PEOPLE COULD LIVE BETTER

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23279, 15 August 1945, Page 4

PEOPLE COULD LIVE BETTER

Too Much Sickness In Dominion

Better Balanced Diet Needed

"In this country of ours we have one of the highest standards of living; in the world, yet why do vve have so much sickness?" asked Mrs C. Barker, Officer in Charge of the Mobile Health Unit, at the opening of the Health Exhibition at the Caroline Bay Hall last night. Mrs Barker drew attention to the (art that 25 per cent of our 19-year-old men were rejected for the Army for health reasons and that fitt per cent of the men had artificial teeth.

"Look at the young people in our sanatoria,’ continued Mrs marker. in mis show we nave maae suggestions oi how people cornel live oetter. '.ve n ave the longest expectation ot lite ot anv people, out there is too mucn ill neanii m rxevv Zealand.”

Mi's Barker told of a dietary test that had been taken amongst sue Dunedin famib's amongst every tvpe of income group, it had been' founci that while sulhcient money was spent on foodstuffs the choice was ot poor quality, ana a much better balanced diet could have been obtained lor the money expended. Dr. J. H. Blakelock said that the purpose of the exhibition was to hem m the building up of a healthy nation. If the people came to see the exhibition, they would realise tire importance of a balanced diet. Miss M. Cocks-Johnston, tutor for the Women’s Institute and the Women’s Division of the Farmers’ Union, spoke of the importance of the home in the health of a nation, and said they were pleased to co-operate with the HealL. Department in this scheme. On behalf of the Plunket Society, Mrs A. B. Herdman, president of the Timaru branch, explained the objects of the Society and of its efforts to help in infant well being. Educate to Live In declaring the exhibition open, the Mayor of Timaru (Mr A. E. S. Hanan) said that we educate people to spend their leisure hours and we should also educate them how to live. "In this country," he said, "we boast of our social security and yet we find that last year there was dispensed 4,750,000 prescriptions, which is the highest in the world in proportion to population. In this country the two outstanding ailments are constipation and indigestion. I am sure that this is largely due to people rushing home at midday, bolting their food and then rushing back to work. No food should be eaten on a tired stomach, and if an extra quarter of an hour was allowed for lunch many of our ailments could be avoided."

Mr Hanan said he considered that physical fitness and bodilv ruggedness developed on the playing fields had served the Allies well in the conquest of Germany. Italy and Japan. So. too, would the victories of peace be won by the powers an,d heroism of the physically' fit anti mentally healthy men and women. "No better war memorial could be established in New Zealand than a chain of physical fitness centres throughout the countryside,” concluded the speakers