FOODS FOR NURSING MOTHERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 240, 28 January 1944, Page 22

FOODS FOR NURSING MOTHERS

| (Written for "The Listener’ by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist to the

Health Department) \

for successful milk production, the food taken by the nursing mother must be rich in protein, vitamin B factors and calcium. A scheme for the dietary during the nursing period is as ~ follows: ; Milk: 134-2 pints (the latter, or even more if she is feeding twins). Meat: 4-60z. (Liver, 20z, once a week. Fish, once or twice a week. Bacon or pork, if they agree with both mother and baby). Egg: 1. Cheese: loz. Peanuts, peas, beans or lentils: a serving. Wheat Germ (preferably a freshlymilled product); 2 tablespoons. Green vegetables, cauliflower or swedes: ¥2 cup (342-40z.). Potato: 5-10o0z, Another vegetable: 42 cup. Orange or %lb. tomatoes, or two tablespoons rose-hip syrup, or alternative rich source of vitamin C. Other fruit. Cod liver oil: 2 teaspoons a day. Todised salt (or 2 teaspoons seameal daily). Butter: loz. daily, plus fat (or butter), loz. daily. Wholegrain cereals: enough to satisfy the appetite. You will see that it is a dietary which includes considerably more than double the amount of milk contained in the average New Zealand diet. Milk should be the foundation of the dietary in both pregnancy and lactation. Note the advice to include liver once a week. This is a food which contains a mine of good nutrients. Wheat germ in liberal amounts is put on the list. For those who can take it taw, it may be sprinkled on porridge or on fruit. Or it can be cooked with the porridge. Those in whom it brings on. heartburn will need to emphasise some other rich sources of vitamin B factors. The inclusion of peas, beans, lentils or peanuts is desirable, because of their excellent vitamin B value. Raw peanuts are particularly valuable in vitamin B components, as well as in protein. Unfortunately, to roast them and to turn them into peanut butter causes a 70-80 per cent destruction of the vitamin Bl content of the nuts. On the other hand, they become more digestible when cooked and ground. Eat them raw and chew them well-and if they do not agree with you, roast them just sufficiently to cook them without browning them. Wholemeal bread and potatoes are both good for providing vitamin B. So also is milk if taken in the above amounts, _ Cod liver oil is specially necessary, because it contains vitamin D, and this is the time when the permanent set of teeth begin to form in the jaw. Vitamin D is necessary for good teeth and bone formation. So also is vitamin C. Hence the emphasis on fruit and vegetable for providing vitamin C. ws ie the previous article we learnt that