HEALTH NOTES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 17 April 1907, Page 1

HEALTH NOTES.

A GOOD SQUARE XQ.VL-. The hospital contends tlhl a vegetarian diet and also an exclusively meat diet, for example, b&ve each found their advocates for tho rlteumaloid diathesis, and favourable results have been reported from each line of treatment. Dietetic discussion now largely centres around the -question of excess of food, and especially of the incr2*-=---ed consumpeion of meat by the cammuniiy. The consumption of me&'t in England has risen tlißoo pounds a head per annum in 1850 to. fifty pounds head per annum in 1902. It has been suggested that many ovils which havo increased, or are supposed to have increased, during this period, such as the greater frequency of cancer, tho diminished birth-rato and the spread of caries may be attributed to this greater abundance of meat in the dietary of the community. We aro taught by physiologists that we should depend upon carLohydrates and fats for the fuel by the combustion of which wo atytain thj necessary energy for musclar exertion and other lifo processes, the protuid being requisite for ■ the growth and repair of the tissues. Accepting this theory it is not difficult toshow. that the usual consumption of proteid is far in excess of the needs of the organism for the' tissue repair. The question then arises; Is this excess of proteid over a:vd above the actual requirements of the body not only unnecessary, but harmful? In England, too. a physician practising among wellrto-do peoplo becomes impressed with the evils resulting from tho overladentable- and the overladen stomach. But thero is also the other 'aids of tho picture. Medical men who attend the less fortunate portions Of the community are only too familiar with those conditions lif anaemia, ' malnutrition, neurasthenia, and general debility for which a good meal three times a day would be of infinitely more service to the patient than /my bottle of physic. A boy of good circumstances at 11 years is equal physically to a boy of 14 to tho lowest grade of schools. In tto Japanese navy, where beriberi had become a scourge of the severest nature, a more liberal diet was immediately followed by a wonderful reduction in tho incidence and mortality of the disease, and by a marked 'Increase In the physique and general well-being of the men. On the whole, then, we are led to believe that a community will be more efficient and suffer less of tho * rt ills to which flesh is heir" on a full stomach (than on ah empty one. — Tho Hospital, j