DIETETICS AND HEALTH

Taranaki Daily News, 29 January 1929, Page 4

DIETETICS AND HEALTH

LECTURE

DR. MECREDY.

A lecture on dietetics given by Dr. R. J. R. Mecredy, district health officer, last night, brought to a conclusion the first day’s programme at the teachers’ refresher course in New’ Plymouth, The lecturer was introduced by Mr. M. Goldsbury, who presided. The department stressed the fact, said Dr. Mecredy, that the health of children w r as of the greatest national importance, and the parent who brought up a child healthy and virile performed the greatest service to the Empire. To do this it was necessary that a correct diet should be observed at the commencement, for once a child became started in life, it was difficult to alter habits.

In the last twenty years it had been found out that a very large number of the diseases that afflicted people were more or less due to a defective diet. One, however, was a deficiency disease —goitre, which was due to a deficiency of iodine in the soil, and had become a serious problem in New Zealand. Diabetes was a disease that was increasing steadily, and it was an appalling fact that so many New Zealand people suffered from it. Dieting on certain lines was the only way to get rid of , the trouble.

The diet adopted by primitive man and his state of health was mentioned by the lecturer. He said the diet and diseases fo the ancient Egyptians were very similar to those of to-day, but the Maori, who ate raw meat and thrived on it, was comparatively free from disease. The Arab races, he said, presented a good example of the health gained by eating simple foods. The Bedouin, whose food in the desert was the most promitive that could, be imagined, ivas practically free from the troubles that affected civilisation. Lieutenant-Colonel McGarrisson, who for 21 years had been on active service at a hill station in India, had stated that the hillmen lived entirely on grain, milk, little meat, butter, fruit, and vegetables, ind in that period he had never met with a case of appendicitis, gastric ulcer or cancer. Also it was very seldom that it was found necessary to extract a tooth. The Eskimo, who was a raw flesh eater, would be unable to survive without absorbing the whole animal and he ate marrow, blood and internal glands. The Finus were also a good example and in mere appearance stood alone as the most outstanding race at the Olympic games. They were the finest band of athletes the lecturer had ever seen, and to-day provided the finest long distance runners in the world. The majority of Finns were poor, and their diet the simplest. They lived almost entirely on rye bread, fish and dairy produce. Jam, tinned foods and sugar were abhorred by them. “You cannot have any real standard diet,” said Dr. Mecredy, “for wheat may contain as much as 21 per cent protein or as little as 8 per cent.” There was an extraordinary variation in these things, he continued, and they presented difficulties in working out a standard diet. But a balance diet was essential. At least 50 per cent, of the bread eaten should be wholemeal. An average of three-quarters of a pint of milk should be drunk each day, and butter potatoes, raw . fruit and vegetables were daily necessities. Dr. Mecredy xmentioned that people had got into a bad habit of cooking vegetable foods. For instance, cabbages were much more digestible when eaten raw. When cooked the wat/r was generally thrown away, with the result that 50 per cent, of the mineral salts were lost. These were essential for bone and blood. To a great extent the trouble was that each country could levy toll or. the whole world for its food, and in consequence had a greater variety of foods to select from. “What we want to aim for,’’ he said, “is si® l " plicity and a system of self-control.”