NATION'S HEALTH.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18926, 15 February 1927, Page 2

NATION'S HEALTH.

VIEWS ON TINNED GOODS

(rnou or* o*» coßßisroiCDi.vr.) LONDON, December 15. Sir Arbutlinot Lane is Conducting a new crusade on a considerable scale, through the columns of the Press, on behalf of public health. Among other things he says thero arc failures in "the baby industry," and lie attributes the comparative sterility to dietetic cause. I ', especially to the substitution of tinned meats and white bread for a healthy diet. Sir James Crichton Browne docs not agree with his medical brother on this point. He writes, in the "Morning Tost":— "t know of no tittle of evidence in support of the view that the fall in the birthrate in this country is in any way connected with the changes in the food habits of our people- It has been greatest in those affluent classes who partake least of tinned foods, and lowest among those poorer classes who have what Colonel McCarrison has called Mho white-bread-te:i-margarine-sugar diet.'

Too Sweeping. ".Sir Arbutlinot Lane's general condemnation of tinned foods is, I think, much too sweeping. No doubt there have been tinned foods to which deleterious pieservatives have been added in excessive amounts, but that is being remedied, and taking them as a whole they have been an inestimable boon to our people. Unquestionably fresb foods arc preferable when they can be obtained of the right sort and in prime condition, but they, too, have their risks. I have no doubt that a much larger number of cases of illness arc caused by fresh foods that have been exposed to contamination or become decayed than by tinned foods that have been kept bottled up, and Dr. Borrcl, the famous French food specialist, recently said that in a large proportion of cases of disorder of tho digestive organs leading on to cancer the cause is to bo found in the vegetable garden in which aro used animal manures containing many noxious organisms. "Many millions of our people are partaking daily of sardines, corned beef and fruits from our Dominions, and other preserved foods, not only without detriment, but with the utmost bonefit and gratification. Tho importation of all these has been steadily increasing of lato years, and Sir George Nowman, the iviso and cautious medical adviser of tho Ministry of Health, has just told us tL.-it, notwithstanding industrial unrest and widespread unemployment, England is healthier than it has ever been, and that tho trend of the nation's health for the last few years has been steadily upwards."