Greetings! In today’s class we shall learn some food sources for vitamin A and provitamin A. But first, lets look into some processes of life that are dependent upon these substances.
The Glands
Vitamin A helps to maintain the health and function of all of the glands-the life activators-of the body.
Note the processes of life which depend upon them.
Duct Glands
Eye-lids: Melboman glands secret oily substances of liquid.
Ear: Ceruminous glands secrete a waxy oily substance which protects the eardrum.
Mouth: Salivary glands secrete saliva.
Liver: Secretes bile, a digestive juice.
Stomach: Gastric glands secrete gastric juices, pepsin, rennin, and hydrochloric acid.
Duodenum: Glands of Brunner are a continuation of the pyloric glands of the stomach.
Pancreas: Behind the stomach, delivers a digestive secretion into the duodenum.
Small Intestine: Glands of Leiberkuhn, between the villi, secrete digestive juices containing enzymes.
Mucous membrane: In the colon and many places in the body like stomach, mouth, throat, nose, etc., secretes mucus. Colon mucus membrane secretes no enzymes.
Skin: Sweat glands excrete perspiration.
Ductless Glands
Pineal: At the roof of the interbrain. Influences growth and digestion.
Thyroid: Neck. Secretion stimulates metabolism.
Parathyroids: Back of thyroid. Secretion assists in the elimination of toxic substances accruing from metabolism and favors coagulation of the blood aids in the use of calcium.
Thymus: At base of the heart, behind sternum. Disappears at about age twenty. Has to do with the development of sex characteristics and with the growth of the bones.
Islands of Langerhans: In pancreas, give a secretion directly into the blood which influences the metabolism of carbohydrates-the oxidation of carbohydrates in the tissue.
Suprarenals: As caps of the upper ends of the kidneys. Are closely related to the nervous system, classed by some as an accessory organ to the nervous system. Their secretion influences the tone of the blood vessels; increases the rapidity and force of the heart. They have to do with involuntary impulses.
Reproductive glands: Male and Female, including mammary glands. They function, certain of them, as duct glands, and some are classed in the ductless glands.
We have heard much about glands for a number of years, but we are now learning more about how to maintain their vitality for more years. But to do so, we cannot wait until their vitality is gone. Vitamins are pre-eminently necessary.
Thus we could go up and down within the body and at every turn find marvelous activities upon which life depends, and which cannot continue without the various vitamins. These elements are not here by accident. They have all been planned and provided by a Master Mind. If we would know the plan and use the elements which the Creator has provided for us, it would help us to have the health He intended us to have.
But here is the mischief; the vitamins have been removed from ever so many of our staple foods upon which we live from youth up, and this is one of the reasons why men and women are going to pieces so often after age forty.
For Optimum Health No Damaged Foods
For optimum health we need four times the quantity of vitamin A as is required to support life, and therefore we cannot with safety destroy it from any natural food where the Creator placed it for our sustenance.
Important Sources for Vitamin A
They chief sources of vitamin A have been given, but the student’s attention is now directed to the fact that vitamin A in carrots and spinach is more potent than in cod liver oil; that 100 units of it from dried spinach will do as much work as 4,000 units in cod liver oil.
Excellent Food Sources of vitamin A and provitamin A.
Good Food Sources of vitamin A and provitamin A.
Praise be to God, for providing all of these beneficial foods in nature! “Bless the Lord, O my should, and forget not all his benefits.” Psalms 103:2 Be sure to join us next week, and invite a friend!
* Study Adapted from the book Abundant Health, by Julius G. White