LIVING ON 5/10½ Oh A WEEK.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 931, 29 November 1933, Page 8

LIVING ON 5/10½ Oh A WEEK.

Dear Sir—ln last Saturday’s ” Star ” there was a statement that the English B.M.A. diet costing 5s 10Ad a week was to be tested, and that the “ Daily Express ” was putting a member of its staff on this diet for a week. At the end of the week he would be weighed and examined by a doctor. The cabled information appears fairly simple, but the, thought has come to me that more or less disastrous results may be the outcome of a such a test. A week’s test has absolutely no value because our bodies have the power to store certain essentials for health, and we call upon them as required. Therefore, the food the pressman eats for a week may lack certain essentials and yet cause no inconvenience to him. In fact, it is possible that he may be improved in health on a restricted diet for a week because of the reduction of waste matter in the system. The mere fact of a person gaining or losing in weight does not necessarily mean that it is an indication of health. Unfortunately we are too apt to work on routine lines. The food which would maintain the weight of an adult might not be suitable for the growth of the young, for a pregnant mother or for a mother suckling her child. An adult in average health could live on potatoes and skim or buttermilk for a week without any harmful results or loss of weight. An adult could exist very cheaply for a week on ground or boiled whole wheat without losing weight or showing any apparent deficiency, but he could not continue to exist and remain in health on these foods because, although wheat does contain what are known as the mineral salts, it does not contain enough of certain of these to meet the requirements of a young animal or human during growth. Real research workers have found that it lacks calcium and phosphorus, also sodium and chlorine. Where there is a lack of calcium and phosphorus there must be a lack of bone of good quality. Neither can sound teeth result where there is a lack of calcium and phosphorus, yet wheat in various forms is held up as a perfect food. Milk could be consumed for a week without loss of weight, yet milk is not a perfect food, for it lacks iron. A baby, before it is born, has sufficient iron stored in its liver (provided the mother is normal) to carry it over the suckling period. The pressman mayhave to eat margarine to cheapen the diet. If he has been eating butter previously no ill effects will show at the end of a week, because he would have stored in his tissues minute quantities of substances which are found in butterfat, egg yolk and certain other foods, but not in margarine. Further, economy should be considered from the point of view of what the body assimilates, not what is swallowed. Small quantities of lean meat are practically wholly assimilated, or rather, the protein contents of the meat, whereas the protein of dried beans, peas, lentils, etc., may be voided from the body up to 40 per cent. Not more than i per cent of butterfat can be found voided in the wastes of the body, yet 10 pejr cent of mutton fat may be voided. I would undertake to live for a week on food costing under 5s (not including cost of cooking), but the experiment would be of no value, for, being a healthy man, I have the essentials stored in my body to last far more than a week, and I should only require some carbohydrate and protein. No food experiment would be of value unless carried out for at least six months, and then by experts who would analyse body wastes. Certain diets may keep up weight and yet prevent a mother from breast-feeding her baby. Many diets which would keep up the weight would bring about neuritis, cause loss 01 vitality, decrease mental powers, etc —I am, etc., ROBERT J. TERRY.