WOMAN'S WORLD.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13336, 30 January 1909, Page 7

WOMAN'S WORLD.

WHERE WOMEN FAIL. NEGLECT OF PROPER FOOD. There has recently been forced upon my notice, writes "Vesta" in the "Argus," a fact which once before was very strongly impressed upon me—the fact that women cannot be trusted to feed themselves properly. Some years ago a very close friend of my own,' wihose husband was a commercial traveller, and away from home for weeks a*> a time, suffered from a general collapse. She was physically run down, and directly a little extra strain was put upon her the collapse came. The doctor who attended her asserted that she was suffering -as much as from anything else from want of proper nouri_hmonb; and it took a year of rest and tonics and careful feeding to build her up again. She was a 'woman who did .tho greater part of her own work, a devoted mother, who stitched at little garments nearly every night o-f her life. Her children wore all very small, none of .them old enough to eat meat, and tho simplo dinners of broths and. vegetables which. she cooked for them wero insufficient for herself. TOicir breakfast consisted of milk food, their ' tea of milk and bread and 'butter and eggs; and,, jam,.and ~&nch •tilings,; did not cat,-eggs, or *u_ik.food. and«ehe>i d:d not recognise that she-was slowly j starving herself, and, did not trouble' to cook special dishes for "her own ibenc- j fit. That was my first experience of. the woman who neglects herself in tho : matter of food, and it taught mo a* lessen, from which I profited. Her case, however, is anv.thing'butan uncommon, ono . The world is full of women who, when they aro alette, do nob j make enough provision for their bodily wants. Tlie reasons Tor their self- ' neglect are various. Sometimes it i_\a i°als© notion of economy that prompts | a woman; to save bit tier "own food, j Sometimes it is the desire to save time from cooking to spend on other things that seem moro important. More often than not it is sheer tiredness, that physical and nervous exhaustion that maicos the very thought of food nauseating. And sometimes all of .iheso causes operate together. The housewife, generally is prompted l by all thesr* p-.otive.«r--tho domestic worker by all Jwb that of economy. Many mistresses complain of tho cost of feeding servants. For myself mv complaint is generally the very opposite one. I have had' more than cue maid! who habitually took insufficient fooeU, and oyer whose meals I have had to exercise, constant supervision to mako sure that they got enough nourishment, -ins in shops and! offices aro just as great sinners in this respect. -In. their case it is generally exhaustion which makes- them think themselves not hungry and tlie short hc;ir at midday, with its rush homo and back beforo and after, the meal, is xes-ponsible for a gend deal of the trouble. The girl w«o Jives alojs the greatest sinner ot aU. Lik*. tne-.housewife, she has usually economy to consider, nn_ the meal she does prepare ia often, not tempting enough to make her eat. And then sho is without the stimulus and encouragement of other peoplo around her at her meal times. She Ca wi°L ,,e fP__* huD, Sry by infection. VUiat all these women fail to realise v. that self-etarvatton is not economy rhe woman who wants to make the oest use of her/physical and mental powers, who wants to make them last out as well, must bo well nourished i-ere arc many girls, of course, who do not think at all about it; who simply do nob eat because they imagine they do not need food unless th-y fc»l hunsry f , Bu _- should (be m^de i_ realise that they are simply storing up trouble for- others as well as for _hemc? 3 -,?} 1 * resul - of a I«ns course of foolish eatmg or of semi-starvation is. almost,always a serious illness, with big doctor's bills; and foolish eating nearly ajways goes with the habit of ' doing without proper meals. Tho business girl who cannot eat her dinner will often quantities of sweets at i odd times, whilst the domestic worker in similar circumstances almost always i contracts a habit of taking "snacks,"'a biscuit now and a bit of bread and butter again, all day long. It would bo an excellent thing if the necessity for regular and sufficient meals could be so impressed upon girls im their early youth that they could not forgot it again.