READERS CONSIDER

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 15, Issue 95, 13 September 1950, Page 4

READERS CONSIDER

IS IT A FOOD? Sir, —A correspondent writes in the Beacon on September 8 referring to beer as “one important everyday need.” My dictionary defines the word “need” as “a necessity,” and it defines “necessity” as something “necessary for human life.” So your correspondent would have us believe that beer is a necessity for human life, .presumably because of its supposed food value. He has conveniently overlooked the fact that here in New Zealand the authorities have prohibited any further reference to food or medicinal properties in advertising' for beer and the other alcoholics. Why? Simply because alcohol, the active ingredient in beer, has no food or medicinal value. It has nothing to do with the “important everyday needs” of human life. The facts are clear and much more generally known than defenders of drink like to admit.

A 13-year-old girl in a southern school wrote in an" essay: “The function of food is: (a) to ensure growth and repair waste. Protein will do this because it contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. Alcohol lacks nitrogen and is therefore not a protein. (b) To provide carbonhydrates, such as starches and sugar together with fats which supply heat and energy in the body. Alcohol does not act as a carbonhydrate, so it is not a food, (c) To supply mineral salts which are required for the building • of bone and teeth. Alcohol contains no minerals.

Beer does not fulfil any of the functions of food; it is no more a food than is chloroform, ether or morphia. I Abraham Lincoln truly said: “Liquor has many defenders but no defence.”

Yours etc., FACTS FIRST.