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Show School Lunches, Wise and Unwise How many remember the school lunch of twenty or thirty years ago? Let's call for a showing of hands among the fathers and mothers who -have read this first sentence. Bread and butter; cake, pie; milk or cold tea; an apple; white bread sandwiches sand-wiches with big pieces of cold roast beef between the slices of bread! That about covers it doesn't it? Oh, yes, there were doughnuts, cookies, cake and pie not all at once, but here and there as the larder at home could supply them. And how did we eat those lunches? Well, at recess we got rid of the "tasties." At noon we were so hungry that we bolted the rest and then we darted down the lane to fill up on ap- - pies, berries or whatever else grewj wild or could be found beneath the i trees of some friendly orchard owner. Little did we care about balanced luncheons. Little did we think about such things as indigestion, acidosis, under-nourishment and all those things that school teachers now write notes about. We ate what our lunch-boxes lunch-boxes held, suffered when the apples were too green and saw to it that as soon as we got home we could nibble on something else that grew in the garden, in the orchard, or in our favorite berry patch or nut wood. Had we 'only realized it, those berries, ber-ries, fruits, vegetables and nuts were largely responsible for our health. Heavy school lunches of acid-producing foods would have slowly sapped the strength from our healthy young bodies without the balancing effect of those alkaline fruits, vegetables and berries tha we plucked here; there and wherever we could find them. Without knowing it, we were securing ' what might almost be called medicine as we plucked fruit from a tree or wiped a golden carrot off with its own gTeen leaves and started along i the road munching it. ; Now that the school bells are calling call-ing our own children to school, what are we putting in the lunch box ? Veir' few of the children of this generation find it convenient to locate the fruits, berries, vegetables and nuts that were so abundant in their parents' youth. Most of them depend largely upon the contents of the school lunch box itself, to obtain a balanced meal. Meats, fish, bread, doughnuts, cookies cook-ies and cake of most kinds are acid-producing acid-producing in their effect. This does not mean that we must not eat such foods, for they are healthful and necessary. nec-essary. It does mean, however, that we must see that they are sufficiently sufficient-ly balanced with alkaline foods, such as green vegetables, fresh fruits, berries ber-ries and raisins. Oranges and lemons are strongly alkaline in their effect. This may seem strange to some who still think of them as being acid, but nevertheless neverthe-less lit is true. Although known as acid fruits they have an alkaline reaction re-action when taken into the body. The orange in the lunch box, therefore, there-fore, is balancer number one. It may be placed entire with the other foods packed, or it may form part of a salad or fruit cup that is furnished the child. Occasionally it may be used in cake or pudding form. The lemon lends itself to many tasty desserts, while a glass of lemonade lemon-ade is far better for the school lunch than many of the beverages often carried or purchased by the kiddies at a nearby store. The wise mother will not pack a luncheon consisting almost entirely of meat sandwiches, bread, biscuits, cakes and pie. This would be an unwise un-wise luncheon. The child might stand ; it if the evening meal were as alka- line as his lunch is acid, but it is doubtful if the mother who packed: such a lunch would have the ability i to serve a counteracting evening meal, j Include a sandwich or two of course. I Some times they may contain meat or j fish but if both contain these foods, , see to it that there are plenty of vegetables vege-tables and fruits to counteract them. Usually one meat or . fish sandwich is sufficient. The other sandwich could contain marmalade, jelly, or a tasty chopped fruit mixture. Minced olives and baked beans; lettuce and j tomato; chopped dates and nuts; I minced raisins and nuts any of these . fillings is desirable. Again, merely wrap the sandwich i slices in waxed paper, and include a j little dish of salad made from fruits j and vegetables. When lunch time comes the child may either eat the salad with the bread, or may make a sandwich from it on the spot. Celery, apple and orange there is a good combination. Peel oranges and remove all white skin. Cut into one-fourth inch slices and cut each slices into halves. Dice celery and apple and mix with mayonnaise. For serving at home you would arrange a circle of half slices of oranges on a lettuce-covered salad plate, fill center cen-ter with apple and celery mixture and garnish with celery tips. For the school lunch, mix and pack as attractively attrac-tively as possible in a little dish, the bo torn of which has been covered h a crisp leaf of celery. Date and orange; prune and orange, cabbage and orange and even onion and orange combinations will be found equally pleasing. They will appeal to the children as something unusual and something tasty, and better than this, they will be excellent balancer for those other foods that are almost invariably in-variably included in the school lunch box. |