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Cl I. E A N 1 N (5 S IN BEE C U L T U R R 



March, 1621 



most iiiinicdiatc'ly into the system, and will 

 assist in giving the digestive organs th»; 

 strength needed to digest other foods. An 

 orangeade sweetened with honey is also ef- 

 fective and valuable in these circum- 

 stances. ' ' 



SOME of the readers may think OUE 

 FOOD PAGE is beginning to bear a 

 strong resemblance to a yeast advertise- 

 ment, in the way it brings up the subject of 

 vitamines so frequently; but, altho I plead 

 guilty to beginning the subject, it is the 

 many letters from you subscribers -which 

 lead me back so often. 



Let me begin by making this disappoint- 

 ing announcement: The article telling of 

 his research work on vitamines in honey by 

 Philip B. Hawk of Jefferson Medical Col- 

 lege, Philadelphia, is not yet out, nor has 

 he notified us in what publication it will 

 appear, altho we received a notice that it 

 was in type weeks ago. The proverbial mills 

 of the gods have nothing on some scientific 

 men for slowness. 



To make the subject clear to those readers 

 who have not seen the articles on vitamines 

 and to refresh the memories of the rest, let 

 me review a bit. Vitamines are sometimes 

 defined as unidentified dietary essentials 

 without which there cannot be proper 

 growth, reproduction, or maintenance of 

 health in human beings and animals. Some 

 variety is present in practically all foods in 

 the natural state, but they are largely re- 

 moved or destroyed in many modern foods 

 by so-called refining processes. 



Three classes of vitamines are now recog- 

 nized: Fat Soluble A, Water Soluble B, and 

 Water Soluble C. Water Soluble B was the 

 first vitamine discovered, and it is found in 

 wheat germ, rice polishings, yeast, etc. This 

 prevents such diseases as beriberi and poly- 

 neuritis, and encourages growth. Fat Soluble 

 A is found in abundance in the fat of milk, 

 egg yolk, the green, leafy vegetables, young 

 carrots, cod liver oil, etc., and we now know 

 thru Prof. Hawk's experiments that comb 

 honey contains distinct amounts of it. The 

 absence of this vitamine in the diet causes 

 lack of growth and reproduction, rickets, 

 and an eye disease which results in blind- 

 ness. Water Soluble C is in living vegetable 

 and animal tissues and is found in abund- 

 ance in fresh fruits and fresh vegetables, 

 and its use prevents scurvy. We have known 

 for some time that citrus fruits, particularly 

 oranges, are rich in this vitamine, but it has 

 more recently been pointed out that tomato 

 juice compares favorably with that of or- 

 anges. 



On the ordinary mixed diet none of us 

 may be in danger of the blindness brought 

 on by lack of the Fat Soluble vitamine nor 

 such diseases as beriberi or scurvy, but it is 

 probable that much ill health less well de- 

 fined is due to a deficiency of one or more 

 of these vitamines in the diet. 



The report of Prof. Hawk's fimliug dis- 



tinct amounts of the Fat Soluble vitamine 

 in comb but not in extracted honey immedi- 

 ately led to a discussion which brought out 

 the fact that two samples of extracted honey 

 were used in the feeding experiments, one 

 of clover honey, unheated, and one of a 

 blend, heated only to the point which pre- 

 vents granulation under ordinary circum- 

 stances. Professor Hawk believed that the 

 wax contains the Fat Soluble vitamine, 

 while some of us doubted whether nature 

 would put so valuable a food constituent in 

 the container of the food for the bees and 

 thought it might be in the pollen dust which 

 is found in minute quantities in honey. At 

 this iioint I am going to quote from "Mak- 

 ing Friends With Vitamines," an interest- 

 ing popular article in the February Ladies' 

 Home Journal: 



"Neither the ordinary cooking nor pas- 

 teurization has much effect in diminishing 

 or deteriorating the Fat Soluble vitamine. It 

 seems that butter loses some of this virtue 

 by long storage. ' ' 



Now I wish some one could make some 

 feeding tests with honey immediately after 

 it has been taken from the extractor. If 

 the Fat Soluble vitamine is unstable enough 

 to disappear from butter after long storage, 

 it might be lost from honey in the same 

 way. The article from which I quoted did 

 not state what was meant by long storage, 

 whether it was some three months or sev 

 eral years. 



ALTHO scientific men seem to think it 

 may be accidental here is an interest- 

 ing fact: the color yellow seems to be 

 associated with the Fat Soluble vitamine 

 in foods. Notice that butter fat, yolk of 

 egg, yellow corn, young carrots, and sweet 

 potatoes contain the vitamine while white 

 corn is said to lack it. Yellow is one of the 

 colors which go to make up green and we 

 know that the green, leafy vegetables are 

 rich in this vitamine. I believe it was E. 

 Adams Dutcher, of the Minnesota Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station, who has in 

 the past done some research work on honey, 

 who pointed out that the milk of grass-fed 

 cows is richer in the Fat Soluble vitamine 

 than the milk of a cow on winter rations; 

 and we country dwellers all know that but- 

 ter fat in the early summer is a rich yel- 

 low, and that the egg yolk is a richer color 

 when the hens have access to green foods. 

 The fact that honey, wax, and pollen have 

 more or less of the yellow tint may or may 

 not be significant. 



A certain dairy lunch in Cleveland fea- 

 tures honey prominently in connection with 

 its dairy products. As comb honey contains 

 the same vitamine which is found in the 

 fat of milk the association of them seems 

 particularly appropriate, altho I don 't sup- 

 pose the proprietor had any such scientific 

 reasons for handling honey. Perhaps the 

 frequent scriptural association of milk and 

 honey subconsciously influenced him. 

 (Continued on Page 187.) 



