werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (10/01/85)
From 'The Lancet'
August 24, 1985
('The Lancet' is probably THE most respected British medical journal.)
LESS SUGAR AND FAT: A RETURN OF MALNUTRITION ?
Sir, -- We are concerned over the recommendation of the suggestions on
food intake given by the National Advisory Committee on Nutrition
Education (NACNE) in the UK with a cutting down of fat and sugar in the
national diet. The WHO Diet and Cardiovascular Report also recommends a
decrease in fat in all national diets.
Most nutritionists consider that the major reason for
undernutrition in developing countries is the low intake of energy, due
especially to the absence or low intake of oils and fats in local diets.
We are concerned that if there is a swing against fat in industrialized
countries, we may see undernutrition more commonly in these places.
Certainly if this concept is applied to children under five in the Third
World, they will have even greater difficulty in receiveing enough energy
from the food given them.
We are also concerned that the advice from NACNE makes no
allowance for the widely varied diets of different communities and ethnic
groups in the United Kingdom, among whom nutritional problems are more
common.
D. Francis, M. Cameron, D. Morely
Dept. of Dietetics and Tropical Health Unit
Institute of Child Health, London
[Actually the gist of the letter reminds me of a story (Chasidic) from
the Reform Jewish Yom Kippur prayerbook:
A rich man comes to a physician who inquires what he eats.
The man says, "A little bread, a little salt, water, no more."
The physician (or was it Rabbi) says, "No, no, no, you must eat meat,
and drink mead." And refused to let the rich man go before he promised to
change his ways.
When asked why, the physician explained, "Not until he eats meat will
he realize that the poor need bread. As long as he eats only bread, he will
the think that the poor can live on stones.]
--
Craig Werner
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"The world is just a straight man for you sometimes"