(6) To determine the cost of meat.
DIVISION SEVEN
HEALTH AND GROWTH-PROMOTING FOODS,—RICH IN VITAMINES
LESSON LXXIX
VITAMINES—VEGETABLES OF DELICATE FLAVOR
VITAMINES.—In determining the proper diet for perfect nourishment, scientists long since came to the conclusion that the body needed a certain quantity of carbohydrates, fats, protein, ash, and water. They were all agreed that all these foodstuffs needed to be represented in the foods making up a day's diet. Scientists also found that these foodstuffs must exist in a certain proportion in a day's food,—that there should be enough of each of the foodstuffs to meet the needs of the body. A diet made up of foods in which all the foodstuffs were represented in the proper proportion was termed a balanced ration.
Investigations of recent years, however, show that these foodstuffs alone do not afford perfect nourishment. Much valuable scientific work is being done on the question of adequate diet. It is found that certain substances contained in foods in small amounts are absolutely essential in diet. When animals are fed foods containing only the foodstuffs mentioned above and none of these other substances, they cease growing, become diseased, and eventually die.
These materials so necessary to the growth and maintenance of animal life are termed Vitamines by some authorities. There are three classes of Vitamines, called Fat-soluble A, Water-soluble B, and Water-soluble C. It is now believed that there is at least one more vitamine.
Although vitamines exist in foods only in minute quantities it is necessary to use foods containing all the kinds of vitamines to promote growth and to keep in health.
Fat-soluble A, especially with certain minerals, is thought to prevent rickets and a disease of the eye called xerophthalmia. During the war, because of inadequate diet, many cases of these diseases developed in Europe.