It seems to me that it's all a matter of perspective. What I'm reading is that some first nation people got vitamin supplements and enriched flour - both good for them - when the rest of the Canadians did not get those dietary improvements. All mention for children being deprived of milk rations is left hanging, and tied to an absence of documentation.
"“This is a period of scientific uncertainty around nutrition,” said Mosby. “Vitamins and minerals had really only been discovered during the interwar period."
...
"The first experiment began in 1942 on 300 Norway House Cree. Of that group, 125 were selected to receive vitamin supplements
which were withheld from the rest.
At the time, researchers calculated the local people were living on less than 1,500 calories a day. Normal, healthy adults generally require at least 2,000."
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...utritional-experiments-paper/article13246564/
I really have to wonder why it is mentioned that not all children received the vitamins. Some did, and that is what matters. I bet there were plenty of non-first nation people that got no more than 1500 calories per day and who did not get the vitamins.
So vitamins had just been discovered as being beneficial. There was a group of people that had 1500 calories per day during World War 2 (that's at lot more than many people had during that war). These people had land and lived off the land for generations.
Some of these people were given a the newly discovered vitamin supplement.
What am I missing? Who did something wrong here?
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Any suggestions about studies on children were not followed up on and there doesn't appear to be any related documentation - so on what are the claims based? If the school rationed the milk, maybe it was related to poverty.
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Regarding enriched flour, what is in the enriched flour that was not yet legal in Canada:
Enriched Flour or Enriched White Flour:
(d)shall contain in 100 grams of flour
i.0.64 milligrams of thiamine
ii.0.40 milligrams of riboflavin
iii.5.30 milligrams of niacin or niacinamide
iv.0.15 milligrams of folic acid, and
v.4.4 milligrams of iron
(e) may contain
(xv) in 100 grams of flour
A.0.31 milligrams of vitamin B6
B.1.3 milligrams of d-pantothenic acid, and
C.190 milligrams of magnesium
http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/fssa/labeti/inform/flofare.shtml
Enriched Flour 1940: "The international effort to start enriching flour was launched during the 1940s as a means to improve the health of the wartime populations of the British and United States while food was being rationed and alternative sources of the nutrients were scarce. The decision to choose flour for enrichment was based on its commonality in the diets of those wartime populations, ranging from the rich to the poor. A major factor in the switch to enriched flour in the United States was the U.S. Army's restriction in 1942, that it would purchase only enriched flour."
Enriched flour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia