FOOD VALUES

Evening Star, Issue 21783, 27 July 1934, Page 3

FOOD VALUES

IMPORTANCE OF CORRECT DIET LECTURE BY MR RONALD M‘LEAN ‘ The Value of Correct Food ’ was the subject of an interesting and informative address given in the Y.M.C.A'. assembly hall last night by Mr Eonald M'Lean, a dietitian, of Wellington. Miss J. Devereux was in the chair. Mr M'Lean said that his experience in the field of dietetics had proved that cures could be achieved by the application of correct diet, which built up the body and strengthened the resistance, thereby allowing Nature to overcome the trouble. He had met in Wellington recently a descendant of Fletcher Christian, the leader of the Bounty mutineers, and had been told by the young man that on Pitcairn Island, where the principal diet of the inhabitants was vegetables and greens, operations were unknown, and that people died only as as the result of accidents or through old age. In these days one could scarcely contemplate a civilised town without a hospital atfached, and when the speaker had been told by an acquaintance that Auckland had probably the finest and best-equipped hospital in the dominion he had replied that conditions which compelled about one-quar-ter of the population of Auckland to pass through that institution in the course of a year were nothing to be proud of in thsi enlightened age. The lecturer went on to deal with the normal functions of the body, and showed that, favoured by proper conditions, the human organism was a highly efficient and long-wearing machine, but that the modern haphazard system of diet, which -included much food that was so refined and prepared that most of the good was extracted before its consumption, was fhe root cause of the majority of ills the flesh suffered. They heard more about vocational guidance,. the depression and its cause, and other topics these days than the question of preserving good health, and many of the treatments for various ailments merely dealt with the effect and not the cause of those ms. Mr M'Lean explained the cause of rheumatism, an extremely general complaint these days, which could be traced back to wrong food or good food spoilt by faulty The speaker also touched on the subject of obesity, one of the major tragedies of modern life,'and said that his advice to fat people was to “ eat themselves thinFat persons were too fond of tatty meat, large quantities of sugar, and other types of food that built up adipose tissue, and the best method they could adopt for the removal ot the superfluous flesh was to cat sanely and sparingly of food’s which would help the body to throw oc the coating of fat. Three “ Dont’s ’’ which could be obeyed by corpulent people with advantage were: " Don’t sleep too much. Don’t ovor-eat. Don’t take a taxi—- " Mr M'Lean made a special plea for a studv of children’s diet, and pointed out that many children were barred from enjoying their heritage of health and good spirits as the result of their parents’ failure to supply them with properly nourishing food. Such cases in New Zealand were unpardonable, as »ood fresh, wholesome food, such as milk,’ honey, butter, and other commodities were so easily obtainable. At the conclusion-or his lecture _Mr M'Lean answered a number of questions on the subject of diet, and was accorded a heart}' vote of thanks.