Miller Magazine Issue: 115 July 2019

57 COVER STORY MILLER / JULY 2019 A balanced vitamin D level is essential for human health and vitality. Whereas the significance of vi- tamin D for calcium and bone metabolism has been known for many years, more recent research has re- vealed that the fat-soluble micronutrient has a much wider range of influence on the body than previously assumed. A vitamin D deficiency is now known to be associated with diabetes, bowel cancer, anaemia, hy- pertension and multiple sclerosis, for example, as well as rickets and osteoporosis. A lack of the “sunshine” vitamin Only an extremely small proportion of our daily re- quirement can be covered through our food. Apart from fatty fish, vitamin D is to be found mainly in eggs, offal, milk and dairy products and also in fungi. A much more significant role in the supply of vitamin D is played by sunlight, since the body is itself able to synthesize this vitally important vitamin through the skin with the aid of UVB radiation. However, this synthesis depends on a diversity of factors, for example the time of year and the time of day, the degree of latitude at which we live, the weather, our clothing and our skin type. Risk groups include women and girls who only go outside with their body completely covered, and dark-skinned peo- ple whose higher melatonin level in the skin blocks off most of the UVB radiation. The use of sunscreens also has a negative effect on the formation of vitamin D. A further problem is that the ability of the body to syn- thesize vitamins generally decreases with age. The conventional approaches to preventing vitamin D deficiency have so far failed to improve the situation sufficiently. In many cases, dietary recommendations that include a high consumption of fish, liver, eggs and milk are not feasible in practice. Extensive sunbathing is not to be recommended either, because of the risk of skin cancer. And the use of food supplements as a source of vitamin D is usually confined to a few indi- viduals. Growing awareness of the problem In other words: the undersupply of vitamin D to the population presents a major challenge – especially since vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide problem and not just restricted to certain regions. In Switzerland and Germany, for instance, it is estimated that half the population suffers from an often considerable vitamin D deficiency. The figure is similar for sunny Brazil, where around 60 percent of all adults are undersup- plied with vitamin D. In some Indian states the figure is well above 80 percent, and even for Canada the estimate is meagre. Although the country has binding regulations on the fortification of milk and margarine, the vitamin D level of 32 percent of all Canadians is below the target value. In the USA, too, the situation is unsatisfactory: in spite of the widespread fortifica- tion of milk, orange juice and breakfast cereals, the provision of vitamin D is reckoned to be “inadequate” in a quarter of all consumers, and in eight percent it is even rated as “deficient”. Rapid success with fortified flour In the literature we find several recent studies con- cerning the fortification of flour with vitamin D. In 2015, for example, the Department of Health in Lon- don published a British analysis based on simulated for- tification with vitamin D. Since one person in five in 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 Vitamin D3 losses after baking after baking before baking 100 100 80 70 bread cookies Flour is the medium of choice More and more nutritionists are therefore call- ing for re-orientation of the measures and turn- ing their attention towards cereal products. In the past, flour fortification has mainly focussed on iron, folic acid, zinc and the B vitamins, but it is no problem to add vitamin D to the premixes, too. Since wheat flour is a staple food that has a particularly wide range of uses, large sections of the population could be reached by vitaminizing bread, biscuits, cake, pizza, pasta & Co., so the advocators argue.