Other physicians have noted 
that the patient who has ceased to respond and whose blood pictures does not get back 
to normal will be much better and will recover something approaching a normal blood picture does not get back to normal will be much the average internist and the average 
general physician are concerned, here the ma tter rests in a fog. The main group believe 
in giving iron alone. One group is sold on the idea of giving iron with vitamin B. Another group believes that the best results are obtained by giving the iron with vitamin 
C. Apparently on none has the true situation dawned that these patients who are deficient in iron are deficient in all the vita mins and also in the minerals calcium and 
iodine. [Editorial note from soilandhealth.org: there is an incomprehensibility about this paragraph which does not seem resolvable. Obviously there was a major, 
overlooked typographical error here.] An examination of the food intake of anemic persons will disclose the fact that the 
sick person has been living on a diet which is largely composed of devitaminized and 
devitalized carbohydrates, and this has cut down in his diet not only iron, but all 
vitamins, calcium, iodine, and the trace minerals. The person suffering with pernicious anemia has very much the same kind of an 
etiology. In his case the deficiency is a multiple deficiency, but by some freak the thing 
in which he is most deficient is the so-called extrinsic factor which has to do with the 
manufacture of red corpuscles, and which may be had in its greatest concentration in 
liver. As an example of the failure to evaluate properly the causative factors in the anemias 
among presumably well informed physicians, a certain faculty meeting may be cited. This was a meeting of the faculty of one of the class A medical colleges. The subject for 
discussion at this meeting was the Iron Anemias. Specialists in internal medicine, 
surgeons, neurologists, general practitioners, and pathologists joined in the discussion, 
which continued over two hours. During the whole evening, not one word was said about the needs of the patient suffering with secondary anemia for any other therapeutic 
item except iron. The discussion took up matter s concerning what preparations of iron 
should be used; what dosage should be used; how the dose should be given (by mouth 
or hypodermically), and the economic side of the question--which kind of iron was best 
and cheapest for the patient. This kind of iron treatment for secondary anemia was in practical use in the Hospital 
connected with this medical school. Treating such patients with iron alone would, of course, only temporarily restore the patient to some degree of improvement. In many 
cases it would do no good whatever. In no case would it give the optimum treatment to 
the patient, as all these patients were suffering from a deficiency in other minerals as 
well as iron, and all were suffering multiple vitamin deficiency. CHAPTER IX  
WHAT MUST BE DONE  
   Since the most important thing in connection with medical practice is not treatment of 
the person's illness, but a clear understanding of the causes which brought about the illness, this same thing is true when applied to the population as a whole. If the population of a town, state, or nation suffers from some particular kind of disease, the fact the disease is so circumscribed is a great help in working out the cause. In 
connection with the diseases incident to diet deficiencies, there is no such aid or 
assistance. The deficiencies cover our own nation and in different degrees affect the 
population of every civilized country in the world. Diet deficiencies, contrary to general 
belief, also are a serious problem with savage  and uncivilized peoples. In the islands of 
the Pacific Ocean, varieties of food are not easily accessible. Where the geographical 
limitations make it necessary for the persons living there to subsist on the products of 
their particular island, no great variety is possible. Such populations are always badly 
nourished. This same thing is true in connection with the savages of Australia and Africa, and the 
low-class populations of India and Siberia. While these peoples suffer geographical 
limitations, they are also subject to tribal limitations. Their area of activity is limited on account of hostile neighbors. Their food supply is therefore limited as to variety. The 
healthiest and strongest of the North American Indians, before the white man 
completely dominated the country, attacked and routed their weaker neighbors and stole their food. They enjoyed a better diet. It is difficult to say whether the aggressive Sioux tribes were more fortunate because they conquered their neighbors and were therefore 
better fed, or whether the good food produced in their particular areas gave them a 
better diet, and therefore stronger muscles and better nerves and brains, which in turn 
gave them dominance over their neighbors. At any rate, among the savage peoples of 
the world, food supply has determined domination, and lack of proper food supply has caused the enslavement of those unfortunates who had the lesser degrees of nutrition. In order to attain the optimum, all the scientific assistance available should be brought 
into the problem, in the same manner that the best engineering skill is brought into play 
in building guns, tanks, and airplanes. Without great physical endurance, good eyes, 
nerves, and brains, the tanks, guns, and airplanes are of no use. The world struggle for 
power will undoubtedly go to the group which possesses the highest degree of nutrition. This has been demonstrated plainly in the history of England. It is being demonstrated 
at the present time in the world war now going on. The ordinary person who has believed th at savages were always well-nourished also 
had another delusion and that is that our primeval ancestors were marvels of physical 
perfection owing to their having a proper and right diet. This idea is also a fallacy. Those of our primeval ancestors who did attain great physical and mental prowess were 
those who were accidentally well fed. The great masses, for economic or other reasons, were not well fed, the main reason for this being that they did not know what constitutes 
a good diet. They, like the animals of the fields, were entirely creatures of their own 
capricious appetites. They liked sweets, and were therefore eager to get sweets. They 
liked the effects of alcohol; therefore they ove rindulged in alcoholic drinks. Those of us 
who have come down to the present time should be thankful that we have come through times of stress and strain and starvation  and bad dietary surroundings, but we should also realize that we have not come through in the optimum manner. The bad diets of 
former generations have left their imprint on the nervous systems, brains, bones, and other bodily structures. There is, therefore, a hereditary stigmata which must be corrected in the future by 
several generations of proper and right di et. A perfect race is not going to be 
manufactured all at once, even though the best scientific diets are at once adopted by all 
civilized countries. The change that might be brought about by the adoption of scientific 
diet would be a very spectacular and decided change. Somewhere from 70 to 80 per cent 
of the disease that now afflicts the human animal would be eliminated. The average age 
of the average human being could be extended from somewhere around sixty to well over one hundred years. No one has yet known what the upper age limit could be under 
optimum conditions; but from work with animals, in which it has been demonstrated 
that the life period may be doubled, we have reason for believing that this might also be 
achieved in connection with human existence. At no time in the history of the human race has there been any nation or any group 
that existed on optimum diets. At no time in the history of the human race up to the 
present time has it been known what constitutes a normal, scientific dietary intake. In no 
period or time in history have we understood the physiology or dietary action of even one mineral such as iron, iodine, or calcium. Since vitamins are a recent discovery, of course nothing has been known in a scientific way about them. As has been shown here, even the persons who have devoted a good deal of time to nutritional affairs have not 
had any proper conception of the nutrition of the population as a whole. Individual 
workers and individual universities have concentrated on individual parts of the 
problem. Williams and Spies have concentrated on vitamin B
1; McCollum and Johns Hopkins 
on vitamin A; Steenbock has focused on vitamin D; Sure, Bishop and Evans have given 
much of their attention to vitamin E; Sherman has devoted his attention to vitamin G; Hanke, of Chicago University, worked with great enthusiasm on vitamin C; Plummer 
did a good deal of work on iodine. Dr. Alice Bernheim worked long and patiently on 
calcium. Various workers too numerous to mention have worked on iron. In no case has 
a right and proper correlation of all this work been achieved, not even in any branch of the government where such correlation should take place. The only possible correlation of all this new knowledge of nutrition is in the hands of 
the man who is engaged in the clinical practice of medicine. The data emanating from the laboratory worker who has no clinical experience are not only likely to be wrong, 
but are almost sure to be wrong. An example of this is a new book by an author who is a 
Ph. D. but not an M. D. He gives some interesting information in regard to vitamins, but the book is guilty of many omissions; makes wrong statements in regard to the relation 
between proper nutrition and heart disease, and in the relation between proper nutrition 
and catching cold. This is an example of a scientist venturing beyond his proper field. At the present time some men engaged in the clinical practice of medicine are still 
using single synthetic vitamins in the treatment of disease. The synthetics have 
potentialities for danger. Since the nature of our dietary sins makes single vitamin 
deficiencies impossible, there is never any indication for prescribing any one synthetic vitamin alone. There is never an indication for prescribing thiamin or niacin-amide or 
pyridoxine or pantothenic acid by itself. If the natural sources of these elements are used instead of the synthetics, it would be impossible to prescribe them alone, as they do not 
exist alone in nature. There is no question but that in a well-nourished body the vitamins and minerals exist 
in a certain optimum balance. For instance, a body may be well nourished in every other 
respect, but the person may be thrown into a condition of water-logged overweight by taking too much common salt. The taking of salt in excess of the body needs permits too 
much sodium in relation to potassium and calcium. This allows the body to become 
permeated by water. In such a case the excretion of water is not properly balanced with 
intake, and serious disease results. In clinical work, it is not uncommon to see these 
water-logged overweight women whose chief dietary sin is too great an intake of 
sodium chloride (common salt). The number of persons who may be benefited by the so-called no-salt diet is 
enormous. The same beneficial results may be brought about by giving these persons a 
salt mixture instead of plain salt, the mixture containing the same relative proportions of 
mixed alkaline salts as Ringer's solution. This salt compound, while it contains 70 per cent sodium chloride, also contains calcium, potassium, and magnesium, so that it can 
be taken without the mineral balance being disturbed. The pathological condition known as acidosis is due to a reduced alkalinity in the 
body. The opposite condition--alkalosis--is not at all uncommon, and is due to too much 
alkalinity in the blood, or a preponderance of some particular alkali such as sodium, 
calcium, or potassium. In persons eating natu ral foods, these disturbances of mineral 
balance never occur. A diet composed of meat, milk, eggs, cheese, whole wheat, honey, and sea food will never produce either alkalosis or acidosis. It is only by the taking of 
artificial factory-made foods that these conditions are brought about. Since the preponderance of any one mineral puts the mineral supply out of balance 
and disturbs metabolism, it is undoubtedly true that this same sort of a diseased 
condition may be brought about by an out-of-balance preponderance of any one 
vitamin. Physicians who have prescribed extra large doses of thiamin have noticed 
muscular weakness and nervousness afterwar ds. The author was one of the first to 
notice that toxic conditions and disturbance of rhythm of the heart may result from 
administering vitamins A and D together and alone in too large a dosage. It was found 
that large dosage of A and D could be continued in the same patients with complete 
freedom from the same symptoms previously experienced if the vitamin B complex 
were given also in a large dose along with A and D. Dr. Agnes Fay Morgan of California University has shown that symptoms of pellagra may occur when large doses 
of thiamin are given. This is because the B
2 complex is put out of proper relation to the 
amount of B 1. A relative B 2 deficiency (pellagra) is produced. In the use of ordinary cod-liver oil, excessive dosages are not common, owing to the 
bulk of the dose necessary to produce results. However, since the advent of concentrates, there has been a tendency to over-dosage. This over-dosage when not 
accompanied by the vitamin B complex undoubtedly produces some bad effects. To illustrate the increase in the understanding of basic facts in connection with the 
problem and the failure in the application of the new facts to the fullest extent in human 
nutrition we cite from a recent book which is supposed to be a digest of the new facts on 
nutrition. In "Vitamin Therapy in General Practice," by Gordon and Severinghaus, on page 52, 
the statement is made that beriberi is not a thiamin deficiency, but that there exists also 
a lack of other factors. (True: but does not go far enough.) On page 54 it is stated that heart pain, rapid heart, and difficulty in breathing are very 
often cured by the use of vitamin B, if the disease has not gone on to an organic change. Since the term "vitamin B" is used, we may suppose that the author means the whole 
vitamin B complex. The description fits that of a beriberi heart and should be treated with B plus other vitamins. On page 55 the statement is made that peripheral neuritis is caused by lack of vitamin 
B. The author has found that these cases are more permanently benefited by a 
combination of vitamin B with the other vitamins and minerals. On page 56, under a discussion of the polyneuritis of pregnancy, he states that this is a 
deficiency condition identical in many ways with beriberi. This statement should be 
changed to say that the disease is true beriberi, and that the optimum treatment is not vitamin B alone, but the whole vitamin group, with special emphasis on vitamin B. On page 57, discussing the vomiting of pregnancy, he states that one should think first 
of a vitamin deficiency. This statement is true but it does not go far enough. It is 
practically always a vitamin deficiency, and is  a multiple deficiency having to do with 
both vitamins and minerals. The woman who has vomited a good deal has lost in the liquid vomitus much of her physiological minerals. In this she loses particularly 
calcium, and sodium chloride. There must be some replacement of these minerals along 
with vitamin treatment in order to handle these cases properly. It should be 
remembered, and it is emphasized in this book, that the pregnant woman's needs for 
vitamins and minerals are much greater th an the non-pregnant woman's because of the 
requirements of the fetus. On page 61 the statement is made that there is dependable evidence that a lowering of 
the intake of vitamin B
1 is associated with a general lowering of resistance to all kinds 
of infection. This should be changed to read "vitamins and minerals" and not B 1. alone. One of the widespread fallacies connected with the introduction of vitamin treatment 
has been the oft repeated statement that niaci n-amide is a cure for pellagra. On page 87 
of the book the statement is made that niacin alone can not be considered a cure for 
pellagra. It must be supplemented by the use of riboflavin, thiamin, vitamin B 6, and 
some of the unidentified principles of the complex, as well as by vitamin C and vitamin A. This statement shows that some improved thinking has been going on in connection 
with vitamin treatment, but the statement is not complete. The victim of pellagra also 
needs attention to the deficient mineral intake. The author has known victims of pellagra 
to go to their grave dosed with enormous doses  of niacin, or enormous doses of vitamin 
B
2 complex, the disease being only partially improved in the beginning of the treatment, 
the patient going on to death because of starvation for other vitamins and minerals. On page 101 the statement appears that vitamin C is important in maintaining the 
integrity of immunity to certain infections. the same error exists here. While it is quite 
evident that vitamin C does do much to keep up the integrity of specific immunities and 
general immunities to infection, only one part of the optimum immunity is achieved by the use of vitamin C alone. The statement that vitamin C exists in high concentration in the pituitary gland, in the adrenal, in the corpus luteum and other parts which have 
much to do with keeping the flame of life burning at its optimum is true only if the 
vitamin C here mentioned is supported by the other vitamins and by proper mineral 
balance. Another reference to vitamin C is its connection with some anemias that do not 
respond to treatment with iron. In this the author is agreeing in a small way with our 
previously expressed principle that iron in these cases does not give the best results 
unless other minerals and all the vitamins which have been removed by food processing 
are put back into the food intake. On page 111 the author mentions the vitamin C intake in connection with stomach 
ulcer. There is no question but that vitamin C is indicated in stomach ulcer, but all other 
vitamins and minerals are also indicated. The relief afforded by vitamin C is only a 
partial and temporary relief. Stomach or duodina l ulcer is as surely a dietary deficiency 
disease as is scurvy or pellagra. On page 112 vitamin C is discussed in relation to its building up immunity against all 
chronic infectious conditions, and the benefit it may confer on patient suffering with 
toxic conditions of the thyroid gland. There is no question but that both of these points are well taken. The toxic diseases of the thyroid are undoubtedly the result of old, 
chronic, long-continued, low-grade infecti ons. The fact that the principal material 
(iodine), required in fighting such infections, is present in insufficient quantity 
contributes to the compensatory overgrowth of the gland and the manufacturing of a toxic secretion (toxic adenoma). Since basal metabolism is very much increased in toxic conditions of the thyroid, and 
since the increased metabolism burns up vitamin B
1 in a very decided manner, the most 
urgent need in all cases of exophthalmic goiter is for thiamin. The need for thiamin is 
even greater than the need for iodine. Of course other elements are also necessary. Operating on such patients or destroying a part of the gland by radiation reduces the rate 
at which thiamin is destroyed, and while on ordinary diets, no new thiamin is furnished, 
it allows the organism to get along better with what little iodine and thiamin there is in the food. There is relatively more thiamin in the blood because with lower basal 
metabolism there is less destroyed. By this process the relative amount of vitamin B 
present in the blood is increased, so the patient feels better. The patient of course is not 
cured until he is provided with sufficient amounts of iodine and other minerals and 
vitamin B and other vitamins to make up for his past deficiencies and to provide the maintenance for daily bodily needs. Certain thyroid patients become "iodine fast" 
during treatment with iodine. This means that progress toward recovery has stopped 
with treatment by iodine alone. If these patients are given large doses of vitamins and 
minerals along with the iodine they will continue to improve. In the Journal  of the American Medical Association of May 3, 1941, Dr. Clarence A. Mills, Professor of Experimental Medicine in the University of Cincinnati, College of 
Medicine, calls attention to the danger of prescribing of single vitamins, since such 
prescribing may be the means of upsetting the vitamin balance in the body and inducing 
other forms of disease. He called attention to  the fact that Wilder  produced artificially 
deficiency symptoms in adults kept on a thiamin intake of 0.15 milligrams daily. It is usually considered that one to three milligrams daily is the optimum for the normal 
adult. He cites the case of a woman aged 47 who had been taking large doses of thiamin for two and one-half weeks. The symptoms resembled those of over-dosage with 
thyroid extract--headache, increased irritability, insomnia, rapid pulse, weakness and 
trembling. This cleared up two days after the treatment was discontinued. After one week's rest, the patient returned to the use of thiamin, taking one-half the former dose, 
and the same toxic symptoms returned. She obtained relief only by discontinuing the use of the thiamin. He states that on a recent visit to the tropics he encountered many cases where large 
doses of vitamin B
1 taken alone caused similar symptoms, accompanied by tremors of 
the hands and nervous irritability. In all these cases a reduction of the dose or giving up the vitamin altogether resulted in relief from the distressing symptoms. Dr. Mills also calls attention to the work of Dr. Agnes Fay Morgan of the University 
of California reported in "Science," March 14, 1941, "The Effect of Imbalance in the 
Filtrate Factor of the Vitamin B Complex in Dogs," that shows that unfavorable results 
may attend the administration of any single one where many elements are lacking. He 
states that studies on rats in his own laboratory show the same effect. He brings out the very interesting observation which at the present time is of very great interest, that the 
addition of thiamin to bread and other commonly used foods without control over the 
intake level carries a potentiality for harm. He states that this is particularly true in the middle temperate regions where metabolic disturbances are already prone to occur. The medical profession should recognize the need for greater conservatism in the use of this 
vitamin, and its distribution through nonmedical and medical channels should be placed 
on a more scientific and controlled basis. In the above mentioned article Dr. Morgan warns that there is possibility of danger in 
the food program planned to improve national health by adding one or two vitamins to 
staple foods when these foods are deficient in many other vitamins. She states that 
health may become worse instead of better because of the vitamin balance being upset. Whole-wheat bread contains iron, all the va rious components of the vitamin B complex, 
vitamin E and trace minerals. To attempt to compensate for all of these valuable 
elements by putting thiamin, niacin, and a small amount of iron in the bread is utterly 
ridiculous. It is harmful from another standpoint, and this is the fact that the average 
person reads in newspapers that the government has taken note of the inadequacies of 
white bread and has now decided to do something to correct the existing deficiencies. A person who has been getting along well on whole-wheat bread is now induced to eat so-
called enriched white bread, believing that it is not only as good, but better, is badly 
deceived. The enrichment provides only a sm all fraction of the elements which have 
been removed in milling. By promoting a condition of unbalance it may encourage 
another form of disease. Dr. Morgan's work with dogs was with several different vitamins. All dogs that 
received no niacin and no pantothenic acid survived; grew moderately well; but the hair 
turned gray and they were sedate and elderly in behavior. Giving either niacin or 
pantothenic acid to these dogs, while deficient in other vitamins, resulted in a gradual 
loss of neuro-muscular control and sometim es sudden death. She thinks that giving 
large amounts of any one vitamin, particularly niacin, which is frequently done in 
pellagra, to persons subsisting on diets having multiple deficiencies is exceedingly dangerous. If any food is so bad that it needs to be "enriched" or "fortified" with synthetic 
vitamins it is so bad it should be rejected as the artificial enrichment corrects only a part of the evil. Dr. Morgan states that fortification of foods with thiamin or niacin may precipitate 
conditions worse than the subacute deficiency state produces; that the usual ordinary diet, while inadequate, is more nearly properly balanced. If we are to have improvement 
in these deficiencies, general improvement is essential. The steps that must be taken to 
correct the bad health conditions due to diet deficiencies at the present time are mainly 
steps in the education, first, of the medical profession; and second, of the laity. That the doctors suffer equally with the lay public in deficiency diseases is quite 
evident. Mortality records show that doctors die from heart and blood vessel diseases in 
as great numbers as does the general population. The average doctor has as much 
pyorrhea and tooth decay as the average layman . The average doctor is as often crippled 
by neuritis and arthritis and has as much appendicitis, gall bladder disease, stomach 
ulcer and cancer as the layman. The need for educating doctors is very great. The 
reception of new ideas such as these is slow in the medical profession. It must be remembered that an appeal to a lay organization such as the Rotary Club, a 
church group, a chamber of commerce as to a professional group such as the Bar 
Association, or the county medical society for improvement along dietary lines is an 
appeal to a diseased group. Following a l ecture by the author in a Midwest town, a 
cartoon appeared in the newspaper of a fat, misshapen woman talking in her kitchen to 
another fat, misshapen woman standing in the door. The first woman was saying to the second, "I always go to these lectures on diets; but I always come home and cook the 
same things." An appeal to the group at the Rotary Club or woman's club or chamber of commerce 
who are suffering from tooth decay, scurvy, blood vessel disease, etc., is very much like 
an appeal to a group of persons who are habitu ally taking morphine or codein. They are 
habitues. Their habits have weakened their physical resistance and their will. A large 
proportion of these persons are physically and mentally incapable of adopting radical changes in their diets. They are urged to eat green salads and drink milk. This often 
results in raucous laughter and has often cal led to the mind of the author the raucous 
laughter which greeted the Vicar of Wakefield in his attempts to better the conditions of 
the miserable and criminal peoples to whom he preached. Educational lectures addressed to the physicians might seem to meet a better 
reception, as physicians are very eager to make  a better record than their competitors. They are anxious to cure diseases in which their competitors have failed. But even with such urge in the background, the doctor looks with a cold, fishy eye on all changes in 
his own dietary habits. He believes he has done  pretty well. He fails to recognize his 
own deficiencies because his standards are wrong. He knows and treats marked departures from normal, but subclinical departures from normal meet no recognition as 
these correspond too closely to his own and to his family's physical condition. His own 
children need treatment for pyorrhea and tooth decay, St. Vitus' dance, and rheumatism. They have diseased tonsils and only partially functioning eyes. They have rickets and constipation. The average doctor may be looked upon as a factor standing for the status quo. He has 
been taught certain therapeutic measures to use as he would use splints on a broken arm. He has had nothing to do with the breaking of the arm. His work is only to fix the arm after it is broken. He pays little attention to the prevention of deficiency disease. He 
only thinks of doing something about the coro nary diseases, the cancer, the ulcer, or the 
mouth disease after it has occurred. The editorial policy of the leading medical journals has been to play down everything 
connected with vitamin deficiencies for fear that vitamins will get too much in the 
hands of the laity. In spite of their attitude, this has occurred. The layman has 
recognized that there is something valuable to be had along this line, and in a dumb, muddling way he has reached for it. Around half a billion dollars is spent in the United 
States every year for vitamin preparations This is mostly on a nonintelligent basis. But 
these remedies have undoubtedly helped in some small way, but not in a way that could 
be achieved if the remedies were intelligently used. This applies to vitamins bought over the counter, and also to vitamins prescribed by 
physicians. The physician has been educated mostly by salesmen who represent 
commercial houses. The salesman gauges his instruction by the profits to be made in the 
particular product he may be selling. Since the medical colleges pay little attention to this subject except in an adverse way, and the editorial policy of the medical journals is to consider it a minor part of medical practice, the field is left open for the physician to 
be educated and exploited by the clever salesman. The hope for improvement along the lines of education is, then, a hope for something 
to be done after many years of long, painful effort. If we are to receive the necessary 
help and receive it in the shortest possible time, changes will have to be made by 
legislation. The feeble and bungling attempt made along this line in connection with 
white flour and bread, and the eagerness with which millers and bakers came into line, 
after years of stoutly claiming that their flour and bread were right and perfect as they were, shows that legislative or other authority coming from a sufficiently high source 
may change everything in a few weeks or months in connection with food products. We shall probably never be able to educate the population of the United States to the 
value of health-producing foods, but by law or decree we may banish the deficiency 
foods and substitute optimum foods in a few we eks' time. One of the obstructions in the 
past to a proper information of the public has been the commercial interests at stake. These commercial interests have been able to influence research favorable to them in some universities. They have been able to influence some eminent physicians and some 
editors of medical journals to acclaim the merit of their goods both in lectures and in 
public prints. They have been able to keep their deficiency products in the stores and on the kitchen shelves by plausible speeches on the radio and in the common widely read 
magazines. The foods which have carried the greatest th reat against the health of the state and the 
individual are sugar, white flour, and canned goods. The sugar is a concentrated 
carbohydrate containing no vitamin or mineral of  any kind. Every ounce of sugar that is 
taken into the human economy reduces the ability to resist infection, as it furnishes only 
calories and none of the elements which protect against infections. The importation and 
manufacture of sugar should be prohibited as the drug heroin is prohibited. All this is true for white flour, as it is nearly pure carbohydrate. White flour does 
contain, however, around 7 per cent protein. This makes it a somewhat better food than 
sugar. But neither the protein nor the carbohydrate in white flour contains any appreciable amount of minerals or vitamins. By legislative enactment both sugar and 
white flour should be banished from the American diet. As a substitute for sugar, honey 
may be used. Honey contains all of the ordinary food minerals and valuable enzymes. It 
is not probable that anyone will overeat on honey, as the appetite for sweets is very quickly satisfied after a fraction of an ounce has been taken. The only proper replacement for white flour  is whole-wheat flour. The same principle 
holds true in connection with other grains--rye,  rice, corn, etc. Any grain flour should be 
consumed only as whole-grain flour. Any attempt to separate and discard either the 
germ or the bran or both removes valuable minerals and vitamins. As whole-wheat flour 
does not keep, the milling should be done by the baker. The law in regard to milling and 
baking should provide that none but whole-grain flour be used and the wholegrain flour 
used in any bakery in any day should be ground by suitable mills in that same bakery on the morning of the same day in which the baking takes place. The procedure should be 
to provide clean wheat or other grain early in the morning; putting this grain through the 
mill; taking the fresh flour and making it into bread or other bakery goods immediately following the milling. For home use the fresh flour could be delivered daily as milk is 
distributed. In England at the present time the milling of white flour is prohibited. They tried the addition of synthetics to white flour and found it to be unsatisfactory. This would not only provide better nutriti on, but better flavor. The flavor of freshly 
milled wheat is very delicious, whether used in porridge, pancakes, biscuits, muffins, or 
other foods. It is incomparably superior to th e flavor of aged white flour or relatively 
old whole-wheat flour. Small mills for grinding wheat and other grains could formerly be obtained from 
Montgomery-Ward & Company, and these mills were of various kinds and sizes. They could be obtained for home use, resembling somewhat the old-fashioned coffee mill; or 
they could be obtained for restaurant or hotel use in a somewhat larger mechanism. Such mills used in the home provided good food of excellent value. In restaurants and 
hotels they should be in demand because of the superior quality of the food they produce. The author first found out about the delicious flavor of freshly milled grain on a 
lecture trip to Seattle, Washington. At br eakfast in the Olympic Hotel in 1931, he 
immediately noticed the extremely fine flavor of the wholewheat bread and biscuits. An 
inquiry as to the kind of material used in making this bread brought out the fact that the 
hotel was using its own mill and grinding its own whole-wheat flour fresh every 
morning. This sort of an arrangement would completely change the milling industry. The 
revolution in dietary affairs would put all milling into the hands of the bakers. This 
would undoubtedly work an advantage for the bakers, but to the disadvantage of the 
millers; but it would be returning to somewhere near the conditions that existed before 
the days of the big mills, when a farmer took his grist to the neighborhood flour milt to be ground. The canning industry is one of the largest food industries. Up to the present time 
canned goods have been accepted as good food for either children or adults. Since we 
have known more about the chemical characteristics of the various vitamins, it has been found that some are destroyed by heat. Those most easily destroyed by heat are the 
water-soluble vitamins. Vitamin C, which has to do with the prevention of scurvy, is 
destroyed by ordinary cooking temperatures in the presence of oxygen. Therefore heat 
canning or any canning in the open air results in the destruction of vitamin C. Much 
canning is in heavy sugar syrup which furt her relatively reduces vitamin and mineral 
content. Canners are now avoiding open vessels, and are canning in the absence of oxygen, 
which preserves a major portion of the vitamin C. This fact gives all the advantage to 
factory canning. Factory canned foods cont ain good quantities of vitamin C if it is 
originally present in the food. Home canned f oods are deficient in this element. Vitamin 
B
1 is killed by ordinary cooking temperatures if the temperature is kept up for a long 
enough time. Short cooking kills a relatively small amount of vitamin B 1. Long 
continued cooking kills practically all vitamin B 1. Vitamin B 1 is destroyed also 
according to the temperature of the cooking. A relatively low temperature--220 degrees-
-may be kept up for a longer time than temperatures around 400 or 500 degrees. If subjected to exceedingly high temperatures, as are most goods put up in packages, such 
as breakfast cereals, the food is practically devoid of vitamin B. In most such so-called cereal foods the empty package has more intrinsic value than the contents. The presence of acid helps to preserve the integrity of vitamin B
1. Foods that are 
highly acid go through canning with very little such loss. Canned tomatoes are almost as 
good food as raw tomatoes. However, few foods have the acid protective qualities of tomatoes, so we may say that non acid canned fruits or vegetables are to be condemned. Vitamin B
1 does not exist in any great concentration anywhere in nature. Its richest 
sources are the germs of seeds, yeast, and liver. Throughout all nature, every living thing--plant and animal--is in a constant struggle for more vitamin B
1. The first part 
wild animals eat of their victims is the vitamin rich liver. Birds eat seeds containing the 
germ, while rejecting the polished seeds fro m which the germ has been removed. Rats 
and other laboratory animals will fight to get a solution of thiamin (B 1) while rejecting 
tasty concoctions containing sugar, meat, or honey. Plants that are injured immediately move the thiamin contained in the plant to the injured place, evidently in an effort to 
promote better healing. Horticulturists have found that the addition of small amounts of 
thiamin to growing plants very decidedly stimulates their growth. We may consider thiamin, then, as a scarce, very precious natural element. It exists only in sparse quantities in ordinary foods. Living things cons tantly struggle to get more of it. It is 
suicidal that the human animal should throw this valuable element away as is done in 
milling white flour or destroy it by the heat incident to cooking and canning. Any person eating canned meat, fruit, or vegetables should remember that he is eating 
a food which formerly did contain vitamin B
1, but in the process of canning, this 
precious element has been largely destroyed. He must look forward to some lowering of his resistance against infection, and to the development of some kind of disease, along 
with a lessened ability to do work and a greater liability to fatigue and shortened life, if he persists in eating canned foods of any non-acid kind. It must not be inferred that canning destroys all of the vitamin B 1 in ordinary foods; 
but it reduces the vitamin B 1 to such a degree that the inf ection-fighting elements in the 
food are very greatly reduced. The canning of foods is therefore to be condemned, and 
all civilized persons should be encouraged to eat their meat, fresh vegetables and fruits 
in a fresh or previously frozen state. Frozen foods do not have the vitamin deficiencies 
to be found in canned foods; so in any case where fresh food is not available, frozen 
food should be the choice of the individual. There is one class of canned foods that may be eaten without fear in cases where the 
fresh food of this type is not available. This is sea food. The main benefit from sea 
foods (oysters, lobsters, shrimp, and salmon) is from the iodine they contain. The iodine is present in the canned as well as the fresh sea food; so while it is desirable to eat fresh 
sea food, no great harm will be done if the canned article is substituted. All canned goods and packaged foods, with the exception of the canned acid fruits and 
vegetables and sea foods, should be condemned as food unfit for consumption by 
civilized communities. Other classes of food such as meat and milk should, if possible, be consumed fresh; but apparently meat does not suffer any great loss in ordinary 
refrigeration, and milk does not suffer much loss in pasteurization. Some kinds of meat, 
such as pork, carry parasitic disease. In these cases, the harm done by cooking is not so great as that which might be done by eating the meat rare. Cheese, cream, eggs, and butter are good, acceptable foods, and their c onsumption should be encouraged. Pastries 
and desserts of all kinds should be prohibited,  since these are mostly composed of sugar 
and white flour. Ordinary cake is perhaps the most pernicious food of all. The argument 
has been brought forward that cake contains eggs and milk; but the quantities of these 
are so small that they amount to nothing. Ice cream would perhaps be very much 
improved and would become an acceptable food if sweetened by honey instead of sugar. As long as it contains the large amount of sugar it now contains, it must be considered 
an unacceptable food except in relatively sma ll quantities. Ice cream could be prepared 
with honey, the honey to be put in after all cooking or heating is over. The regime we set forth as acceptable would provide all the need of the optimum in 
civilized diet. Fresh, whole grains, meat, honey, milk, eggs, butter and cheese are 
fundamental foods elements. As the population of the United States and every other 
civilized country which has consumed large quantities of sugar, white flour, and canned goods, is a definitely diseased group, having a history of years of subnormal living, 
something must be done to make up for past deficiencies. A return to normal food alone 
will never bring health up to a normal standard. A return to normal food will improve the condition of any person suffering from years of food deficiency, but will not give him the optimum. In order to reach the optimum, he must have a well-balanced mineral and vitamin intake, and to provide for past de ficiencies we must resort to so-called drug 
store vitamins (concentrates). A proper mineral intake may be supplied by milk and cheese for calcium; a plentiful 
supply of fresh meat for iron, and sea food for iodine. To make up for past dietary sins, concentrated vitamins should be taken for six 
months to two years, in order that the individual may reach a point where, with his reserves restored, he can carry on with a balanced diet. The vitamin intake essential for the treatment of a deficiency disease is naturally 
higher than the requirement for preventing a de ficiency. For this reason it is impractical, 
if not impossible to adequately treat a defici ency disease by merely correcting the diet. In the selection of a concentrate, it is important to remember, first, that the original 
deficiency is invariably multiple in origin. The diet has usually been deficient in not one or two, but in many or all of the vitamins. This is being further established every day, in 
both the research laboratory and in clinical practice. It is essential that the concentrate contain all of the vitamins, both known and 
unknown. Undoubtedly many of the vitamins essential in human nutrition have not as 
yet been identified or synthetically reproduced. For this reason no synthetic preparation can completely replace the vitamins in which the average person may be deficient. Such 
foods as yeast, liver and wheat germ are ex cellent sources of not only some of the 
known vitamins, but also many of the unidentified naturally occurring associated factors 
which are just as important in human nutrition as the fractions already known. A 
millionth of a milligram of biotin may be as important in the daily diet as three milligrams of thiamin. In the selection of any vitamin concentrate bear in mind the need 
for its containing as many of the vital vitamins as are found in our foods. Only natural 
sources of the vitamins should be employed for synthetic mixtures alone cannot afford a 
complete complex of the required factors, and without the so-called "unknown or unsynthesized" factors, few if any deficiency disorders can be cured. A new condition more serious than the one being treated may develop as the result of imbalance. The 
great mass of people suffering from digestive disorders, heart symptoms, rheumatic 
pains and aches, and fatigue will notice improved health conditions very soon after the 
beginning of such a regime. A reversion in appearance to a younger age group will soon 
be apparent. The skin will be brighter; the hair more nearly like the hair of a well fed animal, with a richer luster than before, a nd the ability to do physical and mental work 
will be greatly enhanced. Those cases where actual organic change has taken place, of 
course, need further medical or surgical attention. This means crippled hearts, distorted 
and misshapen colons and scarred stomachs, the actual incidence of tumors, loss of 
teeth, etc. A badly nourished person is never beautiful. The well nourished person cannot escape some degree of beauty, as health and beauty are inseparably bound 
together. There is also need for a better, clearer understanding of how to judiciously choose a 
diet which will contain the factors the body so desperately needs. Diet is a scientific 
subject. An appeal to nothing but taste is a wrong approach to one of the most vital problems in health. Normally we tend to overeat on carbohydrate foods, for they have no selflimiting action on the appetite. A rich, natural food, such as honey will be tolerated only in reasonable quantities, and is self-limiting. Several general types of 
food, such be avoided, since they fail to carry their share of the nutritional load. 1--Remove from the diet any food which has had the basic chemistry altered by the 
removal of those elements essential to human nutrition. This would eliminate the use of 
white flour with most of its vitamin and mineral content removed; white sugar, which is actually a fine food which has been stripped of all nutritional value except calories; and 
corn syrup and other sugar syrups which are devitalized, devitaminized sugar solutions. 2--Any food subject to an artificial ripening loses some of its normal vitamin content. Artificially ripened tomatoes, oranges and lemons are three such products. 3--Excessive storage causes vitamin de struction. Coldstorage meats are a case in 
point, where there is a slow loss of the vital food factors. Orange juice may lose some of 
the vitamin C in as little as half an hour if it is squeezed and allowed to stand before 
being drunk. 4--Artificial processing also has a harmful effect on foods. Pasteurization causes 
destruction of some of the vitamin C and some precipitation of calcium, and also has 
some effect on the vitamin A and B content. This does not justify the use of carelessly 
produced raw milk. The milk which is produced under carefully controlled sanitary 
conditions (Certified Milk) is nearly as fre e from disease germs as pasteurized milk, and 
has the vitamin content of raw milk. Pasteurized milk is better than average raw milk 
but is not as good a food as Certified Milk. 5--Canning does markedly reduce the vitamin content of foods. Whenever possible 
foods should be fresh. For off season fruits an d vegetables, fast freezing is far more 
satisfactory than canning. 6--In the home avoid long time storage of foods. Eat as you buy. Long boiling of 
fruits and vegetables, meat and even potatoes may cause a destruction of vital food 
factors. The use of soda to preserve color of vegetable should never be tolerated as any 
alkali destroys Vitamins. 7--Any synthetic concoction which is suppos ed to replace a natural food, is at best 
unsatisfactory. Oleomargarine is no substitute for butter. Any attempt to fortify it with 
vitamin A, is answering but a small part of its shortcomings. It totally lacks the vitamin 
D, E, and unsaturated Fatty Acids (Vitamin F) found in butter. It is also lacking in the 
minerals and phospholipids found in butter. 8--Avoid in baby foods, the soft mushy type of product designed to save the baby 
from the "strain" imposed by roughage in the diet. First the foods are no substitute for 
mother's milk, secondly they assume that roughage should be avoided, which is the exact opposite of the truth. The most common disorder among babies is constipation, 
due to a lack of bulk in the diet. No wonder, then that millions of people are bound to a 
laxative for the rest of their lives, when they have started off by a lack of normal 
intestinal physiology. 9--Don't depend on the "enriched" or "fortified" foods. These foods put back a small 
fraction of what commercial bungling has taken out. In each of these foods try to get it in its normal state, i.e., whole wheat instead of white bread. Briefly then, the following might be a list of some of    these foods which fall on the 
good and the bad side:  
GOOD FOODS BAD FOODS 
Milk, eggs, butter and cheese. Oleomargarine. Fresh or raw fruits and vegetables. Canned goods (exception: sea foods and 
acid fruits and vegetables). Fresh meats and sea foods. Cold storage meats. * 
Whole wheat and other Whole Grain 
products. Made only from fresh ground 
flour. Package foods. Graham crackers, honey canned tomatoes 
and other canned acid fruits and vegetables.Sugar, white flour pancakes, white 
crackers, white flour bread, white flour 
biscuits, white flour muffins, pie crust, etc. (All food made from white flour or 
containing white flour.) * Cold storage meat is a good source of protein and while the vitamin B elements are 
reduced they are not destroyed. It is better than salt meat but not as; good as fresh meat. The danger that comes with a failure to put diets on a sensible basis is clearly seen 
when one recognizes the relationship of many of the diseases which are so common to 
dietary deficiencies. We have discussed the inability of artificial preparations spiked with imbalanced 
synthetic vitamins to satisfactorily replace mother's milk. Deeper into the problem one 
asks, why wasn't mother able to nurse the baby in the first place. The secretion of milk goes on in a normal manner in the well nourished mother. The 
mother who cannot furnish milk for the child may in rare instances be suffering from 
some uncorrectable bodily dysfunction, but in the vast majority of cases the inability to 
supply milk to the child is due to a lack of the proper nutrition on the mother's part. In 
these cases the child starts off with inadequa te nutrition. The mother's adequate care of 
her diet might well have prevented it. Step 2 is that of placing the child on the squeezed, 
mashed, mushy canned baby foods which have become accepted as the "natural" thing 
to give the baby. Not only do such foods give the baby a flying start towards a life of 
chronic constipation through their inability to provide essential roughage, but one again 
we are faced with foods which have had a pronounced vitamin loss in the canning process. To suggest that a baby can take fresh vegetables and whole wheat along with 
meat sounds impossible to the person who has had the need for giving baby "gentle" 
foods drummed into them. Actually children thrive on it if they are started on small quantities and their tolerance is not exceeded. If the infant is able to tolerate the strained, canned, embalmed products fortified with crudely balanced synthetic vitamins, 
he will do much better on the fresh substances themselves. Unless the infant is seriously 
ill, there is no need for sterilizing the food (with its accompanying vitamin loss) for the 
gut must at the same time accommodate itself to the friendly and unfriendly organisms 
that will eventually make it their habitat. Then comes the school period with its sinus disease, children's febrile diseases and 
tonsilitis. The major part of the school child's diet is composed of refined carbohydrates, 
sugar and white flour. Remove them from the diet, and the incidence of sinus disease 
and tonsilitis will decrease to the vanishing point. Putrid tonsils and rotten teeth are logically removed. The cause is left. The result is a child who will grow to adulthood 
accumulating the usual mass of such diseases as Tuberculosis, Rheumatic Fever, Peptic 
ulcers, Heart diseases, susceptibility to ever y infection that comes along, fatiguability--
ALL CONDITIONS WHICH WOULD BE NON-EXISTENT IF THE DIET WERE 
CORRECT. There are a number of mental and nervous diseases which can be treated successfully 
by adequate attention to nutrition. Even the treatment of venereal disease can be 
improved and painful conditions like arthritis and neuritis are more successfully treated 
if nutrition is made a first consideration. Preference must be given to the NATURAL 
SOURCES of the vitamins such as Certified  milk, eggs, whole grains, sea food, liver, 
heart, kidney, fresh, raw or frozen vegetables, yeast and butter. Surgery becomes a much simpler matter if the patient goes to the table with a body so 
well nourished that every mechanism of the body can recuperate with normal efficiency. I have treated all cases of stomach and duodenal ulcer since 1928, with the high 
vitamin, high mineral diet. If necessary, (alle rgy), tobacco was forbidden for life. In 
every uncomplicated case, cure was complete, and the disease never recurred as long as 
the patient adhered to the high vitamin, high mineral regime. Clinically this refutes the theory that once a person has peptic ulcer nothing under the sun can prevent them from 
recurring. It may be repeated that they can never return to the diet composed of devitalized, devitaminized, demineralized carbohydrates that produced the disease. The physician or layman who fails to real ize that vitamin and mi neral deficiencies are 
rampant had best look about. Everywhere one turns, people are seen who are missing 
the fullness of life that comes with optimum nutrition. If they could be made to realize the need  for treating their past dietary errors by the 
use of concentrates and placing themselves on a full rich diet, many of the nation's health problems would cease to be problems. The average person's diet is much below the optimum. The average grocery and the 
average table indicate too much carbohydrate and too much salt, with a relative lack of 
calcium, iron, iodine and vitamins. The time has come to do something about it. The successful outcome of any war may depend on the question of optimum nutrition. Any commercial interests who aid and abet and give comfort to the enemy by 
hampering the campaign for better nutrition should be dealt with as saboteurs. We must 
not aim at minimum requirements in these questions of nutrition but at optimum 
requirements. If we do not achieve the optimum some other nation will and they will be the masters, we the slaves.
The_National_Malnutrition_by_Quigley.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Other physicians have noted 
that the patient who has ceased to respond and whose blood pictures does not get back 
to normal will be much better and will recover something approaching a normal blood picture does not get back to normal will be much the average internist and the average 
general physician are concerned, here the ma tter rests in a fog. The main group believe 
in giving iron alone. One group is sold on the idea of giving iron with vitamin B. Another group believes that the best results are obtained by giving the iron with vitamin 
C. Apparently on none has the true situation dawned that these patients who are deficient in iron are deficient in all the vita mins and also in the minerals calcium and 
iodine. [Editorial note from soilandhealth. org: there is an incomprehensibility about this paragraph which does not seem resolvable. Obviously there was a major, 
overlooked typographical error here. ] An examination of the food intake of anemic persons will disclose the fact that the 
sick person has been living on a diet which is largely composed of devitaminized and 
devitalized carbohydrates, and this has cut down in his diet not only iron, but all 
vitamins, calcium, iodine, and the trace minerals. The person suffering with pernicious anemia has very much the same kind of an 
etiology. In his case the deficiency is a multiple deficiency, but by some freak the thing 
in which he is most deficient is the so-called extrinsic factor which has to do with the 
manufacture of red corpuscles, and which may be had in its greatest concentration in 
liver. As an example of the failure to evaluate properly the causative factors in the anemias 
among presumably well informed physicians, a certain faculty meeting may be cited. This was a meeting of the faculty of one of the class A medical colleges. The subject for 
discussion at this meeting was the Iron Anemias. Specialists in internal medicine, 
surgeons, neurologists, general practitioners, and pathologists joined in the discussion, 
which continued over two hours. During the whole evening, not one word was said about the needs of the patient suffering with secondary anemia for any other therapeutic 
item except iron. The discussion took up matter s concerning what preparations of iron 
should be used; what dosage should be used; how the dose should be given (by mouth 
or hypodermically), and the economic side of the question--which kind of iron was best 
and cheapest for the patient. This kind of iron treatment for secondary anemia was in practical use in the Hospital 
connected with this medical school. Treating such patients with iron alone would, of course, only temporarily restore the patient to some degree of improvement. In many 
cases it would do no good whatever. In no case would it give the optimum treatment to 
the patient, as all these patients were suffering from a deficiency in other minerals as 
well as iron, and all were suffering multiple vitamin deficiency. CHAPTER IX  
WHAT MUST BE DONE  
   Since the most important thing in connection with medical practice is not treatment of 
the person's illness, but a clear understanding of the causes which brought about the illness, this same thing is true when applied to the population as a whole. If the population of a town, state, or nation suffers from some particular kind of disease, the fact the disease is so circumscribed is a great help in working out the cause. In 
connection with the diseases incident to diet deficiencies, there is no such aid or 
assistance. The deficiencies cover our own nation and in different degrees affect the 
population of every civilized country in the world. Diet deficiencies, contrary to general 
belief, also are a serious problem with savage  and uncivilized peoples. In the islands of 
the Pacific Ocean, varieties of food are not easily accessible. Where the geographical 
limitations make it necessary for the persons living there to subsist on the products of 
their particular island, no great variety is possible. Such populations are always badly 
nourished. This same thing is true in connection with the savages of Australia and Africa, and the 
low-class populations of India and Siberia. While these peoples suffer geographical 
limitations, they are also subject to tribal limitations. Their area of activity is limited on account of hostile neighbors. Their food supply is therefore limited as to variety. The 
healthiest and strongest of the North American Indians, before the white man 
completely dominated the country, attacked and routed their weaker neighbors and stole their food. They enjoyed a better diet. It is difficult to say whether the aggressive Sioux tribes were more fortunate because they conquered their neighbors and were therefore 
better fed, or whether the good food produced in their particular areas gave them a 
better diet, and therefore stronger muscles and better nerves and brains, which in turn 
gave them dominance over their neighbors. At any rate, among the savage peoples of 
the world, food supply has determined domination, and lack of proper food supply has caused the enslavement of those unfortunates who had the lesser degrees of nutrition. In order to attain the optimum, all the scientific assistance available should be brought 
into the problem, in the same manner that the best engineering skill is brought into play 
in building guns, tanks, and airplanes. Without great physical endurance, good eyes, 
nerves, and brains, the tanks, guns, and airplanes are of no use. The world struggle for 
power will undoubtedly go to the group which possesses the highest degree of nutrition. This has been demonstrated plainly in the history of England. It is being demonstrated 
at the present time in the world war now going on. The ordinary person who has believed th at savages were always well-nourished also 
had another delusion and that is that our primeval ancestors were marvels of physical 
perfection owing to their having a proper and right diet. This idea is also a fallacy. Those of our primeval ancestors who did attain great physical and mental prowess were 
those who were accidentally well fed. The great masses, for economic or other reasons, were not well fed, the main reason for this being that they did not know what constitutes 
a good diet. They, like the animals of the fields, were entirely creatures of their own 
capricious appetites. They liked sweets, and were therefore eager to get sweets. They 
liked the effects of alcohol; therefore they ove rindulged in alcoholic drinks. Those of us 
who have come down to the present time should be thankful that we have come through times of stress and strain and starvation  and bad dietary surroundings, but we should also realize that we have not come through in the optimum manner. The bad diets of 
former generations have left their imprint on the nervous systems, brains, bones, and other bodily structures. There is, therefore, a hereditary stigmata which must be corrected in the future by 
several generations of proper and right di et. A perfect race is not going to be 
manufactured all at once, even though the best scientific diets are at once adopted by all 
civilized countries. The change that might be brought about by the adoption of scientific 
diet would be a very spectacular and decided change. Somewhere from 70 to 80 per cent 
of the disease that now afflicts the human animal would be eliminated. The average age 
of the average human being could be extended from somewhere around sixty to well over one hundred years. No one has yet known what the upper age limit could be under 
optimum conditions; but from work with animals, in which it has been demonstrated 
that the life period may be doubled, we have reason for believing that this might also be 
achieved in connection with human existence. At no time in the history of the human race has there been any nation or any group 
that existed on optimum diets. At no time in the history of the human race up to the 
present time has it been known what constitutes a normal, scientific dietary intake. In no 
period or time in history have we understood the physiology or dietary action of even one mineral such as iron, iodine, or calcium. Since vitamins are a recent discovery, of course nothing has been known in a scientific way about them. As has been shown here, even the persons who have devoted a good deal of time to nutritional affairs have not 
had any proper conception of the nutrition of the population as a whole. Individual 
workers and individual universities have concentrated on individual parts of the 
problem. Williams and Spies have concentrated on vitamin B
1; McCollum and Johns Hopkins 
on vitamin A; Steenbock has focused on vitamin D; Sure, Bishop and Evans have given 
much of their attention to vitamin E; Sherman has devoted his attention to vitamin G; Hanke, of Chicago University, worked with great enthusiasm on vitamin C; Plummer 
did a good deal of work on iodine. Dr. Alice Bernheim worked long and patiently on 
calcium. Various workers too numerous to mention have worked on iron. In no case has 
a right and proper correlation of all this work been achieved, not even in any branch of the government where such correlation should take place. The only possible correlation of all this new knowledge of nutrition is in the hands of 
the man who is engaged in the clinical practice of medicine. The data emanating from the laboratory worker who has no clinical experience are not only likely to be wrong, 
but are almost sure to be wrong. An example of this is a new book by an author who is a 
Ph. D. but not an M.
It is not effective in the long run and may not even work at all, as the patient is likely deficient in other minerals and vitamins.
What is the main issue with treating anemia with iron alone?
The author believes that it is not effective and may even cause harm, as the body requires a balance of vitamins and minerals.
What is the author's stance on the use of single vitamins in medical treatment?
The author is against the use of synthetic vitamins, as they may not provide the necessary balance of vitamins and minerals and may even cause harm.
What is the author's opinion on the use of synthetic vitamins in medicine?
The author suggests that education and legislation are necessary to promote proper nutrition and prevent disease. He also emphasizes the importance of avoiding foods that have been processed or canned, as they may be deficient in essential vitamins and minerals.
What is the author's recommendation for improving public health?
The author believes that doctors are often unaware of the importance of nutrition and are not adequately educated on the subject, which can lead to further harm to patients.
What is the author's view on the role of doctors in promoting healthy eating habits?