HEALTH BY DIET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 42, 26 January 1943, Page 6

HEALTH BY DIET

ADVOCATE OF REFORM

Thomas Parr married for the second time at 120. He lived to reach 140 and then died, not of old age; but through over-indulgence in rich foods, of which he partook with the reigning monarch of his day. "I have consistently contended that humans die too young. The age of. 120 and 140 should be attained. With the great advance of food science, even as yet in its in-, fancy, a far longer span of life may be hoped for by the coming generation." So says Maureen Morris Alexander, international lecturer at prqsent on a Dominion-wide health crusade. "Why do animals live at least seven times! their maturity while man averages about three .times his? Why are our hospitals, insane asylums, gaols, and other public institutions full to overflowing? Tlio answer is blind ignorance of the simple law of. Nature that, 'we are what we eat'' and that the wrong, the unbalanced diet, when continued day after day and year after year, will wear down the healthiest body and wreck the strongest constitution. "The selection of the necessary foods ,to maintain good health demands a wording knowledge of the chemical elements in our bodies and the chemical value of foods. When we know these needs and the elements that feed the varying functions, we lay the foundation for healthy bodies and alert minds. Disease can be cured through a scientifically balanced diet combined with suitable, treatment, as most diseases arise solely as the result of unbalanced nutrition and inadequate elimination and not from obscure infections as erroneously believed. Bodily resistance to disease and epidemics can and should be built up.

"As the dietitians with t.lie American forces ■work to maintain the health of the men in their care, so my mission is one of educating the civilian population of this country to a .better understanding of how .it may, through scientifically balanced diet, attain and maintain health hitherto unknown."