PUBLIC OPINION

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21224, 21 September 1940, Page 12

PUBLIC OPINION

As expressed by correspondents whose letters are welcome, but for whose views we have no responsibility. Correspondents are requested to write in ink. It is essential that anonymous writers enclose their proper names as a guarantee of good faith. Unless this rule is complied with, their letters will not appear.

FOOD AND HEALTH

(To the Editor) Sir,—l noted with interest the article in the Waikato Times on August 28 regarding the introduction of Vitamin B 1 into the white loaf. If nothing else, it is a recognition by the authorities of the value of that one factor, but to fpil the public that fortified white loaf is one quarter as good as pure wuuilmeal loaf and flour is wrong. What of Calcium, iron, phosphorus, Vitamin A and Vitamin E? Wholemeal flour contains all these and white flour contains none. There is only one basis from which to view this question, and that is that Nature provides a perfectly balanced food and eating should be constructive and not for the purpose of just filling the stomach. Dr. McMillan says that people who get a reasonably mixed diet probably 1 notice he says “probably”— secure sufficient Vitamin B 1 for all needs; he mentions fruit. Now, apples are the main items of our fruit, possibly 80 per cent of oui supply, and when they are. fresh they contain some, but not much. Vitamin B 1, but fresh apples are ! obtainable only for a short time of the year, and they only have to be stored for just a short time before they lose this factor. He also says that there is hardly any other common foodstuff that contains this special vitamin to a similar extent. That is misleading; unpolished rice or brown rice is equally rich in this respect, and polished rice should never be eaten.

It does not require any special knowledge to decide the question, and all parents who have the welfare of their children at heart will realise after a minute’s thought that Nature provides all the necessary minerals in perfectly balanced quantities and in a form the body can assimilate far better than commercial food that is being forced on us. You will see in any grocer’s window a bag of the “finest” white flour, and next to it “Take bran for health.” and the bran flakes are double the price that they should have been jf they had been left in the flour. Why "take them out if they are necessary for health?” Just view for a moment the most wonderful mechanism known to science, the human body. The endocrine or ductless glands that govern every action of life require a perfectly balanced diet to function correctly. The best known gland is the thyroid: it is the flywheel of the human motor and controls the metabolism—the rate of transforming foodstuffs to the 100 and 1 forms in which the body requires it. lodine in turn regulates the thyroid

gland correctly, but when iodine is I extracted from our foods by the so- j called refining process, which deprives the body of necessary supplies, we have an uncontrolled fly- . wheel, or the human motor racing. The amount of iodine required is very small, about 1 to 2 parts to ten million in the blood and 3 to 4 parts to ten million in the liver, but that small part is required; failing that, we find a state of exophthalmic goitre with the symptoms of a racing motor using large quantities of fuel and excessive wear and tear; rapid heart j ana pulse, increase of temperature, rapid utilisation of food stuffs, and, of course, increased appetite and loss of weight, increased perspiration, quick growing of finger nails and hair, and mind and body always on the acute alert. The thyroid gland also requires vitamin A for the assistance to growth and in relation to good eyesight. Glands not so well known are the parathyroids, four small glands embedded in the tissue of the thyroid gland—so small that the four could be placed in a salt spoon—yet mighty in their work. They regulate the quantity of lime in the blood. 10 milligrams to 100 c.c. of and thereby control the coagulation of the blood, and regulate the 1 nervous excitaoimy. A snortage of j lime means that an individual bleeds freely. Many thousands in the last war died owing to excessive haemor- j rhage tb r ou"h not having sufficient j I lime in the blood to enable coagulaI lion. As no illustration of the destructive effect of the so-called civilisation, natives oi uie n-asi lu cat “paddy” or unpolished rice (we call it brown rice). After the introduction of polished rice a hideous disease named beri-beri appeared with a death roll running into JOO.OOO, and the cure is just a liquid made from the nee D-ii hings, which is rich in Vitamin B 1. 'i nose numerous vital factors should be taken at all times in our pure foods, as Vitamin B 1 in particular cannot be stored in the body, anH has to he sunolied each day. If the authorities were to spend one tenth ot the money spent in attempting to cure, in preventing j disease instead, and organised a j genuine campaign to educate the . people, New Zealand would be the ! paradise we wish it to be. It would subsidise milk to sell at half the present price and oranges to sell at quarter the present price and tell the people that large quantities of orange juice and little lemon juice will reduce dental decay, and plenty of Vitamin C in lemons, oranges, green vegetables and other fruits prevent influenza and diphtheria.— I am, etc.. W. H. Thompson. Whatawhata, September 19