GOOD IN PARTS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 320, 10 August 1945, Page 11

GOOD IN PARTS

NUTRITION: PREVENTION AND CURE OF COMMON AILMENTS. By Guy B. Chapman, D.D.S. (Penn.), L.D.S., R.C.S. (Edin. ).

(Reviewed by

A. B.

Blanc

M.B.,

Ch.B., B.Sc.)

iIlH a cover decorated by a girl of the "pin up" variety, this book is not unlike the curate’s egg-good and bad in parts. The foreword, noteworthy only. for the astounding "howler" that vitamins can only be seen under a microscope, is succeeded by a cautious introduction by Dr. Gunson, in which he states that white flour and massive doses of vitamins are controversial subjects. There can be no doubt about the massive dosing of vitamins being controversial, in fact, there seems little justification for the inclusion of such material in a book of nutrition intended for the public. In the reviewer’s opinion the advocacy of these massive doses of vitamins is definitely misleading in that they will not cure the various disease states for which they are advocated. The white flour loaf versus the 85 per cent. wholemeal loaf, on the other hand, can hardly be called controversial from a medical scientific point of view. Any such argument is surely settled in favour of the wholemeal. Wartime admissions to hospital are cited-wholly without justification-as a condemnation of our present mode of living; likewise the receipt of some 80,000 letters by the author during his broadcasting era over the ZB stations. Seeing that New Zealanders have the highest expectation of life in the world, a cynic might say that, at any rate, New Zealanders have a longer life in which to enjoy their ill-health. The naming of a few favoured proprietary products at the expense of others must be regarded as personal bias by the author towards these products.

Such a custom is, unfortunately, not infrequent and is not peculiar to this book, Throughout the book the bias towards vitamins is everywhere present — other aspects of nutrition such, for example, as the importance of proteins, receive scant attention. In fact, the reviewer does not remember ever seeing the term "amino-acid." In discussing goitre the author names two trade preparations to be used for prevention, but does not even. mention iodised salt-a measure which has found world-wide approval. The definition of constipation, so the reader is informed, entails expert laboratory work and is a job for the specialist. This statement is surely not intended to be taken too seriously. Nor can the reviewer let go unchallenged the author’s statement that, | in his opinion, every baby born requires to have its supply of mother’s milk supplemented by Vitamins A, B1, C, and D. One wonders how babies got on before the advent of vitamins because, in spite of the author’s statement to the contrary, people did eat white bread more than 50 years ago and the fitness and fertility of our forefathers cannot be ascribed to wholemeal. The various diets are somewhat stereotyped and usually advise the addition of lucerne and Jinseed and the subtraction of vinegar, spinach, and rhubarb, all of which, truth to tell, would appear to be consistent with an idiosyncracy of the author rather than to any merit or demerit in the substances themselves. An adequate amount of milk or milk powder is advised, but incidentally is said to be low in B1. This latter statement is incorrect. The reviewer must agree with the author in his advice to go to the bottle for vitamin D-at any rate during the present period of rationing; also in his criticism of the diet in most maternity homes. The advocacy of unsaturated fats -dripping and lard-for certain types of eczema is probably very sound, although it is perhaps too early yet to make a definite pronouncement.