On Monday, May 5, 2003, at 02:53 PM, Phosphor wrote:
> < raw fish contains a thiaminase. That's an enzyme which purges thiamin
> (vit.B1).>
> Consequently the biochemist who recognised this
> has made his fortune selling multivitamin pills in Japan containing
> allithiamin instead of thiamin, and Japanese continue to eat raw fish
>
Lack of Thiamin causes beriberi, doesn't it? Beriberi was once a major
disease in Japan, before they started eating a more "western" diet.