Physical or temporal separation of olestra and vitamins A, E and D intake decreases the effect of olestra on the status of the vitamins in the pig.

A study was conducted in the domestic pig to determine 1 ) whether feeding olestra mixed in the diet exaggerated olestra effects on fat-soluble vitamin status compared with the effects of feeding it in a typical snack food, and 2) whether separating olestra consumption temporally from vitamin consumption affected the influence of olestra on vitamin status. Groups of 10 pigs each, five castrated males and five females, were fed 2.2% (wt/wt) olestra for 4 wk in purified diet that provided 1 time the National Research Council's requirements for swine of all micronutrients. The olestra was either mixed in the purified diet or fed in potato chips. The potato chips were given to the pigs at all three feedings, at the noon feeding only, or between the noon and the evening feedings. A control group was fed the purified diet with no olestra. The effects of olestra on indices of vitamin A, D and E status were from 1.7 to 4.5 times greater when olestra was fed three times daily mixed in the diet than when it was fed three times daily in potato chips. Because the effect of olestra on the status of the fat-soluble vitamins was diminished substantially by feeding the olestra in potato chips, it was not possible to conclude definitively how the temporal separation of olestra and vitamin consumption affected the olestra effect on vitamin status.