FIRST THINGS FIRST

New Zealand Listener, Volume 9, Issue 218, 27 August 1943, Page 18

FIRST THINGS FIRST

(Written for "The Listener’? by DR,

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist to the

Department O1 fealth)

Listener there is an account of a discussion between an _ economist and a nutritionist about food. Pro# fessor Drummond, Scientific Adviser to the Minitsry of Food, says, "We scientists think in terms of certain basic foods essential for health, and these have formed our food plans for the war. Take milk: Sir John Orr has rightly called it the keystone to our nutrition. Next in importance comes, not meat, as sO many people think, but vegetables -potatoes, greenstuff and carrots--all of which really are part of our first-line of defence of health." When asked by the economist whether this was merely his own opinion, or an agreed scientific opinion, he replied, "I would challenge anyone to produce a nutrition expert of standing who does not put milk -and with milk, cheese-and vegetables right at the top of the list of essential foods." The Needs of the People _ Then they went on to discuss the needs of the people in «post-war planning. The economist said that he believed that somebody with a passion for arithmetic had estimated that for the whole world to secure freedom from want, the total agricultural production would have to be doubled, chiefly in dairy products, vegetables, and fruit; and that whatever they did to raise feeding standards on a broad scale, an increase in food production would be required. Now, New Zealand will have to sit up and take notice of ideas like these. In the past, we have produced much butter for export. Suppose Britain decides that she must consume twice as much milk as she has consumed in the past-and it wasn’t as much as even our poor consumption of milk in New Zealand. Possibly she will produce more milk by her own increased agricultural production, but/possibly she will want more of our dried milk products. The emphasis © will have been made during the war on the constituents which the laboratory worker calls "solids-not-fat;" the people will know that milk powder contains the best part of the milk, and they will. be conversant with the fact that even skim milk powder has nearly the whole of the virtues of milk, its short-comings being merely that its caloric value has been halved and its Vitamin A removed. The process of educating the people of Britain about food values has been rendered necéssary during the war; but it is unlikely to stop when the war.stops. People may have become accustomed to using milk powder in their cooking. Thus we shall have to keep on the alert to see whether-we are called on to supply some of these dried milk products. Much of our economic stability ~ here in New Zealand depends on the things the people in other countries can buy.. When visiting mining villages in South Wales in 1930-34, I used to think it would pain New Zealand to see the grocery shops full of margarine ee of butter. é And for’the present, don’t forget our. own needs for milk and vegetable production. i a recent number of the English