Got Pork...I mean, Milk?
Category: Science, Nature & Medicine...
Posted Friday, December 10, 2004 at 10:07 PM [GMT-6]

Deb over at Write Lightning has an interesting post about the sources of vitamin D3 in milk. It seems that one potential source of that essential "vitamin" (it's not actually a vitamin, in the most technical sense, because it can be produced by an organism, albeit not usually in sufficient quantities) is pork. This presents a problem for those who are observing strict dietary guidelines for religious reasons, such as the kosher diet of Orthodox Jews.

Deb refers to an old article and wonders if the sources for D3 have changed in the years since it was printed. I don't know about that, but I did find a scientific paper that goes into great detail about D3, its significance and its sources. According to this article, once the D3 is synthesized into its pure molecular form, it's impossible to determine its source, which isn't surprising. The exact processes and sources now in use are apparently proprietary, protected by patents. The article goes on to acknowledge the quandary this creates for the aforementioned religious diets.