Price of winter health

Press, 7 August 1982, Page 10

Price of winter health

Good eating

Janice Bremer DIETITIAN

Money spent on food is money spent on nutrients. Reports of 32.4 million pounds spent in the United Kingdom in 1981; 1.2 billion dollars spent in the United States in 1980; all on supplemental vitamins and minerals, supports the suggestion that, if New Zealand is like other Westernised countries, many of us think we need to Spend more on our nutrition. Vitamin C features prominently in the lineup of vitamins taken “extra” (nonfood expenditure) in spite of national diet surveys in many countries (including our own) demonstrating that on average we eat enough in our food. To conclude this series of four articles about vitamin C it is worth-while to look at both sides of the argument, but I continue with a case for yitamin C from food. Dr Robert Hodges has highlighted the natural body mechanisms that protect us from undesirable effects of large doses of vitamin C as at least four mechanisms including: few palatable foods contain vitamin C in very high- concentrations (only the fruit and vegetable food group); there is a limited capacity for our intestines to absorb it (the more we have the less we absorb); rising levels in the blood are filtered into the urine by our kidneys and are lost to the body; an excess in our bodies’ is destroyed (normal low blood levels of vitamin C can be found in high users).' ' In a recent summary of basic information on vitamins, in the “Nutrition and Food Science" journal Dilys Wells recalls that Linus Pauling, who proposed that humans should take one gram of vitamin C daily, uses the argument that as man was descended from fruit-eating apes his vitamin C requirement would be similar to that derived from an ape’s fruit diet.

This one gram of vitamin C would be 17 oranges, or 45 bananas'.

The less hairy of us now take our vitamin. C from a “variety of vegetables and fruits which are largely cultivated, but still yield large quantities of vitamin C. Mid-winter vitamin C In the summer, an abundance of mouth-watering fresh fruits encourage our vitamin C appetite. However, in the winter our choices need to be more selective. Prices of articles randomly picked up in Christchurch city supermarkets this week are compared in the table belpw. Each quantity supplies 60 milligrams of vitamin C (the full adult daily requirement — children require only three quarters of this amount). The table demonstrates that a mixture of a fraction of the amount of several of these items can easily match our daily need.

Many people prefer .to take their vitamin C in a drink. If we juice our lemons this unfortunately doubles the price of our vitamin C. "Breakfast drinks” available in the powder form usually boast .the addition of vitamin C. They usually supply 60 milligrams vitamin C in less than one glassful, and cost between four and seven cents for this amount. “Cordial” drinks with added vitamin C, however, may cost 13c to 15c for equivalent vitamin C, but we may have to drink some 15 to 20 glassfuls to get it! Blackcurrant syrup drink, often given to young children, costs 19c for the 60 milligrams of vitamin C.

These “breakfast drinks"; “cordials” with added vitamin C; and syrups with' added vitamin C. cannot be considered as suitable nutritional alternatives to the im-

portant foods mentioned in the table.

They supply no fibre, a lot of sugar, and lack the normal vitamins and minerals accompanying whole foods. Other supplements In our central city chemist and health food stores vitamin C or ascorbic acid tablets are available, retailing from two cents to 28c per “dose.” The range for a one tablet dose is usually 25 milligrams to IOOOmg (1 gram). This amount is probably harmless taken as one tablet per day. These costings serve to demonstrate how easily we may be swayed to bypass thoughtful food selection, to opt for the easy-way-out. However, unless we all become mathematical geniuses along with a dramatic surge in nutritional research, we cannot be certain that tablet or sugar-syrup "doses" of any vitamin are a “safe” or "sorry" move. Advice from . a medical practitioner is an appropriate measure for those who are uncertain that their nutritional needs can be met with normal foods. The alternatives can be inexpensive and appropriate when taken in the correct amounts. Most risk

Occasionally, large doses of vitamin C may be required for certain diseases; when having surgery; op for accidents or burns cases. . Those at risk of a low dietary vitamin C in our community at large include: the elderly with poor teeth; teenagers looking after their own'food in flats when their social life is more important than their nutrition; those who live alone with little incentive to prepare meals; alcoholics and/or cigarette smokers if their diet is poor; and, infants who live solely on milk without vitamin C supplement, for more than six months. Mashed bananas with a V

little lerppn juice, fruit juice, or semi-cooked vegetables mashed just before eating, are helpful for the elderly with few teeth.

However, we must be aware of the vitamin loss occurring through over-cook-ing, done just to make our vegetables soft. Reduce loss

Vitamin C is rapidly destroyed by moderate cooking temperatures and exposure to air. It also leaches out of foods into the water when they are left soaking. During normal cooking, root vegetables (carrots, pumpkin) lose 40 per cent of their vitamin C; but leafy vegetables (cabbage, broccoli), lose some 70 per cent. Hints: Cook Jor as short a time as possible, in the smallest amount of water. Avoid reheating vegetables; do not leave warming for long periods at a time. When vegetables and fruits are cut up or bruised, enzymes in the foods which destroy vitamin C are activated.

Hints: Leave foods in large pieces or cut up and grate only just- before eating. Plunge vegetables for cooking into water that is boiling as it will destroy the enzymes. Keep a lid on the pot while cooking. Withered vegetables and those stored for long periods of time lose vitamin C.

Hints: Use fresh vegetables whenever possible (frozen are good also). Have some raw foods if fresh vegetables are not available.

Whilst arguments about whether or not to have high doses of vitamin 0 still rage in our nutritional journals, one interesting side effect of taking large doses of vitamin C has been uncovered. There is’ an increased risk of developing scurvy when the supplements are stopped abruptly and a normal diet is resumed. High vitamin C foods are required for a few weeks when "weaning" off vitamin C pills. In the light of some reported adverse effects ol vitamin C supplements of over one gram each day, it has been recommended that 300 mg each day for adults and 150 mg for children as the upper level of supplement if we feel we must supplement. This is an attainable level in a normal food diet.

A diet including a plateful of vegetables and fruit several times a day and in particular: greens jsach day and a vitamin C rich fruit every other day, is nature’s way to have vitamin C.

pineapple 2 x 225 g cans $1.14 The canned fruit juices are unsweetened varieties and are fruit “juices" not fruit "drinks.” on their labels.

Food Amount Price Raw cabbage Us cups .shredded 8c Kiwi fruit One ■“ 10c Orange One 15c Lemons One medium 18c Canned apple & orange juice % of a can 22c Brussels sprouts 7 small 24c Canned apple juice can 27c Canned orange juice ‘/j-Vz can 28c Cooked cabbage .. 3 cups 30c Tamarillos Three 33c Grapefruit One 34c Potatoes Six medium 40c Cauliflower 2 cups cooked . 40c Canned tomato juice One can 60c Broccoli Over 1 pup cooked 65c Tomatoes Five medium $1.08 Unsweetened canned