Evening star., 1939-02-27

UctWccH dUOuIiulIlS vitality dIlu Hlcl
The Bureau of Home Economics
Of the diets of families of city
workers, in which DR.. Hazel K.
Stiebeling and her co-workers an
alyzed 1000 weekly food records,
gathered in 43 cities in regions
Of the country during 1934-37.,
This diet study is vital part of
the great national movement to
conserve the country's resources
this time its human resources. It is
movement to prevent human ero-
sion," to use DR.. Stiebeling's words
Measured against present-day
standards of good nutrition, the
diets Of fully half of these families
40 to go per cent-were found to
be in need OF improvement.
Many of these not-so-good diets
were satisfactory except in one or
two respects. But, of course, most
OF the really poor diets failed to
meet the needs OF the body In sew
eral ways. Sometimes there was
not enough food of any kind.
Among the diet faults there was
striking need for more calcium
and more vitamin A. Often a fam
llys food selections did not give
them a liberal allowance Of the
other vitamins and minerals.
Fewer than half of all these fam
lilies chose foods that would give
them what nutritionists call "safe
allowance" Of calcium, necessary for
the building of bones and teeth and
some OF the body processes.
A surprisingly large number of
all the families, nearly 4 out of S, did
not receive the generous allowances
OF vltamin A now recommended
Only about one-third of the fam
lies got enough vitamin A to fully
protect them against what is known
as nutrltional night blindness
the failure OF the eyes to adjust
quickly from bright to dim light, or
vice versa.
Although there are many mex
penslve sources of vitamin Bl (thia-
MIN. only about half of these fam
lies selected foods that would give
them liberal allowance of this
vitamin.
And as for vitamin c (ascorbic
acid, probably half of the families
went without the daily allowance
that nutritionists recommend
Ascorbic acid is the vitamin that is
SO often destroyed in cooking and
must be supplied daily because i,
cannot be stored In the body.
Only about half the families could
be sure of plenty of iron from the
foods they selected. The diets OF
one out of four families were plainly
short In this mineral which is es-
sential to the work of the red blood
cells.
One Sided Diet
Is Rated Poor"
Families with only very small
sums to spend bought largely OF
foods that satisfy hunger at low
cost. Their diets were one-sided
and rated as poor" in the studies
Those that spent more money for
food had a better chance for we'll
balanced fare. for most of them
bought more milk. eggs. vegetables
and fruits, than the very poor fam.
lilies.
But plenty of money for food die
not always mean good diets, anc
small expenditures did not alwav.
mean poor diets. Some homemaker.
managed to serve their families ex.
celient meals. from the standpoint
OF nutrition, at very low cost Other!
spent more. but made poor selec.
tions. Out of every 10 familie.
spending enough to get completely
satisfactory diets, only 2 to I
made really wise selections.
Two easy-to-follow rules for Sc.
curing diet adequate in all re.
spects are advocated by nutrition
specialists.
The first, proposed by DR.. H, c
Sherman of Columbia University
tells how to apportion the food dol
lar: Spend as much for milk ane
cheese. and as much for fruit ane
vegetables. as you do for eggs, lear
meat, poultry and fish"
The second, proposed by th'
Bureau OF Home Economics in Diet.
to Fit the Family Income" gives de.
tails for the use of the differen
types of foods in moderate cos
diets:
Milk: Allow one quart daily fol
each child, one pint for each adult
(This includes fluid, dried, or evap.
Grated milk used in cooking. Mill
may also be in the form of cheese
or ice cream.
Vegetables and fruits: At leas
four or five servings per person