Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Volume XXXI, Number 14, 5 August 1936 — SEES VALUE OF POI AS A FOOD [ARTICLE]

SEES VALUE OF POI AS A FOOD

Further attention to the food value of poi has been drawn by an article written for a recent edition of the American Dental Association Journal by Dr. Hermann Becks and Dr. Nina Simmons of the University of California college of dentistry. Combined with plenty of sunshine, poi is excellent for the building up and maintence of sound healthy tooth and bone structure, the article says. It explains: 'Poi, a food long used in Hawaii, is a good source of calcium and phosphorus when it is used in generous amounts, as it apparently was by the early Hawaiians With plenty of sunshine, which in turn means abundant vitamin D, it is not strange that the early Hawaiians had excellent bones and teeth. Fish and other foods available furnished protein and the other necessary vitamins. "Owing to the intensive sunshine, which in turn means an abundance of vitamin D, the diet of the population as a whole should contain an abundance of calcium as well as other factors. This was true when poi furnished such a large part of the food supply of the early Hawaiians." One investigator found that poi contains about twice as much vitamin B as milk, according to the article.

Tōnching on certain tlietary iteins ot])crwise and their relation to tooth heaHh, tho article <tate* that an imlicntetl change in diet in onler to sbring about tooth health, is not alwa.ys easy to

attain. "Hoine adolts (!o not Hkē miik, others beliete the.v eun not lake it, othors \vant a hot drink with their .meals and they d<> iiot \vant eoeoa. Comparativt'ly few adulfcs whose diets have heen studied \vant to tuke even a i>int of milk every day."