May is Senior Citizen Month.
The v President of the United
States so designates this month
to help recognize the contribu
tion our elderly citizens make to
society and, in turn, to recognize
their special problems and needs.
How many Americans are in
this group?
Well, one in every ten of our
citizens has reached or passed his -
65th birthday. This means we
have more than 20 million elders
in our total population of over
200 million. The over-65 group is
growing every day by a net gain
of 000 persons a day, or 330,000
a year. The total number of such
people has grown by 30% since
1961.
Within 25 Years
Predictions are that within 25
years or so, older citizens (people
50 and over) will approach or
constitute a majority of our popu
lation. One out of three will be
65 or over.
With this kind of growth ahead
of us, it's predicted that families
will place more emphasis on plan
ning for the elderly than for
children.
Certainly more thought has
been given to all this since the
organizing and carrying out of
the 1971 White House Conference
on Aging. And in this column I’m
interested in pointing
out that nutrition is perhaps one
of the most important aspects of
the aging years.
Besides good general health
habits, nothing will add useful
years to life as substantially as
good meals good “food choices
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Doctor
in the Kitchen 8
by Laurence M. Hurah, M.D.
Consultant, National Dairy Council
SENIOR CITIZEN MONTH
Older people do not need special
foods'. They may need a softer
diet, say, if there are dental prob
lems. But in the main, they need
the same foods as all of us, but
smaller portions, fewer calories.
If older people eat the same
meals as in years before, that in
itself can add weight to their
bodies as they become more sed
entary. Thus they must cut down
on portions as physical demands
become less.
Eating alone can sometimes
offer little incentive to prepare
and enjoy good meals. Eating
alone can also present psycholog
ical problems. These factors are
considerations when it is pro
posed that ways must be found to
provide better production and
distribution of food to older peo
ple in both metropolitan and su
burban areas and in isolated and
rural areas as well.
Older people need easy access
to the food supply. Methods of
assuring this must take into ac
count whether an aged person
lives alone, in a family, in a
group, or in an institution. Many
plans have been launched, in
cluding getting meals to where
aged people live and places near
by where they can join others in
a kind of “school lunch for the
aged.”
The best provision for tomor
row, in my opinion, will be for
today’s adult to learn well his
nutritional needs and how to
meet them. He will then be a
better senior citizen himself when
the time comes.
Easy Access Needed
FOOD FADDISM
In my opinion, food faddism
flourishes because it offers re
sponses to some of our most deep
seated yearnings—yearnings such
as wanting to believe in miracles,
and, certainly, the desire that
everyone has to win over any
fears he might face.
Now what better way could one
ask for to meet these needs than
to believe that certain foods are
miracle foods and that through
them we will have super-health,
or freedom from ill health? Be
sides, the lure of food cults is
not new. It is part of our heritage.
In America, in particular, the
snake oil salesman enjoys an
honored place in our history, in
our respect for gumption and en
terprise. So why not macrobiotic
diets?
Nutrition, A Young Science
Nutrition, which is a relatively
young science, is particularly sus
ceptible to distortion, fads and
cults. We teach that proper nu
trition is associated with health
and poor nutrition with disease.
The public response to so-called
“health foods” stems from this
concept.
Does it matter? Are enough
people involved in food faddism
for physicians like me to worry
about?
The answer is “yes.” Estimates
of the market for fad foods run
as high as $1 billion by 1975. And
an indication that “health food”
items have really caught on is
obvious when major food chains
add “natural” food sections to
their stores.
My argument, for example,
with so-called “organic foods” is
not so much with the items them
selves—except that they are un
necessarily ejgjensive. My con
cern is that we could in no way
produce enough food for this
country by such methods and the
fact that such foods are not su
perior nutritionally to those
raised by the more traditional
methods of agriculture in which
chemical fertilizers are used.
What Is "Natural”
Since all of us and everything
about us are part of nature, what
can there be that is unnatural? To
me, anything that “is” is “natur
al.” And as for plant growing,
plants use only inorganic not or
ganic forms of plant food. They
utilize nitrates, potassium, iron
and phosphates as determined by
the plant’s heredity If the soil is
deficient in certain nutrients you
will get less crop but the quality
of the plants you get will not be
affected. A plant so deficient in
its own needs would simply with
er, be obviously stunted, or die—
and it would never reach the
market as food.
I object, then, to so-called “na
tural” foods because they are sold
and consumed under false premi
ses—premises that help to block
the nutrition education efforts in
this country to help our people
know best how to choose their
food wisely. Next week we’ll talk
more about this.
c r/Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 19,1973
Supports Full Watergate Probe
The sordid mess that has
become known as the Water
gate affair has shaken the
faith of the American people
! n their government and in
the political process.
To restore lost confidence
and trust there must be a
complete public airing of all
facts about the entire Water
gate affair, including highly
improper cover-up attempts
and any other illegal financial
or political activities.
The President has taken an
important first step in getting
to the bottom of the Water
gate mess by accepting per
sonal responsibility for the
conduct of members of his
staff, and by pledging his full
cooperation to reveal all facts
and to hold accountable all
persons responsible.
I recently cosponsored a
Senate resolution urging the
President to appoint a special
prosecutor from outside the
Executive Branch to conduct
all criminal investigations and
actions relating to the Water
gate incident and other acts
of political espionage during
the 1972 Presidential cam
paign.
The criminal investigation
must be conducted by some
one of the highest integrity
who has no connection what
soever with this Administra
tion or with any of the parties
who would be involved in the
investigation. The public
must have complete confi
dence in the thoroughness
and completeness of the
Watergate investigation. Only
a special prosecutor, who is
beyond reproach and who can
immediately command the re
spect of the American public,
can provide us with those as
surances.
I also support a full inves
tigation by the Senate Select
Committee to Investigate
1972 Presidential Campaign
Activities. Earlier this year I
voted in favor of setting up
this committee, and against
a watered-down investigation
which would have looked into
every Presidential election
back to 1964. This amend
ment would have - severely
weakened the investigation of
the Watergate.
Washington
Report
By U.S. Senator
Dick Schweiker
Prior to the President’s ad
dress to the nation on Water
gate, I publicly called for the
immediate termination of all
activities of the Committee to
Re-elect the President. This
committee obviously is knee
deep in the Watergate affair.
It’s continued existence is a
blot on the name and the fu
ture of the Republican Party.
The Watergate incident
also should spur our steps to
create an independent Federal
Bureau of Investigation. The
serious lapse of independent
integrity leading to the re'sig
nation of Acting FBI Director
L. Patrick Gray 111 point to
the necessity of removing the
FBI from any possibility of
political influence. My own
bill on this subject, by setting
up a single ten-year term for
the FBI director, would guar
antee that no President could
ever appoint more than one
FBI director, and that no
FBI director would be subject
to re-appointment pressures
that could undermine the au
thority of an independent
FBI
The entne Watergate affair
has been a shock to all of us
who believe in integrity and
good government. I am not
one of those people who be
lieve that this kind of thing
has gone on for a long time
and was being done by all
politicians. I totally reject
that this kind of thing has
gone on for a long time and
was being done by all politi
cians. I totally reject that
concept!
Our job now is to get all
the facts out in full public
view, to press for prosecution
of all those criminally in
volved, and to set up and en
force such procedures and
laws as are necessary to
make sure that the first
Watergate affair is the last
Watergate affair. Once truth
is applied r to the Watergate
mess, we can begin to lay
the groundwork to make cer
tain this kind of thing never
happens again.
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