FOOD AND HEALTH

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 133, 21 February 1923, Page 4

FOOD AND HEALTH

WHAT, AVHEN, AND HOAV TO EAT

Dr. E. 11. Wilkins delivered a lecture on “Food and Health” nt the Red Cross rooms last night. Dr. Alorgan presided, and announced that the scries of lectures would ba continued on alternate Tuesdays. Dr. AVilkins said that the subject could be dealt with under throe heads —what to eat, when tc ent, aul hew to eat. Adults with their fixed habits were almost beyond hope, but with tho -children it was different.. Tho body was wonderfully responsive to good treatment. It was possible to wipe out in one generation one of the diseases that was undermining the health of the community. _ He referred to dental disease, in which food was n chief factor. There was not enough nride in health; there should ba a feeling of shame at contracting diseaso. It was a reproach against one’s management of one’s body. Many regarded the body as a machine. It was a machine which required careful attention, and needed to he driven carefully. The question of when to eat resolved itself into one of how often to eat. It was a habit for some people to cat four or five meals a day. That was a grave mistake. A teacher he bad spolcen with had called ( it “the curse of New Zealand.” They should not eat more than three meals a day ft was all a matter of habit. The digestion could be trained to expectonly two meals a dav. and one’s food would be appreciate-1 all the bettor Ovor-eating was a social and moral evil. “AVe must pull lip, and adopta more Spartan and austere mode of life.”

Coupled with this was the indiscriminate use of sugar and confectionery. Dy the indiscriminate use by children of sweets, chocolates, and the like, they were practically guaranteeing bad teeth.

Another ‘error was the exclusive use of white broad, and ho advocated, the use of brown or wheatmeal bread. Tn countries where white bread was not eaten, such ns India, Alesopotamia, and Egypt, a great many diseases arising from st ignation in the bowels were practically non-existent. Fruit should be eaten at the end of each meal, but this indiscriminate consumption of fruit between meals was harmful. Dr. AVilkins also condemned excessive meat-eating, and advisml, as a safo rule, that dt was bewt OI IL V I- 0 meat at one meal a day. He emphasised the importance of proper mastication. Hard, tough, foods had their valu® in the goocl effect they had on th*, teeth and digestive organs.