Classical Deficiency Diseases

So, the classical deficiency diseases are beriberi, pellagra, scurvy, rickets, and pernicious anemia.

Beriberi - vitamin B1 deficiency
Pellagra - vitamin b3 deficiency
Scurvy - vitamin c deficiency
Rickets - vitamin D deficiency
Pernicious anemia - vitamin B12 deficiency

I’ve been wondering, how does the body decide what to do with the resources it’s given? For instance, if I eat an orange, how does my body decide how it’s going to utilize it? Or which part of my body is going to use it?

I read a while back about vitamin b3 deficiency associated with eating maize (corn) and how this wasn’t a problem in Central America.

Here is a link to this article about pellagra.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/pellagra

Im copying and pasting this portion from the above article because I find important to highlight it.

“Interestingly, pellagra has not been a problem in Central America, the original home of maize. This is because of the traditional way in which it is prepared. Rather than milling the grain, it is steeped overnight in limewater (calcium hydroxide solution), then squeezed to form the dough from which tortillas are made. This alkaline treatment results in hydrolysis of most of the nicotinoyl esters, so releasing free nicotinic acid, which is nutritionally available. Although maize spread to many countries following its discovery, it was generally milled like other grains rather than being treated in the traditional Mexican manner.“

So, how are you preparing your foods? Turns out I’ve been eating tortillas but I’ve been hand making them with Maseca. I haven’t look up how Maseca has been treating the corn while preparing its product. Something to look into.

Should we wash our rice prior to cooking, yes no?

Interesting read. I know that vitamins are either water-soluble and when it gets into the bloodstream when digested, and fat-soluble vitamins get stored in the body, where it gets used over time. It's also why it's recommended to eat some sort of fat/have a meal for better digestion with fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin D. I'm not sure about the actual mechanics behind how vitamins get used, but I believe it gets used to make certain proteins that are needed for the body.

Washing rice should be done since it removes some off the starch, helps lower arsenic content (concern if you're eating rice often), remove dirt/weevil, better texture once cooked, and actually removes some of the nutrients from the food. I think the drop off can be huge, like up to 50% depending on what kind of rice it is in question (enriched white rice vs brown rice). But I do know that some recipes/cultures call for the rice to be soaked for a bit, and I think that does help in digestibility as well as flavour, and speed up the cooking process, but I think some nutrients do end up leeching out. But it also depends on whether it's brown rice or white rice.

The healthiest would most likely be rinsed brown rice cooked without it being soaked.

Yeah, the brown rice is the best option.

Though there are fortified white rice that specifically state to not wash. I was surprised to find one that said that.

I wonder if frying the rice without washing it, would it reduce the arsenic content? Like Mexican rice, we fry it till it’s golden brown then add the tomato sauce with the other blended ingredients.

I used to soak the rice. O_o i don’t wash it anymore.

For fortified white rice, the nutrients are on the outer layer of the grain which is why they say not to wash since it'll get rinsed out, if I remember correctly.

I think water is needed for the arsenic to leach out into, and frying the rice wouldn't do that. But it's not that much of a concern if it's one meal, but consistently having rice like that, there's a risk of arsenic to build up. I think to preserve the flavours you get by toasting the rice, you might want to consider cooking the rice with more water/stock than needed to get the arsenic out and drain the excess and return it back to heat to help remove excess moisture? Or actuallyy, just rinse the rice and let dry in a sieve/colander until it's dry to touch and then toast it in oil, and cook as needed.

Speaking of rice, apparently this year there may be a global shortage of rice due to SEA countries struggling to meet domestic needs. Might want to consider stocking up if rice is a staple in your house.

Thank you. For the moment, I had to put the rice aside. I need all the b vitamins that I can get. So I’m leaning more towards products that have it. But it’s good to know.

I actually think there might be a shortage of several things since I’ve been reading that more Covid cases might be on the rise.

Speaking of covid, I came across this letter. Sharing just in case it helps anyone

https://www.hormonesmatter.com/open-letter-regarding-thiamine-covid/?fbclid=IwAR1NZ5TJMbi6iE_-sFas4Q8GRKRXech-VSRlA9mR50YiuzlaecyZg2EJej8

Hiding in Plain Sight: Modern Thiamine Deficiency

Abstract

Thiamine or vitamin B1 is an essential, water-soluble vitamin required for mitochondrial energetics-the production of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). It is a critical and rate-limiting cofactor to multiple enzymes involved in this process, including those at the entry points and at critical junctures for the glucose, fatty acid, and amino acid pathways. It has a very short half-life, limited storage capacity, and is susceptible to degradation and depletion by a number of products that epitomize modern life, including environmental and pharmaceutical chemicals. The RDA for thiamine is 1.1-1.2 mg for adult females and males, respectively. With an average diet, even a poor one, it is not difficult to meet that daily requirement, and yet, measurable thiamine deficiency has been observed across multiple patient populations with incidence rates ranging from 20% to over 90% depending upon the study. This suggests that the RDA requirement may be insufficient to meet the demands of modern living. Inasmuch as thiamine deficiency syndromes pose great risk of chronic morbidity, and if left untreated, mortality, a more comprehensive understanding thiamine chemistry, relative to energy production, modern living, and disease, may prove useful.

Keywords: thiamine deficiency; thiamine deficiency critical illness; thiamine deficiency hyperglycemia; thiamine deficiency metabolic disease.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34685573/

Abstract

Thiamine, vitamin B1, is a crucial component in brain development. This study examined the role thiamine plays in the development of language, by examining the long-term effects of thiamine deficiency in infancy. The participants were a young adult who had consumed a thiamine-deficient baby formula at age 1;0–1;5, and her non-identical twin sister, who had consumed a non-deficient formula. We conducted a comprehensive assessment of various language abilities, including syntax, morphology, lexical encoding and retrieval, word and nonword reading, and phonological working memory, most of which have not been previously tested in individuals who had thiamine deficiency in infancy. The twin who had thiamine deficiency showed selective deficits in various language domains, including syntactic movement, morphology, and lexical abilities (which also caused surface dyslexia in reading aloud). She also showed impaired input and output phonological working memory and impaired reading aloud of nonwords (involving voicing errors, morphological errors, and lexicalizations). Her twin sister, who did not have thiamine deficiency, showed typical language abilities. The findings show for the first time that language disorders due to thiamine deficiency in infancy persist into adulthood. In light of previous literature of adults whose thiamine deficiency took place in adulthood, who do not show language impairments, we suggest that thiamine is crucial for language development during the critical period for first language acquisition in the first years of life. Thiamine deficiency during the critical period may cause long-lasting impairments in syntax, morphology, reading, phonological working memory, and lexical abilities

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0911604421000580

This study explored the effect of thiamine deficiency during early infancy on the development of syntax and lexical retrieval. We tested syntactic comprehension and production, lexical retrieval abilities and conceptual abilities of 59 children aged 5–7 years who had been fed during their first year of life with a thiamine-deficient milk substitute. We compared them to 35 age-matched control children who were fed with other milk sources. Experiment 1 tested the comprehension of relative clauses using a sentence–picture-matching task. Experiment 2 tested the production of relative clauses using a preference elicitation task. Experiment 3 tested the repetition of various syntactic structures with various types of syntactic movement and embedding. Experiment 4 tested picture naming and Experiment 5 tested lexical substitutions in a sentence repetition task. Experiments 6 and 7 tested the children's conceptual abilities using a picture association task and a picture absurdity description task. The results indicated a very high rate of syntactic and lexical retrieval deficits in the group of children who were exposed to thiamine deficiency in early infancy: 57 of the 59 thiamine-deficient children examined had language impairment, compared with three of the 35 controls (9%). Importantly, unlike the impairment this group sustained in their language abilities, the conceptual abilities of most of the children were intact (only six children, 10%, were conceptually impaired). These findings indicate that thiamine deficiency in infancy causes severe and long-lasting language disorders and that nutrition may be one of the causes for language impairment.

https://academic.oup.com/brain/article/134/6/1720/371682

THank youuuu for sharing all this Luce!!!!

These are quite interesting and fine information Luce. I can use them in my ideas. Thank you.