# Foods of the Foreign-born/Chapter 1

DIETARY BACKGROUNDS
Most of our friends from other countries come to America in the very cheapest way, and are unaccustomed to travel. They leave home with many of their cooking utensils in a cloth bag and continue their housekeeping on shipboard in the steerage, feeding their children and themselves from stores brought from home. Almost their first thought on landing is of something to eat, and this fact places food in the first rank of importance in our plans for Americanization. Their first impression of America is often gained in a poorly-housed restaurant, whose proprietor is of their own nationality. From him they learn where to get some of their native foods, both raw and cooked.
Usually they establish their homes in neighborhoods or colonies of their own nationality. Here there is no opportunity to know about American foods, raw or in combination, or the kind and amount of foods needed in a day's dietary under the new living conditions. If they have come from countries in which the climate is very different from this, they make no change in diet; or if their occupation here is more strenuous or less taxing, they do not take this into consideration. They have always eaten certain kinds of foods, prepared in certain ways. Why change? There is no one to tell them; no one to tell them which of theirs to keep, and which of this country's to adopt, or how to prepare them. They are probably more willing on their arrival than they will be at any later time to accept American help and suggestions.
​Their housing conditions are changed—their style of clothing must be changed; many of their social customs, as well as some of their religious ideals, must be given up; the only habit and custom which can be preserved in its entirety is their diet. This is made possible because they find in America, as in no other country, all their native raw food materials.
All human beings are naturally gifted with more or less ability, when occasion requires, to prepare food for themselves. This aptitude does not necessarily help them to adjust their diet to new conditions. They are willing to learn, but who will teach them? Who knows their food? How many and which ones shall they continue to use to meet their daily needs and their new financial condition and responsibilities? Where shall they buy them? Even the dishes to cook in are of a different type. Which kind produces the familiar results? There is much that we may learn from these people and, equally much for them to learn from us with profit. If we then study their customs and acquaint ourselves more and more with their foods, we shall not only broaden our own diet by the introduction of new and interesting dishes, but also we shall be better able to help these foreign-born to adjust themselves to new conditions with as few changes as possible.
During the influenza epidemic of 1918 it was plainly demonstrated that neither district nurses, settlement workers, nor visiting dietitians knew much about the foods of the foreign-born patients. Gallons of American soups and broths were served to these people, only to be untouched and thrown out. This came at a time when diet might have meant much in furnishing resistance to the disease. In our hospitals and dispensaries we usually ​find only American foods prescribed for diets. Often it has been said, "They should learn to eat American foods if they are to live here." Whether we all agree with this or not, at least we agree that when a person is ill and needs a special diet, it is no time to teach him to eat new foods. It is like hitting a person when he is down. Our milk soups are nutritious, but so are theirs; why not learn what they are and prescribe them? The same is true of other foods.
It is much easier for the dietitian to learn the foods of the foreign-born than for these people to adjust their finances to a new dietary. Often their income is insufficient to buy their own foods, which they know they like. Can we wonder that they hesitate to invest in food about which they are uncertain? There are certain diseases prevalent among the foreign-born people which are due largely to their change of diet. If this is corrected, it may overcome the disease.
A Bohemian family of father, mother, and six children, who were patients at a dispensary, were living (or staying here) on an income of twelve to sixteen dollars a week. It was necessary to get milk and cereals into the diet of the children, but who, without a knowledge of Bohemian foods, dare disturb that very limited amount of the income which was available for food?
An Italian printer earns seventeen dollars a week. In his family are seven children, the oldest a boy of eleven. Barbara, five years old, was very bow-legged, and had to have her legs broken to straighten them. Three younger children were sent to a dispensary food clinic for diet to prevent their being bow-legged. It was necessary to have not less than two and a half quarts of milk added to their food each day. The income was too small to allow ​for this, so the man got extra work at night to pay for the milk. This shows that they are willing to go at least halfway in changing diet habits.
In the chapters which follow a brief account is given, for several important nationalities or race groups, of the conditions and dietary habits of the people in their own country, and then of their food problems here, with special reference to health. Reference is made to some diseases in which diet is a factor and which are most frequently noted among the group by physicians, nurses, and social workers.
Diets and recipes for these diseases are given for each nationality. These recipes are made from our American raw materials, and many of them resemble our dishes so closely that only slight changes are necessary in our recipes to produce a welcome diet for these people. In printing these recipes no attempt has been made to force them into cook book English. Many carry their national atmosphere in the expressions used.
A dietitian has never been so honored, in college or out, as she will be by these foreign-born people when once she talks to them of their familiar foods. An Armenian storekeeper found a fellow-countryman, a chef in an Armenian restaurant, who was suffering from indigestion. He said to him: "You come with me. I take you to the smartest woman you ever knew. She knows our foods; she tell you what to eat; you feel better."
The recipes have not been worked out in calories or grams, as this can readily be done by the dietitian when necessary to fit specific needs. Because it might be that the same dish could be served with very little change, lowering the fat content, increasing the protein, or lessening the carbohydrate, as the case might require, it is ​unwise to figure them in advance. To meet the foreign-born taste, the principal requirement is to give the flavor; any nurse or dietitian can measure the amount in calories or grams when she once knows the materials and how to combine them.