STUDY OF DIET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 246, 16 October 1937, Page 2

STUDY OF DIET

HINTS TO ATHLETES. NEW ZEALANDERS' TEETH. Valuable hints to athletes and others anxious to enjoy perfect physical health were given in a talk on Wednesday by M. Francis Fouche, a French-American wrestler, who is paying a brief visit to New Zealand. Fouche studied medicine and chemistry in the United States for a few years, and took special interest in the question of diet and nutrition. Owing to ill-health he had to relinquish this work and drifted into physical culture and on to wrestling. “During the last live years tremendous strides have .been made in the science of nutrition,” said M. Fouche. “One of the definite things which has been established is this fact. What you eat is what you are. Unless you put into the human body the ingredients necessary to sustain that body in health, a deficiency disease will be the result. This is also exemplified in the growth of plants. A plant grown in deficient soil will lack those life-giving elements which it is supposed to contain. “The average man interested in farming sees to it that his livestock is properly cared for and properly fed,” continued M. Fouche. “He has made a study of the requirements of these animals and he sees to it that they receive a balanced diet rich in food value. But that same man shows very little interest in his own bodily welfare by eating foods containing insufficient nutritional value, or foods which have been robbed of their value by improper preparation.” M. Fouche considered that the methods of cooking in New Zealand had a tendency to destroy the vital elememnts in food—the mineral salts and vitamins. The mineral salts were invariably found in or near the surface of the vegetable or fruit. In normal preparation for food consumption this valuable part of the vegetable or fruit was peeled off and I thrown away and the remaining portions, containing the different vitamins were destroyed either by oxidation or over-heating.

Amazement at the inferior quality of New Zealanders’ teetl; was expressed by the visitor. “The New Zealand people have access to milk and all the other products kindred to this industry, but they seem to prefer selling these products to someone else instead of consuming them for their own physical benefit. The output of this country in so far as dairy products are concerned is incompatible with the quality of your teeth,” he said.