Thought for Food

To the American Association for the Advancement of Science, meeting in Milwaukee last week, Dr. Victor George Heiser (An American Doctor's Odyssey) made a powerful plea for proper stoking of the human machine. Science has proved, said he, that the greatest factor in longevity is correct eating.

Dr. Heiser quoted a now-classic experiment : "Sir Robert McCarrison established in India [in the early 1920s] a thoroughly healthy rat colony. The [1,189] stock rats were fed a diet similar to that eaten by certain peoples of northern India, among whom are some of the finest physical specimens of mankind. The diet consisted of whole-wheat flour, unleavened bread lightly smeared with fresh butter, sprouted Bengal gram (legume), fresh raw carrots and cabbage, unboiled whole milk, a small ration of raw meat with bones once a week. . . . During two and a quarter years [about 70 years for human beings] there was no illness among these rats, no deaths from natural causes occurred in the adult stock, and there was no infant mortality."

Another group of 2,243 rats was given food eaten by natives of southern India, who are puny and disease-ridden. Their menu, cereal grains and vegetable fats, no milk, butter or fresh vegetables. Not only were these rats stricken with well-known deficiency diseases such as pernicious anemia (lack of iron), goiter (lack of iodine), beriberi (lack of vitamin B), but they also developed pneumonia, pleurisy, deafness, adenoids, eye ulcers, kidney stones, gastric ulcers, heart disease, skin infections.

Dr. Reiser's moral: a well-balanced diet fortifies man against most of the common diseases.

For years nutritionists have tried to teach the U. S. public common sense about eating. But most people who can afford to eat well eat unwisely, pour enormous quantities of oils, sugars and refined starches into their overworked digestive engines. "If a diet is correctly balanced," said Dr. Heiser, "a smaller quantity of food will suffice." Certain it is that middle-aged persons who keep slightly underweight have a good chance of outliving their self-indulgent friends. Facts on food:

> There is no standard diet to fit all ages and classes. A hard-working farmer or laborer needs an abundance of fuel foods such as bread, potatoes and meat. A growing child needs almost twice as much food as his sedentary father. A Southerner needs less starch, sugar and fat than a Northerner. A desk-bound businessman needs practically no white bread, potatoes, cakes and pies. But for health and longevity, eaters of all ages and classes must tuck in one quart of milk every day, a variety of vegetables, fruits, fresh red meat, fish, and eggs several times a week. Also essential are whole-wheat grains (in bread).

> Simplest vitamin rule: eat bright, colorful foods. Yellow foods, such as butter, corn, carrots, egg yolks, are rich in vitamin A (essential for good eyesight). Greens are rich in minerals, and in vitamins A, B and C. With a variety of fresh, gently cooked vegetables, says the U. S. Public Health Service, no healthy person need worry about vitamin deficiency, or spend money on pills, tonics, "vitaminized" foods.

> Of vital importance is cooking. Violent boiling or prolonged frying kills delicate vitamins. Safest for stomachs are light meals, simple cooking, liberal portions of rare meats, raw vegetables.

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