THE SUGAR SUBSIDY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 140, 27 February 1942, Page 7

THE SUGAR SUBSIDY

(Written for "The Listener’ by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist to the Department of Health )

HE other day an experienced orthopeedic surgeon invited me into the Children’s Ward to look at his cases. Among them were two little girls with osteomyelitis, a disease resulting from an infection of the bones, a disease that you would do anything to avoid. " This is very common in New Zealand," said the surgeon. "Any theory as to the reason why it is so frequent here?" I asked. "Too much white flour and sugar" came the answer. I looked up the figures in the Year Book and found that for 1939 the total of cases treated in public hospitals was 530. On encountering a physician, I asked why osteomyelitis was so common here. "Too many lollies" came the answer. If we are wise, we shall accept statements like these with reservation, but at any rate it seems significant that both of the doctors appeared to agree that too much sugar was one factor in its causation. If you need more than this, go to the dentists and ask what they think about dental decay and its relationship to sugar consumption. Everyone who comes to New Zealand from overseas remarks on the quantities

a el | il of sweet things, particularly cakes, that we consume in this country. The average figure for sugar per person per day is 5% ounces-far too much. The trouble about an undue proportion of sugar in the dietary is that, by satisfying the appetite of the child or adult, the sugar displaces good food--the vegetables and milk which are put on the table at the next meal are spurned. Not only that, but anything which, like sugar, supplies energy to muscles and other tissues, requires substances like vitamin B for supervising its utilisation by the tissues. And yet, being a pure crystalline substance, it contains no minerals or vitamins. Thus it increases the need for vitamin B and yet contributes none of this vitamin. Moreover, being a substance which, in solution, exerts a potent osmotic attraction on the cells with which it comes in contact, it is apt to be irritating to the alimentary tract. Liability Rather Than Asset And yet this foodstuff is popular and consumed to excess. It is not an asset, but rather a liability. It spoils the

appetite for harder foods that have to be chewed — one reason why dentists blame it as one of the causes of dental decay. It lessons the consumption of milk and dairy products, eggs, meat, vegetables and fruit, while itself devoid of any protective qualities whatever. Its increasing use in this country is to be regarded with concern, Remember, too, that sweet shops are always to be found in close proximity to schools! On consulting the statistics for this commodity, we find that the yearly total consumption of sugar is up to 86,000 tons. Confectioners (those who manufacture sweets and chocolates) use 7,700 tons annually. One calculates that an- " other 7,000 to 8,000 tons are probably

used for commercial canning and jam making. ‘Another 2,000 tons is used by breweries. Presumably, something in the vicinity of 69,000 tons is used for household purposes. These are the approximate figures, in spite of a revenue tax of 1d per Ib for sugar. In England they are subsisting on small rations of sugar. If rationing of sugar comes our way also, perhaps we shall learn that rationing has its good points-in reduction of dental caries, and in prevention of malnutrition, not to mention lessening of the middle-aged spread. (Next week: "Faces May Make or Mar Careers," by Dr. Turbott.)