204. Facts For Guidance

The housewife who keeps the following facts in mind may combine foods in an approximate way that will fully meet the needs of the human organism of whatever age or condition.

1. Fresh vegetables, fruits, milk, fresh meats, fish, and shellfish contain large percentages of water.

2. Bread, flours and meals, crackers, breakfast foods, pastry (mostly), nuts, dried fruits, cakes, syrups, cured meats, cheese, butter, contain relatively large percentages of dry matter.

3. Animal foods, such as lean meats of all kinds, fish, excepting certain very fat species, shellfish, eggs, cheese, and milk furnish dry matter containing relatively high percentages of protein.

4. Legumes and certain nuts supply relatively more protein than other vegetable foods.

5. The cereal grains, vegetables, and fruits, while containing material percentages of protein, are made up largely of carbohydrates or allied bodies having a similar nutritive function.

6. The unmodified foods, such as grains, vegetables, fruits, meat, eggs, and milk, may be depended upon to supply in kind all the necessary elements to sustain the growth, functions, and wastes of the human body. On the other hand, the foods which it is proper to designate as "artificial" are not only not essential to an adequate diet, but they are those which, when used freely, may render a diet very one-sided or deficient.

7. Certain foods that are manufactured may be entirely devoid of one or more of the classes of nutrients, or have a very one-sided composition. For instance, such materials as corn starch, sago, tapioca, the syrups and sugars, butter, lard, and salad oils contain no ash or protein, excepting that ash elements may be present in the syrups.

8. Foods may be so selected as to give an abundant supply of the mineral ingredients. For instance, the dry substance of certain vegetables like asparagus, lettuce, and spinach, and animal foods such as eggs and beef extract, are relatively rich in iron compounds, just as the dry substance of leguminous seeds, carrots, and some other vegetables, milk and cheese is comparatively rich in calcium compounds.

9. Lean meats, milk and its products, flours and meals from the cereal grains, and especially cereal preparations that have been dextrinized through heat or malting, are more easily and more fully digested than the fibrous vegetable foods.