Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-12
ONION DIET TEST
DEVELOPS THEORY
ON ANEM|A CAUSE
Remarkable Change in Blood
of Dogs Shown in PeIIagra
Experiments.
NEW VIEWS ARE RESULT
OF CHEMISTS RESEARCH
Had Not Suspected Previously
Something in Food Might
Produce Malady.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.


Some forms of anemia may result
from a specific chemical factor in diet.
Chemists of the National Health In
stitute, as the old Hygienic Laboratory
now is known, are seeking such factor
in onions as a result of recent entirely
unexpected results of heavy onion diet
on dogs used in pellagra experiments.
When onions were added to the ordi-
nary diet of the animals at the rate of
approximately half an ounce to each
two pounds of body weight, remarkable
changes took place in the blood. The
number of red blood cells fell sharply,
with an accompanying remarkable in
crease in the number of white blood
cells. The reticulated red blood cells,
supposed to represent very early evo-
lutionary type, and which ordinarily
make up less than l per cent of the
blood cells of dog, rose to as much as
10 per cent of the whole and then fell.
The white cells fall rather sharply after
the preliminary rise. The observations
were made by Dr. w. H. Sebrell, who
is working with dogs to determine the
relative richness in the hypothetical
pellagra preventative vitamin of all
foodstuffs generally available in the
Southern States.
Dogs Fed Balanced Diet.
DIR. Sebrell uses dogs in these expert
mentS, because the BLACK tongue" dis
ease, brought about in these animals by
diet deficiencies, is considered anal
ogous to. pellagra in humans. Before
feeding the onions the animals were on
! a standard balanced diet which has
been demonstrated to keep them in per-
feet health and which contains a plen-
tiful supply of liver. Addition of the
onions was the only change, and DR..
Sebren can attribute the remarkable
changes in the blood to no other agency.
Hitherto there has been no suspicion
. that anemic conditions may have been
due to something in food, rather than
to lack of something. Apparently the
standard diet contained everything
necessary to prevent anemia, and the
onions added the causative principle.
Ordinary amounts of onions had no
effect. The changes in the blood count
careful blood counts had been made
before feeding the onions-were appar-
ent only when the ratio of about an
ounce to two pounds of body weight was
| reached They we're progressively Sc
we're with increases in the onion diet.
Difference in Blood
1t must be remembered, DR.. Sebrell
said. that this peculiar behavior of the
blood may be confined to dogs whose
blood composition differs somewhat
| from that of man. There is no evil
dence that onions would produce an
anemic condition in human beings.
Even l. similar efforts were produced, it
would be necessary for a man to eat at
least a pound of onions a day for sew
eral days before there could be any bad
| results. Probably nobody eats that
many.
The Importance of the observation
! lies in the implications of a chemical
principle producing such remarkable
blood changes in short order and the
possibility that this may be widely dis
tributed in nature If this is the case,
1t would help clear up one of the
obscure problems of the biochemistry
of the animal body. There are various
sorts of anemias, and some forms until
recently were practically incurable
| Then it was found that inclusion of
specified amounts of liver in the diet
I had remarkable effects in restoring the
blood count to normal.
So the chemistry of the onion sud-
/ denly has become of extreme interest
One of the great chemical advances of
modern times was the discovery of the
vitamins. 1t is theoretically possible
up another chapter in research-the
hunt for the "anti-vitamins" The Ma
tional Health Institute is especially
anxious not to criticize the onion as an
article of human consumption, because
in any reasonable amount it remains a
healthful addition to the diet Be-
Sides many things which affect dogs
have no effect on humans, and vice
versa Dogs, for instance, cannot be
inoculated with various serious human
diseases.
Not Changed by Cooking.
Whatever the chemical principle in
the onion is, it apparently is not
changed by cooking. The onions used
we're of the best quality purchased on
the Washington market, and the same
results were obtained with raw and
cooked vegetables.
While the chemists are at work. Dr..
Sebrell has returned to his pellagra
work The object is to find an easily
obtainable regular diet for the rural
Southern family. Dried yeast is a
powerful preventative of the disease,
but ii is medicine" Once the victim
has been cured by it, he goes back to
his old diet. and soon has a relapse.
Some common food rich in pellagra
preventative would be much better.