Cereal vitamins

Nutrition is an important part of ready-to-eat cereal. To make cereal healthier, mai r nutrients are added. Unfortunately, nutrients degrade over time, making it necessary to add more than the declared amount to assure enough for the life of the cereal. Vitamin X is declared at a level of 20% of the Recommended Daily Allowance per sewing size (serving size = 30 g). The Recommended Daily Allowance is 6500 lU (1.7 x 10 lU = 1 g). It has been formd that the degradation of this nutrient is first-orderin the amount of nutrients. Accelerated... 

In cereals, vitamin E k located mainly in the germ and bran, so white flours have lower vitamin content than whole grain flours. 

May not be needed if diet contains adequate iron (formula and/or cereal), vitamin D (formula or fortified milk), vitamin C (formula fruit juice, fruits, and vegetables), and folacin (formula, e yolks, meats, and vegetables). 

Bohman and colleagues described a reverse-phase HPLC method for the quantitative analysis of vitamin A in food using the method of standard additions. In a typical example, a 10.067-g sample of cereal is placed in a 250-mL Erlenmeyer flask along with 1 g of sodium ascorbate,... 

Deficiency Diseases. Not only did cereals make an important contribution to improving the general status of humankind, but they also were important dietary components of some groups of people who showed certain nutritional deficiencies. This observation led to the discovery of some of the vitamins. These deficiency diseases have been most prominently associated with use of rice, com, and wheat. 

The enrichment program followed in the United States is (/) the enrichment of flour, bread, and degerminated and white rice using thiamin [59-43-8] C 2H y N O S, riboflavin [83-88-5] C2yH2QN4Na02P, niacin [59-67-6] CgH N02, and iron [7439-89-6]-, (2) the retention or restoration of thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and iron in processed food cereals (J) the addition of vitamin D [67-97-0] to milk, fluid skimmed milk, and nonfat dry milk (4) the addition of vitamin A [68-26-8], C2qH2qO, to margarine, fluid skimmed milk, and nonfat dry milk (5) the addition of iodine [7553-56-2] to table salt and (6) the addition of fluoride [16984-48-8] to areas in which the water supply has a low fluoride content (74). 

As vitamin Bg is mainly located in the germ and aleurone layer in cereal grains polishing for the production of flour removes a substantial portion. White bread is therefore a poor source unless fortified. Some nonedible yeasts contain up to 38 mg/100 g dry weight vitamin B, the highest level of the natural sources (4,27). As a rule, these amounts are too low for cost-effective isolation. 

Spinach, salad, cereal germ, and bran as well as pulses are good sources of folic acid. Liver and yeast contain high amounts of this vitamin, too, but are not consumed frequently enough to be relevant for the coverage of daily requirements [1,2]. 

Niacin was discovered as a nutrient during studies of pellagra. It is not strictly a vitamin since it can be synthesized in the body from the essential amino acid tryptophan. Two compounds, nicotinic acid and nicotinamide, have the biologic activity of niacin its metabolic function is as the nicotinamide ring of the coenzymes NAD and NADP in oxidation-reduction reactions (Figure 45-11). About 60 mg of tryptophan is equivalent to 1 mg of dietary niacin. The niacin content of foods is expressed as mg niacin equivalents = mg preformed niacin + 1/60 X mg tryptophan. Because most of the niacin in cereals is biologically unavailable, this is discounted. 

Within the gut, oxidative damage may be prevented by phytic acid, obtained from cereals and vegetables (Graf et al., 1987), and by soluble non-starch polysaccharides like pectin (Kohen et al., 1993). The use of antioxidant vitamins in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease has also been su ested (Evans et al., 1990). 

Vitamins occur naturally in many foods and raw materials. However the natural contents are often supplemented in many food products to ensure an adequate intake, for example in infant formulae, breakfast cereals and clinical nutrition products. Vitamins are usually added as nutrients and thus not covered in this chapter but may also be added as food colours (riboflavin, carotenes). The reader should refer to the following references for recent developments in... 

The common practice of adding iron to breakfast cereals or to vitamin supplements exemplifies the first. Here the first requirements are cosmetic, that the iron-containing compound added should not cause discoloration or adversely affect flavor. It is also an advantage for the added iron-containing compound to be sparingly water-soluble, but for the iron to be reasonably bioavailable and not be incompatible with other constituents (335). There is a great deal of inorganic and physical chemistry involved in these matters, most of which is buried in the technical and patent literature. 

The RDl for vitamin D is 5 micrograms/day for men and women, adults and children, a value independent of state of pregnancy or lactation. Middle-aged adults, ages 50-70 years old, require 10 micrograms/day and for those over 70 years old the valne goes np to 15 micrograms/day. Fish oils, the flesh of fatty fish, and fortified milk and cereals are excellent sources of vitamin D. Of course, vitamin D is also present in most multivitamin piUs. 

Riboflavin is also known as vitamin B2. It contains a complex isoalloxazine ring that humans are unable to synthesize. The complex ring is hooked onto a live-carbon sugar derivative, ribitol, closely related to the ribose that occurs in RNA. The RDA for adult males is 1.3 mg/day and for adult females 1.1 mg/day. Values decrease with increasing age but increase in pregnancy and lactation. Organ meats, milk, bread products, and fortified cereals are substantial sources of riboflavin. 

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