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Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Facts on Vitamin Shoppes

By Dominic Bowen


Thiamine, or vitamin B1, was the 1st vitamin to be uncovered. Historically, brown or whole grain rice was a basic foods in several Oriental nations. The oils contained in the germ of multi grain rice or wheat can go rancid fairly swiftly, particularly when exposed to air ( as when compressed into flour ) and stored at 70 degrees. So whole grains have a somewhat limited lifespan ( which can be extended by sealing them in an airproof container and refrigerating them ).


Therefore, to try to increase the lifespan of rice, in the 1800s, the Germans perfected rice milling machines which stripped the bran and germ from rice yielding white rice. Advertising of that era convinced folks who could afford it that this new white rice was a superior food to be wanted. This also was an age of conquest for Western european races and while European colonists in Asian areas adopted the rice-eating habits of the indigenous peoples, they preferred to eat socially-acceptable, pricey, white rice rather than the inexpensive brown rice consumed by the local poor people. Curiously these white settlers and navy personel in the Orient frequently came down with a disease called beriberi that the poor folks failed to get. All kinds of fascinating explanations for this were suggested, but pretty much all had in common the assumption that beriberi was due to a bacterium. This was during the height of Louis Pasteur's famous work on bacteria, so all kinds of diseases were all of a sudden being attributed to bacterial causes, including beriberi. Evidence of beriberi, many of which are neurological, include fatigue, irritation, poor memory, sleep problems, anorexia, abdominal pain and bowel obstruction, nerve Problems like burning sensations in the feet, calf muscle cramps and weakness, and other symptoms.

Vitamin Shoppes Because folks thought that beriberi was caused by a micro-organism, this illness was thought to be transferable, and folk who contracted it were insulated from well folks. There had been much research being conducted to try and find the pathogen folks thought caused the disease and so, a remedy for the disease.

Vitamin Shoppes In the 1890s there had been an epidemic of beriberi among the Dutch colonists in Java ( yes, there really is a country by that name ). Deep in the jungles of Java, the Dutch had established an infirmary and research lab for beriberi patients. The doctor who ran this facility was Dr. Christian Eijkman. For other research that was being conducted, the laboratory also kept a flock of standard, healthy chickens. At one time when supplies were low, the staff ran out of the inexpensive, brown rice the chickens were eating, and reluctantly made a decision to spend and feed the good white rice to the chickens until they could get more of the brown rice. This situation seemingly lasted for some time, and the staff started to notice that the chickens were showing symptoms similar to the leading indications of the beriberi patients, to the great trouble of all who considered this to be a highly contagious disease. Ultimately someone discovered that the good white rice was being wasted on the chickens, and the order was passed down to get them back onto cheap brown rice. To the awe of all, when returned to a diet of brown rice, the chickens got better. Based on this evidence, Dr. Eijkman suggested that beriberi was a nutritional deficiency, not due to a bacterium, and that something in the rice bran impedes beriberi.

People were so sure that beriberi had to be caused by a micro-organism that they would not accept Eijkman's conjecture, and he was relieved of his obligations and sent back home.

Vitamin Shoppes In 1911, Casimir Funk, a Polish researcher working in London, isolated and concentrated a substance from rice polish ( bran ) which cured beriberi in a pigeon. Funk determined that chemically, this substance belonged to the class of organic molecules known as amines amd it was critical to a good life, so he called it a vitamine. This chemical was subsequently named thiamine. We now recognize numerous vitamins ( note that the e had been dropped ), most of which are not amines. .




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