NEW ZEALANDERS HAVE WORST TEETH DECAY IN WORLD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 21, 5 August 1949, Page 4

NEW ZEALANDERS HAVE WORST TEETH DECAY IN WORLD

Because of their poor eating habits New Zealanders have the highest incidence Of dental decay in the world, according to one of + he dental authorities in this country, Dr. J. P. Walsh, who recently returned from America where he had noted the latest developments in dental schools and laboratories and the regular diet of the American people. Americans are big eaters —but they eat only at meal times, at breakfast, lunch, and ' dinner. They do not have the New Zealand morning and afternoon teas, with the carbohydrate foods, the sandwiches and cakes which accompany them. No Heavy Desserts Although the weather was cold in America in February and March, yet there were no heavy desserts in the menus, Dr Walsh said. There were no steamed or sticky puddings offered, but extensive choices of fruit, bottled, frozen or fresh There were very few cakes on sale, and only rarely was he offered cake in private homes. Briefly he considered that there was much less bread, cake and flour puddings used in the American diet than in ours, and there were less opportunities during the day of eating carbohydrates. “Americans eat a great many salads,” said Dr Walsh. “They are served at the same time as the meat course, even in winter, and consist of chopped cabbage, celery, beetroot, carrot, apple, slices of fruit, tomatoes, or any combination of these ingredients. A salad dressing based on oil is served with them. “"Water is served with meals in America. Because of the central heating and the warm atmosphere in the buildings, a great deal of water is drunk between meals as well as with them, so that Americans are constantaly rinsing their mouths.”

Slimmer Women Dr Walsh considered that m New Zealand some of the American diet habits'-might well be incorporated in eating customs with advantage to teeth and perhaps also to figures. Whether it was because of their diet, or of their warmer houses, where the same need was not felt to eat for warmth, or because' of a greater attendance at. beauty parlours, Dr Walsh was not prepared to say, but he did think that American women remained slimmer than women do here.

He was, however, prepared to advise against the morning and afternoon tea habit. If children felt hungry between meals they should be given fruit and a glass of milk, he said, and the busy housewife who had not fortified herself by eating a good breakfast would do ■'veil to forgo her usual sandwich or biscuit and eat some cheese or fruit with her mid-morning cup of tea or glass of milk.