Show WHAT W H AT to LAT EAT and WH I 1 ay C houston goudiss discusses vitamins and vision explains how and why you should feed your eyes by C 11 HOUSTON GOUDISS FOR a number of years scientists have stressed the importance 1 of a well balanced diet as a means of maintaining health promoting growth and preventing disease recently an even more significant development has occurred it has been determined that a carefully chosen diet is absolutely necessary try to preserve tho the general health and efficiency of every bodily junction function and that there ii a close relationship bett between veen a good diet and good eyesight your food and your eyo eyes many people regard their eye right eight as one of the five senses which operate in some mysterious manner of their owal own if they suffer from indigestion they recognize that it is quite apt to be due to something they ate if they are troubled with stomach liver or kidney complaints they quickly appreciate preci ate that prolonged dietary in discretions may be at the root of the trouble cut but it never occurs to them that what they eat may affect the eyes just as profoundly as it affects the internal organs it is not uncommon during an attack of biliousness to suffer a disturbance of the vision but that disturbance usually disappears with the disorder that caused it anthe on the other hand a deficient diet may produce eye troubles that have a far reaching effect upon health efficiency and even personal safety night blindness explained for example I 1 it has been established that th there ereis Is a definite relation between your vision and the vitamins in your diet between your ability to drive a car caf solely safely at night and the amount of vitamin A containing foods that you consume to understand this astonishing fact it is necessary to know that vision under taint faint illumination is accomplished by means of chemical changes change s in the pigment at the back backai of the eye this is known as the visual purple of the retina and abne one of its important components is carotene which is the active ltv form of vitamin Itam lnA A the visual al purple might be compared P abed to the film in a camera wh when you ire are in a clr dim light and theeres the eyes are suddenly exposed to bright light the visual purple is greatly reduced or bleached this change results ina in a stimulation of the optic nerve and enables you to see clearly when an adequate supply of vl vi taman A is present in the body the visual purple is rapidly regenerated but when the supply is inadequate a much longer period elapses before the corrective chemical change takes place during the intervening time many people find find it difficult to see that is the condition known known as night blindness and it accounts for the fact that a large proportion of serious motor accidents occur at night victims of this deficiency 11 fici ency disease are arc first blinded by approaching headlights then cannot quickly readjust themselves after the oncoming car has passed their ability to drive safely Is subsequently impaired for they cannot clearly pee ee the road ahead and they may miss dangerous curves pedestrians or other vehicles A common complaint complainer unfortunately the prevalence of night blindness is not generally recognized though it Is held that urban dwellers are arc more conscious ol of isthan it than those living in the rural areas this la Is borne out by the fact that ocular disorders from vitamin deficiency are less common in urban thanin than in rural a reas areas children often offen victims since the discovery odthe of the close connection between vitamin A and the ability to see india in dim light scientists have tested large numbers of school children to determine whether vitamin A was present in their diet in adequate amounts it was revealed that 79 per cent ot of the children examined hd had incipient night blindness the tha same deplorable conditions were found among adults mild to moderate degrees ot of vitamin A deficiency were present tn in from 10 to over 50 per cent of each group tested 1 yet vet here is the remarkable thing in nearly every case a diet r rich lell in vitamin A for a lew few weeks restored the vision to normal experiment an ever even more striking example of the power of food to affect the eyesight 1 Is to be found in the report of on an experiment in which breeding sows bows were given food in abend abundance ince but lacking vitamin A for days before and for 30 days after breeding in three utters of 35 pigs all were blind in another litter of 14 pigs all were sightless but under normal feeding the same animals produced litters of pigs with normal eyes and vision this experiment jua justifies ti the conclusion of one of our most noted food scientists that hat the deficiency of essential food elements may so alter vital processes that even prenatal pre natal changes may occur cause of other eye disorders DIt order night blindness Is ia not the only eye disease caused by an improper diet or con characterized by ex dryness of the eyeball has long been known to be caused by a vitamin A deficiency it is ia also well known that a liberal amount of this vitamin will prevent that disease and will evin effect a cure where destruction of the cornea has not progressed too far this suggests the tremendous importance of including in the diet foods rich in vitamin A cod and other fish liver oils milk and other dairy products green leafy and yellow vegetables and egg yolk experiments with rats whose dietary requirements ore are similar to those of man show a close connection between cataract and a deficiency of another vitamin vitamin G this is found most abundantly in meat milk eggs fruit and vegetables were she concerned about protecting the blessing of good eyesight alone that would be sum clent reason why every homemaker should plan meals that are rich in vitamins but it is not only the eyes which are dependent upon vitamins for they have many other functions to perform an improper diet may cause people to drive automobiles blindly at night so that they are dangerous not only to themselves and their passengers but to everyone on the streets sheets and roads A deficient diet will also send them through life with half eMcie nt bodies 1 e s half efficient brains half effi clent senses that Is why I 1 urge you to learn everything you can about food so that in planning meals you will not only feed your eyes your husbands eyes and your childrens eyes but will take advantage of the wonderful discoveries of nutritional science to mako make every in member of the family so efficient that they will enjoy the best of health each day of their lives 1 O C houston gaudiss M |