CHANGED DIET

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 207, 17 September 1937, Page 10

CHANGED DIET

Why Do Rich Grow Tall? LONDON, Sept. 10. The etfect of changed diet upon tlm height of the individual human beings was discusscd at the British Association meeting recently. The subject was introdqced by Dr. E. P. Poulton in his presidential address to the physiology section. He .began with a reference to Cain and Abcl, the story of whom, he said. I suggested that primitive man's diet j had a variable content of carbohydrate j or fat. The variation depended on his j exbess of cultivation, when it was i mainly carbohydrate, or his success in hunting, when it was mainly protein fat. i Children were, on the average, taller than thcy wero 50 ycars ago, Dr. Poulton said. Children from wealthier families wero taller than those from poorer ones. There was some f actor . tending to promote growth in the children of the wealthier classes, This was missing 50 years ago and was still missing among the poorer classes, but thougli wealth tended to produce giants and poverty dwarfs, botli were equally welJ fornied. The general nutrition remained the same, the heredity factor promotiug shortness or tallness, but it was impossible to imagine that the wealthy had unconsciously selected themselves for tallness in recent years. Tliere must be other factors. Improvements in the food supply, witk an abundance of minerals and vitamins, werq obvious ones