French Broad hustler and Western Carolina Democrat. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1915-1916, 1916-06-22
HOW MUCH FOOD?

To some of US this question may
seem odd and unnecessary. Why, they
may say, we eat all we. want Of course.
Even so you may not have enough of
may even starve IN the midst of plenty
You may eat two or three potatoes
four slices Of bread, a half a pie and
three pickles. You can hardly eat any
more at one meal and yet you are not
being well fed. On the contrary. if
you are a boy or a girl under twenty
eating that much you are not eating
enough to grow on, to make your body
as tall and as heavy as Nature intend
ed you should be. You may grow tired
Of hearing about protein, but there is
nc food that can build muscle except
protein. The grains have some pro-
tein, but you can hardly hold enough
grain TODD to provide the protein you
need from grams alone. A cow has a
stomach capable of holding a busnel,
perhaps. Men are not built that way.
Therefore we must get our protein in
more condensed form. This brings us
to our usual program of meats, milk
and eggs. But more and more medical
science is urging the use of milk and
eggs as a protein supply, especially
for growing children and youths, and
people past middle life. This does~not
mean the exclusion of meat but shar-
ing the meal with meat. Too many
families eat meat three times a day
and rarely use either milk or eggs
These families iced urging as to a
change of program. Not hard boiled
or fried eggs but carefully cooked
eggs and sweet raw milk and butter
mlak. 1t is being said, too. that no
other tat is equal to butter as a food
clement. Cream of course for the far
mer, but city folks hardly know real
cream. Fats and starches are the en-
ergy givers, and children need plenty
of both. This accounts for the child's
desire for more butter, with a sprink-
ling of sugar added. All perfectly
r ght and wholesome. We cannot
safely economic on butter to the x
tent of robbing the children without
serious loss to them. ;
Perhaps there is no better argu-
ment for wiser feeding of children
than the usual argument for feeding
calves: they must be kept fat and
growing or they never make a high
grade animal. Any school boy can see
what is the matter with a herd of cat
tie when their ribs can be counted at
q distance of forty rods. The man
who tries to carry his working teams
through the summer without any gran
cannot conceal his method of feeding
from his neighbors. The hanging
heads, the dragging feet of such a
team proclaim t"eir exhaustion, Pre-
CYsely the same thing is the matter
with US very often when we go TO
doctor for a tonic. We are all gone
we say; no str 18th. no ambition.
More protein is the usually the only
need. Our Department of
Agriculture at Washington has worked
out dietary standards for men as well
as for animals. We take their stand
ard, the balanced ration" for animals
and found it works well. The stand
ard for men and women is equally
certain to work well. But to know
that a man at hard work needs 1000
grains af protein daily does not mean
much unless we know where that pro-
tein is to come from. Meat, milk, eggs
and beans are foods richest in pro-
tein. But how much is needed to make
this. 1900 grains. If it were milk only
a man would need about a gallon a
day. If the protein must be had from
potatoes only something like a peck of
potatoes a day must be eaten.
But some n will say it is impossi-
BILE to easur and weigh and calculate
each meal for each person. OF course
it is, but it is not impossible for even
hard to keep a pitcher of sweet, cold
milk on the table three times a day
and to see. with every glass of milk
used about 125 brains of protein going
into the d. ct. 1t is not hard to see
that eggs go with the breakfast food
and that baked beans or Goldfish are
eaten several times q week. When
men are working hard pie does not
help them. Cookies are only energy