OUR BABIES

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14658, 23 May 1921, Page 2

OUR BABIES

(By Hygeia.) HEALTH CAMPAIGN. Last week we described the appearance of the platform at the Town Hall, 'Wellington, on the occasion of the opening lecture of a Health Campaign by the Director of Child Welfare. On * the nghl hand side were vegetables and their products, built up tier on tier from growing plants through grains, meals, refined Hour, bread etc., biscuits, cakes and sweets; while the left hand side looked like a butcher s shop, and contained milk, cheese, eggs, sides W beef, mutton, and pork, tinned meals, and extracts. The opening address, by the Hon C. J. Parr, Minister of Health, was given last week. We shall give an account of Dr King’s lecture adapted from the newspaper reports:— 1 DH KING'S LECTURE. Dr King, at the outset of his lecture, staled that the great thing to be dispelled was-ignorance as to the public health of the comunity. Referring particularly to women, he said that he had always been impressed with the great desire on their part to obtain knowledge with regard to tin* primary esenlials of health and life generally. Most early death —indeed, the great mass of disease which physicians dealt with —was preventable. Death was noble, but disease was always contemptible. Personally he was sick of disease. Even the ancient Greeks recognised that in order to have great minds and splendid personalities the basic requirement was a healthy body. The strong, healthy, happy person was, on the average. Hie successful person in life—certainly the true patriot. Foods —and Household Economy Dr King proceeded to discuss the food values of milk, and never missed au opportunity to stressing the superiority of human milk for the baby. In cow’s milk Nature had provided for Uie growth of a calf and not the growth of a baby. That was the reason for the advocacy humanised milk —cow’s milk made to conform with the requirements, of the child. We, as a race, appraised the nutritive 1 value to milk too Highly. He did not desire to deprecae the judicious use of milk, but the child should have to “work for its living and use the organs which God Almighty had given it.” Too much pap food was given to children. The lecturer showed the relative values of other foods, such as-pota-toes, wheat, cheese, bread, etc. Everybody should have a rational conception of the component parts of food even If on the ground of household economy alone. For instance, a penny spent on the ’’“cereal side of the stage” would go about as far as Is or 2s on the other-7-“the meat side.” , People in these dear times could actually live on boiled wheat at a cost Of 2d per day. They could also Jive for quite a long time on eggs, but eggs woUld cost lOd per day at the present price of 3s 6d per dozen. There they had the two extremes; such extremes emphasised the value of knowledge of foods. He had shown that a man could live on 2d a clay if he took nothing but wheat. If he set himself to live bn milk he would require seven or eight pints per day, which would cost 2s 6d. He thought it would be a very good thing for his Department to run a column in the newspapers of the Dominion, showing week by week, or month by month, how much a shilling would buy of different foods, and how much one would require to eat of each In order to live properly. Simplicity In Foods. Dr King, in condemning the excessive use of devitalising foods and advocating the greater use of the fundamental unadulterated foods—substandes in their natural condition—said that human beings should consume green vetetables or fruit every day. The apple *sas the most practical of all fruits, and children from the age of 18 months derived great benefit from its daily consumption. Incidentally it was better to eat apples raw than cooked. Spinach, he said, was the best and safest of all vegetables for both children and adults. Tinned meats, dried milk, and condensed milk were not of the same value as the fresh article, because in their preparation they had beep overheated and thus damaged. They were used, not, because they were cheaper, but because they were convenient. The people needed more food in the simple form, and not so much of that which had been overrefined. He did not suggest that the people should suddenly change ttieir diet, but it would be very beneficial to substitute whole meal bread for bread made with refined flour. The whole meal bread could be introduced gradually, and it might in time, come to replace the more refined variety. Use of Humanised Milk. Dr. King said that a rather strong attack had been made recently upon the Plunket Society, it having been suggested that the process advocated for the preparation of humanised mt; was ’ioo complex for tiie poor people to carry out. All he could say in reply was that the poor people from one end of New Zealand to the other had been carrying out —and continued to carry . out—the process, the use of which was «n the increase. In spite of the diminishing use of artificial feeding ■—for natural feeding was infinitely preferable—the consumption of sugar of milk in the feeding of babies had risen from less than one ton per year to 70 to 80 tons. This clearly showed that the people were ready to take the “trouble" complained of in the pre-paration-of humanised milk. His own experience had been that one had only to convince a woman that something was better for her child, and she was prepared to go to any trouble. (Applause.) ■ Summary. The gist of Dr. King’s remarks may be summarised as follows: (1) The modern tendency is to take too much animal fond. (2) For equal food-values the staple enima! foods must always cost us from 5 to 20 times the price of vegetable foods,, because no animal returns us more than a small fraction of the food value of what he eats —he uses up his food for himself, burns it for warmth and activity. (3) On the vegetable side, health and vigour demand that much more use should ’'e given more raw fruits and ra' - . vegetables—lettuce, garden cross, spring onions, radishes, etc. (easily grown in a few square feet of soil).