A story in The Fiji Times of Saturday, December 7, 1963 got public attention when it higlighted the problem of malnutrtition in Fiji.

According to the story, nutrition expert, Margaret Parkinson, had said the breakdown in social systems of the mid 1900s had contributed to the increase in malnutrition in the country.

Ms Parkinson had just retired from the Fiji Medical Department, after many years of service in the field of nutrition and dietics, when she made the comment.

She was trained as a dietician in New Zealand and went on to England in 1946 to work for the Ministry for Foods, for two years.

“It was at the send of the British Government’s rationing programme,” she was quoted in The Fiji Times as saying, “I was involved in research and surveys on health and feeding levels and advisability of rationing schemes.”

“I realized there was no future for women in nutrition unless they had a degree, so I got a scholarship to the United States.”

Ms Parkinson spent two years working for a master’s degree in nutritional science, specializing in nutrition problems of developing countries, at Cornell University.

In 1950, she returned to Fiji as nutritionist with the South Pacific Health Service. The British and NZ governments set up this service in 1948 to help their Pacific Island territories.

She began her work in the health service with a series of nutrition surveys conducted in Samoa, the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the Cook Islands and Fiji.

“At the time most people were eating mainly indigenous foods, except those in towns or trade centres,” Ms Parkinson said.

“They were generally healthy and those on well-balanced indigenous diets were very well indeed. Women breast-fed their babies for long periods too.”

“The only problem was protein under-nutrition among children who did not receive adequate supplementary foods while they were still breast-feeding.”