Evening star., 1926-04-06
FOOD AND HEALTH
BY wINIFRED STUART GIBBS.
Food Specialist.

! 1t is not alone the children who re-
Iuire training to observe. We grown.
ups are often sadly deficient in this
| attribute, and not the least of our
losses is that of missing helpful diet
, information.
Next time we go into restaurant
and find little cards and pamphlets
on the subject of the foods served.
why not investigate their contents?
| Even If the information as set forth
| in these particular bits of literature
| is not quite what we ourselves re-
! q,iire, the chances are that, If read
| intelligently, these booklets will set
us thinking about the very food ques.
tions in which our interest Is most
keen.
Perhaps one little book opens with
the statement of what constitutes a
balanced diet Are we absolutely cer-
tain that we know just what factors
must be reckoned with in balancing
our diet? At all events, let US scan
the suggestions given, store away in
our minds facts that will help us;
make mental note of points suggested
on which we realize that we must
make further inquiry.
Pamphlets similar to the one de.
scribed usually set forth the food
value of portion of each dish served
at the restaurant in question. Now.
none of us wishes to burden himself
while at luncheon with making la
borious calculations about the food he
orders. A little previous self-training,
however. will make it quite easy to
glance down the columns of food
names and foodvalue figures. estimat-
ing quickly what we shall order and
why.
Here are few suggestions:
Calculate the total calOrieS in your
order. by all means. but do not forget
that the number OF calories or meas
ures of energy furnished by your
meal simply indicate one of the sew
eral elements that go to make a sensi-
bic meal or series of meals.
The next suggestion is that you ask
yourself how the calories are dis.
tributed. In other words, one should
not attempt to get all his energy from
one or two foods. Such a practice
would mean that he would be over.
loading the stomach and causing in
digestion. A good general plan for
distributing the calOries is to have ap-
proximately one-tenth of the amount
of food eaten in the form of body
building foods. such as meat or eggs
or fish; three.tenths fat. such as fat
of meat or cream or butter: and six
tentnS carDOnydrate, or cereals and
breads and sweets.
Glancing again at our little pam.
phlet furnished by many restaurants,
we may find that the table of vege-
tables will offer several good lessons
We shall see, for example, that a
portion of baked beans furnishes 200
calories of energy or steam to keep
the body going. while green kale gives
only S5. Does. this mean that it is
correct to say. Beans are better food
than kale or pther greens?" BY no
means. Beans give more energy, il
is true. but the green's offer iron.
phosphorus and lime. three of the
most important mineral salts. Beans
are essentially body builders. while
green's are body regulators.
We should think a builder very
foolish who said that because he had
put in a very good furnace he need
not bother about the heating system
as a whole. The good furnace would
be of little use if it were not pro.
vided with the means for keeping it
regulated
This is just one illustration of how
not to compare foods.