There is no subject in modern life, apart perhaps
from the daily discussion of the vissicitudes of
war, which has evoked so much study within recent
times than that of the diets of everyday life. I can
safely state that man's interest in food has turned
from the purely primittve instinct of satisfaction in
eating and necessary bodily requirements to the present study rby analysis of food for the rightful satisfaction of eating with a view to enjoying goof health
and with necessary economy. The present day study
is borne out in the publication of at least 5,000
scientific papers yearly dealing with some aspect of
food requirements, whether as vitamin or mineral requirement,
or with a definite bearing on the influence
of food on health. Further evidence of the national
consciousness in this country in the problem of
nutrition, especially as regards the care and healthy
development of the body both in its relationship to
the individual and indirectly to the nation, was
indicated when the Prime Minister in the latter part
of 1936 appointed a Committee of the Economic Advisory
Council to promote the application in our Colonial
Empire of modern knowledge in regard to nutrition.
Although a great deal of information is available
in various forms and in various publications regarding
the amount of foodstuffs produced in and imported into
this country, relatively less has been written concerning
the amounts of the actual foodstuffs consumed.
Z feel there is still insufficient evidence available
to help us over one of the biggest problems - that
of balancing the consumption of the foods imported
with the everyday demand of the housewife. This gap
is being gradually diminished but it will take years
of patient propaganda in the education of the individual
to the realisation of what constitutes a
good healthy diet within his or her means and the
present diets of today which are directly or indirectly
the cause of the greatest proportion of the
present ill-health of the human race.
The problem is really a question of deciding what
a good health- giving diet is and how it differs from
present day diets, considering always the factor of
family income and expenditure. At present most medical
men are agreed, as far as our present day knowledge
goes, on what a good health- giving diet consists of,
but we are on less secure grounds when we consider
the diet of the individual as it is just now. A number
of publications have been brought out from time to
time and at the present time we await with interest
the results of the government's investigation into
the diet of 25,000 families at present being analysed,
but not yet published. (Ministry of Labour, London,
S.W,1. Forms CLI, CLI(Ag.) and CL4.) With a view
to studying the present day diets of a section of the
population of Edinburgh I have brought together in
the papers which follow my dietetic survey of a group
of 50 families who are under my care in an Edinburgh
general practice. The results I believe will be of
interest both as an analysis of the diets of these
50 families as purchased and as eaten. I have also
outlined the diets of some families giving the health
of these families
