Infant mortality in Scotland / the report of a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Committee.
- Great Britain. Department of Health for Scotland. Scientific Advisory Committee on Medical Administration and Investigation.
- Date:
- 1943
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Infant mortality in Scotland / the report of a sub-committee of the Scientific Advisory Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.
49/88 page 47
![PART THREE THE FEEDING OF MOTHERS AND INFANTS CHAPTER 8—THE DIETS OF MOTHERS The General Position : It was shown by Orr in 1936 that the adequacy of diets in the United Kingdom closely parallels the economic status of groups of the population. This was confirmed by the later Carnegie U.K. dietary survey (unpublished) and by numerous other surveys of particular groups. : In general, the quality of the diet is reflected in the stature and health of the consumers. | These observations have shown that, in the United Kingdom, few diets reach the standards recently prescribed as optimal for health, and as many as 30 per cent. may be seriously deficient in several respects. The most common deficiencies are of calcium and vitamins A and C. It is a common observation in poor families that, where food is short, the mothers deprive themselves for the other members of the family. Hence, whenever it has been found that a diet is inadequate for the family as a whole, it will usually be true that the mother will suffer most. Ad hoc Surveys : Few surveys of the diet of pregnant or nursing women individually have been made. The results of one such, on 120 pregnant women in England in 1938 (McCance ef al.), are shown below in Table 38 in terms of Table 38.—Amounts of Foods Eaten by Pregnant Women in Different Income Groups (McCance et al., 1938) Foods per head per week. I ie 2 3 4 5 6 Milk. ; E : : . pints; 5°74) 4°55] 4°76; 2°52 | 3:22) 2°87 Cheese F : ; : OZ 21 0:7 14 1-4 0:7 271 Butter . ‘ ; , : ‘ f 8°4 9°8 7:0 8°4 8°4 9-8 Margarine ae : ; ; 3, — — — 1°4 1°4 4°2 Eggs . : : : : number | 4°2 4°2 2°8 3°5 3°5 2°8 Meat, fish (cooked wt.) . toe) Ofna Bee | 39°01 30:1, | 28°O. | 25:2 1) 16-4 Fruit, fresh and tinned . : h bs 54°6 | 48°3 | 38°5 | 26°6 | 14:7 5°6 Potatoes (cooked wt.) . ; : _ 26°6 | 364 | 46°2 | 32°9 | 25°2 | 203 Legumes, dried (cooked wt.) . : 1-4 0-7 Ob 28 2°8 2°8 Green leafy vegetables (cooked wt.). {s°2 | 16°8 7|,18°9 v1 6°3 4°2 Roots (cooked wt.) : ; : : 3°5 6°3 4°2 3°5 1-4 et aie Raw vegetables and salads ; 9°8 1°4 4°2 49 (| 42 3°5D Total cereals as flour ; 32°9 |40°6 | 386°4 | 43°4 | 44°] | 52°5 Sugars : : zo 10°5 | 14:7 | 16°8 | 11°9 | 10°5 9°8 | Jam and marmalade . 6°3 4°9 2°8 14 1°4 1°4 foods eaten. For comparison, Table 39 gives the allowances of foods recom- mended in 1936 by the League of Nations Technical Commission, in 1939 by Stiebeling (moderate cost diet) and in 1941 by Tisdall e al. Table 40 shows the analyses of the diets in terms of a number of constituents, and Table 41 the allowances proposed in 1941 by the U.S. National Research Council. It is plain that in all classes (Table 38) the consumption of milk, cheese, fruit and vege- tables falls short of the amounts considered by authorities to be desirable. The usual social gradient in quality of diet is shown and the diets of the lowest income group fall below the standard for foods in all items except cereals and fats. These differences in food consumption are reflected in the composition of the diets. The recommended allowance of 2,500 Calories is for the second half of pregnancy. Since McCance’s survey included pregnancies between three and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32174640_0049.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
