BALANCING THE NATIONAL DIET IS IMPORTANT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 73, 26 July 1948, Page 7

BALANCING THE NATIONAL DIET IS IMPORTANT

- (By the Department of Health) How can we get New Zealand to change from its present excess carbohydrate and meat diet to the balanced diet that maintains health? It is a matter of long-term national importance. Dental decay is a national failing. The bad foundation that allows decay is laid before birth and in nursing days. Proper development of a tooth follows adequate feeding of the mother from the second month of pregnancy and while she is rursing baby. Adequate hardening—calcification from lime in the food —of that developing tooth follows in due course, if mother keeps on the proper diet and continues the balanced diet principles for toddler feeding. A tooth properly developed and hardened withstands decay well—the facts to date show that mothers who take the bother to find out the dietary needs of the before and after birth periods and consistently follow the recommended diet, do have babies with rounded jaws who cut amply spaced teeth, which, with proper care and diet in toddler years, last well. It is surely not too optimistic to hope’ that our mothers will give this nutritional approach to health a trial. It works out for things other than just teeth. Every mother wants a nice baby. When every mother realises that her eating has a big say in baby’s lifetime health foundation, most mothers will study the dietary needs, and we’ll have better babies. The gradual but early introduction of a wide variety of vegetables, fruits and other nourishing foodstuffs is the key to toddler feeding. The protective foods—milk and dairy products, fruit and vegetables,' whole grain cereals—must be the family diet, and the children cannot be expected to eat what is good for them unless the adults set the example.