There is room for many shades of opinion with respect to how the nutritional problems of the world should be handled; there should be no great debate or controversy, however, about the value of a straightforward, scientific approach and an open-eyed understanding of how nutrition operates.
At the Clayton Foundation Biochemical Institute of the University of Texas, over the years many fundamental discoveries related to nutrition have been made or consummated: pantothenic acid; pyridoxal; pyridoxamine; folinic acid; lipoic acid; avidin; concentration of vitamin B12; concentration and naming of folic acid; the role of lipoic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and nicotinamide in the pyruvate dehydrogenase system; inhibition analysis; the facts of biochemical individuality. We have now come up with an approach to nutrition which places it in an entirely different framework from that in which medical scientists have usually considered it.
We agree with a vast segment of the medical profession that it is unfortunate for laymen to dose themselves with vitamins and minerals without professional advice. It would be much better if physicians were well informed about the intricacies of nutrition and could give patients sound, expert and dependable advice about the supplementation of their diets. The nutrification of foods (Baurenfeind, 1) is a perfectly logical expedient involving supplementation and is widely used in the poultry, livestock and pet food industries.
The ABCs of nutrition are the essential chemicals we use and live with and need to get from our environment. Besides oxygen and water, there are about 40 of these chemicals--minerals, amino acids and vitamins--which must be supplied by our food in reasonable proportions. From these we build our metabolic machinery that makes possible the burning of fuel from which we get energy.
Because of these numerous needs and the difficulty of obtaining all the ABCs in the right amounts, people in the normal course of events subsist with nutritional environments that are mediocre or even poor. There is nothing unusual about imperfect environments; all other phases of our human environment--climatic, governmental, educational, religious, social, etc.--are likewise imperfect and subject to improvement. The improvement of our inner nutritional environments is the prime objective of nutritional study.
Nutrition must be for real people of all ages and genetic backgrounds, including both the weak and the robust. Because of the facts of biochemical individuality, each person’s nutrition is characteristically unique, and it is possible that disease often develops as a result of inadequate nutritional adjustments to unusual needs.
Nutrition is a universal biological process. Like humans, all other organisms on earth subsist, when necessary, on imperfect nutrition, and the state of their health and the degree of their welfare depends on the quality of the nutrition they get. Since entirely different kinds of organisms--plants, animals, bacteria, etc.--have similar fundamental needs, organisms generally feed on each other. We people commonly get the 40 or more essential nutrients mentioned above from the tissues of plants and animals. If we try to live on sugars, starch, alcohol and refined fats, we fail because these do not contain the fundamental ABCs of nutrition. We improve our nutrition when we get a better balance between the ABCs and when we minimize the use of those things like sugar and alcohol which are completely devoid of the ABC essentials.
Only the cells in our muscles, internal organs, bones, brains, etc. receive nourishment. If any cells are poorly nourished, nutrition becomes a limiting factor. The problems of nutrition take on the complexities of the cells and tissues that are nourished.
Utilization of the essential ABCs is at its best when blood circulation is superior. Superior circulation is fostered by exercise which helps build up our hearts and circulatory systems and makes circulation more effective.
Linus Pauling set forth in 1968 a logical but revolutionary principle: Medicine will enjoy far greater success when it learns how to use as remedial agents those chemical substances that belong naturally in the human body rather than those which are wholly foreign to it. The nutritional approach we are presenting constitutes an exemplification of this principle. There are significant ramifications of this approach discussed in the body of the text but these are not detailed in this brief abstract.
It is important that medical scientists grasp the essentials of nutrition because we do not yet know how many diseases can be prevented or cured by improved nutrition nor do we know the time scale of benefits. Medicines often act speedily to alleviate symptoms. Nutrients, on the other hand, constructively produce longer-range benefits; they must be incorporated into the cells and tissues and into metabolism before the benefits can be evaluated. The question remains pertinent: Why should we let people become ill and then try to patch them up if we can develop expertise in preventing illness?
Two Encouraging Notes
1. Senator Richard S. Schweiker was the author of the bill in Congress to appropriate money for nutrition education in medical schools. He is now Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in President Reagan’s Cabinet.
According to an article in Science (2), "At one point Schweiker was asked what he would like his one achievement to be after serving as HHS Secretary. ‘I’d like to be remembered as putting preventive health care and preventive medicine at the top of the list of priorities,’ replied Schweiker, 54, who says he jogs 2 miles a day. Then, in the only reference to research, he commented that studies should emphasize ‘what keeps people well, not only what happens after they become ill.’ "
2. That the medical profession is currently paying far more attention to nutrition than in past years is shown by the March 1981 symposium, "Molecular Interrelations of Nutrition and Cancer," under the auspices of the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute (3). The printed program of the symposium (49 pages in length) contains 31 abstracts.
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1. Baurenfeind, J. Christopher, "Nutrification of Foods." Paper presented at the First International Conference on Human Nutrition, in Tianjin, China, June 8, 1981, sponsored by the Foundation for Nutritional Advancement, Suite 720, 600 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. 20037.
2. Science, January 23, 1981, p. 367.
3. Symposium, "Molecular Interrelations of Nutrition and Cancer," sponsored by the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, Houston, Texas, March 4-6, 1981.