Link Between Diet and Birth Defects Downplays Supplements

So now they are saying that the supplements may be unnecessary.

Pregnant women who eat generally healthy diets face less risk of delivering children with neural tube defects (NTDs) and orofacial clefts compared with women who eat less healthily, according to the results of a study published online today in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

The analysis of the ongoing National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS) suggests that targeting isolated nutrient deficiencies in maternal diets through approaches such as folic acid supplementation may not optimize the prevention of NTDs and other birth defects.

"These results are notable because previous analyses from this same study, the NBDPS, which assessed single nutrient intakes in isolation, had not been informative," writes noted Suzan Carmichael, PhD, from the Division of Neonatal & Developmental Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University, California, and colleagues.

"Thus, the findings from this study suggest that overall diet quality is more predictive of birth defect risk than intake of single nutrients."

Oops.