TOPICS OF THE TIMES

Southland Times, Issue 20539, 16 July 1928, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE TIMES

The irradiated foodstuffs to which inference is made are laboratory products. For a true “ration of sunlight” in foodstuffs, The Times commends the produce of New Zealand in a glowing testimonial. The writer of the article describes the fertile land, the climatic conditions, the amount of sunshine, the grasses on which the cows and sheep feed, and the pure watering. As for the vitamin value of the produce, the results of the experiments carried out by Dr H. C. Corry Mann under the Medical Research Council are quoted. “The freezing process,” the writer continues, “does not destroy the vitamins. The butter arrives and is marketed with all its sunshine properties fully preserved—in very fact, ‘frozen sunshine.’ It is a satisfactory reflection that at least one-quarter of our overseas butter has these excellent qualities—for that is the remarkable extent of New Zealand’s contribution annually to the Mother Country’s larder, while the cheese she sends, which possesses the same characteristics, amounts to more than 50 per cent, of our total importation of cheese. The Dominion’s mutton and lamb, now so famous in this country, and obtainable in almost every town and village ‘in the United Kingdom, are reared under the same favourable conditions. The animals run in the open, plentiful pastures the year round, and drink from the purest streams. Animal disease is virtually unknown in the Dominion, but there is the most rigid inspection of the carcases before and after they are frozen; and before they can be shipped they have to bear the stamp of the New Zealand Government veterinary officers.” Honey, apples, and other New Zealand foodstuffs are also mentioned, as endowed with all the blessings of a sunny, southern climate.

Treatment of children, in Vienna and other stricken cities, who suffered from the deficiency of foods during the war, led to the discovery that animal fats are less necessary in summer than in winter, and from this, the first glimmerings were received of the truth that animal fats are, in some respects at any rate, an equivalent of sunlight in the balance of health, or, in other words, that light is a food. Only eight years have passed since the first announcements of this discovery were made, yet in these eight years a new science has been stablished and a new therapy introduced, says The Times, in a special number describing the use of sunlight, natural and artificial, in medical treatment. The fact must, however, be emphasized that so far knowledge is fragmentary and insufficient. Every year, indeed, has brought with it, in addition to new observations and deductions, new doubts and difficulties. There is, as yet, no certain knowledge of the remote effects of artificial sunlight. There is no certain knowledge about the correct doses of artificial sunlight or its chemical substitutes. In these circumstances it behoves prudent men and women to exercise caution. There is no justification for the rashness which causes many people to place themselves “for sunlight treatment” in the hands of inexperienced and unqualified individuals. Sunlight treatment is medical treatment in the strictest sense of that term and ought to be given only by physicians who have devoted special study to it. The same caution is necessary in making use of the various irradiated foodstuffs which are now available. Sunlight diet, like sunlight baths, ought to be adapted to the needs of the individual by a competent physician. When this has been said, however, the broad fact remains that a new phase in knowledge about environment and about food has begun. There can be no doubt that in the next decade will be witnessed a world wide testing of the high hopes which at present animate the medical and scientific worlds.