The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-01-11
IF NOT IN THE FOOD, THEN
 ON THE TABLE


 1t is most desirable, of course, that the daily diet should supply the greater portion of the vitamins required to prevent deficiency de- arrangements or better the more -li- beral rations of vitamins required to maintain or build health and vi- gor. But it is difficult to arrange a practical dietary today to fulfil this requirement., even when the training table is under the personal supervision and control of a com- potent dietitian or nutrition expert.
 A famous football team in the 1888 playing season affords good example. A physician who had ex- amined the players suggested to the coach that it might be well to feed the men more vitamins. The coach dismissed the idea as not practical; he explained that the men were all on the rigid diet prescribed and carefully supervised by a dietician. Nevertheless e survey of the actual daily intake of food by the men at the training table revealed that, ac- cording to the best present view of the optimal nutritional requirements, the football players were getting 20 per cent less vitamins than they should have.
 Now if a university football team under the most capable dietetic supervision suffers from such @ shortage, how much greater is the vitarnin deficiency in the everyday diet of people who give the matter no particular thought but merely eat what they find on the bill of fare or what they like or what they believe is "nourishing," "easily di- gestible" or what the season of cli- mate affords.
 It is true that the greater part of the energy, the calories, in the average diet is from food which contains little or no vitamins. Less than one-third of the food consum- ed by the average American family is "protective" food, that is, food containing all or nearly all of the vitamins and minerals that natur- ally occur in the food, grow in 1t. These facts are recognized by nutri- tion authorities, but not by the rank and file of physicians in everyday practice. There are still 8 good many physicians who are coasting along on principles which were ac- cepted @ decade or two ago but carl- not withstand analysis today. It is all very well to allude to the vitamin fad" as a kind of passing hysteria and to blurt forth in some preten- tious if humorous medical journal that a physician with very large practice rarely sees case in which he suspects any vitamin deficiency. But already the doctor who had the temerity to go n record with such nasty, half baked comment finds the medical literature filled with multitudes of cases in which doctors with just ordinary practices have diagnosed vitamin deficiencies and given their patients extraordinary help by restoring the necessary vita- mins to the daily intake.
 One of the best natural food sources of vitamin B complex Gall of the factors or entities that occur with vitamin B) is plain wheat. Have you ever tried to buy and eat plain wheat? Still richer source of the B complex is wheat germ. Have you ever tried to buy and eat wheat germ? I mention these to give an idea of the difficulty any one must encounter in an attempt to get even an adequate maintenance ration of vitamins in the daily food.