DIETS THROUGH THE YEARS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1933, Page 17 (Supplement)

DIETS THROUGH THE YEARS.

ANCIENT AND MODERN FASHIONS. Dieting is the rage of the moment. We cannot pick up a newspaper 'without locating something of the value of different foods, and we are even told how to keep warm, and how to keep cool, by eating ' and drinking. Because the food we eat literally keeps us alive it is only natural that we should think a good deal about it. All nations have done this since the beginning of time. The strange thing is the way in which food fashions change. To-day boiled fish or a milk diet is recommended as a cure for certain ills. In the eighteenth century, pearls, coral, sapphires, gold, and other precious things were used for the same purpose. Before that, folk employed crab’s eyes, spiders, worms, and even less agreeable animal produce. But perhaps the oldest of all foods which were also “cures” were mustard-seed, spinach, parsley, green salad of all kinds, and wild strawberries. And it looks very much as if the old food cures are again becoming fashionable, for surely salads have never been so popular since the days of Elizabeth when they appear to have been eaten with almost every meal. , In the long run nothing seems to make much difference to our constitutions. Our ancestors swallowed crushed emeralds, liquid gold, powdered shells, numerous kinds of animal produce which sound positively poisonous. Yet they fought battles, discovered new worlds, suffered hardships, and struggled with the most alarming national prob-' lems, just as the men and women of today do on a little raw cabbage, perhaps, orange juice, and a steamed herring. The herring, by the way, is extremely nutritious, and was the staple food of the poor for hundreds of years. It is quite likely that faith and personality are far more valuable than actual diet. Common sense tells us that we must eat sufficiently yet not indulge, and the same golden quality emphasises the fact that our interiors rebel against certain foods because they are not suited to our particular personalities. After that, if we have faith, a crab’s eye will probably do us as much good as a spoonful of charcoal, for both are merely “fashionable cures, and thought does a great deal of work. Drugs as medicine are on the decline and nobody is any the worse. Vegetable diet is making enormous strides, and it remains to be seen if the future race will be better than the meat-eaters of the present. Human beings will put up with almost anything, and survive practically everything, because we are not merely creatures of flesh and blood there is a mysterious third ingredient in us, which protects and inspires, and gives us the power to do all sorts of things provided we believe that we car. BEHIND THE SCENES Of almost every family, squabble stands the green-eyed monster, the thing that actually- planned the row and carried it out. Get rid of that monster and you’ll stop most family quarrels. Of failure stands a host of missed opportunities. When you “get on feet” again, see to it that you dont add to the company standing behind the scenes. Of a happy marriage is the goldengarbed figure of tolerance. Keep her there, and she will guard your happiness for ever. Of ill-health stands the demon of overindulgence. A charming demon to look

upon, but the tempting dishes it offers are alive with the microbes of illness. Don’t eat too much, don’t drink too much, and gradually the demon will fade away and die. Of success stands the proud figure with knotted muscles and keen eyes that is called “Work.” Few successes come without hard work of some kind. Of every short act of life s play, there stands some reasonable figure. You have only to identify that figure to bring the curtain down upon the scene in triumph of failure.