HOW TO KEEP YOUTH.

Grey River Argus, 13 January 1927, Page 8

HOW TO KEEP YOUTH.

BY GOOD DIETING I (Issued by the New Health Society of Great Britain). In recent years unsuspected and surprising relations between food and health have become apparent. So much is this the case that now few people with knowledge would deny that, health and longevity depend on the dietary. Certain diseases have been shown to be due to the absence of definite constitutions from the diet. Chief amongst these deficiency diseases, as they are called are infantile scurvy, rickets wasting of the bones, eye troubles, retarded growths and disorders of the nerves. But more important even than these specific effects is the vast amount of vaiyac ill-health and debility] ■which undoubtedly predisposes 1 he b/idy to infections by the organisms of tuberculosis and other diseases. AGEING OF ANIMALS. Exact nutrition studies have shown that the diet of animals which only slightly deviates from the normal has the most profound effect upon their youthfulness and span of life. Animals ou such dietaries grow only at twothirds the normal rate to an adult size well below the average. They rcgjaiu stunted and never exhibit the sleek appearance of the healthy animal.They] bear no litters and the span of lite Jsl to one quarter of its full term. From these cxpcriincntal findings, it is evident that the animal tends to hurry through ils life-cycle, each phase ot which is shortened. With the contraction of the life-cycle disappear vitality and youthfulness, and old age succeeds with its characteristic low resistance Ito infections and its nervous irrataI bility. YOUTHFULNESS DEPENDS ON DIET. Human experience with faulty dietaries is strikingly similar and is clearly shown by an interesting study of town and country families around Coventry. It was found that in two generations the adult grandchildren of the town dwellers numbered only half those of the country people. Consequently, the townsfolk arc continually being recruited from the country, since the tendency of the former is to die out. What is the explanation? It is to be found in the character of the food. Food, always cheaper in the country, is also of' greater variety and freshness than in. the town where the community is all too dependent on the grocery store. The modern grocer carries a stock consisting chiefly of cereal grains which have been devitalised in manufacture, polished rice, legumes, tinned meats and fish, preserved fruits, sugar and tea. It is very difficult to make up an adequate dietary where such foods predominate. THE HEALTH FOOD. To mantain health and vigour we should make as much use of the prot< ctive foods”—as they are called in America—as possible. They comprise the products of the dairy, the garden, and the land. The most important foods of these three categories are re spectivcly: clean milk, butter, cream, cheese, ami eggs; vegetables to be eaten raw,such as lettuce, celery, watercress, onions, radishes, tomatoes and cucumber; roots ami tubers such a." carrots and potatoes, the latter preferabjy baked in their skins. Such na lural food contain the nice, balance of food constituents undisturbed because they have been spared the sins of the kitchen and the crimes of the factory. They contain the minerals and vitamins which nature intended should be our safeguards of health, as well as that most valuable element, the fibre which supplies the roughage necessary for the complete elimination of the waste products. A dietary selected from these foods can be relied upon [to preserve youthfulness, energy a,nd e.fficicncy as long as possible, ami to extend the average span of years allowed to man.