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CALCIUM
Calcium is an important part of bones and teeth. It is essential in
soft tissues and blood for regulating the functions of muscles and
nerves. The calcium in the blood, although small in amount, is necessary
for the clotting of blood, and it assists in regulating the functioning
of muscles and nerves. For example, the calcium in blood and in the soft
tissues of the body is responsible in part for the beating of the heart
as well as for other involuntary muscle functioning. Failure to obtain
sufficient calcium in growing children leads to stunted growth, and in
adults to inadequate mineralization of bones and poor functioning of the
muscles and nerves. In pregnancy and lactation or nursing, women
frequently impair their own bodies as well as those of the offspring by
providing insufficient calcium for the needs both of mother and child.
Rich food sources of calcium are meat, milk, whole cereal grains, certain
fruits and vegetables particularly outer leaves of cabbage, broccoli
leaves, turnip greens, mustard greens, collards, and kale.
IRON
Iron is an essential part of the hemoglobin or red coloring matter of the
blood cells. Here its function is to help carry oxygen to each cell in
the body. Practically all of the remainder of the iron in the body is to
be found in the liver, the bone marrow, and the spleen, waiting to be
converted into hemoglobin as needed. Each day almost an ounce of
hemoglobin is formed in the body in order to supply more than a trillion
red blood cells. The manufacture of blood cells must go on continuously
in the body, since the old cells are being continually worn out through
body activity. The quantity of iron used in the new cells which are
manufactured each day is much greater than that supplied in the dietary;
but a considerable part of the iron from the worn-out cells may be
re-used for the new cells. As the old cells are destroyed, the iron is
deposited in the bone marrow, which is sort of a hemoglobin factory. A
sufficient amount of iron is not obtained from the worn-out cells,
however, and new iron must be added continually in the dietary to keep
up the red cell content of the blood.
Rich food sources of iron are liver, egg yolk, some fruits and
vegetables, notably greens. Much more iron must be taken in with our
food than is actually required by the body, since a considerable part of
the iron in foods is tied up in chemical combinations which cannot be
broken down in such a way as to make all of it available. To say that a
food contains so much iron does not give the complete story of the
suitability of that food for hemoglobin-building, since some foods have
a higher percentage of iron which is available for body use than others.
According to the work of numerous investigators, the iron in calf's
liver, in egg yolk, and in apricots can be converted almost one hundred
per cent. into body hemoglobin. Other foods vary as to the
convertibility of the iron which they contain. All this makes it
necessary to be careful in supplying iron in foods with a sufficient
margin of safety to compensate for that which the body may not be able
to use in its entirety. |
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Victory Gardens
Handbook of the
Victory Garden Committee
War Services, Pennsylvania
State Council of Defense
April, 1944
TABLE OF CONTENTS
page v
page vi
page vii
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