VITAMINS ARE IMPORTANT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20868, 9 May 1931, Page 7 (Supplement)

VITAMINS ARE IMPORTANT.

BY TEOFESSOE PLIMMER. Vitamins are important for the simple reason that life cannot exist without them. Health is not possible if these mysterious chemical substances are absent from the diet, states Professor Plimmer, in a London daily.

Vitamins arc spoken of in the plural because there are five of them, found separately in different foods. Their diverseness makes it a complicated matter to include all five of them in the diet in the right quantities. For simplicity's sake wo divide the vitamins into two groups—those found in fats (vitamins A, 1), and E), and those found in the watery parts of food (vitamins B and C). A and I) arc usually found together in the faltv parts of food. Butter and the yolk of eggs contain both in equal quantities. Animal fat, such as suet, contains more A than' D; fish fat contains more D than A. The chief source of vitamin A is green vegetables, from which vitamin U is noticeably absent.

An ounce--of butter, an egg, and six ounces of green vegetables daily would give the right proportion of both vitamins.

The absence or deficiency of vitamin D produces rickets in children and soft bones in adults.

Evidence is accumlating to show that a deficiency of vitamin A leads to easy infection of Ibe body by bacteria, common colds, and influenza, even consumption and pneumonia. There is no doubt that the presence of vitamin A in the diet lessens susceptibility to disease. Vitamin 13 is scientifically rather complicated, as it seems to contain three or four separate sub-vitamins. As far as diet is concerned, however, we can treat it as one. This vitamin is found in whole seeds, such as wheat, barley and rye. It is essential to eat the wholo seed or a sufficient quantity of the vitamin is not consumed. In countries where wheat is the staple diet, wholemeal bread should be eaten, as there is no other whole-seed food .which wo eat in sufficient quantities for our needs.

In the East, (lie common diet of polished white rice is the cause of a widespread disease called beri-beri, and a deficiency of vitamin ft in European countries (through eating white bread) is responsible for much constipation and heart trouble, themselves the roots of many other evils. Although there is some vitamin B in green and root vegetables, they cannot supply it in sufficient quantities without wholemeal bread.

Vitamin G is found in fresh fruits and vegetables. The boiling of milk destroys the vitamin, but, even so, 1 would recommend boiling all unpasteurised milk in modern conditions of supply and delivery. The loss can he made up with a freshly-boiled potato or tin) juice of an orange. Tomatoes are also rich in vitamin C.

Half tho secret of a good vitamin C supply lies in the cooking. Tinned fruits need no longer be avoided, for, although they were valueless by the old method of preservation, modern processes of canning preserve tho vitamin in all its essential vigour.