Page 18 - Summer2010

Caustic Commentary

over a period of fifteen years. People who ate the most full-fat ness each year (New England Journal of Medicine May 2010
dairy products had a 69 percent lower risk of cardiovascular 362(10):1784). Vitamin A not only guides the development of
death than those who ate the least; or, to put it another way, the fetus, it also assists in the production of cellular energy
people who mostly avoided dairy foods or consumed lowfat throughout life. According to findings published in the FASEB
dairy had more than three times the risk of dying of coronary Journal, vitamin A may play a role in the synthesis of ATP
heart disease or stroke compared to people who ate the most in the mitochondria—the power plant of our cells. When
full-fat dairy (European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 7 April vitamin A is deficient, the production of energy is reduced
2010; doi: 10.1038/ejcn.2010.45). by 30 percent (FASEB Journal 2010 24:627-636). In spite of
these and numerous other findings showing the importance
IMPOSSIBLE STANDARDS? of adequate vitamin A in the diet, the public continues to
Doris E. Travis, the last surviving Ziegfeld girl, has died at hear warnings against the consumption of vitamin A-rich
age one hundred six. For a quarter century, Florenz Ziegfeld foods like liver and cod liver oil. Yet the levels were certainly
auditioned thousands of young women vying to become very high in primitive diets. We recently stumbled on some
chorus girls. What caught our attention in the news report information from 1972 showing very high levels of vitamin
about Travis was the fact that Ziegfeld wanted girls with the A in foods prized by primitive people—foods like fish liver
exact measurements of 36-26-38—in other words, girls with oils, polar bear liver, seal liver, the livers of land animals and
generous hips (New York Times, May 12, 2010). Today, young surprisingly high levels in oily fish (see below).
women feel compelled to fit a more slender and far less at-
tainable measurement of 36-24-36. VITAMIN K AND CANCER
In a study involving over twenty-four thousand subjects, di-
VITAMIN A IN THE NEWS etary intake of vitamin K was found to protect against cancer.
2
In humans, the formation of the heart occurs within the fourth The subjects were free of cancer at enrollment. On follow-up
week of development. Researchers at the Keck School of Med- over ten years later, over seventeen hundred cases of cancer
icine of the University of Southern California have pinpointed occurred, of which four hundred fifty-eight were fatal. Those
the mechanism that guides embryonic heart tissue forma- with the highest intake of vitamin K had the lowest incidence
2
tion—it is retinoic acid, an isomer of vitamin A. “This exciting
research shows how retinoic acid, a vitamin A derivative, acts
to guide cells in the embryo to form parts of the heart and the VITAMIN A CONTENT OF TRADITIONAL FOODS
major blood vessels that emerge from it,” said a spokesman
for the research. “Defects in this developmental pathway can Vitamin A (IU per 100 gm weight, fresh)
result in serious congenital malformations in the heart in the
fetus and newborns, that may be fatal if not corrected surgi- Cod liver oil 200,000
cally” (sciencedaily.com, March 10, 2010). Nepalese children Halibut liver oil 4-6 million
whose mothers received vitamin A supplementation during Shark liver oil 3 million
pregnancy had better lung function compared to those who Polar bear liver 1.8 million
received a placebo. Children whose mothers received beta- Seal liver 1.3 million
carotene supplements did not experience any benefits. “The Tuna 800,000 - 8 million
greater bioefficacy of preformed vitamin A as compared Sardines 4,500-54,000
with beta-carotene may stem from differences in absorption Herring 9,000
and metabolism,” explained the researchers. While warning Liver (sheep and ox) 4,000 – 45,000
American mothers to avoid vitamin A, health officials admit Butter 2,400 – 4,000
that vitamin A deficiency is a public health problem in more
than half of all countries in the world, especially in Africa Source: N Sapekia, Food Pharmacology, Charles C. Thomas,
Springfield, Illinois, 1972.
and Southeast Asia where it results in 500,000 cases of blind-
18 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2010