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whereas with cows' milk the reverse is true, a fact which has
never been given sufficient publicity. It would seem that concentration
on "calorie intake" of infants at this time has been almost to
the exclusion of the intrinsic qualities of its ingredients.
Ingestion of further superfluous saturated fats continues in the
pre-school child whose good behaviour is solicited by pressurised
parents with a surfeit of cakes and biscuits and other unsuitable
comestibles. As the present day tendency is for both parents to go
out to work, school children become more dependent upon the
provision of a midday meal by the education authority. Clearly,
school meals should bear some relation to a child's home diet
and their contents should supplement rather than replace the
domestic regimen, always supposing that parents understand and
care about nutritionally sound and balanced diets. However,
experience shows this not to be the case.
With such a situation, it should occasion no surprise to find
that of school children inspected in the Borough during 1970,
viz. 16,334, some 119 were noted for treatment and a further
350 for observation in connection with obesity, equivalent to
28.72 per 1,000 children examined.
As rates of growth vary with age it would be logical to relate
the intake of foods with a particular period of childhood and their
nutrient contents varied accordingly — undoubtedly a counsel of
perfection and most unlikely to be followed.
Nevertheless, it is more than conceivable that the predisposition
to obesity in middle age, with all its disabilities, could be founded in
the dietary imbalance of our very early years when feeding
patterns are established. Unfortunately a reorganisation of dietary
habits is not the panacea for we lack the ability to assess and
redress the physiological changes brought about by these very
same perverse practices.
Intelligent control of obesity lies in its prevention.
Respiratory Diseases
Affecting all ages and ranging from the common cold at one
extreme to lung cancer at the other, respiratory illness spans a wide
clinical spectrum and its influence on life and health is so extensive
that it concerns everyone.
National Insurance statistics reveal that, during 1970, new spells
of certified incapacity arising from diseases of the respiratory system
amounted to 4,131,200, equivalent to 42.2% of the total from all
causes. Of all working days lost through incapacity these same
diseases were responsible for 82½ millions, (some 25% of the
whole) with bronchitis being the major cause.