VITAMINS AND MINESTRONI GENOVESE

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Dutch colonial government, in what is now independent Indonesia, became increasingly concerned with the number of inmates in jails, members of chain gangs, soldiers and other unfortunates dependent on a diet of rice who became stricken with a mysterious debilitating disease called “Beri-beri”, so called after the Tamil word for weakness, “Beri”.
A research team was ordered from Holland to find the cause for this often deadly distemper as well as the way it was transmitted. At the time, it was still believed to be a contagious disease. Among the members of the medical team was a physician named Christian Eyckman (1858-1930) who, after a few frustrating years of experimenting and research, observed - quite accidentally I believe - that chickens which exclusively fed on polished white rice soon developed the very symptoms of beri-beri and eventually died. When their diet was changed to unpolished rice, the so-called red rice or brown rice of which, what we call in Dutch the “Zilver Vlies” or the silver membrane had not been removed, they recovered promptly.
It took Dr. Eyckman until 1901 to realise the significance, that it was this thin membrane, just below the actual husk, which we now know contains Thiamine, a vitamin B, which being absent was the reason for the disease, but the scientists in those days did not realise that they were dealing with a whole new set of food components which are necessary to keep us alive and healthy. As we know now a hundred years later, eventually this led to the absurd situation in which vitamins dictate every meal of our daily fare and even wealthy well fed people in countries like the U.S. and Europe, shovel handfuls of vitamin pills into their mouth before, during and after every meal, but especially at breakfast.
There is of course no doubt that these mysterious substances - by the way, have you ever seen a picture of a vitamin? - are most important for our well being and even without knowing why, people had already realised this for hundreds of years. The dreaded scurvy, a debilitating disease which was the scourge of the East India trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, was one of them. This vitamin C deficiency was cured with lime juice, although other citrus fruits contain even more of this particular vitamin. The Royal British Navy gave their men a daily ration of lime juice in the nineteenth century, which caused the Yankees to call the English “Limeys”.
Another sickness was the pellagra, caused by a shortage of another vitamin of the B family called Niacin. When people try to live on an exclusive diet of maize they become ill, a reason why the Spanish gave up the valuable food, after it was introduced from the Americas. Unlike the Italians and the Central American Indians, the Spanish did not eat their veggies. Vegetables were unpopular and considered hazardous for one’s health. At first maize was considered a wonder food - which it actually is - but when the poor proceeded to get ill and die, they went back to the staples of bread and rice. The peoples of Africa are even today well acquainted with the “mealies” or Pellagra. Yet another example of a vitamin deficiency was rickets, a disease of the bones caused by a shortage of vitamin D which had its victims especially among the babies and toddlers of the lower classes. It is called colloquially the “English Disease” by the Dutch, probably because it was rampant in the British isles during the industrial revolution. It took another Dutch scientist, Professor Pekelharing (Pickling Herring) of the famous University of Utrecht to establish a connection between these sicknesses and an absence of a mysterious substance in the diet.
It wasn’t until just before the first world war that the first vitamins (A and B1) were successfully isolated and a Polish American biochemist named Casimir Funk, coined the word “Vitamine” in 1912.
I have no idea what the incidence of Beri-beri is in Thailand but since Thai rice is not only the most beautiful but also the most polished rice in the world, I asked my favourite doctor what he could tell me about it. He said that it occurs in certain parts of the North and Northeast of the country. I do believe however that it is less common than in other poorer countries of Asia as the Thai diet - a bit of fish and lots of greenery are practically always present - is vitamin rich and basically healthy.
During the second world war, many people in our prison in Indonesia died because of Beri-beri, presumably caused by an almost complete lack of protein. I didn’t see, let alone eat an egg for more than a year at one stage and our meat ration was a tiny bit of intestines in water, cooked with sweet potato greens, every few weeks. Most food was just starch with little else. I believe the chronic dysentery and resulting diarrhoea most of us suffered from aggravated the situation. I recall that it started with oedema in the legs, depression and weakness, then the abdomen would swell and finally the water would accumulate around the heart when the unfortunate patient would die.
When we were children, I always had to eat my vegetables. Creamed bitter endives, Dutch style, were my worst enemy and foods we refused to eat were the cause for many UDIs (Ugly Domestic Incidents). Our parents told us about the wonders of vitamins, “They’re good for you”, they said, “you must eat your vegetables, if nothing else.” They did not convince us and we rebelled with the unpleasant result that mother was crying and bemoaning her spoiled dinner and domestic bliss while father was chasing my sister with his bathroom slipper all through the big house, roaring with displeasure because she did not want to eat her carrots. She hated carrots - they were also on my list of undesirable foods - and would crawl under her bed where my father could not get to her. Yes, those were the days of our blessed youth and innocence.