In addition, mineral co-factors must be available in proper amounts. If any of these parts are missing, there is no vitamin C, no vitamin activity. When some of them are present, the body will draw on its own stores to make up the differences, so that the whole vitamin may be present. Only then will vitamin activity take place, provided that all other conditions and co-factors are present. Ascorbic acid is described merely as the “antioxidant wrapper” portion of vitamin C; ascorbic acid protects the functional parts of the vitamin from rapid oxidation or breakdown.
(Somer p 58 “Vitamin C: A Lesson in Keeping An Open Mind” The Nutrition Report) Over 90% of ascorbic acid in this country is manufactured at a facility in Nutley, New Jersey, owned by Hoffman-LaRoche, one of the world’s biggest drug manufacturers(1 800 526 0189). Here ascorbic acid is made from a process involving cornstarch and volatile acids. Most U.S. vitamin companies then buy the bulk ascorbic acid from this single facility. After that, marketing takes over. Each company makes its own labels, its own claims, and its own formulations, each one claiming to have the superior form of vitamin C, even though it all came from the same place, and it’s really not vitamin C at all.
Large amounts of vitamin A are found in beef liver and fish liver oils; smaller amounts are in egg yolks, butter and cream. Milk and some cereals are fortified with vitamin A and, per serving, provide about 10 percent of daily needs. And substances in dark green, leafy vegetables and yellow vegetables and fruits are converted to vitamin A in the body.
Since it contributes to the natural development of the baby’s brain and nervous system before and after birth, olive oil is the only oil recommended for mothers by experts. As well as containing similar levels of linoleic acid to those of mother’s milk, when olive oil is added to fatless cow’s milk, it becomes as natural a food source as mother’s milk itself. Blood Pressure Reduction One study published in the 27 March 2000 edition of Archives of Internal Medicine once more stressed the beneficial effect of olive oil on high blood pressure.
Israel Police raided on Monday night the Rishon Letzion offices of Remedia, the company that sells a soy-based baby formula suspected of causing the deaths of three infants. Spokesmen for the German firm Humana, which manufactures the product specially for Israel, said that contrary to the Israeli findings, the formula contains the B-1 vitamin as listed. Health Ministry officials never checked the product; the Mossad is involved in the investigation.
In a quiet village on the outskirts of Zurich, a genetically engineered strain of rice that its creator says could save millions of children’s lives is, according to this story, locked up in a grenade-proof greenhouse as if it were the Frankenstein monster that some critics contend it is. The story says that unlike any other rice on earth, this so-called golden rice produces beta carotene in its seeds, thanks to genetic instructions that scientists added to the rice from a daffodil, pea, bacterium and virus.
Production of “golden rice”, a genetically engineered strain that the IRRI is developing with US-based food giant Monsanto, has been delayed because activists forced the cancellation of trials at the IRRI’s field stations, and they were moved to China instead. Golden Rice has been modified to contain high levels of beta carotene, which could help overcome a deficiency of vitamin A affecting more than 100 million children worldwide.
PREGNANCY In 1992 the US Public Health Service issued a recommendation that all women capable of becoming pregnant should consume 400 mcg of folic acid daily in order to avoid the risk of neural tube defects in the baby. Many doctors therefore recommend folic acid supplementation for women who are hoping to become pregnant. Research suggests that in women who have previously had a child with a neural tube defect, folic acid in doses of up to 4 mg daily can reduce the risk of recurrence by about 70 per cent. This is something to be discussed with a doctor as such large amounts of folic acid are only available on prescription.
