Dietary Requirements for Fertility and Lactation

Abstract

In the early attempts to prevent sterility on a skimmed milk powder reproduction-deficient diet, the addition of wheat oil resulted not only in fertility, but also in excellent lactation when that oil constituted as much as 3% of the ration. The reduction of the concentration of the oil to 1% did not produce any significant change in fertility but was followed by a greater infant mortality. Similar results were obtained by the addition of various concentrations of corn oil and of cotton seed oil to the sterility-producing diet. 1 That phenomenon was used as one of the arguments that vitamin E may be composed of 2 fat-soluble vitamins, one essential for fertility, and another indispensable for lactation. It was stated, however, in previous communications that convincing evidence for such an hypothesis was still lacking. 1 The inability to secure evidence for the existence of a specific fat-soluble galactagogic vitamin on a dietary regime composed of purified food substances 2 stimulated a further attack on the problem. In an attempt to secure more conclusive information, Sherman and Muhlfeld's diet 3 (composed of whole wheat, 66.7; skimmed milk powder, 32; NaCl, 1.3) was adopted. This ration contains approximately 1.3% wheat oil as a source of vitamin E, furnished by the wheat, 4 and if vitamin E plays a specific rôle in lactation, it was anticipated that the further increase of wheat oil to the extent of 3% in the total diet, after vitamins A and D have been amply provided for, should produce an appreciable increase in the lactation efficiency index. Accordingly, the above diet was first supplemented with a brand of cod liver oil found in previous trial in this laboratory to be entirely deficient in vitamin E. 5