Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1914-11-06

st By ALBERT S. GRAY, MD. II
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
(Copyrisht. 1SlA BY A. S. Gray)
WTAMlNE FOODS.
The fundamental difference between
plants and animals is in their methods
Of feeding. Plants are essentially con-
structive and work up for themselves
the simplest inorganic elements into
food. Animals, ON the other hand, are
essentially, destructive and can make
use Of these same elements only by de-
stroying the combinations arranged by
the plants and recombining and ex'
GREETING them in such forms as are ao'
solutely useless for animal food until
they are once more worked up by the
plants. All the carbohydrates, the
starches and sugars, all tho nitrogen
compounds and the proteins, are ulti-
mately provided for the whole animal
world by the plant world. Obviously,
we have here q cycle analogous to cy'
c,es to be found everywhere through
out nature, from which we may-but
seemingly will not-learn. In this cy'
Gle the animal Is found to be parasitic,
and man is about the most hopelessly
parasitic Of all, because his sublime
egotism blinds him to the fact that he
is but single link in an incompre-
hensfble chain OF universal life.
In our ignorance we have presumed
to interfere with natures plans, with
dire results, and only very recently
have We generally begun to suspect
that the key to the solution OF our
serious ills, both physical and social
and covering disease, poverty and
crime, is to be found in a comprehen:
sion of the subject of nutrition. Very
obviously, then, the study of nutrition
is worth while and must begin at the
foundation, with the breathing and
drinking of plants and their reactions
to light, heat and gravitation.
Eykeman in 1892 called attention to
q peculiar relationship between beri-
beri and polished rice, and he followed
it up from time to time for some four
teen years. Gryns Joined in the quest
in 1910, and in 1911 Fraser and Stan
ton quite definitely proved that the
corticle layer Of rice contains sub
stance which cures beri-beri in man
and the polyneuritis that is produced
in birds by feeding them on polished
rice. Then Casimir Funk in 1911 iso-
lated from the material ground from
the surface of rice in polishing 1t . def.
mite crystalline body with which he
cured polyneuritis induced in pigeons
by feeding them on ordinary polished
rice. ,,a-,-.-
Funk named this substance vita
mine," because 1t constitutes a subs.
lance in foods indispensable to life.
The vitamines are contained in the
hard, colored shell that is ground of
rice to produce q nice white product,
and it is in the hard protective coat
OF the wheat berry which constitutes
about Is per cent Of the grain. The
bran Of the milling process, as re-
moved by the steel rolls, includes the
aleurone layer, together with the peri.
carp, the tesla and the germ; these
are starchless but rich in fats and min
erals, and besides they contain the
newly discovered vitamines.
The vitamines are heterogeneous bod.
les of highly complex structure and
no diet il, complete without them.
vitamines are found in plants. and
especially in their seeds. So far as is
known at present, animals are incap.
able Of making them and obtain them
only by feeding on plants. Vitamines
occur in meat, fresh milk and in the
yolks of eggs. They are found in
whole grains, potatoes, carrots, beans,
peas, lentils and the like; also in lime
and in other fresh fruit juices.
Wherever any cereal robbed of its
colored aleurone or vitamine layer
forms the chief food of a people, there
q deficiency disease appears. The
chief increase Of beriberi, caused by
eating polished rice and resulting in
thousands Of deaths annually in Japan
and other countries, comedies with the
replacement Of the primitive stone
grinding: by the modern steel roller
process. The stone mills ground the
entire grain; the modern rolls enable
the miller to reject from the -four prac-
tically everything but the starch.
A diet largely composed of sterilized
milk condensed milk, corn fours.
starch and sugar, or of any foods sub
1ected for q long period to tempera'
lures above. $50 degrees, may be con.
sidered MEANINGLESS diet, and, as such.
will predispose to tuberculosis and the
dehctehcy Diseases.
White TOURS, corn nours and pol
ished rice are deficient foods. because
the vitamines have been removed IN
the milling process. But In the face
>o>~>>>~
Annual Gathering Of eae's'
The Oireachtas. the great annual
gathering Of Gaels. this year TOOK
Mace IN the lovely town on the bank
~ Ioch Lein. Killarney, besides being
~. ,,o.< beautiful places In Ire.