DO WOMEN EAT ENOUGH ?

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 141, 17 June 1922, Page 14

DO WOMEN EAT ENOUGH ?

AN INTERESTING CONTROVERSY

DOCTORS' VIEWS.

(PROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

LONDON, Ist May.

Controversy on this subject has been started by Sir Malcolm Morris, who, as president of the Institute of Hygiene, dealt with the subject, "£'he Hygiene of the Growing Child." Ho considers it necessary for all who were intelligently concerned for the health of the children, as the men and women of the future, to bestir themselves to save it from being sacrificed to the cry for lower rates and' taxes. It was for tho parents with boys at public sohools to remain alert, to mtuke inquiry from time to time, and to address demonstrances to tho headmaster should any backsliding occur. Mothers would handlo this task better than fathers. Nor should thoy fail to inquire also into tho feeding of their girls in the various grades of boarding schools. "Thoro are," he said, "I suspect, multitudes of adolescent girls—and not alone those who arc at boarding sohools —who habitually eat too littlo. And this also applies to many women. Thoy cat too little, partly because thi pleasures of the table make little appeal to them, and partly because of their instinct for frugality. A grout deal of the nervous and other illnesses, for which so many girls and young women engaged in business and professional life have to seek medical advice, is due to chronic malnutrition, the result of their having got into tho habit of eating less than naturo requires. How seldom does man make this mistake? Women are careful, in 'Mr. Punch's' immortal phrase, to 'feod the brute.' The 'brute' would be all the better for less pampering, but if his womenldnd must go on ovcr-foeding him, let them, at any rate, be careful not to underfeed themselves." To all children, from infancy' until they have passed the growing age, nutrition was far moro important than it was to those who had attained maturity.

"On tho whole," ho added, "growing children, whether boys or girls, are less in danger of getting too little exercise than of getting too little sleep. I question whether in. theso h^ctio, restless days there are many adults who take more 'sleep than is good for them. Certainly, that can never have been true of children. On the other hand, it is true that large numbers of children got a great deal too little sleep. This is usually the fault of the parents, who do not in tho least understand that the wants of the I children, in this matter are no indication whatever of their needs. But, in many cases, tho evil arises from the monstrous overcrowding, which the Minister of Health is so ingeniously striving to minimise, for where a family is living in one room, it is useless for the children to go to bed before the adults. SUBSTANCE NEEDED. When asked what women should eat, Sir Malcolm said briefly: "More food." "They need something for breakfast —an egg or bacon, and nurishing food for luncheon. I do not think two or three courses are necessary, but the meal should not consist of a. bun. Women take too much tea; it is a stimulant which helps one to do without more nourishing food. Tea should1 never be taken with meat at luncheon; it is not so bad afterwards, but women are better without it." Dr. H. Campbell, a dietetic authority, says tho trouble is that diet it not understood. "The appetite of the young is spoilt largely by sugar in everything they eat, consequently they are not content without it- I see them eating fourpenny cakes —all cream and squash." GROWTH AND HEALTH. Dr. Leonardl Williams regards the rnal-, nutrition of .'girls and young. women' as relative only. , "It is due, as Sir Arbuthnot Lane has so often pointed out, not to lack of intake, but to defiency of output. Tho amount of chronic constipation, which it not only tolerated, but even cultivated, in ohildren and in young girls' schools, is a real menace to thei health of the community. The kindly fruits of the earth, for the benefits of which we render perfunctuary thanks in the Litany, are really relegated to a baok seat in nearly all diotitic schemes, and! one of the reasons why it is instinctive in boys to rob orchards is that by so doing they supply themselves with -an essential element .of diet which is laoking in what their elders offer them. If people would eat more in the way of raw food's, salads and fruits, they would find that their whole intake would' be very shortly lessened. The habit of eating large meals is due partly to tho fact that most of the food is. lacking in vitaminos, and1 the human economy, crying out for these allessential • elements, consumes a whole hefty haystack, in order, to be sure of tho necessary needle. The importance of vitamines to growing ohildren cannot be exaggerated. At least, one of those already discovered has been shown to be necessary to growth and development. Others have been shown to be necessary to tho maintenance of health, but it 'is probably. wrong to assume that the three vitamines with which we have recently become familiar constitute the full number. There aro probably several more of these elusive substances which play important roles, and the only way of being sure of their inclusion in our dietary is to regard cooked foods as something in the nature of a luxury, and uncooked foods as an all-essential foundation, upon which it is permissible for art and pleasure to raise an occasional super-struc-ture." . A WOMAN DOCTOR'S VIEW. "I think tho real reason why the majority of women are underfed is that they eat too'much," was the paradoxical statement of Dr. Octavia. Lewin, of Wim-polc-strcet. "Women have more opportunity for eating frequently than men, and tho consequence is. that they, are always nibbling between meals, with the result that they have no appetite for the real meal when the time comes for it. Even business girls take buns and chocolates to the office. They are not so ashamed to be seen eatincr as men. Three meals a day, eaten regularly., and' with no 'snacks' at odd times in between to spoil the Zippefcite. should. ba tho rule: Whether the principal meal of the day tor a- business girl, should ■be' at midday or at night depends upon' her home conditions." '

Sir John Ferjruson, of Lloyds Bank, ■;aid his experience led him to believe thai the city gir'fe or to-day were, on the whole, sufficiently fed. "The, majority of girl clerks who work in banks and other largo establishments in London nowadays aro earning fairly good salaries." he said, "and they have sufficient cdramonsense to know that the earnings of'those salaries depends upon tho good condition of their general health. I feel sure t"hat most of them act upon .this realisation and do nob stint their food needlessly."

It ie cohtestod by a woman authority that it is tho girl who lives out who feeds badly, the city girl who is forced to have her lunch at one of the great multiple restaurants, which cook centrally and distribute the cooked food to be re-hoated' later, and where the food is not appetising nor particularly nourishing. Tlio amount spent by girls who live out lias to bo carefully balanced from a sum which pays rent, fares, and clothing-. While the city mule clerk is paid moro than the women, his clothes clost < him loss, his rent is- about tho same, and ho has consequently . moro money for food. ■ ' '

A doctor gives his opinion that enough attention is not paid to tho physical education of girls, using this term _in its widest sense. Every girl ought to know something of food values and of the relationship which exists between fcod and health. It is ;i matter of cxnevienctv that such a 'training "l'ljmvs cookintr with a new interest ano' hclri- the girl to realian the importance of her work in the home. The renson why so many women regard domestic duties as drudgery k-i that they lack the knowledge out of wliioh enthuiiaaru ariies.