Folate may curb heart attacks, strokes. The government has accidentally saved 48,000 lives per year by requiring folic acid added to flour. They meant to curb birth defects, and they did, but a sudden drop in the incidence of heart attacks and strokes was observed right after they started adding folic acid to flour in 1996. I can't think of a happier accident in the history of government. Science is replete with happy accidents, but it seems to me that government almost never screws up in our favor. Or, at least, we never hear about it.