A NATION'S DIET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22609, 28 June 1935, Page 11

A NATION'S DIET

EXPERTS TO CONFER SLIMMING AND DISEASE (From Our Own Correspondent.) (By Air Mail) LONDON, June 8. It has not yet been definitely decided whether a man engaged in moderate physical labour requires a diet containing only 3000 calories and -37 grammes of firstclass protein, or whether he should have 3400 calories and 50 grammes of protein to keep him in health. This momentous question has been under consideration tor two years, and now the Minister of Health has appointed another Advisory Committee to forward, the study in the light of recent discoveries. According to the terms of reference, the committee is: To inquire into the facts, quantitative and qualitative, in relation to the diet of the .people and to report as to any changes therein which appear desirable in the light of modern advances in the knowledge of nutrition. The chairman of the committee is Lord Luke who is chairman of the British Charities Association, chairman of Bovril, Ltd and presides over the Industrial Health Education Committee. Among the other 20 membeis of the new committee is Sir F. Gowland Hopkins, a former president of the Royal Society. He is regarded as one of the worlds greatest authorities on diet, and wasi award*! the Order of Merit in the Birthday Honouie list He won the NobeT Prize for medicine in 1929, and last year was awarded the Royal Society of Arts Albert Medal "for his researches in bio-chemistry and the constituents of foods.' He played a prominent .part in the discovery ol vitamins.

WHEN DOCTORS DISAGREE. - Two vears ago the British Medical Association and the University of Health were at variance. The B.M.A Committee which set up a standard of a weekly diet costing 5s 10d as the minimum lor adults, estimated that the normal man required 3400 calories and 50 grammes of first-class protein daily. This was challenged by the Ministry, who declared, on Hip ndvice of the first Advisory Committee that a daily total of 3000 calories and 37 grammes of protein, in a 4s 10d weekly diet, was enough. An added importance was given to the scale by the new • Unemployment Act, which gave adequate nutrition an almost legal status under Part 11, which was concerned with those thousands of unemployed on transitional payments. In the House of Commons Labour members poured contempt on what they considered the starvation allowance of 4s lOd per The divergence of opinion resulted in the appointment of a Joint Committee which decided that the differences were based on misunderstanding, and issued a sliding scale by which the needs ot individual men working at different jobs might be judged. . The question of calories and protein will doubtless be re-examined by the new Advisory Committee. The matter of the quality of diet should, supply an even more 'difficult problem. Certainly, the

ma6s production of cooked or half-cooked food—which is subsequently warmed up—by the great catering firms should provide a subject for discussion. Another advantageous discussion would be the niggardly use of butter in this country.

LORD HAREWOOD ON SLIMMING. An important aspect of the nation's health and diet was referred to at the annual congress of the Royal Institute of Public Health and the Institute of Hygiene. Lord Harewood was unable to be present, but his presidential address was read. On tuberculosis, Lord _ Harewood wrote: "Here we have a disease which is definitely on the downward trend, except, so I understand, in the young women of the community. Whether the disastrous habit of slimming, which appears to mean depriving oneself of a proper food supply, has anything to do with the increase of tuberculosis among young women I do not know, but there would certainly seem to be some factor at work undermining their resistance to this disease." , On this subject the medical correspondent of the Daily Telegraph writes: "It is perhaps doubtful whether there is any definite association between slimming and the development of pulmonary tuberculosis. But most doctors xvill be in full agreement with Lord Harewood 'a warning. " It is quite common, and probably a safeguard of Nature against the future, for a certain amount of plumpness to become manifest in young women between the ages of 18 and 25. Nature usually adjusts this later on. "No otherwise healthy young woman ought to engage in any artificial measures for reducing weight other than by partaking of plenty of regular and active exerefses. The danger both to health, especially the nervous system, far outweigh any possible advantages that might accrue."