INTEREST IN EATING

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20362, 20 July 1934, Page 8

INTEREST IN EATING

Christchurch is Not Full of Food Faddists.

Is Christchurch full of food faddists? 1 hat was the question put this morning to a number of people who have some kncwleoge of the city’s eating habits, and invariably the answer was that Christchurch, frequentlv described , . , the “ city of cranks/’ was in the matter of food, at least, perfectly normal. The inquiries originated from the statement of an Auckland teacher that there were scores of dietetic faddists in that city, which also had a big crop of younger ones coming on. The manageress of a large* Christchurch restaurant sniffed when ap-: proached. \\ hatever Auckland people might be like she had found that here the citizens whose eating she supervised were just normal persons. Some of them preferred brown bread to white and others were vegetarians, but she did not see that that made up a city of food faddists. She had not noticed in C hristchurch the things about which the Auckland teacher complained. The proprietor of another restaurant was equally emphatic on the normality of Christchurch eating. She agreed that many people took an interest in their food and she was glad of it. The thought of customers shovelling her dishes away like so much rubbish did not appeal to her. A doctor considered that Christchurch, no matter what were its claims to notoriety in other directions, could not be characterised as a city of food faddists. Most people he had encountered were thoroughly normal in the matter of food and “ ate to live ” rather than “ lived to eat.” lie added that Auckland was welcome to the doubtful distinction of being faddy. Children and Milk. The Auckland teacher’s remarks were in reply to a statement made in another quarter that school children were not too fond of milk. Some children, he said, were told by their parents that they should not drink their cocoa or milk till a certain hour, as they believed' in dry feeding and no liquid taken till two full hours after their breakfast. Then other faddy parents insisted that their children should not be given drinks till the liquid had been cooled to a little over blood heat, as too hot drinks spoilt the coating of stomach. Other notes from mothers said that cocoa did not agree with their offspring, but they Would like them to get hot coffee with plenty of milk in it. Others wanted milk only, and it must not be boiled, as that spoilt its goodness. Most children liked plenty of sugar, but instructions also came from fussy mothers about the amount to put in. Some mothers thought milk was too strong for their children’s digestion, and that boiling water should be poured into it to reduce its strength. The limit was reached when one mother, who said she was used to the up-to-date methods of the Americans, made a request that the milk be served up to the children in the more attractive form of ice-cream. Comment was also forthcoming from Mr A. R. Blank, headmaster of the Fendalton School, where the children are daily given a ration of milk. He said that there were bound to be a few children who could not take milk, as it had been found that it did not agree with them. lie considered that it was a good thing if parents took an interest in the diet of their children, and he certainly did not think such an interest could be called faddy. He added that New Zealanders were not nearly as particular as Americans in respect of food Americans, he had found, considered that New Zealanders ate far too much. It was a regrettable fact that in many instances parents were not particular enough, with the result that children suffered from bad teeth. He felt that people were becoming more interested in what their children ate, which was a splendid thing, but he would not say that there were a lot of faddists in Christchurch—it was perhaps the opposite.