American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 3, 225-229, Copyright © 1955 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc.

The Effect of Supplements of Animal and Vegetable Protein, Vitamin B₁₂, and Aureomycin on Hematological Values in Central American School Children

¹ From the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP). Guatemala, Central America

Hematological studies were carried out in two urban and three rural schools in El Salvador and four rural schools in Guatemala. Initial values for 100 urban children in El Salvador were: red blood cells 4.31 (S.D. 0.57) millions per cu mm, hemoglobin 12.0 (S.D. 0.8) gm per 100 ml, and for 98 children from the rural schools, red blood cells 4.05 (S.D. 0.45) millions per cu mm, hemoglobin 11.4 (S.D. 1.3) gm per 100 ml. Corresponding values for 228 rural children in Guatemala were red blood cells 4.40 (S.D. 0.42) millions per cu mm, hemoglobin 13.3 (S.D. 1.0) gm per 100 ml, and hematocrit 42.0 (S.D. 2.5) per cent. In Guatemala, 49 per cent of the children had mean corpuscular volumes greater than 94 cu µ. Only 19 per cent had hemoglobin values less than 10.6 per 100 ml or red blood cell counts less than 4.1 millions per cu mm.

The children in an urban school in El Salvador were given an excellent lunch rich in animal protein without producing any change in five months compared with those in an urban control school. Vegetable and animal protein lunches, respectively, and a vegetable protein lunch plus 20 µg of oral vitamin B₁₂ daily had no effect on red blood cell count or hemoglobin values during five months in El Salvador or two years in Guatemala, compared with rural control schools in each country. The daily oral administration of 20 µg of vitamin B₁₂ or 50 mg of Aureomycin to rural Guatemalan school children in addition to a vegetable protein lunch, as well as the provision of 50 mg of Aureomycin or 20 µg of vitamin B₁₂ alone, had no significant effect on blood values during a two-year period.