The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-07
Knowledge Of Food WEI Add Years to Hun1an Life President Scale Harris of Southern Medical Association Tells Why Cow and Gar
 den Are Most Valuable Assets
 for Every Family
for Every Family

Diet and nutrition in relation to health" was the subject of an ad- dress here tonight by Dr. Scale Har- ris of Birmingham. president of the southern Medical association.
 pr. Harris spoke before the con ference of Georgia Health officers during Alumni week of the medical department of Emory University and said among other things:
 ''Twenty-fi years, or mora, can be added to the average life of the coming generation if parents will spend few hours in learning, and in teaching their children the known facts regarded diet and nutrition. Not only that, if the adults of the present generation will put into practice the knowledge of food values and vitamins that Is available to them. they can greatly increase their efficiency and at the same time add years to their lives.
 The Three Kinds of Eaters
 From the nutritional viewpoint mankind is divided into three classes: 1. The fat, over-eaters; 3. The lean, small caters; and 2. the athletic type, the moderate and rational eaters. The first ciass die years before they should from apo plexy, heart and kidney diseases, and diabetes. No life insurance company will insure the person who is more than 20 per cent overweight. The second class becomes victims of tuberculosis, the anemias and nerv- ous diseases They are the chronic invalids and likewise life insurance companies have found from sad ex- perience that the 20 per cent under weight are short lived. In the third class are the happiest. tho most eff ficient and tho long lived men and women of the human race. Heredity has something to do with weight but in s5 out of a hundred cases overweight. or underweight, is question of over or under consump- ton of food.
 Food Values
 One of the great discoveries of this age is what Is known as the isodynamio law, 1. G., that food Is consumed in the human body much in the same way that an engine burns coal; and that the daily amount of food needed for an indi- Vidual at rest or at work can be measured by heat units as can be done with the fuel for a locomotive to make a short or long run. The simple principles of food values can be understood by ten year old boy or girl who can be taught in an hour how to estimate the number of calories in each of his three daily meals.
 The vitamfns
 ssIt is not enough, however, to know simply the amounts of fats starches and proteins that one should eat, he or she should also know something of the vitamins that recently have been proved to exist in various foods. That too Is simple and a practical unable knowledge or vitamins can be learned in an hour or two by any person over ten ana of average intelligence.
 evitamin A that exists in milk, and it's products. butter. cheese. cts, ana in the green vegetables and In many other foods, protects against tuber- c,Iosis. pellagra and diseases of that class. vitamin R, found In the outer portion of the germ layer of wheat corn and rice, that tho mills take from us, and also in many fresn vegetables prevents beriberi ana other nervous diseasess while vita min c, derived from the juice or the yellow fruits and vegetables, l. G. oranges. lemons. grape fruit. toma- toes. etc. prevents scurvy, both Tn the adult and infantile varieties
 The Yeast Fad
 '.with every new scientific dis- covery there arc those who try 10 commercialize it.; so with vitamins' the yeast manufactures and the patent medicine profiteers have created a demand for the so-calieo concentrated vitamins. The well ln- formed physician can prescribed foods that have greater vitamin con tent that are cheaper than yeast or that which is put up in bottles. Be sides the germs that are in yeast uniess killed by cooking. may pc harmful to the stomach and intes- tines.
 s-rhe ere ia an old French proverb to the effect that "the doctor who nrescribes for himself has fool Tor A doctor and fool for patient. The individual who prescribes yeast, or patent medicine vitamins for himseir m the advice of those who make out rageous profits in selling them, Is birger fool than the doctor who pre- scribes medicine for himself. be- cause the doctor does know some thing of the nature of his disease and he also has some knowledge of the effects of the medicine which he takes.
 Education the Remedy
 "A very little effort studying one or two books that have been written for popular reading Is all that Is necessary for any person to know the amounts and the varieties of food that increase efficiency and promote longevity,
 Tt Is strange that schools and col leges which propose to prepare boys and girls to become successful men and women have so long neglected teaching personal hygiene. The aver age college graduate knows no more about the things that he eats than the ignorant cook who selects and prepares his food. Animals have in- stincts that keep them from eating too much. and they instinctively avoid