Mrs. Grundy. (Tracy City, Tenn.) 1903-1930, 1914-11-26

(Copyrisht. 1914. by A. S. Gray,
WTAMINE 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 alb
Eofutely useless for animal food until
they are once more worked up by the
plants. All the carbohydrates, the
starches and sugars, all the nitrogen
compounds and the proteins, are ulti
mately provided for the whole animal
world by the plant world Obviously,
we have here a 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-
hensible 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
u worth while and must begin at the
foundation, with the breathing and
drinking OF plants and their reactions
TO light heat and gravitstion.
Eykeman In 1899 called attention to
q peculiar relationship between beri-
beri and polished rice. and he followed
1t 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.
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 nice white product,
and 1t is in the hard protective coat
of the wheat berry which constitutes
about 16 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 is 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 thea:
only by feeding on plants. Vitamine:
yoiks OF eggs, They are found IL
whole grains, potatoes, carrots, beans
peas, lentils and the like; also In lime
and In other fresh fruit juices.
Vitamines are destroyed by expos
ure for from ten to twenty minutes II
q temperature OF $50 to 265 degrees
Fahrenheit and also by exposure Il
extreme dryness. Cattle may suffel
from q MEANINGLESS diet following :
long drought All this substantiates
the theories advanced by the late Ed
ward Atkinson prior to 1890 as to the
deleterious effects OF cooking human
foodstuffs at high temperatures and
should lead to a revival OF interest IL
his Aladdin oyen." patented by hin
and dedicated to the use OF the Amer
ican people.
Wherever any cereal robbed OF its
colored aleurone or vitamine layer
forms the chief food OF a people, there
a deficiency disease appears. The
chief increase Of beri-beri. caused b.
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 sterilizsd
milk, condensed milk. corn aours,
starch and sugar, or Of any foods sub
tected for a long period TO tempera-
lures above $50 degrees, may be con-
sEdered MEANINGLESS diet and, as such,
will predispose to tuberculosis and the
deficiency diseases.
White hours, corn fours and pol