YEARS TO LIFE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 189, 12 August 1933, Page 9 (Supplement)

YEARS TO LIFE.

NEWi DIETARY HOPES. CLAIMS for milky food. test with rats succeeds. Dietary improvements which may jncrcaso the lifo expectation of the averse adult seven years and his "prime of life" thirteen or fourteen years have liccn discovered by chemists working in the field of nutrition, Dr. Ilenry C. Sherman Mitcliill professor of chemistry at Columbia University, said at a luncheon of the American Institute of Chemists.

Not Content With "Threescore and Ten."

Chemists working in tlio fields of bacteriology and medicine in tlio past ], a ve succeeded in lowering the death rat® and increasing tlio average span of life, Dr. Sherman said, but this improvement has been achieved for the most part by decreasing infant mortality rates and cutting down the annual toll taken by diseases. Tho average adult of fifty years, he said, still looks to tho Biblical threescore and ten as tho maximum number of years he can expeet to li\ o. Chemical rcsearcli in tho field of nutrition has revealed, ho continued, that by employing proper diets this expectation cannot only bo extended to fcventy-seven years, but tlio period of .ictivity will also be increased. Tho new diets should result in children maturing from two to three ye&rs sooner and in adults retaining "buoyant health" for a dozen years longer than tlicy now expect,

ho said. . ■ In his dietary experiments of the last thirteen years, Dr. Sherman said, lie has been interested . in "simple readjustments of tho quantitative proportions in which wheat and milk should be consumed" to achieve the best physical results. To this end, rats, "selected for such likeness to mail in the cVemistry of their nutrition that tho findings are undoubtedly fully applicable in principle to the human problem," have been placed on varied diets of tho two substances,

].e said. The first step "was to find how much milk must bo included with tho wheat before the rat was receiving a normal diet, since it had already been proved that on a diet of wheat and water alone, tho animal would soon die. Having discovered tho minimum normal mixture, Dr. Sherman then began trying other proportions, increasing the milk and decreasing the wheat.

More Milk, Live Longer. • Through these adjustments in ' the quantities of the two substances fed to I'ite, it was discovered that by incieasin" the amount of milk in the diet above the normal a "longer lease ; ol healthier life" resulted in many instances, Dr. Sherman said. lhc ra,ts matured sooner on the new diet, he said, and their life expectation was increased by 10 per cent, while their "prime 01 life" was extended 15 per cent. Despite these improvements, the field of nutrition has been- scratched only li"hlly, Dr. Sherman asserted. ° f Just what chemical elements and compounds can contribute to improvement in the average length and quality of ordinary adult life and what degiccs of further improvement may bo expected from the development of such research," lie said, "are the problems of great importance to human welfaie which remain to be worked out as rapidly as means can be provided. "Chemists engaged in such types of ro&G&rch do not compcto with those engaged in directly commercial work. The "outcome of their researches may, liowever, influence the development of industry in tho long run through the enlightenment of consumer demand.". Dr. Marston T. Bogert," professor of organic chemistry at Columbia University. described Dr. Sherman as a chemist who is not "influenced _by fads_ or fancies, but who bases his conclusions on his own researches." No name in the iield of food, nutrition, and vitamins ranks higher than Dr. Sherman's, he said.