ABSTRACT. Background. Vitamin D is essential for skeletal growth, but there are currently no guidelines for vitamin D supplementation after infancy. This study investigates vitamin D insufficiency in healthy children.Methods. Children ages 10 to 16 years from 3 private schools in Beirut, Lebanon, with differing socioeconomic status (SES) were studied: 169 in the spring of 1999 and 177 in the following fall; 83 students participated in both study phases. They had a physical examination, answered a dietary questionnaire, and blood was drawn for calciotropic hormones and indices of bone turnover.Results. Overall, 52% of the students were vitamin D-insufficient; the proportion of insufficiency was 65% in the winter and 40% at the end of the summer. During both seasons, girls had lower vitamin D levels than did boys; those who followed the dress code of covered head, arms, and legs had the lowest levels. Students in the mid-SES school had lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OHD) levels than did the ones from the high-SES school. After adjusting for confounders, gender, SES, and body mass index remained the significant predictors of vitamin D levels in both seasons (R 2 ‫؍‬ 0.53, for spring and 0.28 for fall). There was a significant inverse correlation between 25-OHD levels and parathyroid hormone levels that was best fitted by a curvilinear model (R 2 ‫؍‬ 0.19). V itamin D, the precursor of the active metabolite calcitriol, 1,25(OH) 2 vitamin D, is a steroid hormone that is essential for bone growth and development in children and skeletal health in adults. 1 Although nutritional rickets caused by severe vitamin D deficiency is almost eradicated from developed countries, it is still ranked among the 5 most prevalent diseases in developing countries. 2 It is recognized that less severe vitamin D deficiency (otherwise called insufficiency) has a deleterious effect on skeletal health in adults and elderly 3-6 ; however, its impact on bone metabolism in children and adolescents is less clear. The consensus has been that most adolescents should be able to synthesize sufficient vitamin D by brief exposure to sunlight and that only children living in extreme northern or southern latitudes may require supplementation with D 7,8 ; examination of the recent evidence leads to different conclusions. Indeed, 80% of children and adolescents had insufficient vitamin D levels (25-hydroxyvitamin D [25-OHD] levels Ͻ20 ng/mL) in the winter in 4 studies conducted in Spain, France, and Finland. 9 -12 Although it is expected that children of different genders and socioeconomic background would have different lifestyles (exercise, sunlight exposure, and nutrition), the few studies evaluating vitamin D levels in children and adolescents have mostly done so in boys and have not systematically examined the impact of socioeconomic status (SES) on vitamin D levels. An increasing body of evidence confirms a key role of calcium in bone mass accretion in children and adolescents [13][14][15] ; however, the impact of vitamin D insufficiency and, theref...

Background: Optimal dietary calcium and possibly vitamin D intake throughout childhood and adolescence may enhance bone mineral accrual. Little data on the intake of these nutrients in Mediterranean countries exist, and predictors of their suboptimal intake are not well defined. Objective: To evaluate systematically the effect of gender, lifestyle factors, and socioeconomic status on mean calcium and vitamin D intake in healthy school children and adolescents from Lebanon. Design: A total of 385 students aged 10-16 y were selected from four public and four private schools between Fall 1999 and Spring 2000. Information on calcium and vitamin D intake, through a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire that was validated against a 7-day daily record, and on socioeconomic and lifestyle factors were obtained. Results: Only 12% of the students met the adequate intake (AI) recommendation of 1300 mg of calcium/day, and only 16% met the AI recommendation of 200 IU of vitamin D/day. Boys had a significantly higher mean daily calcium intake than girls. Socioeconomic status as assessed by children's pocket money was a predictor of higher calcium and vitamin D intake. Eating breakfast and physical activity were other correlates of daily calcium and vitamin D intake. Conclusions: Only a minority of students in our study met the AI for calcium and vitamin D. Gender, lifestyle factors, and socioeconomic status were significant predictors of calcium and vitamin D intake. Our findings have important implications regarding the institution of dietary public health strategies to promote skeletal health in Mediterranean countries during a critical time for bone mass accrual.

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of mineral nutrition on cooking quality of lentils. Can. J. plant sci. 5g: 165-168. A pot experiment was conducted on lentils to study the influence of major and trace elements on the-cooking quality of a hard cooliing lentil. cooking