DIET IN OLD AGE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 4401, 6 October 1934, Page 4

DIET IN OLD AGE.

'The details of diet in old age are set out in “The British Journal of Physical Medicine,” by Dr. Robert Hutchison, the well-known expert on food and dietetics. While the term old age is necessarily an elastic one, and while some people enjoy an appetite , and digestion quite unimpaired until an advanced age, it is true for the majority that as age increases the burning-up processes of the body become diminished and the powers of eating and properly utilising food become less. Hence, Dr. Hutchison says the diet in old age must be spare, must be easily chewed and must not .overburden the stomach. He recommends small dry meals with drinks between rather than at meal times; soups and sloppy or bulky foods are barred and' crisp toast or “rusks” are urged in the place of bread. The chief meal, it is suggested, should be in the middle of the day. The scheme of diet, set out is as follows; —Breakfast; Diy toast'with butter, a. lighty-eooked egg or a little white (isli. A teacupful of tea or coffee with a. little milk or cream, sweetened if desired. Midday meal: Two courses only, fish and meat, fish and a. sweet, or meat and a sweet. Fish should be boiled or steamed —not fried. The sweets permissable are plain, milk pudding, baked; custard, junket or ■stewed fruit. A little mashed potato or boiled rice* is allowed, but no vegetables except spinach or cauliflower tops. Tea ; One cupful of weak tea with milk or cream, sweetened if desired. No solid food. Evening meal; Always a light meal. Boiled white fish, and a potato, or toast and butter, or bread and milk, or a lightly-cooked egg. At bedtime: A small cup of soup and a finger of toast, or a. cup of Bcnger’s Food, Allenbury Diet, etc., or a little whisky and water and a biscuit. “What he drinks is,” says Dr. Hutchison, “to the old noth, just as important as wliafc he eats.” A small cup of China tea is recommended as the best drink at breakfast. At lunch and supper he allows a glass of sherry or a. tablespoonful of whisky or brandy in half a glass of water. A substitute for alcohol is a wine-glassful of hot water sipped slowly at the end of a meal.