The Menace of Civilisation
A, Deatal Exspert Surveys the Physical Fifects of Diet Deficiencies and Unhealthy Habits of Living
By DR.
ERIC
CARO
HE dentist sees hourly, day after day, the results of faulty living generally and of faulty diet in particular. _ From long experience 1
snow that New Zealanders have, on the whole, very poor teeth. We are not the only people in this deplorable condition. In varying degrees all civilised nations are in the same trouble. We have, however, the name of being the worst off and those of us who are constantly seeing the ravages of dental caries (or tooth decay) especially in children, must reluctantly admit that the name is well deserved. One naturally asks "Why?" to all this dental trouble among civilised nations. Jt is now realised that faulty, deficient diet stands at the back of all other causes. Among the many pronouncements of investigators I will quote Dr. Kappes of the Mayo Clinic, who says, "The only feature that seems to be of definite etiologic significance in preventing decay of the teeth is a diet composed largely of fruit and vegetables. Heredity, infectious diseases and care of the teeth seem to be of little relative significance. The meat diet of New Zealanders-for such it was termed in a newspaper resume of a Government report on the amount of staple foods used per head last year-is badly lacking in the elements necessary to tooth development.
HE human body is composed of myriads of cells, each cell a complete physico-chemical laboratory requiring for its special purposes special elements and complexes needed for its work, One needs lime to enable it to build bone, and it needs also vitamins of special kind to enable it to use the lime wherewith to build the bone. Another needs chlorine to enable it to produce the hydrochloric acid of the gastric juices; but it also, again, needs vitamins of a certain kind to enable it to use the chlorine in the making of gastric juices. So on throughout the myriad cells of the human body. Mineral salts are the scavengers of the body and the purifiers of the blood, they neutralise the waste . products and assist in removing them from the system. A knowledge of the actions and reactions of tineral elements in the Body is the foundation on which the natural system of
» living and healing must be built. [T may surprise some of you to be told that, until sixty or seventy years ago when the work of Pasteur,
Lister and Koch lightened the darkness, we knew practically nothing about the cause of disease. These men and many others after them showed that all round and within us were microbes that caused disease. For many years-indeed up to the present day-: this idea has dominated medical thought. There are inierobes and viruses and tocsins, therefore there is disease. But it did not seem to occur to people that for every evil there is some contending good. The microbe is no exception to the rule. The human race would long sinee have been annihilated by the microbe had it net some efficient means of defence against it. This is where food comes in; food should be of such a nature that it assists to maintain the defence of the hody against the mierohe, De. MeCARRISON, one of the world’s greatest nutrition experts has said, "Two things are of paramount importance: first, no organ or tissue of the body escapes the effect of faulty food that is deficient in vitamins or other
elements necessary for normal nutrition. Second. animals fed on such faulty foods are prone to he inyaded by microbes of at] kinds." According to the kind of food fault---the kind of vitumin, mineral or other food essential lacking-this or that organ or tissue of the body becomes structurally imperfect and therefore functions badly. In one case it is the hone (rickets), in another case (beri beri), in a third case teeth (dental caries), ina fourth the eyes, in a fifth the stomach or intestines, in a sixth the kidneys or bladder and so on, right through all the orgaus and tissues of the body, Thus, depending upon the kind of invading microbe, diseases of different kinds are produced. You all know that caleium or lime is one of the ele. ments most needed in bone ind tooth development. In order to retain health and strength, food should contain the necessary amount of lime salts. Even in the (Continued on page 44.)
"HE problem created by determination of physique in the civilised communities has become one of world-wide importance. In this article a dental specialist summerises the conclusions arrived at by his own experience, and gives clear indication of the new trend of preventive medicine.
The Threat Of Civilisation’ a ee rt
(Continued from page 26).
adult the bony tissues must be renewed from time to time as they are subject to change of matter like all other tissues of the body. If there is a deficiency of lime salts in the food and consequently of the blood, the gelatine of the bones loses its chemical support and begins to decompose. Teeth are attacked in a similar way-also from without by fermenting food debris left about them: sometimes eyen hy saliva. Food isa "Dr, Jekyil and Mr. Hyde,’ it} can make you well and keep you healthy or it can make and keep you old and sick. Son European nations have awakened to the truth of this statement, they have entered into rigid systems of health development, realising that the food problem is one of racial importance. For instance, the Japanese have had abundant reason for alarm. That something has been wrong has been evident to close ohservers for a number of years, In their ambition to be recognised as an up-to-date nation the Japanese haye, within a generation, made such progress in the arts and sciences that they have not only eaught up with the civilised mations, but they themselves have really become civilised. And the rapidity with whieh the destructive effect of modern civilised habits have developed race degeneracy in Japan is a striking
example which should profoundly impress other nations, because of the convincing evidence it offers of the race-destroying tendency of our modern life. The ene hope of the Japanese nation, of our own in fact, is to return to a more natural mode of dieting, living on live and not dead foods. ig is time people awoke to the faci that disease of uny kind does not come without a cause, and that the way is prepared and disease invited hy disregard to the laws of kealth,. All these things are a very real and vital problem in the future of mankind. There has recently been launched a movement throughout the British Empire to increase national health efficiency, but it is remarkable that in the plan of campaign there is no clause which gives specifie attention to the improyement of national diet. In my opinion, the most vital factor to be considered in problems of public health is the factor of saner and more natural eating. So long as people are not sufficiently educated on the subject and our food is commercialised to the extent that it ix-by being treated, altered, processed | coloured, embalmed, adulterated, preserved, pickled, denatured, cooked to death and sterilised---so long as people think of this dead material as food and are not taught the truth: regarding it--so long must the existing menace to the health of the race continue.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/RADREC19380617.2.40
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Radio Record, 17 June 1938, Page 36
Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,259The Menace of Civilisation Radio Record, 17 June 1938, Page 36
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
See our copyright guide for information on how you may use this title.