BRITAIN’S FOOD SUPPLIES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25178, 8 May 1947, Page 7

BRITAIN’S FOOD SUPPLIES

LONDON DOCTOR’S ARTICLE LONDON, May «. “England is dying from starvation.” says Dr. Franklin Bicknell, a West Ehd specialist and dietitian, in an article in the “Medical Press.* He adds that all rationed food, including bread and food obtained under the points system, and all unrationed food, excluding restaurant meals, provide under 2100 calories a day. The average moderately active man must eat 3000 calories and the housewife 2500 calories a day. Everyone in England is suffering from prolonged chronic malnutrition, which has made it physically impossible for them to work sufficiently hard. “We should either grow all the food possible, or make the necessary exports pay for imported food. The only way the vicious circle can be broken is by greatly increasing the food supplies by growing more in Britain and spending all foreign credits only on food. Just yelping for the Dunkirk spirit shows a total lack of all knowledge of the country’s starved condition. It is just foolishness,” he contindes. 4 “All rationed foods give just under 1400 calories a day. and points food another 200 calories. They would not keejp the average citizen healthy, even if he remained in bed all day and never moved. Few doctors during the last year can remember having « patient who did not complain always of being tired, although his immediate illness might have been only a cut The’ Minirtty of Food, comAeAtijg on Dr. Bicknell's article. Wt average daily consumption rate of calories was 2900, compared with the 3000 calories before the war, and it was the average for everyone from infants to heavy industry workers. The Ministry of Health, commenting on Dr. Bicknell’s statement, said: “There is certainly no evidence to support the statement that England is dying from starvation. The latest checks on nutritional standards show no sinns of any deterioration.”