Report of the Joint Sub-Committee on Welfare Foods.

  • Great Britain. Joint Sub-Committee on Welfare Foods.
Date:
1957
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Joint Sub-Committee on Welfare Foods. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/40 (page 11)
    29. The lower quartile occurs at or below the level of vitamin C intake (10 mg. below the age of two and 15 mg. above) recommended by the B.M.A. Committee on Nutrition, 1950@ (see Appendix 2). That is to say, about 25 per cent. of children were on diets which are by this criterion “low”. The sources of vitamin C in the diets of such children are of interest. During the first year of life about 80 per cent. comes from milk of one form or another. After the age of one potatoes and other vegetables together provide nearly twice as much vitamin C as does milk. Though the dietary figures relate to 1951, the position is unlikely to be much changed. A characteristic of these “‘ low ’’ diets was that the contribution from citrus fruit was invariably small. We learn from the records of food passing into civilian consumption, and from the National Food Survey data), that there has been a fall in consumption of oranges in recent years. 30. As might be expected, many of these children did not receive welfare orange juice or a proprietary preparation. The effect of such supplements was, broadly, to reduce, by a little less than half, the number whose intakes were below the levels put forward by the B.M.A. Vitamin C in the Diet of Expectant Mothers 31. Dr. Angus Thomson’s evidence on the average intakes of primigravidae in Aberdeen (loc. cit.) showed a social trend of diminishing intakes, from 91 mg. daily in the Registrar-General’s social class I & If (RGI & ID to 71 mg. in RGV. This refers to food as purchased and, when allowance was made for cooking losses, 17 per cent. of women in RGI & II and 46 per cent. in RGV were judged to be on intakes below the recommended B.M.A. level of 40 mg. Occurrence of Disease due to Vitamin C Deficiency 32. Howell et al. (1954) Gi reported six cases of scurvy in children in Cornwall, in the years 1950-52, and stated that ten cases had been seen in the previous five years at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Birmingham Children’s Hospital (Braid, 1954)Gy had seen one or two cases annually, but saw seven in 1954. 33. In the replies received from the nine paediatricians consulted in England, eighteen cases of scurvy were reported, nearly all towards the end of the first year, and a further six cases were reported from Wales. One case was also reported in a child aged seven with mental retardation and persistent vomiting due to a chronic subdural haematoma, and one case, over the age of two, with no special features, was reported by one of our members. Paediatricians in Scotland reported two cases in 1953 and none since. 34. The nine obstetricians and seven Medical Officers of Health in England who replied to the Ministry’s enquiry, were unanimous on the absence of scurvy in expectant mothers. The replies received from Scotland and Wales were also uniformly negative. (i) British Medical Association. Nutrition Committee. Report, 1950, London. (ii) National Food Survey Committee, Annual Reports, H.M.S.O. (iii) Howell (G.), Palmer (P. E. S.) and St. John-Brooke (W. H.) 1954. Brit. Med. J., 2, p. 1143. (iv) Braid (F.) 1954. Brit. Med. J., 2, p. 1232.