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Food Supply.—Though not, strictly speaking,
within the events of the year, yet at a date antecedent
to that at which I write, a question has
arisen of such vital importance to the national
well-being that I think it desirable, as a Health
Officer, that I should express my views on it in the
hope that they may be of some service in directing
attention to a matter that is far from being
properly understood and appreciated, and that to
secure success has to win its way against sturdy
opposition and not a little prejudice. I refer to
the notice recently issued by some of the leading
medical men in the country with respect to the
wholly unsuitable bread that is being consumed by
the nation at large and which they hold is to a considerable
extent responsible for the deterioration
in the standard of health and physique of the
present and on-coming generations.
They have issued a Manifesto to the effect that
"they believed it to be a national necessity that a
standard should be fixed for the nutritive value of
what is sold as bread, and that the flour used
should contain the whole of the nutritive substances
in the wheat berry. The physical
deterioration of the nation in recent years has been
largely caused by the general consumption of white
bread which does not contain this nourishment."
With this pronouncement I thoroughly and wholeheartedly
agree, and give as my opinion that it can
be proved beyond a doubt.
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