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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 2, No. 9. June 7, 1939

Food Fables — do you believe

Food Fables

do you believe

(1)That fish is a brain food?
(2)That beef tea is very nourishing?
(3)That there are no living germs in pasteurized milk?
(4)That a person can get appendicitis by swallowing seeds of oranges, grapes, and apples?
(5)That the consumption of lemon juice is a simple method of reducing?
(6)That whole wheat bread does not contain much starch?
(7)That whole wheat bread is made of flour obtained from the entire wheat kernel?
(8)That oranges, lemons, grapefruit and tomatoes form acids in the body?

Every Statement is False!

(From "Don't Believe it, says the Doctor," by A. A. Thomen, M.D.)

Cocoa

"An examination of the chemical composition of cocoa might lead one to suppose that it was of considerable nutritive value. But that would be a mistake. Theoretically cocoa is a valuable food, but practically it is not, the reason being that so little of it can be taken at a time.

It takes about 1-3 of an ounce of cocoa to make a breakfast cupful of the beverage, and, assuming the average composition, this would yield about 40 calories. It would, therefore, require fully seventy-five such cupful to yield the total amount of potential energy demanded or the body dally, obviously an impossible an impossible quantity. Of course, if the beverage is prepared entirely with milk and plenty of sugar, it becomes an important food, but that it is due to the milk and sugar, and not to the cocoa."

(R. Hutchison, "Food and Dietetics.")

Glucose

"A remarkable recent development has been a craze for consuming glucose or dextrose. Although it is undoubtedly invaluable in medical practice, dextrose can have no advantage, as far as the normal person is concerned, over jam and honey. However, glucose sweets are all the vogue, and the tendency is to have it incorporated with such articles as cocoa, ice cream, fruit syrups, etc.

"Provided that glucose is regarded as a substitute for cane sugar, no objection can be taken to its use, but the tendency is to make extravagant claims for it and to transform pleasant foods into quack medicines. . . .

"Pure dextrose complying with the B.P. Standard can be landed in New Zealand at about 3d. per pound. . . . The reader (of advertisements) is asked to use this dextrose as an ordinary everyday foodstuff at 2/6 per pound."

(R. L. Andrew, Assistant Dominion [unclear: Atyst]. In an address delivered to the Institute of Chemistry, 26/1/39.)

Bread

Q.—What is false about the following typical advertisement for bread?

"No more diet fads. Eat more bread—the basis for a properly balanced diet. Bread is rich in, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins and cellulose."

A.—Bread certainly is rich in carbohydrates, but contains scarcely any proteins, minerals, vitamins and cellulose.