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There's a new reason pregnant women should smash as much bread as they want

Emily Blatchford |

Thank you, science. 

There's a new reason pregnant women should eat as much bread as they want

Pregnant women everywhere, put up your feet and get someone to make you a toastie. 

A new study has revealed yet another reason why it's important to consume folic acid during pregnancy ... and where do you get folic acid?


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A hidden benefit

While you probably already knew ingesting folic acid during pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects in babies (which is why many doctors recommend those looking to conceive start taking prenatal vitamins a month beforehand), did you know it could also protect your child from developing psychosis? 

 A new study from the US looked at whether increased foetal exposure to folic acid had any effect on postnatal brain development, and actually found folic acid can lessen the psychosis risk in kids. 

Great, but what about my bread?  

OK, OK, I hear you, hungry pregnant person.

The reason this is good news for carb-lovers is because, in Australia, folic acid and iodine have both been added to our bread since 2009. (In fact, Australian food standards now require that bread flour is fortified with folic acid and the salt used to flavour bread is iodised.)

The same has also been true in the U.S, where this study took place. 

So by consuming bread while pregnant, not only are you reducing the risk of neural tube defects in your baby, you're also lessening their chance of developing psychosis, too. 

In short, it's WIN WIN!

What is folic acid? 

Folic acid is a B vitamin that prevents serious birth defects of the brain (anencephaly) and the spinal cord (spina bifida).

Unfortunately, due to insufficient folic acid during pregnancy, these defects affect approximately one in every thousand pregnancies in Australia.

So if you ever needed an excuse to make your hungry self a giant sanga or eight million pieces of avo on toast ... this is it. 

Now where's that toastie?