Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-10-03
DIETARY HINTS
BY H. Addington Bruce

It is important, nutritional experts are
agreed, that the diet include great variety
of foods But this does not mean that q
great variety should be eaten at every meal
To have the food too varied at each meal
orable effect on the digestion. AS Dorothy
Lane points out in her recently published
Nutrition and Specific Therapy," manual
of practical helpfulness to those who feel the
need Of dietary guidance:
1.-THE less variety at one meal, the quicker
the digestion and the better Cor the health
But the greater the variety, the three meals
a day considered, the better for the health
"Serve as few foods as possible at each
meal, but serve generously Of the foods, and
vary each of the three meals day, and the
meals of each day Of the week If possible"
Remember always, too, that nutrition does
not depend so much upon the amount Of food
eaten as upon the inclusion of such foods az
supply the various needs of the organism.
\ Amount of course, is of Importance. But
numerous people eat an abundance Of food
yet are undernourished because of failure tC
select foods with reference to all the nutri
tional requirements.
Especially is this likely to be true Of per
sons who eat heartily of meats and starchy
foods.
Too often they undereat as regards fruits
and green vegetables, with the result thai
their diet is deficient in vitamins and min
eral salts. Then, although they may put on
weight and have an appearance of health
they are lacking in endurance, are more OF
less anaemic, and are under-resistive If at
tackled by disease.
Further, they are likely to be troubled by
constipation, itself a breeder Of disease. II
only because of their good influence on the
~ oil fro
and green vegetables may be set down as 6
dietary requirement of the first Importance.
For the same reasons-to obtain vitamins
and mineral salts and to promote ellmina-
tion-it is desirable to eat rough breads an6
cereals, in place of the soft breads and
"breakfast foods so much in favor today.
Besides which, when preference is given tc
soft instead Of rough breads and cereals
there may be marked interference with the
digestion because of insufficient masticat1o1
and too rapid eating. The teeth becomes
more liable to decay, and dental decay itself
means increased liability to indigestion, with
harmful effects upon the system generally.
Finally, for the sake both of digestion and
nutrition, uncooked foods should have con-
spicious place in the diet. There are some
foods-notably meats-Which require to DC
cooked, not merely for palatabilty, but tc
destroy breeding organisms which
may, be in them. But even in the case OF
these foods the cooking should not be ex-
cessive.
IF protein foods are cooked" again te
quote Dorothy Lane, "they should be cooked
at as low a temperature and as short time
as possible The greater the temperature al
which they are cooked, the tougher and horn
Ter they become.
"This fact is very clearly seen in the boil
ing of meat on the stove as compared With
cooking it in a fireless cooker, and IN t.
boiling of the white of an egg over the flame
as compared with dropping the egg into boil
ing water and setting the pan on the back OF
the stove for twenty minutes"