Experimental rickets : the effect of cereals and their interaction with other factors of diet and environment in producing rickets / by Edward Mellanby.

  • Edward Mellanby
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Experimental rickets : the effect of cereals and their interaction with other factors of diet and environment in producing rickets / by Edward Mellanby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    VI. DISCUSSION OF THE MODE OF ACTION OF CEREALS IN PRODUCING RICKETS. The evidence given above shows that, under the experimental con¬ ditions described and especially when the diet is deficient in anti¬ rachitic vitamin (1) increasing the cereal in the diet increases the in¬ tensity and hastens the onset of rickets in puppies, and (2) varying the type of cereal in the diet of puppies, while keeping all other conditions constant, results in great differences in the intensity ot the disease. It has also been shown that the cereal rickets- producmo-action can be antagonized or modified by (l)the presence m the diet of foodstuffs containing the anti-rachitic vitamin, such as cod-liver oil, milk, egg yolk, cabbage, &c„ (2) exposure of the skin or the cereal to ultra-violet rays, which probably act by mobilizing and activizmg latent stores of anti-rachitic vitamin in the body and (3) the presence of salts containing calcium and phosphorus m the food. It is necessary now to inquire into the explanation of these results, and more especially to seek the reason for the different rickets-producing influences of the various cereals. Why should oatmeal be more potently rickets-producing than rice or white flour, and why should wheat germ intensify the disease ? It is obviously necessary in the first place to try to find a solution to this problem m terms of known constituents of cereals and, it is from this point or view, that the experimental results will now be considered. (A) The Carbohydrate Moiety of Cereals. Paitly because carbohydrate is quantitatively the most important constituent of cereals and partly because this substance is often held responsible for the production of rickets in children, it is but nght that this aspect of the question should be first examined. I. pointed out earlier in this publication that the experiments in which pure carbohydrate was added to the diet were difficult to cairy out, and that in the series of experiments which were fairly satisfactory the results indicated that carbohydrate alone did not appear to explain satisfactorily the total effect of varying quantities of bread in the diet. This conclusion is confirmed most strongly when the carbohydrate content of the different cereals whose rickets-producing influence has been tested is examined. The following table gives the protein, fat, and carbohydrate content of some of the cereals (Sherman [19]). Table 18. Oatmeal. Rice Wholemeal flour . White flour . Barley . Rye Per cent. Carbohydrate. 67-5 79-0 71-9 76- 4 77- 8 78*7 Per cent. Protein. 16-1 8-0 18-8 7- 9 8- 5 6-8 Per cent. Fat. 7-2 0-3 1-9 1*4 1-1 09