National Weigh-ln

On a protein diet for the past 20 months, Canada's Health & Welfare Minister Paul Martin has cut his weight from 201 to 160 Ibs., making him the envy of many a portly colleague. Last week the minister's interest in weight and diet was extended from the particular to the general. The National Health and Welfare Department announced a nationwide survey in which 25,000 Canadians will be weighed and measured to determine new height-weight standards for the whole country.

The height-weight charts now posted in schools and doctors' offices across Canada bear little accurate relation to present national averages. They are based on U.S. insurance-company statistics, which do not necessarily apply in Canada, or on statistics compiled 40 years ago, when nutrition was far below today's standards. Dr. Lionel Pett, head of the Health Department's nutrition division, has tried for several years to interest the government in a survey to compile accurate Canadian tables. This year, after the World Health Organization had urged member nations to make new height-weight surveys, he got funds to finance the study.

A crew of eight nurses, equipped with measuring rods and springless scales, will visit all ten provinces measuring and weighing men, women & children in their homes. Subjects will be chosen according to tables prepared by the Bureau of Statistics to make sure that proper proportions of urban and rural dwellers, all ages and occupations are represented in the total.

The new tables will be ready in about a year. Dr. Pett does not expect that they will show any striking variation from province to province but he does think they will prove average Canadians to be taller and heavier than Americans "because so many of us are from northern European stock." The tables' ultimate purpose, however, will not be to measure Canadians against others but against themselves, to tell the individual whether he weighs too much or too little for a person his age and height. Dr. Pett, 43, will learn whether his weight (151 lbs.) is, as he thinks, "just about right" for his 5-ft.-8 1/2-in. frame. And Minister Martin may find out whether he can stop dieting.

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