Vitamin E incorporated into a very-low-fat meal is absorbed from the intestine of young rats.

Vegetable fats and oils are major sources of dietary vitamin E. Consequently the current trend to reduce fat consumption is accompanied by a reduction of the intake of vitamin E. In addition, the absorption of vitamin E is thought to be dependent on the hydrolysis of dietary lipids in the small intestine. It is therefore conceivable that a lower dietary fat intake also diminishes the intestinal absorption of vitamin E. The present 3-week feeding study in young male rats was designed to investigate whether different concentrations of vitamin E added to a very-low-fat product (0, 330 or 1350 mg DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate/kg product) were absorbed. We therefore incorporated these products into a very-low-fat meal (final fat concentration: 7 g/kg) or a low-fat meal containing 52 g fat/kg. The magnitude of vitamin E absorption from these meals was compared with that from meals containing similar amounts of vitamin E, but a high fat concentration of 190 g/kg. Apparent vitamin E absorption was defined as intake of alpha-tocopherol equivalents (alpha TE) minus faecal alpha TE excretion over 4 d during week 3 of the experimental period. The results of this study showed that apparent absorption of vitamin E from a very-low-fat meal varied, depending on the vitamin E concentration, from 73 to 83%. The magnitude of this vitamin E absorption was not significantly different from that from meals containing a high amount of fat. Liver vitamin E status was equal in rats fed on the very-low-fat meals compared with those fed on the high-fat meals. We conclude that, when very-low-fat or low-fat products are used as a replacement for full-fat products, addition of vitamin E to these products, as DL-alpha-tocopheryl acetate, might be useful in meeting the vitamin E requirements.