HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 September 1941, Page 2

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

I TREATMENT OF COMMON | COMPLAINTS. KNOW YOUR VITAMINS. I (Prepared and issued by the Health ! Department.) Rickets, that pathetic childhood disease, which gives rise to bone deformity in young children, is caused through lack of Vitamin D. Most of us know that. But how many really know what Vitamin D really is, and how it j causes this malady? For that matter, how many know what all the other vitamins are? It is a word we come across almost I daily. The average person has a vague idea that the vitamins have something to do with food, but there his interest usually begins and ends. After all. the proof of the pudding is in the eating so far as he is concerned, and, as long as the corned beef and cabbage taste ' good, well, why worry too much about ' those —er —vitamin things? j But they do matter, really. Their! discovery not so majiy years ago opened up the whole field of human nutrition, and enabled many diseases and physical deficiencies to be corrected. Vitamin A, for instance, ensures the health of the skin and the delicate membranes which line the various organs in our bodies. Weakness in these spots leaves the way open to germs. Vitamin A also helps us to see better at night. That is why people at. Home are told lo cat more carrots. It will help them to sec better in the blackout. Rich sources of Vitamin A arc fish-liver oils, liver, eggs, butter, cheese, green vegetables, some yellow vegetables and fruit, and milk. Vitamin Bl is closely associated with the processes that release energy. Wheat germ and yeast, are rich in it. and the general range of everyday foodstuffs supply it in only moderate quantities. Dietaries tend to be short in this vitamin in our country. Vitamin E2 is necessary for normal growth, and we get it from yeast, liver, eggs, milk and meat. Green vegetables 1 have a fair share of it. I Vitamin C is obtained from raw U fruit, vegetables, cereals, nuts and ■ milk. It is the anti-scurvy vitamin, and 1 there is little doubt that the lack of it ; is responsible to some extent for the 1 notorious amount of dental decay in : this country. 1

Finally, Vitamin D, which transforms lime and phosphorus in our foods into bone structure. Cod liver oil is rich in it, and eggs, milk, butter and liver are fair sources. Sunshine, however, provides our greatest supply.