As the UK government has decided to add folic acid to all non-wholemeal flour from December 2026 and this has provoked a lot of controversy, including a popular (>100,000 signatures so far) petition raised by @ClareCraigPath asking for the policy to be overturned, I thought I'd try to write a thread in plain English explaining what it's all about for anyone new to the topic.
I'll try to be as objective as I can and point you at scientific references so you can go and read more if you want - or if you are one of those people who only trusts "the experts" and calls anyone who reads things and thinks for themselves a "conspiracy theorist" 🙄.
But if you really are an expert and find something wrong here, feel free to quibble in the comments 🙂
And I'm sure I'll miss something important so feel free to add that too...
I'll try to cover these points:
1⃣What is folic acid and what is folate?
2⃣Why is folate important?
3⃣Why is it being added to non-wholemeal flour?
4⃣What are the potential benefits?
5⃣What are the potential risks?
6⃣Why is this a bad policy that needs to be overturned?
🧵1/n