WHAT PEOPLE EAT.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 June 1922, Page 5

WHAT PEOPLE EAT.

SOME AUSTRALIAN FIGURES. LESS MEAT CONSUMED. By Telegraph.—Press AMfc.—Copyright. Sydney, June 2. A pamphlet by Mr. Sawkins, statist to the Nfew South Wales Board ofi Trade, dealing with the national diet, shows that the average consumption in New South Wales of the chief descriptions of food fell in energy value per; man per day from 3005 calories in 19111 to an average of 2790 calories during the three years ended June, 192 C. The fall was due for the most part to the decrease in the cousumptiem of meat which, according to the latest figures, is 40 per cent, below the pre-war standard, while the consumption of po-> tatoes has fallen 42 per cent. The fall is largely the outcome of high prions during war time. Probably a considerable portion of the decrease was made up by other foods used in the place of those mentioned. The statist calls attention to the de« leterious effect of a restricted diet. According to the pamphlet, in 1913 Aus-* tralia consumed 2731 b. of meat annually per head of population; by 1917-18 the average had fallen to 1621 b; by 1919-20 it had gone up again to 1731 b. The statist adds that no doubt it baa gone up further recently, owing to the cheapening of meat, but the habit of doing without it, which -war time produced, dies hard. Although the coni sumption of meat diminished enormous ]y during the war, Australia is still of the great meat-eating countries on the world.