HOW TO EAT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 174, 24 July 1936, Page 11

HOW TO EAT.

PRINCIPLES OF DIET.

HIGH VALUE OF "GREENS."

HAVE SALADS IN WINTER.

"It is up to ourselves, largely, to be healthy," said Airs. B. M. Crane, dietitian, speaking before the People's Health Society last night. She gave a general talk on the principles of dieting, stressing the value of green vegetables, and stating that the way people could help themselves most was by eating the correct food and the best variety of foods. The correct food was that which replaced waste and gave the particular mineral needed in the bofiy In a given case. She mentioned milk. In Auckland, she said, the sale of milk was a quarter of a pint per head each day; and that was in a country where great quantities of milk were produced. She admitted that it was not a perfect food for adults because it was lacking in carbo-hydrates. "We take too much sugar," she added, and in explanation said that sugar preyed on the calcium in the system. It took it first from tlie blood, then from the bone and finally from the teeth. Not Enough Greens Eaten. The speaker also said that people did not eat enough green vegetables, particularly spinach, which vegetable contained practically all the minerals which the body needed. Minerals, she said, were not stored. They had to be replaced every day. "Often colds in the winter time are not because of the weather, but because we do not eat properly. How many people eat green salads in winter? It is too cold. Yet we need them." In her opinion greens were cooked too long. They should be only just cooked. She, for example, cooked spinach for four minutes.

The other speaker of the evening was Mr. T. J. Hughes, Medical Officer' of Health in Auckland; He took as a general subject preventive medicines and their application. The -in-

crease in pathological knowledge, in which was included the infection of diseases had been one of the greatest in the age, Dr. Hughes said. It was known definitely that diseases were not capricious, but were due to definite causes, and that those causes could largely be controlled. He quoted the well-known motto, "A healthy mind in a he'althy body."

The text of Dr, Hughes* address was really a commentary on the tremendous amount of work to be done in keeping a community healthy. He gave details of records taken by the Health Department; he produced graphs, he showed how infinite care had been tak ( en to follow up the causes of deaths and the progress of disease in a particular case, or in an area.

He took the causes of some of the deaths in the Dominion, and told some of the ways of prevention. The abolition of expectoration, the prevention of over-crowding in working premises and elsewhere, the provision of adequate ventilation, the refusal to use a common drinking cup, the building up of ill-nourislied children —all those might help to check the spread of disease.

The prevention of disease, he said, embraced a very wide field, both from the point of view of the individual and from the aspect of the local body. He mentioned the part to be played by councils and boards, by the various social organisations, and by the medical practitioner. The latter, lie said, could help by the giving of advice which would prevent a certain disease, by early diagosis, and by the spread of personal hygiene and personal health. The evening did not consist merely of the two addresses. There were seven musical items given, which included solos, duets and recitations. A health supper was served afterwards.