Part 1 (1/2)

Everyday Foods in War Time.

by Mary Swartz Rose.

PREFACE

”FOOD IS FUEL FOR FIGHTERS. Do not waste it. Save WHEAT, MEAT, SUGARS AND FATS. Send more to our Soldiers, Sailors and Allies.”

The patriotic housewife finds her little domestic boat sailing in uncharted waters. The above message of the Food Administration disturbs her ordinary household routine, upsets her menus and puts her recipes out of commission. It also renders inoperative some of her usual methods of economy at a time when rising food prices make economy more imperative than ever. To be patriotic and still live on one's income is a complex problem. This little book was started in response to a request for ”a war message about food.” It seemed to the author that a simple explanation of the part which some of our common foods play in our diet might be both helpful and rea.s.suring. To change one's menu is often trying; to be uncertain whether the subst.i.tuted foods will preserve one's health and strength makes adjustment doubly difficult. It is hoped that the brief chapters which follow will make it easier to ”save wheat, meat, sugars and fats” and to make out an acceptable bill of fare without excessive cost.

Thanks are due to the Webb Publis.h.i.+ng Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, for permission to reprint three of the chapters, which appeared originally in _The Farmer's Wife_.

TEACHERS COLLEGE, Columbia University, New York City.

December 1, 1917.

EVERYDAY FOODS IN WAR TIME

CHAPTER I

THE MILK PITCHER IN THE HOME

(Reprinted from _The Farmer's Wife_, by permission of the Webb Publis.h.i.+ng Company.)

There is a quaint old fairy tale of a friendly pitcher that came and took up its abode in the home of an aged couple, supplying them from its magic depths with food and drink and many other comforts. Of this tale one is reminded in considering the place of the milk pitcher in the home. How many housewives recognize the bit of crockery sitting quietly on the shelf as one of their very best friends? How many know that it will cover many of their mistakes in the choice of food for their families? That it contains mysterious substances upon which growth depends? That it stands ready to save them both work and worry in regard to food? That it is really the only indispensable article on the bill of fare?

Diet is like a house, a definite thing, though built of different kinds of material. For a house we need wall material, floor material, window, ceiling, chimney stuffs and so forth. We may, if we like, make floors, walls, and ceilings all of the same kind of stuff, wood for example, but we should need gla.s.s for windows and bricks or tile for chimneys. Or, again, we may choose brick for walls, floors, and chimneys but it would not do any better than wood for windows, would be rather unsatisfactory for ceilings, and impossible for doors. In other words, we could not build a modern house from one kind of material only and we really need at least four to carry out even a simple plan.

In a similar fas.h.i.+on, diet is constructed from fuel material, body-building material and body-regulating material. No diet is perfect in which these are not all represented. Now, foods are like sections of houses. Some correspond to single parts, as a floor or a window or perhaps a chimney; others to a house complete except for windows and roof; still others to a house lacking only a door or two. It takes some thought to put them together so that we shall have all kinds of parts without a great many extra ones of certain kinds and not enough of others.

Milk is unique in that it comes nearest of all foods to being a complete diet in itself. It is like the house with only a door missing. We could be quite comfortable in such a house for a long time though we could make a more complete diet by adding some graham bread or an apple or some spinach.

We all a.s.sociate milk with cows and cows with farms, but how closely is milk a.s.sociated with the farm table? Is it prized as the most valuable food which the farm produces? Every drop should be used as food; and this applies to skim milk, sour milk, and b.u.t.termilk as well as sweet milk. Do we all use milk to the best advantage in the diet? Here are a few points which it is well to bear in mind:

_Milk will take the place of meat._ The world is facing a meat famine. The famine was on the way before the war began but it has approached with tremendous speed this last year. Every cow killed and eaten means not only so much less meat available but so much less of an adequate subst.i.tute.

Lean meat contributes to the diet chiefly protein and iron. We eat it primarily for the protein. Hence in comparing meat and milk we think first of their protein content. One and one-fourth cups of milk will supply as much protein as two ounces of lean beef. The protein of milk is largely the part which makes cottage cheese. So cottage cheese is a good meat subst.i.tute and a practical way of using part of the skim milk when the cream is taken off for b.u.t.ter. One and one-half ounces of cottage cheese (one-fourth cup) are the protein equivalent of two ounces of lean beef.

Skim milk and b.u.t.termilk are just as good subst.i.tutes for meat as whole milk. Since meat is one of the most expensive items in the food bill, its replacement by milk is a very great financial economy. This is true even if the meat is raised on the farm, as food for cattle is used much more economically in the production of milk than of beef.

_Milk is the greatest source of calcium (lime)._ Lime is one of the components of food that serves two purposes; it is both building material for bones and regulating material for the body as a whole, helping in several important ways to maintain good health. It is essential that everyone have a supply of lime and particularly important that all growing infants, children, and young people have plenty for construction of bones and teeth. There is almost none in meat and bread, none in common fats and sugars, and comparatively few common foods can be taken alone and digested in large enough quant.i.ties to insure an adequate supply; whereas a pint of milk (whole, skim, or b.u.t.termilk) will guarantee to a grown person a sufficient amount, and a quart a day will provide for the greater needs of growing children. Whatever other foods we have, we cannot afford to leave milk out of the diet because of its lime. Under the most favorable dietary conditions, when the diet is liberal and varied, an adult should have _at least_ half a pint of milk a day and no child should be expected to thrive with less than a pint.

_Milk contains a most varied a.s.sortment of materials needed in small amounts_ for the body welfare, partly for constructive and partly for regulating purposes. These are rather irregularly distributed in other kinds of food materials. When eggs, vegetables, and cereals are freely used, we are not likely to suffer any lack; but when war conditions limit the number of foods which we can get, it is well to remember that the more limited the variety of foods in the diet the more important milk becomes.

_Milk will take the place of bread, b.u.t.ter, sugar, and other foods used chiefly for fuel._ The body is an engine which must be stoked regularly in order to work. The more work done the more fuel needed. That is what we mean when we talk about the food giving ”working strength.” A farmer and his wife and usually all the family need much fuel because they do much physical work. Even people whose work is physically light require considerable fuel. A quart of milk will give as much working force as half a pound of bread, one-fourth of a pound of b.u.t.ter, or six ounces of sugar.

And this is in addition to the other advantages already mentioned.

_Milk contains specifics for growth._ Experiments with animals have taught us that there are two specific substances, known as vitamines, which must be present in the diet if a young animal is to grow. If either one is absent, growth is impossible. Both are to be found in milk, one in the cream and the other in the skim milk or whey. For this reason children should have whole milk rather than skim milk. Of course, b.u.t.ter and skim milk should produce the same result as whole milk. Eggs also have these requisites and can be used to supplement milk for either one, but as a rule it is more practical to depend upon milk, and usually more economical.