FOOD FOR HEALTH

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 26, 30 July 1940, Page 6

FOOD FOR HEALTH

(To the Editor.) Sir,—As food, health, and subsidies have been debated in Parliament, it is gratifying to know that at long last the danger of increasing national physical deterioration may now be faced up to. Sound, political economy must go hand in hand with medical science if the physique, the efficiency, and the happiness of the are to be raised to anything approaching the Al standard that New Zealanders once enjoyed. The Minister of Health is on sound ground in declaring that instead of having to be continually increasing hospital accommodation we should be emptying our hospitals by means of proper diet. When people begin to be more sensible concerning choice of food there will follow an increased consumption of prime meat, poultry, fish, eggs, fresh vegetables, and wholemeal bread, provided, of course, that prices are such as would bring a sufficient amount of these protective foods mentioned within the purchasing power of every household budget. Unfortunately, the present trend of prices of essential foodstuffs is upwards, not downwards. For example the retail price of fish that is almost prohibitive for the majority and has been for many years, proving conclusively that the only way to empty our hospitals is to deal with the "cause" and not muddle along with the "effect" of malnutrition. Is it not time to admit that climatic conditions are unsuitable for growing wheat in this Dominion, and furthermore, the protection by way of subsidy extended to growers is not only uneconomic but is hindering the development and expansion of poultry farming, etc? The domestic budget becomes more and more perplexing and as a natural sequence the health of the community deteriorates, hence the demand for increased hospital accommodation and children's health camps. In other words, malnutrition in a land of plenty, whereas a suitable diet adequate for good health should be within the reach of all, which in turn would effect material savings in the cost of public health services.—l am, etc., T. A. FRASER.