Evening star., 1936-02-26
Helpful Information Offered Necessary Food Components
Home Economics Bureau
Discusses How to Save
The Perishable Vitamins
for the Housekeeper to Know Best
Methods Of Preparing Items That
Contain B and G..

1.-THE citrus fruits are at the top OF
the list and with them come tomatoes,
which are good sources Of vitamin G
even after they are cooked or canned.
Other fruits and vegetables, however,
lose so much of this yitamin II cooked
that nutritionists advise us to depend
chiefly on those we use without cook
ing-fresh fruit or fruit Juices. fruit or
raw vegetable salads, including, for
example, such vegetables as cabbage.
carrots, turnips, radishes, ETC., along
with the salad green's.
Babies, since they live so largely on
milk, are at once affected If their food
does not provide enough vitamin G..
Pasteurized milk does not provide it
because the little of this vitamin that
raw milk contains is destroyed by
heat In the pasteurizing process.
Breast-fed babies get ali the vitamin
c their mothers milk contains, but
nutritionists say all babies nowadays
should also have orange juice or to-
mato juice every day as a precaution
against the sore gums that are the first
sign Of scurvy.
II n \
"MOST Of the foods that furnish
vitamin B or vitannin G or both
are the very ones We usually cook. In
meats, whole-grain cereals, dried
beans and peas, 1t is vltam1n B we
have to reckon with in cooking. This
vitamin dissolves IN water and is also
sensitive to heat, although less easily
destroyed than vitamin c.. The chief
precaution where vitamin B Is con-
cerned, according to the Bureau of
Home Economics, is to save and use
the juices or cooking liquid. With
meats this is easy. because everybody
enjoys the meat juices, either as Is
or in gravy or soup. With cereals it
is easy because the cooking water is
all absorbed. With dried beans and
peas. also. the cooking water Is abb
sorbed, or is used IN soup.
with fresh vegetables and with
fruits, as rule both vitamins B and
C are involved, and there is a precau-
ton to be taken in preparing these
foods for use either cooked or un-
cooked.
Exposure to the air, especially the
cut surface of fruit or vegetable, or
its Juice, causes loss OF the very per-
ishable vitamin c. Therefore, says
the bureau, don't squeeze out fruit
juices ahead OF serving time. They
lose vitamin value and flavor, too, on
standing.
A S TO cooking the fresh fruits and
vegetables to avoid undue losses
Of vitamins B and c. the t1rst rule
Is the same as for vltamln B alone:
Save the juice or the COOKING liquid
to get the vitamins and also some
minerals that are dissolved in it. In
fact, use just as little water as pos
sible to begin with, SO there may be
no more liquid left than may easily
be served with the vegetable or the
fruit, as the case may be.
THE second rule is to cook quickly.
Not only does water dissolve both
these vitamins. but heat destroys c
very rapidly. and increases the loss
of B. So the bureau says: Cook in
as little water as possible, for as short
time as possible. e.. no longer
than necessary to make the vegetable
tender and palatable.
THE third rule Is: Do not cook vege-
tables with soda If you want to keep
the vitamin values. Soda, which is
an alkah, destroys both vitamins B
and c.
"Some of the vegetables and fruits,
when cooked, retain their vitamin
values better than others, tomatoes
probably best Of all. The acid in the
tomato lessons the loss OF v1tamln e,
so that cooked or canned tomatoes
furnish much OF their original vltamln
content. In some degree tnls Is
true, also, of canned grapefruit, can
ned pineapple and canned peaches,