Fat As a Factor in the Healing of Rickets with Vitamin D

Abstract

A rachitogenic diet has been devised which is made up largely of purified materials and which is low in lipids. Addition of 5% of fat to the rachitogenic diet gave a much better healing with a known amount of vitamin D than with no fat in the diet. With the addition of 10 or 20% of fat, the healing of rickets by vitamin D was less than with 5% of fat, but greater than was obtained with no fat. Replacement of all the calcium carbonate in the 6C diet by an equivalent amount of calcium in the form of an oleate or stearate, resulted in better healing. Replacement of only one-fourth of the calcium carbonate by an equivalent amount of calcium in the form of an oleate or stearate did not result in any appreciable difference in the healing with vitamin D.