Vitamin D Fortified Cheese and Well-being in the Institutionalized Elderly

Bioavailability of Casein-bound Vitamin D From Fortified Cheese and Its Effects on the Well-being of the Institutionalized Elderly

The investigators hypotheses is that the consumption of the investigators vitamin D fortified cheese will result in an increase in serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels in older institutionalized adults. Also, the consumption of the cheese with the higher amount of vitamin D will result in an improvement in wellbeing scores.

The institute of medicine increased the dietary reference intakes of vitamin D for all of the age groups. The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is now 800 IU for older adults over the age of 70, and the Tolerable Upper Level (UL) is 4000 IU daily. Canadians are known to have an inadequate vitamin D status, and older institutionalized adults are particularly susceptible to this. One strategy to correct this is to fortify more kinds of foods with vitamin D. We have already demonstrated that we can get vitamin D into cheddar cheese and it is as biologically available as vitamin D in the liquid supplement.

This new project aims to optimize the fortification process and deliver all of the vitamin D into cheddar cheese, and to measure its bioavailability and related changes in well-being during winter. We will assess the well being of the older institutionalized adults by administering the SF-36v2 health survey.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Lactose intolerance
• Generally "Healthy", unless disease status deemed clinically significant and unable to participate by the attending physician.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Hypercalcemia/hypercalciuria
• Interfering medications
• Significant sun exposure in the months before and during the study