[Report 1939] / Medical Officer of Health, Cork County Borough.

  • Cork (Ireland). County Borough Council.
Date:
1939
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1939] / Medical Officer of Health, Cork County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    185/200 (page 163)
    balance botween all tho parts of the body which we term health. Of the vast range of foods which are on offer to-day is it possible to enumerate those which are necessary and sufficient for the maintenance of health ? For a definitely affirmative answer to this question we have the authority of Sir Robert McCarrison (also an eminent authority on nutrition) whose work on this subject has received world-wide recognition : There is, therefore, no longer any doubt as to what the right kind of diet is. It is made up of the following eight classes of foodstuffs :— 1. —Whole or lightly-milled cereal grains ; whole wheat flour and the bread made from it or standard bread or bread containing the germ of the wheat and a proportion of the outer skin of the wheat grains ; rye bread ; oatmeal; semolina. 2. —Milk and the products of milk ; cheese, butter, skimmed milk, curds and buttermilk. 3. —Pulses ; peas, beans and lentils. 4. —Fresh green leaf vegetables such as spinach, lettuce, watercress, cabbage, parsley, turnips and young dandelion leaves. 5. —Root vegetables, particularly potatoes, carrots and onions. 6. —Fruit, both fresh and sun dried (including tomato). 7. —Egg. 8. —Meat, including glandular organ such as liver, fowl and fish, particularly the herring. And it is on diets made up for the most part of these that you must live if you wish to be vigorous, hardy and healthy and to remain healthy. Of this regimen it may be said that it is eminently practical and rational. There is not an item of it that may not be produced in abundance in this country, so that, theoretically at any rate, there should be no question of starvation or sub-starvation conditions prevailing here. McCarrison places milk second in importance to wholemeal bread and it is common experience, of course, that milk is a most valuable article of food, especially to the young growing child. There is, however, one drawback to its extended use and that is its cost. It seems extraordinary that in one of the greatest dairying countries in the world, milk should be beyond the purchasing power of the great masses of the poor and that, indubitably, is the position to-day. Milk and dairy products generally have always been among the higher priced foodstuffs which, in view of their great nutritive value, is unfortunate, but they have never been more expensive than now. Various factors have contributed to this increase into which it is unnecessary to enter here but it seems expedient to discuss ways and means which might conceivably tend to bring them within the purchasing power of the poor. Wholemeal bread, milk and butter are so vital to sound nutrition that it is seemly to explore every such possibility. The four great faults in the diets of the mass of the population are, according to McCarrison, the use of denatured white flour instead of whole wheat flour, the insufficient use of “ safe ” milk, the insufficient use of fresh, green vegetable foodstuffs in the form of salads and lastly the excessive and inordinate use of sugar, sweets and sweet cakes. It is with the latter factor that we are concerned at the moment and it will, no doubt, be agreed that sugar is consumed to-day in enormously excessive quantities. The growth of the confectionery industry is sufficient evidence of this. One of the ill effects of this inordinate consumption is, as McCarrison points out, that the balance of the diet is upset, causing it to be excessively rich in carbohydrate relative to vitamin Bi