Sample Newsletter February 2005

Protective Foods , featuring Tocopherols (Vitamin E)

Walter W. Yellowlees

McCarrison repeatedly emphasised the importance of “protective foods” – vitamins and minerals which are essential for full health even if the intake of proteins, fats and carbohydrates is adequate. In the 1920s and 30s this new knowledge led to an explosion of nutritional research and comment. In order to assist his memory of the function of the newly discovered magic vitamins, an enterprising student in one of the England’s medical schools composed a poem¹ which extolled the virtues of vitamins A to E with a verse for each vitamin; here is the first verse:

Now Ralf the rat was strong and fat and his eyes were a clear cold grey.
How mournful that he ate less fat as day succeeded day
And he found each cornea daily hornier, lacking its vitamin A.
“I missed my vitamin A, my dears”, that rat was heard to say
“And you’ll find your eyes will keratinise if you get no vitamin A”.

The last verse on the fat-soluble vitamin E is as follows:

Vitamins B, A, D, and C will make you healthy and strong
But they’re no use to reproduce so the race won’t last for long.
So vitamin E is the stuff for me and its praises end my song
So take your vitamin E, my dears, oh take your vitamin E.
We will blast the hopes of Maria Stopes by taking it in our tea.

(Marie Stopes was at that time an enthusiast for what used to be called “birth control”, now family planning.)

Alas for our student poet!  The early reputation of vitamin E as treatment for human infertility was not confirmed by later studies.²

Overdoses

Vitamin overdosing has a long history.  In the 1950s, Vitamin D added to National Dried Milk for infant feeding and to margarines, plus cod liver oil caused occasional serious illness due to abnormally high blood calcium levels. Some unfortunate infants, overdosed with vitamin D supplements suffered brain damage, calcium deposits in kidneys and in heart muscle — pathology which was associated with vomiting, loss of appetite, wasting, constipation and sometimes, death.³

If vitamin E did not live up to its reputation as a cure for infertility, it was soon to be hailed as an anti-oxidant, preventative of various degenerative maladies including coronary heart disease. Mega doses of vitamins, including E had come into fashion; many people overdosed themselves with vitamins in the hope of health and longer life.

A recent study, however, of 136,000 patients, clearly demonstrated that those taking high doses of vitamin E in North America, Europe and China suffered an increased risk of premature death from heart attacks and strokes.⁴ The recommended daily allowance of vitamin E in America is 15 international units; (iu). Retailers in the US sell capsules containing 100iu or even 400iu; 100iu is equivalent to 65 mg. So, according to this study, the findings of which have been widely accepted, large doses of vitamin E brought an outcome opposite to that desired.

Treat with care

I am not arguing that synthetic vitamins should never be taken; the same advice goes for mineral trace elements.  The researches of Rex Newnham, whose work was reported in a previous number of this Newsletter, convinced him that a shortage of boron in soils and crops was associated with a high incidence of arthritis; he claimed spectacular results from boron supplements. Occasional shortages of trace elements in soils (iodine is an example) can cause serious illness.  In certain countries, as Tom Stockdale reminds us, soils low in selenium, are associated with high cancer incidence; and in some districts selenium supplements are essential to prevent serious illness in farm animals. But fat-soluble tocopherols (vitamin E) occur widely in vegetable oils -- wheat germ oil, nuts, seeds, olives, green leaf vegetables and margarines (synthetic vitamin E added during manufacture); deficiency in humans is rare and is mostly found in premature babies or in adults who suffer from intestinal malabsorption syndromes, for instance steatorrhoea (failure to absorb fats). Only in cases of such failure are mega doses of vitamin E justified.

Is Rock Dust the answer?

The lessons of all this are firstly:  vitamin or mineral supplements should be given with caution.  Secondly, a well fed population should not require supplements of (often synthetic) vitamins and trace elements. This takes us thirdly, to the American author John Hamaker, who believed that extractive agriculture, using soluble chemicals, has caused a catastrophic depletion of the earth’s minerals.⁵   He believed that at the end of an ice age, after the vast tonnage of moving glaciers has ground the underlying rocks, the resulting dust swirled over the land to form a deep layer, converted in time by micro organisms into fertile soil. According to Hamaker the only way to remineralise the earth is to spread on the land dust from the huge piles of quarry dust preferably from a variety of rock types.

SEER Centre (Sustainable, Ecological, Earth Regeneration)

Whether the followers of Hamaker are correct in claiming that rock dust will check global warming by enhancing the removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide, I do not know; but thanks to the work of Cameron and Moira Thomson at the SEER Centre here in Perthshire, there is no doubt about the high yields and fine quality of their crops. They harvest a wide range of vegetables and fruits from plots on marginal land fertilised by a deep layer of municipal compost mixed with a liberal quantity of rock dust. We eagerly await the results of their research programme supervised by the Scottish Agricultural College. Is it too much to hope that future generations, fed by a reformed, sustainable agriculture will have no need to think of supplements of vitamins and minerals?

References

1. Text book Vitamins. Publisher and date not available. (I have quoted the verses from memory WY)
2. Passmore R. Eastwood M.   Churchill, Livingstone Human Nutrition and Dietetics. Edinburgh, London. 8th Edition  p143
3. Ibid. p139
4. Fleming N. Daily Telegraph 11th Nov. 04.Heart Attack Risk from vitamin E. reporting Dr.Edgar Millar’s presentation at American Heart Association meeting.
5. Hamaker John. (1914-1994). The Survival of Civilisation.  1979

 With apologies for incomplete references.

Further information on the SEER Centre from: Cameron Thomson, Enochdhu Farm,  Nr. Blairgowrie. Perthshire PH10 7PJ. Tel. 01250 881486