Class TX v3^v5 
 
 Book_ 
 
 
 CofpightN' 
 
 COFi'RIGKT DEPOSnV . 
 
First Lessons 
 
 IN 
 
 FOOD AND DIET 
 
 BY 
 
 ELLEN H. RICHARDS 
 
 Instructor in Sanitary Chemistry in the Massachusetts Institute 
 of Technology 
 
 WHITCOMB & BARROWS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 1904 
 
Two Oopies <?ei-«Mvea 
 
 ' OCT 1 1904 I 
 
 'Vroyrfsrht Emry 
 
 \OLi*.%9 CL XXo. Na 
 COPY B 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 (, 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1904 
 ELLEN H. RICHARDS 
 
 Composition and Electrotj'ping by 
 Thomas Todd, 1-1 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 FIRST LESSONS IN FOOD AND DIET 
 
 Each living thing has its food, without which it dies. 
 This food may vary within certain limits ; beyond them 
 disease sets in, even if life continues. 
 
 Every child who has kept chickens or rabbits knows 
 how carefully and regularly they need to be fed. Every 
 child who has grown house plants or cultivated a garden 
 plot knows how necessary air, water, and soil are for their 
 life and growth. 
 
 It is only needful to transfer this knowledge to ourselves 
 to see that we, as living beings, need our food in the same 
 way ; and that air and water, as well as meat and milk, 
 sugar and eggs, arc our foods, without which we cannot 
 live. 
 
 The baby's food is milk, which contains all the sub- 
 stances needed except oxygen of the air. This must be 
 breathed in through the lungs. To milk is added for the 
 child of two years starch in various forms, rice, potatoes, 
 wheat bread, corn mush, etc. For the six years old there 
 are added a few fruits and vegetables, eggs and a very little 
 
 meat. 
 
 iii 
 
iv Introdtiction 
 
 The youth of twelve to fifteen years takes with profit 
 all kinds of food if it is well cooked and not in the form of 
 soggy bread or greasy, fried things. The young person 
 from eighteen to twenty-five has a digestion which even the 
 worst cooking does not always spoil, but there is even then 
 a risk in overtaxing willing stomachs, for bad effects may 
 not be manifest for many years. 
 
 If the chicken is to be killed as soon as grown, then 
 it may be stuffed with food to prepare it for market, but if 
 it is to be kept as a useful laying fowl for the term of its 
 natural life, it is far better that it learn to work for most 
 of its food cleaning the garden and orchard of grubs. It 
 thus develops naturally. 
 
 In the same way, if a plant is to be used only at an 
 exhibition it may be forced to bloom by extra fertilizer and 
 a hothouse atmosphere, but if it is to bear wholesome fruit 
 or fertile seed in due season and to live to bear again, then 
 it is treated with the utmost moderation and not overfed. 
 
 As human beings, what we all wish to know is what to 
 eat, when, and how much. We also ask for a warning bell 
 to caution us when we are liable to go wrong. This much 
 every well person needs. The really sick must have a 
 special treatment, but at this time we are concerned only 
 with that food which keeps us well and strong and happy. 
 
LESSON I 
 
 PLANT LIFE 
 
 THERE are two kinds of plants, those which 
 build up their stems, leaves, and fruit from 
 the mineral matter in the soil, the water in soil 
 and air, and from the carbon dioxide and perhaps 
 ammonia in the air. They are able to do this 
 by aid of sunlight, which furnishes the energy 
 for the chemical reactions needed to accomplish 
 this transformation from dead mineral to living 
 organic matter. These green leaved plants and 
 their products form the food of animals which 
 then for the most part eat each other, from the 
 tiniest one-celled organism to the lion, king of 
 the jungle. Even the so-called vegetable eaters 
 take with the grass and leaves, nuts and fruits 
 millions of minute living animal forms. 
 
 Another kind of plant lives upon the sub- 
 stances already formed by the green leaved 
 plants and those transformed by the animals. 
 These plants, for the most part without color, 
 
2 Food and Diet 
 
 are destructive ; they usually work on dead mat- 
 ter, reducing it to a condition to serve again as 
 food for the green plants. At least they are 
 found wherever decay is going on. A bit of 
 apple, a leaf, a piece of cheese, left out in damp 
 air " molds," as we say. These various molds 
 are little plants doing their best to make the 
 material ready for grass or apple tree food again. 
 
 Animals, man included, are made up of mil- 
 lions of small cells, which do their work in a 
 like manner. They live upon the ready pre- 
 pared substances which the blood stream carries 
 to them and change this material to forms which 
 the green plants can use again, giving off CO2, 
 water, ammonia, etc. These cells, like the molds 
 and other destructive plants, can live on either 
 vegetable or animal matter, that is, we can eat 
 either lettuce, peas, corn, apples, or meat, and 
 derive health and strength from them all, but, 
 like the green plants, we must have water in 
 abundance and air, only we take oxygen from 
 the air and give back to it the carbon dioxide 
 which the green plants need. 
 
 In the course of this transformation in the 
 living cells, some of the energy which the sun- 
 light gave to the plant that was eaten is released, 
 
Lesson I ^ 
 
 and our bodies make use of this energy to keep 
 warm, to work, think, and feel. 
 
 The source of bodily heat, of human energy 
 and power to work, is in the chemical changes 
 which the food, whether animal or vegetable, 
 undergoes in the cells and tissues of the body. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE FIRST LESSON 
 
 1. A growing plant or several of a kind; 
 one allowed to go without water, another covered 
 tightly by a bell jar or inverted bottle, and one 
 cared for and watered most carefully. 
 
 2. An aquarium with gold fish, or a cage 
 with a toad to be fed with flies, or some other 
 animal to be cared for. 
 
 3. Bread or cheese, leaves or fruit, allowed 
 to mold under another bell jar. 
 
 4. Oats or corn planted in the pores of a 
 moist sponge placed in the top of a tumbler or 
 jar two-thirds filled with water. 
 
 5. A magnifying glass or a microscope is 
 helpful. If at hand, show the cells from the 
 amoeba of the mouth and blood corpuscles, 
 also the miscellaneous organisms from stagnant 
 water. 
 
 6. Yeasts and various fermentino: solutions. 
 
LESSON II 
 
 CVERYTHING is food for something else, 
 -■— ' each after its kind, and matter, carbon, oxy- 
 gen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, for instance, is kept 
 circulating like gold and silver, which is now- 
 made into amulets and images, now lining drink- 
 ing cups, now buried in the earth, now stamped 
 as coin and passing from hand to hand until 
 melted and worked into rings again. It is gold 
 or silver all the while. 
 
 The food of mankind is to be here con- 
 sidered, and we begin with the earliest and 
 simplest, the food of the infant, milk. 
 
 This is chiefly composed of ^m^ great classes 
 of food stuffs, classes we shall find in all natural 
 food materials. 
 
 I. Water; eighty-seven per cent, more than 
 three-fourths of the whole, and we shall find that 
 our food must always contain a large amount of 
 water, or if it does not, that we must drink 
 liquids to make up the amount. 
 
Lesson II 5 
 
 2. The curd of the milk ; which contains 
 not only casein but albumen and other proteids.^ 
 This class of substance is also found in all living 
 things, whether animal or vegetable. 
 
 3. Fat ; which we know best as cream or 
 butter. This is also common to both veG:etable 
 and animal substances, as olive oil and fat of meat. 
 
 4. Sugar; dissolved in the water of the milk 
 so that we do not recognize it at once. Except 
 this suo'ar of milk, most sus^ars are derived from 
 the juices of plants and their fruits, but so abun- 
 dant and universal are these that all races of 
 mankind have suirar in their diet. 
 
 CD 
 
 5. Mineral salts ; also dissolved in the water 
 of milk, so that we do not think about them in 
 that form. Salt, as we put it on our food, and 
 the fertilizer we water plants with are instances 
 of mineral food. The mineral salts are as need- 
 ful for the life of the cell as the other classes. 
 As has been proved by experiment, it is not 
 difficult to learn the composition of milk and the 
 amount of the various substances which the child 
 requires. 
 
 The infant in the first weeks sleeps quietly 
 
 iProteid and protein are tenns used to designate those nitrog- 
 enous substances which in some way not yet clearly understood are 
 essential to life or living matter. 
 
6 Food and Diet 
 
 most of the time and gains in weight rapidly, 
 has doubled by the end of the third month, and 
 trebled by the end of one year. 
 
 As activity increases, more of the food is 
 devoted to energy — power to move arms and 
 legs, and so great is this demand that in the 
 second year the child adds only one-fifth to its 
 weight, during the third year one-tenth, and 
 from the age of four until eight or ten years 
 old the child gains only about four pounds a 
 year in weight, but very greatly in strength and 
 control of muscles and nerves. 
 
 At first the infant takes about one-seventh 
 its weight daily in food, twenty-four to thirty- 
 two ounces of milk (at the end of the second 
 week 500 grams, at the end of the eighth 800 
 grams, at the end of the twentieth 950 grams). 
 
 The Average Percentage Composition of 200 Samples of 
 
 Human Milk 
 
 Water. 
 
 Fat. 
 
 Nitrogenous 
 substances. 
 
 Sugar. 
 
 Salts. 
 
 87.41 
 
 13.78 
 
 2.29 
 
 6.21 
 
 0.31 
 
 The Average of 800 Analyses of Cows' Milk 
 87.17 1 3. GO I 3.55 I 4.88 I 0.71 
 
Lesson II 7 
 
 It will be seen that cows' milk is not an 
 exact substitute for mothers' milk, and if diluted 
 it is still less so, since the proportions are not 
 the same. The potassium salts which seem so 
 necessary to the building up of the blood cor- 
 puscles and body tissue are deficient as well as 
 the fat. A favorite recommendation of physi- 
 cians is to allow fresh, clean milk to stand, pro- 
 tected from dust, on ice or in a cold place for 
 four or five hours, and then pour off the upper 
 third, ten ounces, from a quart (if more fat is 
 desired, then only six ounces), add twenty ounces 
 of sterilized whey, which contains the sugar and 
 mineral salts of the whole milk with some albu- 
 men. To give the potassium salts, barley broth 
 is frequently used after the first weeks. A well- 
 strained, transparent barley broth contains not 
 over one per cent of starch. At the age of a 
 few months veal broth, which contains lime salts, 
 is frequently given, and if the milk is poor must 
 be used if the material for the bones is to be 
 furnished. If milk whey is not used, then milk 
 sugar dissolved in water is added, for the child 
 needs more heat-giving food than the adult, 
 since his bodily surface, from which heat is 
 
8 Food and Diet 
 
 being lost, is three times as much in proportion 
 to his weis^ht, and he is more active and uses 
 relatively more energy. 
 
 All food for infants must be carefully pro- 
 tected from the destructive plants before referred 
 to. These plants are in the air everywhere ; are 
 more plentiful in warm, dusty places, and as 
 milk is a most attractive food for them, it must 
 be kept cold and covered. 
 
 For extended treatment of infants' feeding, 
 see such books as Holt's, Griffith's and others. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE SECOND LESSON 
 
 Milk, whole, diluted, top milk ; calculations of 
 food values of a pint of the various sorts. The 
 principles of these calculations should be thor- 
 oughly learned at this point to serve as a foun- 
 dation for future work. 
 
 Tests by means of simple apparatus at hand. 
 Specific gravity, fat by some of the lactoscopes 
 or by a Babcock testing machine. 
 
 If a laboratory is at hand, test for sugar, 
 phosphates, and albumen. 
 
 Examination of bones for mineral salts and 
 organic matter. 
 
LESSON III 
 
 D Y the end of the child's first year the saliva 
 ^-^ has increased, and thereby tlie power of 
 forming sugar from starch has been gained (for 
 a child under six months of age starchy foods 
 are indigestible), and as the teeth appear some 
 solid food is permissible. But the mucous mem- 
 brane is very sensitive, and the whole bodily 
 structure is very delicate and easily injured. 
 
 All indications point to a simple, non-stimu- 
 lating, fairly monotonous diet. The child at the 
 breast receives the same food day after day, and 
 the pleasures of the table do not appeal to nor 
 agree with the young child. No " sweets," des- 
 serts, or delicacies are needed, but the quanti- 
 ties of food must be relatively larger as the 
 child grows older to supply the activity which 
 promotes growth. 
 
 The child has no reserves of stored food and 
 little excess of digestive power, so cannot bear 
 deprivation or excess without injury. In fact 
 he is in a state of very delicate balance of forces 
 which may be easily disturbed. 
 
 9 
 
lo Food and Diet 
 
 In the second year the food should continue 
 to be chiefly milk with some broth, but always 
 fluid or soft solids. There should not be 
 allowed in the diet any of the following sub- 
 stances or their relatives: cellulose, mineral or 
 strong acids, coffee, tea, spice, made dishes, sal- 
 ads, etc. A little breast of fowl, rice cooked in 
 milk, white bread, are sufficient additions. 
 
 The child of three to six years old need not 
 be confined to fluids, but the food should still 
 contain much water, broths rather than meat, 
 ripe, sub-acid fruits, weak cocoa occasionally, oat- 
 meal and wheat preparations strained after cook- 
 ing to eliminate the cellulose. Eggs, especially 
 the yolks, are valuable. If the yolks are cooked 
 separately they may be boiled hard so that they 
 crumble to powder, which is not only more 
 digestible but more acceptable to most children 
 than the running yolk. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE THIRD LESSON 
 
 For practice in making up bills of fare and 
 for learning the composition of some common 
 food substances, the following tables are taken 
 from "The Cost of Food."^ 
 
 1 " The Cost of Food." Ellen H. Richards. 
 
Lesson III 
 
 II 
 
 TABLE V 
 One Day's Menu for a Child of Six to Nine Years of Age 
 
 Required. 
 
 One and one-half pint milk . . 
 
 One-half pound bread .... 
 
 One-eighth pound dry rice (one- 
 half pound cooked) . . . . 
 
 Four ounces orange . . . 
 
 Two ounces egg 
 
 One-half ounce butter . . . 
 
 679.0 
 226.8 
 
 56.6 
 
 114.0 
 
 56.6 
 
 14.0 
 
 J3 in 
 
 1147.0 
 
 88.8 
 147.0 
 
 51.5 
 41.7 
 13.5 
 12.5 
 
 355.0 
 
 3 OJ 
 
 O <J 
 
 n e . 
 
 ■u rt !fl 
 
 i: 3 e 
 
 • - u) M 
 
 22.3 
 20.3 
 
 5.4 
 0.5 
 7.3 
 0.1 
 
 55.0 
 
 27.1 
 2.7 
 
 0.3 
 
 0.1 
 
 5.3 
 
 11.0 
 
 47.4 
 
 -^6 
 
 ■e 2 
 
 33.9 
 119.8 
 
 45.4 
 9.7 
 
 208.8 
 
 At average prices this would cost twelve to 
 thirteen cents. 
 
 Estimated Daily Ouantities of Necessary Food 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 , 
 
 
 
 E 
 
 01 
 
 u 
 
 c 
 
 3 U 
 
 W) 
 
 m 
 «> 
 
 
 
 Ml 
 o 
 
 JO r/l 
 
 3 S 
 
 itroger 
 substa 
 grams 
 
 be 
 
 >» to 
 
 
 oa 
 
 H 
 
 Q 
 
 ^ 
 
 dn 
 
 ID 
 
 Girl of four . . 
 
 13.3 
 
 1203 
 
 197 
 
 44.8 
 
 41.5 
 
 102.7 
 
 Boy of six . . . 
 
 18.0 
 
 1560 
 
 311 
 
 63.7 
 
 45.8 
 
 197.3 
 
 Girl of nine . . 
 
 22.7 
 
 1660 
 
 328 
 
 61.3 
 
 47.0 
 
 207.7 
 
12 
 
 Food and Diet 
 
 TABLE VI 
 Approximate Composition of Some Common Food Materials 
 
 One pound contains 
 
 Apples 
 
 Barley (pearled) 
 
 Beef (round) 
 
 Beef juice (as purchased) . 
 Beef juice (as it should be) 
 Bouillon and consomme . 
 
 Bread (white) 
 
 Butter 
 
 Cheese (American pale) . 
 
 Chicken 
 
 Cream 
 
 Cream soup 
 
 Eggs (whole) 
 
 Eggs (yolk) 
 
 I^entil meal 
 
 Milk (whole) 
 
 Mutton (leg) 
 
 Oatmeal 
 
 Peas (sugar), shelled . . . 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 Prunes (dried) 
 
 Raisins 
 
 Rice 
 
 Wheatlet 
 
 12 c 
 
 25.0 
 
 8.8 
 
 10. 
 
 18.0 
 
 20.0 
 15.0 
 10.0 
 
 01.5 
 10.8 
 G4.2 
 0:1.0 
 
 88.0 
 00.0 
 
 ;i5.4 
 
 11.0 
 
 ;u.o 
 
 48.5 
 74.0 
 87.4 
 00.0 
 40.5 
 10.7: 
 87.0 
 51.4 
 
 7.2 
 81.8 
 62. 
 10.0 
 14.0 
 
 0.0 
 10.4 
 
 1.8 
 42.2 
 80.0 
 22.2 
 3l'0 
 11.0 
 4:;.l 
 
 4.5 
 1:30.0 
 07.0 
 10.:] 
 2:15 
 50.4 
 71.5 
 115.5 
 14.0 
 07.5 
 70.0 
 15.4 
 
 8.0 
 
 8.0 
 
 11.;^ 
 
 4:}.0 
 55.9 
 
 p 
 to 
 
 Carbohydrates, 
 grams. 
 
 1.8 
 
 5G.0 
 
 4.5 
 
 352.0 
 
 02.2 
 
 , 
 
 2.7 
 
 • • • 
 
 • • • 
 
 i.8 
 
 5.4 
 
 2;]9.5 
 
 085.0 
 
 , , , 
 
 1G2.8 
 
 1.4 
 
 5.0 
 
 • • • 
 
 84.0 
 
 20.0 
 
 14.5 
 
 25.0 
 
 4:3.1 
 
 • • • 
 
 151.0 
 
 • • • 
 
 8.7 
 
 200.0 
 
 18.1 
 
 22.7 
 
 07.5 
 
 • • • 
 
 :«.o 
 
 308.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 62.1 
 
 0.4 
 
 69.0 
 
 . 
 
 282.0 
 
 13.0 
 
 310.7 
 
 2.:] 
 
 ;303.0 
 
 CO 
 
 ;340.0 
 
 <U O 
 
 m 
 
 m C *- 
 
 o 
 
 255 
 
 1000 
 
 050 
 
 115 
 
 127 
 
 55 
 
 1205 
 
 3504 
 
 2060 
 
 325 
 
 865 
 
 285 
 
 645 
 
 1705 
 
 1020 
 
 325 
 
 905 
 
 1800 
 
 335 
 
 325 
 
 1189 
 
 1415 
 
 1085 
 
 1685 
 
 From these tables or from Bulletin No. 28, 
 United States Department of Agriculture, Office 
 of Experiment Stations, or Farmers' Bulletin 
 No. 142, revised edition, at least half a dozen 
 
Lesson III 13 
 
 bills of fare should be made, showing the various 
 combinations possible with these few substances. 
 A beginning is here made in the recognition 
 of the value of a given food as a producer of 
 energy. The word potato or apple should bring 
 up to the mind not only the shape, size, and 
 color, but the part in the diet it may play. 
 
LESSON IV 
 
 THE SCHOOL LUNCHEON 
 
 THE digestion of healthy children of seven to 
 fourteen years old is good ; the period is one 
 of great growth, demanding a gain of from five 
 to twelve grams per day. Half the nitrogenous 
 food may be of animal origin. Fat is absolutely 
 necessary at this age, and when the coarser 
 forms are repulsive, great care must be taken 
 to cfive it in a delicate or concealed form. 
 
 o 
 
 The incessant activity of the child in the 
 open air if left to himself permits the ready 
 assimilation of whatever comes to hand, but 
 when confined in the too often stuffy school- 
 room, the food should be selected with knowl- 
 edge. The school luncheon should be super- 
 vised with as great care as the food of the infant. 
 A few simple rules, if followed out intelligently, 
 will enable the mother or provider to furnish a 
 suitable lunch. 
 
 The food should be such as can be readily 
 
Lesson IV 15 
 
 assimilated, that is, it should not be concentrated, 
 as fried meat or doughnuts or rich cake or 
 pastry, and it should not be highly spiced. It 
 may contain some sugar, as in ice cream, because 
 sugar is soluble, and if not eaten in too large 
 quantities (an ounce at a time), is readily 
 digested. There should be some starchy food, 
 because starch is converted slowly and furnishes 
 energy over a longer period of time than sugar. 
 The food should be appetizing and attractively 
 displayed, or, if taken from home, put up neatly. 
 A study of the accompanying diagram and 
 its use in calculation will be most helpful to the 
 student in future work. This diagram is only 
 an approximate statement of observed facts. 
 The value of such generalizations lies in the 
 number of observations upon which they are 
 based, and in this case they are too few for a 
 final decision. Further, the facts are from 
 German sources almost exclusively, because no 
 others gave the whole series ; and it seemed 
 better to adhere to a uniform standard of calcula- 
 tion in view of the great gaps in our knowledge. 
 It is given in this imperfect state in order to 
 induce a fuller study of the question. 
 
.^^amj-iutif./^-cH.vx^ . 
 
 
 
 
 /*5? 
 
 
 f^. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 '^T 
 
 ■r 
 
 
 <i 
 
 
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 ^^• 
 
 P^ 
 
Lesson IV 17 
 
 From what we do know of the American 
 standards, it seems probable that the curve of 
 carbohydrates would be less marked, and that 
 the curve of fats would be nearly coincident with 
 that of the proteids, except in that part showing 
 the amount from the tenth to the twentieth year, 
 if drawn to represent American practice. 
 
 The steepness of the curve of carbohydrates 
 shows the need of a full supply of the material 
 which serves as the source of power for the very 
 great activity of youth. The child naturally 
 runs all day long ; the activity, the amount of 
 work done, is enormously in excess of that done 
 in after life, aimless though it may seem. It is 
 none the less work because it is work of heart 
 and lungs, and muscular exercise in play. It is 
 useful work, in that it builds up a structure for 
 the grown man to use ; it is the building time, 
 and the building cannot be well made, strongly 
 put together, without it. This intense activity 
 is required for the metabolism^ of the tissue, 
 which is also rapid, as will be seen by the curve 
 of proteid. If the weight of the individual at 
 
 1 Metabolism. The cycle including both anabolism, the synthetic 
 building up of tissue, and katabolism, the breaking down of that which 
 has been formed. In other words, the chemical process of living. 
 
1 8 Food and Diet 
 
 different ages were taken into account, this 
 would be even more marked. 
 
 It may be advisable to begin a discussion of 
 the cost of material at this point, but food is 
 of such importance to the child that we should 
 be careful in emphasizing that question too early 
 in our studies. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE FOURTH LESSON 
 
 This may be in the form of five or ten 
 lunches which the class will agree upon as de- 
 sirable. A discussion of these as fulfilling the 
 requirement of the diagram and, if time per- 
 mits, a calculation of the food value from the 
 tables in the "Dietary Computer,"^ or Bulletin 
 28, or Farmer's Bulletin 142. 
 
 1 The " Dietary Computer." Ellen H. Richards and L. H. Williams. 
 
LESSON V 
 
 WHAT shall we eat as a family? What 
 shall our daily fare include? 
 
 If we look back in history and ask what early 
 man ate, we find evidences in the caves and 
 mounds left behind him that he ate other ani- 
 mals, grains, roots, fruits, just as we do, and of 
 the same kinds as the people living in the same 
 conditions do today. In Asia rice for bread, in 
 Peru corn and yams, in North America fish, 
 berries, and roots, in the islands of the Pacific 
 Ocean cocoanuts and breadfruit. 
 
 We of today have a choice of all these things 
 brought to our markets, and we have not the 
 protection of race habits to keep us from eating 
 the wrong thing or to show us the right quantity 
 of the right thing. The early peoples had an 
 abundance of one kind of food of which we 
 certainly deprive ourselves — air — sand this lack 
 is the cause of much, if not of most, of our ill 
 health. 
 
 19 
 
20 Food and Diet 
 
 The early peoples had to work and often 
 work hard for their food, and hence did not 
 often get too much of it. We have food set 
 before us in such abundance and variety that 
 we overeat without knowing it. This causes so 
 many of the illnesses from which modern man 
 suffers, that, barring accidents, it may be said 
 that if we are ill or ill tempered, it is likely to 
 to be our food which is at fault in some of the 
 many ways we have indicated. 
 
 It is well worth our while, then, to study 
 food and food substances in order that we may 
 know what to value and what to avoid. There 
 are many ways of learning these lessons. Here 
 we will take up only a few general principles, 
 leaving the more detailed study to a later stage. 
 
 Keeping the order taken in the examination 
 of the five classes of food in milk, namely, i, 
 water; 2, proteid ; 3, fat; 4, sugar, carbohydrate; 
 5, mineral salts ; we first ask what foods contain 
 at least three-fourths of their weight of water? 
 To name only those most commonly found on 
 our tables, we find the following: 
 
Lesson V 21 
 
 apricots milk 
 
 asparagus onions 
 
 blackberries oysters 
 
 cabbage pears 
 
 celery potatoes, boiled 
 
 cherries strawberries 
 
 cream strinc: beans 
 
 cucumbers tomatoes 
 
 green corn tripe 
 
 We next wish to know what common food 
 stuffs contain the proteids or second class in at 
 least as great an amount as milk? To make 
 the statement general, wc find the following to 
 be true : 
 
 Inimal Oricrin 
 
 
 Veo^etable Ori(rin 
 
 all the meats 
 
 all the cereals 
 
 all fish 
 
 all breads and crackers 
 
 all cheese 
 
 dried apricots 
 
 eggs 
 
 dried figs 
 
 
 all nuts 
 
 
 chocolate 
 
 
 beans 
 
 
 peas 
 
 
 lentils 
 
22 Food and Diet 
 
 Food nutrients in the third class which con- 
 tain as much or more fat than does milk : 
 
 Animal Origin Vegetable Origin 
 
 all meats, except very lean oatmeal 
 
 only a few fish, like catfish corn meal 
 
 and salmon crackers 
 
 butter chestnuts 
 
 cream peanuts 
 
 cheese cocoanuts 
 
 eggs walnuts 
 
 Food substances in the fourth class which 
 tai 
 milk: 
 
 contain as much or more sugar as is found in 
 
 Vegetable 
 honey syrups 
 
 dried fruits beets 
 
 ripe bananas 
 
 But the adult has added starch to the sugar. 
 This is not really in a separate class, because 
 both come under the general term, carbohy- 
 drates. Also starch yields a sugar — must, in 
 fact, be changed to sugar before it is a food for 
 the human body. 
 
Less 071 V o'x 
 
 ~ o 
 
 It belongs to the concentrated food stuffs, 
 and is found in the seeds of the grains put up 
 to keep. Before we eat it we cook starch in 
 much water, as cereals, or drink much water, as 
 when we eat crackers. 
 
 Food stuffs of the fifth class which contain 
 as much or more mineral salts as does milk are : 
 
 A n imal Ve ore table 
 
 all lean meats most cereals 
 
 cheese most vegetables 
 
 eggs most fruits 
 
 If we select the names of food stuffs which 
 appear in all five classes, we shall have those 
 materials which are sufficient of themselves for 
 food, because they contain all the essential sub- 
 stances, but they are very few. If we next select 
 those which appear in the last four classes, we 
 shall have those which, with the addition of 
 water, will serve as complete foods capable of 
 sustaining efficient life. 
 
 For the rest, they must be mixed, some from 
 one class and some from another, not only from 
 this list but from the thousand listed food 
 materials. Our food is usually so mixed. 
 
24 Food and Diet 
 
 This larger list contains, however, a large 
 number of needful and desirable substances 
 whose food value, in the sense we have been 
 using it, is nothing or very small. They are 
 called food accessories, and by their flavor they 
 act upon the senses of man, so that he secures 
 for himself the food value locked up in the 
 nutritive materials we have been studying. The 
 German scientist calls these additions to our diet 
 "pleasure giving things." Condiments, flavors, 
 and spices play a large part in the art of cookery. 
 
 It is quite right that we should find pleasure 
 in our food as in anything else, if only we do not 
 make it all pleasure and no profit: if we do 
 not produce more evils than we realize good. 
 
 Condiments too often result in over-stimula- 
 tion of the secretions, and thus cause the eating 
 of more food than the body needs. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE FIFTH LESSON 
 
 Cereals, rice, etc. ; dried fruits ; extracted oils. 
 
 Exercises making out lists of ten foods of 
 equal heat-giving value, expressed in calories,^ but 
 of different composition. 
 
 1 A calorie is a unit measure of heat used to denote the energy- 
 giving power of food. 
 
Lesson V 
 
 25 
 
 Samples of spices, condiments, etc. 
 
 Make lists of condiments, with a study of 
 their action, for which sec " The Spirit of 
 Cookery," Thudichum, p. 86. 
 
 The student should learn the approximate 
 value of the one hundred common food materials 
 on the market; that is, should be able to say 
 whether there is ten or fifty per cent of starch, 
 fat, etc., in a given article as bought. 
 
LESSON VI 
 
 DAILY FOOD 
 
 HAVING learned something of the natural 
 food materials, we must now study diet, or 
 that which goes to the table, for it is rarely in 
 its natural form or as a simple food stuff. Fresh 
 fruit, as apples, bananas, oranges or nuts, rad- 
 ishes, celery, plain boiled potatoes are set before 
 us with little or no change in form or composition, 
 and are eaten with the addition of salt or sugar 
 only. 
 
 Uncooked lettuce and cucumbers are dressed 
 with salad oil. The fig, raisin, and date have 
 been dried, and so lost the water they once con- 
 tained, while rice and oatmeal, once dry, have 
 had three times their weight of water added 
 before they are put on the table. Many made 
 dishes contain a dozen ingredients. 
 
 The one thing to bear in mind is that during 
 the day or week we need the right amount of all 
 the classes of food that the baby gets in its milk, 
 
 26 
 
Lesson VI 27 
 
 and starch in addition. But grown people can- 
 not have their food weighed and measured out to 
 them as the baby has, both because it is so com- 
 pHcated and because, while all babies are so 
 much alike, sleeping most of the time, grown 
 people are very different from each other in their 
 work and in their play and in their health (alas, 
 that it should be so), for most of them have hurt 
 their bodies in some way, so that they cannot do 
 what the truly well person should be able to 
 do. Hence, diet must vary for the different 
 members of the same family unless they are 
 normally well people, but no one should allow 
 himself to become whimsical and full of ima<ri- 
 nary notions. It is found that most, although 
 not all, the objections people make to certain 
 foods are without any foundation. The evils are 
 mostly imaginary. 
 
 Because one person ate a green banana and 
 it distressed him, he eschews all bananas ever 
 after. One may have eaten of veal pie when 
 very tired or cold, and because a severe attack of 
 indigestion followed, the blame is laid upon the 
 innocent dish. 
 
 Of these five classes of foods, then, a person 
 
28 Food and Diet 
 
 needs daily about one hundred grams of dry 
 proteid or nitrogenous food, about the same of 
 fat, and about four times as much starch and 
 sugar and other carbohydrates, or, in ounces, 
 about four each of proteid and of fat, and fifteen 
 ounces of carbohydrates, provided he has plenty of 
 that other essential food, oxygen, in fresh air, and 
 that he takes exercise enough to keep the blood 
 stream flowing freely, so as to carry the prepared 
 food, sufificiently diluted, to the little living cells 
 referred to in the first lesson, and to bring 
 away the broken up stuff they do not want, and 
 which will hurt the body if it is not quickly 
 brought away. 
 
 The quantity of food eaten does not always 
 correspond to the amount the body uses, hence 
 the great differences found in the estimates dif- 
 ferent authorities have made. It is noticeable 
 that the largest eaters are neither very hard 
 workers nor very stout persons. Some active, 
 powerful individuals are small caters ; they often 
 say they live on air, which is in a measure true. 
 The food taken is burned up to the last morsel 
 and gives its energy to the body. Not only 
 plenty of air (brought into the lungs by exercise) 
 
Lesson VI 29 
 
 but plenty of water is needed for good utilization 
 of the food eaten. The reason for this is that 
 all chemical changes go on more rapidly and 
 completely in dilute solutions. Water is essen- 
 tial to those processes by which the body is 
 nourished. To use up the amount of dry food 
 indicated on page 28 about six pounds, or three 
 quarts, of water are needed. As has been 
 shown, all this water may be in the food as 
 eaten, or varying portions may be taken as 
 drink. If there is too little, some of the food 
 will pass out unused and some will undergo 
 the wrong decompositions and cause irritation 
 and finally disease. That is why so many of 
 the " cures " are water cures and fruit cures. If 
 a person is sent to live on grapes for a month 
 it means a large amount of water is taken. The 
 visits to mineral springs include much fresh air 
 and exercise with the drinking of large amounts 
 of water. The time of taking this water, with 
 reference to the meal, belongs to the physician 
 to determine. It is governed by the quantity 
 and strength of the gastric juice the individual 
 secretes. We are concerned with keeping welL 
 and the lesson we should learn is to eat fruits 
 
30 Food and Diet 
 
 which contain water naturally, vegetables, and 
 foods which have taken up much water, as rice 
 and cereals. If we do have dry and concentrated 
 food, like crackers and cheese or pastry, much 
 fluid must be drunk with it. 
 
 Much pains should be taken to work out a 
 satisfactory system of diet, for man is his own 
 power producer. He must manufacture his own 
 energy. It cannot be pumped into him. His 
 body cannot be charged at certain stations as 
 can an electric automobile. His energy is de- 
 veloped inside of him by all the tiny cells to 
 which the blood stream carries food. If he is 
 not energetic, then his machinery is not doing 
 its duty. 
 
 Each person's diet must, therefore, furnish 
 the material for this energy in such form that 
 the body can set it free. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE SIXTH LESSON 
 
 Meaning of energy and work, calorie, osmose 
 through membrane, illustrated by one per cent 
 sugar solution, etc. See elementary works on 
 physics, physiological chemistry, etc. Release 
 of energy through chemical action, batteries. 
 
Less 071 VI 3 1 
 
 Solution of metals by dilute acids. When strong 
 have no effect. Show a day's ration : loo grams 
 dried meat or ^'g^ (allow for the water they 
 still contain); loo grams of fat (not butter unless 
 it has been melted and freed from water and 
 curd) ; 400+ grams of starch and sugar. Trans- 
 late these into a day's ration as it goes to the 
 table. 
 
LESSON VII 
 
 THERE are three reasons why the matter of 
 diet is not so simple as the last lesson made 
 it appear. 
 
 1. Food is liable to be injured, rather than 
 made more digestible, by cooking. 
 
 2. Substances are often eaten together which 
 do not make a good mixture for the blood stream 
 to carry to the little cells. The latter may be 
 severely injured, poisoned, as we say, and the 
 person will be very ill — have an attack of cholera 
 morbus or severe pain — colic, perhaps, or a 
 feverish headache only; or it may be that the 
 result is only a heavy, sleepy feeling, which 
 wastes a whole day of valuable time. Every day 
 of our short life should count for something, and 
 to lose it because one ate the wrong food is 
 foolish waste. 
 
 3. The disturbing effect of mental states. 
 Bearing in mind that the object of life is the 
 
 production of energy, of power to work, to think, 
 
 32 
 
Lesson VII 33 
 
 to enjoy, progress in civilization would natu- 
 rally be an increase of this power in each indi- 
 vidual, and one would expect that the preparation 
 of food would be so developed as to permit this 
 gain in power. We are taught that this is what 
 the art of cookery has done for us. In some 
 cases it is true, especially where scientific research 
 has found out the chemical and physical changes 
 at the basis of the cookery. 
 
 For instance, the soaking of starch in fat, the 
 cooking of white of Q.gg, the frying of meat, ren- 
 der the food ' material more difficult of solution, 
 and therefore a larger part may escape digestion 
 altogether. But this depends upon the strength 
 of digestion of the individual; to some persons 
 it apparently makes no difference. 
 
 Again, cooking is supposed to produce ap- 
 petizing flavors, as the roasting of coffee, the 
 toasting of bread, the broiling of steak ; but 
 sometimes, as in the steam cooking of cereals 
 and some vegetables, flavor is lost, and artificial 
 flavor, less wholesome, needs to be added to 
 satisfy the palate. 
 
 The keeping qualities of some foods are 
 lessened by the addition of the water needed in 
 cooking ; for instance, cereals, dried beans, etc. 
 
34 Food and Diet 
 
 In other cases cooking preserves the foods, 
 killing the molds, yeasts, and bacteria often 
 found with the edible materials. In some cases 
 this cooking lessens the digestibility, as is 
 undoubtedly the case with milk as infants' 
 food. 
 
 Frying an oyster in batter is a case where the 
 outer coating is made less digestible by cooking. 
 
 Well-baked bread gives a more digestible 
 starch product, a less digestible gluten. 
 
 Of wrong mixtures it is not easy to predict. 
 The effect is largely bound up with the third 
 cause, i,e., mental attitude. Usually we object to 
 milk with salads, especially lobster salad, because 
 the milk is liable to be curdled into hard lumps, 
 but it is probable also that in this case, as in 
 others, a wrong chemical decomposition, not 
 clearly understood, sometimes takes place, giving 
 toxines or poisonous substances. 
 
 In some cases of illness these toxines may be 
 in the food, but in most they are produced after 
 it is eaten. 
 
 The reason for this bad result is the third 
 cause of trouble, the inhibiting effect of mental 
 emotion, or of bodily condition on the secretion 
 
Lesson VII 35 
 
 of the digestive juices. Fear, anger, grief, even 
 depression or lack of cheerfulness, prevent, to a 
 greater or less extent, the flow of these fluids. 
 
 Extreme cold demands all the energy of the 
 body to keep up internal heat, and none is left 
 for digestion. Exhaustion of nerve force leaves 
 none for the work of more production of energy. 
 
 Poisons absorbed into the blood hinder the 
 necessary chemical changes. 
 
 Inflammation of the mucous membrane pre- 
 vents the passage of the fluids. 
 
 The chief object of the thorough mastication 
 of the food and its treatment with saliva in the 
 mouth is to protect the stomach from overwork. 
 The thoroughness with which the stomach pre- 
 pares the food for the final act of digestion, 
 intestinal absorption, depends upon the amount 
 given it to do. It would seem as if man might 
 learn this lesson readily, but the fact is that the 
 average human being bolts his food and washes 
 it down regardless of all physiological law. 
 
 A reason for a certain variety in diet is that 
 each class of food seems to stimulate the secre- 
 tion of that fluid which is needed to convert it 
 into suitable body food. For instance, meat 
 
36 Food and Diet 
 
 seems to excite a flow of juice, large in quantity 
 but poor in ferments, while bread causes a scanty 
 but concentrated flow, which is rich in ferment. 
 The formation of fixed digestive habits is 
 seen to be possible, and is to be avoided. Hutch- 
 ison says this fact may explain why sudden 
 changes in diet are to be avoided. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE SEVENTH LESSON 
 
 Examples of food spoiled in cooking are fried 
 ^g^ albumen, browned fat of meat, soggy bread, 
 highly seasoned croquettes. 
 
 Make out experiments for a study of the 
 composition of and effects of heat upon food 
 mixtures. 
 
 Show examples of wrong mixtures. 
 
 Make out lists of helps to nutrition and 
 hindrances to nutrition. 
 
 From the available text-books write out a 
 concise but clear statement of the course of food 
 in the body and, so far as is known, of its 
 decomposition in the body. 
 
LESSON VIII 
 
 THERE is some reason to believe that better 
 health might be the rule if the food were 
 less mixed at a meal, if the single stuffs were 
 better cooked, and not cut up and worked over 
 so much. Not so much fire would be required, 
 not so much labor, not so much garbage would 
 be left to poison air and ground, if each day 
 only perfect dishes were served at our family 
 tables, and few of them. There could be found 
 enough combinations to go through the month, 
 and thus give requisite variety. 
 
 The world is full of theories, and, as we have 
 seen, people have very individual characteristics, 
 but there are two reasons why we find so many 
 kinds of theories about food, and so little definite 
 fact. 
 
 I. The human organism is so highly devel- 
 oped that it can adapt itself to a great variety 
 of conditions. A man cast away on a tropical 
 island or lost in the desert will not flourish at 
 first on the unusual food, but soon becomes 
 
 37 
 
38 Food and Diet 
 
 accustomed to it. The same person may go 
 from the tropics, where he lives largely on fruit, 
 to the arctic regions, where he may be obliged 
 to live chiefly on fat, and yet keep well. If the 
 change is made gradually, no ill effect necessarily 
 follows. If made suddenly, trouble results, and 
 that is because of the second reason referred to 
 in the last lesson. 
 
 2. Habit, custom, reconciles the living being 
 to strange conditions, but the habit once formed, 
 it tends to preserve those conditions, because 
 an effort is required to change and the healthy 
 body abhors waste of effort. 
 
 It is most desirable to form good habits and 
 to accustom the body to variety so that energy 
 may not be lost. In the formation of habits 
 the mind has the leading part. It seems to 
 be true that those who believe in the use of 
 uncooked food, as tending to more refined and 
 spiritual living, soon become accustomed to the 
 use of fruits and nuts and raw grains, and get 
 from them the needed nourishment. Witness 
 the fruitarians and vegetarians. 
 
 These studies of fruit and nut diet^ are most 
 
 1 Bulletins 107 and 132, United States Department of Agriculture, 
 Office of Experiment Stations. A. B— Z of Our Own Nutrition. 
 Fletcher. 
 
Lesson VIII 
 
 39 
 
 interesting as confirming the view that the large 
 amount of food commonly eaten is not utilized 
 in the body, but is waste. 
 
 It seems to be proved that health and 
 strength and brain power may be maintained on 
 a little more than half the food value commonly 
 allowed if the diet is of pears, apples, bananas, 
 raisins, with Brazil nuts, peanuts, and walnuts. 
 
 The addition of some fresh vesretables with 
 olive oil and of cereals and milk makes it very 
 possible to subsist anyv/here without the trouble 
 of the preparation of the traditional three meals. 
 Habit, rather than physiological necessity, seems 
 to govern our eating. 
 
 We are told that those who believe that it is 
 wrong to take life for the purpose of food soon 
 come to loathe the sight and taste of meat, and 
 sit down to corn and beans and bread with a 
 zest quite unaccountable to the mixed food eater. 
 
 The human body obeys the brain wonder- 
 fully. But it must be remembered that habits 
 require time to become second nature, and that 
 most of the failures we see in the testing of new 
 diets are due to sudden changes. 
 
 It is easy to see why mankind as a rule lives 
 
40 Food and Diet 
 
 on a mixed diet. According to states and con- 
 ditions, the body will more readily find its pref- 
 erence among a dozen materials than in two. 
 If no especial care is given to the diet, then a 
 variety of all kinds brings the best result with 
 the least waste of energy. 
 
 But there are a limited number of good food 
 materials, and a limited number of healthful 
 ways of serving them, and it is not difficult to 
 exhaust them and bring on a feeling of dissatis- 
 faction if too many kinds are put on the table 
 in one day or at one meal. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE EIGHTH LESSON 
 
 Examples of what might serve a family of 
 six for a week if the appetite had not been 
 ruined by bad habits and wrong ideas. 
 
 Examples of fruitarian diet. 
 
 Examples of vegetarian diet without animal 
 products. 
 
 Examples of vegetarian diet with milk, butter, 
 cheese. 
 
 Example of satisfactory diet. 
 
LESSON IX 
 
 PRINCIPLES ON WHICH BILLS OF FARE ARE MADE 
 
 THE appetite is to be stimulated, without be- 
 ing satisfied, by the first course, bouillon 
 rather than corn soup. The warm fluid causes 
 a flow of the gastric juice because blood pres- 
 sure is increased. Relishes like olives or salted 
 almonds serve to remove the flavor of the last 
 dish, cleanse the tongue and palate, as it were, 
 for the next dish, which comes as a fresh 
 pleasure. 
 
 The sweet (a very little of it) serves to remove 
 the last traces of the oily matter of the salad 
 or the fat of the meat, and to give a feeling of 
 sufficiency and satisfaction with the meal. 
 
 These sensations cannot be repeated too 
 many times within an hour or two without losing 
 their acuteness; hence only the most perfectly 
 experienced chef may dare to serve more than 
 four or six courses at one meal. 
 
 41 
 
42 Food and Diet 
 
 Three or four dishes following each other, 
 with the right relish before the first and s'^cond 
 or second and third, is the wisest plan. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY OF DINNERS 
 
 The various elaborate orders and services from 
 the time of the Renaissance down, may be con- 
 densed to eight courses and three " services." 
 Each service may be reduced to one dish, with 
 its adjuncts. 
 
 Thudichum gives the following example : — 
 First service : 
 
 Soup, hot and cold hors d'osuvres. 
 Fish. 
 
 Side dishes {entrees). 
 Joints or removes (releves). 
 Second service : 
 
 Roasts, game, or fowl (sometimes includ- 
 ing a salad). 
 Savoury and sweet dishes (entremets). 
 Third service : 
 Cheese. 
 Dessert, 
 from this general order the multitudinous 
 bills of fare have been evolved, but the careful 
 
Lesson IX 43 
 
 housewife may console herself with Thomas 
 Walker's dictum: "It is the mode I wish to 
 recommend, and not any particular dishes. 
 Common soup made at home, fish of little cost, 
 any joints, the cheapest vegetables, some happy 
 and inexpensive introduction like the crab, and a 
 pudding — provided every thhig is good in qualify 
 and the dishes are well dressed and served hot and 
 in succession, zvith their adpcncts — will insure a 
 quantity of enjoyment which no one need be 
 afraid to offer." ^ 
 
 Before the nineteenth century kings and 
 statesmen were the great patrons of good cook- 
 ery. The art probably culminated in the seven- 
 teenth century in France, and if we wish to learn 
 the secret of w^ell-made and well-served dishes, 
 we must study the records of that earlier time.^ 
 
 Thudichum, p. 649, says, " Every bill of fare 
 must be the result of all kinds of practical con- 
 siderations, and should never be a theoretical 
 prescription culled from lists." 
 
 " The objects for which menus are published 
 in modern prints are mainly of an advertising 
 
 1 " The Art of Dining," Hayward. 
 
 2 Works by Soyer, DeSalis, Brillat-Savarin, and others. 
 
44 Food and Diet 
 
 nature, and as printed they convey absolutely no 
 information at all." 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE NINTH LESSON 
 
 Many menus, as found in the locality. 
 Exercises in preparing others after definite 
 principles. 
 
 ..0) 
 
 n 
 
LESSON X 
 
 IT is sometimes necessary to provide food at a 
 limited cost. In such case it is absolutely 
 necessary to know two things : 
 
 First, the approximate composition of the 
 food material; and, second, to know food syno- 
 nyms, or those things which may be substituted 
 for each other. Otherwise the family will be 
 sure to suffer; and we learned at the beginning 
 that the right food was essential to health, to 
 power of work, to capacity for pleasure. 
 
 If it is as wise for all to know something of 
 the value of daily food as of the value of the 
 currency in their pockets, it is absolutely neces- 
 sary for those who have few dollars to spend to 
 know how to get their money's worth without 
 sacrificing life and health. 
 
 A large part of the art of cooking consists in 
 making inexpensive food material palatable and 
 attractive. 
 
 The first step is to disabuse ourselves of the 
 
 45 
 
46 Food a7id Diet 
 
 idea that " cheap " food is poor food. A sub- 
 stance is inexpensive for several reasons, chief of 
 which is its abundance ; then its power of keep- 
 ing and of being transported without loss ; the 
 nearness of the market to the place of consump- 
 tion ; often its bulk in proportion to its food 
 value. Milk is dear food in the city because 
 ^'] per cent of water must be brought scores of 
 miles in wagon and car to get 1 3 per cent of food 
 material to the consumer. 
 
 Wheat flour is cheap because ^'] per cent of 
 it is food material, and it will keep safely while 
 stored or transported. 
 
 Products of sun and wind and rain and soil, 
 with very little of man's labor, are inexpensive 
 where they grow ; and those that will bear keep- 
 ing and transportation are inexpensive anywhere 
 on steamboat or railroad lines. 
 
 Products which involve many transformations 
 of raw material, as flesh of cattle which eat the 
 first products of the soil, and which requires 
 much handling, and, besides, is perishable ; deli- 
 cate fruits and vegetables grown with a shelter 
 and much human labor are expensive, not be- 
 cause they are better food material, but because 
 they cost more to produce. 
 
Lesson X 47 
 
 As an example of what may be done if there is 
 an incentive to stimulate interest and cause satis- 
 faction, the following is taken from Bulletin 129, 
 United States Department of Agriculture, Office 
 of Experiment Stations : 
 
 " In February, 1902, the students of the Bible 
 Normal College, situated then in Springfield, 
 Mass. (now in Hartford, Conn., and affiliated with 
 the Hartford Theological Seminary and desig- 
 nated School of Religious Pedagogy), voted to 
 save a sum of money, which they desired to raise 
 for a special object, by reducing the cost of their 
 table board. They had been paying ^3 per 
 week for table board at the time, or very nearly 
 43 cents per person per day, which, of course, 
 included the cost of fuel, preparation, and serv- 
 ice, estimated to be 10.6 cents per person per 
 day. Learning that it has been found possible 
 to provide a balanced and nourishing diet for 
 10 cents per man per day for the raw food, they 
 entered eagerly into an experiment with a diet 
 to cost that amount for food materials only, the 
 cost of preparation, etc., to remain the same as 
 before, making the total cost of the daily food 
 as served 20.6 cents per person, or 22.4 cents 
 
48 Food and Diet 
 
 less than their ordinary diet. There were thirty 
 students interested in this project, and it was 
 planned to continue the investigation three days, 
 as this would suffice to save the $20 desired. 
 
 " It was believed that the results of a dietary 
 study of the family during this period would be 
 of some value, as showing some of the possibil- 
 ities of a practical application of the results of 
 nutrition investigations. The meals provided 
 were enjoyed, and at the end of three days, 
 although the desired sum had been saved and 
 there was no longer this incentive, all the per- 
 sons concerned were sufficiently interested in 
 the trial to ask to have it continued three days 
 longer when they learned that the results for 
 such a period would be of considerably more 
 value from a scientific standpoint than those of 
 a study carried on for three days only. The 
 details of the investigation are given herewith. 
 
 " The method of conducting the investigation 
 was essentially the same as that usually followed. 
 After a study of the available food supply and 
 the cost of food in the local market, menus were 
 prepared which it was believed would be fairly 
 satisfactory, and which would fulfill the require- 
 
Lesso7t X 49 
 
 ments as regards cost and nutritive value. The 
 amounts of the various materials which it was 
 calculated would be required during the period 
 were then set aside to be used as needed, the 
 plan being to provide generously of the chief 
 and less expensive dishes, with enough of the 
 more expensive foods to give the needed variety. 
 Whatever material was left at the close of the 
 study was subtracted from the amount provided, 
 and the difference was assumed to represent the 
 amount used. Generally speaking, the estimated 
 amounts proved amply sufficient, but it was 
 found necessary during the study to purchase 
 some articles in addition to those planned for, 
 and all such foods were also included in estimat- 
 ing the total amounts eaten. 
 
 " None of the foods were analyzed. The 
 composition of all but two of the different 
 articles was assumed from average values for 
 similar food materials (United States Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Sta- 
 tions, Bulletin 28, revised). The composition of 
 the chocolate candy (fudge) was calculated from 
 that of the materials used in making it, and the 
 composition of apple jelly was taken from a 
 
50 Food and Diet 
 
 compilation not yet published. The assumed 
 values for the composition of the materials eaten 
 in this study are included in Table 29 of the 
 Appendix. 
 
 " The menus for the different days covered 
 by the study were as follows : 
 
 Saturday, February 8 
 
 Breakfast: Oatmeal and top of milk, fish cakes, toast (with a little 
 butter), prunes, milk and cereal coffee. 
 
 Dinner : Beef soup, croutons, beans (baked with pork), brown bread, 
 apricot shortcake. 
 
 Supper: Sandwiches (cheese and jelly), white and graham bread, 
 (no butter), sliced bananas, milk. 
 
 Sunday, February 9 
 
 Breakfast: Commeal mush and top of milk, baked beans, buns, milk, 
 
 and cereal coffee. 
 Dinner: Split pea soup and crackers (crisped), potted beef, brown 
 
 sauce, baked potatoes, bread, rice, with milk and 
 
 sugar. 
 Supper: Brown bread sandwiches (with a little butter), white bread 
 
 sandwiches with date and peanut filling, without butter, 
 
 cocoa, popcorn salted. 
 
 Monday, February io 
 
 Breakfast : Oatmeal, with top of milk, cream toast, cereal coffee. 
 Dinner: Baked bean soup, crisp crackers, Hamburg steak balls, 
 
 brown sauce, hominy, turnip, peanuts, and dates. 
 Supper : Potato and beet salad, gingerbread, cheese, bread, milk. 
 
Lesson X 
 
 Tuesday, February ii 
 
 51 
 
 Breakfast: Wheat breakfast food and dates, creamed codfish, muffins 
 (with little butter), milk, and cereal coffee. 
 
 Dinner : Beef stew, with biscuits, bread pudding, bread. 
 
 Supper: Scalloped meat and potato, bread (with butter), prunes, 
 chocolate candy " fudge." 
 
 Wednesday, February 12 
 
 Breakfast : Oatmeal, with top of milk, hash, corn cake, milk, and cereal 
 
 coffee. "*■ 
 Dinner: Vegetable soup, croutons, baked stuffed beef's heart, 
 
 brown sauce, rice, cornstarch blanc mange, caramel 
 
 sauce. 
 Supper: Potato and celery salad, white and graham bread, fried 
 
 cornmeal mush, syrup. 
 
 Thursday, February 13 
 
 Breakfast: Cornmeal mush, with top of milk, hashed meat on toast, 
 
 milk, and cereal coffee. 
 Dinner : Salt salmon, drawn V>utter sauce, baked potatoes, parsnips, 
 
 bread, evaporated apple shortcake. 
 Supper: Cold sliced beef's heart, creamed potatoes, cocoa, bread 
 
 (white and graham), ginger snaps- 
 
 " The family in this experiment consisted of 
 thirty students, twenty-six women and four men, 
 ranging in age from twenty-five to forty-five 
 years." 
 
 The Science and Art of Cookery combined 
 should enable us so to prepare the inexpensive 
 
52 Food and Diet 
 
 as to produce the most satisfactory flavor, 
 texture, temperature, and consistency, and to use 
 the expensive to enhance the pleasure of the 
 table just sufflciently, and not to the injury of 
 the aim of all living, the production of the happy, 
 healthy, efficient human being. 
 
 ILLUSTRATIVE MATERIAL FOR THE TENTH LESSON 
 
 Exercises in selection of the satisfactory com- 
 binations in a variety of ways suited to the tastes 
 of the class and the markets in the locality. 
 
 A few examples of bills of fare covering three 
 weeks' time, because the members of the family 
 will not keep tally of the menu, and know just 
 what to expect day by day. 
 
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 Horace Fletcher. postage .10 
 
 Air, Water, and Food 2.00 
 
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 Henry Leffman, M.D. 
 
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 Hayward. 
 
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 N. Oppenheim, 
 
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 L. E. Holt, M.D. postage .07 
 
 Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning .... 1.00 
 
 Richards and Elliott. 
 
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 Ellen H. Richards. 
 
 Diet and Food 1.00 
 
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 Diet in Relation to Age and Activity . . . 1.00 
 
 Sir Henry Thompson. 
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 Sir Henry Thompson. 
 
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 E. H. Miles. 
 
 Plain Words about Food 1.00 
 
 Ellen H. Richards. 
 
 Spirit of Cookery 2.25 
 
 Thudichum. 
 Story of the Bacteria 75 
 
 T. Mitchell Prudden. 
 
 Story of Germ Life net .35 
 
 H. W. Conn. postage .04 
 
 Story of the Living Machine net .35 
 
 H. W. Conn. postage .04 
 
 These and all other books on Household Economics for sale by 
 
 WHITCOMB & BARROWS 
 
 HUNTINGTON CHAMBERS, BOSTON 
 
OCT 1 ^SO'*