EATING TO LIVE?

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 54, 28 January 1953, Page 5

EATING TO LIVE?

OR— LIVING TO EAT? Publicity in the newspapers following discussions on the Dietitians Bill wrhen that measure was before Parliament has caused many to wonder if the diet of New Zealanders is really as poor as some would have us believe (writes M. Abraham B.H. Sq., Dietition, Nutrition Education Section, Health Department, in the Jpurnal " Health" ) . Ours is a country rich with high qua.lity foodsof great variety, and ours is a high standard of living. It is true that as a people we are conservative in our food tastes and have not yet developed any outstanding racial food habits, but in the last two decades our standard has improved. The consumptioa of milk has risen from just a little over half a'pint per person daily before the last war to very nearly one pint per person per day. This is an important advance. Again, through the increased use of iodised ;salt both in cooking and on the table, the incidenee of goitre amongst New Zealand sehool children — once as high as 60 per cent. in some areas — has now dropped to an overall average of 2.5 per cent. and is well on the road to elimination. Cases of textbook nutritional diseaseS such as beri beri, rickets, scurvy, famine cedema, are seldom seen jin this country as they are in those |less fortunate countries where there is a great disparity between the jincomes and liying condiitions of different groups. No Cause for Complacency. However, though we do not develop the disease of extreme under nutrition we have no cause for bomp.lacency ahout our national food habits for we have in our midst those nutritional disorders associated with civilised plenteousness — dental caries, overweight, inability to breast-feed infants for the length of time that is desirable, constipation and other digestive disoTders. These conditions are to a large extent preventable by sane and sensible food habits. This does not mean thjat we should never eat .sweet^, cakes, biscuits, fizzy drinks, but that they should be placed in tbeir proper perspective. They rightly belong to "party" foods. Nobody would think of wearing party clothes every day, they why should we eat party foods every day? Half the fun of a party is the opportunity to do tlhings and eat things that do not belong* to our every-day- lives. •Those who advocate a disproportionate amount of raw salads, nothing but wholegrain cereals, never any sweets and, worst of all, vitamin pills as cures for this and that without a doctor's advice, are making* a fetish of food without a commonsense foundation. The body, especially that of a child, requires many foods to supply the elements of health, and these are nest provided by means of varied menus. The enjoyment of well - cooked varied meals in a happy family atmosphere is the finest contribution a mother can make to the nutritional health of her family. " *