BRITAIN’S FOOD BILL

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 10 December 1938, Page 3

BRITAIN’S FOOD BILL

h ONE-THIRD OF INCOME MONEY BADLY SPENT e I AMI'AIUX Mil! HUT I Ell MEALS j 1 i> Will, nriirly C1,305,CXJ0,0C0 —ont-third 1 I 111. imliuiiiil lit .punt in Cri-iit Itri- { t:iin uii lii,ii.l. ni’i.ily hulr tile population I 3 lull Leluu the Itrittill MeßiouJ AKSoi-iatii.il 2 ’ stiuidiuils of a« lt‘<| ua I c nutrition in sonic., r i respect or other. 2 This startling conelusiuii comes not , from the rush reasoning of an extremist ; , * politician or an economist ventilating his J ; i special fad, hut from a survey made ou ;i j , j hitherto unknown scale of the diabetic ’ ’ | habits of all classes of Britain's popula- , ‘ i tion by a business mail in touch with 1 every section of the national life. ‘I sir William Crawford. K.8.E., whose i 1 book, ‘•The People's Food," has just been i winter months ol 193b-37 a survey of 5000 s homes. ? It coveied homes where the income. >, ranged from over 01000 a year to SIZ a week or less, and ranged from London to Glasgow , and Newcastle to Cardiff. DOUR TU DUUIS CALLS Ills niv estimators made door to doo. call.-, and got liie housewives' answers | U, Kill'll <|U,.'SllOllK us: ~ j \\ hat time did you have breakfast I milk, bread, sardines, bacon, meat, » fruit. lisli ': 1 Does your husband have Ins mid-day * meal at home, in a reslanrunt. or take it \ will, him packed? j - ' The motive for this arduous research * was that, although from Board ul Trade I | figures the total quantities of food stuffs consumed are easily discovered and limiteii experiments on animals and selected ;i | groups of humans have proved exactly what diets yield the best health results. | tlu-ro is no way of finding exactly what I classes of the population are securing such | diets. It has long been known that, though some 8,000,01/0 of the papulation are in- - adequately nourished from lack of tneaiifi t> buy proper food, there are other stiata in which t,he income is adequate, but education as to what are the best ways to expand the food budget is defi- ; MEANS BE'I Nu KNOWLEDGE i 1 lie *' xult of the survey suggests that ! I between 12,000,000 and 22,000,000 people I have the means to secure better health, bu* lack the knowledge. ' Sir William Crawford points out that educational campaigns sponsored by the producers ol valuable foodstuffs could have a beneficial effect not only on the producing industries, but on the national l health, and that the p vot on which phy- I . Meal lit ness depends is nearer the home : kitchen than anything else. In the revival ol home cooking he sees oi-.f ol the greatest delete es of democracy ami a barrier against the increasing regimentation of the individual. Interesting points from the survey are that:— Leak hour for breakfast is 8 a.m . and the amount of bacon consumed at it is a direct measure of social standing. “Elevenses” are increasing in popularity. At least 50 per cent, of husbands take , their midday meal ; .t home. Collee still lags behind tea as the national beverage; and Beer drinking in the h nne appears tu I have been curtailed bv the improved I facilities offeied in clubs and public I Ihe British public , though definitely ; carnivorous, is shown by the survey to j rank fourth only among the world's * meat paters, and sixtli among milk con-