The Law of the Minimum

CHAPTER VI

The metabolic process by which an apple, a tomato or a portion of cabbage is made into hair, or muscle or
nerve, or some of the cells of the eyes, or into a hormone of some of the ductless glands is beyond our
present comprehension, although a few steps in this process are supposed to be known. What we do know is
that if the foods we eat are to be made into tissues and secretions, they must contain adequate amounts and
due proportions of all the elements needed in the production of these things. Just as we cannot make
concrete with cement alone or with sand alone, but must, if our concrete is to be good, have due proportions
of both, so, if we are to have good structures in our bodies, we must have adequate amounts and proper
proportions of all the food elements that go into the construction of these structures.

To make the best use of any food element, such, for example, as the proteins, certain other food
substances and possibly a variety of them must be available in the diet in definite proportions. No
food element is of itself of more importance in the body than another. It is only by the combination
of all the necessary ones that the whole may be obtained.
Liebig laid down a "law of the minimum" in these words: "The development of living beings is
regulated by the supply of whichever element is least bountifully provided."
The law of the minimum implies that the nutritive value of any food -mixture, however abundant most
of the food elements therein may be, is limited by the minimum quantity of any essential element it may
contain; unless, as it happens in certain food constituents, the lacking factor may be synthesized from
some of the more abundant food elements, fat from sugar, for example.
Calcium cannot be utilized in producing enamel in the absence of phosphorus. If phosphorus is
present in inadequate amounts, the enamel will be of poor quality. If iron is lacking, there will also be
poor enamel. If any one of the vitamins is lacking poor enamel is the result.
The united "action" of minerals, proteins, vitamins, etc., in the production of tissues and fluids in the
body is called "synergistic action." Since they do not act, but are used, it may be more correct to say that
the body makes correlated use of them. At any rate, a knowledge of the "synergistic action" of the food
elements and vitamins is of vast importance and helps to make clear to us the Law of the Minimum.
Tooth enamel is made up largely of calcium and phosphorus with small quantities of iron. But the
fusion of these substances into enamel requires the presence of vitamines A, C and D. At least half a
dozen elements and factors are essential to the production of this tissue. In the absence of either of these
factors the enamel of the teeth cannot be made. It is folly to feed much calcium in an effort to produce
good teeth and to ignore the other essential elements of the teeth.
Many different tissues are being built and repaired in the body at all times. These tissues are constantly
engaged in a wide variety of activities. This means that there is a continuous use of vitamins, minerals,
amino acids, sugars and fatty acids in the body. Consuming an abundance of a single vitamin or of a
single mineral is not sufficient to meet the needs of the many "synergistic actions" that are in constant
process in the body. All of the vitamins and all of the minerals are required. If all the nutritive elements
are present in adequate quantities and in due proportions, all the synergisms of all the minerals,
vitamins, amino acids, sugars, etc., are at work piling up their benefits.
It is well to keep in mind that these "synergistic actions" are far more complex and broader than our
description of them would indicate. The many functions of the body are also synergistic. The function of
one part of the body is dependent upon the functions of all other parts. Feeding vitamin B in certain forms
of nervous trouble with the aim of remedying the nervous impairment, and ignoring the correlated
functions of the body that support nerve function, is doomed to failure. All of the "synergistic
chemical actions" in all parts of the body must be adequately provided for before the actions of any
part can be ideal. This is the thing that makes specific diets so unsatisfactory.
The work of potassium in promoting the formation of proteins, fats and glycogen, is not essentially
unlike the work ascribed to vitamins. Zinc is thought to be connected with the action of the vitamins,
which it seems to be able to replace to some extent, at least in the animal organism. Lithium is also
thought to influence metabolism in a way not unlike that of the vitamins. The same is true of copper,
nickel and of arsenic. It should be borne in mind that little is known about the offices of zinc, lithium,
copper, nickel and arsenic in the body and that experimenters, carrying out their experiments, have
wholly neglected these elements.
In plant life and growth the Law of the Minimum has long been known. If perfect growth is to be
procured in plants, these must find a certain minimum of each of several elements in the soil in which
they are grown. If only half the needed amount of potassium, for example, is present, then, regardless of
how abundant all the other soil elements may be, their normal utilization is reduced one-half. The rate of
growth of the plant and its ultimate development are correspondingly depressed.
Prof. Osterhout showed that seeds placed in distilled water grow better than when placed in water
containing but one salt, and that each salt exerts a specific toxic effect according to its chemical nature.
He found that one salt "counteracts" the effects of another.
An excess of nitrogen in the soil retards the formation of grain, roots and tubers and gives rise to
sickly plants. Nitrogen excess in the soil of rose beds leads to the production of soft, sappy tissues, a
luxuriant growth of leaves, and roses with little or no perfume.
Plant processes, from germination to ripening of their seed, are a drama of physiological minerals
and gases. Without a sufficiency of lime or potash in the soil, acids, sugars and starches cannot be
formed; without iron no chlorophyll and no albumen can be formed. Without silica no fibre or plant
skeleton, etc. Each mineral plays a definite role in the growth of healthy plants.
The actual amount of potassium requisite for plant growth is very small compared with the needed
amount of carbon or nitrogen. But if this relatively small quantity is not available the utilization of
other constituents in tissue growth or repair is always deficient.
If one essential food element, which normally should compose one per cent of the food eaten, is
present in only half this amount, then, the body will only be able to utilize the other elements, in tissue
building, in the same reduced quantity.
The organic whole--the unit --is official to animal nutrition. Not the sum total of the minerals
consumed, but their relative proportions, determines the nutritive value of any given dietary.
A certain minimum amount of organic salts is essential to optimal growth. A further increase in these,
even a great increase, does not further influence growth. Not only the total quantity of these salts, but
also the quantities of the individual minerals and their mutual quantitative relationships are of decisive
importance in regulating the assimilation of proteins.
If we are to have normal development the mineral elements in our diet must also be present in minimum
quantities, but they must also represent proper ratios one to another. The mineral salts are most sensitive to
any deficiency of any of them in the diet. Many common foodstuffs are deficient in iron and calcium, and
these deficiencies reduce the ability of the body to assimilate the other elements. On the other hand, in
experimental diets, any increase of one element raises the mineral requirements of all the others.

If health and development are to follow, certain relationships must prevail between the various salts.
Berg, McCarrison, McCollum and others have amply demonstrated this. Rose found that a certain
relationship must prevail between calcium and magnesium if the maximum development of the body is to
be attained. Between lime and potassium, lime and sodium, potassium and magnesium and between the
metals on the one hand and sulphur and phosphorus on the other, an optimum ratio exists.

The proper exploitation of both proteins and carbohydrates is determined by mineral

metabolism, since they can be more readily oxidized in an alkaline medium than when an
excess of acids is present. It has been repeatedly shown that an excess of bases over acid-
forming foodstuffs ingested promotes the utilization of proteins. Zunts, of Berlin, showed
that diabetics can more easily oxidize sugar if the body has an abundance of bases at its
disposal. Abderhalden performed investigations which showed that a diet rich in bases is
essential for the proper functioning of the hormones of the ductless glands.
Without iron there can be no oxygen supply for the cells. Without copper there can be no
assimilation of iron. Without sodium there is no elimination of carbon-dioxide from the
tissues of the body. Every physico-chemical process of the body is correlated with others
and any failure in one spells a corresponding failure in the correlated processes.
May Mellanby says that the evidence shows that the calcium in the diet does not in itself
directly control the calcification of the teeth, but that it is subservient to other dietetic factors.
One of these is vitamin A. She thinks that she has demonstrated the existence of factors in
some foods, particularly in cereals, and more especially in oats, that inhibit calcification.
Phosphorus is as essential to the formation of good bones and teeth as is lime.
The present furore over vitamins has caused many ex-spurts to concentrate their whole
attention upon these substances and almost forget the other elements of nutrition. We pick up a
book or a magazine article or a report dealing with nutritional problems and we learn that a diet
rich in vitamin A does thus and so, or a diet poor in vitamin B results in such and such effects.
The minerals in the diets are particularly overlooked. Interest in vitamins is causing us to forget
the importance of other food elements.

The present over -emphasis on vitamins is as absurd as if we were similarly to over-

emphasize sodium, or magnesium. To ignore the organic salts, as is so often done in our mad
rush for vitamins, is as foolish as would be the ignoring of the vitamins.
It has been demonstrated that regardless of the amount of vitamin A supplied in the diet, if
some other constituent of the diet is wholly lacking, vitamin A can have no effect. Berg
shows that on a cereal diet complete in A is without effect unless sodium and calcium are
added to the diet in sufficient quantities to produce an excess of bases. McCollum and his
co-workers have shown that when there is an abundance of vitamin A in the diet, the mother
cannot secrete sufficient milk for her progeny, unless her food contains an adequate amount
of organic salts in proper proportions.
The absence of anyone of the essential vitamins prevents the rest of them from
functioning at all. If any one of them is present in but one- half or in but one-fourth the
required amount, then the others, though abundantly present, will function only up to one-
half or one-fourth of their full effectiveness.
 Lack of vitamins disturbs calcium metabolism. A lack of calcium or an excess of calcium
in the diet renders vitamin A of no effect. Vitamins are valuable only in the presence of each
other. Calcium seems to be usable only in the presence of vitamin A.
McCarrison says that "in the absence of vitamins or in their inadequate supply, neither
proteins, fats nor carbohydrates nor salts are properly utilized; some are largely wasted,
while others yield products harmful to the organism. In such circumstances life may be
sustained for a longer or shorter period, during which the body utilizes its stores of vitamins
and sacrifices its less important tissues to this end. But there is a limit beyond which such
stores cannot be drawn upon, and once this is reached the cells of higher function--secretory,
endocrine and nerve cells--begin to lack vigor, and to depreciate in functional capacity,
although the tissues may continue to hold considerable stores of vitamins. The disintegration
process is delayed or hastened, lessened in severity in one direction or increased in severity
in another, according to the character of their lack of balance."