Evening star., 1926-03-29
FOOD AND HEALTH
BY WINIFRED STUART GIBBS.
Food Specialist.

"Oh, yes, / know how to plan meals
so as to make them balance young
bride or even an experienced house
wife may say. II know that maca-
roni and cheese make a good meat
substitute and that you must not
serve two starchy vegetables like po-
tatoes and rice at the same meal.
This sounds we'll and makes good
beginning, but ask the speaker for
further information and. in the words
of the small boy. see what you get!
Nine times out of ten, and this is a
conservative statement, there Will be
no further information forthcoming.
The individual speaker is in no sense
to blame, it is merely that the two
illustrations cited constitute q large
share of the dietary motions" having
the most widespread distribution.
One speaks, of course. of those who
have not made it their business to
study diet systematically.
Moreover, it is on the shoulders OF
these very individuals, those who
have made a systematic study of the
subject, tlat the responsibility for
helping their lay sisters rests. How
shall they best accomplish it?
Fortunately the number of those
who are keen about studying food
and diet is Increasing all the time.
Many Of them are not professionals,
but the fact that they are read ding
everything available on the subject
places them in O. strategic position.
They are able to give very worth
while help in broadcasting the proper
information.
Take the average housewife. Let
us say that she is keen to get any
90 dC V-A fnf hof x1-t1
help her accomplish this desirable
end. Ones advice to such a person
is TO keep always in mind the fact
that practically every diet question is
many sided.
The classic remark about macaroni
and cheese being a good meat substi-
tute will illustrate the point as well
as any other. The housekeeper who
fixes this one isolated idea in her
mind and fails to follow it through to
it's complete development is missing
much.
The macaroni and cheese, it is true,
do afford a dish that in many points
conforms to the office performed by
meat in the body. Meat is one OF the
outstanding body builders. and the
body building elements in cheese are
in some measure a substitute for
meat; that is, there is one type Of pro-
tein present in cheese and another in
the wheat of which macaroni is COM
posed. Since, however, food chemists
are constantly uncovering more and
more information as to the varying
virtues OF these body building ele-
ments, the home dietitian will do well
to remember that, while macaroni and
cheese is an excellent dish to serve
as the chief attraction of either lunch
con or supper, when one has mastered
this fact he has by no means exhaust
ed the subject.
Cheese. for example, is an excellent
source of food lime, an element in
which the average American diet has
starch in the macaroni is an easily
digested form of energy and under GER
tain conditions an especially desirable
food to use when there is intestinal
trouble.
The point is that any housewife
bent on feeding her family as well as
possible will do we'll to lend an atten-
tive ear to any widely circulated
truths about meal planning. but that
she is even wiser If she determines
not to be satisfied with storing such
facts away. without analyZing them.
She will check those facts for ac-
curacy. then. and there is the crux of
the matter. she will then make it her
business to find out whether she has
mastered all the facts.
Finished work is so much more sat
isfactory than that which is incom-
plete or ragged, and this principle ap-
plies as we'll in dietetics as in any
other line of endeavor.
Copyright 1920