Vitamin D in Foods

Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

Vitamin D in FoodsAuthor(s): Marjorie HendersonSource: The American Journal of Nursing, Vol. 32, No. 6 (Jun., 1932), pp. 643-645Published by: Lippincott Williams & WilkinsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3410849 .

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Vitamin D in Foods MARJORIE HENDERSON

D R. HULDSCHINSKY, a Ger- man physician, first drew our attention to the value of the

ultraviolet rays in the cure and pre- vention of rickets. Dr. Harry Steen- bock of the University of Wisconsin and Dr. Alfred F. Hess of New York almost simultaneously announced the discovery that the exposure of certain foods to the ultraviolet rays of a mercury-vapor quartz lamp developed in these foods antirachitic properties which they had not previously pos- sessed. In other words, there was something in these foods capable of being transformed into vitamin D. This substance, the mother substance of vitamin D, is called ergosterol.

In order that his idea should not be exploited for private profit, Dr. Steen- bock patented the process of obtaining vitamin D by irradiation and trans- ferred the patent rights of his process to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. All moneys received from this patent go for further nutri- tional research, thus being turned back to the benefit of the public. In the meantime, pure vitamin D had been isolated by Dr. Adolf Windaus.

The next step was to find out what common food could be used as a vehicle for carrying this irradiated ergosterol, as vitamin D is sometimes termed. The word "ergosterol" is derived from the. fact that vitamin D belongs to the sterol family and this particular sterol was first isolated from the oil of ergot, hence ergosterol. Dr. Frederick F. Tisdall of the Univer- sity of Toronto, collaborated with Dr. Steenbock on this problem of incor- porating vitamin D into food. After trying milk, crackers, and cereals, none of which appeared perfectly satisfactory, he came to bread as

JTNm 1932

the next most common food. In this case he was more successful. He found that the insulating action of the crust, plus the moisture in the bread, prevented the actual temperature of the loaf from ever reaching 212 degrees F. so that the vitamin D was not impaired. Further tests proved that neither drying nor toasting destroyed the sunshine vitamin. Thus bread appeared to be the most satisfactory common food for making vitamin D available to the public at large.

A licence was then offered the General Baking Company of New York, which, however, refused it until Dr. Tisdall and his associates contacted the prominent pediatricians and nutritionists in the United States and Canada. These scientists felt that there was a very definite need today of an additional, controlled, and regulated amount of vitamin D in some common food because the devel- opment of our modern civilization has largely cut off, through the extensive expansion of our industries, nature's chief source of this vitamin, the sunshine. This results first, in placing the majority of us indoors, working in offices and factories, while our children are in school from the hours of ten to three when the ultraviolet rays of the sun would be most effective; secondly, massive industrial enterprises mean extensive use of coal with the consequent spreading of smoke over our towns and cities, not to mention the dust of commercial traffic. Furthermore, the nutritionists and scientists had been studying these rays and found that during the winter months there was very little antirachitic effect from winter sunshine.

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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NURSING

On this basis the General Baking Company accepted the licence to give to the public a controlled and regulated amount of vitamin D in their Bond Bread and Bond Bakers Whole Wheat Bread. The vitamin D is put into the bread as part of the shortening. One pound of a vegetable oil contain- ing a standardized amount of irradiated ergosterol, which has been checked, tested, and assayed, is added to every thousand pounds of dough. After baking, samples of this bread from every bakery are being continu- ously assayed at the laboratories of the Paediatric Research Foundation of Toronto, to check on the presence of vitamin D as guaranteed by Dr. Tisdall in his licence to them. In every twenty-four-ounce loaf of bread there are 140 vitamin D units or the full vitamin D equivalent of three teaspoons of standard cod-liver oil.

Bond Bread is, of course, not advocated for infants whose skeletal structure is increasing at a very rapid rate, and whose care and diet should be under the supervision of the physician. However, it is well known that as this rapid rate of growth decreases, less vitamin D is needed and "this bread provides substantial amounts of vitamin D needed in normal nutrition."

The American Medical Association has granted the General Baking Company its seal of acceptance and states that "Vitamin D Bond Bread

FIGURE 1

richly provides the valuable food essential known as vitamin D." Be- cause of the American Medical Asso- ciation seal of acceptance, and because of having a licence from both Dr. Steenbock and Dr. Tisdall, all advertising is first submitted to these three for approval and scientific checking. In this way the General Baking Com- pany has endeavored to keep its product and advertising under the approval of the medical profession and the scientists and to assure the public that their statements are scientifically accurate.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation which was established to look after Dr. Steenbock's patents, has also licenced a number of other commercial concerns either to irradiate their products or to add a definite quantity of vitamin D to their products. The Fleischmann Company has a licence to irradiate its table yeast, and Borden's to irradiate its Dryco and the Walker-Gordon Company to feed irradiated yeast to its cows in order to produce a special vitamin D milk. More recently li- cences have been issued to the Hygeia Nursing Bottling Company to manu- facture vitamin-D strained vegetables, and to Snyder to put out a vitamin D tomato juice.

In natural foods, vitamin D is to be found chiefly in eggs, butter, and milk in very variable and small amounts, and of course cod-liver oil and other

FIGURE 2 FIGURE 3

VOL. XXXII. No. 6

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VITAMIN D IN FOODS

FIGURE 5 FIGURE 6

fish oils. Dr. Tisdall has shown that winter eggs contain as low as one unit of vitamin D, whereas summer eggs may contain nearly eight times as much, depending on the size of the egg yolk. The comparative vitamin D potency in foods (approximate equivalent of one teaspoon of Steenbock Standard cod-liver oil) is as follows:

6 Slices Bond Bread 6 Slices Bond Bakers Whole Wheat Bread 5-25 eggs (depending on season of the year) 10-50 quarts of milk (depending on season of the year) 1-5 pounds butter (depending on the season of the year) 1 irradiated yeast cake 1 ounce Hygeia Strained Vegetables Tomato Juice (Snyder's) in dietetic amounts

Included in this article are a number of x-ray photographs showing the curative test and a preventive test. The animals whose bones are shown in Figure 1 were made rachitic and then fed a rickets-producing diet plus 122 per cent ordinary whole wheat bread; the animals whose bones are shown in Figure 2 were fed 12?/ per cent vitamin D Bond Bread; those

whose bones are shown in Figure 3 were fed 12? per cent Bond Bakers Whole Wheat Bread; those in Figure 4 were fed 12?2 per cent toasted Bond Bread. In Figure 1 you will note the white area at the upper end of the long bone which shows a lack of calcium deposition in the bone; Figures 2, 3, and 4, however, show in this same area a very marked deposition of calcium due to the presence of vitamin D in the bread. The diet otherwise was the same as Figure 1. These tests were carried on for a period of ten days. In the second group, the preventive test, all the animals were normal and were then fed a rickets- producing diet plus bread to see if they would develop rickets. Figure 5 shows the results of ordinary white bread. A white area is evident showing that calcium has been withdrawn from the bone due to a lack of vitamin D and calcium in the diet. Figure 6 shows a perfect formation of the bone in spite of a rickets-producing diet, this result being obtained by feeding the small amount of vitamin D in the 5 per cent Bond Bread used in their total diet.

JUNE 1932

FIGURE 4

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Vitamin D in Foods

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