VEGETABLES AS LIFE INSURANCE 
What the Garden Contributes to 
the Family’s Welfare—Vitalizing 
with Vegetable Vitamins and Their 
G. O. LUROS 
Nutritional Chemist 
Importance in Everyday Diet— 
Fresh Light on Questions of Nutri¬ 
tion—Giving the Tomato Its Due 
pp^VER since we have been brought face to face with the 
importance of vitamins in our lives, the Tomato has 
jumped to the foremost ranks of our vegetables. Be- 
cause of its wealth of the three main types of vitamins, 
it is considered, along with Spinach, Lettuce, and Cabbage, one 
of the elect, one of “the Big Four” that head the vegetable 
kingdom. Among this vegetable aristocracy our Tomato may 
well be classed king, as he contains the largest amount, propor¬ 
tionally, of all the three main types of vitamins and is as well- 
borne by the tiny babe as by the octogenarian. The relative 
amounts of vitamins to be 
found in the various vegeta¬ 
bles is shown in the accom¬ 
panying chart. 
Because the Tomato comes 
under all three classes of vita¬ 
min bearing foods, physicians 
all over the country are now 
advocating the use of Tomato 
juice in place of Orange juice 
in all cases of infant feeding. 
Orange juice has been the 
standard up to the present 
time, giving bottle-fed babies 
their vitamin C to protect 
them from infantile scurvy. 
Mother’s milk contains suf¬ 
ficient of this vitamin, but raw 
cow’s milk contains very little 
and pasteurized milk prac¬ 
tically none. Hence bottle 
babies must obtain their sup¬ 
ply from an outside source. 
Tomato juice not only con¬ 
tains almost as much vitamin 
C as Orange juice, but it also 
contains as much vitamin B 
and a generous amount of 
vitamin A, practically absent 
from Orange juice. The large 
amount of vitamin B your 
baby now gets in his milk and 
his Tomato juice prevents 
him from contracting malnu¬ 
trition, that pitiable and wast¬ 
ing baby disease that attacks 
so many babies. Also, the 
nursing mother will do well to 
include generous amounts of 
Tomato in her diet, for the 
increased amount of vitamins 
in her diet not only tends to 
increase the amount in her 
milk for her baby, but also 
increases her supply of milk. 
T HERE is no danger of 
overloading the system 
with vitamins. On the con¬ 
trary, and this is especially so with babies and growing chil¬ 
dren, it has been found that the greater amount of vitamins 
the child consumes in his diet, the greater will be his develop¬ 
ment. 
In the chart you will see the generous amount of vitamin A in 
Tomatoes. To guard against colds and their dread follower, 
pneumonia, it is well to have a large amount of this vitamin in 
our diet, especially in the winter time, when we seem such easy 
victims. 
Some of you may come forth with the idea that the milk, 
butter, and eggs we eat will 
VITAMINS IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM 
(From “ 7 he Vitamins,” by Casimir Funk and from the findings of 
other scientific investigators ) 
Vitamin 
A 
Vitamin 
B 
Vitamin 
C 
Vegetables 
Tomato, raw . 
+ + 
-*- + 
+ + + 
Tomato, canned 
(pressure) 
+ + 
+ + 
+ + 
Beans, white . 
+ 
Beans, green . 
4-+ 
+ 
Beans, soya 
+ 
+++ 
Beetroot 
++ 
Cabbage, raw . 
+ 
+ 
+ + + 
Carrots, new 
dried 
+ 
+ 
+ + + 
Carrots, old 
dried 
+ 
4* 
+ + 
Corn, yellow 
+ + 
+++ 
Chard . 
+ 
Dasheen 
+? 
++ 
Lentils . 
++ 
Lettuce 
+ 
+ 
+ 
Peas 
+++ 
Peas, germin- 
ated . 
+ + 
Potato, raw 
+? 
++ 
+ + 
Peanuts 
+? 
++ 
Potato, Sweet . 
+ + 
+ 
Onion . 
++ 
+ + 
Rutabaga . 
+? 
++ 
Spinach 
4-++ 
++ 
Rhubarb 
+ + 
I urnip, white . 
++ 
I urnip, iuice 
(Swede) . 
++ 
+ + + 
Parsnip 
+? 
++ 
Vitamin 
A 
Vitamin 
B 
Vitamin 
C 
Fruits 
Orange juice . 
+ + 
+ + + + 
Lemons. 
+ + 
+ + + + 
Limes 
+ 
Grapefruit . 
+ + 
+ + + 
Grape juice, 
commercial . 
+ 
Prunes . 
+ + 
+ 
Apples . 
+ 
Pears 
+ 
Bananas 
+ 
+ 
+ 
Nuts 
Cocoanut . 
+ 
+ + 
Brazil nut . 
+? 
+ + 
Barcelona nut . 
+? 
+ + 
English Walnut 
+? 
+ + 
Black Walnut . 
+ + 
Almond. 
+? 
+ + 
Butternut . 
+? 
+ + 
Chestnut . 
+ + 
Pecan . 
+ + 
Pine nut 
+ + 
Filbert nut. 
+ + 
Cattle Feed 
(affecting milk 
content) . 
Clover, dried . 
+ + + 
+ + 
Alfalfa . 
+ + + 
+ + 
VITAMINS IN OTHER FOODS 
(Reprinted from chart of The American Medical Association ) 
Vitamin 
Vitamin 
Vitamin 
Vitamin 
Vitamin 
Vitamin 
A 
B 
C 
A 
B 
C 
Grain 
Oleomargarine. 
"f 
— 
— 
Liver 
+ + 
+ + 
+ 
Bread White 
+ 
Kidnev 
+ + 
+ + 
+? 
(Water) . 
? 
— 
Brains . 
+ 
+ + 
+? 
Bread. White 
Sweetbreads . 
+ 
+ 
* 
(Milk) . . 
+ 
+ 
? 
Fish, Lean . 
+ 
* 
Bread, Whole 
Fish, Fat 
+ 
+ 
* 
Wheat (Wa- 
Fish, Roe . 
+ 
+ + 
+? 
ter) . 
Bread, Whole 
+ 
+ + 
? 
Milk, etc. 
Wheat (Milk) 
Barley (Whole) 
Corn, Yellow . 
Oats 
+ + 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ + 
+ + 
++ 
+ + 
? 
Milk, Fresh 
Milk,Condensed 
Milk, Dried, 
(Whole) . . 
+ + + 
+ + + 
+ + + 
+ + 
++ 
+ + 
+v 
+V 
+v 
Fish and 
Milk, Skimmed 
+ 
+ + 
+V 
Meat 
Buttermilk. 
4" 
+ + 
+v 
Cream . 
+ + + 
+ + 
+v 
Meat, Lean 
— to + 
+? 
+? 
Butter . 
+ + + 
— 
— 
Beef Fat 
+ 
Cheese 
+ + 
* 
* 
Mutton Fat 
+ 
— 
— 
Cottage Cheese 
+ 
* 
* 
Pig Kidney Fat 
++ 
— 
— 
Eggs . . . 
+ + 
+ 
+? 
+ contains the Vitamin 
-f-f- good source of the Vitamin 
+ 4-+ excellent source of the Vitamin 
no appreciable amount of the Vitamin 
doubt as to presence or relative amount 
evidence lacking or insufficient 
variable 
give us sufficient vitamin A. 
These foods will serve you 
admirably in the summer 
time, when the cows and 
hens have access to plenty of 
green pasture, but don’t de¬ 
pend too strongly on them 
in the winter time. 
If you know the farmer 
from whom you buy your 
dairy products, and know 
that he feeds his stock 
plenty of Alfalfa or Clover 
hay and ensilage, and his 
hens sprouted grain, then 
you can be assured that 
your milk, butter, and eggs 
are rich in this vitamin. 
But the majority of us, who 
live in the city, who buy the 
milk from the milk-man as 
he makes his daily morning 
rounds, know nothing what¬ 
ever about the source. We 
know that the government 
inspects the milk to see that 
it contains the proper 
amount of butter-fat, and 
the dairies are regularly in¬ 
spected, but there are no 
tests made for vitamin con¬ 
tent. 
Also, what do you know 
about the feed of the hen 
who lays your eggs? Be¬ 
cause of the general lower 
vitamin content of the feed 
of these cows and hens dur¬ 
ing the important winter 
months, just when we need 
an increased amount of vita¬ 
min A to guard us from 
colds, the dairy products fall 
down on the job. 
Here the Tomato accom¬ 
modates us very nicely, hav¬ 
ing as much vitamin A in 
winter as in summer. But 
40 
