books

previous page: Strength From Eating | by Bernarr MacFadden
  
page up: Diet and Nutrition Books
  
next page: A System Of Diet And Dietetics | by George Alexander Sutherland

Vitamines - Essential Food Factors | by Benjamin Harrow



This book is a popular presentation of a subject which concerns every one of us; for vitamines are substances, as yet ill-defined, whose presence in food is essential to our well-being: their absence makes life impossible. And what more pressing problem to-day than that of food!

TitleVitamines - Essential Food Factors
AuthorBenjamin Harrow
PublisherE. P. Dutton & Company
Year1929
Copyright1929, E. P. Dutton & Company
AmazonVitamines, Essential Food Factors
Vitamines   Essential Food Factors

By Benjamin Harrow, Ph.D, Associate In Physiological Chemistry, College Of Physicians And Surgeons, Columbia University

New and Enlarged Edition

Vitamines Essential Food Factors 2

To C. S. H. And M. H.

-Preface
This book is a popular presentation of a subject which concerns every one of us; for vitamines are substances, as yet ill-defined, whose presence in food is essential to our well-being: their absence ...
-Vitamines. Chapter I. Introduction
You burn a piece of wood or coal to get heat; but what makes your body hotter than the air outside? Why, when the doctor thrusts a thermometer into you, does the instrument register a temperature of 9...
-Chapter II. Calories
I can buy five pounds of tea from my grocer or a quart of milk from the dairy; but suppose I go to my coal dealer and ask him for one ton of heat? He would probably look me over, then look at his neig...
-Food Values In Terms Of Calories
We have seen how Lavoisier had shown that food in the body undergoes much the same change that coal does when it is burnt; in both cases there is a union with oxygen, with the ultimate production of c...
-The Body Furnace
But now the reader may ask another question: If, as you say, the body in many ways behaves like a furnace, with food serving as fuel, from which heat is produced, why cannot we find out the amount of ...
-Man's Energy Requirements
As a matter of fact, basing such experiments on the weight of the average man - about 160 pounds - the energy requirements do amount to about 2200 calories, provided he is resting. There must be grea...
-An Army's Food Requirements
The food requirements of an army have always been the subject of extremely careful investigation. The following figures compiled during the late war are of interest for two reasons: they show the comp...
-Starvation
If a body expends energy, that energy must have a source. The law of conservation of energy teaches us that nothing is created and nothing destroyed, but things do change. So if the body needs 3000 ca...
-Chapter III. Carbohydrates, Fats And Proteins
We have reached the conclusion that one method of estimating the needs of the body is to ascertain how much heat the body liberates. If we assume that for the average, active individual the heat liber...
-The Function Of The Carbohydrates, Fats And Proteins
As a matter of fact, each class of foodstuff has a very well-defined function. The carbohydrates are primarily energy-formers. Our muscular energy is mainly derived from the carbohydrates we eat. It ...
-Minimum Food Requirements
From what has been said regarding the three classes of foodstuffs, it becomes evident that calories do not represent the sum total of nutritional requirements. Besides a sufficient number of calories,...
-Nitrogen Equilibrium
There is another way of attacking the problem of protein requirement - a more scientific way. But before we describe this, a few preliminary observations become necessary. The reader will remember wh...
-Nitrogen Equilibrium. Continued
The gratifying results obtained in Denmark during the war by feeding the people little protein diet, as suggested by Dr. Hindhede, look like a victory for those who urge a low protein diet. Unquestion...
-Chaptee IV. Mineral Matter
When you burn a piece of coal or paper or wood you always have some ash left. The housewife and the stoker consider the ash nothing but a nuisance. It cannot be burnt and therefore is of no heat value...
-Calcium And Phosphorus
The skeleton of bone largely consists of a substance to which chemists give the name calcium phosphate, which, judging by its name, evidently contains calcium and phosphorus. Here, then, we can point ...
-Chapter V. Water And Oxygen
Water The struggles in life are largely struggles to satisfy part of our food requirements. The other part the slum dweller gets as easily as the owner of a Fifth Avenue mansion. That other part is...
-Condiments, Flavors And Stimulants
Look into a rotisserie window and notice how it makes your mouth water. Making your mouth water is a fact, not a fiction. Psychical influences in stimulating digestion are extremely important, as ...
-Alcohol
The best known, the best hated and the best loved stimulant is alcohol (the grain or drinking alcohol as distinguished from the wood alcohol). Some who see in alcohol only a substance which has been...
-Chapter VI. Amino-Acids
Having surveyed rather rapidly the various substances that function as foods; having shown that the calorific value gives incomplete information; having shown the importance of a judicious distributio...
-Gelatin
Early in the last century, long before a science of nutrition had been founded, the importance of protein in the diet was recognized. But so also was the recognition that protein is the most expensive...
-Amino-Acids
It was subsequently discovered by Emil Fischer * and others - that the proteins are made up of chemical units in much the same way that words are made up of letters; and just as the twenty odd letters...
-Why Gelatin Is A Poor Type Of Protein
But now it is time to turn back to our gelatin. A careful analysis of this protein has shown that two of the commonest amino-acids - so common that they are found in most of the other proteins - are m...
-The Amino-Acid Content Of Proteins
Let us present the reader with some quantitative studies. Turn to page 189 and examine the percentage of amino-acids isolated from various proteins. What does such a list show? Some of the proteins d...
-Drs. Osborne And Mendel's Experiments
They selected white rats for their experiments, for a number of reasons. Rats are small, easy to handle and multiply rapidly. They usually live not more than three years and 280 days suffices to comp...
-Animal And Vegetable Proteins Compared
Now turn your attention to chart 2. A diet consisting of the protein casein* (found in milk) which, as you may gather from the table in the Appendix, does not contain the amino-acid glycocoll, caused ...
-The Feeding Of Farm Animals
Of equal and perhaps even more immediate consequence are these studies to animal production in agriculture. Let me quote Drs. Osborne and Mendel: Corn forms the cheapest basis for the feeding of farm...
-The Biological Value Of Various Proteins
The following among the proteins so far tried, when used in suitable concentration, have induced normal growth in rats. Evidently all the essential amino-acids in suitable proportions are present in t...
-Chapter VII. Glycogen Or Animal Starch
The value of a protein we have seen is specified only when stated in terms of its amino-acid content. The protein itself is complex in chemical structure, but the units out of which it is built, the a...
-Carbohydrates
Let us deal with the carbohydrates first. They are chemically a much simpler variety of substance than the proteins. Some of them, such as starch and cane sugar, are, however, still too complicated to...
-Glycogen
The three simple sugars, on the other hand, immediately proceed to the liver as soon as they are absorbed by the blood. There in some unknown way they are all converted to one substance, glycogen or a...
-The Value Of Milk Sugar In Infant Feeding
Still, some comments are necessary. In mother's milk we find milk sugar. This milk sugar is found in the milk even though no such sugar is included in the mother's diet. Evidently then the milk sugar ...
-Chapter VIII. Soap And Glycerin
The reader may wander from the heading of this chapter what a cleansing agent and a source for explosives have to do with the foods we eat. We counsel patience. Do you perhaps recall that story about...
-Chapter IX. Vitamines
Milk, an excellent food for infants and growing animals, contains protein (casein), fat, carbohydrate (milk sugar) and inorganic salts. The protein if given in sufficient quantity contains all the nee...
-The Function Of Vitamines
But what is the function of these vitamines? If fats and carbohydrates supply the fuel, and proteins the material for tissue supply, and mineral salts are needed for bone construction, etc., just what...
-The Nutritive Value Of Different Fats Compared
Osborne, Mendel and McCollum went even further. They showed that while the fat from egg yolk and codliver oil, and, to a certain extent, beef fat, could successfully replace butter fat, neither olive ...
-Fat-Soluble A And Water-Soluble B
Later on Dr. McCollum and others showed that wheat, and particularly yeast, was very rich in this second vitamine, which we shall call water-soluble B, in distinction to the first vitamine, which we s...
-An Adequate Diet
From what has been said we may now formulate our revised conception of an adequate diet. The diet must contain, in addition to the long recognized dietary factors - viz.: protein, a source of energy ...
-Chapter X. Vitamines And Plant Growth. Auximones
In the summer of 1912 the author well remembers how he and others were impressed with a remarkable lecture delivered by Professor Gabriel Bertrand, of the Sorbonne, Paris, on the effect upon the growt...
-Chapter XI. Vitamines And Beriberi
Beriberi Symptoms Beriberi is a disease which at one time was particularly common among oriental people, though by no means unknown outside of Asia. Its final stage takes the form of a general paraly...
-"Polished" Rice And Beriberi
At this point it must be explained that in the original state the rice proper is surrounded by a skin, the pericarp, which may be white, or yellow, or red, or nearly black, or any combination of these...
-Vitamines And Beriberi. Continued
Diseases Due To Dietary Deficiencies In 1906, Professor Hopkins, a physiologist and bio-chemist said, No animal can live on a mixture of pure protein, fat and carbohydrate, and even when the necessa...
-Chapter XII. Vitamines And Rickets
Professor McCollum's researches, described in Chapter IX (Vitamines), have shown us that there are at least two distinct vitamines, fat-soluble A and water-soluble B. The latter is identical with the ...
-Absence Of Fat-Soluble A Vitamine Gives Rise To Rickets
Dr. Mellanby fed puppies with separated milk, wheat bread, linseed oil, yeast, orange or lemon juice and salt. They developed rickets within six weeks. The diet was ample in calorific content, Its foo...
-Chapter XIII. Vitamines And Scurvy
Scurry is a disease that was common enough at one time among sailors, and often enough breaks out even to-day in famine-stricken districts. The symptoms may best be described by quoting Stefanson, the...
-Vitamines And Scurvy. Part 2
Dr. Barlow's Treatment The cases of infantile scurvy that Sir Thomas Barlow describes are those of children who had never been breast-fed, but had received proprietary infant foods, condensed milk an...
-Vitamines And Scurvy. Part 3
In this connection the clinical experiences of Drs. Hess and Fish are instructive. Early in 1914 an outbreak of infantile scurvy occurred in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, New York. The infants afflicted h...
-Chapter XIV. Vitamines And Pellagra
We no longer have any doubt that beriberi and scurvy are diseases due to vitamine deficiency. We still have some doubts regarding rickets; but the doubt here is not so much whether rickets results fro...
-Chapter XV. Vitamines. Summary. Practical Applications
Instinct and experience combined guided us in our choice of food long before there was anything like a science of nutrition. The studies of our generation have confirmed what instinct and experience h...
-The Function Of The Vitamines
If carbohydrates supply energy, and proteins, material for tissue repair, what does the vitamine supply? We really cannot answer this question very satisfactorily. Some liken vitamines to enzymes as b...
-Diseases Due To Lack Of Vitamines In The Diet
At least two common diseases have been definitely identified with vitamine deficiency. One of them is beriberi, involving a general paralysis of the system, and due to lack of water-soluble B; and the...
-A Wholesome Diet
We shall attempt to give no 101 recipes, but to draw a few general inferences from our discussion. In planning our diet we ought, wherever possible, plan it around milk as the nucleus. Milk, as we hav...
-Diet For The Nursing Mother
To emphasize not merely a plentiful, but a carefully selected diet for the nursing mother seems almost superfluous. The healthy mother has not only an abundant supply of milk, but a milk of good quali...
-Vegetarianism
The vegetarians who eat milk and eggs are not vegetarians, strictly speaking. No diet including milk and eggs is a deficient diet, provided always that enough of them is taken. Meat and fish need neve...
-Vitamines in Bread
Next to milk perhaps the commonest of our foodstuffs is bread. As already stated in a discussion on cereals, bread is rich in carbohydrates and contains moderate quantities of proteins (see Appendix)....
-Vitamines in Fruit And Vegetables
The value of these foods has already been pointed out. In this country we derive about 15 per cent of our total calorific value of the food from fruit and vegetables. This could safely be higher. In c...
-Vitamines in Various Food Groups
Fish Though poor in vitamine content, fish is rich in protein and fat, and in that respect compares favorably with meat. Meat Where dairy products are plentiful - where milk and butter and cheese a...
-Fashion In Foods
We must be careful in advocating certain diets to remember that man is not altogether a machine. The results of experiments in physiology and chemistry cannot always be applied in their entirety. You ...
-The Future of Foods
The solution of the food problem does not rest merely with the physiologists and clinicians, who sort out the foods and tell us that one food is more wholesome than another. This is important enough, ...
-Appendix A. Table Of Composition And Calorie Value Of The More Important Foods Adopted By The Interallied Scientific Food Commission
Commodity. Protein. % Fat. % Energy value per kilo. Calories. Cereals - Wheat and barley flour .......... 11.5 1.0 3,640 ...
-Dr. Funk's Classification Of The Vitamines
Antirachitic (Fat-Soluble A) Vitamine Animals that can be used for experimental purposes: rats and dogs (puppies). The disease can be induced in these animals by feeding them with a synthetic diet in...
-Proteins. Composition Per Cent Of Amino-Acids Isolated From Various Proteins
Gliadin - Rye Gliadin - Wheat Hordein - Barley Zein - Maize Legumin - Vetch Legumin - Cow pea Salmin - Salmon Edestin - Hemp Excelsin - Brazil nut ...
-The Distribution Of The Three Accessory Factors In The Commoner Foodstuffs
(Compiled by the British Medical Research Committee) Classes of foodstuff Fat-soluble A or antirachitic factor Water-soluble E or anti-neuritic (anti-beriberi) factor Antiscorbut...
-Some Facts Concerning Nutrition, For The Guidance Of Those Engaged In Administration Of Food Relief To Famine-Stricken Districts
Recent research has shown that the requirements of the human organism as regards diet cannot be met entirely by an adequate supply of protein, fat, carbohydrate, inorganic salts, and water. It has the...
-Distribution And Properties Of The Accessory Factors
(1) Antineuritic Or Antiberiberi Factor (Water-Soluble B Growth Factor Of The Americans) This vitamine prevents the occurrence of beriberi in man and analogous diseases in animals. It is also neces...
-Practical Application Of The Foregoing Facts To The Prevention Of Disease
(1) Prevention Of Beriberi It is unlikely that any danger of beriberi will arise among the famine-threatened districts of Eastern Europe as long as wholemeal flour from rye, wheat, barley, maize, or ...
-References
Calories The general subject of calories is treated in all text-books of physics. For an admirable and at the same time elementary treatment, R. A. Millican and H. G. Gale's Practical Physics (Ginn &...
-References. Continued
Beriberi The story up to 1913 is discussed by E. P. Vedder in book on beriberi. C. Eijkman's classical paper appeared in the Archiv fur patholo-gische Anatomie, volume 149, page 197, 1897. Scarcely...
-Appendix B. Nutritional Experiments
Experimental Methods During the past four years the author, in conjunction with Dr. Miller and Mr. Karshan, and under the supervision of Prof. Gies, has carried out a series of nutritional experiment...
-The Effect Of An Exclusive Fat Diet
Weight on the first day: A 120 B 1254 For five days both sets were fed on a regular diet. At the end of the fifth day: A 129 B 134 From now on B was fed on beef fat exclusively. On the 25 day: ...
-The Effect Of An Exclusive Bread Diet
Six rats per set. Weight on the first day: A 85 B 84 For four days both A and B were fed on the regular diets. At the end of the fourth day: A 97 B 98 B were now fed on bread alone. On the 75 day:...
-The Effect Of An Exclusive Potato Diet
Six rats per set. Weight on first day: A 71 B 73 For four days both A and B were fed on the regular diet. At the end of the fourth day: A 89 B 89 B were now fed on potatoes alone. On the 30 day: ...
-The Effect Of An Exclusive Milk Diet (B) Using Adult Rats
Four rats per set. Weight on first day: A 255 B 254 For three days both A and B were fed on the regular diet. At the end of the third day: A 260 B 261 B were now fed on milk alone. On the 43 day: ...
-Comparison Of "Synthetic Diet" And "Synthetic Diet" Minus Salt Mixture
Six rats per set. Weight on the first day: A 76 B 80 For five days both A and B were fed on the synthetic diet. On the 5 day: A 90 B 94 From now on A was fed on the synthetic and B on the syn...
-Comparison Of "Synthetic Diet" And "Gelatin Synthetic Diet." Also, The Effect Of Vitamine B (In The Form Of Yeast)
The chapter on amino-acids (page 52) has shown that different proteins have not the same biological value. Casein, for example, is a superior protein to gelatin. In the preparation of synthetic diets...
-Comparison Of "Synthetic Diet" And "Synthetic Diet" Plus Yeast
The Effect of Vitamine. Seven rats per set. Weight on the first day: 178 5 76 For four days both A and B were fed on the regular diet. At the end of the fourth day: A 100 B 91 Both A and B were no...
-Appendix C. Review Of Recent Literature
A survey of the literature during the past year reveals that two types of problems have been uppermost in the minds of investigators. One group were eager to add to our knowledge of rickets and pellag...
-Vitamines And Rickets
On page 136 there is a sentence which reads that the consensus of opinion is that fat-soluble A is a vital factor in health, and that its absence in a diet is one of the causative factors in the deve...
-Difficulty Of Getting Diets Free From Vitamine A (Fat-Soluble A)
Many workers, the author among them, have noticed that rats fed on a diet presumably free from vitamine A, grew for a considerable time before decline set in. This is in striking contrast to the rapid...
-The Nutritive Value Of Lard
Ever since research on the vitamines began, lard has almost invariably been used in synthetic diets as a source of fat free from vitamine A. To explain the absence of this vitamine in lard has alway...
-Is Vitamine A Related To Animal And Vegetable Pigments?
Dr. Steenbock was the first to suggest a relationship between pigments and vitamine A: wherever there were pigments, particularly such as are found in abundance in the plant world, there was vitamine ...
-Beriberi And Water-Soluble B (Vitamine B)
The connection of beriberi and vitamine B is as close as ever, so that nothing that has been said on beriberi needs modification. Beriberi, writes Dr. Hess, is the main factor in the exceedingly hi...
-Scurvy And Water-Soluble C (Vitamine C)
What has been said regarding the effect of heat and oxidation on vitamine A may now be repeated with respect to vitamine C (and probably with respect to vitamine B, though not so much work has been do...
-Vitamines And Plant Growth
With the development of the subject of vitamines, attempts have been made to trace the origin of these elusive substances. It is now pretty well conceded that the animal cannot synthesize vitamines; a...
-Vitamines And Pellagra
The etiology of pellagra still awaits solution. Some there are who still talk of its infectious origin; others, in larger numbers, talk of dietary deficiencies, among which proteins and vitamines loom...
-General References 2
C. Funk: The Vitamines (Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1922). W. H. Eddy: The Vitamine Manual (Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore, 1921). H. C. Sherman: The Vitamins. Physiological Reviews,...







TOP
previous page: Strength From Eating | by Bernarr MacFadden
  
page up: Diet and Nutrition Books
  
next page: A System Of Diet And Dietetics | by George Alexander Sutherland