The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1925. MODERN FOOD.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 September 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1925. MODERN FOOD.

As interesting address was recently giion at Cliristchurcli by Mr S. A. Cage M.A. on the subject of some vital deficiencies in modern food, in the course ol his address he stated that there had been a widespread belief that animal instinct was a good guide m the matter of food. Wild animals, ho instance, were rarely poisoned, in the winter herbivorous animals seem 10 suiter from a craving for salt. Man was the only animal who was not eonlined for his food supply to the produel of his neighbourhood. The whole world was called on to supply the table. Man had lost his instinctive power of selection it had been swamped. hoods were selected !>ecause of their palntahility hut the portability was an artificial one dependent- on cooking, seasoning and so forth. In the matter of food the aesthetic side c-i life had done a great deal of harm in creating a dislike for everything that did not look attractive, that was not sweet-scented. We were not satisfied with anything that appeared crude. Cooking was introduced to widen the range of man’s diet. The cooking rendered coarse vegetnhles tender; hut in modern times we appeared to have gone beyond all that. The result of modern diet was that man was the worst fed animal that had the power to select its own diet. Man was the only animal that, in a wholsnle manner, was failing to get the essentials. Chemists made the first scientific study of the food ques tion. I p to about 1013, however, the I

chemists hnd not got very far. They line' found what substances formed the principal ingredients of most foods. But there was a complete misconception as to mineral contents and their abundance in the common foods. In lij 13 some physiologists took the matter up by way oi experiment in rapidly growing animals to which they gave synthetic foods. These foods proved a failure. The lecturer dealt at some length with the food experiments earned out on rats and said that the information gained as a result had revolutionised our ideas as to food. One lug deficiency found was that of mineral constituents. Milled cereals or any seeds did not supply sufficient minerals to produce healthy growth. The green growing parts ot plants supplied the minerals. A second debt ienev was in the porteins. Then there were the aetc.-sory loud factors or vitamines of which very little was known. Their composition was unknown ami their action not known. The function of miiieml matter in animal life was not very well-known. Where there was a lack of mineral matters there was a clotting ut the blood. Seeds and roots were comparatively poor in mineral matter. Leaf ant* seed together made a satisfactory tiicv. Children required about an ounce of calcium per month. While plants normally contained all the minei ill matter that animals required, tins, was not always the ease, as the effects on the cattle at various times i! certain localities showed. Threequarters of the minerals of wheat was lost in milling and the wheat wa,s deficient in minerals to wtart with. file average loss of calcium in coiling vegetables was 30 per cent. Tin loss of iron was up to 75 per cent. Cabbage lost 75 per cent, of mineral ,i boiling, hut spinach, for some reason no! yet known, did not Icee its calcium in boiling. Proteins were the only things that could build up bodily tissue. Proteins differed very much in character, ’the proteins most suited to the building of tissue were casein of milk or meat tissue. The proteins from legumes had only about a quarter of the tissue-building value of milk proteins. There wore three well-known vitamins and two less well-known, 'the absence of vitamino Xo 1 stopped growth in young animals. 'file second vitamine appeared tc bo even more essential. All animals and birds required this vitamine. (tinned and dried foods wore markedly deficient in vitamines and the cooking of Vegetables largely destroyed them particularly in cabbage. ’! he anti-scurvy vitamine was the most easily destroyed. Baking soda was very destructive of vitamines. There were a number of diseases which could quite definitely lie traced to deficiencies in food. Much of mir ill-health '■'as due to wrong lends. People ate toe mil'll and ate ten often.