Bioavailability of Folic Acid Fortified Bread

University of British Columbia45 enrolled

Overview

Folic acid is the synthetic form of vitamin folate. Because of its high stability and bioavailability, it is the form of folate added to bread in Canada to reduce birth defects. There are health concerns about long-term folic acid consumption. Another form of folate, L-5-methyltetrahydrofolic acid (L-5-MTHF) has become available which does not have these health concerns. Unfortunately L-5-MTHF is not as stable as folic acid, but the investigators have developed a method to stabilize L-5-MTHF in food. The investigators plan to conduct a randomized trial to compare the bioavailability of bread fortified with L-5-MTHF versus folic acid. The investigators hypothesize that bread fortified with L-5-MTHF will increase red cell folate over 16 weeks to the same extent as bread fortified with equimolar folic acid.

See above.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Masking

DOUBLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Red Blood Cell Folate

Interventions

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 45 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * 18-45 years * Not taking a folic acid containing supplement Exclusion Criteria: * Adults who have medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, celiac disease, or psychiatric illness * Adults who are taking medications known to interfere with folate metabolism (i.e. phenytoin, sulphasalazine, methotrexate) * Adults with wheat, milk allergy or lactose intolerance * Adults with known B12 deficiency * Adults who consume more than 1 alcoholic drink/day on average (1 drink=12 oz beer, 5 oz wine or 1.5 oz spirits) * Women have been pregnant during the year previous * Women planning a pregnancy in the next year * Women who believe they may become pregnant during the study * Women who have had a known previous neural tube defect affected pregnancy * Adults who are unable to provide informed consent

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

red blood cell folate concentration at three time points

We will take one blood sample at baseline, 8th and 16th week. For each blood sample, we will measure the red blood cell folate concentration as our primary outcome measure. We will record the changes in the folate concentrations.

Time frame: baseline, 8th week, 16th week