FLUORIDATION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 787, 20 August 1954, Page 5

FLUORIDATION

Sir-It has been proved that a diet of unrefined foods prevents dental decay, yet little attempt is made in this country to encourage the eating of these foods. The Fijians, who still subsist almost entirely on their natura] foods, can well be proud of their strong white teeth. In Fiji white refined sugar is unknown; raw sugar is supplied for visitors at all the tourigt resorts; the housewife uses this sugar for all sweetening purposes, It is imported to New Zealand in this raw state, and yet it is often difficult to obtain from the grocers. How many bakers supply a genuine wholemeal loaf? In some cases colouring matter ig added to the white flour, in others some of the wheat germ is extracted. Nor it is always easy to obtain the 100 per cent wholemeal. When I was asking for a packet the other day my grocer 1.emarked that his supply was limited. that he could sell more than he could get. R. B. D. Stocker says that it is not easy to say "no" to sweets; but, as Dr. Turbott has pointed out, sweets can be taken at meal times. With more unrefined foods and no _ picking between meals not only would our dental clinics be half empty, but our hospitals as well. Mr. Stocker admits that it "may be feasible" to take fluorine in tablet form "in places without a public water supply," but infers that it would not be feasible where there is a public supply. Many of us take our daily dose of halibut .oil in globule form year in and year out, and I am sure the "cost of propaganda" for this is not "prohibitive." If fluorine cannot be supplied in tablet form it surely could be added to the salt in the same way as iodine is added. We are free to take natural salt or iodised and we should be free agents as far as fluorine is concerned. As for being a "food’-no, I cannot swallow that. Above all, let us keep our sparkling water pure.

WATER DRINKER

(Wellington).