Food Prejudices Often Lead to Bad Dietary Habits

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 87, Issue 2, 15 August 1953, Page 178

Food Prejudices Often Lead to Bad Dietary Habits

By

EVELYN E. MOORE,

Field Officer in Rural Sociology, Department of Agriculture,

Palmerston North FOOD, recipes, dieting, and allied subjects are probably fairly frequent topics of conversation with most housewives, and information regarding them is thus acquired from many and varied sources. As this somewhat casually acquired information, along with a consideration of family likes and dislikes, is probably the basis on which the average housewife prepares her daily menu, it is not surprising that it has resulted in many New Zealanders developing food habits which could easily be improved.

r pHOUGH bad dietary habits may •1 occasionally be traceable to lack of money to spend on food, often they are caused by the development of prejudices against nutritious foods. Some foods have in some manner or other gained, a bad reputation, usually without, any good reason at all. Consequently in this article it is proposedto discuss some of the common misconceptions regarding foods and dieting. Often foods are condemned as being indigestible, constipating, or fattening or are even claimed to make the blood acid, statements which cannot always be qualified or which may even be completely unjustified. - For example, many foods have gained a reputation for being indigestible, with the possible result that many people avoid such foods entirely, perhaps to the detriment of the nutritive value of their - Such foods as cabbage, cheese, wholemeal , bread, and pork, for example, are regarded with permanent suspicion by some who are often ready with advice to others to avoid them also. Such foods may not be as rapidly or as easily digested as some refined foods, but the normal healthy person is perfectly capable of digesting any or all of them with no detriment to health; in fact as many of the so-called indigestible foods have a high nutritive value, they are much more likely to promote good health, provided, of

course, that they are eaten in reasonable quantities and as part of a wellplanned meal properly cooked and attractively served. Other foods have gained a bad reputation through prejudice. Liver and m iik are examples, and though this attitude is probably slowly changing, they are two of the most highly nutntious foods readily available to all and ca n play an important part in maintaining a high standard of health. There are also other nutritious foods which may be quite unjustly blamed or causing certain ailments, for example, various foods, particularly cheese, may be called constipating, There are man causes of . constipation, but it is wrong to tag any food eaten ¥1 normal quantities in a well-balanced £ let with such a label. One important tact to remember is that m evaluating a diet the diet as a whole and not just one food should be considered. Where the diet leads to the development of constipation it does so frequently because it consists mainly of highly refined foods such as white bread, sweets, tea, jam, cakes, and desserts such as jellies (without fruit. or milk), and steam puddings or pastries of the type which have a high .energy yet comparatively low nutritive value, Vegetables, fruit, wholemeal bread, milk, cheese, and eggs on the other hand often occupy a very minor place in the daily menu. ■ Another frequent misconception is that certain foods are acid and will

therefore make the blood acid, and consequently it is said that they should be rigidly excluded from the diet of anyone with a tendency toward rheumatism or arthritis. Fruits in particular are often condemned. The human blood is slightly alkaline and remains so no matter what foods are eaten. It is only rarely that the blood may become acid with resultant danger to life. In addition . many fruits are valuable sources of vitamin C*, for which in some cases of rheumatism there is an increased need; such fruits should therefore have a prominent place in the meals of sufferers from this complaint. Other dietary fads are frequently found on examination to be equally without foundation, for it is not individual foods, but over-indulgence in one particular food, sweets and cakes, for example, to the detriment of other more nutritious foods which produces an unbalanced diet and which may ultimately have ill effects on health. It is true that there are certain diseases and ailments which call for dieting and the avoidance of certain foods in their treatment, but this does not mean that these foods are better excluded from the dietary of the average healthy person. Indeed when certain foods are excluded a diet often has to be carefully planned by a doctor or dietitian so that it may stilb contain all the nutrients essential for health. Finally the most health-promoting diet is invariably not the one set about with many fads and fancies, but is that selected from a wide variety of foods with due regard to the inclusion of sufficient of each of the main healthproviding classes of foods, milk and milk products, eggs, vegetables, fruit, meat, and whole-grain cereals.

Bulletins for the Housekeeper Nos. Free Bulletins .335 Cooking with Compressed Yeast. 350 Tomato Cookery; " Nos. Chargeable Bulletins 337 The Child and His Family. 6d. 338 Food and Health. Is. 6d. The above bulletins are. available post free from the nearest office of the Department of Agriculture, or from the Head Office of the Department, Box 2298, Wellington. -

* A vitamin is one of..the many substances (nutrients) that the body requires for its complete and healthful functioning and without which health cannot be maintained. Its deficiency in the foods making up the diet leads to disease, in extreme cases to death.