Milling & Baking News - January 13, 2004 - 30

E D U C A T I O N

A N D

R E S E A R C H

R.-T.-E. cereal tops supplements
for delivering vitamin E
CORVALLIS, ORE. - Fortified breakfast
cereal may be a far better source of vitamin E than encapsulated supplements,
according to data published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The study, "Vitamin E bioavailability from fortified breakfast cereal is
greater than that from encapsulated
supplements," was written by a team
led by Scott W. Leonard, Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University,
Corvallis.
The study demonstrated that when
consumers take a vitamin E supplement together with a low-fat breakfast,
bioavailability (the percentage absorbed
for use by the body) of the nutrient was
erratic and often very low. No such problem was recorded when eating vitamin
E-fortified breakfast cereal.
Since it was first discovered in 1922,
vitamin E has been studied for its effects
on health. "Dietary, but not supplemental, vitamin E, has been reported to be
associated with beneficial outcomes in
heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer disease," the report said. At the same time,

30 / Milling & Baking News, January 13, 2004

it noted that many Americans do not
consume vitamin E-adequate diets.
Studies trying to demonstrate the
heart disease and cancer prevention
benefits of vitamin E supplements have
yielded erratic results. "The lack of
consistency in the outcomes of vitamin
E supplement studies prompted us to
consider the hypothesis that the bioavailability of supplemental vitamin E is
highly dependent on the way in which
the supplement is consumed," Dr. Leonard said. "The possibility of vitamin E
malabsorption from supplements led us
to devise a trial to compare supplements
with vitamin E enriched foods. Vitamin
E-fortified, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals
are a major food source of α-tocopherol
in the American diet (α-tocopherol is the
only compound demonstrated to reverse
vitamin-E deficiency)."
The study tested whether encapsulated vitamin E consumed with fat-free
milk was as effective in raising plasma
α-tocopherol concentrations as was vitamin E-fortified wheat-based cereal eaten
with fat-free milk. The doses used were
equivalent to the U.S. recommended dietary allowance for vitamin E (30 I.U.) or
those in a typical vitamin E supplement
(400 I.U.).
Subjects in the study were five healthy,
non-smoking adults (three female, two
male) who were not currently taking
vitamin or antioxidant supplements and
were not allergic to wheat.
Ready-to-eat wheat-based cereal without added vitamin E, as well as cereal
fortified with vitamin E, was prepared
at General Mills, Inc. by using standard
industrial fortification practices.
Four trials were conducted on the five
subjects:
1 - Subjects consumed a capsule containing a 400 I.U. of α-tocopherol.
2 - Two weeks later the subjects consumed 41 grams of cereal containing 30
I.U. of α-tocopherol.
3 - Two weeks after the second trial,
subjects consumed 45 grams of cereal
containing 400 I.U. of α-tocopherol.
4 - Five months later, subjects consumed a capsule containing 400 I.U. of
α-tocopherol with 41 grams of cereal
without added vitamin E.
Striking in the results were the poor
bioavailability of vitamin E in trial 1 and
the wide range of plasma α-tocopherol
concentrations observed in trial 4. One
subject had α-tocopherol concentration
50 times higher than the subject with the
lowest concentration.
"The bioavailability of vitamin E from

fortified breakfast cereal was about 25fold that from a supplement when both
the cereal and the supplement were consumed with fat-free milk," Dr. Leonard
said. "Indeed, the 30-I.U. cereal had
greater vitamin E bioavailability than
did the 400-I.U. capsule.
"The 30-I.U. cereal, which was approximately one-tenth of the dose of the
400-I.U. capsule, resulted in a maximum
plasma d9-α-tocopherol concentration
that was α5 fold that observed with
the 400-I.U. capsule. The absorption of
deuterated vitamin E given as a capsule
with a low-fat meal is apparently quite
variable."
Important public health implications
may be found in the study results, Dr.
Leonard said. "When encapsulated vitamin E supplements are consumed with
fat-free milk, α-tocopherol absorption is
minimal at best," he said.
The authors said this result had
been anticipated knowing the physical
mechanism for vitamin E absorption.
"However, the breakfast that contained
<5% fat (consisting of vitamin E-fortified
cereal plus fat-free milk) unexpectedly
increased vitamin E bioavailability," the
study added.
The authors hypothesized that absorption was "aided by the fine dispersal of vitamin E on the surface of the
cereal flakes, in contrast to the capsule,
in which the vitamin E was concentrated
in a globule."
The findings are important because
breakfast cereal is a significant source
of vitamin E in the American diet, the
study said. Also important is that the
large bioavailability variation for encapsulated vitamin E supplements was not
observed in vitamin E-fortified foods
(cereal).
"Unless subjects are carefully instructed to consume encapsulated
vitamin E supplements with a meal
containing fat, the subjects may not
benefit from such supplements," Dr.
Leonard said. "These findings support the ability of fortified foods, like
cereal, to act as a vitamin E carrier. Use
of vitamin E-fortified foods should be
considered not only in the planning of
future intervention trials but also in attempts to increase vitamin E intake of
Americans consuming low-fat diets, in
whom intakes may be less than the recommended allowances because of their
limited fat intake."
The study was funded in part by a
grant from General Mills, which also
provided technical support. Two of the
study's authors - Carolyn K. Good and
Eric T. Gugger - are from the Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition at General
Mills. MBN
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Milling & Baking News - January 13, 2004

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