NUTRITION: The Oslo Meal For Children

New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 273, 15 September 1944, Page 13

NUTRITION: The Oslo Meal For Children

(Written for "The Listener’ by

DR

H. B.

TURBOTT

Director of Division of School Hygiene, Health Department)

Schiotz was worried about the malnutrition of the poorer children in his city of Oslo. To overcome this under -~-nourishment, he arranged to supply a meal at a suburban school-a meal of wholemeal bread, a good-sized pat of butter, goatsmilk cheese, a glass of milk, half an‘ apple or half an orange, or lettuce salad and grated raw carrot. This meal was served originally as a breakfast. The children on the meal showed a noticable improvement in growth and general health, compared with other children receiving an ordinary meal of meat and hot cooked vegetables, The Oslo Breakfast had a British forerunner, the "Glossop Sandwich," devised by Dr. Milligan, Medical Officer of Health for Glossop. The Glossop Sandwich provided good quality protein and fat, and vitamins A, D and B complex, C, and minerals. The sandwich was composed of wholemeal bread, butter, dried brewer’s yeast, mustard and cress (or watercress, tomato, lettuce, in season) and. cheese. On other days, liver, beef or egg replaced the cheese, Later, London schools tried out what they called the Oslo lunch. The children who received the meal showed a distinct improvement in physique and general health. They gained from 40 to 100 per cent more in weight and height than children on _ ordinary lunches. Both Oslo Breakfast and Glossop Sandwich were devised on the simple, sensible basis of remedying malnutrition in working class mothers and children by supplementary feeding. The defects of the local home food of the people were noted, and the special meal is designed to make good the deficiencies, In this way an adequate and balanced diet is provided, home and school working together. The Oslo meal has been tried out in Dunedin — in 1941 at the Open Air School. The teacher and a_ school medical officer for one year fed the children with a health dinner, modelled on the Oslo meal. A group of children at another school having ordinary hot dinners at home acted as controls. The health meal consisted of milk, wholemeal bread, butter, a variation of mixed vegetable salads, an orange or an apple. There was a greater increase of, height and weight in the children on the health dinner than in those on the ordinary hot meal at home. ie Norway, back in 1932, Professor Experiments in Australia Experiments in serving health lunches have also been made in Australia. At one centre the children having the Oslo type lunch, in a three months’ test period, gained from 2% to 5% lb. more than children who continued to have their ordinary lunches. In Melbourne another group of children eating health. lunches gained two and a-half times as much as others with ordinary lunches. There would be no need to organise Oslo type meals, supplying protective properties lacking at home, or in the

school lunch, if mothers would only balance the home diet, and remember that the school lunch is one-third of that diet. Bread, butter, jam and cake are not good enough for one-third of our eating. Why should you leave it to others to organise ‘health lunches and demonstrate their value? Take time and plam your own child’s lunch properly!