More on Vitamin Deficiencies

The following Vitamins are the fat soluble ones which means that they need to be dissolved before they can be utilized by the body. Water soluble Vitamins were discussed in yesterday's post; problems related to deficiencies were noted and here are the problems related to deficiencies of the Fat Soluble Vitamins:

Vit A....eye problems including blindness; stunting of growth in children; dry scaly skin and prone to infections.

Vit D....bone softening in adults and improper bone growth in children.

Vit E....breakdown of the re blood cells; heart disease; potential nerve damage leading to pain, numbness and weakness, especially in the hands and feet.

Vit K....inability of the blood to clot leading to internal bleeding.

Vitamin Deficiencies

Vitamin deficiency falls in just three categories:

Your diet is lacking in the correct nutrients to break down/make soluble the vitamins found in the foods you eat.

You are not eating the foods that contain the full range of essential vitamins.
You know the above two points but do not take vitamin supplements either.

Here is a table of water soluble vitamins and the consequences of being deficient in that vitamin.

B1....damages or weakening of the nerves and heart muscle.

B2.... Redness, swelling and pain of the mouth and lips, eyes and the nervous system.

B3(Niacin)....causes skin lesions, Intestinal pains and general nervous system upsets. Note: Niacin runs radiation out of the body and the flush you get when taking this Vit is the radiation coming off.

B6....skin problems such as dermatitis; depression and in severe cases, convulsions; anemia (too few red blood cells in the system).

Folic Acid....damage to red blood cells; heart palpitations; redness and swelling of mouth and in pregnant women, damaged fetus.

B12....intestinal upsets and nervousness.

Pantothenic acid....general weakness, intestinal upsets and nervousness, fatigue and nausea.

Biotin.... hair loss; dermatitis; conjunctivitis (pink eye); confusion.

Vit C.... scurvy (swollen and bleeding gums; joint pain); deep tissue bleeding and anemia.

A Note on Vitamins

Vitamins are distinct in Several ways from other important compounds such as proteins carbohydrates and lipids. Although these latter substances are also indispensable for proper body function almost all of them can be synthesized in sufficient quantities.

Vitamins cannot be synthesized sufficiently to meet the needs of the body so must be obtained from the diet or from other synthetic source and for this reason vitamins are called essential nutrients.

Vitamins need only small amounts to complete their basic function which are of a regulatory or catalytic nature.

They facilitate or control vital chemical reactions in the body's cells.

Therefore, if vitamins are not properly absorbed specific diseases can develop. The classic example of this is the use of Vit C to prevent Scurvy; the scourge of sailors and their years long voyages.

Two classes of Vitamins are: Oil/Fat soluble and water soluble; This means that the vitamin can be dissolved in oil or the oil in certain fats or in water and thus be able to be used to its full purpose.
Water soluble vitamins: Vitamin C; all of the B vitamins (B complex); Biotin and Pantothenic acid.
Oil/Fat soluble vitamins: A; D, E, K.

Dad

Fats in Food

When I was in high school one of the jobs I held was working at a dairy. The fellow in charge of pasteurizing the milk, making the ice cream and other products; cheeses etc, was quite the depository of knowledge and once you got him going he just spewed it out. What he spewed was all about fat content in milk and the importance of it in a persons diet.

One of the things he told me was that fat was necessary in helping your body digest foods because without it you couldn't get any benefit from the fat soluble vitamins. Fat also helps keep the body warm, cushions your inner organs from damage incurred from the usual jolts and jars of life and the living of it.

The pasteurizing of milk kills the micro-organisms and bacteria's that cause such diseases as Scarlet fever, Diphtheria and TB to name a few plus the bacteria's of E-Coli, Listeria (recently found in Bluebell Ice Cream) and Salmonella etc. More on this later as it relates to nearly everything in both cooking and eating.

When I was raising my daughter I started out not knowing much about foods and cooking but had to learn fast since a dead wife is no help at all. I remembered such things as Fat content and spent a lot of time at the library learning as much as I could. I was determined to feed my child those things that would keep her healthy and growing without undue stress on her or me and I am imparting some of that with this blog and the cookbook I wrote called "The Cookbook for Single Fathers, a Journey Through No Man's Land".

Stay tuned.

Dad

Calories, Proteins, Carbohydrates.

My opinion, based upon data from as yet disproved scientific testing:

Our bodies are engines and they operate on Carbon and Oxygen; therefore all foods we ingest are converted by the glandular system into Carbon and are combined with oxygen to do all the things we require of a body; we need to replace cells, move the various body parts to do work, to play and to just lay about and do nothing for the at the very least we need to keep the heart pumping.

Calorie: A unit of heat. The amount of heat needed to increase the temperature of  a quart of water almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit. This would be one calorie. Sweat is the by product of heating up the body that is "burning" calories. The sweat regulates the overall body temperature.

Protein: The building block of the cells of the body. Proteins are made up of 22 amino acids and of these, 8 are essential, aka complete, in that they cannot be synthesized (combining different elements into  unified whole). The primary source of complete proteins are meats, eggs, fish and milks, butters, and cheeses.

Carbohydrates: Often called the energy components of your diet. They are mainly found in sugars, starches and cellulose.

Over the next few posts I will take each of the above, add a few others and hopefully you will become a little more enlightened as to what you choose to eat and drink. Stay tuned.

Dad

Marinades

I received a question about marinating chicken from my contact icon and decided that since it pertains to BBQing as well I will answer that question here:

In general there a many marinades. The French and Italians probably started the ball rolling by soaking everything in wine and then adding more while cooking the items. Adding herbs and various spices soon followed and it was realized that not only did the meats and vegetables taste better it also tenderized the meats. I like that theory but my money is on the Chinese being the inventors of marinating due to the fact that rice vinegar is probably older than the whole of Europe is.

All marinades have one thing in common and that is the acid found in most food items that grow in the ground. Tomatoes and vinegar are the two most prevalent bases in all but a few marinades. Both are acidic. And it is the acid that breaks down the fibers in meat and vegetables. Add salt and you have a preservative.

Here is my favorite for Chicken:

In a very clean, empty quart jar (glass or ceramic; I re-use mayo bottles) pour in about a half jar of cooking sherry or other white wine of your choice and any will do just fine.

Add about another inch of vegetable oil (it will float on the wine and is easily seen so that you can see the inch or so; it is only used to help the wine and other spices to adhere to the chicken and not slide off during the soak.)

Mince up a clove or two of garlic, one-half onion and toss that in along with a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper. If you like Chicken l'Orange, add the juice of a squeezed orange to the mix then cover and give it a good shake then into the frig for about an hour.

Put a couple of boneless chicken breasts in a small glass container (glass so that the acids don't leech anything from the container) cover with the marinade and place back into the frig for at least 10 hours.

I would do the prep late at night, usually while watching the evening news and then put the now-marinated chicken in the frig for the night; first thing in the morning I would turn the chicken and back into the frig until I got home from work and then transfer the breasts onto the prepared BBQ grill.

Baste occasionly with fresh marinate and discard the already used stuff.

Hope this answers the question.

Dad

Barbeque

It is interesting that in the South and parts of the Midwest it is only acceptable to use the word barbecue if you slow cook your meat for hours in an enclosed oven-like apparatus that also sits outside. Because of that nose-in-the-air attitude I have noticed that, probably due to political correctness, those that enjoy tossing a steak on the barbecue are now saying "grilling" instead of the generic "barbecuing" that has been in use for 60 plus years; so here are some salient facts:

Barbeque is a westernized word probably from the Arawak word barbakoa meaning; frame of sticks for drying or cooking meats and fish. The Arawak were the native peoples of the Caribbean that were discovered by Columbus. The Spanish then introduced the Spanish version of the word: barbecue and it meant to cook over an open flame.

Consider then that the nose-up peoples who look down you if you dare use that sacred word barbecue when in fact you are just "grilling" just don't bother with actually understanding what they do on a daily basis but have strong opinions about what you do.

Dad

Salt is Your Friend

Yummy for the tummy; but salt is actually a sweetener and brings out flavor in foods. If you use too much it overwhelms the taste buds and spoils the flavor of the food.

To remedy this you can add small amounts of sugar, tasting as you add to get the desired flavor. But this is only good in over salted soups, stews and gravies.

If you over-salt a steak you can remove the salt with a damp napkin and try another bite to test. If at home, you can simply wash off the salt under the tap and quick fry the steak on both sides, just enough to add some of the flavor from the drippings or flame from the broiler and then re-salting to the desired taste.

Dad