Help Yourself to Health

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 266, 1 December 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

Help Yourself to Health

By PENROD TERRY, D.D.L., Dietitian.

BO far we have discussed some aspects of a few of the concentrated items of our diet, foods that arc generally rc : cognised as such, mainly because they arc “filling,” that is, possess a high satiety value. Now, while carbohydrate and protein foods play their part in nutrition, their importance has always been overrated, and it is in comparatively recent times only that more thought is being given to the other components of our menus, namely, fruits and vegetables. That our worst fault lies in the bread-meat-potato habit of feeding may be seen from this statement of Doctor E. V. McCollum’s, of the John Hopkins University, America, world-re-cognised expert on nutrition : It doesn’t make any difference how many articles of food you may have in your diet; what variety your diet may afford; it doesn t make any difference what its chemical compositions may be in terms of the older values as to what constitutes a satisfactory food supply; it doesn’t make any difference how often you change the order of eating or the picparation of the foods you cat, you may have all the' cereal grains, wheat, oats, rye, bailey, corn, and the tubers, potatoes and sweet potatoes and flesh) roots, parsnips, carrots, ttirnips, beets, etc., and you can put with them such things as peas and beans, and you may add the meats in common use, beet -steak, loast, ham, any of the muscle-cuts ot meat __ the most common foods in human experience; so long as you limit your diet to this selection of foods you meet w ith lai - urc, with surprising failure; and any animal fed on these foods will develop rickets within a few weeks, bad bone defects that will result in deformity—very serious deformity.” And I would like to add that rickets is only one of the troubles that would result from such a regimen; while supplying plenty of “food, malnutrition of a very great intensity, manifest in a thousand ways, would, and unfortunately does, follow. Have you ever thought of the vast army of doctors, chemists, drug manufacturers; the thousands of expensive hospitals, sanatoriums and spas, the

whole rigmarole of human health service, that has grown up to meet the conditions of colossal ill-health that is affecting the nation to-day? Why? Health is as natural to man as to any othci animal; he is entitled to it as much as he is entitled to the ability to breathe, move and have Ins being. It is sad to think we have gradually grown away from a natural healthy state, the gap between health dnd happiness and what is the common lot is growing wider. I wonder how many experience the sort of health • liindhede, another great nutritionist, means when he “When you awake in the moi rung it should be with an irrestible desire to stretch m exubeiant vigour. This feeling of exuberance and well being should follow you throughout the day and every moment you should be tempted to shout: ‘How good it is to be alive V ” I am afraid the number is not great; and yet the point is that, given a reasonably healthy parentage, every one of us could, by a correct use of foods and the observance of a few natural laws of living, achieve this delectable state of complete health, a state that would be ours for the whole of our lives, accidents excepted. Primitive man in many parts or the world possesses the priceless e-ift of constant good health, and we can, with modern nutritional to great a degree, ofconcentrate? foods, it remains to be seen hoy this can be corrected. I Mould ask you to take another hole at that excerpt of McColluins; you will see that many foods are listed, but what foods

are conspicuous by tlieir absence ? Fruits, green vegetables, milk, glandular organs. Especially I would like you to think about fruits and green vegetables, and what quantity it has been your habit to use each day. Experts tell us that, we should endeavour to use 80 per cent, fruits and vegetables in our diet, and 20 per cent, of the concentrated foods, if health is to be our lot. Now a study of the average New Zealander’s dietary reveals the fact that he uses 80 per cent, of concentrated foods and about 20 per cent, of the others! a direct reversal of what is correct. Here is the answer to nearly all our health problems: we are attempting to live on a regimen, the balance of which is so far removed from the optimum that any scientist, after a few weeks’ experiment, could prove conclusively its absolute harmfulness. This is the reason most of us languish through a life spent in a twilight zone between health and sickness, with headaches, nerves, constipation, rheumatism, anaemia, kidney and heart troubles, tuberculosis, and the whole list of degenerative diseases besides, until, as youth passes, with its store of excess energy and strength to carry us through, these afflictions begin gradually to gain upon us and they catch most of us by about 40, if not much sooner. I was discussing disease with relation to age with an Auckland doctor a while ago and lie told me that the greater number of his patients were people of about middle age, and he agreed with me that that was the time when all the cumulative effect of bad eating habits was most likely to be manifest. It seems we can carry on just so long; if we do pass certain milestones succes fully, however, the chances are that all will be well for another few years —such is the way of nature. Many have observed and. commented on this rhythm in disease. To return to the balance, which is generally called the alkalineacid one, the best way of making sure of an adequate intake of the necessary fruits and vegetables, is to use one or the other, or both. at every meal eaten, making the bulk of the menu to consist of these items, and rounding out the meal with one or two of the concentrated foods in .sufficent quantity to satisfy appetite. To many this scheme is a difficult one to follow, for a system used to being overloaded with much

heavy, congesting food, resents the restriction, and all kinds of discomforts, most of them described as hunger, are felt. However, by making the change gradually, and under guidance from an experienced dietitian, this distress is greatly minimised, and the greatly increased health and better state of nutrition, makes it so well worth while. One can be very much better nourished by eating less, as has so often been proved.

Next week I will mention a few points about one of these groups, taking fruit as my subject. In actual practice, it is not essential to keep strictly to this law of balance between fruits and greens and the other foods, for where milk and potatoes are taken, the acid-base ratio can be still effectively maintained, since these two foods carry a high percentage of alkaline salts and thus neutralise the acidulating action of quite a fair quantity of bread, meat, etc.

Mrs. W. D. L. asks: "Can duodenal ulcers be cured by diet?” Well, the answer is, emphatically: Yes. I am doing this all the time in my practise. There are few diseases so amenable to nutritional measures as this one, which is fortunate, as it is becoming increasingly common among all classes of people. It is a deficiency disease, due to a lack of certain elements in the diet, irritation, the commonly - believed cause, being of secondary importance. A few weeks corrective treatment always, achieves very pleasing results, after which the patient is instructed how to live so as to guard against future illhealth. This method has proved very satisfactory. Progress can, however, be considerably retarded by circumstances outside diet, worry and over-work being particularly harmful. Generally, though, once returning health is felt, the worry factor is obviated.

J.B.C. asks why “mushes” should be given to sick people. From mushes this writer no doubt refers to arrowroot, gruels and certain invalid foods. The answer is that they should not be given. A person becomes ill nearly always because of an imbalance in his system, and the illness is a manifestation of the body’s attempt to normalise matters. Any treatment that tends to still further upset this balance is not recommended, and the various starchy mixtures used for invalids offend in this very way. The inference seems to be that sick people are too weak to even chew and so must have everything in semi-liquid form, which is absurd. Liquids of a nutritous nature are no easier to digest than more solid foods, so. this rules them out on that account, too.