The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-06-11
NUTRITION AND
LABOR
THE FOOD FOR OUR SOLDIERS
IN OVERALLS

(This is the first of series of
articles written by DR.. Mark Grau-
bard, Industrial Workers Nutrition
SpecialiSt.)
1t is always best for intelligent
people not to fool themselves. For this
reason it is most desirable from every
point of view to start this series of
articles with the frank admission that
it is not an easy matter to change our
own food habits. Educated as we'll as
illiterate people professionals, busi-
ness men or working people all are
slaves to habit And we must know our
habits, If we are to change them.
knowledge of vitamins alone does not
make people give up bad eating habits
Similarly, many people know how
many are killed each year by reckless
driving. But it takes more than that
to make careful drivers out of bad
ones.
Now, our dietary habits and tastes
were not selected consciously by any
of us but, so to speak, sneaked up on
us in the course of our growth and de-
velOpment. Nor We're our tastes and
habits guild ded by our parents or
teachers with any knowledge OF the
role which food and vtaminS play In
the physical and mental we'll being of
! the individual. On the contrary, our
eating habits are the results of custom
and tradition, of the kind of cooking
our mothers were accustomed to- mixed
with some personal likes and dislikes.
These depend on chance association, on
fancy and individual psychological
! twists.
Consider the following illustration
as evidence of how strongly entrenched
food habit can be- We eat bread and
many of us believe that bread natur-
/ ally tastes good to everybody. SO it
does---to us. But 50 different can human
beings be that not all people eat bread.
In reality bread is eaten only by less
than forty per cent Of the entire hu-
man race. About fifty per cent eat rice
as their staple food with just snackS
of other things. Now, people accus-
toned to bread cannot feel well psy-
chologically on diet of rice. And our
boys who are captives in Japanese
prison camps do not have an easy time
living on rice. Similarly Orientals de-
prived of rice and given bread instead,
will also feel completely dissatisfied.
Just as we cannot escape having our
peculiar language so can we not avoid
having our peculiar foods and our own
ways of preparing them. We, who cam.
paign for good eating habits, do not
want anyone to give up his preferences
his likes or dislikes or his traditional
dishes. What we want people to do Is
to realize that they can retain all their
favorite dishes but may need to supple
ment them so as to have n scientifically
sound diet We should enjoy our food
but we must not let our personal tastes
undermine our health. On the contrary
food should build it up. And this car
easily be done by every one of us If we
have the will to put it into practice.
To achieve this aim, only two steps
must be taken at the start. The first
is to realize that we must get to know
Il thing or two about what a good bal
anced meal is; and the second is to re
peat to ourselves that we are deter
mined to modify little our habits In
order to make this important adjust
mcnt for our own good, for the sake
of our family, and for the good of the
national effort requiring our strength
In the following articles we shall dis
cuSs the various foods we eat, theil
meaning to our body and their healtl
building powers. We shall also tall
about human nature SO that we get t
know our own psychology, our menta
and emotional attitudes, the better t
master our habits and learn to prac
tice what we preach or what science
tells us.
(TO be cOntinued)