TRAIN SCENE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 407, 11 April 1947, Page 11

TRAIN SCENE

(Written for "The Listener" by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist

to the Health Department)

between Christchurch and Lyttelton-a young father (unaccompanied by the mother), with his young infant and with him also a man friend who had come down to help him on to the boat with the cradle and the baby’s tluggage. The father was describing to his interested friend all the routine that he carried out for the baby. "And do you give him the rosehip?" asked the friend. "Yes," said the father, adding a few further paternal "details. It was very telling, that little scene-it contained something of poignancy, but also something of reassurance behind it. We hear a great deal about the numerous maternity home bookings that spell the future need for large amounts of "the rosehip," and as we are aware of the difficulty that mothers have had at certain periods in the year in buying rosehip syrup or powder or in getting oranges, it is worth again applying the stimulus for home production. Bettér be sure than sorry, should be our motto. Since many women find that the limitation of supplies of sugar acts as a brake on their good intentions to fill the cupboards with preserves we wish to refer again to the recipe for rosehip syrup published in these columns last year (The Listener, 18/4/46). Copies of this recipe can be obtained from your District Health Nurse or from your Plunket Nurse. The recipe is a simple one, and takes advantage of the preservative action of fruit juices added to the extract of rosehips; allowing a reig was an unusual picture, seen

duction in the amount of sugar needed. It has always rather worried us_ that rosehip syrup made with full amdunts of sugar is too prone to encourage the baby to develop a taste for sweetnessand there is some experimental evidence (as yet unconfirmed) to show that sugar combines with the.enamel of the teeth. In a country that is ridden with dental decay we should be cautious about encouraging the development of the sweet tooth. We adults, with our depraved taste for sweetness, may prefer to have our drinks of rosehip syrup sweetened to taste with saccharine-it goes quite well with the fruit juice and low sugar recipes (1 to 2 tablets per 4oz. bottle of the 1946 recipe) and we can take comfort from the fact that saccharine. doés not injure our teeth or. increase our adipose tissue. While we are on the subject of sugar we repeat the fact that further economies in the use of sugar can be ‘made by the use of precipitated calcium carbonate, added to such highly acid fruits as gooseberries, plums, rhubarb or blackcurrants. Add in the proportion of one level teaspoon per pound of the fruit. Add it while you are cooking it before serving it. Those who have these highly acid fruits to preserve may preserve them without sugar, and then when they ate opened, the calcium carbonate should be added during the course of preparation for the table, reducing the amount of sugar needed to about one half or one third of what ene ordinarily needs. The calcium carbonate does not impair the taste or the vitamin content.