Foods That Are Dead

Vitamines are abundant in the outer layer and in the germ of grain, and they are found just under the skin of vegetables and fruits. They are also present in brewer's yeast.

They may be destroyed by overheating or drying, or may be removed from the food in the process of preparation. Dried, preserved and commercially canned foods are vitamineless; also all processed grains as white flour and polished rice in which the aleuron layer has been removed. The vitamines remain in the outer coarser portion and are often fed to stock which thrive on "shorts" the part of the grain discarded by the human animal. It is said that pellagra, which is on the increase in America, is more acute and fatal here than elsewhere because of the superior machinery used in processing of food. "Food is too much polished, too much cooked, too much dried".

In the paring of vegetables many vitamines are lost; in the boiling most of those remaining pass into the water which is usually thrown away. Vitamines are destroyed by baking powder and soda, a strong argument against the use of these powders in the cooking of vegetables and baking of breads. Vitamines are more stable in some foods than others; e. g. raspberry juice can be boiled one hour without losing its vitality, while lemon or lime juice can be boiled and kept indefinitely without becoming devitalized.

A Danger

Individuals with weak digestive organs, unable to digest bulky food, are often in danger of living on a vitamineless diet because their vegetables are pureed, their cereals are processed often in the form of gruels with the coarser particles removed, or much of their food is dextrinized, superheated, their bread twice baked and fruits perhaps eliminated entirely from their diet. But plans should be laid for these persons as well as for all others that in their daily ration may be supplied these vital substances upon which the body is so dependent. For these persons it should be remembered that broths prepared from vegetables without removing the skins are very rich in vitamines. (See pages 121 and 122).

A Safe Course

Our safety then lies in keeping close to nature, in eating freely of fresh fruits and leaf vegetables,* raw vegetables plain and in salads, in saving and using vegetable broths, in replacing fine, white flour bread with whole-wheat and graham bread, in the eating of grains still retaining their hulls as unpolished rice, oatmeal, whole-wheat and unbolted cornmeal, and withal to vary the diet, avoiding a motonomy in the food supply.

For The Children

Especially should these things be borne in mind in the feeding of children. The importance of this cannot be overestimated. Children must have a varied diet of whole cereals, fruits and a liberal supply of green vegetables and vegetable broths. These with milk will in most cases supply their dietetic needs. (See Chapter XIX (The Feeding Of Children. A Foundation)).

Many things contain vitamines, and while some of the foods in our daily ration may necessarily be devoid of them, with a paperlike skin removed without the loss of the cellular layer which lies just underneath, it will contain relatively more of the fat-soluble A, a lack of which leads to conditions previously described, than do the cereal grains.. . . It would seem that a potato which is pared in the ordinary way and the paring: discarded, is changed in its dietary properties in much the same way as is the rice kernel during the polishing process." Id. p. 47.

*The dietetic value of the leaves of plants (leaf vegetables) as compared with the seeds (grains and legumes) has been conclusively shown by the experiments of McCollum, Simmonds and Pitz. The seed of the plant is its storehouse and aside from the germ, contains no living matter. The seed, while rich in caloric food value, has a protein of relatively poor quality; it is low in inorganic salts and is deficient in the fat soluble vitamine. The leaf of the plant is made up largely of living cells. It is the active respiring portion; the laboratory of the plant where starches, fats, and proteins are built up. This part of the plant supplements the nutritive shortcomings of the seed.* We quote from McCollum: "From the results of experiments just described it was necessary to conclude that the leaf differs from the seed in that it contains in satisfactory amounts the dietary factors which are founds in seeds in too small amounts. These include the three inorganic elements, calcium, sodium, and chlorine, the fat-soluble A, and a protein supply which supplements, at least in some degree, the proteins of the seed. These, it will be remembered, are the three and only purified food factors which need to be added to each of the seeds singly in order to make it dietetically correct. It is therefore possible to devise a diet which is derived entirely from vegetable materials which will produce normal growth and the optimum physiological well-being." - The Newer Knowledge of Nutrition. Page 64. "The potato is to be classed with the seeds in its dietary properties, because it consists largely of reserve food materials and relatively little of cellular elements. The results available indicate that if the potato is steamed and the thin little careful planning it will be found a very easy matter to add a sufficient quantity of foods rich in vitamines that the supply may be a liberal one. We need food for calories and for vitamines as well, and it is important that we remember the danger of "starving while feasting." Obedience to all other laws of hygiene and dietetics will avail one but little if one lives continually on a devitalized diet.

Do Not Starve While Feasting

We quote again from Dr. A. S. Gray, "The wise man takes no chances and simply sticks close to nature. This means eating simple, properly prepared, unprocessed foods".

"0h! theys nothin, at morn, that's as grand unto me As the glories of Nachur so fare, - With the Spring in the breeze, and the bloom in the trees.

And the hum of the bees ev'ry where! The green in the woods, and the birds in the boughs,

And the dew spangled over the fields; And the bah of the sheep and the bawl of the cows And the call from the house to your meals!"

- James Whitcomb Riley.