17 SEPTEMBER 1932, Page 15

[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In your issue of

September 3rd you have published a letter from Sir Arbuthnot Lane extolling malt as a " stabilizing item " of diet. Sir William tells us that malt is the " body- building constituent " of beer, but that there is not so much malt in the beer of to-day as that of former times. We are, fortunately, not obliged to rely on beer in order to obtain malt or energy-forming carbo-hydrates, and I should suggest to the New Health Society, that its members might be doing useful service, were they to urge people to use the barley, cooked in scups, and stews and puddings. Were we all to eat more barley in this way, we would, in reality, be getting more " body-building food, and at less cost, than by drinking beer.