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84
It is certain that milk is not being drunk in anything lica
sufficient quantity, nor are eggs, butter, brown bread, cheese of
fresh vegetables, sufficiently incorporated in the dietary of the
poorer person. At our feeding centres children are supplied with a
hot mid-day meal—the traditional meat, potatoes, vegetable, and
pudding meal, which would be given to them in their own house
if their parents were feeding them. In Norway, during the last
years, instead of this type of meal, which is the usual one supplied
for " free meals," a breakfast has been supplied instead of a mid
day meal. This "Oslo" breakfast, as it is called, consists of all the
protective food substances which are as a rule missing from the.
poorer dietary, such as cheese, wholemeal bread, milk, fresh fruit
fresh vegetables, etc. It was argued that the parents could provide
a hot mid-day meal of sufficient bulk to satisfy the children's hunger
and that it would be more beneficial to them to have the protective
foods which they were not likely to get. Theory was justified by
practice. It was proved in Oslo that the children on the Oslo
breakfast improved in appearance and increased in weight and
height more than did the children on the traditional mid-day meal
In Acton, at one of our feeding centres, the experiment was
given a very short trial, and it was stated that the children would
not eat the cheese, bread, etc. provided for them. It is possible to
educate the tastes of the children to enjoy these necessary foods
but probably it would be better to supply such meals as a breakfast
at school, and allow the parents to give the mid-day meal as they
had been doing in their own homes.
Sir John Orr, who wrote " Food, Health, and Income's
tested the adequacy of diets of different income groups in the.
United Kingdom. These diets he estimated on 1152 sample family
budgets. As a result he came to the conclusion that approximately
50% of the population of the United Kingdom have d:€Mrwo
deficient in Vitamins A and C and 50% are deficient in Pho.-pW?^?
and Iron. That there is something gravely wrong with the
of our nation can be guessed by the fact that in 1935, 62 fa '®
pective Army recruits had to be rejected as unfit. The clima.Ve- 6> (
Great Britain increases nutritional difficulties with its lack
and prevalence of damp, cold, and fog. We are by no P**
worst fed country in the world, but our incidence of denWl
which, since the researches of Lady Mellanby, is generally
as a deficiency disease, is one of the highest in Europe.