Breast-fed infants and young children need complementary foods with a very high nutrient density (particularly for iron and zinc), especially at ages 6-12 mo. However, in low-income countries, their diet is usually dominated by cereal-based porridges with low nutrient density and poor mineral bioavailability. Complementary feeding diets typically fall short in iron and zinc and sometimes in oth...

The influence of fatty diet and standard diet on the bioavailability and plasma half life of conventional theophylline was studied in the rabbit. It was found that standard diet had significantly reduced the extent of oral bioavailability (AUC0-alpha) of theophylline compared to the fasting state. The fatty diet resulted in a significantly increased extent of oral bioavailability (AUC0-alpha an...

Dietary quality is an important limiting factor for proper nutrition in many resource poor settings, with a major concern, micronutrient bioavailability. High content of phytate present in soybean (Glycine max. L) chelates divalent essential mineral ions and reduces its bioavailability and thus dictates the nutritional role of this wonder crop. In this study, the changes in phytate, phytase act...

Nutrient needs increase during pregnancy and lactation to support fetal growth and milk synthesis, respectively. Physiological adjustments that are made to meet those needs alter the fraction of ingested nutrient retained, or the bioavailability. Using stable isotopes as tracers, we measured calcium, zinc and selenium homeostasis in women during reproduction. The physiological response, and the...

A 3 × 3 + 1 factorial experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design to evaluate the effects of different sources of copper on plasma metabolites, nutrient digestibility, relative copper bioavailability, and retention of some minerals in male mink. Animals in the control group were fed a basal diet, which mainly consisted of corn, fish meal, meat and bone meal, and soybean oil...

Organic cations (OCs) are substances of endogenous (e.g. dopamine, choline) or exogenous (e.g. drugs like cimetidine) origin that are positively charged at physiological pH. Since many of these compounds can not pass the cell membrane freely, their transport in our out of cells must be mediated by specific transport systems. Transport by organic cation transporters (OCTs) can be regulated rapid...

Following a request from the Commission to the European Food Safety Authority, the Scientific Panel on Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food was asked to provide a scientific opinion on the safety of inositol hexanicotinate (inositol hexaniacinate) added for nutritional purposes as a source of niacin (vitamin B3) in food supplements and on the bioavailability of nicotinic acid from this ...

The field of nanoparticle delivery systems for nutrients and nutraceuticals with poor water solubility has been expanding, almost exponentially, over the last five years, and some of these technologies are now in the process of being incorporated in food products. The market projections for these technologies suggest a multifold increase in their commercial potential over the next five years. T...

• release of the nutrient from the physicochemical dietary matrix • effects of digestive enzymes in the intestine • binding and uptake by the intestinal mucosa • transfer across the gut wall (passing through the cells, in-between them or both) to the blood or lymphatic circulation • systemic distribution • systemic deposition (stores) • metabolic and functional use • excretion (via urine or feces)