Document-Based Questions - Debra J. Housel, M.S. Ed. 2008

Vitamins
Amazing Discoveries

Vitamins are an essential part of living things’ diets. But it was not until 1912 that one was even identified, and it happened by accident.

The Dutch were fighting the natives in the East Indies. Both groups wanted to control the islands and their natural resources. The Dutch were losing, but not through deaths on the battlefield. Their soldiers were dying of beriberi. First this disease turned the troops into weak, thin cripples. Then it killed them. There was no cure.

Doctor Christiaan Eijkman was given the job of finding the cause of beriberi. He worked for years without success. He did experiments on chickens. One day his helper told him that they were almost out of the cheap rice used for chicken food. Eijkman approved feeding them polished* white rice. This was the “better” rice meant only for humans. About one month later, he saw that the once healthy, plump chickens were listless and thin. They could barely drag themselves around their pen. Shocked, he realized that the chickens seemed to have beriberi. But why? Once again he felt frustrated. Would he ever find the answer?

Meanwhile the general in charge of the camp was angry that the human rice had been fed to chickens. He demanded that they eat only the cheap rice. To everyone’s surprise, the chickens improved within two weeks of eating the unprocessed rice.

At last Eijkman had what he needed: Beriberi “patients” that had recovered! And he knew that it had something to do with the rice they had eaten. He analyzed the rice and discovered that the unprocessed rice had a substance the polished rice lacked. It was thiamin. He called it a vitamin. For his work, Eijkman received the Nobel Prize for medicine.

Now we know that beriberi is caused by a lack of vitamin B1 (thiamin). This illness was once common in Asia. There the main food is white rice. White rice loses this vitamin during milling. Now thiamin is added back into the rice. This way people stay healthy.

*having the outer brown layers (husk) removed

Vitamins

This is the back label on a bottle of multivitamins:

Premium Multivitamins

Suggested Use: Take one tablet daily with a meal. Keep bottle tightly closed. Store in a cool, dry place.

*Recommended Daily Value (DV) has not been established.

Vitamins

1. For years Dr. Christiaan Eijkman conducted experiments in order to find

a. a way to make a more nutritious chicken.

b. vitamin B1.

c. the cure for beriberi.

d. a way to improve the nutritional quality of polished rice.

2. Beriberi was caused by a diet that lacked

a. several important vitamins.

b. rice.

c. chicken.

d. vitamin B1.

3. What probably happened after Dr. Eijkman published his findings on thiamin?

a. No one believed him.

b. Researchers began looking for vitamins in other foods, too.

c. The general in charge of the camp fired him.

d. People stopped eating rice.

4. Chickens coming down with beriberi led to a big medical breakthrough. True or False? Explain.

5. Read the multivitamin label. Is panothenic acid a vitamin or a mineral? How many different vitamins and how many different minerals are in one of these tablets?

6. Do you think that it is important for you to take a multivitamin each day? Why or why not?