HEALTH NOTES

Hutt News, Volume 16, Issue 13, 26 August 1942, Page 8

HEALTH NOTES

By 11. Jv. & D. W. Adii/nKoij, (Osteopaths).

THE POTATO SHORTAGE About .six months ago when potatoes were in short supply i.t was suggested that more use could be made oi" rice as a substitute for this vegetable. We commented on this in the January issue of this paper and issued a warning that rice was not a satisfactory substitute for potatoes and that its general use would tend to intensify the mineral and vitamin deficiency of the average dietary, unless special provision was made to balance the dietary with adequate amounts of salads and other "protective foods" to offset the absence of these substances in the rice. Now that the potato position has deteriorated to the extent that it is rapidly disappearing from the menu in most households, we have been asked to again comment on the subject. For the sake of the uninitiated, we might say that the potato is a particularly good quality carbohydrate or. energy producing food. It. is one of a number of energy foods and if this were the only value of the potato, its loss or absence from the table would not be missed from x dietetic standpoint. The potato, however, is a pretty good mineral and vitamin containing food, whereas most of the other carbohydrate foods in general use are very much lacking in this respect. Urcad for instance if- a tirst-class carbohydrate and this statement applies to all other cereal products including

cakes and pastry, puddings, sweets, and the various breakfast cereals as well as rice, tapioca, macaroni, jams and sugars. They are all con:entrated carbohydrates.. Far more heat and energy producing than potatoes. Then there are the various fats, butter, bacon fat, mutton fat, etc., etc. These are even more energy producing than the foods already mentioned so at first sight it might appear that potatoes would hardly be missed. However, whereas the potato is a good quality mineral and vitamin container, these other foods (wheatmeal products exceptedj are notorious lor tlu: lack of these substances. We have always stressed the point that the average persons eats far too much carbohydrate food and altogether too little of the mineral and. vitamin containing foods. Tlii; position arises mainly because of the fact that, the former foods are not only cheaper to purchase, but they are also very convenient to handle and store. Moreover, they may be served in a wide variety o agreeable forms*. Such being the case, the enforced absence from the diet of one of an over-indulged ii. group of foods ought to be a very good thing, and it would be, if thai item happened to be white bread, or sugar or any other of the more commonly used carbohydrates. As we have pointed out time and again, the principal health destroying dietary habit of the average citizen is not so much a question oeating too much meat or too much bread or other carbohydrate, but a matter of far too little mineral and vitamin food. Too few salads, too little fruit, too little milk and other dairy products. These are the foods

which build up the vitality of Hie body and strengthen its resistance against disease. Too much llosh food and too much cereal and sugar certainly results in much clogging up of the organs and tissues, but such effects, serious as they may be are comparatively mild compared to the trail of physical woe that is left in j the wake of mineral and vitamin deficiency. Of all the energy of carbohydrate food in general use. bread, biscuits, scones, sugars, etc., and the fats the potato is the only one that possesses a presentable balance of these valuable mineral salts. All thi others (excepting the wholemeal products) are not only sadly lacking in these essential elements bin they leave behind them excessive amounts of acid residus as by-pro-ducts of their digestion and assimilation. Therefore, unless some provision is made to furnish the mineral salts and small amounts of vitamin substance which the potato supplies, the position of every man, woman and child (particularly the child), will become inevitably worse. The paramount need is not a substitute for potatoes, because as already stated the average person already consumes far too much carbohydrate food. What is needed, how ever, is ti much greater consumption of mineral and vitamin containing foods. More salad vegetables are needed and more fruit and dairy products. This has always been the case, potatoes or no potatoes, but for the reasons stated above, the need will now be more urgent than ever. Potatoes are not a high vitamin containing food as compared to the citrus l'ruits, especially if they are peeled before they are cooked, but when they are cooked in their .jackets, they contain as much vitamin "C" as cooked cabbage. (Orange and lemon juice contain about ten times this amount). The other carbohydrate food in use contain absolutely none. Then they contain traces of vitamin-. "A" and "1>". Hilt, the chief value' of t'.ie potato lies in the quantity anil quality o l ' its mineral elements.

Potatoes are not essential. No single food is essential in a eommun ity where numerons substitutes are available or where a housewife knows her " Ps" and "Q's" in regard to the balancing of meals. lint in a. non-dietary minded family, (lie loss of a staple food of the all round excellence of the potato may well be tragic. The alternative is more mile, more salads and where possible, more fruit.