South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-04-21
Common Mistakes
About Food Values
Bv Woods Hutchinson. VI. ID.


I The World Best known Writer on
Medical Subjects.
MAN cannot live by bread alone,
still less by carbohydrates and corn
meal. Even the STAFF OF life can
make only the walls Of life's sand
wich and must be spread with but
ter, filled with meat and well load
ed with jam, TO make the sacred
balanced ration. The four-year-old
who revised and expanded the clos
ing lines Of his evening prayer
"Give us this day our daily bread
an plenty NV butter on it," brought
his theology strictly up 10 date
Bread and" something else comes
as naturally TO our tongues as the
familiar Ham and" of the short
order beanerles.
We are fond of boasting, and par
donably. that we have rationalized
our ideas Of diet and put food prob
lens upon a purely scientific basis.
with accuracy and precision in place
OF guesswork and rule of thumb.
This is as it should be and great
improvement over our hit-or-miss
methods in the days OF ignorance.
But every new region opened up Of
fers us fresh chances OF losing our
way, and each advance Of knowl-
edge brings with il new possibilities
Of mistakes.
Ever since we realized that the
human body was an engine. driven
by the fuel shoveled into its stomach
furnace in the form Of food. we have
naturally been eagerly asking the
question. What is the cheapest
form Of food fuel which can be
burnt efficiently and safely in the
| human engine?" We have been in
the ase-long habit OF eating and re-
| garding as necessary certain staple
/ foods-wheat bread, meat, butter.
| eggs. potatoes. sugar. etc.-but per
| haps our liking for these has been
due simply to early training at the
/ home table. tradition or convenience.
Is there anything else which is Just
as good for keeping up a proper
| head OF steam and much less expen-
sive than these old standbys and
favorites?
At the first blush IL looked as if
this question would be very prompt
/ ly and confidently answered i'm the
affirmative Foods are fuels. fuels
are estimated by the number OF heat
units or CaloTies they contain per
pound. Here are many perfectly
good foods. such as cornmeal. no
tatOes. rice barley. cassava. which
contain Just as many caIories per
pound as do wheat flour. beef. NUT
ton. eggs and sugar, and are ever SO
much cheaper.
II may be explained incidentally
/ that calorie though il sounds
rather appalling. is simply the
amount OF heat which viii raise one
quart of water one degree i'm tern
perature. and has been adopted
simply as convenient unit of meas
urement i'm foods II il is further
remem bered that an average real"
food. such as bread meat. cake or
sugar, contains about 1000 Galleries
per pound. and that three sucb
pounds. or 5000 caIories are re-
quired for days working rations
1000 calories. or one pound of solid
food. at each meal. il will ne seen
how simple the calorie method Of
estimating and comparing foods
really is.
Not rev Of oy-T cartier food re-
formers. carried away bv the on
thusiasm OF new knowledge bepan
constructing and eagerly ,,rriDe,
scientific and economical diatariss
with cornmeal and potatoes in Tho
place OF bread: beans. nuts and
cheese instead of meat. oil for but
ter. and milk and vegetables in place
or eggs, fish and oysters. These
they assured as would cut down our
food bills nearly one-half and a.,
the same time remove an tennts-
ton 20 over-eat and deliver us from
govt rheumatism. dyspepsia. anon
leNy. liver and kidney diseases.
The reformers make good on their
last specification without question
for the denaturized and sin-purihed
menus which they constructed
wouldn't tempt anybody or anything
20 excess except rabbit or a town
COW. But when il came 10 the
earlier promises, the new fuels
couldn't be made TO nh the bin AT
all.
These 'Just -as-gOod and far-less-
expensive" substitutes proved TO be
in the same class as ALL the widely
advertised health foods and patent
foods. wonderful in purity. superb
IN analysis OF contents. with ONLY
one drawback-people can't live on
them, children won't grow on them.