FOOD VALUES

Grey River Argus, 19 June 1925, Page 7

FOOD VALUES

WHAT ARE VITAMINS? BRISBANE, June -I. For nearly two hours last night, Mr. •I- B. Henderson, Government Analyst, discussed the question, “What Are Vitamins'?” lie was speaking to members of the Australian Chemical institute, and the Health .Association. ll'* admitted that whilst 1500 books had been published on the subject since 190 G, most of them flatly contradicted each other. The constitution of vitamins, he said, was not loaown. but it hud definitely been established that there existed in many foods, principally bul not solely, in green fruits and X'egctnbles, many minute proportions or sonic substances which are essentia! to life. Thre ( > x’itamins had been indent i tied bul they were so difficult of explanation that scientists could not yet give them •names. Consequently they had been designated by the letters A, B, ami (-, while two other biological properties had been given letter titles, but so far had not been accepted as xitamins. “MILK MOST COMPLETE FOOD.” While the vitamins had been located in certain substances, the jirepara-ti<-M "1 those foods for cimsuniption might result in the loss of the mysterious atoms. For instance, yeast contained one of the vitamins, but beer was deficient, in all. Milk was the mest complete food, and contained degrees of all three x’itamins, but boiling milk loxveri'd the degrees of ccntent. To retain x’itamins mothers should never boil milk, but milk was such a filthy food that it was better to boil it and make up the xitamins from some other source, more particularly by givin-' orange juice or tomato juice. The cheapest and most available article was the tomato, and it was singularlx- rich in vitamins. While certain vegetables xvere rich i«a one or other or all vitamins, the problem was to secure a well balanced ration.