The vitamin and mineral content of fruits and vegetables grown in Israel.

Many countries of the world have serious problems in feeding their people, and Israel is no exception. In developing a sound programme for the food and nutrition of any country information on the composition of its home-grown foods is of particular importance. The chemical composition and nutritive value of foods produced in Palestine have been investigated by Kovacs, Guggenheim & Kligler (1939) and Guggenheim & Bichowsky (1948), but their reports are incomplete. We present here a report on the analysis of over 300 samples of fifty-four fruits and vegetables collected in Jerusalem between November 1954 and September 1956. The nutrients determined were carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, nicotinic acid, ascorbic acid, calcium, iron, sodium and potassium. Calcium and iron are the only two minerals for which specified dietary allowances are recommended and in which human diets are often deficient ((U.S.A.) National Research Council, 1953), but the importance of sodium and potassium in therapeutic diets has recently been recognized ((U.S.A.) National Research Council,