Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1902-07-19
MrATLEss DINNERS,
The High Price OF Meat Aiding a&Dietary
Reform.

MEATLBSS DINNERS.
The High Price OF Meat Aiding asDjetar.
Reform.
1t Is a doubtful question always
whether wrong-dofng may ever be OK
cused under the plea that possible goo6
may result therefrom. Yet the Ques.
tionable transaction involved in the
present meat question is already
showing evidence of bringing good re
suits IN regard to reform in dietary
that no amount of scientific argument
reasonings or abSolut6 facts seemed
able to bring about. ca willing
ness On the part Of the public to LOOK
upon these statements in any other
ueht other than visionary and most
lmpractieable theories. Generally
speaking, all c1asses eat too much
meat. The rich when they do not need
1t, because they are always able to
afford and obtain a very great variety
OF foods, and the poor very often, when
healthier and purer foods would be
cheaper, give them as much nourish-
ment and give them better general re-
suits, morally, mentally and physical
ly.
Now that it is becoming a fad" as
well as a necessity, with many, let
every one, and especially the rheumatic
and those who never feel '.just f1t," try
dietary which eliminates meat entire
ly. They need not become ''vegetar-
ian In the restricted sense of the world,
as they may allow themselves free use
of fish, milk, eggs and cheese, as we'll
as the vegetables, cereals, fruit and
nut foods.
From the milk products we, have
cheese, which is wholesome and nour-
ishing when cooked and eaten in pro-
per manner. Cheese and nuts are made
digestible by grating and milling; this
aid to the digestion is necessary in
most cases simply because people do
not seem to know that their teeth,
with the assistance Of the saliva, were
intended a perform a very considerable
part Of the digestion of their foods, but
must needs shift their part of the labor
on the patients stomach, which in title
will revenge itself on the teeth to their
utter undoing, and often rout them
completely.
In the fresh fruit class of foods we
have the banana, which may be util-
lied as very near substitute to
meat dish, owing to the similar con-
stltuent parts it is supposed to con-
tain.
Eggs and egfi and milk dishes are
always accepted as suitable substitutes
for meats, and of a certainty we do not
need other meat when fresh fish is SO
plentiful and in season. A great many
Of our summer vegetables when in
prime development may very well take
the place OF meats. Rice is another
most desirable form of food; while not
very nourishtng, it is delicate, digesti-
bic and cheap, while it readily enters
into most delicious combinations with
any other food materials and 1elpe
form very satisfactory and substantial
dishes.
Fresh mushrooms, though subject to
a good deal Of discussion as to whether
they are very nourishing or not, are
certainly very satisfactory to most
people and are accepted as meat dish;
their flavor may haze something to dc
with the illusion that they are near
meat"
Perhaps the hardest thing for the
meat eater to become recociIed TO is
the dinner without meat. When fish IS
they do not feel the omission so
much, but one does not want fish fo1
dinner every day in the week, as it is
a food one soon tires of, if always
fresh water varieties. But after uslne
every vegetable substitute for meat, we
have a cereal preparation which may
be considered the housewives standby;
always in season, always fresh, always
and easily cooked in a grea,
variety of ways. This is the group
known collectively as "macaroni."
The 'heartiness'' of this dish IS in
dictated when it is served with a full
dinner of meats and vegetables, etc.
Notice the feeling of overfulness anu
discomfort you experience.
TO have dined well does not mean
that you have eaten all the food that
you can possibly dispose of, but that
you have satisfied your inner demand
Tor necessary and sufficient supply
of proper material, not simply to graft
~ the sense OF taste, but to obtain
that generally prevailing sense of conf
fort and well being which is entirely
free from the dull, sleepy languor that
comes from overlooking, and is only
natural and allowable to the animal
who, following the natural instinct OF
its kind, will eat but one meal III the
"a hours and then lie down to a long
natural sleep.
1t is quite noticeable to all who are
at all observ2nt that the health Of the
emigrant classes does not improve
when they adopt thorough American
diet, which means meat as often as
they can get it, and often to the exclu-
sion of other nourishing foods from
their meals. Many of these poor peas
ants seldom if ever taste meat until
they come to this country, and yet in
their native lands perform muscular
labor fit for beasts of burden only. Ii
is to be inferred, therefore, that the
addition of meat to their diet is mSre
than superfiuous and it often brings to
these people all the ills which the hesn
OF the native American is heir to.