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8
Various substances, notably, Cod Liver Oil and Cod Liver Oil
and Malt, known to be rich in vitamins, have been the subject
of health propaganda and advertisement. Proprietary substances
claiming to be still richer in vitamins have been produced by the
manufacturing chemists, the climax of which is a vitamin
concentrate with thirteen thousand times the potency of cod
liver oil!
Parents would do well to avoid all foods for their children
(or for themselves) which are claimed to be super-charged with
vitamins, and use only the ordinary fresh foods to be obtained
from milkman, grocer, baker, butcher, poulterer, fishmonger,
fruiterer and greengrocer. If such foods are taken in sufficient
quantity and variety there is no need, summer or winter, for
children to be given even "oil and malt." From my experience
of the slightly subnormal children from better homes, I suggest
that the "oil and malt" mentality, which is now almost
universal in this country, is one of the chief hindrances to sound
nutrition and good physique in this class of child.
Physical Education.
After nutrition, the factor which most concerns the acquisition
of a good physique is sound physical training, or, as I
prefer to think of it, physical education. The Press to-day—
medical, scholastic and lay—is devoting a great deal of attention
to the campaign for a fitter nation.
Games, athletics and gymnastics are all useful in this way,
but I suggest that there should be more constant attention during
school hours and at home to the importance of maintaining good
posture with a view to developing a good shape or figure. The
child should "stand tall," with chin down and in, shoulders
down and back, chest forward and abdomen retracted. Deep
breathing a few times in a good posture should be performed
in the bath at night and repeated many times during the day.
The average posture and physique of the boys are poorer than
those of the girls. It would be a good thing if fathers could
take more interest in the development of their boys. Hundreds
of boys with the makings of first-class physiques are of poor
shape and development because their interest in this direction
has not yet been roused. Boys need male influence from a very
early age if they are to develop into boys and not effiminate males.