RECOMMENDED FOODS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 170, 5 August 1937, Page 6

RECOMMENDED FOODS

Our Own CorteBponder.fc.)

Grocers and Customers on a Diet GROWJNG DEMAND

{From

, AUCKLAND, Last Night. meit you talk about "diet" tliese «3ays nobody is likely to conneet you with the German Parliament. Most likelv, too, they will not say "Greenlea'fer," "Faddist" or "Crank." In- ■ gtead they will probably listen with eagerness and at your lirst stop i'or breath will get in with. their own partieular experience. Some say "for slimness," some "for general health," but they are not likely to stop there. Butchers, bakers and even barbers talk it, and there is a iuggestion that it is likely to replaee "my operation" as a subject of conyersafcion. The faet is that nearly everybody :s interested, if not in practice at least to fhft point of saying " there 's something in it," and it has had quite a considerable effect on the grocer and greeugrocer. Managers of several eity stores said this morning that during the past six inonths there has been a steadily growing demand for special diet foods, and they are now stocking in quite large quantities certain recommended foods for whieh there had not previously been say inquiry, The Shops Note It, The girl behind the biscuit counter tipressed a ready interest. There were hundreds of inquiries eaeh week for special non-fattening biscuits, she said, and saies for these had mounted rapidly during the past six months. Sugarless foods were also in demand. The manager of the big provision stoxe added to the list. He pointed out that there had been a certain demand for diet foods during the last eight years, but it had grown during recent months. Dried fruits were in partietilar demand, with a constant call for dates, raisins and for nuts. Many people, too, were • asking for specially treated treacle, for raw sugar, for brown riee and for speeial foods recommended by doctors and dieticians as being more saitable than the highly xefined foods. Bestaurant keepers had somewhat the same story to tell,, though it as appaxent that as ydt the demand for special diet foods at luneheon rooms has not penetrated as far as it has in the horne. There was more inquiry for salads, and for wholemeal 'bread, but it had not gone far beyond that. point yefc. On Ihe whole the restaurantluneher is apparently satisfied with "the present "sqnare nteal" menu, and apaTt from the qnestion of bread and of drinking with meals does not .make his wishes known, if he has any special ones. General Trend. What is apparent is that there is a general consideration of the question of diet, without any rigid aeceptanee . of & particular diet. Clerks and.other men and women in sedentary occupations are listening lo the. oft-repeated advice not to eat too much meat and etarchy foods, and it is having its ' .effect. Greengrocers' reported that the demand for green vegetables and for fresh fruit was steadily increasing, but in their case it was more difficult to assign the cause to any particular reason. The "Eat More Fruit" campaign had been in progress for a number of years, and there was no doubt that it was. having effect, but there was also the aspect that people now seemed to havc * more money to spend and were satisfying their wants for fruit more freely. Inquiry, -too, was made from a shop specialising in the sale of diet foods. There the shopkeeper said she was too biisy to be able to give any assistanee. That told its own story.