Affiliation

• Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Corresponding Author

Jonathan C. Allen, Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695-7624, USA, Tel: 919-513-2257; E-mail:  jon_allen@ncsu.edu

Citation

Lovett, M.D., et al. Calcium Chloride and Vitamin D Bioavailability from Fortified Sports Drink in Wistar Rats (2014) Int J Food Nutr Sci 1(1): 6-12.

Copy rights

© 2014 Allen, J.C. This is an Open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

  Calcium and vitamin D play a critical role in the prevention of metabolic diseases includingosteoporosis, osteomalacia, and stress fractures, butaverage intake is below the RDA. The objective of this study was to test a water-soluble form of vitamin D andcalcium chloride as fortifiers for sports drink solution using a rat bioavailabilityassay.Vitamin D fortifying ingredient was prepared as a spray-dried complexwith bovine beta-lactoglobulin. Flavored beverages were formulated with various ratios of calcium and vitamin D in a 4x4factorial design. Female Wistar rats were housed under incandescent lighting for a 4-week depletion phase, then given drink formulations with low calcium, low vitamin D diet for anadditional six weeks. Blood and femur bones were analyzed. The fortified drink solutions could be accurately formulated tocontain calcium chloride at 0, 1, 2 and 2.5 g Ca/L with palatability to rats. Serum vitamin D wassignificantly greater (p< .0001) in rats receiving the vitamin D-fortified drinks (10, 20, and 40 μg/L), but no dose-response was evident.Water-soluble vitamin-D can successfully fortify aqueous products with this fat-solublevitamin. Regular consumption of flavored sports drinkfortified with calcium and vitamin D may significantly increase dietary calcium and vitaminD.