NUTRITION IN NEW ZEALAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1941, Page 2

NUTRITION IN NEW ZEALAND

SOME RECENT DISCLOSURES. FACTORS WHICH INFLUENCE POSITION. An article of general interest relating to nutrition in New Zealand, which appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, has a close bearing on the activities of the Masterton Dental Clinic. “New Zealand,” the article states, “has the reputation of being a country that produces a healthy and virile people. Recent enquiries have tended to throw some doubt on this generalisation. The ‘protective foods’ are still fairly expensive, and as a consequence New Zealanders tend to consume meat as their main first class protein and to bulk their diet with white bread, cakes, cane sugar and tea. New Zealanders are the largest meat eaters in the world (about 250 pounds a head annually). This statement is amply borne out by a survey of food consumption for the last few years. Total food consumption divided by total population shows that each person consumes daily from six to seven ounces of sugar, approximately one pound of red meat, a half pound of white flour, two-thirds of a pint of milk, two-thirds of ah egg, one-third ounce of cheese and from two to three ounces of butter (not margarine). Most of the milk is taken by adults in tea and the egg in cakes. “The, available evidence suggests that about 97 per cent of the school children show signs of dental caries and that more than 50 per cent of the adults have false teeth. It is also reported that one in every twenty persons in the country is in the hospital every year, chiefly for such complaints as appendicitis, tonsils and goitre. The adult population also suffers to no inconsiderable degree from digestive complaints, rheumatism and neuritis. “It is interesting to note at what age the breakdown in the health of the children begins to occur. Up to the age of eight or ten months most of the children seem to be in good condition. After that age it is customary to cut clown the amount of milk, cod liver oil, and orange juice, with the result that the calories are obtained mainly from refined starches and the resistance of the child tends to decrease. By the time the children are going to school, dental decay has become common. But for the past two years an additional half pint of milk has been supplied daily in the schools, and this is having a beneficial effect.

“Another factor which has an influence- on the nutrition of New Zealand is the quantity of cakes and pastry that are consumed. No morning, afternoon or evening gathering is complete without an array of these delicacies, and with the great majority of the population (largely female) they constitute the mainstay of the day. The tea drinking habits are the surprise of every visitor; strong tea, often plentifully sugared, accompanies every meal, even dinner.”