The Washington times., 1926-01-04
Practical Sugges-
tons for Balanced
Meals
Show the Energy Con
tanned in Various Foods

day following the holiday season.
Roast turkey. with rich dressing,
candied sweet potatoes. plum pud-
ding, mince pie, Christmas cake,
and sweets in variety have many
possibilities for mounting calories
and a one-sided diet. In returning
to simpler fare, we shall find 1t
to our advantage to keep, before
as the main essentials Of q bal
anced diet, so that we may, start
| the year right in selecting both
economical and thealthful meals
To provide simple guide in
planning such meals. the institute
has prepared the score card or
daily diet shown on this page. II
is desirable to keep the actual food
value OF our meals as uniform as
possible from day to day, and It
is much easier to do this IL we have
a plan to follow. If followed con-
sistently. the Institute Daily, Diet
will prove a good balance wheel
and prevent too many dietetie holi.
days. It allows for a wide variety
in types OF menus and in individual
foods or dishes 1t is not a set OF
rules; it merely indicates in a gen
eral way what each days meals
should include. 1t may be modi.
fled to suit the pocketbook and the
taste and energy requirements of
each individual, whether the meals
are prepared in the home kitchen
or selected in public dining-rOom.
1t Is for adults, not for young chill
dren: for children definite changes
would be necessary.
In order that the daily diet may
be used in flexible and intelligent
way we should explain, as briefly
and simply as possible, the reasons
!. why we consider 1t a guide to bal
anced meals
Despite the fallacies of food fad
dists and the strange traditions that
have grown up around certain food
combinations, there il nothing mys-
terious or complex about food
values. Years Of careful work in
food laboratories have produced ex-
act knowledge of what food can do
for us. and this knowledge we
should all use.
The use of food can be more cas-
! lily understood il we consider the
human body as an engine or q
working machine which must be
supplied with fuel.
That fuel is food, and the ilu.
man machine, to be kept in good
running order, must have a uni
4 f<6R-s . .g.-n-A II.
fuel. There cannot be a feast Of
one type OF food one day and a
| famine the next. The meals should
be kept balanced from day to day.
The cells of the body use this
food to produce energy in the form
of heat for normal body tempera.
ture, and of muscular activity for
our daily exercise and work The
energy which each and every food
produces can be measured just as
accurately as an engineer can meas
ure the output of any machine, and
the amount of energy our food
should supply each Of us for our
days work can be measured in an
equally accurate way. The way in
which the body cells produce en-.
ergy from digested food is similar
to what takes place when food is
Because of this, foods can be
burned in laboratory device called
caIorimeter and the resulting
energy measured, while we can be
put into another type of calori-
meter and the energy used up by
us for every kind of exercise or
activity carefully measured. This
has already been done with many
| individuals. In each case this
energy was measured in terms of
units called calories. And we find
that the more active we are phys
ically, the more calories we use and
need.
/; All foods do not have the same
calorie value by any means, a sig
nificant fact to remember in select
| ing meals. Foods contain three
main classes of fuels or energy
yielding substane es-proteins, fats
and carbohydrates, or sugars and
| starches.
These three substances are found
| in widely varying proportions in
| the various foods. For your guild
ance we have here illustrated ex-
/, amples OF those rich in each of the
/ three classes of fuels. You will find
that while some foods, such AZ
sugar, rice and potatoes, are rich
| In only one kim OF fuel, others.
such as cheese, cereals and dried
beans, contain liberal proportions of
! more tiaan one kind. Again, some