In the studies that show breastfed infants with rickets, one has to wonder
about whether any of these infants were exclusively breastfed.  Automatically
blaming breastfeeding for a vitamin D problem is great social marketing by
the infant formula industry.  The one study that was done that showed that
black infants breastfed in the WIC Program in North Carolina with rickets is
questionable to me.  I live in the South and while more and more black women
are breastfeeding, I have not yet met one who exclusively breastfed.  How can
you make comparisons between infants fed on artificial milks with artificial
vitamin D and breastfed infants without being careful about this issue of
exclusivity.  How can you blame breastfeeding, if infants received some
infant formula?  And we all darn well know that very few infants in the US
are exclusively breastfed!!  So these breastfed infants that got rickets also
were in all liklihood receiving infant formula, the "wonder source of vitamin
D."  We might even be bold enough to ask whether the human body should be
ingesting artificially produced vitamin D ( more than likely genetically
engineered--John Hopkins has a patent of ge'd vitamin D)?  But I think I
posted about this before, the infant formula industry was having problems
with vitamin D in certain formulas.  This patent # 5456926 is called Method
for improving vitamin D stability in liquid nutritional products" with the
assignee being Abbott Labs.  Why aren't we asking the infant formula industry
if they have ever resolved their vitamin D problem?  Why do we so readily
accept the blame.  I am old enough to remember the whole bunch of hogwash
about breastfmilk not having enough iron...come on...breastmilk is the
standard not infant formula with its added artificial vitamin D!!!  Valerie
W. McClain, IBCLC

"However, protein hydrolysates have a major problem when it comes to Vitamin
D. Vitamin D undergoes significant degradation. Until now the precise reason
has not been generally known. However, it has been discovered that the
reasons include: (1) the hydrolyzed protein source, (2) the method(s) of
hydrolysis and (3) the presence of cysteine and its dimer, cystine (free or
combined). Typical sources of hydrolyzed protein include casein, soy, whey
and rice proteins. In fact, research has shown that the more hydrolyzed the
protein, the worse the degradation. Furthermore, with respect to the presence
of cysteine and cystine, it was discovered that cystine, and cysteine (which
oxidizes to cystine, its dimer) induce Vitamin D degradation, typically by
causing isomerization.

In view of the problems with Vitamin D degradation in liquid nutritional
products having hydrolyzed protein or free amino acids as a nitrogen source,
and by this is meant that hydrolyzed protein or free amino acids comprise the
principal nitrogen source of the liquid nutritional product, some products in
the liquid nutritional product industry have been over fortified with Vitamin
D, apparently in an attempt to meet the label claims for Vitamin D content in
the long term. However, as has been mentioned above, acceptable upper limits
of Vitamin D concentration exist, since too much Vitamin D can cause
hypercalcemia, hypercalciuria, urinary tract stones, extraskeletal
calcifications, and malfunction of the kidneys and other organs.

If the Vitamin D concentration in a packaged liquid nutritional product
exceeds the limits, the product may not be offered for sale until the Vitamin
D concentration, through degradation, drops to an acceptable level.
Similarly, if the Vitamin D concentration drops below acceptable lower
limits, the product must be removed from sale to the public. The costs
associated with replacing, shipping, and overall monitoring of the Vitamin D
level in liquid nutritional products subject to significant Vitamin D
degradation is enormous."

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