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Friday, August 1, 2014

These Nutrients are Essential, but they Scare me to Death

Being a cartoonist, actually a serial doodler, any time I see wildly colorful drawings such as these I need to do something about it. This early graphic cartoon book seems to be aimed at the kiddies, but lesson is ultimately direct (boldly) to the housewife. Look at the cover:
The adventures of the Vita-Men
 

The adventures of the Vita-Men
The dairy business grew by leaps and bounds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, partly due to refrigeration, transportation and mechanization, and partly due to the health benefits of milk. Or, maybe it was due to marketing geniuses that could produce something like this in 1935.
 This wonderful piece of propaganda featuring 5 of the creepiest pitchmen you've ever seen was distributed by a Connecticut dairy. I doubt that they were the producer of this piece. As you can see on the cover, any dairy could have printed their name on this booklet. Was the government lending a hand to the dairy industry this early on?
There is no Vitaman "G," or at least that's what I repeat over an over again with my eyes shut hoping it will work, but no. I open my eyes and there he is in the body and form of pure terror. He was renamed as B2 mid century and no longer exists (whew!)

Click on any one of these for a read-able image. You will see that the real purpose of this is to ease your fears of "Irradiated" milk. This process which is done with ultra-violet radiation or electricity actually does destroy some of the bacteria and enhance the D vitamin. It is no longer done to milk in this way as the market desire for irradiated milk diminished over time. Likely due to the cold war.
The nutrition gained from milk was a partial solution to some of the diseases from 100 or more years a go, but then so was a balanced diet. I have no opinion either way on milk, but if I am having a bowl of cereal milk is the way to go.

Here is the question I need answered: Who was A.L. Warner and why can't I find out anything about him? Can you?



 

1 comment:

  1. Vitamin G changed his name to Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin). I don't know where they got the idea for those strange hats.

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