DIET AND NUTRITION

Evening Star, Issue 22449, 21 September 1936, Page 10

DIET AND NUTRITION

'(Supplied by, the Health Department.) In connection with food and nutrition three main principles have to be borne in mind—first, that man is made up of what be eats; second, that what man eats is of great importance at all periods of life, but especially in childhood, when the body is being built; like a badly-built house, a badly-built body is in constant need of repair, last, , that defects in the construction of the body, such as rickets, dental caries, etc., are due to an insufficiency in the diet of certain food essentials (states Major-general Sir R. M Camson, C.1.E., M.D., m ‘ Better Health ). This eminent authority on deficiency diseases goes on to state: Defects' of this kind are readily acquired in childhood, and are the cause of much ill-health, both in early and in later life. Proof of this is to be found in the fact that it is possible, by correct feeding, to exclude disease m animals, and also, by faulty feeding, to produce many of the diseases from which man most commonly suffers. EXPERIMENTS WITH RATS. Albino rats are frequently used for such experiments. They are convenient to handle, easy to keep clean, and their metabolism —i.e., the round or chemical' processes on which nutrition depends, closely resembles that of man. Moreover, one year of a rat’s existence is equivalent to about 25 years in the life of man. Thus by observing rats for only » few years, one can observe in them all the changes, from infancy to old age, brought about by faulty food and the faulty nutrition resulting , from it. . ... , . For the experiments which are about to he discussed, 1,000 stock rats were kept in large, roomy cages, filled with straw, and were given plenty of light and air, and exposed daily to the suns rays. They were fed on a diet exactly corresponding to that of certain races of Northern India, whose physique is among the best to be found in man. Thus they were given a well-balanced diet of natural foods—cakes made of wholemeal flour and lightly smeared •with butter, sprouted legumes, green leaf and root vegetables, such as carrots, unboiled milk and water, with a small ration of fresh meat and bone once a week. In the course of four years there were no deaths from natural causes, no disease, no maternal mortality, and no infantile mortality among the rats. Thus, by perfect feeding and perfect sanitation, disease was excluded. .. Other groups of rats were kept m precisely similar the only difference being in their diet. These rats were given diets such as are commonly adopted by the average human being of the lower and middle classes. The food was good and pure, but was unbalanced, containing an excess of certain substances, such as starch, or a deficiency of others, such as vitamins or mineral salts. The mortality rate among these rats was high, and many kinds of disease appeared amongst them; lung disease, inflammation of the eye, nose, and ear, _ adenoids, disease of the stomach - and intestines, stone in the bladder, skin disease, anaemia, dropsy, goitre, neuritis, heart disease. Premature birth and _ stillbirths ■were not uncommon,. The ill-fed rats were nervous, irritable, and the strong tended to prey upon the weak. The well-fed rats were good-tempered and placid. The contrast between these two results proves conclusively that a onesided diet, poor in animal fats, protein, vitamins, and mineral elements —poor, in short, in milk and fresh vegetable foods—induced a number of human diseases in a large proportion of rats. Similar experiments carried out on monkeys and guinea pigs have given similar results, and one can safely assume that faulty and ill-balanced, food gives rise to similar effects in man. CORRECT DIET. How is it possible to prove that disease in man can be prevented by correct diet? What would be the result if rachitic, bronchitic, weakly slum children were placed in the perfect conditions of life as the “ stock ” rats? The answer has been provided by Miss Margaret M’Millan in her nursery schools at Deptford. The minor ailments of slum children attending her school disappeared, and they were almost all cured of the diseases, from which they were suffering on admission. The diet used by Margaret M’Millan possesses the same good qualities as that given to the well-fed rats and that used by races of mankind whose physique and health are good. (In addition to being well fed the children were given suitable mental occupation.) The essential ingredients of such diet' are : 1. Good whole cereal grain of some kind (wheat, unpolished vice, etc., cr a good wholemeal bread), 3. Whole milk and its products, butter, cheese, curds, buttermilk.. 3. Green vegetables in abu idance and root vegetables such as potatoes and caVrots. 4. Fresh fruit. 5. Eggs. 6. Occasional fish or meat, if desired. Flesh food is not necessary, provided a sufficiency of milk and its products is included in the diet. These items should constitute the diet of the pregnant woman and be the main ingredients of the diet of growing children. - BREAD, ETC. Bread, whether white or wholemeal, is not in itself a complete food, it must be supplemented with other things. White bread consists mainly of starch, and is poor in proteins, mineral elements, and vitamins. These deficiencies must be made good by other articles of diet, such as milk, butter, vegetables, and fruit, which are known as the “ protective foods.” Wholewheat bread is preferable _to white bread, because it is not deprived of the vitamins (especially vitamin B), mineral elements, and other nutrients that the whole wheat grain contains and which are largely lost in the process of making refined white flour. The more white bread, white flour, and sugar the diet contains the less is its content of health-promoting vitamins, minerals, and good proteins. The two great purposes of diet are to keep the mechanism of the body in good running order and to provide fuel to enable this mechanism to do the work it has to do. Green vegetables and fruit are of great importance to the growing child. They contain vitamins and mineral salts, both of which are so essential in maintaining the mechanism of the body in good running order. Milk is the nearest to perfection of all foods, but it lacks iron. One pint of milk every day is an essential part of a child’s diet. The proteins contained in milk are of high quality, well suited to the needs of the growing child. Pasteurisation and boiling of milk cause loss of lime. This can easily be made good by including a sufficiency of fresh vegetable foods in the diet. An important principle to remember is that food iss the foundation of health.

This foundation should be well and truly laid in childhood. Much can be done towards this by the proper feeding of mothers during pregnancy and lactation. It should never be forgotten that the perfection of the body depends upon the perfection of the food.