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Show I . ,' 5 I .AM Doctor in the Kitchen by Laurence M. Hursh, M.D. Consultant, National Dairy Council THE FAT SOLUBLE VITAMINS The essentiality of vitamins in our meals need hardly be emphasized em-phasized here. Certainly, everyone every-one knows they are necessary for our health, even if they don't know how much we need, or how little. But there is an aspect of vitamins that might be interesting interest-ing to you, the reader of this column. It is that vitamins are divided into two classes fat-soluble fat-soluble and water-soluble. Particularly, if you are a weight watcher, you ought to know the difference. The reason is, for instance, in-stance, if you cut down on fats do you know which vitamins you may be orting yourself on as well? The Basic Difference It is a fact that fat-soluble vitamins are contained in fat, and water-soluble vitamins are found only in the nonfat parts of food. Well, today we are discussing the fat-soluble vitamins, so to identify them, they are vitamins A, D, E, and K. The water-soluble vitamins are the B-complex vitamins and vitamin vita-min C. These will be discussed in later columns. Vitamin A occurs only in foods of animal origin. You will not find it ek' -here unless it is added as a . ic. It is true, however, th: cllow and green plants do i ...n yellow pigments that can be converted chemically by our bodies into compounds, one of which is vitamin A. The most common of these pigments is carotene, which can be converted to vitamin A. The yellow pigment of corn also can be converted by our bodies into vitamin A. In this sense, we convert a property of plant food into vitamin A the same as a dairy cow does, for whole milk is rich in vitamin A. Obviously, cream and butter are, too, as well as cheeses made from whole milk and ice cream. Other vitamin A-rich foods include in-clude liver, egg yolk, dark green and deep yellow leafy vegetables, also deep yellow fruits. Vitamin D is the antiricketic vitamin. Because of the fortification fortifica-tion of milk with vitamin D, rickets rick-ets as a child disease has largely large-ly disappeared from the United States, though there is cause for concern in poverty areas. For growing children, 400 units daily of vitamin D is recommended in the diet. If most adults got enough sunlight all year 'round particularly the clear kind of sunlight common in the tropics, subtropics and in mountain elevations ele-vations they might get enough vitamin D without food as a source. What's that you say? Without food? Contains Cholesterol It's true enough. Let me explain. ex-plain. Human skin contains a sterol called cholesterol that is transformed into vitamin D when exposed to ultraviolet light. In the summer this transformation occurs regularly, if your, skin is exposed to the sunlight. But in winter, especially all bundled up for cold weather, and on cloudy days, little; of the process can take place. Fog, dust, and other air pollution also inhibits the action ac-tion in city areas. Next week, we'll talk more about vitamin X, also vitamins E, aad 5. |