SCHOOLBOYS’ DIET

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 2, 28 September 1937, Page 10

SCHOOLBOYS’ DIET

Five Years’ Experiment At Hamilton COLDS ALMOST NEGLIGIBLE The successful experiment in modern dietetics at the school house of the Mount Albert. Grammar School, Auckland, has attracted so much attention all over New Zealand, and in Australia as well, that it is a matter of some interest that very similar principles have been applied for five years at Southwell School, Hamilton, a private preparatory boarding and day school for boys between the ages of seven and 14. Interviewed by the “New Zealand Herald,” the headmaster, Mr. H. C. Sergei, remarked that he had never attempted any scientific analysis of the effects of diet changes on the health of the boarders under his care, and he had given no publicity to the matter hitherto because it was naturally difficult to separate the influence of diet from that of regulated rest and exercise and other beneficial factors in the life of boys, at any properly-conducted boarding-school. Vitamin Emulsion Used. The first important change had been made five years ago on the suggestion of an Auckland friend. This was to give each boy daily a measured allowance of an emulsion containing vitamins A and D. The preparation was added to the milk provided for drinking at meals. The daily allowance of milk was a pint for each boy, and as much more as he wanted. At first some of the boys said they disliked the flavour of the mixture, but all came to take it as a matter of course. In addition to all the usual staple foods, the diet included raw green vegetables every day. When lettuce was not readily obtainable, shredded cabbage was substituted, with watercress, celery and grated raw carrot. Potatoes were always cooked in their jackets, and most of the boys ate them skins and all. Various authorities claimed that valuable constituents were lost by peeling, and, in any case, the method used at the school saved labour and waste, and the potatoes had a much better flavour. It had been found that the boys liked liberal quantities with liver o r bacon at breakfast. In this way potatoes were substituted for a good deal of the bread contained in an ordinary dietary, as some modern authorities recommended. Football Team Successful. No white bread had been used in the school for a long time, and bread made entirely from wholemeal was specially baked for the school.

Regarding the general health of the boys, Mr. Sergei said that since the changes in diet had been made he had noted a great decrease in colds and influenza, which were now’ almost negligible. When many cases of influenza occurred at Hamilton last November, there were none among his boarders, and a later outbreak of mumps in the school was the mildest he had ever known. The matron had to deal with practically no cases of toothache, and examination over a period showed that the condition of the boys’ teeth had definitely improved. “I do not know’ whether diet has anything to do with it,” Mr. Sergei added, “but our senior football team has done unusually well lately. In the past it was not very successful, bin it has won the Hamilton primary schools’ championship for three seasons in succession against teams which averaged half a stone to a stone heavier and were drawn from much larger schools. What is more, it carried through without calling on any emergencies except to replace a few boys who met with minor accidents. Masters in charge of rival teams were continually telling me that they were playing three or four substitutes on account of colds or other illness.”