Studies in Calcium Metabolism. Effect of Food Phytates on Calcium45 Uptake in Children on Low-Calcium Breakfasts

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Abstract
Nineteen adolescent boys, of inadequate intelligence, but otherwise normal, who were institutionalized under uniform nutritional and other environmental conditions, were given three types of breakfast low in calcium: (I) oatmeal, (II) farina, and (III) farina and sodium phytate. These meals contained, respectively: 55, 60, and 60 ml of milk; 91, 83, and 83 mg of calcium; 116, 0, and 78 mg of phytic phosphorus, and 0.85, 0.85, and 0.85 µc of radioactive calcium (Ca45). Calcium uptake was studied by measuring the Ca45 content of serum, urine and feces for a period of 5 days. Individual variations were controlled by placing each subject on two different Ca45-labeled breakfasts, 30 days apart. The uptake of Ca45 by the boys on the oatmeal breakfast was 74% as great as that of the boys on the farina breakfast. Similarly, the uptake of Ca45 by the boys on the farina plus phytate meal was 45% that of farina meal. These differences proved to be statistically significant on a 5% probability level. Significantly less Ca45 was taken up in the presence of sodium phytate than in the presence of an equivalent quantity of phytic phosphorus supplied by oats.

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