Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-12-10
FOOD AND HEALTH
BY WINIFRED STUART GIBBS.
Food Specialist.

Digging for nuggets of information
in regard to food and nutrition may
not be quite so fascinating as digging
for bait, but it is, after all, very much
worth while.
Merely the fact that one important
group of food elements is known as
mineral matter makes the term food
miner apt, although we must in no
sense limit the quest for information
to mineral salts alone.
While we may find ourselves tired
Of tabulatlonS of foodStuffS containing
such and such elements, these Cata-
logues and summaries are important
for reference, but the really vital
thing is to be able to use our fund OF
Information about the principles of
nutrition so as to advance to the &C
compliShment of some original think
ing, applying the results thereof to
the Improvement of nutrition, whether
for ourselves or for members of our
families.
There are any number of fascinating
bypaths down which we may wander,
one of the most interesting being the
pursuit of vitaminS in unlikely places,
a matter for the dietitian only. say
you?
Not at all. Rather is it one for the
housewife who aspires to feeding her
family IN the best possible manner.
Now the obvious places in which to
search for VitaninS are enumerated in
any list giving the sources of each of
the chief vitamin groups. For eX-
ample. vItamin E, the one that must
be present in the diet if we are to
escape serious loss of weight and other
deficiency diseases is listed in most
books as being present in milk, yeast,
spinach. SWeetbreadS, liver and other
edible ANIMAL organs, eggs and whole
wheat. All of which is true. but the
wise student of nutrition will train
himself TO the realization that infor-
nation about vitaminS is being uncov-
cred almost overnight. He will remem-
Der that he has a fine opportunity to
cultivate the true scientists frame of
mind and will not rest satisfied with
mere lists, important as these are.
The list of foods containing vitamin
3. for example. may serve as the
starting point for informal investiga-
ton work on our own part. We NAV
ask ourselves such questions as these:
How does the prepared cereal product
compare with whole wheat flour as a
source OF Vitamin Is? OR. what is a
typical daily ration that would sup
ply sufficient Of this vitamin for
health"
One answer to the first question is
this: The research chemist Of at least
one OF the cereal manufacturing
plants has established the fact that
this type OF food is "a very satisfactory
storehouse of Vitamin b.
As for the second question. well
known scientistS-Profs. MendeI and
Osborne of Yale University-ten us
that the following dietary will give
enough vitamin Il for health: Fifteen
grams of fresh whole milk. grams
al fresh eggs. l1.grams of lettuce and
from los to LIZ grams of fresh celery
Satisfied on this count. why isn't ;he
next step the checking of this diet
satisfactory in regard to one impor-
tant Vttamin. in order to ascertain
what foods must be added to give suf-
tcient quantities of each of the other
vitaminS and of body building ma.
trial and starch ann fat, the energy
foods?
a gradual building of ones own
working program of diet will he far
more serviceable than the hnet ''hra,r-
in the world that IS only OCCASIONALLY
used and only partially appreciated.
Copyright. 1922