FISH AS FOOD.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 7, 18 December 1911, Page 3

FISH AS FOOD.

OLD THEORIES UPSET. Dr. Ashburton Thompson, medical Officer to the New South Wales .Department of Public Health, gave evidence last week before the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the alleged higli cost of food in New South Wales. “1 regard fish as inferior to lean meat,” said the doctor, in the course of bis evidence, Sas a tissue-builder, because it contains loss proteid. its yield in energy is proportionate to 'its fat content, and that is low. Few lisii contain more than 10 per cent., and the vast majority somewhere about 5 per cent. It has not the same satisfying quality as meat. It Ims its food value, and is nutritious, and easily digestible when boiled or grilled. It is almost wholly absorbable, and assists in introducing variety in diet, which is essential. But its value is relative. “People who do laborious work may eat meat freely, but those who lead sedentary lives, with a minimum of physical* exertion, should eat little meat. They would do well o substitute fish for meat, so as to diminish the amount of their nitrogen intake. “Fish is not specially or directly suitable for those who are engaged in brain work. It does not specially nourish the brain or the nervous system, but it is suitable as a substitute for meat.” The economic value of fish was a doubtful factor, added the doctor, and salt lisii was less digestible than fresh Apparently, fish ought to be cheaper than other kinds of food. There was no cost of cultivation. The complaint made in Australia that the fish was unduly expensive bad been made, and was still being made, in other countries, it might so far as New Sont!i Wales was concerned, he based on reasonable grounds, but it would sri'in to ho general and persistent. Considering the large proportion of people under no necessity for great muscular exertion, he had no doubt that a much freer consumption of fish and a proportionately less consumption of meat would ho greatly beneficial.