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It should be our aim therefore to educate the public regarding
the constituents of an adequate diet. Most people usually eat
sufficient of the energy giving foods but they require instruction
in the necessary amounts of protective foods and animal proteins.
Unfortunately these foods are the most costly of all and are
the first to be omitted when the family budget is limited. Improvement
in economic circumstances, which however is beyond the
scope of the Public Health Service, is apparently the only complete
solution of the problem.
Mothers and young children can be actively assisted by the
provision of the most important of all the protective foods, milk.
Milk contains all the essentials of a good diet, and its addition in
most cases compensates for deficiencies in other components. It is
provided free of charge in necessitous cases to expectant and
nursing mothers and young children at the Child Welfare Centres
and is given to older children under the Milk in Schools Scheme.
The examination of children at Child Welfare Centres and on
school medical inspection demonstrates that conditions due to
sub-optimal nutrition are also to be found among the children of
parents who can afford to spend an adequate amount on food. The
remedy in such cases is the education of the parents in the simple
essentials of a balanced diet, and this information is given in
informal talks to parents at the Health Centres and in the course
of school medical inspection.
A booklet has been issued which explains in simple language
what food is required and gives hints on the expenditure to the
best advantage of the money available for food. Similar teaching
is given to the older girls attending the Domestic Subjects Centres
by the teachers who act in close co-operation with the staff of
the Public Health Department. In most cases this teaching is
likely to be passed on to the mothers.
It is found that most parents take an interest in food problems
and are anxious to discuss a child's diet in detail and to put into
practice suggestions for improvement.
Our chief aim should be to make available to the people,
in the form of simple rules for daily life, the great mass of information
on nutrition which science has now placed at our disposal. If these
rules are acted upon a vast improvement in general health must
result.