OUR BABIES

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 11949, 20 May 1933, Page 10

OUR BABIES

(By “Hygeia.”)

Published under the auspices of tlio Royal New Zealand Society lor the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society).

“It is wiser to (put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at the bottom.”

NUTRITION.

(Continued.)

WHAT FOOD WE SHOULD KaT

AND WHY. ?

It is a somewhat stx-ango fact that with all the.experience of the individual and of the race upon which to draw many -people,. know neither from experience nor from instinct what is tile best d{et at tho different stages and differing circumstances o ftheir lives to ensure sound health. -Unsuitable feeding and over-feeding (whether due to the quantity or quality of food) are both very common and produce their characteristic ill results. Broadly speaking, the simjpler and plainer the food the Letter.

In the selection of food the follow£ng are the chief to bear in mind: —

(1) A sufficient supply of body-build-ing foods' and proteins. Proteins include all kinds of lean meats, -miHr cheese, and eggs. Other ioods such as flour and bread also constitute protein, as do the pulse food and nuts of all kinds. (2) A daily supply of vegetable food. In addition to potato, . some other vegetable, and preferably a green one (such as lettuce, cabbage, spinach, silver beet), should he supplied .daily. Some kind or salad or fruit is desirable. (3) Not less than half a pint of milk daily-. Butter should be given at- one meal at- least. Milk is a very valuablQ article of diet owing to the different kinds of food substance it contains. Milk furnishes us’ with proteins, fat, and carbohydrates, and in. addition mineral salts and vitamins, and has been described as a “many-sided” food.

In the “Foundation of Nutrition” (Rose) we read: “Milk owes its importance in the diet to the fine quality of its proteins: to the completeness of its assortment of mineral elements and -the excellent proportions in which they occur; to the content- of lime, which makes milk almost indispensable for ideal storage of this element during growth; to the liberal amounts of vitamins- A and B, which make a pint and a-halr a day a practical guarantee against deficiency of either; and to the presence of -‘vitamin Din association with such a proportion of phosphorus to lime as is most favourable for the calcification of bones and teeth'. Regularly used in liberal quantities, it is the best possible foundation for childrens diet.” In our previous notes we mentioned tho need for mineral salts in the body. Above all, food must be provided m the form of a mixed and varied dietary from which the body will draw for the supply of its particular needs. The advocacy of any special article of diet may he misleading and even fallacious if this fact be disregarded. On the other hand, dietaries should neither he too ample or too varied “for in a multitude ox meals there shall be disease. ’ In the well-balanced diet there is no lack of mineral salts or vitamins.

MINERAL SALTS : THEIR SOURCE AND WORK.

The following extract- is taken, from B ‘'food and Health, - ’ by R. H. A. B Plimmer. D.Sc. London, and Violet I G. Plimmer:—“Salts; By ihis term is I generally understood table salt or the ® daily dose of Aperient salts. Chemical- ® ly speaking, both these are salts, but ® the term lias another meaning, and in- ® eludes the mineral material in the ® food. Salts are the ash which remains ® on. burning food or coal. They are the ® unburnable part of #V- fuel. Tbe ash ® of the Ooal litre is just so much' waste ® material, but the ash of our food con- M tains mineral salts which are essenti- M al for life. Tliey dissolve in. the fluids of our [body and play a vital pant ii. M regulating tbe work of different organs. If-certain of these salts are ab sent from the food the heart will to beat. The red colour ox the cannot be formed without iron salts. nor the secretion of the thyroid gland without salts containing iodine. Lime HI •salts and phosphates are required forH| the hardening of bones and teeth. AL these mineral salts willl be provided if the diet is well mixed—that is, taiidng -a variety of foodstuffs. heating, tinning, bottling, or ageing Mg of foodstuffs docs not harm the salts, ■g but they are removed from our in the milling of grain to make whiteMl flour and white rice. A diet of The white cereal foods will not pro-BB vide all the necessary mineral salts.”HS Wa must not, however, confuse mineral salts iwih the vitamins. Vita-Bag mins are not mineral salts, because they arc destroyed by processes whichßßl leave the mineral salts unharmed. The* vitamins and the mineral salt? generally present in the same part cfMg thq animal or pfl— ->d may •be ix-H moved together, as in the milling grain, hence tho confusion. i^H ° Tho heating, ageing, or drying e foods lias a harmful effect on solw Mj vitamins, and They are destroyed certain chemicals fsucb as the of green vegetables with soda). •processes do not affect the vegetaba® salts, which can be preserved in tinMjg lied or bottled food for years. SHH