Vitamin Supplements

In the ‘thirties the idea of such a list was very novel but it soon had a chance of being put to the test. With the coming of World War II and the rationing of food this type of information was very valuable. Vitamins were made available to mothers and babies, and the basic rations for everyone in this country included sufficient food for good health. Vitamins were added to margarine, bread and flour, and although food was limited and the diet was often monotonous we had all the food we needed and were healthier at the end of six years of war than we had ever been before.

Vitamins had proved their point. We believed in them, and the way was open for a new and thriving business. Health food shops sprang up in the ‘fifties and chemists started to sell an increasingly large range of vitamin preparations. Read the rest of this entry »

The history of vitamins as solo performers is very recent. They were not named until 1912 and did not enter the English dictionary until 1934 but their role in disease dates back some thousands of years. Early Egyptian records show that ox liver was used in the treatment of eye complaints; Hippocrates, ‘the Father of Medicine’, prescribed sensible diets in the treatment of illness; and in the Middle Ages when scurvy was the plague of sailors on long sea voyages, the cure was found in fresh fruit and vegetables, particularly citrus fruits. Today, we know that liver is a rich source of vitamin A and oranges and lemons supply vitamin C, and it is these factors which produce the cure, but in those days sickness and health belonged to religion and folklore as much as to the art of the healer. If a remedy worked and restored the sufferer to good health that was enough, and thanks were given to God and the doctor. Only a few scientists wondered why something had ‘worked’ and were prepared to search further for an answer. Read the rest of this entry »