PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN BRANCH.

Otago Witness, Issue 3673, 5 August 1924, Page 64

PLUNKET NURSES, ETC., DUNEDIN BRANCH.

NURSES’ SERVICES FREE. Nurses Thomson, Scott, Ewart (telephone 116). and Mathieson (telephone 3-0201. Society’s Rooms: Jamieson’s Buildings. 76 Lower Stuart street (telephone 116). and 315 King Edward street. South Dunedin (telephone 3020). Office hours, daily from 2 to 4 p.m. (except Saturday and Sunday); also 125 Highgatc, Roslyn, Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4 p.m. Outstations: Baptist Church, Gordon road, Mosgiel, Tuesday afternoons from 2 to 4 P m. ; Municipal Buildings, Port Chalmers, Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 4 p.m Secretary, Miss G. Hoddinott, Jamieson’s Buildings. Stuart street (telephone 116). Karitane-Harris Baby Hospital, Anderson s Bay (telephone 1985'. Matron. Miss Buisson. Demonstrations every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 to 3.30 Training Inst.tution for Plunket Nurses and Karitane Baby Nurses. Visiting hours, 2 to 4 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday OUR. DAILY BREAD. Last week we were dealing with a letter from the back-country complaining of the difficulty the settlers find in getting a supply of brown bread from the bakers. While sympathising with the difficulties of the settlers, we pointed out that, with a good supply of fresh green vegetables (including lettuce, mustard, and cress, etc.) and fruit an almost equally good result would be attained, so far as general health and fitness is concerned, even if white bread had to be used. Sandwiches made of white bread and lettuce (or tomato and lettuce), if properly masticated and insalivated, would provide a good supply of vitamines as well as plenty of exercise for jaws and teeth. Grow Vegetables. In the country it is easy to grow -a few vegetables and tomatoes, and every cottage garden ought to have a plot for growing spinach, cabbage, lettuce, mustard and cress, and other salads, as well as the useful carrot, turnip, and onion, which add so much to the enjoyment of the daily menu. ToWN-DWELLERS. The town-dwellers are not so well off in this respect, as many of them have not an inch of garden. But even townsfolk could grow mustard and cress and a few lettuces and tomatoes, in w indow boxes and kerosene tins. It is most interesting growing vegetables in this way. and it is quite exciting to see the mustard and cress come up and grow so rapidly. The cress should be sown two days before the mustard, and if >well grown they will be ready to cut and eat in 10 or 12 days. In a later article we shall tell the best way to grow mustard and cress in a home without a garden. Vegetables aitfl fruit are dear to buy; yet there are few people who could not, afford some fruit and vegetables if they did not spend so much on sweets and picture shows. How much better it would be for the children, too, if kind friends would take them fruit instead of chocolates and sweets, and if their parents spent some of the money, so often wasted on picture shows to the great damage of the children, to purchase good wholesome vegetables for the family. The town-dwellers have this great advantage over the country settlers that in the large centres there is always a good supply of brown bread available, if the housewife gets it in time. If she delays, the brown bread is frequently sold out, because bakers make only what they are sure to sell. Even if the worker grows vegetables or can purchase them, he should always ensure that a fair proportion of the daily bread for his family is made from good wholemeal. The whole-meal contains the “germ” and the vitamines, which have been almost refined out of white flour; and if there is a shortage of green vegetables and fruit care should be taken to provide these essential adjuncts in the bread, which is, after all. the most common and universal foodstuff in daily use. The following extract from an article by Sir Harry Baldwin, C.V.0., has a very direct bearing on the subject we are dealing with, and we hope it may induce some of our readers to “Eat Brown Bread,” as we were enjoined to do during Health Week last year. THE MOUTH IN TTS RELATION TO HEALTH. By Sir Harry Baldwin, C.V.O. Throughout life we depend for full development and health on the kind of food we take. An all-important question arises: Is the food which is being supplied to the masses of the people good and suitable? The answer is in the negative. The food is lamentably deficient in vitamines. ’ The great staple food is white wheat flour in the form of white bread or made into cakes, buns, and pastry, and used in general cooking. Bread is the chief ingredient of the poor families’ diet. Colloquially the word “bread” stands for food in general. This shows how important an item it is. We say, “Give us this day our daily bread.” The head of the house is called the “breadwinner.” Here is a quotation from the contemporary press: “The mass, the great mass, the real England and Scotland and Wales have one overwhelming and enduring desire, and that is for peace that enables them to earn their daily bread, with whatever additions to daily bread are possible.” It is said that it is usual for a poor family to spend two-thirds of the cash available for food On bread and flour. It is therefore eminently desirable that this staple article of diet should be of wholesome and nutritious quality. The actual fact is that the bread and flour supplied to our people is a delusion and a snare. It used to be called the “staff of life,” and so it might well be, but -it is not now worthy of that title. All its vitamines and most of its proteids and its valuable mineral salts are being needlessly and injuriously'

extracted to make it white. Consequently vast numbers of cur people are suffering from partial inanition and partial lack of vitamines. This can cause grave illnesses — e.g., beriberi and pellagra ; but more frequently causes less obvious disorders, such as the so-called carbohydrate poisoning, low vitality, and lack of resistance of tissues to degeneration, and to all sorts of infection, including tuberculosis. This is a great reason, why our poorer classes are so badly vitalised—why, in fact, we have so largely a C 3 population. Stop the pernicious extraction of the best parts of the wheat in the milling, and the vital statistics of the nation will g'o up with a bound. Here is a promising field of activity for the Ministry of Health. It should also be widely known that the tinning and bottling of meats and fruits deprive them of their vitamines, ns also does prolonged cooking.