FOOD AND HEALTH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19827, 29 April 1927, Page 8

FOOD AND HEALTH

ROOM FOR RESEARCH VITAMIN CONTENT. Mr Walter Elliot, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health for Scotland, in a letter to the London Times, points out in what direction research work on food is urgently required. Owing to cold storage the very nature of our daily food has been gradually but fundamentally changed. “Many valuable points have, indeed, been settled about the properties that go to make a foodstuff nutritious or the reverse. 7 ’ he writes, “but a vast unmapped area still lies before the scientific explorer. Tn setting out to make discoveries in this field of dietetics, it is clear that only a long view will lead to sure results. There is, moreover, no doubt that every new advance in knowledge may prove of the most profound importance to those engaged in carrying on the -busienss either of production or of marketing both at Home and oversea. “The Medical Research Council have been active in supporting the fundamental work on this subject, which has made much progress in this country duing the last ten years. Much of the knowledge so gained is ripe for scientific application to the daily problems of the farmer, the trader, and the householder. Here is a field in which to a peculiar degree the best interests of production and commerce arc at one with the most nrgent need of our crowded city populations. All parts of the Empire have a common interest in its exploration; and the Empire Marketing Board, recognising this fact, is recommending considerable grants for research by the scientific institutions into some of the most pressing questions of dietetics. Your readers may in particular be interested to learn that a grant for investigation into the vita min contents of fruit produce, packed. Hnd transported under different conditions has been recommended to th? Board by the Medical Research Council, who are now also framing for the board a proposal for a kindred research into the vitamin content of dairy products. In an allied field the interesting question of the mineral content of foods, also referred to by Dr. Stenhouse Williams, is being extensively studied at the board’s charges. “T may add that the principle of making grants out of the Empire Marketing Board Fund for the conduct in United Kingdom institutions of research into problems such as these is wholeheartedlv supported by the oversea representatives on the board.”