Why Vitamin B2-Riboflavin Is Good For Dieters!

The second most familiar member of the B complex is riboflavin. This is the name now preferred for the vitamin, which was once called Vitamin G, later became B2 when its identity was further established, and is now more accurately identified by its chemical name.

Originally it was known as the growth vitamin, since normal development is impossible without it, but it is much more than that. Like Vitamin A, riboflavin appears to have some relationship to vision, for lack of it in rats causes cataract, that clouding of the eye lens which results in blindness. Deficiencies in animals have also been correlated with loss of hair.

Recently some astonishing reports on riboflavin as a cancer preventive have been published in scientific journals.

It has long been known that specific types o£ cancer can be transplanted in strains of laboratory rats with 100% efficiency. Yet it has been shown that when riboflavin and casein (a protein in milk) are added liberally to rat diets, only 3% of them can be made victims of liver cancer. Another experiment has demonstrated that riboflavin and yeast, in combination, are remarkably effective in preventing a type o£ mammary (breast) cancer in rats.

In human beings, severe riboflavin deficiency is indicated by the development of painful cracks in the skin at the corners of the mouth. Like thiamin, riboflavin is concerned in the breathing processes of the body cells and it is important to vigor and, in all probability, to length of life.

Formed mainly in green leaves, riboflavin is found liberally in animal foods as well. Milk is probably the most important source because of the liberal quantities commonly used. Your storage facilities for riboflavin are limited so daily intake is important.

Nicotonic Acid And Others

Tobacco plants yield a product (unobtainable from smoking, worse luck) called nicotinic acid. Chemists have known about it for many years, so you can imagine their surprise when the stuff turned out to be a vitamin -the one, specifically, which prevents pellagra.

This is a deficiency disease common in our South in regions of unbalanced diet-the salt pork, corn bread and molasses belt. The skin turns rough and dark, the tongue becomes red and swollen, results are fatal in severe cases, and mental disorders are too common. A distressing percentage of pellagra victims used to become patients in mental hospitals. You may give nicotinic acid a pat on the back, therefore, as a protective against a sojourn in the loony house.

If your diet provides plenty of other vitamins, you have little to fear from nicotinic acid deficiency. It occurs in such close association with Vitamin G that this vitamin was originally believed to be the pellagra-preventive factor. Lean meats are excellent sources of nicotinic acid.
Other members of the B complex, about which you will certainly hear more as the results of scores of current studies trickle out of the laboratories, are pyridoxine, pantothenic acid, and para-aminobenzoic acid-the latter two already suspected of being the anti-gray hair factors.


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Chris Walker

The why can't I lose weight expert!

Chris Walker has helped thousands obtain " permanent weight loss, quick and easy everytime!" To download a free copy of "Why Can't I Lose Weight? How to lose 10 pounds in 30 days visit www.chriswalkersfitness.com