THE DIET OF ELDERLY PEOPLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3184, 1 April 1911, Page 9

THE DIET OF ELDERLY PEOPLE.

DICTATORS' OF COMMON SENSE

In no way, perhaps, do we disregard the dictates of common sense with regard to diet more than in the menus with which we provided our old people. Dr Chalmers Watson, in his recent book, “Food and Feeding,” preaches a, little sermon well worth .taking to heart by the woman who has to cater for any aged relations. The keynote of Dr Watson’s plea for a special diet for old people, that is a restricted diet, is the everyday fact that increasing years are associated with diminishing activity and a lessening demand for energy. If . a man of sixty continues to take t-lie same abundant breakfast and substantial lunch and heavy dinner which he indulged in at the age of thirty it invariably leads to trouble. Fat accumulation leading to serious heart- mischief, gout, or rheumatism, kidney failure, and' a marked liability to apoplexy are the result of giving the human engine more fuel than it needs when the body’s general efficiency as an engine is on the decline through age. One of the chief difficulties in getting people to consider the dietary of the aged from the common-snse standpoint is the widespread belief in the advisability of “supporting the weight of years” by liberal feeding. “The attempts to strengthen the old man by giving extra nourishment, in the form of strong beef teas, egg flips, and the like, ■ cannot be too strongly deprecated. Such a liberal feeding merely goes to overcharge the blood with impurities, and to accelerate the decay of the, tissues.” In considering the dietary for the person of seventy three rules are lain down:—

1. Restrict the total amount of food

2. Make the diet simple and nutritious, avoiding excess of animal food 3. Avoid those starchy vegetables foods which are likely to cause, trouble through fermentation in the digestive tract.

There should he five-or six meals in the twenty-four hours, but at each the quantity should be regulated in proportion to - the decreased activity of tody and mind, and no more than two of three different forms of food' should be served at one meal. . White. Or brown breatfhvDr Watson suggests, L'should never be eaten,A except when .thoroughly toasted through and quite.‘brittle. Cabbage, greens, turnips; 'hTitssels sprouts, and salads should. be taken very sparingly as leading .to -.flatulency. -moderate amount or potatoes, or spinach, 'stewed or baked tomatoes, stewed 1 celery, the flower of cauliflower, and large Spanish onions are recommended as being the most digestible of the vegetables. They are also invaluable in preventing the minor symptoms of scurvy which not infrequently occur in old people who keep largely to a meat diet.