Date of Award:

5-1955

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences

Department name when degree awarded

Dairy Manufacturing

Committee Chair(s)

George E. Stoddard

Committee

George E. Stoddard

Committee

A. J. Morris

Committee

Paul Larsen

Abstract

For many years, substitutes for butterfat have been the subject of much controversy. Their acceptance as being nutritionally equal to butterfat has often been question. The importance of this problem lies primarily in its economic and nutritional significance.

A recent study of public attitudes toward dairy products conducted by Alfred Politz Research, Inc. for the American Dairy Association, shows that 48.4 per cent of the population believed that butter is a more nutritions food than oleomargarine. Only 6 per cent thought that oleomargarine is more nutritious while 27.2 per cent believed they are about the same. The remainder, 18.4 per cent, stated that they did not know.

Margarine tax laws were in force for some time while vegetable oils were being tested as a human food. In addition to chemical examination, many investigations were conducted with rats, calves, and humans. Although there were still conflicting results, the tax laws were repealed and substitutes went on the market to compete with butter. Many investigators still question the decision that substitutes are equal to butter, nutritionwise.

Many investigations (4, 6, 21, 34) have shown that butter contains one or more growth factors which have not, as yet been identified. Chemical methods have failed to identify any of these factors, and so other methods have been considered. It is a well known fact that interrelationships exist between fat metabolism and the metabolism of other substances. It has been shown (11) that dietary fat affects the metabolism of other nutrients such as calcium and phosphorus. Although not clearly understood, it has been demonstrated (25, 37) that the kidney plays an important role in fat transport and metabolism. The value of urinalysis as a method of indicating the metabolism as a whole is well known, as well as is the high sensitivity of metabolic systems to minute quantities of some substances. The possibility of detecting growth factors or other substances through a study of excreted metabolites seems worthy of consideration in this study.

Recent work with paper chromatography at the University of Texas (48) has indicated that each individual has a specific urinary metabolic pattern. Similarities have been found in the patterns of identical twins and schizophrenics. It was also found that the diet changed this pattern to a certain extent, although this was not studied extensively.

The problem reported here is a study of urine obtained from highly inbred rats fed animal and vegetable fats analyzed by use of paper chromatography.

Checksum

fb06fbd78ee21f90d521a5c835bffa4d

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .