VITAMINS : : :

...A deficiency results in impaired appetite and digestion...

...Cooked and even canned to-, matoes are nearly as good a source of vitamin C as raw tomatoes...

...For this reason it is sometimes called the fat-soluble vitamin...

...There are few meat soups or stews or gravies that are not improved by a little tomato juice...

...Vitamin C, besides being less widely distributed than the vitamin A and B, is in most cases far more easily affected by heat...

...Orange juice can be served also as an ingredient of pudding sauces and cake fillings and icings...

...The finished product then contains all the minerals of the vegetables and also of the milk and is more valuable for vitamins than if the cooking had been lorger continued...

...They are introduced into the human body either directly through the agency of vegetable foods, or indirectly through the agency of foods furnished by animals that have been fed on vita-inin-rich substances...

...The green leaves of this vegetable have a greater value than the white leaves...

...Tomatoes are eaten raw, stewed, baked, fried, broiled, or scalloped, and are made into sauces for use on meat, fish, boiled rice, and other dishes...

...Recent investigations show that the complete absence of vitamin A leads to the disease of the eyes called ophthalmia...

...In the absence of exact information on this point it has been recommended by the Bureau of Home Economics that a certain percentage of the total fuel of the diet be regularly supplied from those foods that are known to be particularly useful in supplying vitamins...

...Since the value of vitamins is more or less reduced by cooking processes, it follows that care should be exercised in preparing as well as in selecting foods...

...In general, however, it is safer to select food materials in correct proportions and to let these detf a mine the richness of meals, than to follow the opposite practice of deciding on the character of the meals to be served and letting these determine the food materials to be chosen...

...If these proportions are followed it is almost necessary to adopt simple methods of preparing and serving fruits and vegetables...

...The potency of vitamin A is gradually reduced by ordinary cooking processes...

...It is often called the antiscorbutic or antiscurvy vitamin because when it is wholly absent from the diet scurvy is almost sure to result...

...Fat, sugar, and white flour are not in themselves harmful," but they have very high fuel values and if eaten too freely may crowd out other foods needed for vitamin B. No particular dish or class of rich dishes or desserts is to be excluded or unreservedly condemned...

...Since vitamin B is very widely distributed, and not much affected by heat, it is not so likely to be absent from the diet as either A or C. A good way to insure this vitamin is to keep the fats, the sugars, and other sweets and refined cereals within limits of approximately 40 per cent of tho total calories...

...These include turnip tops, a staple green in the South, and also beet tops and radish tops...

...Lemon Juice With Fish LEMON JUICE, like pickles and catsup, may be used as a condiment and seems to go especially well with fish...

...Having been taken into the body it tends to associate itself chiefly with the fat of the body and particularly with the fat of actively functioning organs, such as the liver and the kidneys...

...Oranges are eaten as such or made into orange ice or jelly...

...When so cooked there is a tendency for the water to evaporate and it is often unnecessary to pour any of it off...

...These are not to be taken as fixed rules but rather as guides...

...Every housekeeper knows ways of serving oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and tomatoes in comparatively large quantities...

...Varieties differ with the region...

...Mixed Green's Palatable FEW PEOPLE realize that mixed greens make a palatable dish...

...In the Bureau of Home Economics the method known as "panning" has been devised...

...Milk and eggs are among the most important sources of vitamin A. When milk is separated, vitamin A tends to follow the fat...

...It consists in cutting vegetables into small pieces and cooking them in a flat pan on top of the istove with a minimum of water to which a little fat has been added to prevent the vegetables from sticking to the pan...

...This dread disease like ophthalmia and beriberi is practically unknown in this country and in fact is not prevalent at present in any part of the world...

...The total absence of this vitamin causes a disease called beriberi, not known in this country...

...For this reason those who are able to do so use not only milk and its products and eggs, but also green-leaf vege-tables abundantly...

...The effect of elaborate methods of cooking on proportions of food material is indicated by the fact that a 100-calorie portion of a creamed vegetable or of fruit shortcake or pie seldom supplies more than 20 calories of fruit or vegetable, the remaining 80 calories being in the form of butter, sugar, or flour...

...To get the benefit of the juice the lemons should be used in such a way that they can be conveniently handled at the table...

...Its tragic history is associated with the lives of sailors who in the past were obliged to pass long periods without fruits and vegetables...

...Since few diets, particularly in this country, are wholly lacking on the foods that supply this vitamin, interest centers more on the results of its deficiency than on those of total absence...

...Without ritamins, development is sure to be impaired and in later life the body is likely to fall prey co certain specific ailments...

...These foods, because of their succulence and low fuel value, can be used in either large or small quantities...

...There is a conspicuous exception to this rule in the case of tomatoes...

...One of the easiest greens to raise is cabbage...

...If carefully carried out, this process often makes it possible to add milk without making the cooked vegetables too moist...

...An undue proportion of rich dishes makes it impossible to introduce the required quantity of fruits, vegetables, and other foods necessary to supply the necessary amount of vitamin B. Vitamin C In Fruits VITAMIN C is of special interest in connection with the subject of this article...

...It is now believed, however, as a result of animal experimentation, that bodily afflictions resembling scurvy, but not nearly so serious, can result from deficiency of vitamin C. Such afflictions in childhood may lead to imperfect development...

...For this reason, methods of cooking greens and other foods containing this vitamin have been revolutionized of late...

...THIS IS not the place to discuss the nature of vitamins nor the ques-tion as to how many vitamins there are...

...If they are used as an ornament or garnish they are likely to become greasy and therefore it is better to serve them on a separate dish and in such form that all their juice can be extracted and'used...

...Vitamin B is the most widely distributed of all the vitamins...

...Saving Minerals and Vitamins WHEN vegetables are cut into small pieces they cook quickly and require comparatively little water to cover them...

...Caroline Hunt is Associate Specialist in Foods and Nutrition, Bureau of Home Economics, U. S. Department of Agriculture...

...Considering the suffering, retarded development, and loss of time from work caused by such diseases, even in their less serious forms, it seems wise to keep on the safe side in the matter of introducing vitamin A into the diet...

...It is more abundant in whole grain than in refined cereal products...

...For example, spinach, celery leaves, and onion tops go well together...

...Such greens as radish and celery tops, and the outer leaves of lettuce are eldom available in large enough quantities to make a dish by themselves, but they can be satisfactorily combined with the more usual greens like spinach and kale, thus making the total amount of the dish much larger...

...Fortunately, this vitamin is found chiefly in foods of attractive texture such as lettuce and cress or those of very pronounced and pleasing flavors such as oranges, lemons, and tomatoes...

...They should not be cooked with meat, for the time of cooking should be determined by the vegetable itself and not by any added material...

...IT IS WELL in the case of adults to see that at least one-sixth, or 16 per cent, of the total calories be selected from the foods that are rich in vitamin A—that is, milk, cream, butter, eggs, and green-leaf vegetables...

...It is recommended in the Bureu of Home Economics that from 1 to 2 per cent of the total calories of the diet be selected from foods especially rich in vitamin C. It is true that potatoes, if used in abundance, supply enough of this vitamin...

...The fact that vitamin B is not found in most sweets and fats, and is less abundant in the refined flours usually used in preparing desserts than in the whole-grain cereals may constitute one of the chief objections to over-rich diets...

...Deficiency is now believed to result in lowered resistance to infectious diseases...

...A little orange can be introduced by folding a sliced orange into an omelet or by means of an orange "trifle," a dish consisting of custard and sliced orange in varying proportions...

...As yet no chemically quantitative method has been devised for measuring the vitamin content of foods, though progress is being made in this direction...

...Editor's Note...

...In most cases it is necessary, however, to raise vegetables for the purpose of supplying greens for the table...

...In almost every part of the country the green tops of vegetables known as "fleshy" roots may be obtained...

...Vitamin A, which is often called the growth-promoting vitamin, is found in all green leaves, including grass and other green feeds as well as lettuce, spinach, and other leafy plants used for human food...

...It is found in almost all foods with the exception of refined sugars and fats...

...At certain times of the year edible green leaves may be found growing wild...

...Cabbage, spinach, and similar foods should be cooked only long enough to make them tender and not enough to shrivel them...

...It is found, therefore, more abundantly in whole milk, cream, butter, and whole-milk cheese than in buttermilk and skim-milk products...

...The yolk of the egg which contains 95 per cent of all the fat of the egg, also contains practically all of the vitamin A. Need of Greens THE FACT that people have always taken considerable trouble to get greens seems to indicate that these foods filled a need that Was felt long before it was understood...

...Suffice it to say that the diet must regularly supply certain substances to which the name vitamins has been given...

...It is far less widely distributed than are vitamins A and B and is found chiefly in fruits and vegetables...

...The regular use, however, of such foods as tomato, lemon, and orange juices, and raw green-leaf vegetables may be considered a precautionary measure in view of the fact that the other articles of diet vary, cereals being sometimes used in place of potatoes...

...VITAMINS • • • • • • By Caroline L. Hunt This discussion of the important sub-ject of vitamins is the third installment of a valuable treatise in the last year's Agricultural Year Book, entitled Nutritive Value of Fruits, Vegetables and Nuts...

...It is suggested in the publication referred to that fruits and vegetables used in such quantities as to supply at least 20 per cent of the total calories and that fat and sugar not be allowed to supply over 30 per cent...

...Good proportions among the various kinds of food materials—efficient protein foods, cereal foods, sweets, vegetables, and fruits—are given in another publication of the department...

...Vitamins do not apparently originate to any extent in the animal body but must be obtained from plants...

...It is well to keep in mind, also, the ways in which these foods can be introduced into meals in small quantities so that the supply will be regular even if it is not large...