The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1942-02-05
VITE AND MORALE

VITE AND MORALE
One of the inpumerable "tonics"
commonly used In medical practice
fifty years ago was Avena saliva.
1 never did get the rights of it,
for standard medical works had
little to say about it, but neverthe-
less it was much used as tonic"
Just what the preparation con-
tanned or how it was made do not
know, further than That Avena
saliva, in everyday language, is the
grain or cereal seed cats.
TOO many oats" the farmer
boys often called out when Topsy,
my sorrell, playfully kicked up her
heels as we drove down Main Street
on Saturday afternoon.
Oats or oatmeal or rolled oats
are an excellent source of vitamin
B complex, at least equal to wheat
in that respect, and an excellent
source of calcium and iron, elements
often deficient in our everyday diet.
Perhaps the vitamin B complex in
oats accounts for the empirical be-
lief that Avena saliva, an extract
of oats, had tonic" virtues.
After all, tonic is anything that
improves function, and in any case
where there Is a deficiency of the Wit
amin B complex intake more or
less function weakness is inevitable,
and increased intake of vitamin B
complex tends to correct the weak
ness.
Vite is paramount to morale. Our
government recognizes this in the
present program to popularize the
use of enriched flour. Enriched flour
is ordinary white flour to which
sufficient thiamin, nicotine acid,
iron, and perhaps riboflavin, calcium
and phosphorus have been added
to make the flour (still white and
not appreciably different from
ordinary white -FOUR nearly if not
quite equivalent to whole wheat
f1uor in human nutrition. General
use of enriched flour instead OF or
binary white flour will be a long
step in the right direction. 1t will
supply fair amounts of several es-
sentials in which the average
American diet is deficient, vitamins
and minerals which will give a
boost to the vite and morale of con-
sumerS of bread and other every
day comestibles made with it.
Use of such enriched flour in
place of ordinary flour in effect re-
stores TO- the average American
diet the chief factors removed in
the modern milling of wheat Use
OF real whole wheat flour with
nothing removeO would be prefer
able, from the nutritional point 70
view, but two drawbacks make this
impracticable-first, the poor keep
ing qualities Of real whole wheat
flour, second, you can't make such
cakes, pastries and other delicacies
with whole wheat flour as you can
with white flour.
l still have my doubts about the
admissability of this last mentioned
drawback. Perhaps it would Z be
better for the health, wife and NOR
ale of the nation if just such deli
cacies were prohibited by law. We
could worry along fairly well with
out angel food. A fair daily ration
of wheat or oats might effect the
regeneration OF a great many cake
eaters
= QUESTIO- S g. ANSWERS
Dextrose is Glucose
Although in your column you ap-
parently meant to say dextrose you
were quite correct in saying that
foods made with glucose (corn
syrup are as beneficial and de-
sirable as those made with other
sugars. CIV. G. b.
Answer-No.. meant to say GU
cose. I repeat, glucose is as
digestible, as quickly assimilated, as
valuable a source of energy, as any
other kind of sugar you may prefer.
Glucose is ,dextrose. mean glu-
cose and I mean deXtrcse-and We
need not argue now about what Dr.
Wiley meant when he wrote about
glucose and dextrose thirty years
ago.
ltame Your Poison
Do infants, children and young
adults get as much benefit from
irradiated canned milkS as from