Vitamin D-fortified bread possible

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., April 18 (UPI) -- Bread may be fortified with vitamin D to help deliver the vitamin to many who do not get enough of it through sunlight or food, U.S. researchers suggest.

Lead author Connie Weaver of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., says millions are unable to get enough vitamin D from food or sunlight, but a vitamin D-fortified food -- bread made with high-vitamin D yeast -- could fill that gap.

Vitamin D insufficiency has been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, cancer, allergy in children and other conditions, Weaver says.

A study by Weaver and colleagues confirmed the approach works in laboratory tests.

"There have been doubts that high concentrations of vitamin D would work in bread," Weaver says in a statement. "This is because yeast produces one form of the vitamin, termed vitamin D2, which has been thought to be not as biologically active as the form produced by sun, vitamin D3. But our study showed that bread made with vitamin D2-rich yeast, fed to the laboratory rats, had effects that seemed just as beneficial as vitamin D3. These results suggest that bread made with high vitamin D yeast could be a valuable new source of vitamin D in the diet."

The finding is published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.