Right Eating Brings Health

New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 919, 22 March 1957, Page 17

Right Eating Brings Health

This is the text of a talk on health broadcast recently from ZB, ZA, YA and YZ stations

of the NZBS by DR

H. B.

TURBOTT

Deputy-Director-General of Health

[-9Ov and health are tied together, very closely indeed. No one can afford to go on doing just as grandmother and grandfather did. Science has invaded the food world, tells us principles to follow for good nutrition and enables us to understand why we should follow the guide by analysing foodstuffs and charting food values. A hundred years back in this land of ours our forebears could expect to live on average only about forty years. The discoveries of science have given their descendants here today an expectatiom of life approaching seventy years. No mean place in this achievement belongs to the ability to produce sufficient food; and the mounting knowledge that food is good, but only fully valuable for health if it is the right food. Science has given a lead, pinpointing how much of different kinds of food is necessary for health. Yet even in this land of plenty of ours some are apathetic about right eating. They eat plenty, yet eat wrongly. Belieye it or not,-. there were some cases of scurvy treated in our hospitals last year, Lack of vitamins and trace elements have killed millions from deficiency diseases-beriberi, pellagra, scurvy---but it is plain crazy to have such an illness as scurvy in New Zealand, We require the tiniest amounts of vitamins and trace elements, but a few milligrams or even just a fraction of a milligram. We cannot make eating easy, as was originally thought, by keeping a balance between carbohydrates (starchy foods like cereals, potatoes, bread), proteins (richest in fish, meat, eggs, cheese and milk), and fats, animal or vegetable. We have to make eating scientific because vitamins and minerals are elusive. We miss too much if we go by the yardstick of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. We have to be knowledgeable and selective about our foodstuffs within these broad classes. It becomes a question of proportions; hence the modern term "balanced"-~a. balanced diet for health, In an experiment rats were given diets of the same foodstuffs but in differing proportions. One lot had one part of milk 4 aispord plus two parts of whole wheat. The others had one part of milk powder plus five parts of whole wheat. This experiment was carried on for many generations of rats. Those on the first diet with the larger proportion of milk powder matured earlier, had more "bloom," and kept their "prime of life"

ee a ee eee" rere longer. Both series lived about the same life span. Now this is exactly what is happening in New Zealand. Most of us will enjoy about the same life span, but while travelling life’s road, some will eat without taking thought, and some will have a balanced diet! These latter will develop better as children, will enjoy fitness and stay in their prime longer, and will grow old later, than those who cannot be bothered about eating rightly. During the last war Great Britain, being short of food and wanting to feed the nation according to its needs and not its wants, called in nutrition advisers. The food rationing scheme, so guided, had a "balance," and best value foods were directed to pregnant and nursing mothers and growing children. In spite of doodlebugs and all their war-time troubles, British health improved during the war period. The food you fancy, or want, or have been used to in ample quantities, is not the key to nutrition. Having the food that is right is what counts, Right eating brings health. We have been slow to realise this, We are only now. appreciating that wrong eating shortens life through encouraging those diseases of middle and later years called degenerative diseases, particularly blood vessel and heart diseases, In this year take thought about your eating. Be sure of your vitamins and. trace elements. The foods needed daily to keep you right in these we call "protective"’ foods-milk, cheese, eggs, meat and fleshy foodstuffs, vegetables and fruits. Make these the main foodstuffs, and satisfy appetite lastly with the cereals, bread, cakes, scones, biscuits, which so often come first in our household planning and’ restaurant eating. It is these starchy foods that unbalance our New Zealand eating. As a nation we eat too much of them and too much fat, especially butter. In this year, eat rightly. Think of your eating in this order-milk, cheese, eggs, meat, fish or liver; potato or kumara and vegetables; fruit-keep thinking in that priority and the rest of your eating will not unbalance the diet, because you will have but little appetite left for the things you formerly ate in excessive amounts.