OUR BABES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3500, 12 April 1921, Page 51

OUR BABES.

By

Hygela.

Published under the auspices cf tha Royal P.’cw Zealand Society tor the Health el Women and Children. “it Is wiser to put up a fence at the top of a precipice than to maintain an ambulance at tho bottom.” 11KAI.TJ r CAMPA IGN. Last week wo described the appearance of the platform at the Town Hall, Wellington, on the occasion of the. opening lecture of a Health t'anipaign by the Director of </hi!d Welfare. On the” right hand side were vegetables and their produets, built, up tier on tier from growing plants through grains, meals, refilled flour, bread, etc., biscuits, cakes, and sweets; while the left hand side, looked like a butcher's shop, and contained milk, cheese, eggs, sides of beef, mutton, and pork, tinned meats, and extracts.

The opening address, by the Hon. C. J. Parr, Minister of Health, was given last week. We shall give an account of Dr King’s lecture adapted from the newspaper reports: DR KING'S LECTURE. Dr King, at tile outset of his lecture, stated that tne thing 1 to be dispelled was ignorance as to the public health ot tno community. Referring particularly to women, ho said that he nad always been impressed with tho great desire on their part to obtain knowledge with regard to the primary essentials of health and life generally. Most early death—indeed, the great mass of disease which physicians dealt with—-was preventable. Death was noble, but diseaso was always contemptible, lersonally, he was sick of disease. Even the ancient Greeks recognised that in order to have great minds and splendid personalities the basic requirement was a healthy body. The strong, healthy, happy person was, on the average, the "successful person in life—certainly the true patriot. Foods—and Household Economy. Dr King proceeded to discuss the food values of milk, and never missed an opportunity of stressing the superiority of human milk for the baby. In cow’s milk Nature had provided for the growth cf a calf and not the growth of a baby. That was the reason for the advocacy ot humanised milk —cow’s milk made- to conform with the requirements of the child. We, as a race, appraised Ihe nutritive value of milk too highly. He did not desire to depreeae the judicious use of milk, but the child should have to “work for its living and use the organs which God Almighty had given it.” Too much pap food was given to children. i lie lecturer showed tne relative values of other foods, such as potatoes, wheat, cheese, bread, etc. Everybody should have a rational conception of the component parts qf food even if on the ground of household economy alone. For instance, a penny spent on the "cereal side of tho stage” would go about as far as Is to 2s on the other—"the meat side.” People in these dear times could actually live on boiled wheat at a cost cf 2d per day. They could also live for quite a long time on eggs, but eggs would cost 10s per day at the present price of 3s 6d per dozen. There they had the two extremes ; such extremes emphasised tho value of a knowledge of foods. He had shown that a man could live on 2d a day if lie took nothing but wheat. If lie set himselt to livo on milk he would require seven or eight pints per day, which would cost 2s 6d. He thought it would be a very good thing for his Department to run a column in the newspapers of the Dominion showing week by week, or month by month, how much a shilling would buy cf different foods, and how much one would require to eat of each in order to live properly. Simplicity in Foods. Dt King, in condemning the excessive use of devitalising foods and advocating the greater use of the fundamental unadulterated foods—substances in their natural condition , —said that human beings should consume green vegetables or fruit every day. The apple was the most practical of all fruits, and children from the age of 18 months derived great benefit from its daily consumption. Incidentally it was better to cat apples raw than cooked. Spinach, he said, was the best and safest of all vegetables for both children and adults. Tinned meats, dried milk, and condensed milk were not of the same value- as the fresh article, because in their preparation- they had been overheated and thus damaged. They were used, not because they were cheaper, but because they wore convenient. The people needed more food in tho simple form, and not so much of that which had been overrefined. He did not suggest that the people should suddenly change their diet, but it would be very beneficial to substitute whole meal bread for bread made with refined flour. The whole meal bread could be introduced gradually, and it might in time, come to replace the more refined variety. L t se of Humanised Milk. Dr King said that a rather strong attack had been made recently upon the Plunket Society, it having been suggested that the process advocated for the preparation of humanised milk was too complex for the poor people to carry out. All lie could say in reply was .that poor people from one end of Now’ Zealand to the other had been carrying out —and continued to carry out —the process, the use of which was on tho increase. In spite of the diminishing use cf artificial feeding—for natural feeding was infinitely preferable the consumption of sugar of milk in the feeding of babies had risen from less than one ton per year to 70 to 80 tons. This clearly showed that the people were ready to take the “trouble” complained of in the preparation of. humanised milk. His own experience had been that one had only to convince a woman that something was better for her child, and she was prepared to go to any trouble. (Applause.) SUMMARY. Tho gist- of Dr King's remarks may bo summarised as follows: — (1) The modern tendency is to take too much animal food. (?.) For equal food-values tho staple animal foods must always cost us from 5 i« 20 times the price of vegetable foods, because no animal returns us more than a small fraction of the food value of .what he oats —ite uses nr, hi: food for himself, burns it for waitnth and activity. (3) On the vegetable side, health and vigour demand iliat nimii more use should be made of (ho simpler, less refined foodstuffs. am! that children’ especially should lie given more raw fruits and. raw vegetables - -lettuce, garden cress, spring onions, radishes, etc. (easily grown in a few snuare yards of soil).