Letters to the Editor: Tasty tortillas or healthier babies? Put folic acid in masa
To the editor: Columnist Gustavo Arellano’s support for culinary tradition over health just risks increasing inequality for Latino babies because they have a higher rate of neural tube defects. (“California wants to mandate folic acid in tortillas to help babies. Why that’s bad,†column, May 22)
In this case, nixtamalization (the traditional method of making tortillas) without adding folic acid is not promoting “older, tastier, healthy ways.†It’s risking the next generation so Arellanos’ older relatives can have tortillas “taste like they should.â€
Victoria I. Paterno, M.D., Los Angeles
The writer is a retired pediatrician.
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To the editor: Some quick research reveals excellent sources of folic acid. Eating lime and corn (ingredients in tortillas), along with frijoles, avocados and bananas — all pretty common for Latino families — should be more than adequate to sustain good health.
Why the folate mandate? Don’t mess with the masa.
Allan V. Peña, San Pedro
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To the editor: Arellano sounds like a constitutionalist arguing, “This is the way it was in the beginning, is now and ever should be.†I seriously doubt it is the way he feels on other matters, but it sure does in respect to this one.
As someone who had never tasted a tortilla until I first came to California on a trip in 1951 and didn’t taste another one until I moved here in 1966, I’d be the first to admit I know little to nothing about the qualities of a good one. And while I can’t think of a good analogy of something I might have knowledge of — something in my own life I passionately love and would hate to see change — I think I can feel and understand Arellano’s and others’ feelings about it.
This still doesn’t change the fact that things do change for the better, regardless of whatever arguments we can make against it.
John Snyder, Newbury Park
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To the editor: The answer to this dilemma is straightforward. Taquerias and tortillerias that wish to exclude folic acid from their products should simply hand the customer a folic acid capsule with each order.
Glenn Rogers, South Pasadena
