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The Christmas Spirit
Published in Vitamin News, Vol. 2, No. 11, December 15, 1934.
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Christmas is the time we think of others–the children in particular. As our contribution, we shall here offer what advice we are able, to those who are in a position to make use of it, regarding the dietary precautions to insure the best gift of all, good health and a sound physique.
The writer in 1923 had occasion to investigate the causes of rickets, now known to be due to Vitamin D and C deficiency. The disease was known to appear chiefly in very poor or quite well-to-do families. The explanation became apparent that the very poor child failed to get enough food to receive the necessary vitamins for development, while the child in the wealthy family received only highly refined and sterilized foods, whereas in the middle class family the children had an opportunity to supplement their diet with raw foods, vegetables, etc. obtained during the preparation of the meals, to which the child in the wealthy family failed to have access.
The wider use of fresh vegetable salads, etc. has altered the picture today over what it was a number of years ago.
Probably the greatest offender in causing vitamin deficiency in children is the use of candy and sugar products. All candy and sugar products are devitalized and supply fuel only, to produce energy, and have no other food constituents. The child needs materials for construction–minerals, proteins, and vitamins–and if they are supplied candy and sweets, their appetites are satiated without supplying the necessary building materials. To make a crude simile, it would be just as foolish to try to build an automobile with gasoline as structural material.
White flour products are just as damnable, as child food. Test animals die from mineral and vitamin deficiency in three or four weeks if fed on white flour alone, while maintaining health indefinitely on whole wheat.
Fresh whole wheat flour (obtainable in health food stores in all large cities) for making muffins, pancakes, etc. supplies this cereal in its most palatable form. The bread supply should be only whole wheat or rye.
The white flour milling companies have made frantic efforts to side-track the growing consciousness on the part of the public that white flour is bad. (The bleaching processes that are necessary to insure keeping qualities have been proved to leave certain nitrites in the flour the cumulative effect of which may make the flour actually poisonous. The makers of devitalized foods (sugar, corn syrup, white flour, etc.) attempt to ingratiate themselves with the medical and dental organizations by spending large sums in advertising in the journals. “Corn Syrup for Infant Feeding–it is so well tolerated” is a favorite advertising slogan in such propaganda. A solution of agar or gelatine would be well tolerated too–if food values were of no moment.
As a matter of fact, it is an unwise thing to select any items of diet for a child on the principle that it contains carbohydrates. The list of foods necessary to supply minerals and vitamins will inevitably supply a sufficiency of the energy source as an included and unavoidable component. The difficulty, it is clear, is not to get carbohydrates but to avoid its excess in forms that do not contain the other essentials.
Honey, and raw unrefined sugar. (obtainable at health food stores) in limited amounts, can be used to satisfy the craving for sweets, if it is present. It usually is not in the child properly supplied with natural foods. It is of interest in this connection that the negro child of the south, obtaining its sweets from the chewing of sugar cane, always has perfect teeth–the cane sap contains its quota of minerals and vitamins.
Milk, being a food complete in itself, is to be highly recommended, but not irradiated milk, as the irradiation process kills the Vitamin A. Pasteurization destroys the Vitamin C, and the difficulty of obtaining unpasteurized milk with a reasonably low bacteria count greatly reduces its usefulness in the diet.
Milk contains no excess of vitamins or minerals that will compensate for the use of other devitalized foods, as is often claimed.
Plant leaves are the only foods that contain an excess of mineral salts and Vitamins A and C that can be so used. But their incidence in the usual diet is so low that this effect never or seldom occurs. The green leaves–turnip greens, lettuce, spinach–are best in vitamin content. The calcium and mineral content depends largely on the degree of deficiency existing in the soil on which they were grown.
Meats, of cold-storage origin, are worthless sources of vitamins, and are not fit for the child’s diet. Fresh meats, fish and fowl, are in another class, and are valuable sources of growth-promoting vitamins. (A and G).
The use of fresh vegetable juices (carrot; celery, cabbage, etc.) are a wonderful aid in supplying increased vitamins and minerals. The juice from a pound of carrots, for example, contains most of the food values of the carrot–but is far more palatable and more easily imbibed than an equal quantity of the raw vegetable. (Juice extractors for the vegetables are now available, We refer you again to the health food store). Fruit juices are in the same class, but are not as valuable as sources of minerals as the vegetables. Carrot juice is high in Vitamins A and B whereas orange juice is looked upon as a good source of “C.”
The first reaction observed from a diet high in candy and white flour is the typical lack of appetite due to A, B and C deficiency. The child so afflicted is difficult to handle for that reason–they refuse the foods they should have. That is where our vitamin concentrates are particularly useful. The use of two “Catalyn” tablets with one Vitamin A tablet a day brings back that lost appetite in a very short time.
And please do not forget–that in children’s febrile diseases, the temperature can be quickly controlled with “Catalyn.”
Editor’s note: Since the era in which this article was written, society’s understanding of respectful terminology when referring to ethnic and cultural groups has evolved, and some readers may be offended by references to “Negro” people and other out-of-date terminology. However, this article has been archived as a historical document, and so we have chosen to use Lee’s exact words in the interest of authenticity. No disrespect to any cultural or ethnic group is intended.