Add oil for vitamin absorption?

paulgads82

Is this claim true? My understanding is that if you eat a healthy diet there's no need to add oil to things like salads to increase vitamin absorption. Vegetables mostly have water soluble vitamins and fat soluble, well, they'll come with fat from animal products. Anything fat soluble that is in fruit or veg will be absorbed easily enough and if you eat healthy will be stored already, in whatever quantities. I can only find links to media interpretations of studies or places like "medical news daily" which I don't fully trust and they all seem to be talking about vitamin tablets.

ForecasterJason

I always thought that there needed to be some fat consumed around the same time for the fat soluble vitamins to be absorbed. However, if eaten as part of a meal I don't think it would be an issue for most people, as from what I've read it doesn't take a major dose of fat.

MissusMoon

I found a story here that links to the Purdue study that this is based on. Don't have time to look at the study right now. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/for-best-results-dont-eat-your-salad-with-a-fat-free-dressing/259422/

paulgads82

Interesting but I'd like to see a larger study to confirm. 29 people is quite small.

lemurcat12

I normally eat a salad with some kind of fat (meat, olives, feta, nuts, avocado) or alongside food with some fat, so I doubt it's much of an issue what type of dressing I use. I have switched back to including at least a bit of olive oil (used to use just balsamic or red wine vinegar + mustard), but just for taste.

MissusMoon

paulgads82 wrote: »

Interesting but I'd like to see a larger study to confirm. 29 people is quite small.

Yeah, I've just gone and looked. I just keep coming back to the John Oliver segment on the media and science. Non duplicated studies with lots of problems in the data--such as small sample sizes--gets written up and reported on poorly and creates a new myth.

I like a little bit of fat in my salad, either in the dressing or in the form of goodies in the salad. Either way I have my own version of Pascal's Wager going on until the issue is decided.

jgnatca

It seems to me that oil would be a good carrier for oil soluble vitamins. I have flax oil, high in Omega 3 that I whip with lemon juice for a dressing.

vingogly

Only A, D, E, and K are fat soluble. The rest are water soluble.

tlflag1620

I get about 60% of my calories from fat, so I figure I'm good

snikkins

jgnatca wrote: »

It seems to me that oil would be a good carrier for oil soluble vitamins. I have flax oil, high in Omega 3 that I whip with lemon juice for a dressing.

This sounds really yummy!

Traveler120

Here's a study that found you only need minimal dietary fat (as low as 21g/day) to absorb vitamins. The vitamin A levels increased by the same amount for the 3 groups on 12%, 17% and 24% fat, and virtually all reached normal levels (all originally deficient or very low). It also found that cooking veggies increases bioavailability compared to when eaten raw. And that the issue of deficiency is not fat intake but mainly, simply not eating enough of the particular foods rich in those vitamins.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/85/4/1041.long
Carotene-rich plant foods ingested with minimal dietary fat enhance the total-body vitamin A pool size in Filipino schoolchildren as assessed by stable-isotope-dilution methodology1,2,3

Quotes from the Discussion:

"During the intervention days, the total daily fat intake of the 3 groups provided 12%, 17%, and 24% of their total energy intake."

"Regardless of the amount of fat ingested by the Filipino children per meal or the total amount of fat they ingested per day, their mean serum provitamin A carotenoid concentrations, total-body vitamin A pool sizes, and liver vitamin A concentrations were increased similarly. Thus, the dietary fat requirement for optimal bioavailability and effectiveness of plant carotenoids is minimal."

"The present study differs from that of Brown et al (49) in that they fed raw vegetables in a salad mix, whereas we fed cooked vegetables in a meal. Conceivably, more dietary fat may be needed for the optimal bioavailability of carotenoids in raw than in cooked vegetables because food processing and heating disrupts the plant matrix and promotes the release of carotenoids (46)"

"In summary, only a small amount of dietary fat (2.4 g/meal, or 21 g/d) is needed for optimal utilization of plant provitamin A carotenoids. The poor or marginal vitamin A status observed in the study participants at baseline cannot be attributed to insufficient fat intakes, but rather to insufficient intakes of food sources of vitamin A."

jgnatca

snikkins wrote: »

jgnatca wrote: »

It seems to me that oil would be a good carrier for oil soluble vitamins. I have flax oil, high in Omega 3 that I whip with lemon juice for a dressing.

This sounds really yummy!

Add a little salt and pepper and it is nearly perfect.

MelaniaTrump

You need 1 gram of fat (very little) for absorption of ADE,K.
IF your meal happens to be 100% fat free, take a fish oil supplement pill or eat a nut.

paulgads82

Thanks all. Interesting.

Vladimirnapkin

MissusMoon wrote: »

paulgads82 wrote: »

Interesting but I'd like to see a larger study to confirm. 29 people is quite small.

Yeah, I've just gone and looked. I just keep coming back to the John Oliver segment on the media and science. Non duplicated studies with lots of problems in the data--such as small sample sizes--gets written up and reported on poorly and creates a new myth.

I like a little bit of fat in my salad, either in the dressing or in the form of goodies in the salad. Either way I have my own version of Pascal's Wager going on until the issue is decided.

Thank God for that John Oliver piece! Everyone should be forced to watch it!