Various diet components, including fats, fibers, and carbohydrates, have been known to affect the absorption of mineral components in the human digestive system. Most attention has been given to calcium balance in the system, in part because of its relationship to the development and maintenance of good bone structure. Mineral components are largely absorbed in the intestinal area, and, where a person has, for example, been afflicted with Crohn's disease, or experienced intestinal resection or jejunoileal bypass, decreased calcium absorption is regularly observed. Although other mineral nutrients have been less well studied, similar phenomena do occur. Accordingly a distinct dietary problem exists in subjects having diminished enteral absorption capacity. A similar need for enhanced absorption of dietary mineral components, especially including calcium, exists in infant diet formulas, where provision for developing an adequate bone structure is critical.
Improved calcium nutrition may be achieved by developing dietary factors that increase the efficiency of absorption. Such factors would be operative in all subjects but particularly effective in subjects having shortened intestinal length.
With particular reference to the absorption of calcium, vitamin D, lactose, and certain amino acids are known to enhance absorption, while phytate, oxalate, and cellulose have been shown to decrease absorption. Recent studies of carbohydrates have produced both positive and negative results under a variety of test conditions. Although the use of lactose, a disaccharide, would appear promising, many subjects are intolerant of this sugar so that its application to this type of problem has not been strongly suggested or pursued.
Applicants have made the unexpected discovery that use of a complex carbohydrate material, essentially a low polymer including simple sugar units, together with a calcium component, or other mineral component, surprisingly enhances the assimilation of the calcium, or other mineral, component. Reports of experimental studies, on both human and animal subjects, have been presented in Gastroenterology, 87, 596-600 (1984); Clinical Research, 32, 740A (1984); and Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, 41, 243-5 (1985).