SYNTHETIC VITAMINS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 221, 16 August 1928, Page 9

SYNTHETIC VITAMINS

A DOCTOR’S WARNING

FRESH FOOD ALL-IMPORTANT,

LONDON, June 30

Dr. PI. C. Corry Mann, in a paper on “The Value of dairy, products in the diet during tire school age,” at the Dairy Congress, delivered a warning against the promiscuous use of pills containing synthetic vitamin D, or'n course of artificial sunshine. Dr Mann carried out the recent series of d/iet experiments inn school-boy/; 'in which New Zealand butter played an important part. “There is a tendency among the general public,” ho said, “to think that a course of treatment by artificial sunshine or a bottle of pills containing synthetic vitamin D in concentrated form will cover a multitude of sins in a child’s badly-chosen diet, or cure without delay an activo case of rickets. “To-day, we know northing of the stability of these bottled vitamin concentrates under varying conditions of temperature, weather, light, and time. Some of them, lam convinced, are easily decomposed, and one of the most extensively advertised vitamin preparations has, on occasions, been singularly futile in mv hands. I would most strongly advise you—when you require vitamin, calcium, and fat* for a growing child —to pin your faith to the uses of fresh food, preparing and distributed under modern conditions, of cleanliness and efficiency, whether it bo in 'the form of milk, cream, butter, or cod liver oil. “It has sometimes been supposed that if tlio boy in the elementary school of. a poor industrial district were provided with playing fields, organised games, and physical drill be would make a progress _in physique corresponding to that of his more fortunate contemporaries in the public schools. That is an impossibility under present conditions. The industrial diets do provide for basal metabolism, but growth and activity can only proceed under limited conditions, because the diets aro poor in quality and low in caloric value. If under such conditions muscular activities are increased, then growth must suffer, for tlio modern child is usually a live wire during adolescence. To organise strenuous games and physical training for a badlv-fed child is a certain way to obtain failure in nutrition, especially during the years of puberty, for the full development of all tho potential qualities present at birth can be obtained only if a really satisfactory diet is made an essential during the years of tlio school age.” 2 | RAY-TREATED MILK.

Ifc was interesting to hear from Dr. Wilhelm Hoffman, of Vienna, of the results of touts made with milk treated with ultra-violet rays. Dr. Hoffman said that in experiments at the University Children’s Clinic, Vienna, it was found that rats fed on ricketproducing food, with' an addition of eight cubic centimetres of ray-treated milk, showed, after three weeks, no signs of rickets as distinct from the control animals which received ricketproducing foods plus eight cubic centimetres of milk not rav-treated. Further experiments showed that animals suffering from rickets became quite healthy after being fed for four weeks with ray-treated milk (six cubic centimetres per day) while animals fed on milk non-ray treated either died or did not quite recover. “Milk is specially suitable for use as cure and preventive against rickets and as a carrier of vitamins, as it is a food which is belli cheap and easily digested, and can, therefore, bo taken in sufficient quantities by everyone,” said Dr. Hoffmann. “From a prophylactic point of view, the sale of a cheap activated milk to the masses is even more important than the direct treatment of the human body with artificial sunlight since this treatment cannot bo as universal as the consumption of an activated milk. It i,s a fact that in this age 60 per cent of the children in the large towns aro suffering from rickets.” At the present time tests were being made with children, and the latest information wag that there had been an increase in the phosphorus and calcium reflection in the blood of the patients and also considerable lime deposits in the X-ray photograph. To prove that vitamin A was not destroyed in the ray-treated milk a number of guinea pigs were fed on /TO cubio centimetres of ray-treated milk and flaked oats daily. Although the latter food did not contain vitamin A. tbo animals treated showed no sign of developing the deficiency disease which occurred if vitamin A were lacking.