CHANGING FOOD HABITS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 August 1929, Page 5

CHANGING FOOD HABITS

For ages food 'habits" ! of civilised people remained • about the same,-.j.'and„ then came an era Tin which civilisation; changed its food habits’, ih .one generation. For centuries'. 1 pebple subsisted, chiefly on'meats andbgrairis and a few fruits in season. ■ About the Mediterranean, the cradle of tliA race; diet consisted largely of grains, figAfdhd olives’. I'n the northern countries it was game and grain. Along the seashores fish filled a large place. After a time potatoes and corn were introduced and,they, enriched the diet. In the last generation oranges appeared rarely, for (ihris-tnias perhaps, with bananas at seasons, and they were high priced. Apples and lemons were more plentiful, hut their price depended' upon their nearness to the market and the season. This fortunate generation indulges in fruits and vegetables at all seasons of the year, and the strange liing about it is that the price persists about the same throughout the year. Civilisation has changed front a bread, meat and potato-eating people to one subsisting largely now on fruits and vegetables—with bread, once known as tbe “staff of life.” and meat and potatoes, without winch our grandmothers did not know bow to get a meal, forming only a small part of tlic meal and eaten in much smaller quantities. One reason for this .change in food habPs is that we liare improved transportation facilities, - and especially refri<rerat : on, so that perisliaides mav be shipped long distances, nut in cold storage and kept indefinitely in the raw state. Manv producers are building ■old storage plants of their own, and tbev clan the produce into these tlm minute it. is plucked before it begins to -leteviorate. Results of these changed food habits are a better-fed people.