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It occurred, therefore, to some of the medical officers of these countries, led by
the late Dr. Carl Schiotz of Oslo, to make a comparison between the effects of giving
to school children a cold breakfast which consisted practically entirely of protective
foods and the effects obtained by means of the usual hot mid-day meal. It is claimed
that the results of the cold "protective" breakfast were greatly superior to those
of the hot mid-day meal. A description of the Oslo breakfast, the extent to which
it has spread, and the results of its substitution for hot dinners is best given in a
letter from Dr. Carl Schiotz himself, which was transmitted through Professor
Drummond of University College, London, who has studied the methods used abroad
of dealing with the problem of feeding school children. This letter runs as follows :
Now the Oslo breakfast is adopted at all public schools in Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim,
Stavanger, Tromso, Harstad, Hamar, Sarpsborg, Horten, Porsgrunn, lately also in some rural
schools in Norway (locally adopted), and, with local adoption, at some schools in Sweden,
Finland and Copenhagen.
The Oslo breakfast, as it is practised in Norway, is composed as follows: J litre unskimmed
milk, a so-called Kneipp-cracker (baked preferably of whole-meal wheat) with margarine and
goat's cheese, further so-called Kneipp-bread with margarine and goat's cheese, amount ad. lib.
Finally, half-an-orange, half-an-apple or one raw carrot; as regards the vegetables, they are
alternated according to the season. Further, it is to be noted that, if oranges are used, the
meal begins therewith; if apples or carrots are used, the meal ends therewith (the cleaning of
the teeth).
The margarine is introduced only for economical reasons. It will now surely in several
places be replaced by butter, as the Government has decided that public and municipal
institutions can get butter at reduced prices.
Experiments for comparing with other forms of breakfast have not been made, but, on the
other hand, experiments have been made for comparison with the former school lunch. The
results after 6 weeks' test were as follows:—The boys at the breakfast-school gained on an
average of 886 g. per individual, at the lunch-school they gained 600 g. The girls at the breakfastschool
gained on an average of 1,029 g., at the lunch-school 429 g. That is, with a very closely
conneoted material (the two schools are socially and hygienically very equal) the weight-increase
for the breakfast-boys equals that of the lunch-boys plus 48 per cent. ; for the girls, the increase
of the breakfast-eaters exceeds that of the lunch-eaters by 140 per cent. There was no other
difference introduced between the two schools than the composition of the meals.
Particular attention is called to the high vitamin content of the Oslo breakfast
as compared with the usual cooked midday meal.
It is felt by many that the same considerations which have prevailed in the
Scandinavian countries are applicable also in the great cities of this country,
particularly in London. Conditions in London are not favourable to the introduction
of breakfasts in place of midday dinners, but there is no great point in the time of the
day at which the supplementary school meal is given, and it may be held that the
Oslo meal would have the same effect if given at midday as if given first thing in the
morning.
Our people are very tenacious of their habits and customs, particularly those
connected with food, and it might well prove that some prejudice would have to be
overcome before all would agree to the substitution of a cold meal of protective
articles of diet in the middle of the day for the usual solid hot meal of meat followed
by pudding. A similar prejudice no doubt had to be met in Norway against the
giving up of the hot midday meal, but, according to Professor Drummond, not only is
the system applied to necessitous children in Norway, but the opportunity to receive
the breakfast has been thrown open to all on payment; and, in 1935, 40 per cent, of
the whole population of Oslo was taking advantage of it, and this proportion has
since been rapidly rising.
It is also, in London, difficult to secure such a close-cut comparison as in
Norway between children fed on the Oslo system and those fed on the present
system, owing to the practice which has developed here of distributing milk to
children in the middle of the morning. The comparison is, therefore, not between
Oslo meal and hot dinner but between Oslo meal plus milk and hot dinner plus milk.
Nevertheless, it was considered that it would be advantageous to try a controlled
experiment under which a relatively small but sufficient number of necessitous