A NEW PHASE

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 449, 3 June 1937, Page 6

A NEW PHASE

LEAGUE AND NUTRITION Education In Food Values Geneva, May 18. A new i tage in the League of Nations’ campaign for the improvement of nutrition throughout th<| world opened when the Mixed Committee of Nutrition, set up after an appeal to the Leagu e to bring about “the marriage of health and agriculture,” began its third session under the chairmanship of Lord Astor. The Mixed Committee consists of agricultural, economic land health experts/, among whom are representatives of the International Labour Organisation, the League’s Child. Welfare Committee, and the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome. Of necessity its work up to the present bias been largely exploratory. A month ago, it Geneva, representatives of many national nutrition committees' exchanged information about the treatment of the nutrition problem in their own countries. This information, together with inquiries carried out by various branches of the Mixed Committee, has made possible a, comprehensive report concerning the views on the nutrition problem held by economists', doctors and agriculturists. These show a considerable divergence on some points, but on one—the fact that widespread malnutrition exists—they are unanimous. What is /more, investigations have gone far to exploding many lac. cepted ideas. For example, while many claim that the problem lies in the inability of incomes to meet requirements of adequate nutrition, the Swedish national committee has stated that the problem is one of income largely, but of education. Swedish experts have decided that 'even on a “poverty” Income it is possible to obtain adequate nutrition provided the consumer knows what to eat.

Small gardens, it has been pointed out, can supply most families with a good deal of greenstuff, such as let. tuces 1 , which is missing from the family diet. League health experts have proclaimed that ignorance of foood values contributes to a. great extent to faulty diets. One practical example is that of the lettuce/—the outer leaves are factually the most 'nutritive. ' , • / Is is with a view to bringing these simple facts l home to 'the man in the street that the League’s Mixed Committee will proceed. «.