NATIONAL HEALTH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 176, 12 August 1937, Page 10

NATIONAL HEALTH

The ftoad to Improvement SIMPLE . FOOD AND DRINK . "The greatest possible improvement m national health could come through people disCiplining themselves and atlowing education to point the Way to-■rt-ards a properly-balanced diet,".said Dr, George Home in an address oh tlie national health iinsurance schemo to the Kew Plymouth Eotary Club. s "I feel convinced," Dr, Home contmued, "that a .better-balanced diet would eiiminate a large amount of the disease and dlness from whieh the people of this eountry sulfer. Alan has hD instmct to lead him tOwards proper foods. Even animals are better served in this regai'd. ' ' Br. Home said the Maoi'i before the advent of the white man Was possibly the fnicst and most healthy speeiaien of the htiiiiun race. There was not a great deal of food in the Kew Zealand bnsh, and his main diet was fern roots. This was not appetising, and he was never tempted to eat to excess. His oniy drink was cold water. ' ' Microbcs enter the body mainly through tho mouth and nose," said Dr. Home, "and I consider that the- teeth of the majority of our people constitute a standing reproach to Kew Zealand as a progressive eountry. Poor teeth are the cause of a far too large proportion of our illnesses, and a great deal of this can ,be traced to diet. A balanced diet would consist mainly of wholemeal bread, milk, eggs, butter, cheesc, a linlited qnantity of meat, and raw and cooked vegetables. Cooked cane sugar and dead starches, suck as tapioca and sago, should be avoided, Children have far too much cooked sugar, mainly in the for.nl of sweets." During the whr period Denmark, in common with Germany, was blockadedi and the diet of the people was restricted and monotonous. Only the wealthy were able to alford meat; the others lived on wholemeal bread, i5orms of rye and barley, fresh vegetables, eggs, butter and choese. During that period statistics showed that the death rato in Denmark fell 34 per cent. It was thorefore n0 surpriso to find a great Danish physehologist stating that tho maia causeg,' of death were food anci drinks