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Show WHAT to EAT and WHY , 4jou.lt on tfoudfoi. Wa'ini -jalnlt Food Fads and Fallacies Nationally Known Food Authority Explains How They May Endanger Health By C. HOUSTON GOUDISS 6 East 39th St., New York City. AS SCIENCE and civilization have progressed, painstaking investigators have sought to replace ignorance with knowledge, to substitute truth for superstition. But in spite of their efforts, our eating habits are still influenced by a multitude of food fads and fancies, which should have no place in this enlightened age. Some of these are harmless; others may endanger health. And the homemaker must learn to distinguish between fact and fancy. -- Fish !s Not a Brain Food One of the most persistent fallacies is the notion that certain kinds of food are especially es-pecially beneficial for certain parts of the body. Many people peo-ple believe that fish is a brain food and celery a nerve tonic. Lettuce Let-tuce is thought to be a soporific. None of these things is true. The idea regarding fish probably arose because fish contains phos-phorus phos-phorus and the Dram also contains f PhsPhrus- How simple it would be ' ' (J if one could in-; in-; " n crease brain power ! - 'r- j I merely by eating vsj fish. TJnfortunate-f TJnfortunate-f "'X v. I ly, there is nothing . 'y I to it! The brain, ?4 V like other parts of e body, requires a balanced diet. No case has ever been reported of a man soothing the irritated nerves of his wife by feeding her celery. And as for lettuce, it is a fine source of minerals, vitamins and gentle roughage, but it does not contain any narcotic drug that induces in-duces sleep. fr-Other fr-Other Fallacies Disproved Science has exploded many common notions about vegetables which may change your ideas of what is best to buy and eat. Many homemakers prefer lettuce that is light green in color and they believe be-lieve that string beans which snap are superior in quality. But it has been demonstrated that deep green lettuce is much richer in vitamins and that a snap in string beans merely indicates that the beans have been kept in a cold, moist place. -- False Notions About Fruit A score of superstitions cling to the eating of fruits. There is a false notion that acid-tasting fruits cause or aggravate rheumatism, because they produce "acidity." The truth is that most fruits, regardless re-gardless of their acid taste, leave an alkaline ash following digestion. diges-tion. One often hears that fruit should not be taken at the same time as milk because the fruit acids will cause the milk to curdle. But the fact is that milk is always curdled cur-dled in the stomach by the hydrochloric hydro-chloric acid. -- Not Necessary to Sip Milk Another false idea is the widespread wide-spread notion that milk must be sipped slowlv or it will be difficult to digest. This has been refuted by a widely known investigator who made many tests. One day he fed a man a pint of milk in 10 seconds. The next day the same man was fed the same amount of milk in 10 minutes. On both occasions oc-casions the contents of the stomach stom-ach were examined a half hour later. It was discovered that the milk which was drunk in 10 seconds had formed smaller curds than the milk which was sipped in 10 minutes. min-utes. And in both cases, the curds were of practically the same consistency. con-sistency. -- Water With Meals? It is widely held that water should not be taken with meals, the argument being that it dilutes the gastric juice and thus interferes inter-feres with digestion. This sounds logical and many people have been fooled. But the truth of the matter is that water stimulates the flow of the digestive juices and careful research has established estab-lished that normally, water taken with meals in reasonable quantities quanti-ties aids digestion. - Danger of Half Truths The most insidious' food fallacies falla-cies are those which contain some portion of truth for example, the belief that cooked fruit is more wholesome than raw fruit. It is true that cooking increases the digestibility di-gestibility of some fruits and also has a sterilizing effect. On the other hand, most fruits are easily digested in the raw state, are more palatable and richer in vitamins. vita-mins. A widespread belief which has a small portion, but only a small portion of truth, is that whole wheat bread is vastly superior to white bread. Whole wheat bread contains more minerals, vitamins and roughage than white bread. But the minerals and vitamins lacking in white bread can easily be supplied by other common foods, and there is no justification for going to the extreme of omitting omit-ting white bread entirely from the diet. --Fad --Fad Diets Lack Balance Far more harmful than the fallacies fal-lacies regarding individual foods are the fad diets constantly put forth by those who seek to exploit ex-ploit the homemaker's desire for dietetic knowledge. Foods Not Incompatible A fad diet which has gained a large number of adherents in recent re-cent years is based on the notion that certain foods notably starches and proteins are incompatible incom-patible and should not be consumed con-sumed at the same meal because they cannot be digested at the same time. It is interesting to note that this fad has been condemned con-demned by the medical profession and that a physician of the highest high-est standing has proved clinically that starches and proteins do not interfere with one another in the stomach. The fallacy of this theory is further fur-ther appreciated when one realizes real-izes that there are few pure proteins pro-teins or pure carbohydrates, most foods containing varying proportions propor-tions of protein, carbohydrate and fat. Such foods as dried peas and beans and whole grain cereals contain a substantial percentage of both starch and protein. Dangers of Fasting Fasting is urged by some faddists fad-dists as a means of "detoxifying" the body. Advocates of this practice prac-tice claim that it is nature's method meth-od of housecleaning. As a matter of fact, fasting for any length of time may be dangerous to health, because it may result in the accumulation ac-cumulation of incomplete oxidation oxida-tion products of fat, and the development de-velopment of acidosis. Homemakers must put aside superstitions, su-perstitions, half-truths and food fallacies if they are to nourish their families properly. Put your faith only in established estab-lished food facts. Remember that upon your knowledge and breadth of vision depend, to a great degree, de-gree, not only the health but the happiness of your family. |