AN ADEQUATE DIET

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 156, 15 April 1936, Page 3

AN ADEQUATE DIET

UNDER-FED PEOPLE IN BRITAIN. VALUE OF MORE DAIRY FOODS. (Special to the “Guardian. ) LONDON, March 21. Sir John Orr, the eminent dentist, returns to the attack a gainst in alnutntion in a challenging report Food, Health and Income,” Pf hsheu last week under the auspices of the Rowett Institute, of which he is primcpa . m it he claims that 22,500,000 people in Britain or half the population, aie 1W S on a diet which is inadequate to maintain full health. The greatest dencies, as he pointed out m his ad, dress to the Farmers’ Club last month, are in milk and milk products, eggs, **&*£ ;Sti e diet could be made adequate,” states Sir John, “it would prevent a large part of the rickets anaemia, - tuberculosis, and dental trouble tliat are now prevalent. The report divides the population into six groups on a basis ol mcome per head.” The first group is one ot 4,500,000 people who live on ten shillings a week each, followed by tom groups of 9,000,000 people with weeklj incomes ranging from ten shillings to forty-five shillings per head, lhe food allowance ranges from four to fourteen shillings per week. More Butter Needed. ■ The food of the “Submerged Four-and-a-Half Million” is made up mainly of the “cheap satisfiers of hunger potatoes, bread and margarine-and is deficient in every constituent examined. The second group is deficient in all the vitamins and minerals, and the I { lt group is deficient in several vitamins and minerals. , To bring all the groups to the level of the highest, who get all they want, would mean an 80 per cent, increase in the consumption of milk; 41 P e cent, more butter; 55 per cent, more e <rgs; 124 per cent, more fruit; 87 per cent, more vegetables; and 29 per cent, more meat. To achieve the adequate standard” set by Sir John Orr, the increases would be milk, 16 pei cent.; butter, 15 per cent.; eggs, lb per cent.; fruit, 25 per cent.; vegetables, 25 per cent.; meat, 12 per cen t. It would cost from £130,000,000 to £270,000,000 a year more to provide the whole nation with an adequate d There, surely, lies the solution of the problem, of “over-produtcion. lhe formulation of a Nutrition Policy, which at present falls between the two stools of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture, must be organised as a consistent whole,” states the “News Chronicle” in a loading article. “There is no more urgent task before the social conscience of the nation. Regarding dairy foods particularly, Sir John Orr finds that butter consumption increases proportionately with income, hut that in the case of cheese, the middle groups cat more than either rich or poor. . Piquancy is lent to Sir John s report by reason of the fact that he is also a member—a very outspoken one—of the Government’s permanent committee on nutrition. The increased consumption of dan 3 products, fresh fruit, fish and vegetables is also urged by the British Medical Research Council in its annual report, and by Lord Bledisloe, in a letter to the “Birmingham Post.” Lord Bledisloe takes the Government to task for its backward policy in regard to the feeding of its fighting forces.

Fighting Forces’ Margarine “It may seem incredible,” he says, “but it is a fact that while fresh milk and butter are frequently part of the daily diet in the erstwhile workhouses, and other Poor Law institutions, neither of these vitally important commodities is part of the regular rations of the Army, the Navy or Air Force. Yet butter, at least, is provided for the fiediting forces of the United btates, Soviet llussia,, Norway, Sweden and our own Dominions. 'Sir William Wayland, M.P., has tackled the Secretary for War, the Under-Secretary for Air, and the First Lord of the Admiralty on this question, and now hardly a day passes in Parliament without a question from some member or other—particularly fiom the Labour Opposition. Mr G. Griffiths, M.P., urged the Admiralty to “feed the sailors on butter instead of margarine, and they will fight better.” But most members have centred their attack on the Under Secretary for Air (Sir Philip Sassoon), believing that the Air Force would be more likely to take the lead in diet 10iorm than the two older services. Harassed Air Ministry. The result is that Sir Philip Sasoon has been having a rather worrying time. When he tried to defend the use of margarine on nutritional grounds, Mr J. Maxton asked him “whether lie kept it on lvis own dining-table,” and yesterday Lieutenant-Colonel AclandTroyte pointed out that the provision of margarine instead of butter 1 is having a very sbrious effect on recruiting.” Sir Philip finally fell back on the defence that “the use of margarine for the forces was brought in by the Labour Government.” The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr W. S. Morrison) stated the other day that the supply of butter instead of margarine to the three services would involve an additional expenditure of £195,000 a. year. The total amount of margarine now provided is about 60,000 ewt., which is purchased at a rate of 27s 6d per cwt., or threepence a pound. Empire Trade Facts. Directions in which the Ottawa Agreements should be revised as a result of practical experience are suggested in a recent report by the Association of British Chambers of Commerce. The leport urges that the agreements should be extended and improved so as to contribute to the economic strength of the Empire.

'Flic British Government should, moreover, secure new trade agreements with the Dominions in extension and amplification of those reached at Ot-

tawa, preferably by negotiating with each of the Dominions separately, without calling them together at an Imperial Conference. These negotiations should be ojiened as soon as possible, and should not be deferred untii the Ottawa Agreements expire next year. In these discussions greater emphasis should be placed, the report states, on the need of the Dominions to absorb larger quantities of United Kingdom manufacturers if the United Kingdom policy of expanding domestic agricultural production is not to entail a diminution of importations of Dominion products. The home Government, it adds, should state the limits to which its agricultural policy l is to be carried, and these limits should be so adjusted as not seriously or suddenly to affect the purchasing power of the Dominions for United Kingdom manufactured goods.