VALUE OF PORRIDGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12069, 26 July 1917, Page 3

VALUE OF PORRIDGE.

I UXJUYALLED AS A FOOD. Meat stands beyond competition as a food, not so much because of its nutritive, value us because it is agreeable to the palate (says a writer in the •' I>aily , Chronicle''). lint in war time the mere savourinoss of our food must bo disregarded, and their real values alone taken into consideration. Mow may ■we hr> most cheaply and conveniently sustained as efficient units in the service of our country:-' Jf there ha not meat enough to feed the whok. population, military and civilian, either all must deny themselves meat part of the time or som c > m:tst deny themselves meat the whole of the time. It is agreed that either or both of these! courses must bo .adopted, and thus it becomes a ma iter of importance to ascertain definitcjly what other av.'iiU able food will furnish :is with the sustenance which the body requires.

Scotsmen will remember the line in which Burns speaks of the very ground, trembling beneath the tread of the haggis-fed ploughmen, and certainly there were many magnificent f|>oeiiHcns of tho human race in rural Scotland in the. old days, when pcrridgo morning and evening and thick vegetable broth in the middle of tlic day constituted the meals of the people. Oarlylr- used to carry from his DumJ'ries-!-him home--on foot---every half year enough oatmeal to maintain him until his next half-yearly visit. Oatmnal is still, as it was then, one of the cheapest and most valuable of foodstuffs. Professor • Thonvv m, in Ins " Food Values," says : " Net lung could excel oatmeal as a food. It is the most nourishing; of all foods, and the. change; of diet which its neglect indicates is ono of the mo,sb deplorable facts in the history of the country for centuries. No effort- should ho spared to reinstate} it in general use. Tho health and vigour and working capacity of the nar tion as a whole.would bo immeasurably increased by it." Glasgow is one of the great towns in Scotland in which, the edd porridge ritual, of childhood continues to be strictly observed, and anyone who compares the middle-class school children of Glasgow with thosei of any other largo city will agree that Professor Thompson is well within tho bounds of accuracy. Let porridge, then, be the first and most indispensable aaiinU ia. tho now dietary.