FRUIT WILL WIN THE WAR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1884, 1 October 1918, Page 1

FRUIT WILL WIN THE WAR.

BRITISH DOCTOR’S STATEMENT.

APPLES NECESSARY FOR SOLDIERS.

That the supply oi' fruit —ami especially apples—will be a deciding factor in the war is a statement authoritatively made by an eminent British physician, Dr. Josiah OldHold, Senior Medical Ollicer to the Lady Margaret’s Fruitarian Hospital of England, in his essay on “Fruit, and its Effect on the War” (says the Fruit World). Dr. OldHeld, in (he course of his essay, savs;—-

“In the early weeks of the war I ■ gave an interview to one of the London dailies and ventured to prophesy (hat the end of the contest would be influenced largely by diciry problems, and in these problems 1 did not consider that the question of protein and scale calorific values for muscular substances would be its important its those of foods which supply nerve nutrition —i.e., fats and salines. It is very difficult to deprive any besieged country —or even any besieged oily—of ail sources of muscular nourishment so long as any other etdlulose renmins to bo transformed by chemical agencies into a more digestible form of carbohydrate. The difficulty for Germany its a beleaguered country was thevefoie not really either meat or cellulose foods so long its she had stores of till and figs and other fruits and salads. The joining up of Turkey threw my prophecy out of gear as to time, because it opened tip the great stores of oil and Hgs and other fruits of Asia Minor. This source is slowly tailing, and to-day in spite of a complete calrilic dietary, the people of Germany .are beginning to develop the disease of malnervc nutrition. There are beginning in Germany already grave manifestations of the basic origin of many diseases. The latest is a widespread oedema in the legs and feel and face, of which particulars are given in a late issue of The Lancet. This will steadily gel worse and woise as another winter conies on unless fresh fruit, and salads, and seed oils can he introduced largely into Germany. 1 have dealt at length with Germany and her fate, to emphasise the great importance "of avoiding a similar catastrophe for England. English stamina, courage, endurance, and heart, for the war depend on complete nerve nutrition. Now for this the calorific values of wheat, or beans, or beef afford no criterion. The danger is that laboratory scientists will measure the comparative importance of cargoes by calorific values, and will on that ground tend to debar juicy fruits as being very light cargo compared with legume or cereals. Every effort should ho exorcised to prevent this, or else, when the mischief is doin', there will he a panic importation of antiscorbutic fruits. I note that a small number of ships arc still allowed to run to the West Indies for bananas, and this is excellent, hut weight for weight and hulk for hulk the most important fruit to he imported during the winter and early spring of 1018 is apples. Were I food controller in Germany, and allowed the choice of free import of one article of food from November to April, 1 should select (he apple. So in Enghmd, while for importation purposes legume and peanuts are the most concentrated form of protein: rice and wheat and maize the most important of the cereals; olive oil, sesame oil, peanut oil, and almond oil the Hnest form of fat; apples, lemons, oranges (and onions) are immesurahly the most important of fruits, which are nerve foods, and without the presence of whose salts physiological functions fail. It will be a grave risk to England’s home stamina if her supply of apples is cut off, because during winter conditions in this climate they are superior to cither lemons or oranges, and cannot he replaced hv anv other fruit.”