“TAKE NO FOOD BETWEEN MEALS.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18469, 22 May 1928, Page 3

“TAKE NO FOOD BETWEEN MEALS.”

MODERATION IN DIET TENDS TO LONGEVITY. GOOD HEALTH CAN BE SECURED BY -CARE. .(Contributed by the Department of (Health.) Sir George Newman, Chief Medical Officer to the Board of Education and to the Ministry of Health, England and Wales, in his lecture given under the auspices of the British Medical Association in commemoration of its founder, Sir Charles Hastings, discusses as follows, important aspects of preventive medicine. The fundamental problem of health, he says, is the wise and scientific nurture of the body. Now can \ve say in plain and categorical terms in what such nurture- consists? Here is yOur body with its nature, its heredity, its variation, its inborn instincts, impulses, and organic functions, the instrument of emotion, intellect and will—a living organism of long biological ancestry, the whole man—can we define the best nurture for it? I think we can, but only in general terms. Perhaps indeed one term, nutrition, is the answer. It is when we attempt to be prescriptive and dogmatic in detail that we go astray, for each human body is, as Galen pointed out, individual in its “ preparation ” for health or disea.se. Yet some general rules of nurture mankind has learned through thousands of years of experience. The trouble is that he will not'practise them. The elements of nutrition for the body are six in number: Food, fresh air and sunlight, exercise of the body, warmth, cleanliness and rest. If those necessities be provided, we may have some “ approximation,” as Emerson called it, to full physical life; but if they are withheld or inadequate we shall assuredly have insufficiency, poor physique, disease,

and even premature death. Though this knowledge is as old as the history of the human family, it is still only partially applied to the building of men or the rearing of a race. For though, the general proposition is simple, its application is complex and variable. What is the ideal form of nutrition in any given climate or for any given age of life, and how can we follow it? How can we live in the open air if we also live in houses and in cities? By what means can we secure sufficient exercise, and of what nature should it be ? And how can we escape the condemnation by Galen of the over-specialisation of Greek physical culture? The answer to these questions comes only by education and experience. For, given a “living wage,” and given a sufficient yield of the proper food necessary to man’s health — and, speaking generally, these desiderata are available in this country—there can be but one answer: People do not live the healthy life because they lack knowledge. As the Duke of Devonshire said in 1904, “ the people perish for lack of knowledge.” It is ultimately a matter of the instinct, education, and experience of the individual. Sensible Dietary. Let us consider for a moment the most important of these six, ’food. The products of digestion enter the blood from the alimentary canal, and thus all parts of the body are nourished. It is of vital importance to eat the food which will build, repair, warm and energise the body. Ignorance of a sensible dietary is the direct cause of much preventable disease, and more people suffer from eating too much than too little. It is common knowledge that man’s diet should be mixed and varied; should be sound in quality and suffi-

cient in quantity; consumjed at regular intervals; and appetising and digestible. It should contain some proteins, such as occur in meat, fish, milk, bread, cheese, eggs, peas, beans, lentils; some fats, as in cream, butter, suet, lard, dripping, olive oil, etc.; some carbohydrate, as in sugar, bread, potatoes, rice, and starchy foods. The body also needs mineral salts (calcium, iodine, magnesius, sodium, and potassium), contain ;d in milk, cheese, eggs, green vegetabl ;s, and fruit, the last two furnishing a c< nsidcrable bulk uf fibrous material val i

able in stimulating' ailmentarv movement. Lastly, there are certain substances- essential for growth and nutrition known as vitamins, present in extremely minute quantity in various foods. Several principal kinds of vitamins are recognised, and are called vitamins A. B, C, D, etc. Vitamin A, found especially in milk, butter, cheese, yolk of eggs, and green vegetables, is necessary for growth and the maintenance of body resistance against infective disease. Vitamin B, found mainly in cereals, pulses, and yeast, is also necessary for growth and for the maintenance of nervous stability. Vitamin C, found in various fruits and leaves, but especially in lettuce, cabbage, and oranges, is effective in the prevention of scurvy. Vitamin D occurs richly in cod-liver oil, oily fishes (such as herrings), and egg-yolk; it is concerned in the proper development of bone and teeth, and its absence may lead to rickets. Goitre may follow insufficiency of intake of iodine as stunted growth may result from poorness of proteins or excessive or unbalanced cereals (which should always be associated with milk, eggs, and green’vegetables). It should be remembered that the vitamins exercise joint and interdependent action and may be destroyed by overcooking. A plentiful supply of sunlight to the skin will make up for certain deficiencies. In addition to these various requirements of living protoplasm we must add water. The transmission of all nutritive substances to parts of the body is done by “water transport.” So. too, excretion of waste.

Complete Nutrition. But merely to devise ideal dietaries is not enough. If a chemically ideal and model food be prepared in the laboratory with the proper amounts of each essential constituent, and then it be sterilised, dried, or otherwise “preserved.” it will be deprived of some or all of its vital and natural principles. Hence, dried foodstuffs, preserved vegetables, proprietary foods, over-cooked foods, and tinned meats, though possessing some practical advantages, are reduced in value as foods. Fixed foods become auxiliary only, for they are deprived in some measure of their vital elements of appetite, of taste and disposition, and of variety of composition. "Moreover, nutrition does not consist only of pabulum, the food. There* must be healthy activity of those physiological processes which have to do with mastication and preparation, with absorption and assimilation, metabolism and excretion. Healthy and com plete nutrition is infinitely more comprehensive than mere feeding, mere filling of the stomach. It connotes a healthy body inwall respects, a brain and nervous system in tone, a healthv muscular and digestive system, circulation of blood and lymph. , Now, when we turn to the dietetic conditions of the great mass of the workers we find a tale of ham and beef, of beer and bread, of tea and pickles, of tinned meat and proprietary foods’, or a weary round of bacon and herring and cheese—and of an unstable digestive system and an impaired physique. But variety, mixture, appetising cookery, freshly-prepared or natural food the healthy conditions of sound digestion—these are the essential things so often ignored. This is partly due to our medical neglect of rational physiological feeding, which is worth more than all the drugs in the market; partly to the vicious custom of the sedentary worker to combine an excessive consumption of unsuitable food with an entire lack of daily exercise; partly to ignorance and bad habit.

Finally, there are some food rules which it is expedient to adopt: (a) Strict and persistent moderation in diet tends to longevity, and excess tends to early mortality; (b) Nature has provided that food should be masticated, should reach the stomach slowly, and not too frequently; (c) the number of meals taken daily is a matter of individual practice and custom, but for persons over forty years of age they are usually too frequent; (d) no food should be taken between such regular meals, as eating promiscuously gives the body no rest; (e) there should be no active exercise immediately after a meal. Further extracts from this letter will appear later.