Vitamins in Diets : Part 2

The Vitamine Manual
by Walter H. Eddy

(Page 7 of 8)

II. Adult Diets

A study of the dietary habits of various sections of the United States shows that there is a very general tendency on the part of the majority of the people to confine their foods to a meat, potato, and cereal diet. The use of salads is looked upon by many sections as a foreign affectation and too little attention is paid to the value of eggs, milk and cheese. Enough has been said already to show that these latter articles have much more than an esthetic value and one of the missions of the nutrition expert must be to show the people why dairy products and salads must become features in the every-day meals of the every-day people. And even if the salads are still unappreciated, it is necessary that cooked green vegetables occupy more of a position in the menu than is too often the case.

There has recently appeared a crusade for the eating of yeast cakes. The claim made for their use rests on a perfectly firm basis, they are rich in the "B" vitamin, the proteins of the yeast cake are of good quality and the cake contains no ingredients poisonous to man. Many people are reporting beneficial effects from their use. Is there any lesson to be drawn from this experiment? I feel that the very fact that benefits have resulted from this yeast feeding is excellent evidence of lack of the vitamin in the diets of the people affected and a clear argument that the dietary habits of many people need adjustment to a higher vitamin content.

Whether it is necessary to use yeast cakes or any other concentrate of vitamin, depends entirely upon whether the ordinary diet is lacking in these factors and my first advice in the matter would be to make if possible a selection of the vitamin containing foods and see if normal conditions did not result before utilizing foods whose taste is not pleasing or which are taken as medicine. For it is an old experience that medicines will be taken only so long as the patient is sick and perhaps it is just as well so. In other words I believe it is possible with intelligent selection based on such tables as are given in Chapter IV for people to secure from the butcher and the grocer all their requirements of these vitamins as a part of their regular palatable diet. To those who have neglected this selection and find remedy in concentrates, that fact should lead them to reconstruct their diet rather than persist in dependence on the medicine to correct faulty diet. In other words the same arguments apply to the use of medicinal concentrates of vitamins as applies to the use of laxatives. At times these substances are very valuable as cures, but it is better by far to so regulate the dietary habits as to avoid the necessity for their use.

Another phase of this matter that promises to develop in the near future as a result of the vitamin hypothesis is a reform in food manufacture. There has been a strong tendency during the past two decades to "purify" food products. The genesis of this tendency is to be found in a highly laudable ambition to force the manufacturer to eliminate impurities and adulterations and provide clean, wholesome, sanitary food. Unfortunately in attempting to meet this demand on the part of the public, the food manufacturer has sometimes neglected to seek advice from the nutrition expert and the latter has failed to appreciate the need of advice. The net result has been to discover that Nature is often a better chemist than man and has a much better knowledge of what man needs in his diet than the chemist. The chemist employed by the manufacturer has, as a result, gone to such a limit in his development of purification methods as to often eliminate the essential nutrients and the result has been foods that will stand analysis for pure nutrients, but which will not stand Nature's analysis for dietary efficiency. As a secondary result of this tendency we have acquired habits that in many cases must either be broken or must have grafted on to them other habits which shall remedy the defective ones.

Take the milling of wheat as an example. Nature put into the wheat grain most of the elements needed by man and in the early days he was content to grind up the whole grain and find it palatable. The craze for purity as expressed by color has gradually replaced this whole meal wheat with a beautiful white product that is largely pure starch with a few of the proteins retained. And the principal protein retained lacks one of the greatest essentials for growth while the vitamins have all been practically eliminated with the grain germ. Intelligence tells us then that if, having formed the habit, we will persist in our appetite for white flour we must see to it that the protein deficiency of the latter and its lack of vitamins is compensated for by supplementing the diet with the food-stuffs in which these are rich. We may in other words retain our bad habits in taste if we will graft on to them the attention to the eliminated factors and their substitution in other form.

In general then, the adult needs to review his feeding habits and analyze them in the light of our new knowledge. For this purpose the tables of Chapter IV supply data useful so far as vitamins are concerned, but it will be perhaps worth while to repeat here some of this data in more generalized form.

a. Sources of the "A" vitamin

Its most abundant sources are milk, butter, egg yolk fat, and the green leaves of plants usually classed as salads. Cabbage, lettuce, spinach and carrots contain this substance in considerable quantity. The germ of cereals is fairly rich in the factor, but the rest of the grain is deficient and white flours are therefore poorer than whole meals in this respect. Cooking temperatures have little effect on this vitamin and hence little attention need be paid to cooking temperatures as far as this vitamin is concerned.

b. Sources of the "B" vitamin

Its principal sources outside of yeast are the seeds of plants and the eggs and milk of animals. Meat contains relatively little of this substance but glandular organs such as the liver and pancreas are fairly rich in it. In the seeds the distribution is general throughout the whole body of the seed in the case of beans, peas, etc., but in the cereal grains it is largely restricted to the embryo portion and hence a high degree of milling tends to reduce the per cent of this factor in any highly milled cereal. White flour and polished rice are notable examples of deficiency of "B" vitamin due to this milling process. Fruits such as oranges, tomatoes, and lemons are good sources and there is a fair amount present in the apples and grapes and other common food fruits. Many vegetables show it in fair abundance, notably potatoes, carrots, and turnips, but the rule is not general for beets are extremely poor in this factor. Nuts are also good sources. Eggs, milk and cheese contain it in fair abundance. Cooking temperatures have little effect on this type if the temperature does not climb above the boiling point and if the cooking water is not "alkaline." In the latter case it becomes necessary to determine the extent of destruction and either eat enough to insure protection, or reform the method of cookery.

c. Sources of the "C" vitamin

Its richest sources are vegetables such as cabbage, swedes, turnips, lettuce and watercress; fruits such as lemons, oranges, raspberries and tomatoes. Certain of the vegetables such as potatoes have a substantial value in this respect, but meat and most prepared milks are low in antiscorbutic values. The susceptibility of this vitamin to drying, heat and alkali, make it necessary to scrutinize your cooking methods very carefully in order not to ruin a good source by a poor preparation of it for the table.