Medical Notes

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

Medical Notes

Problems of Nutrition

//. — National Policy Wanted

By W. MERVYN LUSTY

TN my previous article there were discussed the nature of malnutrition, its effects and causes as outlined in a symposium of experts. In this concluding article something will be said of what England is already doing

h The emergence of the malnutrition ■question as a first-class public issue has been' one of ! the most remarkablo features of English public life during the past five years. Such is tho opinion of Mr. A. D. K. Owen. Five years ago the great majority of people, including many of those directly affected, had only the vaguest realisation cither of the extent of malnutrition or of its importance. To-day, however, all aro " nutrition conscious." The facts, so far as they are known, have been broadcast. New standards, new terminology, new conceptions havo been popularised and the question can now be approached with greater confidence than was possible a few years ago. How did this striking growth in public interest come about? All will agree with' Mr. Owon when he says, " The fact is the time was ripe for this advance in popular social understanding. There had .been a generation of important scientific work on problems of nutrition, marked by the epoch-mak-ing discovery of vitamins and a recognition of the importance of other protective food elements in diet." Educating the Public

The need for educating public and governmental opinion as to tho significance of tho new knowledge, while at tho same time avoiding exaggerated statements, is recognised by the contributors to tho symposium. A Btart has already been made.- " During 1934 several organisations devoted themselves to the task of collecting information about malnutrition, educating public opinion and exercising various forms of political pressure in favour of policies designed to improve standards of nutrition among certain sections of the community. Thus tho Children's Minimum Committee pressed the Government to provido a daily Nation of fresh milk for all children in State-aided schools and for pre-school children; to make school meals compulsory; to increase tho allowance for tho children of the unemployed, and to encourago rent rebates in cases of inadequato family incomes. Tho Committee Against Malnutrition was founded by a group of doctors, social workers and research workers in other fields for tho purposo of collecting information, organising propaganda and co-ordinating efforts directed toward securing an adequate standard of nutrition throughout tho community." The Government has recognised the fact that not every member of tho community is able to obtain an adequate diet, and has made some provision for supplementing deficiencies. The unemployed are helped through tho Insurance Scheme and tho Unemployment Assistance Board. The Public Assistance Committee provides outdoor relief for over a million persons. Maternity and Child Welfaro Commit-

tees aro empowered to provide milk and meals for expectant and nursing mothers and for children under the ago of live years. Many local education authorities also provide milk or meals, ltather less than half the children attending elementary schools aro getting one-third of a pint of milk a day for one halfpenny. A number get it free on account v both of the poverty of their parents and also the opinion of the school medical officer that they arc suffering from sub-normal nutrition. Several writers urge that free milk should depend solely on. tho inability of tho parents to pay for it. An Adequate Food Supply To turn from what is being done to what might bo done, one article in particular, " The Nutrition Problem and Agriculture," is of interest to New Zealand. The writer is Miss Margaret Joseph, of the secretariat of the League of Nations. She severely criticises the measures which have been tried in some countries for assisting agriculture by restriction of output. Such measures have been directed exclusively toward increasing farmers' incomes and not always with due regard to the equally important nutrition aspect of the question.

Miss Joseph suggests that " Governments should make uso of their superior understanding of nutritional requirements and not accept as final tho demand for foodstuffs emanating from £he less -well-informed mass of tho community. By endeavouring to restrict agricultural production where tho effective demand for tho output is mot sufficient to make it pay, tho authorities aro tacitly endorsing tho misguided and inadequato evaluation of food requirements of the public, and ignoring tho important contribution of the science of nutrition. Until people havo been made fully awnro of the consequences of an adequate diet, as well as provided with the means to secure one, it may be desirable for the State to take measures to raiso tho standard of "public health and nutrition by action independent of the forces of the market.

Other writers also suggest that tho providing of an adequate food supply should be made a public health issue. The idea is expanded by Mr. L. John Edwards. "Important," lie says, "as if; is to press tho now knowledge of nutrition on the Ministry of Health and tho Board of Education, taking the largo view, it is oven more important to press it on the Ministry of Agriculture. It is not sufficiently appreciated that agricultural policy can influence for good or ill national health. Wo need a national food policy, derived from the science of nutrition." For instance, Mr. Edwards points out that to provido ono pint of milk per head per day it would bo necessary to more than double Great Britain's present production of liquid milk—an increase which, even with tho greatest will in • the world, would take seven or eight years to achieve. Therefore, he says, tho soonor it is planned and put in hand the better, and adds that it would bo much bettor policy to subsidise tho homo production of fresh vegetables and dairy produce than to continue tho heavy subsidising of such products as wheat and sugar beet, which aro more easily and cheaply obtained elsewhere.