FISH AS FOOD

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 82, 7 April 1938, Page 8

FISH AS FOOD

While the investigations of experts may be accepted as disposing of the belief that New Zealand's resources of edible fish are inexhaustible, it is still a fact difficult to explain that New Zealanders, compared with people in the Old World, eat very little fish. One of the most important sections of the report of the recent Sea Fisheries Investigation Committee deals with this aspect of the problem. In the published extracts from the report, experts on dietetics enlarge on the value of fish as food and the inadequate use made of it in New Zealand. Both in .protein and vitamin content fish .surpasses most, other foods, and special attention is drawn by Dr. John Malcolm, Professor of Physiology at the Medical School, Dunedin, to two classes of fish, shell fish, such as oysters and toheroas, and whitebait. He sdys: The iodine ig these cases is specially valuable because, weight for weight, oysters supply more iodine than any other article of diet with the exception of seaweed in any form, and the butterflsh, which feeds on seaweed. He is then led to this conclusion: If the whole population of New Zealand could be induced to consume regularly from childhood a small portion of a seaweed preparation, or about half a dozen oysters per .head per week, it can confidently be stated that the occurrence of goitre would be greatly lessened, if not abolished. To this might be added the evidence of good health and freedom from disease among the early Maoris, who made fish a staple in their dietary. Some of the conditions of a greater consumption of fish in New Zealand today are mentioned in the report. These include "improvement in transport and distribution so as to make the fish available all over the country in good condition; and a reduction in price." New Zealand is still far behind countries of the Old World in these respects.