How to Utilize the Vitamins in Diets : Part 1

The Vitamine Manual
by Walter H. Eddy

(Page 6 of 8)

In the preceding chapters it has been the aim to present the findings of the principal workers in the field. In attempting to summarize the work of so widely scattered a group as are now engaged in vitamin research it is impossible to cover completely the many investigations and it is inevitable that some work will have been overlooked, but the foregoing covers at least the principal data on the subject. What is the bearing of all this information on human behavior and what lessons can the layman draw from it that is of direct application to him? Let us first consider this question from the dietary viewpoint.

I. Infant Nutrition

The limited character of the infant's diet has made the consideration of vitamin content in his diet much more important than in the case of the adult with the latter's wide variety of choice. It is evident from the previous data that a growing infant must not only be provided with a sufficient supply of calories, nutrients and salts, but must also have a liberal supply of the three vitamins. Milk has in general been classed as adequate in all these features, but the vitamin researches have forced us to reconsider our views in regard to this staple.

The first point to be borne in mind is that the vitamin content of either cow or human milk is dependent primarily upon the food eaten by the producer of the milk. In other words milk is merely a mobilization of the vitamins eaten and if the diet is to yield vitamin-rich milk it must itself be rich in these factors. Many a cow produces milk low in vitamin content and the same is true of nursing mothers. There are many "old wives" prejudices in regard to what food a lactating mother may eat and unfortunately many of these prejudices are extremely injurious and false.

One of them is the prejudice against green vegetables. Experience has shown that under ordinary conditions such vegetables are well tolerated by the mother and from their content of vitamin it is evident that they are suppliers of these factors. In the case of the cow the fact that cereals are poor in some of the vitamins and green grasses rich therein, teaches a lesson that bears directly upon winter feeding of cattle if the milk supply is to be used for infants. We need a series of diets and cattle foods for just this purpose of insuring the proper vitamin content in milk. The preceding tables will enable one to develop such diets fairly satisfactorily, but more data is urgently needed.

The second point in regard to milk lies in the effect of pasteurization. This measure is now well nigh universal and in America at least has played a tremendous part in the reduction of infant mortality, especially during the summer months. At present, however, we know that this treatment while removing dangerous germs may also eliminate the antiscorbutic factor. The sensible attitude then is to recognize this fact and if a clean whole milk is not available retain the pasteurization and meet the vitamin deficiency by other agents. Such agents are orange juice and tomato juice and experience has already shown that these juices can be well tolerated by infants much earlier than used to be thought possible.

While the pasteurization does not appreciably affect the content of "A" or "B" vitamins, the variability in content of these vitamins in milk indicates that it may at times be necessary to supplement them in the diet. In this connection it must be borne in mind that cereals vary widely in content and cannot be, as they often are now, considered equivalent in growth stimulation power. This is a subject that needs special attention on the part of vitamin experts and dietitians and finally by the food manufacturers. A good vitamin-rich cereal combination would form an excellent adjuvant to infant dietaries after they reach the age of tolerance to such a diet. But even before that time the expressed juice of various vegetables as well as fruits is found to be well tolerated when mixed with the milk or given separately, and carrot and spinach juice are now being used in this connection with good results. These juices like orange juice contain the B type in abundance and there is no doubt that in their stimulation to the appetite they play an important part in making the desirable daily gain.

Fortunately for the layman he has in the scales a good indicator of the normal progress of his child and so long as growth is normal he can fairly assume that the diet is adequate but if the scales say otherwise it is time for him to seek advice and then he is wise who insures that his medical adviser knows the newer aspects of nutrition. The parent can do this only by proper selection, but with a little knowledge he can soon satisfy himself as to whether his pediatrist is the right sort and it is one of the purposes of this text to bring home to the layman his responsibility in this matter.

There has grown up in this country a great regard for prepared milk substitutes in infant feeding and a wide usage of condensed milks, reinforced milks, diluted milk formulae, etc. All such preparations must be examined anew in the light of the vitamin discoveries and unless the given preparation can show a clean bill of health in vitamin content, it should be either discarded or properly supplemented.

As children grow up, it is fortunate that in their wider choice of dietaries the danger of vitamin deficiency decreases. But even in childhood it is unsafe to rely too much on chance. In this country there are well deserving movements on foot to attract the parents of the community to the necessity of attention to simple standards of growth progress, and clinics for this purpose are appearing in increasing numbers with each year. Such movements are to be most heartily approved. It is also possible in these measures to not only build better children, but to make the children themselves intelligent in their rejection of unsuitable combinations and in that way not only conserve their own health, but provide an educated body of citizens to pass on the knowledge to future generations. In a school in New York City I recently had occasion to discuss the school lunch room and its offerings with the children of the school in the light of vitamin discoveries. The keenness and intelligence shown by the children in the discussion that followed has convinced me that in this matter of vitamins the children themselves can be relied upon to assist materially in the matter of better food combinations and intelligent selection.

Finally it must be noted that one of the most common of infant deficiencies is the failure of the bones to lay down lime. The effect of this failure is commonly described as rickets. The British workers consider that this deficiency is a lack of vitamin "A." Their views have been set forth at greatest length by Mellanby, the principal worker in this subject. While this view is still debatable and in this country it is not yet accepted, one fact has come out in the controversy and that is the remarkable value of cod-liver oil as a preventive of rickets. It may be that the power of the oil is due to its "A" vitamin content in which it is known to be rich, or it may be due to a new vitamin, but the fact that the oil is a preventive in this respect gives the pediatrist another agent to insure normal growth. The various views on the causes of rickets are set forth more in detail in Chapter VIII.