“APPLE A DAY” NOT FAVOURED

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22004, 30 January 1937, Page 14

“APPLE A DAY” NOT FAVOURED

+ DIFFICULTIES IN STUDY OF DIETETICS

(FEOil OUH OWW COBKESFOXOSS r.) LONDON, January 6.

The “apple a day” percept for “keeping the doctor away” was discussed by Professor V. H. Mottram at a conference of health visitors and school nurses at Bedford College. Professor Mottram, who is professor of physiology in the University of London, and an authority on dietetics, said that the advice was no longer favoured by research workers. “I like the advice very much, he said, “but in taking it I must admit I am taking something that is not so very much worth while as a pi'Otective food.” , . , . Other points from his lecture were: Ice-cream for children. —In America they give it after the patient comes round from the anaesthetic. The stuff sold in this country is really milk fluffed up by air. I do not think it is ice-cream at all. Herrings.—Poor people look on them as a mark of poverty. You must persuade them that they are a mark of aristocracy. Professor Mottram gave a general warning against telling the public, and particularly working-class mothers, about carbohydrates, fats, protein's, and vitamins. “One of the great difficulties in studying dietetics is to keep oneself from becoming cranky,” he said. Professor Mottram advocated a pint of milk a head a day. and said that the public should eat more cheese and water-cress. Children should be allowed to consult their own appetites.