Abstract
Objective The aim of this study was to investigate whether milk fortified with folic acid enhances the folate status of humans and whether the presence of folate-binding proteins (FBP) in pasteurised milk affects the bioavailability of folic acid from fortified milk. In untreated and pasteurised milk, folate occurs bound to FBP, while FBP is (partly) denatured in ultra-high-temperature (UHT)-treated milk. The effect of FBP on folate bioavailability is still unclear.
Design, subjects and setting Healthy, free-living subjects (n=69) aged 18-49 y participated in a 4-week double-blind, placebo-controlled dietary intervention study.
Intervention In addition to a fully controlled diet, the subjects consumed each day 500 ml of pasteurised or UHT milk, either fortified or not with 200 g folic acid.
Results Consumption of fortified milk increased folate concentrations in serum and in red blood cells (RBC) by 6.6-7.0 nmol/l (P
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 906-913 |
Journal | European Journal of Clinical Nutrition |
Volume | 59 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2005 |
Keywords
- folate-binding-protein
- plasma homocysteine concentrations
- neural-tube defects
- methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase
- food fortification
- vascular-disease
- common mutation
- dietary-folate
- risk factor
- cows milk