§ 48. Mr. Keelingasked the Lord President of the Council the grounds on which the Advisory Committee on Alcohol, appointed at his request by the Medical Research Council, decided that alcoholic beverages are not significant sources of any of the known vitamins, in view of the statement in Nutrition Bulletin No. 8 that the rarity of symptoms of deficiency in the British people is partly attributable to the presence of riboflavin, vitamin B2, in beer.
§ The Lord President of the Council (Mr. Attlee)The Committee originally appointed by the Central Control Board (Liquor Traffic), and later reconstituted by the Medical Research Council, at the 1382 request of the Home Office, produced the book "Alcohol: Its Action on the Human Organism" many years before knowledge of riboflavin was available. Information on the point mentioned was not available even in 1938, when the latest edition of the book was published. Recent publications have indicated that riboflavin is present in beers, but it is clearly impossible to say with assurance to what extent the rarity of symptoms of deficiency in the British people is in fact due to beer drinking, particularly since there is no evidence of a general deficiency of this vitamin in non-beer drinkers.
§ Mr. KeelingAnyhow, may we take it that the latest and most authoritative opinion is that beer is good for one?
§ Mr. AttleeI think that is a matter for the individual taste.