Show WHAT to EAT and WHY C houston goudiss discusses vitamins and vision explains how and why you should feed your eyes by C HOUSTON GOUDISS FOR OR a number of years scientists have stressed the importance 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 to preserve the general health and efficiency of every function and that there ij a close relationship between a good diet and good eyesight your food and your eyes many people regard their eyesight as one of the five senses which operate in some mysterious manner of their 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 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 cislo but that disturbance usually disappears with the disorder that caused it on the other hand a deficient diet may produce eye troubles that have a far reaching effect upon health healt li efficiency and even per sona safety night blindness explained for example it has been established that there is a definite relation between your vision and the vitamins in your diet between your ability to drive a car safely at night and the amount of vitamin A containing foods that you consume to understand this astonishing tact fact it is necessary to know that vision under faint illumination is accomplished by means of chemical changes in the pigment at the back of the eye this is known as the visual purple of the retina and one of its important components is carotene which is the active form of vitamin A the visual purple might be com pared to the film in a camera when you are in a dim light and the eyes are suddenly exposed to bright light the visual purple is greatly reduced or bleached this change results in a stimulation of the optic nerve and enables you to see clearly when an adequate supply of vitamin vitamin 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 ch chemical amieal change takes place during the intervening time many people find it difficult to see that is the condition known as night blindness and it accounts for the he fact that a large proportion of serl serious ofis motor accidents occur at night victims of this deficiency fici ency disease are first blinded by approaching headlights then cannot quickly readjust themselves after the oncoming car has passed their ability to drive safely is subsequently impaired f for or they cannot clearly see the road ahead and they may miss dangerous curves pedestrians or other vehicles A common complaint unfortunately the prevalence of night blindness is not generally recognized though hough it is held that urban dwellers are more conaci conscious IOUs of it than those living in the rural areas this is borne out by the fact that ocular disorders from vi vitamin deficiency are less common in urban than in rural areas children often victims since the discovery of the close connection between vitamin A and the ability to see 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 from 26 to 79 per cent of the children examined had incipient night blindness the same deplorable conditions were found among adults mild to moderate degrees of vita vitamin min A deficiency were present in from 10 to over 50 per cent of each group tested yet here is the remarkable thing in nearly every case a diet rich in vitamin A for a few ew weeks restored the be vision to normal A significant experiment an ever more striking example of the power of food to affect the eyesight is to be found in the report of an experiment in which breeding sows bows were given food in abundance but lacking vitamin A for days before and for 30 days after breeding in three litters 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 justifies the conclusion of one of our most noted food scientists that th at the deficiency of essential food elements may so alter vital processes that even prenatal pre natal changes may occur cause of other eye E ye disorders night blindness is not the only eye disease caused by an improper diet or conjunctivitis characterized by ex dessive dryness of the eyeball has las ion long been known to be caused ay y a vitamin A deficiency it is also well known that a liberal amount of this vitamin will prevent that serious d disease sease and will evan 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 ables and egg yolk experiments with rats whose dietary requirements are similar to those of man show a close connect connection ion 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 sufficient reason why overy every homemaker should plan meals that are rich in vitamins but it is not only the eyes which are I 1 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 and roads A deficient diet will also send them through life with half efficient bodies half efficient brains half effi chent senses that is why I 1 urge you to learn everything you can about food so that in planning meals y you on will not only feed your eyes your husbands eyes and your childrens eyes but will take advantage ta e of the wonderful discoveries of 0 nutritional science to make every mem berof the family so efficient that they will enjoy the best of health each day of their lives C C houston goudiss 1938 33 |