Many milk are fortified with vitamins A and D. Vitamin D is found naturally in very few foods and was initially added to milk, a staple food, to reduce the incidence of rickets, a bone-softening condition in children that was at one time endemic in North America. Unfortified cow’s milk traditionally has been regarded as a poor source of vitamin D, supplying 5 to 35 IU/liter.
Before the fortification of milk was widely practice, many children grew up with severely bowed legs and other effects of vitamin D deficiency.
Another benefit of vitamin D supplementation is a lower rate of osteomalacia in the elderly, which is largely responsible for bone fractures. Studies showed that vitamin D might have other health benefits including improvement of the immune response.
The fortification of dried skim milk with vitamin A is viewed by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agricultural Organization was an important measure to combat vitamin A deficiency in developing countries, where 20, 000 to 100, 000 children yearly develop blindness from a lack of vitamin A in their diet.
Vitamin fortification of milk
Vitamins are defined as a group of complex organic compounds present in minute amounts in natural foodstuff that are essential to normal metabolism and lack of which in the diet causes deficiency diseases. Vitamins are required in trace amounts (micrograms to milligrams per day) in the diet for health, growth and reproduction.
Thursday, February 15, 2018
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