WHAT TO EAT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9640, 15 January 1903, Page 4

WHAT TO EAT.

A MEAT DIET FOR AUSTRALIANS. EFFECT OF .SUNLIGHT ON THK HEART. A vigorous battle has been raging m the Melbourne newspapers as to whether salt should be eaten with food or absolutely interdicted. Dr. Givsswell, president (»f the Board of Health, says that it is generally admitted by medical men that from 106 to 200 grains a day m tlie case of a man living on a mixed diet is advantageous and conducive to health. While the salt dispulanits have been strenuously stamggling lo maintain their position, Dr. Gresswell has started a discussion on meat-eating m Australia. He emphatically declares that, projmrtioin-a-lely, a larger meat diet is required here than m Great Britain. His theory is at once interesting and novel. "I believe," .he says, "that m climates where bright sunlight prevails, as it does m Australia, and where the rays of the sun strike more directly, the number of times that | the heart beats is greater than m climates where the sunlight is less bright* I have personally made many observations on tliis subject m different latitudes, and 1 am of opinion that m a country where bright sunlight prevails the heart bents are increased slightly m frequency, and thai generally the vital activities are increased. This means an increase m the day's work, a.nd it is, m. my opinion, advisable that, an additional supply of nitrogenous food, which is very conveniently assimilated m the form of meat, should be taken. The fact that an Australian ea.ts more' meat than a Britisher is from this point of view the sign of an instinctive, desire to satisfy a need caused by a difference of climate. Though sunlight is, I believe, one of the causes, opportunity, by reason of the cheapness of meat a.nd of better wages, is, I think, a more important cause of the greater consumption, of meat here." After elaborating his idea he concludes, to sum up, "I am personally of opinion, that a meat diet develops higher physical and mental qualities titan any other diet. I am of opinion, that a meat diet confers a greater capacity for resisting several epidemic diseases than a vegetable diet, although research m this matter lias not been carried far enough to enable definite statements to be made."