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Show Bread, flour enrichment helps eliminate deficiency diseases The enrichment of bread and flour with vitamins and iron, which formally started in this pountry 25 years ago, is regarded re-garded by many as one of the major public health achievements achieve-ments of recent times, the Nutrition Nu-trition Foundation reports. In these twenty-five years, the vitamin deficiency diseases which crippled and killed many Americans before 1941 have virtually disappeared. Rising standards of living, better education, edu-cation, and wider availability I of wholesome foods have play- ed a part in eliminating the I vitam i n deficiency diseases, ; particularly beriberi and pellagra, pellag-ra, which plagued the nation before World War II. Enrich-i Enrich-i ment of bread and flour are credited by many as a major factor in this remarkable j achievement. I Thirty years ago, studies re vealed that the American people peo-ple were in shocking nutritional nutrition-al condition. It was found that more than one third of the population had poor diets. The ; most serious nutritional prob- lems were due to shortage of : the B vitamins, thiamine, niacin, nia-cin, and riboflavin, and shortages short-ages of iron. These vitamins and iron (which is necessary to prevent one type of anemia) are present pres-ent in the original wheat from which flour is made. The milling mill-ing process necessary to produce pro-duce the flour from which white bread is made removes most of the three B vitamins and iron along with the bran the darker outer covering of the wheat berry. People in this country prefer pre-fer white bread to dark bread now as they did a quarter of a century ago. Then they were not getting in bread enough B vitamins and iron. This was coupled with the fact that many people also lacked the leafy vegetables and meat that might have provided a properly balanced diet. A number of medical and scientific organizations and agencies, private and federal, were responsible for the major effort necessary to gain acceptance accep-tance of the addition of B vitamins vi-tamins and iron to white bread and flour. Flour millers and bakers were active, also. Bread and flour enrichment could not be accomplished at all until drug companies were able to manufacture the essential essen-tial vitamins in large quantities quanti-ties at low cost. All the elements the scientific sci-entific knowledge, the industrial indus-trial know-how were favorable favor-able for the introduction of vitamin and iron enrichment of bread and flour shortly after the start of World War II. During the war, War Order Number One established enrichment. enrich-ment. Now most states have laws regulating it. The original decision to push for bread enrichment was based on practical considerations. consider-ations. People perferred white bread. It was an imexpensive element of most diets. The vitamins vi-tamins and iron were put into bread and flour because they would there do the most good for the most people. Today in this country, enrichment en-richment has succeeded so well that medical students have difficulty finding cases of the dread B vitamin deficiency diseases di-seases that killed and crippled so many a few years ago. Other countries are turning to enrichment. Cereal foods other than wheat flour and bread are being enriched. As scientific information warrants, enrichment prog rams may change in the f uture with new nutrients being added to widely-used foods. While visiting the United States, Mr. and Mrs. Salvatore Giardinl bought ornate coffins. This proved a costly venture. Construction and transportation transporta-tion costs to Sicily was $3,000 and Italian customs added $2,000 for import duties. Matthew McGarahan, 38, will not be able to obtain a driver's license until he is 83. The court gave him a 45-year license suspension for driving with the license of a dead man, the latest in a long record of violations. vio-lations. If men from outer space have to invade this country, it's to be hoped it's on Christmas Christ-mas morning. Then they'll see some of the frighful looking weapons the kids get and retreat re-treat to their space ships pronto. The great trouble with luck is that it often disappears when you need it most. A good meal sometimes develops de-velops an animal philosophy. U.N. Economic Commission for Asia ends talks. |