.
Lower risk of heart attack. In the spring of 1998, an analysis of data from the records for more
than 80,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses’ Health Study at Harvard School of
Public Health/Brigham and Woman’s Hospital, in Boston, demonstrated that a diet provid-
ing more than 400 mcg folate and 3 mg vitamin B 6 daily, from either food or supplements,
more than twice the current RDA for each, may reduce a woman’s risk of heart attack by
almost 50 percent. Although men were not included in the analysis, the results are assumed
to apply to them as well. However, data from a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the
American Medical Association in December 2006 called this theory into question. Researchers
at Tulane University examined the results of 12 controlled studies in which 16,958 patients
with preexisting cardiovascular disease were given either folic acid supplements or placebos
(“look-alike” pills with no folic acid) for at least six months. The scientists, who found no
reduction in the risk of further heart disease or overall death rates among those taking folic
acid, concluded that further studies will be required to verify whether taking folic acid
supplements reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Food poisoning: Reacting to an outbreak of Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 food poisoning
associated with eating raw alfalfa sprouts, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warn-
ing in 1998 and again in summer 1999, cautioning those at high risk of food-borne illness
not to eat any raw sprouts. The high-risk group includes children, older adults, and people
with a weakened immune system (for example, those who are HIV-positive or undergoing
cancer chemotherapy). Tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1999 sug-
gest that irradiating raw sprouts and bathing them in an antiseptic solution at the processing
plant may eliminate disease organisms and prolong the vegetable’s shelf life; this remains
to be proven.
Food Drug Interactions
Bean Sprouts