NEW ZEALANDERS’ DIET

Hokitika Guardian, 6 January 1928, Page 3

NEW ZEALANDERS’ DIET

OFFICIAL FIGURES. MUCH MEAT, LITTLE FRUIT. Official figures just published in the Year Book give some idea of what New Zealanders consume per head, statistically considered, for some people do not eat meat, others forswear cheese, teetotallers eschew strong drinks, and, considering its price, many people cat too sparingly of fruit. However, on the population basis, the average consumption of meat per head is 29f pounds per annum, and in addition 143 of bacon and bam. Beef tops the meat list with a -consumption of 184 pounds per person ; mutton is 75 pounds, and pork If) pounds; lamb—in producing which New Zealand leads the world—ls 1.3 pounds. The weights include hone. In blitter. New Zealand would seem to lead with 27 pounds per head, while cheese is a paltry 5 pounds |K-r head. Why ? asks the “ Rost.” which adds:—

May not the answer he found in (L) the immature and insipid cheese usually sold in the shops, or (2) in the fact that New Zealand, not being a beerdrinking country, as England is, cheese has an inconspicuous place in the dietary scale? At Home, cheese with bread and beer often makes a worker’s meal, and a nourishing one, too; but cheeso and tea ! Some of the finest cheese of its typo in the world is sent from New Zealand to London, but it is of the very best according to its grade when it leaves the Dominion, and when it arrives it is usually in excellent condition aiid an attraction to the palate. Cheese consumed in Great Britain is exactly double the quantity per head of that eaten in New Zealand, the home of a very high grade article. Local consumption of flour is 209 pounds per head, and potatoes follow at 190 pounds per head. Onions aro a long way third at 12} pounds per head—and here again the consumption of this wholesome vegetable is far below what it ought to be in the interest of public health. At Id to ltd per pound the onion ought to come into its own in Now Zealand. Otago may or may not be responsible for the greater part of the consumption of oatmeal at 9.1 pounds per head, but considering the nutritive value of this foodstuff, the consumption appears to be low. Rice stands at 5 pounds per bead, and tapioca at 2 pounds; cornflour and other farinaceous foods are very small at 11* pounds per head. Celery, lettuce, spinach, silver beet, roots and other vegetables are not dealt with.

Fresh fruit, like vegetables, is much too tiear for large consumption by families with limited incomes. Alluring displays of hothouse grapes at 2s fid per pound, Canadian apples at Sd, hoLhouse tomatoes at Is to Is fid, straw

borres at up to 2s fid per box, and oranges at 3s to 3s fid per dozen are impressive in the windows, but repellent to the managing housewife with four or five children and Co a week (or less) to run the household. AYhat she wants is fruit enough for the children to help themselves and come again. Hut t.he official figures show that in tins essentially fruit-growing country not enough fruit is being eaten. The calculation is 37 pounds of apples pel person over a whole year—very far from an apple a day. No relief, however, is to lie looked for in other fruits, for bananas only amount to le t pounds per head per annum, and oranges 10 pounds per head per annum, and pears, which crop abundantly, are down to a meagre fit pounds. It does not need a vegetarian to see the folly oi a national diet in so highly productive a country as New Zealand of 291 pounds of meat and 37 pounds of apples per head per annum. Including total abstainers and nonsmokers, the consumption of beer in New Zealand amounts to 92 gallons per head per annum ; of spirits half a gallon, or three bottles per head per annum ; of wine a paltry one-sixth of a gallon, a mere bottle per head per annum all round. Tobacco is represented by a cojifiumption of three

pounds per head, but it is not ascertainable for how much of this women smokers have become responsible.