FOODS THAT HELP DURING THE WAR
McCollum, Dr.E. V.
Foods That Help During the War Expert on the Nutritive Value of Foods Tells the American Public of New Factors of Profound Significance Bu DR. E. V. McCOLLUM Dr. E. V. McColIum, formerly of the...
...1. Seed alone—No g-rowth, short life...
...Therefore, every effort possible should be put forth to save green-leaved foods for winter use, and a word may be said as to the possibility of making use of many leaves for vegetables...
...They should, therefore, be used in moderation with focd rich in starch...
...The object was to get rid •f the germ and make it possible to keep the product without spoilage through the ravages of insects...
...The words represent the proteins and the type (the letters) the digestion products or "fragments...
...These vegetables give pa i in to the soup and add greatly to its palat-bOrty...
...la parts of India, China, the Philippines and other places in the Far East where the , poorer natives eat polished rice as the prin» .. cipal article of diet, the disease of berl-beri is prevalent...
...After five months the typical skin manifestations appeared in six of the eleven volunteers...
...There is not the slightest reason why one •ne should not eat white rice in libera...
...However, sufficient knowledge has been acquired to enable us to avoid the most probable errors into which the publi: is likely to fall, namely, use of foods poor in lime and phosphorus, poor in fats, and poor in perfect muscle-building elements...
...When we attempted to feed young animals on diets which conformed in every respect to the requirements set forth in the authoritative writings on nutrition, but which consisted of carefully purified proteins from various sources, with starch sugars, fats, and inorganic salt mixtures, steady loss of weight and early death followed...
...Goldberger has expressed the belief that the inclusion of the legume seeds in the diet will greatly contribute to the prevention of pellegra...
...The leaf portion supplies the fat-soluble essential in which the seed is deficient, and also makes good the particular mineral elements contained in insufficient amounts in the seed...
...Two facts should be emphasized here: First, the fallacy of the doctrine which has been many times preached that in eating whole wheat or other whole grain we could feel certain that all the elements necessary to the preservation of health are combined in just the right proportions by Nature to form an ideal food for man...
...Good digestion waits on appetite, but on appetite for good things, things which, when hungry, we like to contemplate and which, when eaten, contain all the necessary things for the nutrition of our bodies...
...The value of beans and peas has been somewhat misunderstood...
...When, however, the leaf is fed with seed, highly successful nutrition has been secured...
...The dietary properties of the tubers resemble the seeds except for their exceptionally high content of water...
...PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED shows clearly that the dietary deficiencies of the seeds of the most important eereals, —wheat, oats and corn—are three-fold, and that before growth and prolonged well-being are possible the protein mixture which builds tissue must be supplemented so as to enhance its food value...
...The only objection that can be made to their use is that the high percentage of fat, 20 per cent, in the roybean am' 40 in the peanut, makes their heat value extremely high...
...Like the fat-soluble substance, the chemical nature of a water-soluble one is unknown...
...Digestion when delayed or enfeebled for want of proper stimulus, leaves the foods exposed to the development of bacteria and through their agency to the formation of gases and unwholesome products which cause the sensations of ill-being attending.indigestion...
...The first experimental proof of the existence of the unknown dietary essential fat-soluble A came through studies conducted with butterfat and with egg fats...
...It is unfortunate that the name of the first man or woman to practice keeping dairy animals is not known in order that we might do him or her honor...
...Whole grain must be used to take the place of the byproducts lacking the gCrm (white flour...
...This we can readily do, without detriment, to an extent which will save about 25 to 30 per eent...
...We know where and how to contain each of these two substances, but nothing more...
...Cottage cheese should used fa> as many ways as possible is the dtot, in salad and sandwiches...
...This will relieve the demand for potatoes to a considerable extent and will discourage speculation and exorbitant prices...
...He has furthermore produced the disease experimentally jn human beings...
...Since we know only of the solubilities of these two dietary constituents and cannot further characterize them we have provisionally named the fat-soluble A and water-soluble B. Where to Find New Unknowns FORTUNATELY, the growth stimulant, fat-soluble A, is not limited to certain fats of animal origin, but is foun in fairly liheral amounts in the leaves of plants, as well as a few seeds...
...When but one of these classes of deficiency is made good the deficiency is not greatly improved...
...Of all the seeds we have examined, only flaxseed and millet seed compare favorably, in the fat-soluble growth stimulant, with alfalfa leaves...
...of the wheat which we shall consume in the next twelve months if we go on in an unthinking way...
...An adequate restricted diet, even though two or more articles fresh from the hand of Nature were regular constituents, did not suffice to prevent failure of health when persisted in for three or four months...
...The carbohydrates (the starches and sugars) and the fats are the sources of energy for work and for maintaining the body temperature above that of the atmosphere in which we live...
...The leaves of plants are sufficiently rich in the fat-solnble A to make it possible to arrange dietaries without either butter, eggs or milk, which could induce adequate nutrition...
...In 1917 he accepted a call to Johns Hopkins University and was also called into the national service by Food Administrator Hoover...
...THE HIGHEST EXECUTIVE OFFICERS of the nation are today doing all in their power to impress upon the people the seriousness of the food shortage and the necessity of making every effort of which we are capable to increase food production...
...On the other hand, the protein of the soybean and of the peanut have proved to he moat excellent for growth...
...It is the nearest approach to an ideal food which we know...
...They should be also combined with milks and fruits to balance the mineral matter and increase the growth stimulant...
...The unidentified fat-soluble A is not present In the common seeds in amount -equivalent to the needs of growing young...
...Both the fat-soluble A and water-soluble B are absent because they were removed with the germ...
...They have never learned to grind corn ot to prepare it in quick breads, and we have, so we should as a patriotic duty deprive ourselves so far as possible of wheat for the benefit of our armies and our allies...
...Numerous carefully controlled experiments with seeds fed singly and in combination have clearly demonstrated that Nature's unbroken packages are for man as deceptive as some other unbroken packages which have come into our hands...
...Milk alone is not so satisfactory as a single diet after the first year...
...In the above table it is shown that the three most important seeds employed as human foods are singly or collectively incomplete foods and the manner in which th .y ~re deficient in quality is clear...
...Without a suitable inorganic supply, an adequate amount of the unknown A and B, and abundant calories of energy and protein in the food, health will fail within a short time...
...You may liave all you can eat, but still lack certain foods necessary for growth and maintenance...
...Navy beans cannot replace milk, eggs, or vegetables in the diet...
...When we enter upon a campaign for the conservation of the four foods we must remember that, with the need for economy in reducing the cost of living—a need that faces 85 per cent, of American families whose food and rent must be paid for out of earnings of an unskilled laborer or even an artisan,—we are in grave danger that health may not be maintained...
...A spirit of patriotism should impel each and everyone of us to decrease the consumption of wheat bread so far as possible and extend the use of the products of the vegetable garden Just as far as possible during the summer and fall...
...A striking generalization can now be made which was forced upon us only after many experimental trials...
...So long "as milk and eggs are used as directed in a former paragraph, and liberal use is made of fresh vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower and various leaves used as greens, and with the substitution in as large a measure as possible of the whole gram of the wheat and com for the by-products lacking the germ, it Is perfectly safe for the adult to replace butter wholly by the less expensive batter substitutes...
...Use less meat, fe&t mors vegetables and dairy products and you will feel better in health Mfid poeketbook...
...6. Seed with protein and butter fat—No growth, life one-third usual span...
...The combination of grains with milk and fruit in which about 75 per cent, of the energy (calories) is furnished by the grains and 25 per cent, by the milk are highly satisfactory as human foods...
...This is soluble in water, and is fortunately never associated with fats, a matter of great importance in simplifying the experimental proof of its existence...
...Meat and egg proteins are likewise of excellent quality, ranking with milk proteins...
...quantities provided these are combined with such things as make good their deficiencies...
...This is really the reason why white rice (germ free) is marketed instead of brown rice...
...This consisted of patent wheat flour, corn meal, corn grits, corn starch, white polished rice, standard granulated sugar, cane syrup, sweet potatoes, pork fat (fried out of salt pork), cabbage, cowards, turnip-greens and coffee...
...Taken too liberally, beans, in particular, tend to undergo fermentation to a degree which may produce discomfort...
...7. Seed with salt mixture and protein—Good growth for a few weeks, then failure...
...Brown rice is sold now only in packages and is more expensive than white rice, so the latter should be continued in use, but with a full appreciation of the fact that it is a starchy food and contains but little protein or mineral salts...
...Eggs are not quite in the same class with meats, but their purchase should also be restricted...
...This growth stimulant is, in the body, very soluble in fats, and thereafter accompanies some of the fats in the animal body...
...We employed in most instances domestic rats as expe-imental animals, but the results have also been verified in many cases with pigs...
...Rice may be looked upon as an economical source of energy...
...Living on the edge of the wilderness, struggling with poverty, they often sold everything which was salable in order to buy needed live stock, farming implements, and other necessaries...
...8. Seed with salt mixture and protein—Normal growth and normal span of life...
...Nutrition Experiments Described * WE CAN BEST explain what constitutes an adequate "iet by describing briefly the type of feeding experiments by which we arrived at an understanding of this complex subject...
...We have for many years been instructed as to our requirements of energy and of protein (tissue builders), and when a question arises as to the minimum allowance of food which will preserve body weight and health, these matters are of the greatest importance...
...The wheat supply is very inadequate...
...A little observation will show that with Improved living conditions, the need of spring medicines has disappeared...
...Make food attractive if you would stimulate digestion and make the greatest use of the food you eat...
...the fat-soluble unknown must be increased in amount...
...The creamed vegetables such as ear-fets, eabbage, turnips, radishes, celery, aspar-KOS, beans, peas, cauliflower, onions and chard Krai a valuable source of mineral matter and ef ftte fat-soluble A. Less Heat, More Vegetables ARE YOU a meat eater...
...5. Seed with salt mixture and hotter fat—Slow griwth, life one-third usual span...
...A considerable laboratory was maintained for this purpose in the Chemistry Building with large numbers of rats, mice and guinea pigs used for experimental purposes...
...As food, potatoes are not worth $2 a bushel—they contain too much water...
...Proper amounts and proper proportions of the mineral salts in the food mixture constitute one of the most fundamental dietary requirements...
...Adequate diets cannot be made up entirely of seeds even though several kinds be taken together, but combinations of leaf with seed prove much more satisfactory...
...We no loager feel worse in spring than at other seasons...
...Exceptions ar« polished rice, and the refined starches, sugars and fats...
...The proteins of white Dour are distinctly poorer in quality than those of the whole wheat, imperfect as these are, and the mineral salts are largely removed with the portion sold for stock food...
...1. Their proteins are of poor muscle-build-i: £ quality and the values of their p-oteins are not much improved by feeding *-hem in mixtures of two or three...
...3. The mineral salts of the seeds generally are present In too small amounts, especially with respect to the salts of lime and common table salt, to make it possible for a young animal to grow without further additions of these inorganic elements...
...It will cost less than half as much as white flour and much more approximates a complete food...
...In some places the drinking water will supply the lacking salts, but in many other localities it will not...
...When we have a certain amount of the one set we can transform it into another, but we must inevitably end with an excess of certain ones before the stanza is completed...
...Incidentally, however, the public has become educated to the use of a white flour and a white rice...
...They are meat Blenders...
...No fact in physiology is better established than that of the importance of pleasurable anticipations, agreeable flavors, attractive appearance and proper texture of foods on the efficiency of digestion...
...The most important seeds used as human foods, wheat, oats, corn, bean.;, peas, contain much too small an amount of it to support growth or prolonged well-being...
...Leaves Supplement Seeds IN MARKED CONTRAST to our experience with seeds stand the results of feeding combination of the seed with an abundance of the leaf of the plant...
...Protein and the fat-soluble A were deficient...
...Where skim milk can be obtained it will afford one of the foods that is most important in the family diet The creamed gravies such as sreamed codfish, dried beef, creamed chicken, are valuable because of their high protein value...
...The removal of the outer coat and consequent whitening was only Incidental in the beginning of the rice polishing industry...
...They are very rich in protein and fats and one hears frequently today the statements that these are the poor man's beef...
...While at Wisconsin, Dr...
...Such a course is fraught with danger and will lead to faulty nutrition unless wise selection of foods !s made...
...Adequate nutrition on a strictly vegetarian diet involves combining seed, leaf, tuber and fruit...
...of pure butterfat, and a small amount of a natural food or a water or alcohol extract of some natural food, such us a seed, leaf, tuber, fruit, or milk, the resulting mixture will promote growth in a perfectly normal way...
...Cream sauce using different proportions of thickening agents can also be used creamed toast, scalloped dishes, cheese (puces, pudding sauces, salad dressings, BOqoettes and souffles...
...Gastro-intestinal synriptoms were slight...
...Meats have a value in another way, however, as contributors to the palatability of the diet...
...It will be remembered that the leaves are very rich in the dietary essential, fat-soluble A, the growth promoting substance in butterfat...
...There is the least possible waste in Sbsh.es prepared in this way...
...Fortunately we art in no danger of obtaining toe little ef this subsistence, as all native foods contain it The nature of the dietary errors which are likely to prove serious both fax animal prods tion and evea more w fn human nutrition en best be Illustrated by the following tat which shows the character of the growth of animals fed either wheat, oats or corn, with the addition of specific purified supplements...
...These experiments show that the fats from certain sources contain an, unknown something which is itself not a fat, but which is indispensable for the maintenance of life in an animal...
...Our experience with leaves has been limited to alfalfa, cabbage and clover, all of which are distinctly richer in the fat-soluble A than are the seeds of grains...
...If the same mixture is made up with lard or with any plant oil in place of butterfat, uo growth takes place...
...Economize on wheat" should be on every lip until this war is over...
...The English and French do not want corn, they want wheat...
...Any of these may be preserved by canning or drying, as heat does toot seem to destroy the value of the growth stimulants...
...Causes of Pellagra GOLDBERGER of the Public Health Service in Washington has emphasized his belief that pellagra, a disease which is at present incapaci fating thousands in the South, is the result of inadequacy of the diet of the people during tthe winter months...
...We may now consider in detail the dietary relationships between seeds and some of our other more important foodstuffs...
...As far as possible, meat should be employed in giving flavor to gravies, and for cooking with vegetables in such combinations as chowders and stews...
...Under these circumstances they get an inorganic supply which is not of suitable character, and run short of the unidentified growth stimulant factor, fat-soluble A. In many cases they receive proteins of relatively poor quality...
...They are not what they are purported to be...
...This, coarsely cracked in a coffee mill, may be used as a breakfast food...
...Health waits on both, but neither good digestion nor health wait on merely a craving for food...
...Variety, calories of energy ar\d protein are not the only things to be conside^d in the planning of the diet, and with the advent of war it behooves those upon whom r^sts the responsibility for planning the dietaries of themselves and others, to take cognizance of what specific knowledge is now available in order to safeguard against the dangers of malnutrition...
...Dried peas and navy beans are, when properly cooked, perfectly wholesome foods, but only when used in moderation...
...During the war, when prices of food are high, it should be especially urged that tho purchase of milk be continued, even though the price may be as high as 15 cents a quart...
...9. The three seeds in equal proportion—No growth, short life...
...Skim milk can be used to pod advantage in this sauce...
...Their food was much more simple even in summer than -that of the farmer of today and in winter they regularly limited themselves to a very simple diet, the staple ingredients of which were corn-meal and meat...
...The warring nations have used the results of the studies of Voit, Atwater, Benedict, Ruebner, Chittenden, Lusk and their associates in determining the amount of food required by an individual of a given body weigh', in the various occupations, and these efforts t making the limited supplies go as far as possible have been of great service...
...A diet principally derived from these seeds needs the right kind of protein supplement from other sources...
...Leaves are usually found on the table in form of greens or salads...
...Have a supply of cabbage, cauliflower, rutabagas, turnips, carrots, beets and onions for preservation in the autumn as long as possible...
...All proteins possess the common property that they can be taken apart into fragments by the digestive ferments...
...E. V. McColIum, formerly of the faculty of the University of Wisconsin, is now professor of chemistry in the School of Hygiene aft Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore...
...In most tubers there is too much starch...
...McColIum conducted extensive experiments in the comparative nutritive values of different kinds of foods which attracted wide attention...
...We have sometimes been asked whether there is-not an unnecessary note of alarm in such a discussion as is here given regarding the necessity of giving thought to what to eat, rather than how much food we need when food is scarce...
...vis^ salts of lime and common salt We know from common experience that those animals which thrive upon a strictly vegetarian diet eat the entire plant Pigs have fn farm practice frequently been rtonted and reprodue-floa has been interfered with as the result oi being fed too largely on seeds and by-producta of seeds when confined in pens nearly free from vegetation...
...Many experiments have proven that the leaf of the plant is, in general, much richer than the seed in this unknown dietary factor...
...In localities where wheat is grown the thoughtful housewife is to stop buying white flour and use Instead oatmeal, barley and rye, which improve the quality of the diet...
...After many systematic trials the explanation was found for these results...
...First, entire wheat flour containing the germ will always become invested with maggots when warm weather comes, while white flour, which contains neither germ, bran, nor aluerone layer of the wheat kernel keeps well...
...When all three of the dietary factors in which these seeds are deficient, protein, fit-soluble A and inorganic salts, are properly supplemented, each of the seeds—wheat, oat, or com, or mixtures of these—become highly efficient for the promotion of health...
...Butter substitutes require the addition of the diet of milk and eggs —besides the liberal use of fresh vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, and greens...
...Food which is unattractive for any reason will not cause proper response of the digestive glands with secretion...
...Swry housewife knows of the very palatable Bshes which can be made by using the whits Rice as a basis...
...If now we feed the same mixture with the butterfat in it but with the natural food or the extract of the natural food omitted, the animals are no better off than when fed purified proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and salts only...
...But do not forget that energy and protein are not the only things of importance in nutrition...
...Egg-yolk fats and the fats from such organs as the liver and kidney, extracted by means of fat solvents, may take the place of butterfat, but the body fats of animals, such as lard and suet, in the amounts in which they are generally included in a human diet, cannot...
...Care is especially necessary during the winter season, when but a limited number of the best keeping green-leaved foods are available...
...If to such a diet of purified food substances there be added a small amount (3 to 6 per cent...
...In reply to this we vould call attention to the experiences of the pioneers in certain sections of the United States...
...The most characteristic manifestation of this disease is paralysis, especially of the legs...
...The letters in the rhyme about Jack Sprat would not go very far in an attempt to make the jingle of Peter Piper and the peck of pickled peppers...
...The surest of all places to Ktadc the high cost of living is the meat bill...
...Their use in the family diet should be discontinued when the supply becomes so short as to inflate the price...
...Numerous carefully cob- ; ducted experiments have indicated that this disease is the result of specifle starratiom ' 'for the water-soluble unidentified dietary essential for growth...
...A few words should be devoted to the planning of diets at the present time, the primary object being to relieve the wheat shortage...
...So far as such assurance can be given it is our purpose to describe the general principles which should help guide the public in selecting food while the war lasts...
...It is pointed out to us that food is going to play as important a part, if not a more important part, in the war than guns and ammunition, and that the greatest moral obligation rests upon every man and woman of the nation to use other foods of equal value in place of part of our normal use of the four foods—wheat, meat, fat, sugar...
...He is a native of Kansas where he received his undergraduate training...
...Fruits furnish some energy, but are important because they furnish mineral salts and roughage...
...Of first importance as a supplement to grains is milk...
...Those which are most commonly used for greens are spinach, eabbage, beet and turnip tops, dandelion, Swiss chard, and in many localities water cress and lettuce...
...Different sets of words make up the stantas, to which we may liken the muscle tissues of the different species of animals...
...Their use when prices are high should be limited to food for children and to improving the quality of certain other dishes such as those made with mixed flours...
...There is nothing relating to nutrition which rests upon a more firm experimental basis than the inferiority of white flour as a food...
...Substitute Whole Wheat The first place for the housewife in the average American home to practice economy is in cntting boldly on the meat bilL The second point at which to economize is on wheat flour...
...She may purchase from the feed-store man a supply of wheat of good quality...
...Are we mt over-anxious about such matters because we have been accustomed to observe experiraenta animals, the deficiencies of whose diets were intensified in greater degree than would ever be likely to arise in the experience of a humtn being even in war-time...
...2. They all fail to supply enough of the unidentified fat-soluble A found in butterfat...
...The analogy is a good one and shows clearly how we may have excellent, good and poor proteins, and also how two proteins of the poor clasf may make good each other's deficiencies by each supplying the letters missing in the other...
...A group of convicts fr-0m the state penitentiary of Mississippi volunteered, on promise of pardon, to eat the diet ^hich Dr...
...The purchase of meats by anyone who needs to practice economy is indefensible except within the limits precribed above...
...This is not an easy task with foods which are acceptable to the human palate, for we do not eat leaves in the dry state...
...Almost infinite small amounts of each is required, but without both of them nutrition promptly fails...
...There is, therefore, a second substance which is indispensable to the life^-tff an animal...
...The rations of purified food-stuffs all supplied an abundance of energy, protein and inorganic elements, and they were easily digestible, yet nutrition was a complete failure...
...Make use of the other root crops to an extent never before reached...
...His graduate work was done at Yale University where he received his doctorate degree...
...Creamed soups Mfli thin white sauce as a basis can be made bom left-over peas, corn, potatoes, celery, aa-tragus, and tomatoes...
...Simple mixtures such as 60 per cent, of rolled oats with 40 per cent, of alfalfa flour, prepared by grinding and sifting the dried leaves, were capable of promoting normal growth and well-being when fed throughout life...
...One of the most remarkable observations concerning this substance is that ' appears to be in chemical union in tho plant h» a form in which it has not been removed except when the union is broken in the course of digestion or elsewhere in the body...
...The natural tendency under these circumstances is to restrict the food purchases to 'ewer articles and to depend upon a diet restricted to a short list of foods which appear to be cheapest...
...There is, however, no doubt in the mind of anyone who is acquainted with the progress of experimental dietary studies of the past four years that there are still other factors which must be taken into account in deciding when a food supply will suffice to maintain health...
...But in a time like the present, when we must save wheat and when the desire for the most and best food for the smallest expenditure of money leads us to simplify our diets by omitting the purchase of a larger variety and often of the more expensive articles, there is an increased risk that the deficiencies of white flour and white rice, which are among the cheapest sources of heat energy, will not be made good by the remaining articles of the diet...
...Seeds are perfectly good foods for the plant, but for animals they are good only when combined with such other foods as make good the deficiencies...
...This work is still being carried on at the University of Wisconsin.—Editor's Note...
...Meats, In general, are not very rich in this substanceDiseases From Diet Deficiencies The second unidentified dietary essential, water-soluble B, is present in great abundance in practically all natural occurring foods...
...This growth and repair deficiency can be made good cither by taking with the grains, milk, eggs or ths leaves of plants...
...Those which form the basis for poany kinds of salads are lettuce, water cress, endive, and cabbage...
...The leaf possesses peculiar properties which meet these requirements...
...Similar mixtures o* wheat or corn with alfalfa-leaf flour, promote the well-being of animals in a manner which we have never been able to successfully imitate with mixtures of seeds...
...We have as yet extensive experience only with the alfalfa leaf, but enough study has been made of cabbage and clover leaves to make it apparent, when our knowledge of the chemieal composition of other leaves is considered: 1. That the leaves of plants are essentially similar in their organie content, & Thai all are high in just those mineral elements in which the seeds are deficient...
...Animals can within fairly wide limits employ fats and carbohydrates interchangeably, but experimental trials have shown that, without proteins, no amount of the remaining groups of food-stuffs can suffice to keep an animal alive, and no one has been able to long maintain an animal on foods entirely free from the fats...
...It is for this reason that especial care is necessary today in choosing the daily food...
...One might well ask why the dealer persists in handling white flour instead of entire wheat flour, if it is not best for the public to eat...
...and certain salt mixtures must be added...
...That meat is an excellent fouree of protein (tissue builders) cannot be enied, hot it is so easily possible to obtain a ftrotein mixture of high quality by the proper iombination of vegetable foods, together with a tmall amount of milk and eggs, that extensive expenditure of money for meat is unwarranted...
...The inorganic content of the tubers is closely similar in all but is by no means so good for supplementing the deficiencies of the grains as are the ash constituents of the leaves of plants...
...Being very soluble in fats, the larger part of it is in the milk fat...
...A few words of explanation of these terms will indicate their special functions as foods: Proteins are nitrogen-containing compounds and represent the materials of which muscle tissue is formed...
...The greatest factor in safeguarding the health and nutrition of the most progressive nations of the world may fairly be said to be the prevalence of the consumption of dairy products...
...Extensive, and heroic efforts of Dr...
...4. Seed with salt mixture added—Little growth, longer life...
...On this diet there was loss of weight and strength, and mild nervous symptoms...
...Wr were unable to find the peculiar growth-pron10ting properties in any of the plant oils and ol>served that the content of the unknown A in the body fats of animals and in the wheat, <)at and corn kernels, was very small as comp,ared with the content in butterfat and egg-fats...
...These dietary faults are sufficient to undermine the health of the animal...
...When two of these factors are improved the well-being of the animals is greatly benefited, provided one line of improvement includes adding the necessary salt mixtures, but not otherwise...
...If in certain Bpocies of animals, and especially man, the diet should consist largely of seeds or their by-products, the food would in all prabability be too low in this dietary essential...
...2. Seed with pure protein addition—No growth, short life...
...Die Consumption of meat is grossly overdone in fills country and was in many parts of Europe Before tbe war...
...The text-books on nutrition until very recen':'y enumerated as the essential constituents of an adequate diet, proteins, carbohydrates and fats, inorganic or mineral elements, and water...
...This led in the spring to the routine practice of using tonics and blood purifiers to relieve that tired feeling...
...The salt mixtures were so made up as to closely imitate the mineral content of certain rations of natural foodstuffs with which we had been highly successful i.i nourishing young animals during growth...
...A good illustration of what takes place in protein nutrition is seen in words set up from printer's type...
...Fortunately, our diet generally contains some of the foods which contain this fat-soluble growth stimulant fa abundance...
...Their protein content is low but of good quality...
...Experimental data of the kind necessary to enable us to interpret the value of a ration has been accumulating only during the last five years and is by no means complete...
...The factor of palatability of foods is so important that a small additional expenditure is advisable in order to attain it...
...The higher animals can take the words (proteins) and separate them into letters (digestion products) and can again reset the matter into new words (muscle proteins), but they cannot create the letters from the matter of which they are formed...
...There are several reasons for this...
...When there is a shortage of potatoes do not use them...
...Navy beans do not contain the fat-soluble A in amount greater than do th^ cereal grains...
...The explanation is simple and evident...
...Cow's milk is not, as is so frequently asserted, an ideal food for the human animal...
...The various mineral salts which are left when the tissues of an animal are burned are just as essential to the maintenance of life and health as arc the other food substances...
...The great majority of all cases of the disease develop in the spring., or rather at the end of a winter during whieln the diets of many are pr*i"tir»Wy limi*/w1 corn bread, molasses and salt pork...
...Typical proteins are the white of egg, the curd of milk, meat, gluten of wheat...
...Such statements have been frequent in the utterances of "authorities" who condemned the milled products as prejudicial to health, and extolled the dietary value of Nature's unbroken package, the entire seed...
...There are many proteins of animal and plant origin, all differing from each other in some degree...
...Yet we must be prepared to sacrifice in order to send wheat to Europe...
...Milk, eggs, the leaves of plants, and meats serve this purpose...
...Provided salt-free or nearly salt-free water such as rain water, distilled water and some of the purer natural waters are used for drinking it is not possible to make up a diet, derived solely from the seeds of plants, which will support normal growth and health...
...With this comparison we can easily understand how the words of a single stanza might transform very efficiently into another composition...
...3. Seed with butter fat—No growth, short life...
...This can be accomplished by the plant only...
...Grind it in the same mill for any other purpose for which flour is used...
...Goldberger and his associates to infect themselves with the disease have proven futile, and in orphanages and asylums where pellagra was formery a scourge, it has all but disappeared with an improvement of the diets of the inmates...
...We have studied the navy bean very extensively and have found that it possesses no peculiar dietary properties which make it superior to other seeds, and most beans cannot replace entirely milk, eggs or plant leaves in the diet...
...He was connected with the University of Wisconsin nearly ten years and later was professor of agricultural chemistry there...
...The proteins of the wheat, oat and corn kernels can be converted into muscle proteins by the growing pig only to the extent of 20 to 25 per cent., but certain combinations of other proteins are twice this value, while the proteins o' milk are of exceptional value in that they are utilized for growth to the extent of 63 per cent...
...Food prices have already reached a level where the monthly earnings no longer permit the ms-jority of men employed in the industries to maintain the usual standards in providing for the family table...
...Although the proteins of the navy bean when taken as a sole source of protein are of surprisingly poor quality, their deficiencies are made good by the protein of the cereals and probably most of the other common food-stuffffs., Properly combined therefore, it may be conceded that beans may in a measure replace meat as a source of protein, but they compare very unfavorably with meats as a means of conferring palatability upon other foods...
...The reason for this is clear...
...These are milk, eggs, certain animal organs and the leaves of plant...
...Goldberger prescribed...
...Animals whi:h eat the green foods rich in leaves and grwss, contain in their fats this dietary essential, fat-soluble A. It is found concentrated in the milk...
...Fortunately, it is now possible to give fairly definite advice as to just what combinations of natural food-stuffs will induce physiological well-being...
...Proteins From Grain and Seed THE PROTEINS derived from plant products are in general deficient in some way and are of poor quality and need to be combined with other proteins which make good their deficiencies in nutrition...
...Milk supplements well the mineral deficiencies of the grains and furnishes a liberal supply of the fat^solublo unknown...
Vol. 10 • March 1918 • No. 3
