An article entitled "All Food That's Good to Eat," appearing in Harper's Magazine, and condensed in The Reader's Digest for November, 1945, gives promising prospects of an abundance of good food in the future. The authors base their prediction on the fact that 'very rapid advances are being made in the science and technology of food.
We have been prone to consider the food processor as the chief offender in the production of devitalized food, not realizing that devitalized food can be produced before it reaches the processor because of the conditions under which it is grown. For example, it has been discovered that some of the principal truck and fruit-growing regions of our Eastern seaboard are so deficient in essential minerals that the nutritive content of the "protective" foods may be questionable. Experimental studies reveal the fact that different varieties of fruits and vegetables differ considerably in their vitamin content, also that the soil and the climate in which these foods are grown influence markedly their content of essential nutrients.
Taking into consideration the vitamin content of different varieties, it has been discovered that some varieties of tomatoes contain twice the amount of vitamin C that others do. The Northern Spy apple, for example, contains twice the vitamin C that the McIntosh apple does. The same and even greater differences occur in other fruits and vegetables.
There are similar variations in vitamin A content and other food factors. Two varieties of wheat, for example, have been found to contain twenty-five per cent more vitamin B than other varieties. The influence of sunlight has been especially noticed in the vitamin C content of tomatoes. Winter-grown hothouse tomatoes contain only half as much vitamin C as the same variety grown in the summer sunlight.
Experiments to improve the mineral content of foods grown on properly mineralized soils are being carried on with encouraging results. The authors of the article in Harper's mention the premium prices that are being received by the producers of a whole-grain flour milled from a wheat grown on a highly mineralized soil in Deaf Smith County, Texas, where the people have practically no tooth decay. Professor William A. Albrecht, of the University of Missouri, has shown that the protein content of wheat rises step by step from east to west across the State of Kansas, depending upon the thickness of the underlying layers of limestone and their nearness to the surface.
Another major development which is bringing improvement in our food is expansion in refrigeration. The quick-freezing industry more than doubled its volume during the war and is continuing to expand. Within two years after the war the industry expects to sell over a million home-freezing units. This will enable the housewife to freeze her own fruits and vegetables if she is fortunate enough to maintain her own garden. This involves less work than ordinary canning methods. Frozen foods are superior to canned foods in flavor and nutritional value. Even after six months, frozen foods show little deterioration of nutritive content.
Study into the supplementary value of plant proteins, provoked by the scarcity of animal proteins during the war, has given adequate proof that a diet which will sustain a "buoyant" level of health and vigor can be obtained from the right combination of plant foods with the addition of small amounts of milk. Dr. Robert S. Harris, of the Nutrition Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has conducted experiments with cereal mixtures over a period of years. His mixtures consist of various combinations of whole cereals, legumes, soybean flour, and dried milk. These combinations are palatable, nutritionally adequate, and inexpensive. Excellent potential sources of a high-quality protein have been found in yeast and in sunflower seeds, which are 52 per cent protein. It is predicted that when we learn to salvage the millions of pounds of yeast which are wasted every year, the price of food yeast will be greatly reduced. Yeast is not only a source of complete protein but one of the best sources of vitamin B.
Dr. L. A. Maynard, director of the United States Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Laboratory of Cornell University, where much of this type of food research is being done, has made the suggestion that improvement in the American diet is the job of the soil chemist, the plant breeder, the dirt farmer, and the food processor, and not of the manufacturer of synthetic vitamins, amino acids, and other synthesized food fragments.
