PREVENTION OF GOITRE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 250, 21 October 1937, Page 2

PREVENTION OF GOITRE

NEED FOR ADJUSTMENT OF DIET. j That prevention of goitre is a cookery problem was the opinion expressed by Miss Violet Macmillan at a meeting held recently in Christchurch. Many members of women’s organisations in Wanganui will remember the series of educational talks and demonstrations given a year or two ago by Miss Macmillan in country places in and surrounding this district. People wore greatly concerned about infantile paralysis, said Miss Macmillan, but goitre, which is with us always, does not alarm us to the same extent. We should be even more alarmed by goitre than by infantile paralysis. The latter, so far, had defied all the attempts of doctors to find a treatment which promises protection, but goitre could be prevented in the simplest way, by merely making small adjustments to the diet. Dr. C. E. Hercus, Dean of the Medical Faculty in the University of Otago, had said in a recent lecture that in New Zealand more than 11,000 Europeans had been admitted to public hospitals alone, as a result of goitre, between 1914 and 1935. If the records from private hospitals were available over the same period it was estimated that this total would be doubled. During the same period 4053 persons were admitted to public hospitals for infantile paralysis. He had concluded his lecture by saying that “while the problem of how to prevent goitre could be regarded as solved, the application of the knowledge awaits an informed public. Miss Macmillan said it had been proved that wherever people took an adequate quantity of iodine with their food there was no goitre, and wherever the iodine content of the food was less than adequate, as it was throughout New Zealand, goitre occurred. The diet of everyone in New Zealand, therefore, required a daily supplementation of 100 micrograms of iodine. What was the community going to do about it? asked the speaker. If it would only go into action, as it did in the infantile paralysis epidemic, it could stamp out goitre. It might agitate to have iodised salt imported and licensed for Isale in New Zealand, since statistics ’showed that at present only 30 per cent, of the salt used was iodised. It might take steps to ensure that all iodised salt was adequately iodised, since it had been shown that the present salt contained too little iodine to give protection. If the iodised salt were adequately iodised and everyone used it exclusively, the extra 100 micrograms would be automatically added; but this happy state of affairs did not exist, so the responsibility for providing the extra iodine rested with the housewife’s choice of the foods served to her family. For the protection of those under her care the housewife needed not merely to use the iodised salt as at present sold, but also daily to supply her family with foods rich in iodine. Seaweeds were the richest sources of iodine, and next to them the sea-weed-eating fish butterfish (or green-bone) and blue cod—then sea fish of every kind, especially oysters and salmon. The white-muscled carnivorous fish, such as groper for instance, were comparatively low in iodine. Cod liver oil was very high |in iodine content. If in every home, in addition to iodised salt, one or other of these foods were used every day, the extra 100 micrograms would be given.

Inland, where goitres are most prevalent, a regular supply of fresh fish was most difficult to procure, though tinned fish was a good substitute. To relieve the situation and to ensure that all could have a regular supply of iodine-rich food cheaply, Dr. Hercus had suggested that firms should prepare seaweed foods. One firm had •put on the market several foods which contain enough seaweed to enable them to serve as a substitute for fish as a source of iodine.