The Hawera Star. SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1928. THE FOOD WE EAT.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 January 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1928. THE FOOD WE EAT.

Delivered every evening by 5 o c.ock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltharn, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Alton, Hurleyville Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, and Ararata.

Most people will listen, to a lecture on dietectlcs with interest, if not always with pleasure, for there is a fascination in the subject, even, when it produces a feeling of uneasiness to learn exactly how wrong we are in tlie choice of out food and the awful consequences we may expect if we continue (to go our way, unheeding - the advice which medical men and non-professional enthusiasts periodically give us. The average man who eats what he likes because he likes it, usually finds refuge from the unpleasant thoughts which his well-meaning advisers arouse, by adopting the first and last line of defence of the ostrich; if he does not exactly bury his head in the sand, he certainly eschews all literature and' lectures bearing on the subject and continues to ignore them as long as possible. Some, endowed 'by nature with an iron .constitution, are enabled to ignore all itheir lives the question of the selection of the right kinds of food. They are the men who 'die at. the ngC 1 of 98 from the effects of over-indulgence in tobacco. But for most of us there is no escaping the food question. At some stage or other in our existence it will force itself upon our attention, usually through the medium of a supper eaten of cucumber. Even the heartiest trencherman is l apt to cogitate deeply on the subject of food during the four days of boiled water diet ■which follows any such miscalculation of gastronomic powers. And if his enforced' fast occurs at Christmas time, ho is likely to spevnd those four clays' in deep loathing and disgust at the greed of his follows, who appear to think that the season ot good' cheer .cannot be properly celebrated without the accompaniment of much feasting. Such an experience sometimes affects the whole of a man’s after life, thus accounting for tlie existence of Food Reform Societies. But usually that phase of thought passes

-with the return of normal health ami appetite and when the patient has : passed from hoi led water to. milk foods, and then by easy stages on to customary diet, the dreams ho has encouraged i during the days of convalescence of ' that perfect state when man will eat , only when he is hungry and then of milk and honey and fruit, fade rapidly ' from .the mind until, strong again in his faith in the "roast beef of old England," he feels he can afford to smile indulgently at the alarming warnings periodically cabled from Harley .Street. It matters little what the scientists tell us about food; in the main we continue to eat what we like and maintain at the same time that we ,do select our food without intelligence. Our faith in our own wisdom in these matters will not be shaken even, when we are told that, per head of population, we consume. 291 pounds of meat, per annum and. only .17 pounds of apples; or that, while we firing 92- gallons of beer and three bottles of spirits per head per annum, and consume three pounds of tobacco, we cut our ration of the health-giving onion down to a paltry 12* pounds. It is safe to predict .that, during the year now just commencing, the scientists will continue discovering food's which we should avoid if we would live as long as our grandfathers —who did not avoid them —that the Jteform Societies will issue more pamphlets advocating the nutritive qualities of horse-radish and carroway seeds, and that, the .great majority of Now Zealanders will continue to favour beef and ignore onions.