There are 90,000–100,000 percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures performed in the UK every year. Most of these involve the placing one or more stents.
So there are many hundreds of thousands of people with stents in the UK.
The NHS recommends that people with a stent avoid folic acid supplements.
And yet the government has just made it mandatory that all non-wholemeal flour contains folic acid from December 2026.
White flour is in a huge range of everyday foods, not just bread. Pastry. Cereal. Cakes. Biscuits. Sauces. Breaded chicken and fish. Sausages. Stuffing. Marmite. Even some wholemeal and "gluten-free" bread.
How are people with heart stents going to avoid folic acid?
On a typical British diet involving a lot of baked goods, it won't be hard to consume just as much folic acid as you'd get from a supplement tablet. And it will happen unknowingly, since there is no labelling saying "Warning! Don't Eat This If You Have A Stent!". And no information about how much folic acid is in each product.
Does the government not care about people with stents? Or people with cancer? Or people with vitamin B12 deficiency?
I guess not.
Please sign Dr Clare Craig's petition and get folic acid out of flour and keep it in tablets, prescribed by doctors, only to people who need it, in controlled doses.
And write to your MP and the Secretary of State for Health.
@YvetteCooperMP