Increasing the ratio of mono to poly fats increased Vitamin D levels by 6 ng – RCT

Created August 2011

Type of Dietary Fat Is Associated with the 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 Increment in Response to Vitamin D Supplementation.

J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011 Aug

Niramitmahapanya S, Harris SS, Dawson-Hughes B (bess.dawson-hughes@tufts.edu )

Bone Metabolism Laboratory, Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts 02111.

Context: Mono- and polyunsaturated fats may have opposing effects on vitamin D absorption.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether intakes of different dietary fats are associated with the increase in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) after supplementation with vitamin D(3).

Design, Setting, and Participants: This analysis was conducted in the active treatment arm of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D and calcium supplementation to prevent bone loss and fracture.

Subjects included 152 healthy men and women age 65 and older who were assigned to 700 IU/d vitamin D(3) and 500 mg/d calcium .

Intakes of monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and saturated fatty acids (SFA) were estimated by food frequency questionnaire.

Main Outcome Measure: The change in plasma 25OHD during 2 yr vitamin D and calcium supplementation was assessed.

Results: The change in plasma 25OHD (nanograms per milliliter) during vitamin D supplementation was

positively associated with MUFA, (? = 0.94; P = 0.016),
negatively associated with PUFA, (? = -0.93; P = 0.038), and
positively associated with the MUFA/PUFA ratio ( ? = 6.46 ; P = 0.014).

Conclusion: The fat composition of the diet may influence the 25OHD response to supplemental vitamin D(3).

Diets rich in MUFA may improve and those rich in PUFA may reduce the effectiveness of vitamin D(3) supplements in healthy older adults.

More studies are needed to confirm these findings.

PMID: 21816779

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Explanation of results by author Dawson-Harris, Aug 2011

6.46 means that for every 1 unit increase in the MUFA/PUFA ratio, our data predict a 6.46 ng/ml increase in 25(OH)D.

Example

if someone went from consuming twice as much MUFA as PUFA (a ratio of 2) to three times as much (a ratio of 3)

we would expect him to have an increase in 25(OH)D of 6.46 ng/ml

Cannot extrapolate 6.46 to other conditions:

Study is unable to extrapolate to more vitamin D.
- VitaminDWiki guesses that at 7,000 IU of vitamin D each increase fat ratio would add > 20 ng to the response
No idea of what would happen if the people had adequate cofactors - such as Magnesium, Vitamin K2 which affect bio-availability of vitamin D
No idea of what would be the benefit for non-elderly
If vitamin D was taken with a big meal (increase 56% in a previous small study)
- Which would be approximately the same increase of vitamin D as would result in a 2.5X increase in MUFA/PUFA ratio

Types of fats from About.com

Monosaturated Fats: (want to increase mono/poly ratio)

peanuts
olives
nuts – almonds, pecans, pistachios, cashews
avocado,
seeds – sesame;
oils – olive, sesame, peanut, canola

Polyunsaturated fats:

walnuts
seeds – pumpkin, sunflower
flaxseed
fish – salmon, tuna, mackerel
oils – safflower, soybean, corn

Increasing the ratio of mono to poly fats increased Vitamin D levels by 6 ng – RCT

Type of Dietary Fat Is Associated with the 25-Hydroxyvitamin D3 Increment in Response to Vitamin D Supplementation.

Explanation of results by author Dawson-Harris, Aug 2011

Example

Cannot extrapolate 6.46 to other conditions:

Types of fats from About.com

Monosaturated Fats: (want to increase mono/poly ratio)

Polyunsaturated fats:

WikiPedia Good (more vitamin D into bloodstream)= much more BLUE than Green

Monounsaturated Fatty Acid = Omega-9

See also VitaminDWiki

See also Web

New England Journal Of Medicine Study showing that eating nuts reduce death rate (Nov 2013)