
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 19, 1990                   TAG: 9006190384
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ADDING VITAMINS, MINERALS TO DIET

HO HUM! Another industry-sponsored "report" (Associated Press story June 7) showing that "eating a balanced diet" precludes the need for vitamin supplements. There is absolutely no question that growing foods in chemically treated soil and with pesticides, plus using chemical processes in processing food, destroy to a great extent the vitamins and minerals necessary for that "balanced diet."

Autopsies at New York's Montefiore Hospital on more than 100 coronary victims showed that every one of them had heart-muscle deficiencies of magnesium and selenium. A study by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside showed selenium-deficient soil in certain areas coincided with higher incidences of cancer. Due to processing of canned and packaged foods, other vitamin and mineral deficiencies are rampant in the United States.

Traditional medicine is slowly giving way to the holistic or orthomolecular approach, which adds diagnosis and treatment of vitamin and mineral deficiencies to the medical armory. Until recently, medical schools taught very little about nutrition, vitamins, etc. Today many are jumping on the bandwagon.

Food processing is so bad at times that many products advertise "vitamins added." Dr. Linus Pauling, the world's leading biochemist, winner of two Nobel Prizes and author of college textbooks, tries to warn about vitamin C deficiencies. The food industry, medical establishment and drug companies jump on him.(Well, after all, staying healthy with vitamins does put a crimp in drug sales!) The establishment several years ago tried to put vitamin and mineral supplements under prescription, but the U.S. Senate put a stop to that!

Heavy metals used in food processing scare me. Covert sugar-industry support for "studies" showing sugar is not bad for you scares me. And watching the American people being lulled into complacency by these so-called "studies" showing no need for vitamin and mineral supplements really scares me! Why are we more careful about what we put in our car engines than what we put into our bodies?

\ JACK E. BYRD\ HARDY

by CNB