Discarding all dairy products and eggs is another extreme which a few overzealous persons have in the past advocated. Fortunately the large majority of Adventists have used good sense and moderation in this matter. Milk and butter from diseased animals readily transmit infections, some of a very serious nature. This is one side of the matter, and a very important one. It is recognized by all that inspection of dairy animals and government restrictions are necessary and legitimate. With the increase of knowledge regarding the transmission of infectious diseases by milk and dairy products, the matter has assumed large proportions. Streptococcus infections of a variety, tuberculosis, undulant fever, scarlet fever, and other infections are communicated, sometimes in epidemics of considerable extent.
Dr. Edward Rosenow found in one army camp during the World War a large epidemic of mumps which he traced directly, through a shipment of cheese, to a certain cheese factory and dairy, where there were cows with an udder infection. The epidemic stopped promptly when the food involved was destroyed and the source cleaned up. Epidemics of undulant fever are usually traced to uninspected dairy animals. The increase of disease among animals makes pasteurization or boiling of milk a necessity. This increase of disease was spoken of originally in a personal testimony, but one which is applicable to all who may live upon an impoverished diet.
"The time will come when we may have to discard some of the articles of diet we now use, such as milk and cream and eggs; but my message is that you must not bring yourself to a time of trouble beforehand, and thus afflict yourself with death. Wait till the Lord prepares the way before you."—'Counsels on Diet and Foods," p. 206.
The expression in this statement, "and thus afflict yourself with death," is one that will bear some study. Is it really a serious health matter to discard all dairy products and eggs? In the case referred to it led to a most serious blood-deficiency disease, at that time invariably fatal, which was relieved with a return to health when the instruction given was followed. Part of this instruction is most interesting from the standpoint of food research carried on during the last twelve years, nearly thirty years after the time it was first written. The Testimonies on diet and foods were nearly all written long before the days of the scientific research which has verified their truthfulness and accuracy, but it has verified them, and in no case has a single statement been proved false. This was the instruction given in 1901:
You must not deprive yourself of that class of food which makes good blood. . . When you see that you are becoming weak physically, it is essential for you to make changes, and at once. Put into your diet something you have left out. It is your duty to do this. Get eggs of healthy fowls. Use these eggs cooked and raw. Drop them uncooked into the best unfermented wine you can find. This will supply that which is necessary to your system."—Id., p. 204.
The disease in question (anemia) has been found to be due to a deficiency in the liver function. The liver is the largest storehouse of vitamins of all the organs of the body. Both animal and fish livers contain vitamins A, D, and G in large amounts, and all or nearly all parts of the B complex which accompany vitamin B or B. These vitamins are also found in good supply in eggs. It is known that normal liver contains substances which have to do with blood formation, preventive of both pernicious and secondary anemias, and while these have not as yet been entirely identified as to their chemical formulas, yet the foregoing stated definite facts are known.
Just why eggs should have been advised both cooked and raw in this case may not be entirely clear, but it is significant that a certain degree of heat separates vitamin G (B, now known as riboflavin) from vitamin B, because it is resistant to heat, while B, (thiamin chloride) is destroyed by a high degree of heat. It is also known that an absence of parts of the B complex, of which there are six or more fractions, is often associated in human deficiency diseases, and that these parts are found abundantly in the foods which prevent these diseases. Vitamins A, B, G, and E are found in good quantities in milk; and vitamins A, B, D, and G are found in eggs in large measure.
Two parts of these instructions are significant as revealing nutritional facts entirely unknown to science at the time they were written in 1901, though they both may not have direct application to the blood disease under consideration. The first of these statements reads, "Eggs contain properties that are remedial agencies in counteracting certain poisons."—Id., p. 207. In addition to the more commonly known effects of vitamin A in controlling the reproduction, development, growth, structure, and function of all the epithelial tissues of the body, another one was discovered by Mellanby. This effect is stated briefly in a review on vitamins which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association of June II, 1932, and was later reprinted in book form.
"The experimental researches of Mellanby have shown that diets containing a large amount of cereals and deficient in vitamin A or carotene, when fed to young puppies, caused degeneration of the spinal cord in the form of demyelination of the nerve fibers. Moreover, it was definitely established experimentally that the effect of the neuro-toxin of ergot and cereals is neutralized by this vitamin."--08:2059.
Embryologically" the spinal cord is derived from epithelium; hence the relationship of vitamin A to it. This spinal-cord degeneration is especially notable when vitamin A is withdrawn at the time of weaning. Now vitamins are not considered antidotes to poisons; they are related to disease by deficiency or absence. Here, however, is an effect scarcely distinguishable from that of a neutralizing or counteracting agent. Not only does this property of eggs (vitamin A) neutralize or counteract the effect of the nerve poison of ergot (smut on grain), but it appears to counteract the nerve poison of a diet high in perfectly good cereals. This main effect of vitamin A in unbalanced diets was later confirmed also by Hughes of the Kansas Agricultural . Experiment Station (1928) Elvehjem and Neu of the University of Wisconsin (1932), Krauss of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station (1932), and Zimmerman and Cowgill of the School of Medicine of Yale University (1933). Vitamin A is one property of eggs, vitamin D is another, and relative to this we have also another counteracting effect on the poisons of a diet excessive in cereals.
"Soon after Mellanby's original announcement of the discovery of the dietary cause of rickets, he made a second startling statement to the effect that cereals, especially oatmeal, not only do not contain vitamin D, but do contain some definite anticalcifying substance. Continuing his work on dogs, he found that on a diet which was deficient in vitamin D, when other dietary and environmental factors remained the same, doubling the amount of cereal made the rickets distinctly worse."---.J.A.M.A., 99: 307, July 23, 1932.
This particular counteracting agency may or may not have a direct effect on the blood disease in question, but here again is a poison found in perfectly wholesome cereals, which is counteracted in its harmful effects by vitamin D, a nutritional property of egg yolk. Calcium has a far wider effect in the system than just that upon hones or in preventing rickets, and two of the most notable of these effects are in relation to the nervous system and the muscles, especially the automatic rhythmicity of the heart muscle. Elaborating upon this research by Mellanby is the further investigation into the nature and source of the poison which is neutralized by vitamin D, which vitamin controls the metabolism of calcium throughout the body, and particularly the absorption and elimination of calcium and phosphate.
"Recently Mirvish, by methods similar to those of Mellanby, has obtained from oatmeal an extract which will lower the blood calcium of rabbits thirty per cent in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours after intraperitoneal injection, with a return to normal in approximately seventy-two hours."
A further fact which shows that vitamin D —whether from eggs or other sources—counteracts certain poisons, is found also in the work of Mellanby.
"Mellanby himself was the first to show that the anticalcifying effects of cereals or cereal extracts may be completely nullified by supplementing the diet with adequate amounts of vitamin D in the form of cod-liver oil, egg yolk, or irradiated fats, or by irradiating the animal, or even the cereal itself. One immediately calls to mind the fact that whole races of people, notably the Highland Scotch and many peoples of the Orient, have lived for generations on diets consisting largely of cereals. The Highland Scotch, particularly, have been a 'sturdy race, noted for their fine physical development. Their diet has, however, been well calculated to overcome the deficiencies of the cereal, since it has contained an abundance of milk and fish. In tropical countries the sunlight undoubtedly performs the same function."—"The Vitamins,' 1932 ed., P. 151. A.M.A.
We have, therefore, at least two properties of eggs which counteract certain poisons found in perfectly wholesome food—the grains (oats, corn, barley, rye, rice, and wheat). Breads and cereals constitute a large part of the diet of vegetarians; so these poisonous acids are present in relatively large amounts, and without milk, cream, butter, or eggs in the diet there is an unhealthful deficiency of vitamin A and practical absence of vitamin D, leading to serious malnutrition. With the absence of fats of this character (butter fat and the fat of egg yolk), even the carotene of green and yellow fruits and vegetables cannot be adequately absorbed, so that vitamin A, made in the liver from the carotene of plant food sources, is also deficient. In countries of fog, smoke, or dust, little can be expected from the ultraviolet of sunlight by which vitamin D is formed in the body itself.
"Wilson, Das Gupta, and Ahmad studied the influence of the fat content of the diet in relation to the absorption of the carotene of raw carrots or of cooked spinach in an adult human subject. They found that only about 50 per cent of the carotene was absorbed when the diet was devoid of fat, whereas, from 8o to 90 per cent was absorbed when the diet contained moderate amounts of fat."—"The Vitamins," 1939 ed., p. J. A M.A.
_______ To be concluded in August
*Scientific discussion to be read in connection with Section XI, "Extremes in Diet," pages 195-213 in "Counsels on Diet and Foods."—Editor.
