A NEGLECTED FOOD

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 264, 6 August 1942, Page 7

A NEGLECTED FOOD

Plea For Greater Use Of Eels For Nutriment In lime of war one must revert to the simpler ami more fundamental requiremeats of human life, must make lull use of what, is most available ami most essential, and cut down on what may be termed the more artificial foodstuffs' obtainable in peacetime, writes A. E. llefford in a recent bulletin, of the New Zealand Women’s hood'Value League. We can no longer buy .tins of salmon, sardines or herring. The chief value of tinned fish for nutrition is in their relatively high content of such essential elements as calcium and iodine, and possibly still mure important, their vitamins A and D. The lack of these hitter fundamental accessory substances in our ■ daily foodstuffs is almost certainly the most; serious nutritional deficiency in New ■ Zealand diet, specially for the proper feeding of young children. The problem is Io find suitable equivalents for those unobtainable foodstuffs. In suggesting the use of cels as a valuable food, the writer quotes a Medical Kesearch Council report which said that. the body oil in eels, almost HO per cent, of their whole substance, contained not only vitamin D, but almost as much vitamin A as- good cod liver oil. There is probably no country in the world where, fresh waler cels are as abundant, as widely distributed, or as well grown as in New Zealand, the article states. In the old days they ranked among the most valuable of the food resources of the Maoris. Fres-h water eels are occasionally to be found in fishmonger’s shops in New Zealand. _ but generally speaking, there is insufficient demand for them to create a regular fishery. With a growing shortage of sea fish, owing to war conditions, something might very well be done about this. Smoked eels are extremely palatable, as the process renders out some of the oil. Canned eels are quite good to eat. tn fact, most oily fish, salmon and mullet for example, are improved in flavour by this treatment. In the writer’s opinion a mayonnaise of canned eel is little, if

any, inferior to a similar dish of canned salmon. Freshly caught eels would be most, generally uvitiluble if wanted by consumers. It is of interest to note that the older an eel the more vitamins it: contains.

The reason there litis been so little demand for them is not because they have been tried and found wanting, but . because so many have been prejudiced against trying litem, presumably on account of their snaky shape and slipperiness.

A striking coat is of wide shmlow stripes—brown to beige, with multicoloured Hecks. It lias a full buck gathered at. yoke and waist, a long tie bolt and a smnrtly-gored skirt. Wilson’s, 52 'Willis Street.—Advt.