14 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 342 



MINERAL FOODS 



Recent research work on the mineral requirements for normal nutrition has 

 added greatly to our fund of knowledge in this field. A study of the numerous 

 functions of the various minerals in the animal body would be a maze to the 

 uninitiated. But the quacks and unscrupulous advertisers would make it still 

 more complicated by unwarranted statements regarding the health-giving and 

 therapeutic value of minerals. Many of these advertising statements are vague 

 and nonspecific, signifying or implying the presence of all the nutritionally 

 valuable minerals in a single product. Such vague statements are not informa- 

 tive and are misleading. 



1. LEGITIMATE MINERAL CLAIMS 



Mineral claims made for any food should specify the individual element or 

 elements present in nutritionally significant amounts. Minerals present only 

 in traces in the amounts of food likely to be consumed in the diet do not warrant 

 mention. 



2. MINERAL DEFICIENCIES 



Some advertisers not only make sweeping statements regarding the mineral 

 content of the product in question but lead the reader to believe that the aver- 

 age individual is suffering from serious mineral deficiencies which can be made 

 good only by the proprietary remedy or the food advertised. Smatterings of 

 facts are intermingled with falsehood giving the entire copy a semblance of 

 truth. 



3. ORGANIC VS. INORGANIC MINERALS 



There is no scientific basis for maintaining in general that organic mineral 

 compounds are better than inorganic. In some cases the facts are quite the 

 reverse. The quack tries to impress the public with repeated reference to 

 organic minerals when in reality most of the mineral elements present in these 

 proprietary compounds are inorganic. The availability of a mineral for animal 

 nutrition is not dependent upon the organic vs. inorganic state but upon solu- 

 bility and other chemical factors still under investigation. 



There is no scientific conservatism in such quack statements as ''Lack of 

 food minerals in the diet in proper form . . . result in obesity, goitre, rickets, 

 nervousness, anemia, eczema, asthma, rheumatism, neuritis, arthritis, and 

 many female troubles." "Guaranteed to contain all essential minerals." 

 " Minerals . . . necessary to maintain intelligence." 



4. ACIDOSIS 



Acidosis is always prominent among the dangers listed as resulting from mineral 

 deficiencies. The quack uses the scare motive freely in discussing the dire 

 consequences of an "acid system" and its widespread occurrence. Actually 

 acidosis is a rather rare condition of the blood; it is not a common disease 

 because the normal body has the necessary mechanism for disposing of excess 

 acids and alkalies. There is little need for worrying if the diet is reasonably 

 well balanced. Money spent in treating such imaginary ailments is usually 

 wasted. When true acidosis does accompany some other disease, it is a problem 

 for scientific management. Yet advertisements for these so-called mineral 

 foods (most of which are not foods at all) use such unqualified and vague 



