WHITE BREAD AND DISEASE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17245, 11 January 1924, Page 6

WHITE BREAD AND DISEASE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir. —1 suppose it is only natural for millers to defend thteir white flour, brewers to defend their alcoholic beverages, butchers to defend their dead animals, and so on; but I cannot let your terribly misleading and harmspreading article on the defence of white flour pass without a word in defence of our collective health. This white flour evil has crept upon, us in such an insidious manner that the diseases it has brought in its trail are only recently being traced to their true cause. No authority of note will deny that our teeth decay, for instance, which is the forerunner of so many other serious diseases is directly attri butable to our increasing use of more and more refined foods. Wo are so used to this scourge that we do not regard it in its true light In reality it is a loathsome and abominable disease, and parents whose chil dren’s teeth are lotting out of their heads should be thoroughly ashamed of their ignorance in these matters. It is caused by the consumption of white l flour aiicV sugar. These so-called foods ! have a serious deficiency of calcium or 1 lime because of modern refining proi Vesses, and the need for lime in the I body is so urgent that it. actually tears | down Its own structure to get- it. The I decay germs then get a hold in the I weakened structure, . T.B. patients have a deficiency of ! lime in their blood, and consumption is ; being more and more recognised ns I caused by wrong methods of diet and j living. 1 White it is not possible so far to actually trace cancer to the consumption 1 of white flour atone, the best authori- | ties, such as Sir Arbuthnot Bane, Dr j Forbes Ross, Dr Robert Bell and others i are agreed that it is caused by wrong 1 diet, and is a self inflicted disease, all j wrong foods having a contributory 1 effect. Cancer cells cannot get a foofe--1 hold except- in a poisoned body v ami j when we consider that there are 50,000 ' deaths a year from this fearful disease in England and Wales, and it is rapidly increasing, it is obvious- that; there is something seriously wrong with <pur ! methods of diet. Cancers or rather the ; toxins that promote the. growth,, cnii gin ate in the intei Tines, and Sir A,r-buthn-ct Bane in a very recent article in the British Medical Association Journal makes the very true statement- that almost every one of us- is constipated, although we fail to recognise this fact. l The average wan or woman whose

bowels are moved regularly once a dav may be choked up with decayed mat- ! ter and, thus, poisons. White bread j and other white flour products are one i of tlie greatest cause* of constipation j and. thus, putrefaction ; so in this way it can be traced as being a very serious ! factor in the causation of cancer and a host of other pathological conditions, i such as anaemia, arterio-schlerosis, rheu- i matism, goitre, nervous troubles, and j in fact almost every disease that hu- ! man flesh is heir to. The ignorance on these matters even I amongst tlie medical profession is ap palling, and as Dr Robert Bell says in “ Health at its Best versus Cancer.” it is an absolute rarity for anyone to die of old age. We slowly but surely poison ourselves. He points out that-! animals live on an average to about : I eight times their maturity age. which \ would bring our average life to about I a hundred and sixty. The average uninformed person on matters of diet uses j hia or her taste as their only guide j in the selection of foods, and this iB j a most unreliable guide, as Professor M’Callum ably demonstrates.—l am, etc.„ ! JAMES K. DEVEREUX. 233, Durham Street, Christchurch.