Enough to eat? The nutrition film (1936)

many people in this country are not properly fed scientists for years have been studying the ways in which food affects health and growth and the results of a great deal of their work were made known early in 1936 their conclusions were widely reported in the newspapers and they shocked the public conscience the scientists said that the health of the nation was being Gravely affected by insufficient food and wrong feeding some of them went so far as to say that half the people of Great Britain are undernourished it seems surprising that large numbers of people can be underfed or wrongly fed without themselves or anyone else realizing it yet such is the case the recent discoveries of Science in the field of nutrition have indeed opened up a new era in medicine so let us meet a few of the leading workers in the field and here some of their main conclusions in 1912 sir Gand Hopkins late president of the Royal Society whom you see here in his Cambridge laboratory drew the attention of the scientific world to the existence of vitamins those organic constituents of common foods which are needed for proper growth and to give protection against disease in 1923 Sir John or who is director of The roit Institute and of the Imperial Bureau of animal nutrition proved the value of the traces of minerals present in Foods here you see him among some experimental animals on the institute's farm he carried out experiments on animals which showed that a minimum of calcium iron and phosphorus was absolutely necessary for their proper growth and full health in 1932 Sir Robert McCarron's work in India showed that the great variation in physique between different Indian races was a direct result of the difference between their diets those Southern races which live principally on Rice are poor in physique as compared with the northern races which eat milk fruit vegetables and meat at the present time at the RIT Institute in abedine a group of rats are being brought up on a typical poor workingclass diet and compared with another group of rats fed upon on a good diet here's a typical rat from each group the smaller rat received the workingclass diet you can see how much healthier and more lively the bigger one is children are the first victims of bad or insufficient food practical experiments have been carried out upon school children to find out what happens when foods are given over and above the ordinary diets which were reckoned in the past to be satisfactory at Christ's Hospital the famous blue coat School Dr friend the school doctor has watched for many years the effects of changing diet upon the boys at the school here you see the boys of the school being weighed and measured perhaps the most important Point established was that the addition of a pint of milk to a quite generous diet made boys grow taller and heavier reduced their proness to various diseases and gave them more physical and mental Vitality there is a marked difference in the Heights of boys drawn from different classes of society at 13 years of age the boys at Christ's Hospital School are on an average nearly 2 and 1 half in taller than those from Council schools at 17 they're nearly 4 in taller than working boys of the same age these differences are largely due to differences between the food they eat let us go a little further into this question of how food consumption varies between class and class Sir John or whom you saw earlier in this film recently set about discovering what foods people eat in this country and how much of them before we consider some of his findings let us first roughly classify the important constituents of food everybody knows about the energy foods which make the body work and keep us warm the carbohydrates such as starch and sugar fall into this group and also the fats white bread cereals potatoes sugar margarine SE or entirely or largely composed of such energy food stuffs their job is to act as fuel for the body not to build it up or to protect it against disease then we have the proteins they are the bodybuilding food stuffs which are so important for growing children and for keeping the body of the adult in repair the most important foods in this class are milk eggs cheese fish and meat finally there are the protective food stuffs whose value was only re recently been discovered these are the minerals principally calcium phosphorus iron and iodine and the various vitamins the foods particularly rich in them are milk and milk products eggs vegetables fruit salads fat fish- like heading and fish oils like cod liver oil as you have already heard the vitamins and minerals protect against disease build up and keep in repair the body tissues and bones and maintain the quality of the blood the next thing we want to know is whether people in this country do get enough of these essential Foods or not to begin with how much money is spent ahead on all foods each week by the people in this country here are the figures 4 and A2 million spend on the average four Shillings ahead then there are 9 million spending about six shillings ahead another 9 million spent 8 Shillings still another 9 million 10 Shillings and again another 9 million about 12 Shillings and lastly come 4 and A2 million with an average weekly food bill of 14 Shillings ahe that makes six groups in all now let's see how the consumption of two important foods bread and milk changes as we pass from the lowest spending group to the highest in the four Shilling group the average consumption of milk is about a pint a head a week the consumption of bread which here includes flour used for other purposes is about 68 o when we pass on to group two Shillings ahead the milk consumption has risen to about 2 pints ahead but the change in consumption of bread is negligible and as we pass up through the groups the consumption of milk increases rapidly but the amount of bread and flour eaten hardly changes why is this bread prevents you feeling hungry and gives you energy to get through a day's work but the value of milk is not immediately apparent so the housewife in the lower groups must buy bread first the this leaves her with very little money to buy milk and even in the 14 Shillings group the consumption of fresh milk is only about 5 A2 pints a week per head whereas the experts are all agreed that it should be at least seven now let's see what deficiencies there are in the consumption of those valuable food constituents the minerals calcium and iron for example these six men represent our six income groups here we have marked a level of adequacy that is the consumption of calcium necessary for perfect health the people in the highest group get enough consumption Falls away rapidly until only a tiny percentage of the standard requirement is satisfied in the four Shillings group and remember that calcium builds bone and tissue and is needed to keep the body in repair now for iron which controls blood quality and prevents anemia in the lower groups it begins to fall rapidly and shows serious deficiencies what are the effects of these deficiencies Sir John O tells us that of a thousand women in abedine drawn from the three lowest income groups that's to say from the poorer half of the community half of them 500 showed some anemic symptoms while 150 were severely anemic so John O's conclusion is that a diet really adequate for health is eaten by barely half the community while that of the poorest class numbering at least 4 and a half million people is deficient in every constituent these Countrywide conclusions are supported by many local surveys investigators have gone into the homes of all classes of the people and obtained from them exact information on the food they are able to buy and the money they spend on it among the many workers who have made this kind of study a Dr mcore medical officer of Health in Stockton ones and Dr Boland medical officer of Health in the London bar of bethnal green I started to find out the consumption of milk and butter in bethl green I found that the average consumption of milk prar person was less than half the average for the whole country and the consumption of butter was less than 1/3 the national average and you must remember that the national consumption of milk and butter is too low now I've been finding out in my own District how much the average housewife has to spend and what she spends it on right down to the last penny I usually have 21 CH left for eight of us for food I see about 28 meet for each person yes how often do you have meat well pretty well every day things are pretty bad on Thursday and Friday that I'm not able to Mor to get it on Fridays sometimes on Thursdays but now Mrs seite I see you're five in family and you've got four Shillings a week to spend for each of you on food do you find you can feed your family well enough on that well not very well it's rather difficult at times of course uh in the winter it was more difficult with cold Etc been expensive and I've seen my husband and myself going rather short sometimes to give the children a dinner towards the end of the week of course we've had bread and jam or bread and margarine and a cup of tea are you able to buy as much fruit and as many vegetables as you'd like no not as many as I should like of course just now the vegetables are cheaper and they were a few months back beans and cabbage my children are very fond of them but as I said a few months back cabbages were 4 and 6 a pound and we never saw cabbage for weeks and fruit of course they get a little saser and have a few coppers to spare but towards the end of the week as I say it's kind of scratching along the scientists in their Laboratories and the social workers in their investigations have shown us what is wrong with the National Diet I am the secretary of the Zoological Society and at the zoo we have found the absolute necessity of giving the animals proper food if we gave the gorillas and chimpanzees a diet like like that actually eaten by millions of human beings in this country we should be rightly blamed for not keeping them in proper condition let us see what is actually being done about this National problem nutrition is bound to play an important part in the National policy of this country many government departments are directly concerned with it in fact we really need a national food policy an example of government policy is to be found in the activities of the mil marketing board by means of subsidies and the control of milk production the consumption of milk was last year increased by 78 A2 million gallons 2 and 3/4 million school children receive daily rations of milk at a specially reduced price of a hapen for 1/3 of a pound here is Mr Walter Elliot at an elementary school on the first day of the cheap milkin schools scheme state grants make possible much of the work of maternity and child welfare centers here in the sh ditch Bar Council Center in London which was built with the help of the carnegi trust free midday meals are provided for nursing and expectant mothers with small incomes a similar service is provided in Birmingham and a few other districts but the practice is not yet General children up to the age of five present a special problem of nutrition the first 5 years of life are the most important it's during this period that the foundations of good health and physique should be laid here in Shaw ditch free meals are provided for these toddlers they are given plenty of the protective and bodybuilding Foods C liver oil for example a few children needing Special Care live at the center others are brought in each day for a midday dinner at the present time such meals for toddlers are provided at only a few centers the valuable results achieved will no doubt lead to an extension of the practice at this maternity and child welfare center mothers are given regular construction by a qualified dietician in the importance and value of different food stuffs and the best methods of preparing them the great Municipal bodies Birmingham Manchester London and the rest are also at work to check under nourishment we cannot show them all but the largest will serve as an example here is Mr Herbert Morrison leader of the London County Council to tell you what London is doing London's County Council is fighting hard to overcome malnutrition amongst the children attending our elementary schools where lack of food is found to be the cause free dinners and milk are immediately provided at school in the London County council's area there are 900 elementary schools providing education for 490,000 school children about 6,000 of these children because of the poverty of their parents cannot be fed properly at home so we make sure they will have at least one good meal every school day by providing a free midday dinner for them but for some children the solution of this problem of ill nourishment is not so clear and straightforward these children therefore are sent to one of the council's special nutrition centers for a full investigation of their cases at each Center there is a care committee organizer her job is to disc cuss the mother's difficulties and help her carry out the doctor's orders children under treatment attend the clinics regularly at each visit they are examined to see whether progress is satisfactory the doctor advises the mother on diet and any other home treatment each year in the schools there is a routine medical inspection for about 200,000 children it was found last year that 11,000 of them were below the normal standard of neut nutrition anemia is one of the commonest results of malnutrition so at regular intervals samples of the children's blood are taken and tested now after the nation and the municipalities let us turn to a still wider field of effort the League of Nations the league in November 1935 set up a committee to report upon the problem of nutrition VI count ASA was chairman of that committee and here he is to tell you something about it two points were emphasized in the course of the debate firstly that the many people were underfed and secondly that there are Surplus supplies of food stuffs in some countries the experts are agreed that there is malnutrition in some cases this amounts to hunger and even to starvation but in all countries even in a prosperous country like Britain there is much ill health in and suffering due to malnutrition ignorance about proper diets is widespread and poverty is the main factor in malnutrition governments must face this and take proper steps to deal with especially must they provide proper and adequate food for children as regards agriculture if people eat enough of the right food there will be no over Supply in fact Farmers all over the world will have to increase their output most countries also will have to import considerable quantities of food if the cost of living of the poor is to be kept low this means that a wise nutrition policy will help to restore world trade and so be an important factor in the preservation of peace and now what must we do in England here is what Dr mcgonagal has to say the average workingclass housewife by rule of thumb methods knows pretty well what food stuffs to buy to feed her family properly though she doesn't know the difference between a vitamin and a bus ticket yet our investigations show quite clearly that as her income increases she approaches more and more nearly to a really satisfactory diet but there are hundreds of thousands of Housewives who cannot afford to buy enough of the high-grade protective Foods all they can do is to feed their families with the lower grade filling Foods so they won't feel hungry thus there is no starvation but their physical development may be interfered with and their resistance to Disease lowed by a shortage of just those particular items of the diet which are so expensive no complete solution of our problem is possible without considerable economic changes either by providing the lowest paid members of the community with increased purchasing power or with cheap or free milk and other protective Foods but such a solution is a difficult long-term matter which will need all the community's patience and Ingenuity meantime for a large number of people particularly in in the higher income classes much good can be done within the present limitations by teaching proper choice and use of foods let us Briefly summarize the rules of good feeding you'll remember earlier in this film how we classifi the different types of food to make up a good day's food for a working man we must select some of each group to give a balanced diet fresh milk covers two groups and he should have a pint of it 2 oz of butter some green salad some green vegetables and an orange or a tomato then plenty of cheese or meat and from the energy foods bread potatoes sugar and butter or margarine pastries corns and other appetizing foods are cheap sources of energy as well but for the growing child this is not a well balanced diet in proportion he needs more of the bodybuilding and protective foods and less of to the energy foods less bread and sugar too much sweet stuff May spoil his appetite and cut down the money left for his mother to buy green stuff cheese milk fruit and meat which are more expensive but'll keep him healthy and help him to grow properly now you see how the food has been changed to give a properly balanced diet for a child babies need plenty of milk they need daily cod liver oil and orange juice so does the expectant and nursing mother she should have green salads and vegetables and fresh fruit every day sea fish once or twice a week liver likely cooked is a valuable food for her these foods help to prevent anemia and rickets the protective Foods milk eggs fruit vegetables are the most valuable for everyone but especially for the children every child should have at least a pint of milk a day let us us sum up it is not the business of this film to attempt a complete solution to the problem of malnutrition nor does it try to forecast the future its aim is to describe the existing situation but not in terms of harrowing pictures of the worst sufferers from serious deficiency diseases these it has deliberately avoided the real problem of malnutrition is less obvious and spectacular in its effects but much more widespread the most striking thing is that we are more acutely aware of the problem today than ever before though we know that we have barely begun with its practical solution the conscience of the nation is aroused the new scientific knowledge has shown us a new standard of Life at which to aim a new Charter is being written for the people of the world and by whatever means the problem is tackled a better level of health and nutrition must and will be achieved