Knowledge of Healthful Diet

The revelations of modern research in the field of nutrition serve to steadily enlarge our comprehension of the importance of the subject, and at the same time serve to stress the necessity of our keeping well informed, and of putting^- into practice the knowledge thus gained.

The importance of nutrition in the present world situation can scarcely be overempha­sized. In pity we think of great hordes of people, if not whole countries, that in pathetic need find it difficult or impossible to secure the barest necessities, and consequently hunger, malnutrition, and death stalk heavily through some of these lands.

The governments of earth are giving increas­ing attention to the welfare of the soldier as it is affected by proper food, and are looking well to the newer knowledge of nutrition, its influence upon health and the strengthening of the arms of the state. They are also looking well to ways and means of conserving vital foodstuffs in the light of a wider understand­ing of food values. In fact, most countries have come or have been forced to realize that nutritional science is an essential part of mod­em warfare.

This idea has been carried to the point where nutritional discoveries are in some countries closely guarded as military secrets. The ne­cessity for conservation of vital foodstuffs, the decreased production or procurability of protective foods, and the synthetic manufac­ture of certain vitamins, all become matters of much importance on the nutritional front to both the military and the civilian population.

Since modern civilized dietaries are rela­tively lacking in vitamin B complex, and that largely through the use of refined and highly milled grains, the compulsory use of whole-grain breads and cereals is one of the first lines of attack. The fortification of white bread with vitamin B, and calcium is being followed in some quarters, and appears to be coming into rather popular commercial usage. This latter practice is, however, not a wholly satis­factory substitute for whole-grain products. Nevertheless, the fortification of even whole-grain products with labile vitamin fractions is doubtless a sound practice when the foodstuffs are finely divided, subjected to high tempera­tures, etc., in the process of preparation, as are some of the popular breakfast cereals.

Although the average layman is not yet suf­ficiently awakened to the potential possibilities of improved health and physical fitness residing in proper food, yet it is gratifying to contem­plate the advances made in this respect since the day when those who advocated and used graham or whole-grain bread were branded as food fadists.

We are informed that the U. S. Army and Navy have discarded their obsolete cookbooks, and are replacing them with books prepared by dietitians and others who are well versed in nu­tritional science. Today there is a marked awakening of interest in adequate nutrition on the part of various governmental agencies, in­cluding the United States Public Health Serv­ice. To the list should be added public and private agencies doing important educational work in the field of nutrition, perhaps spurred on by the broad objective of raising the health standard of an estimated 45,000,000 malnour­ished Americans—hardly a national asset.

While there are a considerable number of cases of recognizable deficiency diseases, such as pellagra and rickets, in certain blocks of the population, yet there are also abroad in Amer­ica millions who suffer mild manifestations (subclinical) of malnutrition such as gingivitis, bleeding gums, poor teeth, bone and muscular weakness, lassitude, stomach and bowel dis­orders, such as constipation and "dyspepsia," night blindness, vague nervous and mental instabilities, nutritional anemia, undue suscept­ibility to infections, etc.

In studies made of the diets of employed groups, not including the lowest income level, it has been repeatedly found that only about [5 per cent of the diets could be classified as good, while 35 per cent were only fair, and 5o per cent were definitely poor. This state of affairs is reflected in and closely parallels the health status of young recruits for military service, of whom one third or more are being rejected because of serious physical defects. Faulty food is admittedly responsible for many of the defects among a group who consider themselves physically fit.

The fundamentals of nutritional science have been taught in our ranks for many years. In the early days of diet reform, many shrank from the taunts of their neighbors and were a bit ashamed to be labeled "bran eaters." How­ever, the validity of the caution against "finely bolted" wheat flour, agitated by Sylvester Gra­ham and emphasized by Mrs. E. G. White, has become fully vindicated and is a matter of world-wide acceptance today.

The health-protective value of fruits and vegetables prepared in a simple way to preserve all their life-giving elements, is now well known. Counsel regarding their virtues and the need of their liberal use was heralded in S. D. A. ranks long years in advance of the present popular trend. Nevertheless, many of our own folk ate faulty food and suffered ill effects therefrom. Does anyone ask why? Doubtless there were several factors involved, but certainly one was the human dislike of being thought of as "health reformers," and peculiar ; whereas we might well have been proud of advance knowledge and, as diet re­formers, have been more ardent in giving light to those less fortunate.