HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 45, 2 February 1945, Page 3

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

POTATOES ARE NOT FATTENING (By the Department of Health). The old Irish custom of handing a parting guest a hot baked-in-the-ijaeket potato had a lot of sense, to it. Just underneath the skin lie those important minerals and vitamins that .make the potato so valuable as food. That is why potatoes baked in their jackets today are better for von and incidental]} 7 much ■ i . -> >, more tasty. Curious as it may seem j there are some folk who are scared of the potato. They think it will do unkind things to their figures.. Potatoes are not fattening, and those who deprive themselves of them for that reason arc just wasting their time ? and foregoing unnecessarily an im- j portant article of diet. I British people im spite of rationing ? have enough food to maintain good lieal tli. For the shortage of many foods such as meat butter and they have compensated in some measure by eating more potatoes. Official propaganda urging the eating of more potatoes has been widespread. Lord Woolton ? Minister of Food, led the campaign to eat more potatoes. He blamed the slimming craze of a few ago for the drop in the consumption of potatocs? bccause people thought they were fattening. This is what he said: "Of course they were when you had as much butter sugar and sweets as you wanted. Now L've helped you—l've come to the rescue of the feminine figure. You can't get fat on, your diet now. Don't worry about getting fat don't worry about your figure. The Government is looking after that for you!" New Zealanders can well take a lesson from that. We should eat less meat, butter, sugar and sweets —and eat more potatoes instead. Potatoes are not fattening—they contain almost no fat —and they are cheap to bin-.