Teach‐in No 6:Economics of good nutrition

Nowadays it is not particularly low‐income families that are obliged to consider economies, most families are involved. At a time when the food products on the supermarket shelves have never looked so appealing and the promise of the good life seemed within everyone's grasp, how can one strike a balance and keep the family well fed within one's means? The price rises have covered all types of food but when the same rate of increase is applied to the most expensive items, the protein foods, this is the area where it hurts most. This is where most economies are made and if the wrong economies are made it is the area where most dangers lie nutritionally speaking. At the present time, the main sources of protein in the diet, meat, fish, poultry, cheese, milk and eggs, which together provide about 60 per cent of our total protein intake, are also major sources of other nutrients, too. (This is just as well because on average we spend about two thirds of our total food allowance on these animal protein foods each week.) The average woman's protein requirements would be amply covered if she consumes daily one average serving of either meat, fish or poultry, half a pint of milk, 1 oz of cheese, one egg and three slices of bread. The same quantities of these foods would also give her most of the daily recommended intake of minerals, and B group vitamins, and will supply in addition about one half of the vitamin A and vitamin D she is thought to need daily. On the other hand, taking the country as a whole, we spend one third of our total food allowance on cereal foods, fruit and vegetables, and get for our money almost 40 per cent of our total protein intake, 50 per cent of our iron, more than one third of our calcium and almost all of our vitamin C.