HEALTH NOTES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 671, 24 May 1929, Page 2

HEALTH NOTES

INDIGESTION ERRORS IN DKT (Contributed by the Department Health, i -Defects and derangements of digestion.'' said Sir "William Roberts tooro than 30 years ago. "are among the most common of human ailmenu. They not only complicate almost ereey variety of disease, but they eonstitw* by themselves a serious torment to a large number of otherwise healths people. Not a few of those who beaa large and vigorous part in the world j work, and rjayhap reach a green old age. are plagued half their days with dyspeptic troubles." Whether select the insurance patient, the hospital patient, or the cause of tk, final event, it will be seen how l«rg. a proportion of the sickness and I death there recorded is due to som. form of indigestion or alimentarv 1 disease, states Sir George Nawmat, Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of | Health. England. PROCESS OF DIGESTION The process of digestion is physug logical. Man must take daily a certain amount of food in order to furnish heat, energy, and the repair of waste , of tissue, the value of tha food being measured not by that consumed bnt !bv that assimilated. The degree of assimilation will depend on the nature of the diet and the power of digestion of the body. By the process of digestion in the mouth, th* stomach, and the intestine, the foodstuffs are altered to fit them for absorption, by which they may “become blood” and replenish all parts of the body and become also its framework. What cannot so be used ir, with other waste products o’ metabolism, cast out ofuhe body. Th<i process is part of all animal life, and with one exception is the most un:- ! versal of all natural functions. Bn; there is this difference between supplying the body with food and the lnngt with air: that man has a wider freedom of choice as to time, occasion and material in supplying food to his bod - than air. and this is one of the reasons why the alimentary system is more unfairly treated than tha j respiratory. For unfairly treated it is; and many, perhaps most, of the ills which men suffer as the result of disordered function or disease of the alimentary system are due to ignorance or neglect. They are conditions which are therefore avoidable. "Pro. vent indigestion.” said Sir IXadcr Brunton. "rather than cure it.” FOOD CUSTOMS The first issue concerns the foed customs of mankind which are an outcome of profound instincts and cen-tury-long experience—dependent open the fruits of the earth, temperature, and wropical climate, social condition, ; religion, predilection, a score of tici tors, habits and tastes. The coasumpI tion of rice, oatmeal or meat varies nationally. In this country we eat more meat than most other nations, and our meat and fish consumption is rapidly increasing; in recent years also the use of fruit foods has enormously developed; sweets, jams, sauces, pickles, spices and prepared foods have also increased in consumption; and fine milled flour bread is used in a variety of forms. Again, oar , food is subjected to elaborate cooking processes, though not equally thor- , ough in action or degree. Perhaps the most remarkable development is the addition to our cereal, farinaceous and flesh diet of innumerable articles and beverages commonly assumed to be t "stimulant” in action, such as tea, , coffee and alcohol. These articles are not in themselves nutritiou£„ but they dilute and change the food with which they are mixed in diet, and they exert ■ effects on the alimentary t-act itseW. FOOD VALUES We are now learning more about food values. Food is not merely a question of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, or even of calories. Sir F. Gowland Hopkins's discovery of vitamines has compelled us to adjust our diet-tables. More than ever it behoves us to cherish the fruits of the earth so that in due time we may enjoy | them. Green vegetables, salads and fruit play an important part in nutrition, and their increased ccnsumptior. of late years in this country is a sign of health. Excess of starches and sugars in the diet is to be avoided. Wholemeal bread is better than white fine-milled flour bread. Tinned and I canned foods should not bulk tco } largely in the daily bill-of-fare. Dele- : terious preservatives in food are indubitably responsible for some indigestion, and this problem is now being controlled by the State. Lastly, food should be properly cooked, and in this matter, and in a knowledge of food values, the British housewife, often entering as a bride upon a highlyskilled occupation without previous training, lags behind her Continental ! I sister. Here, then, we have the subject of dietary as it affects health. “As much mischief in the form of actual disease, of impaired vigour, and of shortened life, accrues to civilised man.” said Sir Henry Thompson, the surgeon, "from erroneous habits in eating as from the habitual use of alcoholic | drink, considerable as I know the evil of that to be. ... More than one-half of the chronic complaints which embitter the middle and latter part of life Is due to avoidable errors in diet ”