Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-02-22
FOOD AND HEALTH
BY wINIFRED STUART GIBBS.
Feo1 Specialist.

Nutrition specialists are apt to null
tiply words. Their particular calling
abounds in material that is, almost OF
necessity, couched in technical and
scientific terms. So the average c1ti-
zen, intent on cutting through this
mass Of words to find the plain and
unadorned facts. sometimes has a
difficult time of it.
Reducing the dietary to it's lowest
terms is easier than our childhood
bugbear--that of reducing common
fractions to their lowest terms-but in
order to accomplish It we must prac.
tice a bit.
Strictly speaking, the lowest terms
of diet are Ave in number. milk, veg
etables, breadstuffs, fruits and meats.
Nothing difficult about that, surely.
But says some one, what about
sugar and butter?'
Exactly, We are not spea king. re-
member, Of all the food products re-
quired to make attractive meals: we
are talking about the lowest terms Of
the dietary. If you will stop bit, az
our English friends would put it, or
wait minute. to use our own Ameri-
can vernacular, and examine these
lowest terms, you will see that sugar
and butter are present in these five
foods. Not the cane sugar in the form
OF parking cubes a 1t appears on our
tables, 1t is true, but fruit sugars OF
many and healthful varieties. Fur.
thermore, butter, or the markings" OF
butter. are represented by the milk
with its cream and butter fat.
Try this experiment: Take each Of
these five lowest dietary terms and
study it. Study it, not with your
mind on calories, vitamins or any
other technical terms. but as meat.
or milk, or fruit. or vegetables, or
bread, As the case may be.
What is the most practical method
for this study?
One way Is to examine favorite
recipe. Break it up, so to speak, into
It's component parts. We are apt. for
example, to think of cornstarch pud-
ding AS pudding. 1t is really a tooth.
some dish, containing cornstarch il is
true, but offering, besides, milk and
eggs and sugar, TO say nothing of pos.
sible fruit juices added for favor and
for the purpose of further increa sing
it's food value.
For the moment sweep the cobwebs
of confused information from your
mind and in their place put the sim.
pie understa ndabe and familiar foods
that every housekeeper knows as she
does the names of the children them
selves Later YOU can return to your
studies about calories and vitamins
protein. carbohydrate and fat, and.
equipped with clear understanding
of what every-d day foods are required.
you can fit these foods into the more
complicated picture Of scientific dis.
cussion.
Boiled down to appropriate terms,
the suggestions are these:
l. The five foodStuffs entering into
an adequate diet are milk meat, fruit,
vegetables and bread
2. Other foods, added by an in
creasing knowledge of what consti-
tutes an attractive diet, such as sugar
and butter, are contained in some
form in these FIVE.
8. 1t is desira BILE to examine each
commonly-used recipe in order to as
certain Just which of these funda-
mental foods il contributes to the diet.
4. When these facts are firmly
fixed in mind. it Is time to begin to
think of how much of each of the five
is required and what it does in the
body.
So don't lose the benefit of real
understanding of dietary laws by al.
lowing confusion about queer words"
to distract you. The five words-milk
bread. meat, vegetables and fruits
are familiar TO all Just remember
that We need some Of these every day.
and learn to examine the menus to
see # each of the FIVE is represented
Later you can learn what each does
in the body and how much is re.
quired.