PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 86, 13 April 1940, Page 6

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL WELFARE

(By Dr. Dunstan Brewer, Medical Olticer of Health, Sw indon.) Dear People. In our day, in England, in peacetime, the supply of first-class icod is so abundant throughout the year tnat tnt only difficulty in feeding the peopie to maximum efficiency is oiie cl cash the poorer sections of the community are net able to afford the bes*. possible dietary. But in war-time, wnen restrictions are necessary, even the well-to-do must look after their kitchens to obtain maximum nutrition wh-.tt they are allowed to purchase. The Government assure us that tie i. wai be no general shortage ot food; they have promised us that they will keep prices at low levels, and they will only ration certain foods so tnat ot these nobody can get more tnan his lair share. But the fixed rations aie not, and are not intended t- be, a full diet. So we must make up our rations with foods which we can buy in the open market. What is necessary to bring our rations up to full nutrition requirements? Fats, Miner.; I > and Protein. The body requires three kinds of food-.: fuel foods to be burnt to supply heat and energy: substances such as salts, water, vitamins, etc. which ate simple chemicals used in the . laoorate processes of file, mm booytorming food from which it can build and repair itself. The fuel foods are fats, sugars and starches; the body building food is protein. As protein is ihe oniy substance from which the body can build or repaii ustif, it is ihe most important of all foodstuffs. Unfortunately also it is the most expensive. What is Protein? In the kitchen it is the flesh of animals, birds, fishes, shell fish, etc., and that part of the bodies of vegetables which had been living. Animals consist mainly of living matter with comparatively little non-living structure, such as the mineral matter ol bone*, and stored non-living material, such as fat. Plants consist of very little really living material, most ot their bulk being non-living struduie, suco as wood, and stored material, which is mostly sugar and starch. Consequently animal food is mainly protein, whereas plants contain little protein except in their seeds. There are many forms of protean differing from eac.i other in tne numbers ana proportions of tne simpler constituents. There are faint differences between the protein required by individuals, so what is a perfect protein for Smith is not necessarily a perfect protein for Jones. Nobody knows exactly what protein Smith or Jones requires, but then* bodies know , and know how to make it. if they can obtain the proper ingredients. Though no single protein we can eat can give us ihe requisite protein we require, a combination oi different proteins can do so. Mix Your Proteins. Now* let us translate this somewhat dry science into household stuff. Jones requires Jones protein to form and repair his body. This he must gel from food as near in composition to himself as possible. Actually the nearest things are beef and pork, but neither is identical with Jones. What he requires can be obtained from beef, but only with much waste. Also he can get his protein from milk, but again with much waste. Or from the gluten of bread with much greater waste. But if he feeds on a variety of proteins, he can do so without waste. If you lived entirely on beef, or bread, or milk, you would require inconvenient quantities, much of which would be wasted; but by combining beef and bread and milk you can get along with much smaller quantities. So for economy, proteins must be mixed and varied. But this is not all, fcr those parts of protein which are not used act as poisons and the body has to get :id of them, which with advancing years becomes more and more difficult, and eventually produces disease. So to retain the body in health a mixed protein diet is essential.

PROTEINS IN WAR-TIME

■ The Use of Milk. I Butcher’s meat is our chief protein. ,Of course we can live without i butcher’s meat, but nothing is gained ’ I and much is lost by doing so. In peace- ’ time those who can afford it Go, how- ■ ever, rely too much on butcher s meat. J i Butcher’s meat is not likely to be rationed at present. Although some | of us cannot afford sufficient to supply tall the protein we require, most of us • get more than sufficient to supply all we should get from beef, mutton and ' pork. In peace-time thi* should, and in war-time it must, be made up with other proteins. This can be done by 1 rabbit, poultry, game or fish, but with the exception ol the first all these are ’ expensive. It can also be eked out 1 with vegetable proteins, especially peas, beans and lentils and with ’ cereals if they are not too highly re- . lined. Milk contains one of the best but most expensive proteins, but small ’ quantities of milk can convert a poor ' oroteln diet into a good one. I Peas anil Beans. If you are hard up and good food is i scarce which threatens all of us if t the war is a long one—make the most .! of the pulses—mined, bottled, dried. II green or split peas, haricots, butter 1 1 Deans, dried broad beans ana lentils. > | These are all poor proteins out can be | made good by the addition of small I quantities of milk, cneese, or meat. . I Buttermilk, which is usually thrown away, greatly improves the fooa value ; 'of the pulse proteins. The pulses must . 'be soaked and cooked slowiy. The s ' nest way to cook them is to soak them in water for forty-eight hours, then .' wash them in running water, then cook them intermittently bringing them to the boil then leaving them in the hot water to cool, then boiling - . them up again. The more frequently i • you repeat this process the more cli- • gestible the seeds become. Unless well • cooked the pulses are not digested at -1 all. | Animal and Fish Protein. , Cheese is a first-class protein, good . value for its price. Eggs though even j better, are not good value for money if , I they cost more than eighteen -pence a , dozen (fullsize). Milk cannot be caned .. a cheap food if its price is over sixpence a quart, but the immense value Jof small quantities of milk added to •other foods must not be overlooked. IL ! J you cannot afford much milk use it » s an addition to other foods, ft contains , ' one essential of first-class protein I which is uncommon in any other availcable foodstuff. All the best proteins _ lare of animal origin, all are dear at all times, and in war-time all are scarce, i But by wandering over all the animal . proteins we can get, and mixing them , with vegetable proteins, which are _ cheap and abundant, we can much reA duce the quantity of them we need > and so save oui pockets, our digestions, \ our health and the troubles of acute shortage of essential foods. A Word About Sugar. L There has been local and temporary 5 shortage of sugar, but the elimination of sugar altogether would improve rather than damage human nutrition. f Not that we do not neeu sugar, for s sugar is the food which the body burns _ in largest quantity, but the adult body s can make all the sugar it requires v from starch. The infant, before he s has teeth, must have sugar because he 1 cannot digest starch, but all the sugar f he requires is present in his mother’s t milk. Besides starches nearly all vegetables contain sugar as well, so j our bodies are never short of *ugar so L . long as we get any food at all. —Yours t as ever, e 1 /A r i/Trnrflj d j-.tq i t > (To be continued.) o Published by special permission of 1 Better Health (Central Council for Health Education, London).