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Nutrition Concepts and Controversies

13th Edition Sizer Solutions Manual


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Chapter 7 – The Vitamins


Quick List: IM Resources for Chapter 7

• Class preparation resources: learning objectives/key points, suggested activities and projects, lecture outline
• Assignment materials: Related LO
• Critical thinking questions (with answer key) ................................................................ 7.3, 7.4, 7.6, 7.8, 7.10
• Discussion questions (with answers) for Controversy 7 ............................................................................. 7.12
• Worksheet 7-1: Label Analysis—Vitamins .................................................................................... 7.2, 7.3, 7.4
• Worksheet 7-2: Intake Analysis—Vitamins ............................................................................................... 7.11
• Worksheet 7-3: Factors that Destroy Vitamins1 ............................................................................. 7.1, 7.7, 7.8
• Worksheet 7-4: Comparing Supplements Label to Label2 ......................................................................... 7.12
• New! Worksheet 7-5: Chapter 7 Review Crossword Puzzle
• Enrichment materials: Handout 7-1: Vitamins Do More Than Treat Deficiency Diseases ........7.3-7.5, 7.8, 7.10

Chapter Learning Objectives and Key Points


7.1 List the fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins, and describe how solubility affects the absorption,
transport, storage, and excretion of each type.
Vitamins are essential, noncaloric nutrients that are needed in tiny amounts in the diet and help to drive
cellular processes. Vitamin precursors in foods are transformed into active vitamins by the body. The fat-
soluble vitamins are vitamins A, D, E, and K. The water-soluble vitamins are vitamin C and the B vitamins.
7.2 Discuss the significance of the fat-soluble nature of some vitamins to human nutrition.
7.3 Summarize the physiological roles of vitamin A and its precursor beta-carotene, name the consequences
of deficiencies and toxicities, and list the major food sources of both forms.
Three active forms of vitamin A and one precursor are important in nutrition. Vitamin A plays major roles in
gene regulation, eyesight, reproduction, cell differentiation, immunity, and growth. Vitamin A deficiency
causes blindness, sickness, and death and is a major problem worldwide. Vitamin A overdoses and toxicity
are possible and cause many serious symptoms. Vitamin A’s active forms are supplied by foods of animal
origin. Fruits and vegetables provide beta-carotene. The vitamin A precursor in plants, beta-carotene, is an
effective antioxidant in the body. Many brightly colored plant foods are rich in beta-carotene.
7.4 Summarize the physiological roles of vitamin D, name the consequences of deficiencies and toxicities,
and list its major food sources.
Low and borderline vitamin D levels are not uncommon in the United States. When exposed to sunlight, the
skin makes vitamin D from a cholesterol-like compound. Vitamin D helps regulate blood calcium and
influences other body tissues. A vitamin D deficiency causes rickets in childhood, low bone density in
adolescents, or osteomalacia in later life. Some groups of people are more likely to develop vitamin D
deficiencies. Vitamin D is the most potentially toxic vitamin. Overdoses raise blood calcium and damage soft
tissues. Ultraviolet light from sunshine acts on a cholesterol compound in the skin to make vitamin D. The
DRI committee sets recommended intake levels and a Tolerable Upper Intake Level for vitamin D. Food
sources of vitamin D include a few naturally rich sources and many fortified foods.
7.5 Summarize the physiological roles of vitamin E, name the consequences of deficiencies and toxicities,
and list its major food sources.
Vitamin E acts as an antioxidant in cell membranes. Average U.S. intakes fall short of DRI recommendations.
Vitamin E deficiency disease occurs rarely in newborn premature infants. Toxicity is rare but supplements
may carry risks.
7.6 Summarize the physiological roles of vitamin K, name the consequences of deficiencies, and list its
major food sources.

1 Contributed by Lori W. Turner, Ph.D., R.D., University of Alabama


2 Contributed by Mary Ellen Clark and Lori W. Turner

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Vitamin K is necessary for blood to clot. Vitamin K deficiency causes uncontrolled bleeding. Excess vitamin
K can cause harm. The bacterial inhabitants of the digestive tract produce vitamin K.
7.7 Describe some characteristics of the water-soluble vitamins.
Water-soluble vitamins are easily absorbed and excreted from the body, and foods that supply them must be
consumed frequently. Water-soluble vitamins are easily lost or destroyed during food preparation and
processing.
7.8 Summarize the physiological roles of vitamin C, name the consequences of deficiencies and toxicities,
and list its major food sources.
Vitamin C maintains collagen, protects against infection, acts as an antioxidant, and aids iron absorption.
Ample vitamin C can be easily obtained from foods.
7.9 Describe some of the shared roles of B-vitamins in body systems.
As part of coenzymes, the B vitamins help enzymes in every cell do numerous jobs. B vitamins help
metabolize carbohydrate, fat, and protein.
7.10 List and summarize the physiological roles of individual B vitamins in the body, name the consequences
of deficiencies, and list their most important food sources.
Thiamin works in energy metabolism and in nerve cells. Its deficiency disease is beriberi. Many foods supply
small amounts of thiamin. Riboflavin works in energy metabolism. Riboflavin is destroyed by ordinary light.
Niacin deficiency causes the disease pellagra, which can be prevented by adequate niacin intake or adequate
dietary protein. The amino acid tryptophan can be converted to niacin in the body. Low intakes of folate cause
anemia, digestive problems, and birth defects in infants of folate-deficient mothers. High intakes can mask the
blood symptom of a vitamin B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 occurs only in animal products. A deficiency anemia
that mimics folate deficiency arises with low intakes or, more often, poor absorption. Folate supplements can
mask a vitamin B12 deficiency. Prolonged vitamin B12 deficiency causes nerve damage. Vitamin B6 works in
amino acid metabolism. Biotin and pantothenic acid are important to the body and are abundant in food.
Choline is needed in the diet, but it is not a vitamin, and deficiencies are unheard of outside the laboratory.
Many other substances that people claim are vitamins are not.
7.11 Suggest foods that can help to ensure adequate vitamin intakes without providing too many calories.
7.12 Identify both valid and invalid reasons for taking vitamin supplements.

Critical Thinking Questions


1. Why can people consume large amounts of foods with beta-carotene without any ill effects but cannot consume
large amounts of foods with active vitamin A without risk of serious toxic effects?
The liver converts beta-carotene into active vitamin A. The diet must supply 12 micrograms of beta-carotene to
produce 1 microgram of active vitamin A, and this conversion is not efficient enough to result in a toxic level of
active vitamin A. The only sign of excess beta-carotene intake is a bright yellow color of the skin due to a
buildup of beta-carotene in the fat beneath the skin.
Certain animal foods, such as liver, contain very high levels of active vitamin A. When these foods are ingested,
all of the vitamin A is sent directly into the body and its fat tissues. The amount of active vitamin A can quickly
reach toxic levels that can cause digestive upset as well as possible damage to the liver.

2. a. How do vitamin B12 and folate function similarly in the body?


Both vitamins are coenzymes that support enzymes for new cell synthesis. In particular, both vitamins are
needed for red blood cell production. They are also needed together because each allows the other vitamin to
function.
b. Why is it important that somebody not take high doses of either of these 2 vitamins?
If someone consumes very high levels of folate, his red blood cells will be formed well but the folate excess
may mask a vitamin B12 deficiency, which otherwise would result in oversized, immature blood cells. The
vitamin B12 is also needed for optimal nerve function. This individual may experience subtle changes in nerve
function but will not have the anemia that is more easily detectable.

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Vitamin B12 does not have any associated toxicities if taken in excess. It does not function in cell development
the same way that folate does. However, there is no benefit to taking mega-doses of B12 (unless prescribed by a
physician to treat poor absorption), so this would be a waste of money.

3. a. Which 2 vitamins require healthy organ systems for their synthesis in the body?
Vitamins D and K require the healthy functioning of the body’s organ systems.
b. Describe the impact of any condition that would affect the organ systems responsible for the production of
these 2 vitamins.
Vitamin D production is dependent on healthy skin, liver, and kidneys. Any skin condition may affect the
ability of the body to make the vitamin D precursor. Any condition that affects the liver, such as alcoholism, or
a condition that affects the kidney tissue can reduce the production of active vitamin D. Over time, this can lead
to softening of the bones.
The colon (large intestine) needs to be healthy to support the growth of bacteria that produce about 50% of the
body’s vitamin K needs each day. A person who has taken antimicrobial drugs will have a large decline in the
colonic bacteria that produce vitamin K. This can lead to a deficiency of vitamin K, which can cause prolonged
bleeding.

4. a. Other than vitamin B12, which 2 water-soluble vitamins are important for healthy functioning of the
nervous system?
Thiamin and vitamin B6 are very important for the healthy functioning of the nervous system.
b. Describe how each vitamin contributes to the overall function of the nervous system.
Thiamin is important for the health of the neuronal cell membranes. These cells pass electrical impulses along
their membranes, which allow neurons to fire and communicate with each other. Neurons are found within the
brain and throughout the entire nervous system.
Vitamin B6 is necessary for the production of neurotransmitters such as serotonin. These chemicals allow the
communication between neurons in the brain and can affect many aspects of nervous system function.

5. Which 3 vitamins can impact the health of the connective tissue and skeletal systems of the body? How does
each of these vitamins contribute to the health of these systems?
Vitamin A contributes to the health of the bones. This vitamin affects the expression of genes (DNA into
protein), which can affect cell development. If vitamin A is deficient, the cells that build bone may not be fully
functional. This could affect the quality of the bone tissue.
Vitamin D is essential for bone health. It stimulates the small intestine to absorb more calcium from foods so
that the bones can make use of the calcium. Young people who lack vitamin D during growth may have
softened, misshapen bones, as is seen with rickets. Older individuals may experience softening of the bones as
calcium is released from them as a result of vitamin D deficiency. This condition is known as osteomalacia.
Vitamin C is needed for the formation of collagen, the base material of bones and other connective tissues.
Vitamin C deficiency, known as scurvy, leads to poorly formed connective tissue, which can cause bleeding of
the gums or rashes on the skin.

6. Why won’t eating high-calorie fast foods make people feel more energetic than eating lower-calorie foods?
Fast foods provide higher amounts of fats, carbohydrates, and protein. They may not provide high levels of the
B vitamins. These vitamins serve as coenzymes, assisting enzymes active in the cell’s production of energy.
When the diet supplies adequate B vitamins, the cell’s energy metabolism enzymes work more efficiently at
releasing energy from carbohydrates and fats.

7. Why have the recommendations for vitamin D recently become a controversial topic among experts?
Originally, it was thought that vitamin D just helped the body absorb more calcium to strengthen the bones.
Within cells, vitamin D interacts with the genes to modulate how the cells function or grow. More current

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135
research suggests that higher levels of vitamin D intake may help reduce the risks of some types of cancers and
cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D may also influence the function of the immune system in fighting infections
and the development of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis.

Controversy Discussion Questions


1. Give any 2 examples of dietary supplements that could be susceptible to contamination. What foods could
replace these 2 supplements?
Children’s chewable vitamins have been found to contain excess levels of lead and levels of niacin above the
UL. Children need to try different fruits and vegetables as well as whole grains to get their nutrients from a safe
source. Putting a little bit of cheese on broccoli or drizzling a bit of chocolate on fresh bananas or strawberries
may help a child learn to like for fruits or vegetables, for example.
Herbal supplements may contain toxic plant materials or harmful bacteria. Most people can gain the benefits of
some herbal remedies by trying a lot of different spices and herbs in moderation while cooking.

2. Discuss what foods you could eat that would work as well as the following supplement formulas:
a. “Stress formula”
“Stress formula” supplements claim to have higher levels of vitamin C and B vitamins to combat oxidative
stress in the body. The person can obtain more benefits by eating more fruits, whole grains, and vegetables each
day.
b. “For better metabolism”
These formulas contain extra biotin that may help the body better metabolize high levels of protein. Most
adequate and varied diets contain plenty of biotin-containing foods, making biotin supplements unnecessary.
The best alternative to this formula is to follow a diet that is low in refined sugars, not complex carbohydrates.

3. Give any 2 reasons why people may NOT want to take supplements that contain beta-carotene or vitamin E.
Both vitamin E and beta-carotene have antioxidant properties that may help promote cardiovascular health.
It has been suggested that people who take vitamin E supplements may reduce their risk of cardiovascular
disease, but early studies supporting this view may not have accounted for variation in the subjects such as
illnesses or smoking histories. A large study that closely examined other studies of vitamin E intake versus
cardiovascular disease found that increased vitamin E intakes are not protective and may actually cause more
harm.
It has been suggested that increased intake of beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain cancers
such as lung cancer in smokers. Studies have shown that people taking beta-carotene supplements may be at
increased risk for damage to their DNA, which can lead to cancer development, and that beta-carotene
supplement intake in smokers actually increased the rate of lung cancer.
Foods provide lower levels of vitamin E and beta-carotene in association with other nutrients; thus, with foods
there is less risk of effects from excessive amounts of either of these two nutrients alone.

4. List any 3 medical conditions or life stages in which a person may need to take a vitamin supplement in addition
to eating a varied and adequate diet.
Pregnant women may need increased amounts of vitamin B12, iron, and folate to support increased red blood
cell development that is needed during pregnancy.
Some people do not produce enough of intrinsic factor, needed for adequate absorption of vitamin B12, in their
stomach. These individuals cannot absorb enough vitamin B12, even when they eat plenty of food sources. They
often need injections of vitamin B12 to avoid a deficiency, which can result in nerve damage and anemia.
People who are chronically dieting, such as people with anorexia or bulimia nervosa, would need supplements
to ensure that they are getting enough vitamins and minerals.

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People who are lactose intolerant may need a vitamin D and calcium supplement if they do not eat a varied diet
rich in other sources of vitamin D.
People who are recovering from illness or surgery have increased demands for nutrients in order to repair or
rebuild body tissues and essential molecules to restore health. People who have had weight-loss surgery often
need supplements long term to obtain adequate amounts of nutrients.

Worksheet Answer Key


Worksheet 7-1: Label Analysis—Vitamins
1. Look up the Daily Value for vitamin A (5000 IU or 1500 RAE) and multiply this by the %DV on the label.
If this cereal contributes 10% of the Daily Value, than it contributes 1500 RAE  0.1 = 150 RAE of vitamin A.
2. The vitamins are added to the cereal (through fortification) because they are listed further down in the
ingredients list.
3. a. No, because they are expressed as percentages of Daily Values.
b. Some vitamins, like vitamin A, have RAE units, which describe an activity or amount of an active version
of the vitamin. This is not an actual mass. Also, U.S. food label regulations do not require that quantities of
vitamins in a food be included on the Nutrition Facts panel.
4. Vitamin D is increased from 10% to 25% with the addition of milk.
5. a. The B vitamins and vitamin C are more abundant since they appear first in the ingredients list.
b. The B vitamins and vitamin C are water-soluble vitamins that do not build up in the body. There is not as
much of a concern of toxicity from these vitamins as compared to fat-soluble vitamins.

Worksheet 7-2: Intake Analysis—Vitamins


1. a. Eating Plan B (4639 RAE)
b. Eating Plan C (10 micrograms)
c. Eating Plan G (280 millograms)
d. Eating Plan B (700.6 micrograms)
e. Eating Plan B (26 micrograms)
2. a. Eating Plan G would be deficient since pre-formed (active) vitamin A comes from animal sources.
b. No, there are plenty of fruits and vegetables that contribute beta-carotene that can be converted into active
vitamin A in the liver.
c. There is enough beta-carotene to compensate for the lack of pre-formed vitamin A in Eating Plan G.
3. a. Include oranges, strawberries, or sweet peppers (also contribute fiber)
b. Vitamin C is an important antioxidant as well as a supporter of healthy collagen protein in the body’s
tissues.
4. a. Eating Plans B and C are tied for the highest level of adequacy. They each meet the nutrient requirements
for 19 out of 21 nutrients.
b. Since both Eating Plans B and C have the same level of adequacy, it is necessary to look at the total
kilocalories provided by each plan. Eating Plan B has 2994 kilocalories compared to 3746 kilocalories from
Eating Plan C. So Eating Plan B has the most nutrient-dense choices based on adequacy versus kilocalorie
content.

Worksheet 7-5: Chapter 7 Review Crossword Puzzle


1. energy 5. niacin 9. osteoporosis 12. epithelial
2. rickets 6. Beta-carotene 10. calcium 13. Intrinsic
3. pellagra 7. Rhodopsin 11. retinal 14. sunlight
4. antioxidant 8. precursor

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Learning Activities & Project Ideas
Activity 7-1: A Vitamin Interview3 LO 7.3-7.6, 7.8, 7.10
To help students learn all the vitamins, set up “The Body Company.” Have each student “apply” for a job as a
vitamin by describing (in an interview) what that vitamin can do for “The Company” and which other nutrients it
works best with.

Activity 7-2: Vitamin Vocabulary Worksheets4 LO 7.3-7.6, 7.8, 7.10


Ask students to write an original sentence using an assigned vitamin term. Then combine all of the students’
sentences into a worksheet, removing the term used in the sentence, and replacing it with a blank line. At the end of
the worksheet list all of the terms used alphabetically. The students have the fun of seeing their writing in print and
are much more likely to enjoy the process than they would filling in the blanks of a “canned” worksheet.
Example (“niacin,” the answer to #1, would be one of the key terms at the bottom of the worksheet):
Vitamin Vocabulary Worksheet
1. A deficiency of _________ produces diarrhea, dermatitis, and dementia.

Activity 7-3: Supplement Absorption Experiments5 LO 7.12


Invite students to bring in their vitamin or mineral supplements. Using clear, plastic 8- to 10-oz. cups, put each
supplement into a cup of vinegar, stir over the course of the class, and evaluate after an hour which have dissolved
(high chance of being absorbed) and which have not (likely to pass through the GI tract unabsorbed). You can also
point out the bright yellow/green color from the riboflavin.
Take liquid iron supplements (sold OTC as pediatric supplements) and add one drop at a time into (1) water;
(2) very weak (almost clear) black tea; and (3) a sample of herbal “tea.” The black tea almost instantly turns very
black, indicating binding of the iron to the tannins and illustrating how/why tannin-containing foods/beverages can
inhibit absorption of iron. Specifically, iron supplements shouldn’t be taken with tea or other tannin-containing
beverages, caffeinated or not.

Activity 7-4: Examination of Nutrition Quackery Via the Internet Project6 LO 7.12
Instruct students to obtain information about a questionable nutritional product such as a nutrient supplement by
performing an Internet search. Next, have students evaluate the claims regarding the product using anti-quackery
sites on the Internet. The Internet Health Pilot http://www.ihealthpilot.org/quackery/index.shtml (sponsored by
Quackwatch) is a good index to reliable anti-quackery websites.

Chapter Lecture Outline


I. Definition and Classification of Vitamins
A. Introduction
1. Vitamins were discovered at the beginning of the twentieth century.
2. Definition: An essential, noncaloric, organic nutrient needed in tiny amounts in the diet.
3. Vitamins help the body’s metabolic enzymes maximize energy yields from macronutrients as well as
help maintain the health of the body’s cells, tissues, and organs.
4. The only disease a vitamin can cure is the one caused by a deficiency of that vitamin.
B. The Concept of Vitamin Precursors – Some vitamins exist as precursors (or provitamins) that need to be
converted to active form in the body.
C. Two Classes of Vitamins: Fat-Soluble and Water-Soluble – Table 7-2 describes the characteristics of the
fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins.

3 Contributed by Marie E. Carter, St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley


4 Contributed by Penny Fredell, Yuba College, Marysville, CA
5 Contributed by Anne O’Donnell, M.S., M.P.H., R.D., of Santa Rosa Junior College

6 Contributed by Nancy Cotugna, University of Delaware

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138

II. The Fat-Soluble Vitamins


A. A, D, E, K
B. Found in fats and oils of foods
C. Require bile for absorption
D. Stored in liver and fatty tissues until needed
E. Not needed in the diet daily
F. Can reach toxic levels if too much is consumed
G. Deficiencies can occur when people eat diets that are extraordinarily low in fat.
H. Vitamins A and D act similarly to hormones and influence cellular activity.
I. Vitamin E protects the tissue from oxidative stress.

III. Vitamin A
A. Forms
1. Beta-carotene – plant-derived precursor
2. Retinol – active form stored in the liver
3. Converted by cells into its other two active forms, retinal and retinoic acid, as needed
B. Roles of Vitamin A and Consequences of Deficiency
1. Vitamin A plays a variety of roles in the body such as:
a. Gene expression
b. Vision – both for the health of the cornea and for a visual pigment in the retina
2. Eyesight
a. Vitamin A plays two roles:
1. Process of light perception at the retina
2. Maintenance of a healthy cornea
b. Vitamin A is part of the rhodopsin molecule, a pigment within the cells of the retina.
c. When light falls on the eye, it bleaches rhodopsin, which breaks off the vitamin A, initiating a
signal that conveys the sensation of sight to the optic center of the brain.
d. The vitamin then reunites with the pigment, but a little vitamin A is destroyed each time this
reaction takes place, and fresh vitamin A must replenish the supply.
3. Night Blindness – If the vitamin A supply runs low, night blindness can result – a lag before the eye
can see again after a flash of bright light at night.
4. Xerophthalmia and Blindness – A more serious deficiency of vitamin A occurs when the protein
keratin accumulates and clouds the eye’s outer vitamin A-dependent part, the cornea.
a. Keratinization of the cornea can lead to xerosis (drying) and then progress to thickening and
permanent blindness, xerophthalmia.
b. 500,000 of the world’s vitamin A-deprived children become blind each year due to xerophthalmia.
5. Gene Regulation
a. Vitamin A exerts influence on body functions through its regulation of genes.
b. Hundreds of genes are regulated by the retinoic acid form of vitamin A.
6. Cell Differentiation
a. Vitamin A is needed by all epithelial tissue, which includes the protective linings of the lungs,
intestines, vagina, urinary tract, and bladder.
b. If vitamin A is deficient, goblet cells fail to differentiate to make protective mucus and instead
secrete keratin, the same protein found in hair and nails.
c. Keratinization makes the tissues dry, hard, and cracked, which makes them more susceptible to
infection.
7. Immune Function
a. Vitamin A has a reputation as an “anti-infective” vitamin.
b. Body’s defenses depend on an adequate supply of vitamin A for proper development of immune
system cells.
8. Growth
a. Vitamin A assists in growth of bone (and teeth).
b. In children, failure to grow is one of the first signs of poor vitamin A status.
9. Vitamin A Deficiency Around the World

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About 5 million of the world’s preschool children suffer from vitamin A deficiency with
a.
symptoms of night blindness, diarrhea, appetite loss, and reduced food intakes.
b. About 180 million children suffer from a milder form of vitamin A deficiency that reduces their
resistance to infections.
c. The WHO and UNICEF are working to reduce the rates of vitamin A deficiency in children
around the world.
C. Vitamin A Toxicity
1. Can occur when excess vitamin A is taken as supplements or fortified foods
2. Chronic use of vitamin supplements providing three to four times the recommended dose for
pregnancy has caused birth defects.
3. High vitamin A intakes may also weaken the bones and lead to fractures later in life.
4. Even some bubble gum and candy bars have added vitamin A.
5. With the exception of liver, it is not easy to ingest toxic amounts of vitamin A – 1 oz of beef liver
contains 3 times the DRI
D. Vitamin A Recommendations and Sources
1. Overview
a. Vitamin A is not needed every day since it is stored in the body.
b. DRI for man is 900 micrograms
c. DRI for woman is 700 micrograms
d. Tolerable Upper Intake Level is 3,000 micrograms
2. Food Sources of Vitamin A
a. Beta-carotene is found in vegetables and fruits – Orange or muddy green colored
b. Active vitamin A is found in fortified foods and foods of animal origin – Liver, fish oil, milk,
fortified cereals, eggs, butter
3. Liver: A Lesson in Moderation – 1 ounce of liver can supply 3-4 times the DRI for vitamin A and a
common portion size is 4-6 ounces.
4. Can Fast Foods Provide Vitamin A? – Many fast-food places now offer salads with cheese and carrots
as well as other vitamin A-rich foods.
E. Beta-Carotene
1. Overview
a. In plants, vitamin A only exists in its precursor form.
b. Beta-carotene, the most abundant of these carotenoid precursors, has the highest vitamin A
activity.
c. Beta-carotene and other carotenoids may protect against macular degeneration, which is a
common form of age-related blindness.
2. Does Eating Carrots Really Promote Good Vision?
a. Yes, eating carrots and other rich sources of beta-carotene promotes good vision
b. Dark green vegetables
c. Spinach, broccoli, collard greens
d. Orange fruits and vegetables
e. Carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, mango, cantaloupe, apricots
3. Beta-Carotene, an Antioxidant – Beta-carotene is an antioxidant along with vitamin E, vitamin C,
selenium, and many phytochemicals.
4. Measuring Beta-Carotene
a. How are beta-carotene and active vitamin A related?
b. It takes 12 micrograms of beta-carotene to produce 1 microgram of active vitamin A (retinol) in
the body.
5. Toxicity
a. Beta-carotene from food is not converted to retinol efficiently enough to cause vitamin A toxicity.
b. Excess beta-carotene is stored the fat under the skin, imparting a yellow cast, which is actually
harmless.
6. Food Sources of Beta-Carotene – Dark green vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, & collard greens &
orange fruits and vegetables such as carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, mango, cantaloupe, & apricots
supply beta-carotene in the diet.

IV. Vitamin D

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A. General characteristics
1. Can be self-synthesized with the help of sunlight.
2. Whether made with the help of sunlight or obtained from food, vitamin D undergoes chemical
transformations in the liver and kidneys to activate it.
3. There has been a national drop in blood vitamin D levels in the last decades – may be related to higher
levels of obesity since excess fat tissue keeps vitamin D less available to the blood
B. Roles of Vitamin D
1. Calcium Regulation
a. Vitamin D functions as a hormone to regulate blood calcium and phosphorus levels, thereby
maintaining bone integrity.
b. To replenish blood calcium, vitamin D acts at three body locations to raise blood calcium levels:
skeleton, digestive tract, kidneys
3. Other Vitamin D Roles
a. Vitamin D stimulates maturation of cells, including immune cells that defend against infectious,
cardiovascular disease, vision loss, and cancer.
b. Deficiencies of vitamin D have been associated with: inflammatory conditions, multiple sclerosis,
higher risk of death
C. Too Little Vitamin D—A Danger to Bones
1. Rickets is a result of vitamin D deficiency in childhood (see Figure 7-6) – The legs are bowed due to
the weakened bones’ inability to support the body’s weight
2. Preventing Rickets
a. Still seen in 50% of children in Mongolia, Tibet, and the Netherlands
b. Not as common in the U.S. except in black, overweight females
3. Deficiency in Adults
a. In adults, the poor mineralization of bone results in osteomalacia, which may not have obvious
clinical signs.
b. Later on, deficiencies result in osteoporosis, which can cause bone fractures.
4. Who Should be Concerned?
a. In obese individuals, vitamin D may be stored in fat tissue and not accessible to the blood.
b. People who do not get sunlight may also be at risk of vitamin D deficiency.
D. Too Much Vitamin D—A Danger to Soft Tissues
1. Vitamin D is the most potentially toxic of all vitamins.
2. Toxic to bones, kidneys, brain, nerves, heart, and arteries
3. More likely if supplements are taken
E. Vitamin D from Sunlight
1. Will not reach toxic levels
2. Vitamin D Synthesis and Activation – Table 7-4 describes factors that affect vitamin D synthesis
a. When ultraviolet light from the sun shines on a cholesterol compound in human skin, the
compound is transformed into a vitamin D precursor and is absorbed directly into the blood.
b. Over the next day, the liver and kidneys finish converting the precursor to active vitamin D.
c. Dark-skinned people need up to 3 hours of direct sun for several days to make enough vitamin D.
d. Light-skinned people need much less time—10 or 15 minutes.
e. Many people may not get outside much and may become somewhat deficient in vitamin D.
f. People who restrict their intake of animal and dairy foods may lack dietary vitamin D.
F. Vitamin D Intake Recommendations
1. 15 micrograms/day for people ages 1-70 years
2. 20 micrograms/day for adults over 70 years
3. UL:100 micrograms/day (4,000 IU on supplement labels)
G. Vitamin D Food Sources – include butter, fortified margarine and milk as well as fortified soy products,
cereals and infant formulas (see Snapshot 7-2)
H. Consumer’s Guide to Sources of Vitamin D
1. Finding Vitamin D in Food
a. Only a handful of foods are naturally high in vitamin D like fatty fish, liver oil, beef liver, or egg
yolks
b. Many foods are fortified with added vitamin D, which is convenient, but a person can ingest too
much vitamin D this way – Look at labels carefully

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2. Supplement Speed Bumps – many supplements have very high levels of vitamin D, which could push
intakes up past the UL
3. Sunshine—It’s Free, but Is It Safe?
a. Sunlight’s ultraviolet radiation contributes to about 1 million skin cancers per year.
b. Sunscreens help reduce skin cancer risk but also block the ability of the skin to produce the
precursor to vitamin D.
c. Tanning booths are not a safe alternative to sun exposure either.
4. Moving Ahead
a. Foods rich in vitamin D are the best choices.
b. Fortified foods or supplements are not a reliable source of vitamin D.
c. Get some sun exposure but protect your skin from excessive UV exposure.

V. Vitamin E – a.k.a. tocopherol


A. Roles of Vitamin E
1. Vitamin E is an antioxidant.
2. Oxidative damage occurs when highly unstable molecules known as free radicals, formed normally
during cell metabolism, run amok and disrupt cellular structures (Figure 7-7).
a. Oxidative damage can lead to inflammation that is associated with cardiovascular disease and
some types of cancer.
b. The lung tissue is susceptible to oxidative damage due to the high oxygen concentrations found
there.
B. Vitamin E Deficiency
1. Deficiencies are almost never seen in healthy humans.
2. A classic vitamin E deficiency occurs in diseases with fat malabsorption or in premature babies born
before the transfer of the vitamin from mother to the infant, which takes place in the last weeks of
pregnancy.
3. Infant’s RBC rupture and infant becomes anemic
4. Heart disease and cancer may arise in part through tissue oxidation and inflammation.
5. People with low blood vitamin E concentrations die more often from these and other causes than do
people with higher blood levels.
C. Toxicity of Vitamin E
1. No adverse effects arise from consuming foods that naturally provide vitamin E.
2. Vitamin E supplements may also increase the effects of anticoagulant medication.
3. An increase in brain hemorrhages, a form of stroke, among smokers taking just 50 mg of vitamin E per
day has also been noted.
4. Vitamin E supplements should be used at low doses so that the UL of 1000 mg/day is not exceeded.
D. Vitamin E Recommendations and U.S. Intakes
1. 15 milligrams a day for adults
2. On average, U.S. intakes of vitamin E fall substantially below the recommendation.
E. Vitamin E Food Sources
1. Widely distributed in plant foods; fresh, raw oils, seeds (see Snapshot 7-3)
2. Processing of foods and their associated vegetable oils can lead to the destruction of vitamin E.

VI. Vitamin K – Have you ever thought about how remarkable it is that blood can clot? What would happen if it
didn’t?
A. Roles of Vitamin K
1. Main function of vitamin K is to help synthesize proteins that help blood clot.
a. People with heart problems may need a blood thinner, warfarin, that interferes with the effects of
vitamin K.
b. Such individuals may need vitamin K if they encounter excessive bleeding with warfarin use.
2. Also necessary for the synthesis of key bone proteins
B. Vitamin K Deficiency
1. Vitamin K deficiency is rare but can occur if a person is on antimicrobial medicine that destroys
intestinal bacteria.
2. Newborn babies have a sterile intestine and it may take a couple of weeks for the intestinal bacteria to
get established.

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C. Vitamin K Toxicity
1. Toxicity is rare and there is no Tolerable Upper Intake Level.
2. Toxicity causes jaundice and may occur if supplements of a synthetic version are given too
enthusiastically.
D. Vitamin K Requirements and Sources
1. 120 micrograms/day for men, 90 micrograms/day for women
2. Vitamin K can be made by intestinal bacteria.
3. Newborns are given a dose of vitamin K at birth.
4. Food sources: dark leafy greens, cabbage-type vegetables, liver (see Snapshot 7-4)

VII. The Water-Soluble Vitamins


A. Vitamin C and the B vitamins
B. Cooking and washing cut foods with water can leach these vitamins out of the food – See Table 7-5 for
ways to minimize nutrient losses
C. Absorbed easily and excreted easily in urine
D. Foods never deliver a toxic dose of them but large doses concentrated in some vitamin supplements
can cause toxicity.

VIII. Vitamin C
A. History of its discovery
1. More than 200 years ago, any man who joined the crew of a seagoing ship knew he might contract
scurvy, which would end up killing as many as 2/3 of the crew.
2. The first nutrition experiment was done nearly 250 years ago to find a cure for scurvy:
a. 4 experimental groups: (1) Vinegar, (2) Sulfuric acid, (3) Seawater, (4) Lemons
b. Those receiving the citrus fruits were cured.
3. It took 50 years for the British navy to make use of the information and require all its ships to provide
lime juice to every sailor daily – Nicknamed them “limeys”
4. The name given to the vitamin that the fruit provided, ascorbic acid, literally means “no scurvy acid.”
5. Today called vitamin C
B. The Roles of Vitamin C
1. A Cofactor for Enzymes – Assists enzymes involved in the formation and maintenance of collagen,
which forms the base for all of the body’s connective tissues and for scar formation.
2. An Antioxidant – Acts as an antioxidant, especially protecting the immune system cells from free
radicals generated during their assault on invaders
a. Vitamin C protects iron in the intestines from oxidation and enhances its absorption.
b. Vitamin C in the blood helps preserve and recycle vitamin E.
3. Can Vitamin C Supplements Cure a Cold? – Many studies do not show a strong relationship between
vitamin C intake and the prevention of colds.
C. Deficiency Symptoms – Most scurvy symptoms are due to collagen breakdown.
1. Loss of appetite
2. Growth cessation
3. Tenderness to touch
4. Bleeding gums
5. Swollen ankles and wrists
6. Anemia
7. Red spots on skin
8. Weakness
9. Loose teeth
10. Scurvy is rare; seen in infants fed cow’s milk with no vitamin C supplementation, elderly, severely ill
people, alcohol or drug abusers, etc.
D. Vitamin C Toxicity – Possible adverse effects of taking 2 grams a day:
1. Alteration of the insulin response to carbohydrate
2. Interference with blood clotting medications
3. Increased risk of kidney stones
4. Gout
5. Excessive vitamin C can be dangerous for people who have an overload of iron in their systems

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6. Digestive upsets
7. Doses approaching 10 grams per day are seen as being unsafe.
E. Vitamin C Recommendations
1. DRI = 90 mg for men, 75 mg for women
2. Only 10 mg/day needed to prevent scurvy
3. Recommendation for smokers: 125 mg/day for men, 110 mg/day for women
G. Vitamin C Food Sources – fruits and vegetables (see Snapshot 7-5)

IX. The B Vitamins in Unison


A. Introduction
1. B vitamins function as part of coenzymes.
2. Coenzymes help enzymes do their jobs in making chemical reactions occur with less needed energy in
the body (see Figure 7-11).
B. B Vitamin Roles in Metabolism
1. Thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, and biotin participate in the release of energy from the
energy nutrients.
2. Vitamin B6 helps the body use amino acids to synthesize proteins.
3 Folate and vitamin B12 help cells multiply.
C. B Vitamin Deficiencies
1. In a B vitamin deficiency, every cell is affected.
2. Symptoms include: Nausea, severe exhaustion, irritability, depression, forgetfulness, loss of appetite
and weight
3. Impairment of immune response, abnormal heart action
4. Skin problems, swollen red tongue, teary, red eyes, pain in muscles
5. It may be difficult to determine which B vitamin is deficient since an inadequate diet may be deficient
in several of the vitamins (see Figure 7-12).

X. The B Vitamins as Individuals


A. Thiamin Roles
1. Characteristics
a. Plays a critical role in the energy metabolism of all cells
b. Occupies a site on nerve cell membranes
c. Nerve processes and their responding muscles depend heavily on thiamin.
2. Thiamin Deficiency – Beriberi
a. First observed in East Asia, where rice provided 80 to 90% of the total calories most people
consumed.
1. Polished rice became widespread, and beriberi became epidemic.
2. A physician noted a beriberi-like illness in chickens living in areas where people had beriberi
(see Figure 7-14).
3. Chickens were cured when fed rice bran, which contains thiamin
b. In developed countries today, alcohol abuse often leads to a severe form of thiamin deficiency,
Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome.
1. Alcohol impairs thiamin absorption.
2. Symptoms: Apathy, irritability, mental confusion, memory loss, jerky movement, staggering
gait
3. Recommended Intakes and Food Sources (see Snapshot 7-6)
a. Men should receive 1.2 milligrams/day of thiamin and women should receive 1.1 milligrams/day.
b. Pork products, sunflower seeds, enriched/whole-grain cereals, legumes
B. Riboflavin Roles and Sources
1. Riboflavin plays a role in energy metabolism.
2. When thiamin is deficient, riboflavin usually deficient as well.
3. Riboflavin deficiency may be seen in children or the elderly who do not consume milk and meats.
4. Sources of riboflavin are enriched breads, cereals, pasta, milk, certain vegetables, eggs, and meats (see
Snapshot 7-7)
C. Niacin
1. Participates in energy metabolism (ATP production) of every cell.

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2. Niacin Deficiency – Deficiency disease is pellagra, which appeared in Europe in the 1700s when corn
from the New World became a staple food.
a. In the early 1900s in the U.S., pellagra was affecting hundreds of thousands in the South and
Midwest.
b. Pellagra is still common in parts of Africa and Asia.
c. Pellagra still occurs in the U.S. among poorly nourished people, especially alcohol addicts.
d. Pellagra symptoms: 4 “D’s”: Diarrhea, dermatitis, dementia, death
e. See Figure 7-15 for the skin condition associated with pellagra – Keep in mind that deficiencies of
other vitamins can also affect the skin
3. Niacin Toxicity and Pharmacology
a. Supplements may be taken as a treatment to lower blood lipids associated with cardiovascular
disease.
b. Symptoms of toxicity:
1. Life-threatening drop in blood pressure
2. Liver injury
3. Peptic ulcers
4. Vision loss
5. Niacin flush, which can be very painful
4. Niacin Recommendations and Food Sources (see Snapshot 7-8)
a. The key nutrient that prevents pellagra is niacin.
b. Or, consuming adequate tryptophan (an amino acid found in proteins), which can be converted to
niacin in the body
c. The amount of niacin in a diet is stated in terms of niacin equivalents (NE), a measure that takes
available dietary tryptophan into account.
d. Most well-fed people rarely show signs of niacin deficiency.
D. Folate Roles – Folate helps synthesize DNA and so is important for making new cells.
1. Folate Deficiency
a. Deficiency of folate causes anemia, diminished immunity, and abnormal digestive function.
b. Deficiencies are related to increased risk of cervical cancer (in women infected with HPV), breast
cancer (in women who drink alcohol) and pancreatic cancer (in men who smoke).
c. Some medicines like aspirin may interfere with the body’s ability to use folate.
2. Birth Defects and Folate Enrichment
a. Adequate intakes of folate during pregnancy can reduce a woman’s chances of having a child with
a neural tube defect (NTD).
b. NTD arise in the first days or weeks of pregnancy, long before most women suspect they are
pregnant.
c. In the late 1990s the FDA ordered fortification of all enriched grain products with an absorbable
synthetic form of folate, folic acid.
d. Since fortification began, the U.S. incidence of NTD dropped by 25 percent (see Figure 7-16).
3. Folate Toxicity
a. Tolerable Upper Intake Level for folate is 1,000 micrograms a day for adults
b. A concern about fortifying the nation’s food supply with folic acid is folate’s ability to mask
deficiencies of vitamin B12.
4. Folate Recommendations – 400 micrograms/day
5. Folate Food Sources (see Snapshot 7-9)
a. Green leafy vegetables, other raw fruits/vegetables, enriched grain products
b. Folate is also measured in DFE (dietary folate equivalents), which convert the micrograms of all
folate sources to be equivalent to that found in foods.
E. Vitamin B12 Roles
1. Vitamin B12 and folate are closely related: each depends on the other for activation.
2. Main roles: helps maintain nerves and is a part of coenzymes needed in new blood cell synthesis
3. Vitamin B12 Deficiency Symptoms
a. Symptoms of deficiency of either folate or vitamin B12 include the presence of immature red blood
cells (see Figure 7-17).
b. Administering extra folate often clears up this blood condition but allows the B 12 deficiency to
continue.

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Vitamin B12’s other functions then become compromised, and the results can be devastating:
c.
damaged nerves, creeping paralysis, and general muscle and nerve malfunctioning.
4. A Special Case: Vitamin B12 Absorption – Intrinsic factor is a compound made by the stomach needed
for the absorption of B12.
a. A few people have an inherited defect in the gene for intrinsic factor, which makes B 12 absorption
poor.
b. Vitamin B12 must be injected to bypass the defective absorptive system.
c. This anemia of the vitamin B12 deficiency caused by a lack of intrinsic factor is known as
pernicious anemia.
5. Vitamin B12 Food Sources – Vitamin B12 is generally found in animal foods, so strict vegetarians may
need to get vitamin B12 from supplements (see Snapshot 7-10).
6. Perspective – exemplifies the importance of professional (not self) diagnosis of deficiencies
F. Vitamin B6 Roles
1. Vitamin B6 participates in more than 100 reactions in body tissues.
2. Needed to convert one amino acid to another amino acid that is lacking
3. Aids in conversion of tryptophan to niacin
4. Plays important roles in the synthesis of hemoglobin and neurotransmitters such as serotonin
5. Assists in releasing glucose from glycogen
6. Has roles in immune function and steroid hormone activity
7. Critical to fetal nervous system development
8. Vitamin B6 Deficiency – Deficiencies of vitamin B6 can show up as changes in the skin, weakness,
depression, and neurological symptoms in cases of extreme deficiency (see Figure 7-18).
9. Vitamin B6 Toxicity – Toxicity of vitamin B6 has developed in women taking supplements to relieve
premenstrual syndrome.
a. They developed difficulty walking due to the effects of excess vitamin B6 on the nerves.
b. Fortunately, the toxic effects are reversible.
10. Vitamin B6 Intake Recommendations and Food Sources – Most whole foods are good sources of
vitamin B6 (see Snapshot 7-11).
G. Biotin and Pantothenic Acid
1. Biotin and pantothenic acid are also important in energy metabolism and serve as cofactors.
2. Both vitamins are readily available in foods.
H. Non-B Vitamins
1. Many substances that people claim are B vitamins are not.
2. Choline – important in fetal development – common in foods
3. Carnitine, inositol, and lipoic acid – nonvitamins because they are nonessential – common in foods

XI. Food Feature: Choosing Foods Rich in Vitamins


A. Which Foods Should I Choose? – Foods work in harmony to provide most nutrients.
B. A Variety of Foods Works Best – to supply all of the essential vitamins and phytochemicals
C. Figure 7-19 shows the foods that contribute the highest amounts of vitamin A, vitamin E, thiamin, vitamin
B6, folate, and vitamin C

XII. Controversy: Vitamin Supplements: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Risks? – About half of the U.S. population
buys nutrient supplements, spending 24 billion dollars each year.
A. Arguments in Favor of Taking Supplements (see Table C7-1)
1. People with Deficiencies
a. In the U.S. and Canada, adults rarely suffer nutrient deficiencies, but they do still occur.
b. Luckily, deficiency diseases quickly resolve when a physician identifies them and prescribes
therapeutic doses (two to ten times the DRI).
2. People with Increased Nutrient Needs
a. Nutrient needs increase during certain stages of life and so sometimes nutrient supplementation is
needed.
b. Women who lose a lot of blood and therefore a lot of iron during menstruation each month may
need an iron supplement.
c. Newborns require a single dose of vitamin K at birth.
d. Women of childbearing age need supplements of folate to reduce the risk of NTD.

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3. People Coping with Physical Stress
a. Any condition that interferes with a person’s appetite, ability to eat, or ability to absorb or use
nutrients can easily impair nutrition status.
b. Secondary deficiencies
B. Arguments Against Taking Supplements
1. Introduction
a. Unlike foods, supplements can easily cause nutrient imbalances or toxicities.
b. The higher the dose, the greater the risk of harm.
2. Toxicity – No one knows for sure how many people in the U.S. suffer from supplement toxicities but
many cases likely go unreported.
3. Supplement Contamination and Safety
a. FDA identified >140 supplements containing pharmaceutical drugs
b. Some supplements contained twice the amount of vitamin A that was stated on the label.
c. The FDA has little control over supplement sales and does not routinely test new supplements.
4. Life-Threatening Misinformation
a. Another problem arises when people who are ill use high doses of supplements to cure
themselves.
b. Marketing materials are often misleading and false.
5. Unknown Needs
a. No one knows exactly how to formulate the “ideal” supplement.
b. Should phytochemicals be added? If yes, how much?
c. What nutrients should be added?
6. False Sense of Security
a. Using supplements may lull people into a false sense of security.
b. People may think food choices are not important because the supplement will take care of any
discrepancies.
c. Self-diagnosing a condition and taking a supplement may postpone an accurate diagnosis.
7. Whole Foods Are Best for Nutrients
a. Nutrients are absorbed best when ingested with food.
b. Taken in pure, concentrated form, nutrients are likely to interfere with one another’s absorption or
with the absorption of nutrients from foods eaten with them.
1. Zinc hinders copper and calcium absorption.
2. Iron hinders zinc absorption.
3. Vitamin C enhances iron absorption.
C. Can Supplements Prevent Chronic Diseases? – Can taking a supplement prevent these killers?
1. Vitamin D and Cancer – Low vitamin D intakes have been associated with some types of cancer but
increasing vitamin D intake has not be shown to reduce cancer risk.
2. Oxidative Stress, Subclinical Deficiencies, and Chronic Diseases
a. Antioxidant nutrients help to quench free radicals, rendering them harmless to cellular structures
(see Table C7-3).
b. Studies with mice have shown that increased vitamin C intake actually increase markers of
oxidation in the blood and increase the risk of developing cataracts.
3. Vitamin E and Chronic Disease
a. After years of recording health data, evidence shows that vitamin E supplements offered no
protection against heart attack incidence, hospitalization, or death from heart failure.
b. In fact, an alarming increased risk for death emerged for people taking vitamin E supplements.
c. When the data from many studies are pooled and analyzed, it appears that high vitamin E intakes
may actually be harmful.
4. The Story of Beta-Carotene—A Case in Point
a. Similar to the hopeful beginnings of the vitamin E story, beta-carotene showed early promise as a
cancer fighter.
b. Results from controlled clinical human trials reveal no benefit from beta-carotene.
c. In fact, there was a 38% increase in deadly lung cancer among smokers taking beta-carotene
compared with placebos.
d. Beta-carotene found in foods may not exert the same effects in the body as supplements.

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D. SOS: Selection of Supplements – If you cannot meet your needs from foods, a supplement containing
nutrients only can prevent serious problems.
1. Choosing a Type
a. Don’t fall for meaningless labels such as, “advanced formula,” “maximum power,” “stress
formula,” “time Release,” and the like.
b. Avoid unknown herbal additions within a supplement.
2. Reading the Label
a. What form do you want? (chewable, liquid, pills)
b. Some supplements may come in high-calorie forms such as a sugary vitamin drink or candy bar.
3. Targeting Your Needs – Who are you? What vitamins & minerals do you actually need?
4. Choosing Doses – Watch the dose you select!
a. Avoid any preparation that in a daily dose provides more than the RDA/AI of vitamin A, vitamin
D, or any mineral, or more than the Tolerable Upper Intake Level for any nutrient.
b. Avoid doses of iron over 10 milligrams per day.
5. Going for Quality
a. USP symbol on label
b. A high-priced supplement may not be higher in quality.
6. Avoiding Marketing Traps – Avoid marketing hype on the labels such as “stress formula,” “high
potency formula,” “for better metabolism,” “organic,” “natural,” “time release,” or claims that food
lacks the necessary nutrients.
E. Conclusion
1. People in developed nations are far more likely to suffer from overnutrition and poor lifestyle choices
than from nutrient deficiencies.
2. Invest energy in eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in generous quantities, along with the
recommended daily amounts of whole grains, lean protein foods, and milk products every day, and
take supplements only when they are needed.

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148

Worksheet 7-1: Label Analysis—Vitamins


INGREDIENTS: Whole Grain Wheat, Sugar, Corn Meal, Brown

Nutrition Facts Sugar Syrup, Modified Corn Starch, Canola and/or Rice Bran
Oil, Honey, Salt, Baking Soda, Calcium Carbonate, Dextrose,
Trisodium Phosphate, Zinc and Iron (Mineral Nutrients), Vitamin
Serving Size 3/4 cup (31g) C (Sodium Ascorbate), A B Vitamin (Niacinamide), Artificial
Servings Per Container 11 Flavor, Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine Hydrochloride), Vitamin B2
(Riboflavin), Vitamin B1 (Thiamin Mononitrate), Vitamin A
with 1/2 (Palmitate), A B Vitamin (Folic Acid), Vitamin B12, Vitamin D.
cup BHT Added to Preserve Freshness.
skim
Amount Per Serving Cereal milk
Calories 120 160 Instructions: Use the cereal label to answer the
Calories from Fat 10 10 questions that follow.
% Daily Value**
1. How would you find out what amount of
Total Fat 1g* 2% 2% vitamin A is contributed by a serving of this
Saturated Fat 0g 0% 0% cereal?
Trans Fat 0g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0g
Monounsaturated Fat 0.5g
Cholesterol 0mg 0% 1%
Sodium 270mg 11% 14%
Potassium 60mg 2% 8%
Total Carbohydrate 26g 9% 11% 2. What are the sources of vitamins in this cereal?
Dietary Fiber 1g 5% 5%
Sugars 11g
Other Carbohydrate 14g
Protein 2g
Vitamin A 10% 15%
Vitamin C 10% 10% 3. a. Are any actual vitamin amounts (e.g., mass
Calcium 10% 25% or volume) given on the label?
Iron 25% 25%
Vitamin D 10% 25%
Thiamin 25% 30% b. Why might this be?
Riboflavin 25% 35%
Niacin 25% 25%
Vitamin B6 25% 25%
Folic Acid 25% 25%
Vitamin B12 25% 35%
Phosphorus 4% 15%
4. Which vitamin amount in the cereal is
Magnesium 2% 6%
significantly increased by milk?
Zinc 25% 30%
* Amount in cereal. A serving of cereal plus skim milk
provides 1g total fat, less than 5mg cholesterol, 340mg
sodium, 270mg potassium, 32g total carbohydrate (16g 5. a. What class of vitamins is more abundant in
sugars) and 6g protein.
**Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. the cereal alone?
Your Daily Values may be higher or lower depending on
your calorie needs.

b. Why might this be?

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149

Worksheet 7-2: Intake Analysis—Vitamins


Eating Plan B (1 Day’s Intake) Eating Plan C (1 Day’s Intake)
6 ounces grapefruit juice 6 5”-diameter pancakes
1
2 scrambled eggs /3 cup pure maple syrup
1 ounce cheddar cheese ¼ pound of bacon
20 ounces coffee 2 scrambled eggs
2 ounces soy milk 6 ounces orange juice
1 cup fresh raspberries 8 ounces 1% fat milk
1 cup cantaloupe 2 slices of unseeded Italian bread
1 honey oat granola bar 3 ounces of thinly sliced pastrami
1 cup vanilla yogurt 2 Tbsp. spicy brown mustard
6 ounces grilled salmon 2 ounces of cheddar cheese
10 cooked asparagus spears 2 cups of Lucky Charms cereal
1 cup broccoli 1 ½ cups 1% fat milk
4 ounces white wine 6 ounces beef tenderloin
4 ounces blueberry juice + seltzer water 1 ½ cups mashed potatoes
20 barbecue flavor soy crisps 1 cup cooked corn
1 cup wasabi peas 1 cup cooked peas
1 3” x 3” spanakopita 10 ounces Seltzer water
1 cup spinach 2 ounces cheddar cheese
1
/3 cup feta cheese
¼ cup black olives
5 grape tomatoes
3 Tbsp. oil & vinegar dressing
6 ounces white wine
¼ cup mixed nuts
1 cup vanilla ice cream

Eating Plan F (1 Day’s Intake) Eating Plan G (1 Day’s Intake)


2 scrambled eggs 1 cup honey dew melon
1 cup whole milk 1 cup fresh strawberries
2 slices bacon 1 large apple
2 1-ounce Slim Jims ½ avocado
6 ounces lean ground beef ½ cup sweet green peppers
2 ounces provolone cheese ½ cup sweet red peppers
¼ cup blue cheese dressing ¼ cup black olives
12 ounces water 1 medium orange
2 ounces cheddar cheese cubes 1 medium banana
6 ounces grilled chicken breasts 1 cup boiled green beans
1 scrambled egg 10 cooked asparagus spears
1 cup lettuce 1 cup sautéed mushrooms
½ cup blue cheese dressing 1 cup kidney beans
2 ounces pork rinds ¼ cup dried apricots
12 ounces water ¼ cup dried Craisins
5 dried, pitted dates

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150
Look at Eating Plans B, C, F, and G:

1. Compare each of these eating plans for their vitamin contents.

a. Which eating plan has the highest level of vitamin A?

b. Vitamin D?

c. Vitamin C?

d. Folate?

e. Vitamin B12?

2. a. Which of these eating plans is deficient in pre-formed vitamin A (retinol)?

b. Is this same eating plan also deficient in beta-carotene?

c. If not, is there enough beta-carotene to compensate for the reduced level of preformed vitamin A?

3. a. Suggest ways to increase the vitamin C content of Eating Plan F.

b. Why is this important to do?

4. a. Which of these eating plans has the highest level of adequacy in terms of supplying essential
vitamins?

b. Does the same eating plan that you chose in 4.a. have the most nutrient-dense choices?

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151

Worksheet 7-3: Factors that Destroy Vitamins7


Nutrient Acid Alkaline Oxygen UV Light Heat
Thiamin ✓ ✓ ✓
Riboflavin ✓ ✓
Niacin ✓
Biotin ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Pantothenic acid ✓ ✓ ✓
Vitamin B6 ✓ ✓ ✓
Folate ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Vitamin B12 ✓ ✓
Vitamin C ✓ ✓ ✓
Vitamin A ✓ ✓ ✓
Vitamin D ✓ ✓ ✓
Vitamin E ✓ ✓
Vitamin K ✓ ✓

Questions for discussion:

1. What types of food processing methods are available that can protect nutrients from the harmful
effects of oxygen?

2. What types of food packaging could be used to block the penetration of the food by ultraviolet light?

3. Describe the food sources that can create an acidic or alkaline environment, which can destroy some
of the nutrients.

7Source for table: Adapted from C.D. Berdanier, Advanced Nutrition: Micronutrients (Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press,
1998).

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152

Worksheet 7-4: Comparing Supplements Label To Label


Instructions: Obtain the labels of 2 multi-nutrient supplements. Compare these 2 different multivitamin
preparations for their contributions of each vitamin and mineral to the percent of Daily Values.

• You can look at brand-name supplements as compared to similar generic supplements.


• Or, you can compare a specialty formula (men’s/women’s formula, stress formula, dieter’s formula,
etc.) with a general multivitamin.
• Fill in the following table and answer the questions to help you compare different multivitamins.

Supplements you compared: #1 _________________________ #2 _________________________

Vitamin/Mineral Amount Listed % Daily Value UL


Supp. #1 Supp. #2 Supp. #1 Supp. #2
Vitamin A
Riboflavin
Thiamin
Niacin
Folate
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12
Vitamin C
Vitamin D
Vitamin E
Vitamin K
Calcium
Phosphorous
Sodium
Potassium
Magnesium
Chromium
Cooper
Selenium
Zinc

Supplements can safely provide 100% of the Daily Values for most vitamins and minerals.

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153
Answer these questions for supplement #1 on a separate sheet of paper:
1. What is the name of the supplement?
2. What is the cost per pill?
3. Is the supplement complete (does it contain all vitamins and minerals with established DRIs)? If no,
what is missing?
4. Are most vitamins and minerals present at or near 100% of the DRIs? Exceptions include biotin,
calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, which are rarely found in amounts near 100% of the DRI. List
any vitamins or minerals that are present in low amounts or dangerously high amounts.
5. Does the supplement contain unnecessary nutrients or nonnutrients? If yes, list them.
6. Is there “hype” on the label? Does the label use the terms “natural,” “organic,” “chelated,” “no
sugar,” “stress-reliever,” etc.? List any terms used.

Answer these questions for supplement #2 on a separate sheet of paper:


7. What is the name of the supplement?
8. What is the cost per pill?
9. Is the supplement complete (does it contain all vitamins and minerals with established RDIs)? If no,
what is missing?
10. Are most vitamins and minerals present at or near 100% of the DRIs? Exceptions include biotin,
calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus, which are rarely found in amounts near 100% of the DRIs. List
any vitamins or minerals that are present in low amounts or dangerously high amounts.
11. Does the supplement contain unnecessary nutrients or nonnutrients? If yes, list them.
12. Is there “hype” on the label? Does the label use the terms “natural,” “organic,” “chelated,” “no
sugar,” “stress-reliever,” etc.? List any terms used.

Special Notes:
• Vitamin A should come from beta-carotene with only about 3,000 IU coming from retinal (active
vitamin A).
• Older adults may need higher amounts of vitamin D than a multivitamin can provide. They may have
to eat additional foods with vitamin D or consult their healthcare provider about taking additional
vitamin D supplements.
• Post-menopausal women and men do not need the 100% daily value for iron.
• Doses of manganese (trace mineral) should not exceed 11 mg daily. Excessive doses can cause
Parkinson’s-like symptoms.
• Doses of zinc above 40 mg/day can interfere with copper absorption. Copper is needed for red blood
cell formation in addition to iron.
• Try to get vitamin E in the form of mixed tocopherols instead of just alpha-tocopherol.

Ask Yourself:
13. When would a specialty formula be necessary?
14. Is a brand name vitamin always superior to a generic version?

References:
Why I Take Supplements. Dr. Andrew Weil’s Self Healing. Premiere Issue, pages 1,6-7.
Does Your Supplement Provide a Nutrient Overdose? Tuft’s University Health and Nutrition Letter.
Volume 19 (2), April 2001, page 4.
Forman, Adrienne. Multis Deliver Nutrition Insurance: EN Helps You Make the Best Choice.
Environmental Nutrition. Volume 27 (6) June 2004, pages 1, 4-5.

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154

Worksheet 7-5: Chapter 7 Review Crossword Puzzle


1 2

3 4 5

6 7

10 11

12

13

14

Across: Down:
1. Riboflavin and thiamin are important for _____ production within 2. Vitamin D deficiency in childhood
cells, including nervous system cells. can result in _____, which is
3. The niacin-deficiency disease causing dermatitis associated with weakened,
5. This vitamin can produced in the body if enough tryptophan (an misshapen bones.
amino acid in proteins) is present 4. Vitamin E functions as an _____,
6. _____ is one of the plant-based forms of vitamin A that must be which can help protect cells from
made active in the body. damage.
9. Thinning of bones that occurs in older age and results in serious 7. _____ is a visual pigment that
fractures contains vitamin A and is needed
10. Active vitamin D acts on 3 key target organs/tissues in the body to for night vision.
raise the blood _____ levels. 8. Stored form of a vitamin that needs
12. Type of tissue that lines and protects the digestive tract and to be made active inside the body
respiratory tract and is maintained by vitamin A 11. Another name for the active form
13. _____ factor, produced in the stomach, is needed for the body to be of vitamin A involved in low-light
able to absorb adequate amounts of vitamin B12. vision
14. Vitamin D can be produced by exposure of the skin to _____.

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155

Handout 7-1: Vitamins Do More than Treat Deficiency Diseases


Vitamins play many roles in the body from maintaining cells and tissues to helping the body obtain
maximum energy from macronutrients. Most people in developed countries do not suffer from diseases
related to vitamin deficiencies but people do suffer from diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease,
and osteoporosis. Vitamins can actually help prevent these chronic conditions if taken at effective and
safe doses.

Vitamin May Help Prevent Special Notes


Vitamin A Cancer, cardiovascular disease, macular Get from beta-carotene-containing
degeneration produce that has other protective
phytochemicals
Vitamin B6 Heart disease and reduced immunity Can cause toxicity, so do not exceed the
Tolerable Upper Intake Level
Vitamin B12 Nervous system damage and anemia
Folate Heart disease, anemia, neural tube Stimulates red blood cell production
defects, breast cancer, and colon cancer
Vitamin C Boosts immunity and may prevent Avoid chewable tablet forms of vitamin
cancer and cardiovascular disease C, which is ascorbic acid; it can erode
tooth enamel
Vitamin D Osteoporosis and breast cancer Vitamin D is fat soluble, so do not
exceed the Tolerable Upper Intake Level
Vitamin E Cancer and cardiovascular disease May be hard to get enough if one is on a
low-fat diet

An adequate and varied diet can provide many of the vitamins in needed amounts. Older adults may need
to get more vitamin D than what they can consume in their diets. Vegans may need to get additional
vitamin B12 from a supplement. Everyone should watch that they do not exceed the Tolerable Upper
Intake Level (UL) for vitamin A. This can be done by consuming most of the vitamin A in the form of
beta-carotene from brightly colored produce.

References:

Why I Take Supplements. Dr. Andrew Weil's Self Healing. Premiere Issue, pages 1,6-7.

Does Your Supplement Provide a Nutrient Overdose? Tuft’s University Health and Nutrition Letter.
Volume 19 (2), April 2001, page 4.

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license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website for classroom use.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“Crespi? No, no. Some one greater, like—like——”
“D’Annunzio,” Armando ventured again.
“Bah! Who is he? I mean some one very great, like——”
“I know!” cried Marianna. “Like the Pope!”
“No, no,” persisted Bertino. “It must be some man as big as
Garibaldi. That’s it. But not a dead Garibaldi. He must be alive, so
that I may sell him the bust that you will make of him. What would
you do with a man like that, for example?”
“Well,” said Armando, pausing and looking up at the ceiling, as
though weighing the matter carefully, “I should make a very fine bust
of such a man.”
“Bravo!” cried Bertino. “With a piece of your best work for a
sample, how long should I be getting orders for more? Not many
days, I promise. And the Americans have gold. What say you, my
friend? Is it not a grand idea?”
“Si, si; a grand idea.”
In truth it loomed before Armando as the chance of his life. Now
as ardent as the other, he agreed to begin work upon a bust in
marble so soon as he should receive from America a photograph of
the chosen subject. When finished he would send it to New York,
there to be put on exhibition and offered for sale.
That afternoon the Saale steamed from Genoa Bay with Bertino a
steerage passenger. Some time after the ship had swung from her
quay Armando and Marianna looked from the studio window over the
cypress fringe toward the gap in the mountains that shows the sails
of ships but conceals the Mediterranean’s waves. Presently a black
bar of smoke moving lazily across the aperture told them that he was
on his way.
Near the window a block of Carrara marble glistened pure and
white in the sunlight. Armando wondered what manner of being he
should release from it—a President, a money king, or a great
American beauty?
CHAPTER II
CASA DI BELLO

The banked fire of America’s Sabbath gave its quiet to Bowling


Green the day that Bertino landed in New York. It was not the New
York he had seen so often from the heights of Cardinali. The cloud-
piercing houses had always loomed in his dream pictures, but no
returned exile had ever told him that they filled the soul with this
nameless dread. He longed to be in Mulberry, which all travellers
agreed was the next best thing to being in Italy. With a goatskin box
under one arm, a tawny cotton umbrella pressed by the other, and
his left hand clutching the knotted ends of a kerchief holding more
luggage, he set out from the Barge Office. In the band of his narrow-
brimmed black soft hat—the precious adornment of festal days—
stood a gray turkey feather, and about his bare neck in sailor noose
was tied a cravat of satin, green as the myrtle of his native steeps.
As he strode up Broadway, past old Trinity and Wall Street, the
heavy fall of his hobnailed boots started the echoes of the New
World’s financial centre.
A flock of fellow-pilgrims clattered by at high speed in care of a
guide, who charged five cents a head for piloting them safely to the
Italian colony. The hatless women, burdened with babies and heavy
sacks, struggled bravely to keep up with the men, who carried the
umbrellas. Bertino fell in behind, and soon they turned the corner of
Franklin Street. Here they got their first glimpse of Mulberry, which
lay clearly visible in the distance at the foot of a hill whose summit is
Broadway. Beneath the Bridge of Sighs, which spans the street at
the Tombs Prison, forming an arching frame for the picture, they
could see the pleasant lawn of Paradise Park. It was a bright
afternoon, and the broad patch of greensward gleamed like a great
emerald down there in the sunlight, and the low-roofed houses all
around, with the sun’s fire in their window panes, had a homelike
countenance. This was not the image their minds had wrought of
Mulberry, where travellers said the people were herded in pens that
knew not the light of day. How strange that no one had ever told
them it was so cheerful and bello! But when they reached the heart
of the quarter they had no more thrills from the contemplation of
natural beauty. Here the air throbbed with the staccato cadence of
south Italian patois. The signs over the shops were no longer
gibberish, and Bertino blessed the day that he, Armando, and
Marianna had paid the mountain pedagogue three liras to teach
them words of ordinary size.
Bertino’s arrival at Paradise Park.

Mulberry was in its accustomed Sunday manner. Nearly all the


shops were closed, and their faces, so smiling on week days in
scarlet wreaths of dried peppers, clusters of varnished buffalo
cheeses and festoons of Bologna salame, now frowned in shabby
black or dark-brown shutters. Madre Chiara’s bower, evergreen on
working days with chicory and dandelion salad and Savoy cabbage,
had vanished with its owner. No gossip-hungry women, with primed
ears, bent about the basket of the garlic seller on China Hill, for she
was out with everybody to-day in her best clothes. The crippled
beggar at the hydrant was not missing, but he shivered in the May
sunshine because Sara the Frier of Pepper Pods was not there with
her pail of fire. Another important brazier was in Sunday retirement—
that of old Cantolini the Gondolier, and in consequence there floated
on the air no suave odour of cooking pine cones, whose seed the
Napolitani of the Basso Porto so love to munch.
In the rear courts, where gamblers at morra bawled and capered
like madmen, rows of pushcarts, their stubby shafts in the air, told of
a twenty-four-hour truce in the strategic fray waged between the
peddler army and the artful police. The narrow ribbon of sky between
the tall tenements had a Sunday look; it was not mottled with shirts
of many patches hung out to dry, and the iron fire escapes, stripped
of their week-day wash things in the general sprucing up, gave to the
eye here and there the colours of Italy. The dingy caffès, from whose
tenebrous depths tobacco smoke poured with the scent of viands,
were crowded with the Calabriani, the Siciliani, and the Napolitani of
the rural districts visiting Mulberry for an innocent spree.
The jewelry shops were open and doing a lively trade. Young
men bought wedding rings and tried them on the fingers of their
promised wives, while faint-hearted bachelors, at the same counter,
parted with their hard-earned coin for little silver-tipped horns against
the evil eye. At the door a brawny flower woman in spickest gingham
held a basket of dahlias fresh, mingled with carnations and asters
that had lost the bloom of first youth. It was a sure vantage ground
for her traffic. The mating couples, proud in their ownership of the
wedlock band, stopped at the basket, every one, and close-fisted
indeed was the future husband who did not hand a posy to his bride
elect.
As the wondering Bertino passed, bearded men in the rôle of
newsboys bellowed their wares in his ears: “Il Progresso! L’Araldo!
L’Italiano in America! Due soldi!” Literature got scant nourishment,
but tobacco-selling throve, and the man without a lengthy rat-tail
cigar in his mouth was marked among his fellows. They were all in
their smartest clothes. Starched shirts were too numerous to give
their wearers distinction, and not a few of the clean-shaved necks
fretted within stiff collars. Here and there dark-skinned young sparks
with red neckties puffed cigarettes and showed fine in apparel that
smacked of Bowery show-windows. Scarcely a woman was there
from whose ears did not hang long pendants of gold, nor a feminine
head that did not gleam in oily smoothness. Shawls woven in the
gaudy hues and fantastic patterns of Italian looms splashed the
throng with colour, and a few of those large-rayed combs that
Apennine maidens love to wear glinted in the sunshine of Paradise
Park. Much courting went forward on the park benches, the fond
ones caring not an atom for the stare of colder eyes, but retaining
their entwined pose in sweet oblivion to the rest of Mulberry.
The company in charge of the five-cent guide followed their
leader into a broad alley, and Bertino was left alone in the
concourse, at loss whither to turn. Not a soul gave the least heed to
him. Those whom he asked to point him to 342 Mulberry Street, his
uncle’s abode, passed on shaking their heads and mumbling
something in broad Sicilian or Neapolitan which the young Genovese
did not understand. Some sighed as they made the sign of not
knowing, as though that number were the darkest of mysteries. At
length a gleam of light came over one face.
“I know,” said the man, a young fellow decked in Sunday
corduroy. “It is Casa Di Bello.”
“Yes; Giorgio Di Bello is the name of my uncle.”
“Your uncle? Santa Maria, signore! Let me carry your trunk.”
But Bertino only hugged the goatskin closer, the tales of Mulberry
sharks current in every mountain hamlet of Italy being vivid in his
mind.
“I’ll show you the house, anyway,” said the man of knowledge,
and Bertino followed.
The sidewalk was too narrow for the buzzing stream. The
asphalted roadway had become the grand promenade, and there the
panorama of Italia’s types unrolled: black men of Messina, with the
hair and skin of Persia, exiled from Etna’s slopes mayhap by the
glowing lavas that burn up olive grove and vineyard; red, flat-nosed
men and fair-haired women of Lombardy, driven perchance from
their fertile plains by the ruin that rides grimly on the freshets of the
Po, but brought oftener by the tax collector; cowherds and
clodbreakers of the Roman Campagna, whose clear-toned dialect
found an antiphonal note in the patter of the gaunt but often brawny
sons of fever-plagued Maremma. Here and there in the moving
throng strutted a labour padrone, out to salute and be saluted with
lifted hat by all who prized his favour. One and all they uncovered as
he passed—sturdy dwarfs from Calabria and the Basilicata, mere
pegs from the heel and the toe of the Boot; limpid-eyed
mountaineers from the Abruzzi, bronzed fags of half-African Sicily,
riffraff of the Neapolitan slums; America-mad fishermen of the
Adriatic and Tyrrhene, deserters of a coinless Arcadia to become
hod-slaves with a bank account.
Slowly but volubly the clans of toil moved by, unheeded by a little
mother whose life was given for the moment to shining the heavy
gold rings in her baby’s ears.
“Eccola, signore,” said the man in corduroy, pausing before a
house that faced St. Patrick’s graveyard. “This is Casa Di Bello, the
finest domicile in the colony.”
It was an old-style brick dwelling of two stories and attic on the
northern fringe of Mulberry—the only house in the street whose front
was not gridironed with fire escapes. The low stoop, iron railing, and
massive dadoes, the Ionian door columns of hard wood, the domed
vestibule and generous width, marked it a rare survivor of the
building era that passed with the stagecoach and the Knickerbocker
—a well-preserved ghost of the quarter’s bygone fashion and
respectability.
Bertino looked up and read in bold text upon a well-polished
brass doorplate the assuring name, “Di Bello.”
“Grazie mille,” he said to his guide. “I am too poor to make you a
present. Grazie mille.”
The other made off with a long face, but protesting that he had
not expected a present for such a small service.
Heartened by the nearness of a friend, Bertino gave the heavy
bell handle a stout pull. Decorously and without undue promptness
the broad-panelled oak swung narrowly, and the mountaineer looked
into the stern complacency of his aunt Carolina’s eyes. He was too
young to remember this smug dame of closing forty, who had gone
from Cardinali twelve years before to become perpetua[A] in the
Mulberry parish rectory. That peaceful career she had forsaken, for
reasons of which we may learn; but the eight years of churchdom
were still in her head. Nor had she ever lost the outward badge. She
was rotund and well-coloured, monastic of mien, and sleek as a
cathedral rat.
“Who are you?” she asked, scanning the lad from his hobnailed
soles to the turkey feather in his hat.
“I am Bertino Manconi, nephew of Signor Giorgio Di Bello,” he
answered proudly, unabashed by her poignant stare. “Are you
Angelica the cook?”
When her breath came free she said: “But it was to-morrow—
Monday.” His arrival one day ahead of the appointed time shocked
her rubric sense of order and ignored her ritual of coming events.
“And you come to the door like a Sicilian, baggage in hand and——”
“Ha! Welcome to my house!” cried a hearty voice at the head of
the stairs. “A hundred welcomes, caro nephew! But what a
stupendous height! Step aside, my sister, and bid the giant enter.
How is this? At the parish house did they teach you to make friends
wait outside? Well, it is not so at Casa Di Bello. So you are a day
ahead? Well, so much the better. Ah, what a fine voyage you must
have had!”
It was no longer a voice on the upper floor, but the form and
substance of a bush-headed, chubby man of dawning fifty, whose
prodigious King Humbert mustache quaked as he puffed down the
staircase as best his short legs would permit. He threw himself upon
Bertino, who had to stoop a little to receive a resonant salutation on
each cheek. Then Carolina bestowed a pair of stony kisses, first
remarking with wooden seemliness, “Welcome, my nephew.”
At the same moment Angelica the cook, a mite of a crone with a
Roman nose, carried a steaming soup into the dining room, set it on
the table, and called out in the shrillest Genovese:
“Ecco, signori; the minestrone is served, and the most beautiful
minestrone I have made since the Feast of the Mother.”
After his three weeks of steerage fare Bertino fell upon the dinner
with a zest that delighted his uncle, but dismayed Carolina, and
caused the rims of Angelica’s eyes to spread until they were as
round as the O of Giotto.
“Well, did you stop to pick up any gold in the street?” asked
Signor Di Bello, winking at his sister, and sprinkling grated Parmesan
over a ragout of green peppers. “I suppose you have your valise
filled with it.”
“Ma che!” said Bertino, holding up his plate and looking wise. “Do
you think I am such a fool? I don’t expect to pick up money; but shall
I tell you something? Well, it is this: In this country I shall soon make
enough money to fill that valise.”
The others dropped their knives and forks and regarded him with
amazement.
“By the egg of Columbus!” exclaimed Signor Di Bello. “Are you
not to work in my shop?”
“Oh, yes; of course.”
“Then how do you expect to make so much money?”
There was no reason for it; but Bertino, oddly enough, yielded to
a sudden impulse to repress the truth. Cocking his eye first to the
ceiling and then on the tablecloth, he uttered a fib that concealed his
and Armando’s darling project for selling life-size busts in America.
The coffee served and the maraschino sipped, Signor Di Bello
drew the straw from a Virginia and settled for a smoke, while Aunt
Carolina showed Bertino to the room in the attic appointed for his
use. She unpacked his few belongings and placed them tidily in a
small chest of drawers, at the same time laying before him solemnly
the parish-house rules by which she governed Casa Di Bello. Had
her brother below stairs heard this, it is likely that he would have sent
up many a guffaw with his smoke rings, for by him these rules had
received little honour save in the steady nonobservance.
Carolina had never set her face against Bertino’s coming to the
house, and there was no method in the frosty greeting she had given
him at the door. It was merely that the sight of him, standing there,
bag and baggage, a whole day before the time, had staggered her
orderly being and drawn from her an instinctive protest. This all
came of her unruffled years as perpetua of the rectory—that domain
of peace and even tenor, whose broad, clear windows she often
regarded wistfully, looking over the churchyard to Mott Street, from
her sanctum on the second floor.
A half decade had gone by since the Wednesday of Ashes when
the brother and sister patched up the quarrel that had separated
them in their poorer days and she returned to the air of laity. But the
sacerdotal brand would not wear off, nor did she wish it to. In the
conduct of the household her churchly notions had free scope
enough, but applied in censorship of her brother’s life they met with
dreary contempt. To no purpose did she preach when Mulberry
buzzed with the latest story of his gallantries, for his ready argument
was always an eloquent “Ma che!” and an unanswerable shrug of the
shoulders. In vain did she wait up, often from compline to prime, that
she might shame him when he came home aglow with bumpers of
divers vintage. It was after a certain rubicund night at the Caffè of the
Three Gardens that he cut short her usual sermon with a roaring
manifesto against church and state and a declaration of personal
liberty for all time.
“Snakes of purgatory!” he had remarked in conclusion, one foot
on the staircase. “Am I not a man? If you want priests, go to the
parish house, where you belong. Once a priest always a priest.” With
this taunt, meant to be a parting one, he toddled up to bed, but,
reaching the landing, stopped and called back: “If you don’t leave me
alone, I’ll bring a wife here.”
From that time, which was two years before Bertino’s arrival, she
gave up her nocturnal vigils, and without let or hindrance the signore
feasted and drank with boon comrades, and cracked walnuts on his
head with an empty bottle—a feat for which he was justly renowned
in all the caffès of the quarter. The lowering peril of a wife in the
house had set her to thinking as she had never thought before on
this dire possibility. Her brother’s nonconformity was a flaw in her
sceptre, but she knew that a wife meant the utter collapse of her
sovereignty in Casa Di Bello. Wherefore she resolved to abide by the
lesser evil, and bend her strength to warding off the greater. Thus it
befell that with the accession of Bertino to the family she was not ill
content. The coming of a man to the board imparted no misgiving.
What her soul dreaded and her wits had guarded against was the
advent of a woman. And she felicitated herself that no wife had
succeeded in crossing the threshold. To her ever-watchful eye, she
fondly believed, was due the blessing of her brother’s continuance in
the path of bachelorhood, despite the caps that were set for him on
every bush. The first families of the Calabriani, the Siciliani, and the
Napolitani, along with the flower of the Genovesi, the Milanesi, and
the Torinesi, had in turn put forth their famous beauties as
candidates for his hand and grocery store. But they all had been
driven from the Rubicon, and at present there was no pretender in
the field. Had there been she would have known it, as she knew of
all the other marital campaigns, through Angelica, who went to
market daily and kept in touch with Sara the Frier of Pepper Pods,
Mulberry’s queen of gossips.
CHAPTER III
A SPOT OF YELLOW PAINT

Next morning, while the sun gave its first touch to the bronze
head of Garibaldi, Bertino tied on an apron and set to work in Signor
Di Bello’s shop, that peerless grocery whose small window and large
door look tranquilly on the Park of Paradise. For a dozen years it had
been known far and wide among Italia’s children as “The Sign of the
Wooden Bunch.” The nickname came of a piece of carved oak
simulating a bunch of bananas that hung before the door. In the early
days of his business life the padrone had learned that the air of
Mulberry was singularly fatal to the real fruit that he put on show
outside. It happened some days that as many as twenty bananas on
one stem would evaporate, though all the others remained intact. It
was always the ones nearest the ground that vanished. One evening
it struck Signor Di Bello that a violent chemical change in the
exposed fruit would put an end to its mysterious disintegration. So he
substituted the bananas of art for those of Nature. The evaporation
ceased straightway, but for two or three mornings thereafter certain
small boys, on their way to the Five Points Mission School, beheld
with bitter disappointment the oaken symbol, and answered its grin
of mockery with looks of blackest disgust.
Those boys are workingmen now, and when they dream of the
springtimes of childhood, they see Giorgio Di Bello, paint brush in
hand, giving a fresh skin of yellow to the make-believe bananas. It
was a promise of vernal roses as sure as the chirp of a bluebird in
the churchyard grass or the gladsome advent of Simone the
Sardinian with his hokey-pokey cart. When the people saw him
giving the bunch its annual sprucing up, they were wont to exclaim:
“Bravo! Summer is coming. Soon we shall have music in Paradise.”
The morning of Bertino’s début at the shop was a bright one of
young June, and the baby maples of the Park were showing their
first dimples of green. It was the blatant hour when Mulberry’s street
bazaar is in full cry; when the sham battle fought every morning
between honeyed sellers and scornful buyers is in hot movement;
when dimes and coppers are the vender’s prize against flounders,
cabbages, saucepans, calicoes, apples, and shoestrings, as the
stake that fires the housewife’s tongue and eye; when stout-lunged
hucksters cut the din with the siren songs their kind have sung for
ages in the market place.
Spick and span in the clean blouse of Monday, Signor Di Bello
stood on his broad threshold ready for the day’s trade. He had just
shown Bertino how to convert the prosy doorway into a bower
abloom with garlands of freckled salame, cordons of silvery garlic,
clusters of cacciocavalli cheese; how to hang in the entry luring
sheaves of wild herbs, strings of hazelnuts, and the golden
colocynths that are—as all must know—an anodyne for every ill. To
flaunt this ravishing group to the senses of the colony was Bertino’s
first duty of the day. That accomplished, he set out on either side of
the doorway the tubs of tempting stockfish, the black peas of
Lombardy, parched tomatoes and red peppers, lupini beans in fresh
water, ripe olives in brine, and macaroni of sundry types.
Presently the foraging women, their blue-and-red-skirted hips
wabbling under the weight of well-loaded baskets balanced on their
heads, began to enter the shop. Dexterously taking down their
burdens and setting them on the counter, they called out their wants
in the varied jargons of the Peninsula. Not only was Signor Di Bello
equal to them, one and all, but he could give back two raps in the
haggling set-to for every tap that he received. When the morning had
worn on, and the lay of the last vender had died out, he opened a
small can of yellow paint, chose a brush from the stock, placed it in
the hand of his nephew, and said:
“Nipote mio, do you see the green spots on the boughs? Well, it
is time to give the Bunch a new coat.”
Bertino applied the colour, while his uncle looked on with fond
and critical eye, for it was the first time he had intrusted the historic
task to other hands than his own. Before the finishing touch had
been given he was called into the shop to hack off a four-cent chunk
of Roman cheese. A moment later Bertino stepped back to survey
his handiwork, the brush at heedless poise—Mulberry’s sidewalks
are narrow and teeming—when an angry voice fairly stung his ear:
“Guarda, donkey! What are you about?”
He turned and looked into the blazing eyes of a tall young
woman, whose full-flowered beauty startled him more than her words
had done, and for the moment his tongue had no speech.
“Clumsy dog! Why don’t you look?” she began again, drawing out
a gingham handkerchief of purple and putting it to her face. On her
cheek, just where the flush faded in the rich tawn of her skin, was a
spot of yellow—as strangely there as though some fool had tried to
adorn a radiant blossom.
“But excuse me; a thousand pardons. I did not see you,” he
blurted. “I did not see you, veramente, signorina—beautiful
signorina.”
“Bah!” she flung back. “Where are your eyes, calf of a
countryman?”
He watched her as she sailed away above the heads of
Mulberry’s little brown maids and matrons, and for hours afterward
felt the spell of her massing black tresses, her proud step, and the
rugged poetry of her plenteous line.
Small matters these—a spot of fortuitous colour, flashing eyes
among a people who are always flashing, and a mountaineer with
youth in his veins thinking about a well-knit and warm-hued maid
who has proved her fire with a blistering tongue. But in the light of all
that has come and gone, that stain of yellow may not be wiped out
from this record of the warring dilemmas that sharpened the lives of
certain little people of the little world wherein we have set foot.
CHAPTER IV
JUNO THE SUPERB

“O dolce Napoli,
O suol beato,
Ove sorridere,
Voile il creato;
Tu sei l’impero
Dell ’armonia—
Santa Lucia!
Santa Lucia!”

Signor Grabbini, impresario of the theatre of La Scala, resolved


to give up his valiant but ruinous fight for the legitimate drama. Such
pieces as Othello, Francesca da Rimini, The Count of Monte Cristo,
acted with a complete cast, had proved a strain too severe for the
treasury as well as for the capacity of his ten-foot stage. In scenes
where the entire company was “on,” the jam became so great that
spirited pushing set in, each actor aiming to hold that part of the
stage allotted to him by the playbook. In the struggle, conducted
sometimes with stealthy art, that the audience might not be aware,
toes were trodden upon and tempers badly stirred. Thus it happened
that after the curtain had rolled down, the ladies and gentlemen of
the company were likely to fall to shaking their fists at one another,
naturally to the delight of the audience, who could hear the wordy
battle very distinctly. Wherefore Signor Grabbini decided to change
the policy of his theatre.
One night he stepped before the curtain to make the momentous
announcement. Before he could open his mouth a sailor-man, red as
Hiawatha, reached over from the wicketed parapet of the gallery and
cried:
“A clasp of the hand, comrade!”
With a gallery so low as that it were folly to court dignity, so the
little man shook the big hand and then began his speech, which he
punctuated with glances at a piece of white paper that he held. In
glittering words he set forth the motives that animated him in
deciding upon a change from the plan of amusement that had been
so successful, so profitable to himself, and so agreeable to the
signori of the company. But it was because he wished to serve
better, to captivate even more the highly esteemed, the eminent, the
generous Italian colony, that in the future there would be no five-act
tragedies, but a veritable banquet every night of short comedies—
oh, so laughable!—from the pens of the world’s greatest dramatists,
in the true Italian as well as the dialect of sweet Naples.
“Bravoes!” from all over the theatre put a stop to the speech for a
moment. Men in the orchestra pens leaned over the edge of the
stage and lit their cigarettes at the footlights, and, taking advantage
of the pause, the meal-cake man shouted his wares.
“But this is not all, my friends,” went on Signor Grabbini.
A fresh shower of bravoes.
“Keep your feet off my head!” cried a man in the pit to one in the
gallery.
“Bah!” gave back the other, drawing in a huge boot between the
wickets; “in this theatre one can not stretch his legs.”
“Silence! Hear the impresario!”
“Beginning on Sunday night,” said the man on the stage, “I shall
have the distinct honour of presenting to the highly discriminating
taste of the most esteemed and eminent patrons of La Scala an
extraordinary singer of canzonets.”
“Bravo, Signor Grabbini!”
“Silence!”
“Meal cakes! A soldo each!”
“Silence, thou donkey!”
“With your permission, ladies and gentlemen,” the impresario
went on, bowing low, “I will proceed. The artist to whom I have
referred is—ah! my friends—she is an angel of delight—a glorious
type, a creature magnificent. My word of honour, the most beautiful
woman in New York—nay, in all America. To the artistic world she is
known as Juno the Superb. Pay strict attention, my compatriots. The
evening of the Feast of Sunday will indeed be an occasion most
extraordinary, for it is my honoured privilege to inform you that in
addition to the famous comedies and the exquisite Juno, there will
be an oyster cook in the audience under the especial administration
of the management, who will prepare soups of sea fruit in true
Neapolitan style and at prices the most moderate.”
“Bravissimo!”
“Meal——”
“Silence! Evviva the oyster cook!”
“With these my humble words, highly prized patrons, I will
conclude, and from the depth of my heart beg you to accept my most
cordial gratitude, and the assurance that in the future as well as the
past you will find me ever alert to serve faithfully and to the plenitude
of my power the highly esteemed, the eminent, the generous Italian
colony.”
“Long live the impresario!” was rained from all parts as he backed
off, salaaming.
“Evviva Juno the Superb!” piped one voice.
“And the oyster soup!” thundered a Sicilian hod-carrier.
At length the curtain was raised on the last act of the tragedy, and
the knights and ladies, buffoons and sages, soldiers and huntsmen,
began moving about the stage gingerly, with great skill avoiding
collision as they crossed or ducking their heads when they made
exits, hurried or slow, through the dollhouse doors.
On the Feast of Sunday a packed theatre bore witness to the
wisdom of Signor Grabbini’s change of policy. From the base-board
of the stage, which was fringed by a row of shrubby black heads, to
the last tier of benches there was no vacant seat. The first of the
short comedies was reeled off without a single toe trodden on, since
it required only five dramatis personæ. Not a joke went begging, for
the audience heard them all twice—first from the prompter, who
bawled them from his little green coop at the footlights, and again
from the mouths of the actors.
Next came the star of the evening, Juno the Superb. As the
orchestra—blaring its brass—struck up the prelude of her song,
Signor Di Bello entered the tiny proscenium box and dropped into a
chair. The fame of her plethoric beauty had reached him, as the
impresario had taken good care it should reach many an
appreciative masculine ear. He was a very different-looking man to-
night from the Signor Di Bello of business hours, clad in a long drab
blouse, hacking Parmesan and weighing macaroni. Now he showed
brave in snowy shirt front of bulging expanse, large diamond, black
coat, white waistcoat, lavender trousers, and a gorgeous bouquet
stuck under his left cheek.
When she appeared in the glare of the lights, draped frankly in
the odd colours and tinsel frippery of the Campania peasant maid—
as she is seen nowhere but on the stage—it was plain that the
impresario had made an intelligent guess. Her exuberant charms
were sufficient to deal even that audience a start. The men caught
their breath, and the women made wry faces. Had they possessed
eyes for anything but Juno, they would have seen that the grocer in
the box was smitten hard by the sudden picture of billowing
womanhood and glowing flesh tint. “Ah, what beauty!” he breathed,
leaning farther over the rail, deep in the spell of her great hazel eyes,
the peony of her cheeks, the soft tawn of her neck, and shoulders
that shaded down to clearest amber. “Pomegranates and hidden
rosebuds! By the egg of Columbus!”
And in truth she was, as every man had to own, as fine a woman
as ever came out of Italy or any other country. But this did not keep
their teeth off edge when she began to voice “Santa Lucia,” that
evergreen canzonet of Naples. She pitched upon a key that baffled
the orchestra. The leader stamped his foot and shifted tones in vain.
Only deaf ears could have failed to perceive that it was her generous
friend Nature and not art that had opened to her the stage door.
“Madonna Maria!” was the criticism of Luigia the Garlic Woman.
“She has the voice of a hungry goat on a foggy morning.”
But there was one pair of eardrums on which her bleating did not
grate. They belonged to Signor Di Bello, in calmer moments a man
of very good hearing. But he was stone deaf now. Before the
Levantine charms of this thrilling creature all his senses were
absorbed in sight.
“Brava, bravissima!” he shouted at the interlude. “Oh,
simpiaticone!”
“What a whale she is!” said a phthisic cigarette girl to her
promised husband, who heard her not.
“An ugly figure she makes, truly,” sneered a barber’s wife to her
husband. “A big cow like that in the frock of a child! No honest
woman, one sees easily. And look, Adriano! Her nose! I find it similar
to the snout of Signora Grametto’s little black-faced dog.”
There was no gainsaying this bold touch of the Supreme
Sculptor’s realism. Glorious her black tresses, delectable her form
and colour, uptilting and ample her nose.
The canzonet ended, she walked off without bowing to or
glancing at the audience, but the men, one and all, their eye thirst
still unslaked, joined in Signor Di Bello’s frantic demand for an
encore. On she came with stolid countenance and began the song
all over again, although the women had set up a hissing that
matched the strength of the applause. Signor Di Bello called the
flower girl into the box, bought an armful of her wares, and threw
them wildly on the stage. They fell in a shower on all sides of Juno.
Instantly she stopped, put her arms akimbo, and while the orchestra
played on, glared blackly at her vehement admirer. Flowers for a
Neapolitan of the Porto! Blossoms that have poison in their breath!
Stupid Di Bello! Stupid Genovese! Twelve years in Mulberry, and to
forget the hatred that Neapolitans of Naples have for natural blooms!
Perhaps you thought she was from the country, like most of the
people there. Bah! In such a serious matter one ought to be sure.
It was the women’s golden chance. They started a titter of
derisive laughter that became a gale and swept through the theatre.
Juno moved toward the box, trampling the odious flowers, and spat
in the face of Signor Di Bello. Then she left the stage, followed by an
outpour of boorish gibes.
“Infame! infame!” It was the voice of Bertino, crying loudly from
the last row of benches, under the gallery hard by the door. With a
firing emotion that he did not know was the green fever, he had
watched the doings of his uncle, and when the bright colours rained
about her, brushing her cheeks and hair, and whisking her shoulders,
he thought with a heart-fall of the wretched blossom his hand had
bestowed a week before at the Wooden Bunch. Madre Santissima!
His uncle kissed her with lovely flowers, and he, miserable soul,
kissed her with a spot of yellow paint. But when the people laughed
and sneered, and he saw her anger kindle, her cause was his own.
The pigs and sons of pigs! To laugh at her! At his queen, the
amorosa of his dreamland, by sunglow and starshine, asleep or at
work. Grander than the dames of Genoa palaces, more beautiful
than the peaches of California. And his uncle! The old mooncalf! He
was the cause of it all. Served him right that kiss she gave him back.
Ha-ha! But these jeers, these hounds yelping at his queen! “Infame!
infame!”
The people thought he meant it for Juno, and took up the cry,
which did not subside until the Bay of Naples and the cone of
Vesuvius rolled up from the bottom, and the second comedy began.
Signor Di Bello had no appetite for this, and he left the box, passing
out amid the nudges and snickers of the first families of the
Genovesi, Milanesi, and Torinesi, who were there in force along with
the flower of the Calabriani, Napolitani, and Siciliani. But he put a
good face on the matter, and at the door hailed the impresario:
“Ha, Signor Grabbini! Your singer has at least one liquid tone.”
And he disappeared, chuckling.

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