STUDY AND DISCUSSION SOCIETY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16498, 2 August 1924, Page 11

STUDY AND DISCUSSION SOCIETY

NEED OF FOOD REFORM,

On Thursday evening the Study and Discussion Society met to hear 1 a .lecture on dietetics by Mr. Lockett, Airs. Walker presided.

Mr. Lockett introduced his lecture by I saying, that food reform was essential. Scientists were now looking into the 1 question of food values, knowing that diet had a'direct effect on human wcll--1 being, numbers of people suffering from 1 dietetic disorders. He would deal, with the effect of food under three headings: 1. Effect on health. 2. Effect on character. 3. Spiritual effect. Taking the first, clearly something was wrong. An examination of teeth alone would prove this. Excess of protein and sugar in food formed a poison, oxalic acid, and. the calcium necessary to fight that poison was robbed from the system j hence the decay in teeth. This, 110 considered, [he largest factor in degeneracy. Our modei'ii foodstuffs, especially cereals, wen robbed of their most nutritive parts through a process of over-refining. Alcohol, meat, cabbage, arid onions were all coarse foods, and might cause too mun protein. Eminent physicians held that there was a misplaced confidence in beef tea,, the focd-valuo of which had been much over-rated. The lecturer gave opinions of famous doctors, quoting freely from “The Lancet,” the standard journal of medical opinion, showing that chemistry was not antagonistic to a vegetarian diet. An animal diet was not essential (,o human welfare. The cereals held a high placet, containing ample constituents to sustain life. Tlie great majority of the inhabitants of the world were not flesh eaters. It was calculated than 99 per cent, of diseases wore caused through meat eating. The effect of diet on character was easily seen. Vegetarian diet tended to make man steadier, calmer, and less angry than the meat-eater. One of the primary causes of the immorality of thei Western world was flesh-eating. The study of dipsomaniacs showed that nervous strain was due to starvation of the nervous tissue through wrong eating. Tobacco smoking was also injurious to the nervous system. Touching on the spiritual effect of diet, the lcetimw said that, destruction, of life was always a crime. People who indulged in a meat diet were guilty of complicity in a crime against the lower animals. That the lecture was listened to with - interest was shown by the brisk questioning and discussion which followed. The usual vote of thanks was carried.

This meeting brings the. first session to a, successful close. The second session. begins next week with a lecture entitled “The Struggle for Existence in Plant Life,” bv Mr. George Darton.