Abstract
THE Medical Research Council has issued a statement dealing with a suggestion that invalids may be harmfully affected by the consumption of bread ‘fortified’ with calcium. The need for this supplement is brought about in two main ways: first, the wartime diet in Great Britain tends to be deficient in available calcium, especially since restrictions have been imposed upon the sale of milk and eggs; secondly, the high content of cereal foods in the diet increases the amount of calcium it is necessary to ingest, partly because most cereals are deficient in calcium but also because the phytic acid in cereals often prevents the body from making use of the calcium they contain. The Ministry of Food has asked the Food Rationing (Special Diets) Advisory Committee whether the addition of small supplements of calcium salts to flour would be in any way deleterious to invalids. In reply, the Food Rationing (Special Diets) Advisory Committee has expressed the opinion that “there is neither medical nor scientific evidence that the consumption of bread made from flour fortified by the addition of appropriate quantities of calcium salts is harmful to patients suffering from any type of disease”. This opinion was based on the following considerations.
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Invalids and ‘Fortified’ Flour. Nature 148, 20 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/148020a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/148020a0