WHERE THE AVERAGE DIET FAILS

Hutt News, Volume 12, Issue 17, 21 September 1938, Page 1

WHERE THE AVERAGE DIET FAILS

By H. 3£. and D. W. Adams.on

The average diet fails because it does not contain sufficient quantities of the building materials out of which the body is composed. Fully 95 per cent of the people around us (the writer included) suffer the effects of malnutrition in some form or other, because the foods upon which we have been raised do not contain adequate quantities of the essential building materials of which the body is constructed.

These foods which predominate in the average person's diet arc the meats, white bread and other white flour products such as biscuits, cakes and pastry, plus; cooked fruits and cooked vegetables, and sugar in the form of the various sweets. Now, as everyone knows nowadays, the body is composed of a considerable number of primary substances. Mineral elements,, vitamins and protein and it is only natural to expect that if these

substances nre not provided in sufficient amounts in our daily diet then the tissues or other structures of which they are composed will suffer in a direct ratio to the extent in which they are lacking. However, let us see 'to what extent the average daily diet docs fail. We have no particular objection to the meat portion other than most people eat too much meat. On the other hand it is 'better to eat a little itoo much of a protein food than woefully lacking in most of the other flesh foods, contain adequate quantities of high grade protein material for tli© manufacture of human protein, or, in other words for the manufacture of human muscles and glands. It also contains considerable quantities of iron which enriches 'the blood. But it is woefully laking in most of the other essential mineral elements and in the equally necessary vitamins. As for the white flour products, —the white 'breads, biscuits, cakes etc, and the white sugar, they do not contain even a vestige of the required amounts of these essential elements, but they contain excessive amounts of acid forming residues which promote an acid condition of the blood.

. , The,cooked fruits and the over cooked vegetables are little better if at all. Certainly, few of the vitamins escape the cooking temperatures and those of the mineral salts which actually find •their way into the cooking pot are mostly dissolved' in the water in which

the vegetables are cooked and are invariably lost by being poured down the sink. Even such an impoverished diet as the foregoing can, however be wonderfully improved simply by the addition of a liberal amount of raw salad vegetable every day, or by an equivalent amount of fruit,, both fresh and dried, or iby a pint to one quart or raw milk daily. Such a diet however, although iit would contain ample of the building materials for both growth and maintenance, is far indeed from the ideal. It contains far too much food which simply masquerades as food. White flour and white sugars have 110 place in any dietary and no amount of subterfuge can replace the missing elements which have been extracted in the milling or refining processes, yet these foods atually preponderate in the average diet. The ideal diet on the other hand, is one which contains a preponderance of the foods which are rich in these body building substances. These foods are the dairy products such as milk, cheese and eggs, all raw salad vegetables and the fruits, both fresh and dried. Let these foods form the basis of your diet. Add cooked vegetables, meats and the wholemeals breads if you like, but remember, when contemplating the preparation of a meal, always think in terms of the first named group first and last.

Milk, cheese and eggs, and to these we might add such animal parts as liver or lambs fry, contain the very highest grade o.f human muscle and gland building material. In addition they contain a wealth of the other essential building materials then along with the /aw vegetables and the fruits-, they have come 'to be known as "Protective Foods" because they protect the body against the deficiencies of the vitamins and the minerals of which the orthodox diet has 'become notorious.