BIG MEAT-EATERS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17702, 2 March 1923, Page 12

BIG MEAT-EATERS.

AND HOW WE BECAME SO. '•New Zealanders are big meat-eaters --probaMyXthey eat as much meat as any community of people in the world. It is quite..common for them to ,eat meat at every meal, and that\means at least three and often fourtimeß a day."—Dr. E. H. Wilkins, Director of School Hygiene. Amplifying his statement at Wellington this week, Dr. Wilkins said that it was not good to eat bo much meat, as it put an undue strain upon the digestive organs, and made one more liable to contract certain diseases than would be the case were they to eat | meat with moderation, and go in more for fruit and vegetables. People at Home did not eat nearly so much meat as : i did the people of New Zealand, neither did Continental people, and, in-his opinion, they? were the better for it. He had concluded that New Zealahders-had become big meat-eaters through force of habit more'than any-, thing else. New Zealand was and .al-ways-had been, a great sheep-raising country, and. particularly in the early days, when food was required, it was customary to kill a sheep. Probably there were not enough in the family to (Consume it all in.a day or two, so they ;ate it at every meal. They went on muttqn in order that none should be wasted. TKen again, the farmer was often too busy with his sheep to find time to raise vegetables. He had visited many farms, and it was always with a sense of surprise that he found so little time and space devoted to vegetables. • In those hard pioneering day 6 a strong meat diet -might not been iso harmful, as the consumer had to do hard - manual labour from dawn till dark, but it" was very different now with many, and yet | it was still the custom with people to have meat on the table at every meal. Dr. Wilkins advocated a more varied diet, with jilenty of green vegetables and raw fruit. He maintained that cooked fruit was not nearly so good as raw 1 fruit, as much of its nutritive virtues vanished in the cooking. Speaking ot- his own experience in regard to food relation to health, he said he had never felt better in his life than when he lived on two meals a day in his student days in Dublin. The professors used to tell him that he would lay himself open-to all manner of complaints by not taking breakfast before he "attended lectures, but he never did take any complaint, found his mental powers vigorous, and took a greater pleasure in - eating than would have been the case were he eating all day long. He strongly condemned any eating between meals, and warned parents that by feeding theirs children on chocolates, confectionery, soft biscuits they were guaranteeing bad teeth for them, .as such stuff was at the foundation of all dental disease.