There are five vitamins that, when lacking in a human diet, are associated with deficiency diseases: Vitamins A, B1, B3, C, and D.
Since vitamins don’t store well, how can you avoid vitamin deficiency diseases by eating right?
Vitamin A deficiency can cause night blindness, lower immune fuction, and can cause total blindness. While fortified foods and supplments are now cheaply and readily avilable, it’s good to know that diet can also keep you healthy regarding vitamin A. Animal protien is a good source. But if that’s scarce carrots–and other orange and yellow vegtables and fruits– contain beta carotene. In fact, non-animal sources of vitamin A which contain pre-formed vitamin A account for greater than 80% of intake for most people in the developing world.
So most of us can manage to grow or get enough vitamin A. It’s important to note that you can overdo it vitamin A – too much is toxic. Since vitamin A is fat-soluble, disposing of any excesses you ingest is much harder than with water-soluble B vitamins and vitamin C. But it’s extrordinarily hard to get a toxic dose of vitamin A from food (unless you are eating polar bear, seal, walrus or husky livers. Yuck.)
Vitamin B1 (Also known as thiamine) deficiency can cause beriberi. Breiberi can cause difficulty walking, pain, edema, mental confusion, paralysis, and death. It’s an evil disease that we rarely see in the developed world, but if there is a long economic decline, or an economic crash it might make a comeback. One way to avoid pellegra is not to live on white rice: add other foods or use whole grains. My family has brown rice in our emergency pantry for this reason. Also good sources: other unrefined grains, fresh meat, legumes, green vegetables, fruit, and milk.
Vitamin B3 (also known as niacin) deficiency cause pellagra (warning, graphic images at the link). Pellagra is usually described by “the four D’s”: diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia and death. Other symptoms include a high sensitivity to sunlight, aggressive behavior, weakness, skin problems of epic propotion (everything from incredible dermatitis to red shiny skin to red skin lesions), paralyiss of extremities, and a weakened and enlarged heart.
Corn that has been treated with lime will release availalbe vitaimn B3. Without it, a diet of mostly corn can led to pellagra. Niacin is found in MANY foods, listed below by category.
Animal products containing niacin:
- liver, heart and kidney
- chicken
- beef
- fish: tuna, salmon
- eggs
Fruits and vegetables:
- avocados
- dates
- tomatoes
- leaf vegetables
- broccoli
- carrots
- sweet potatoes
- asparagus
Seeds:
- nuts
- whole grain products
- legumes
- saltbush seeds
Fungi:
- mushrooms
- brewer’s yeast
Vitamin C deficiency casues scurvy. Scury’s symptoms include lethargy, spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from mucous membranes. Spots are most common on the thighs and legs, and a person with the ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. As scurvy advances, it can cause open sores, tooth loss, jaundice, fever, numbness in the extremities, and death. Humans cannot make thier own Vitamin C, so they have to get it from their diet. Vitamin C is widespread in plants, especially citrus fruits (oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruits), tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages, and green peppers. Believe it or not, saurkraut has a higher concentration of vitamin C than fresh cabbage.
Vitamin D deficiency is especailly dangerous to children. It causes rickets, and although it is thought of as a childhood disease it can also occur in adults. It causes malformed bones and is usually associated with malnutrition.
Prevention (and treatement) involves increasing dietary intake of calcium, phosphates and vitamin D. Exposure to sunshine when the sun is highest in the sky (darker-skinned people need longer exposures) and cod liver oil are sources of vitamin D. Foods high in phosphorus include fruits, nuts, whole grains, leafy vegetables, meats, milk and eggs. Calcium can come from dairy products, blackstrap mollasses, canned salmon or sardines (because of the softened bones), dried beans, and nuts: almonds, Brazil nuts, sunflower seeds, or hazelnuts.
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A varied diet is the key. Keep these nutritional tips in mind when building a deep larder and the permaculture garden that supplements it and you can avoid the five major viatmin deficiency diseases.
- safewrite
