The Oslo breakfast is the name of a menu of breakfast, prepared by the physician Carl Schiøtz (1877-1938) in the 1930s and composed of 1/3 to 1/2 litre of fresh milk, wholemeal bread, Knekkebrøds, margarine, brunost, fruit (Apple, banana, or orange) or vegetable (carrot or rutabaga), and a spoon of cod liver oil tea “during the months in”r “”; This lunch was served at school before the start of the course.
Its creator is part of the technical commission of the Committee health which meets for the first time in London in 1935 and establishes the London report of the League of Nations, in 1936, where the diet is recognized as one of the most important aspects of preventive medicine. Schøtz and lunch changed the eating habits of the Norwegians and other peoples, to Australia.
Genesis
In 1895, MIDI, created meals at the school by wishing to help poor children, women are integrated in the Department of educational contents of the city of Oslo. During the first world war, these meals are accessible to all children; they are composed of a gruel of oats.
A school doctor, Carl Schiøtz, critical their usefulness and their cost. He asks, as early as 1921, they should be subject to the control of health services and convince politicians that health is more important than the economy. Following this, in the early 1930s, Oslo schools offer children a luncheon prior to the start of the course instead of a hot meal.
Context
The discovery of vitamins, following experiments science in the early 19th century and considered a “magic potion”, gradually brings health professionals, and the general public, to reconsider daily and even how to cook food. The veggies are opposed to cooked foods, natural to previous habits. The concept of a “natural food” takes shape; the child, with instincts, becomes the centre of this ideology.
Contribution of forest
Head of the Department of health to Kristiania in 1918, critical school meals which are the most expensive of the social services of the schools of the city and cost 10% more than the budget of the school medical service. It also considers that they are ineffective in terms of health and that they are dangerous. He decided to replace lunch by a breakfast, including fresh milk is the most important ingredient in Sandaker outdoor school for poor children and in poor health. This experience, repeated in other Norwegian schools and abroad, is a complete success: studies show that growth is greater among the “eating lunch” than those who receive the noon meal, size, health and vigor.
Educational approach
The lunch menu is not the only concern of forest. His organization, his ritual, that is the time of the meal, the place, his conduct, are taken into account:
- Time: Schiøtz considers that appetite is needed to accept food; whereas a child barely awake and served in a non-ventilated place cannot experience appetite and only a walk outdoors always opens appetite, considers that is better lunch in school rather than at home where this meal is neglected;
- Location: the meal to be served in a ventilated room (Schiøtz found that cooking smells invading the entire school inhibit appetite).
- Course: considering that breakfast can be taken in haste, Schiøtz fixed the time on half an hour; lunch should be taken in the order and discipline; children must learn to get rid of their coats to the smell of sweat to if sit in silence, while chewing, to appreciate the food. posters remind that can eat at the same time.
The aesthetic aspect of the presentation is taken into consideration because what seems good drop better.
The reorganization of the school meals is part of a general health programme that encourages everyone to assume its own responsibility for health.
Political consequence
The Organization of school meals had opposite political parties of left and right. The introduction of the Oslo breakfast affects the political landscape; right and left are the health to the forefront of the concerns, but with different goals.
First for those who have the need for reasons of health or financial need, lunch is served in premises guarded by the physician, nurse and teachers. After the victory of the labour party in the 1935 election, the doors of the canteens are open to all those wishing to take the breakfast.
The economic problems of the 1940s entail discontinuation of this service.
World result
Knowledge of his time in Dietetics, the breakfast Oslo, easy to prepare, rich in vitamins, minerals and fibre, is a perfect base for life and health.
Promoted by an intense advertising campaign conducted by the city and the Government, it is necessary in the Norwegian society but in neighbouring countries also.
He is later reference to the work of the nutrition of the French Foundation for the study of human problems and the introduction of the distribution of milk in French schools.
