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Show War Brings America Knowledge of How To Eat Properly; Once Lowly Vitamin Now Important Item in Balanced Diet U. S. Finds It's Protein and Not Meat That Counts; Most Nutritive Cuts Once Scorned by Housewives; Heavy Meals Necessary for Workers. I tion in varying degrees occur frequently fre-quently in all parts of the country. Diets of many industrial workers appeared to be below the level of what is required for optimum nutrition nu-trition and all because foods are not chosen wisely! Nutritionists figure that the noon meal must include approximately one-third of the day's requirements of protein, minerals, vitamins and calories for heavy workers.. Good breakfasts are essential and between-meal lunches are helpful in overcoming fatigue during the day. Between-meal lunches of foods providing pro-viding minerals and vitamins and about one ounce of easily digested carbohydrates are the most beneficial. bene-ficial. If the housewife has received one, she probably has received a thousand thou-sand suggestions on how to get the most out of food these days. But when these suggestions are considered consid-ered from both nutritive as well as economical viewpoints, it will be Soybeans have been found to be extremely high in protein and economical in production. It has been estimated that the same amount of protein as in meat can be raised from soybeans at about one-tenth the cost. Other high protein foods include white, navy and kidney beans; black peas, peanuts and peanut butter. Peanuts never have been taken very seriously except at ball games maybe, may-be, but with the emphasis on their decided food value and the industrial indus-trial use for their oil, they have come into extensive cultivation in the South. Nutritionists have been careful not to put all of their eggs in one basket, however. While pointing out the food value of vegetables, one expert explains: ". . . 'Ersatz' dishes of beans, peas, lentils and the like are foods having a lower biologic value than meat itself. it-self. They are sometimes referred to as meat substitutes, and they are useful, but one should make certain cer-tain that milk, eggs and cheese are included in the menu to furnish biologic bio-logic values similar to meat, chicken and fish." To obtain a balance in diet for necessary nutrition, another expert steps to the head of the class with the suggestion that milk, leafy green or yellow vegetables, potatoes, citrus cit-rus fruits, tomatoes, whole grain or enriched cereals, meat or meat alternates al-ternates and occasionally an egg be included in the day's meals. Meats Also Have Vitamins. This expert had in mind the fact that besides protein, meats also possess pos-sess vitamins and minerals; so that in finding protein substitutes, it is also necessary to supply vitamin supplements. Vitamin Bl and vitamins B2 and G are present in meat, chiefly in pork. To make up for any losses, whole wheat bread, enriched bread or cereals and milk may be eaten instead. Some nutritionists believe that ' f' v - .. i -H By AL JEDLICKA Released by Western Newspaper Union. Time was not so very long ago when all of this nutritive and vitamin talk sounded kind of silly. That was the time when almost al-most everybody thought that vitamins were something that came in capsules or pills; when women figured that they knew all of the tricks of the culinary trade, and when we all liked food for its taste and gave little consideration to its minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, car-bohydrates, etc. Plates were heaped with potatoes po-tatoes and meat; if there were any kids around, few vegetables were served because be-cause they didn't like them; and then' more potatoes and more meat, and finally a great big slug of pie, was put down to top off a good meal. If the Little Woman came home Jrom some cooking school all worked up about the science of food and its preparation, the head man dampened her enthusiasm by gently but firmly advising her that all that vitamin and mineral stuff was the bunk, and meat and potatoes were good enough to keep the world going. In fact, the head man argued invincibly, in-vincibly, hadn't the world been living liv-ing on potatoes and meat, etc., since man's memory runneth, and hadn't she, as well as he, been raised on the old standbys and, what was wrong with them? Nothing! of course. But that was before December 7, 1941. A lot of things have happened since then and one of them is Mr. and Mrs. America's attitude toward the vitamin and its entourage. Meat and other rationing have thrown us on the defensive and it is now a question of stretching foods, finding substitutes and all of the time seeking seek-ing to maintain nutritive values. The upshot of the whole thing is that we might emerge from the war with a more intelligent knowledge of food, of the purpose of its varieties, and consequently be in a position to guide our healthy growth by exact standards. i If we were to be awfully enthusiastic enthu-siastic about the situation, we might say that scientific nutrition may be the one big development following the war, just like the automobile came into its own in 1919. But a lot of people who will find it hard to reform their old eating habits probably prob-ably would argue to the death that we were wrong, because the airplane will be the thing with peace. Must Find Proteins. Since meat rationing came along, food experts have been pointing out the necessity of seeking other sources of protein. In so doing, they have consoled us no end by their reminder that, after all, it's not the era WA 1 Vegetables rich in proteins. considered that most of them have something on the ball. For instance: It's the style to eat potato skins. Baked potatoes or potatoes cooked in their jackets have a lot of good minerals just beneath the skin, so when they're thrown away we're not getting the greatest nutritive value for our money. And this brings up the subject of eating the greens under un-der salads. Valuable minerals and vitamins are stored there to be had for the eating. The sugar supply should go farther far-ther now because it's considered good manners to stir tea and coffee vigorously after adding sugar, so we can get its full sweetening value. This will be even more important ; when iced tea days appear if we have the iced tea. We used to eat bread and gravy when we ate alone, or put aside our "Sunday" manners, but now it's the style to eat gravy on hot biscuits, bis-cuits, muffins and bread. Every homemaker is being asked to save all drippings and to serve them as gravy to extend the good meat flavor and add nutritive value to the meal. Everyone likes to eat around the bone of a juicy broiled lamb chop or a piece of fried chicken, and now we're not only told that it's permis-sable permis-sable from the standpoint of manners, man-ners, but we're encouraged to follow this procedure because it's the trend. Learn to Carve. Not the very least of the suggestions sugges-tions is one directed toward the head man as well as the little woman. Nowadays, if Papa does the carving at the table, Papa is advised to learn how to carve. It seems there's more to carving than merely wearing the badge of authority; indeed, good carving avoids waste, assures uniform slic-ings slic-ings (important to the preservation of harmony in every home) and affords af-fords extra servings. Perfectly elementary in itself is the fact that a sharp knife is essential essen-tial to a good carver. And equally elementary, a good carver should take enough interest in his tool to assure as-sure its care. Thus, knives should not be let loose in a drawer where other metal can dull or nick the blade. A properly sharpened knife can be kept keen for a long time by a dozen strokes with a steel before use. In carving any cut of meat, it is desirable to understand the anatomy of bone structure of the cut to be carved and to remember that meat should always be carved across the grain. Steak, because it is tender and the meat fibers are already relatively rela-tively short, is an exception to the rule. I I -L i I " ' is . " ( t - , Study food on nutrition basis. Americans have never known how to shop for meat. One says that the most nutritious parts of every carcass car-cass are seldom chosen at all, but go into making fertilizer or feed. Blood, lungs, stomach, pancreas, kidney, brain, sweetbreads and hearts these are among the items which the housewife passed up with untroubled conscience on her shopping shop-ping tours.. One nutritionist remarked that the meat packers who knew the peculiarities pecu-liarities of the people, put choice tidbits like those mentioned above into their canned dog food. As a result, he says, much dog food was superior in nutritive value to some of the meat canned for human consumption. con-sumption. "There is one thing we shall do well to remember," the nutritionist declares, "and that is there is no evidence to support the theory that when we buy expensive cuts of meat we are buying more or better protein pro-tein than the cheaper cuts would provide us. "Generally speaking, American habits of choosing, buying, preparing and serving meats have been wasteful waste-ful of both food value and money. Americans in the main have scorned the animal organs and the cheaper cuts of muscle meat, tasteful and nutritious though these may be. Many people habitually spurn fat meats. On the other hand, we rush to buy the cuts which include a large proportion of bone and gristle, which represents waste." Find Adequate Diets. The National Research council in a recent report on nutrition asserted that inadequate diets and malnutri- Eggs have some meat value. meat that makes meat valuable, but the protein it contains. "Meat is necessary to our diet because be-cause of its high protein content," writes one nutritionist. "... Therefore, There-fore, other foods high in protein can be made to do as well. "One of these," the nutritionist continues, "is fish. Perhaps during this war our domestic cheese will come into its own. From the simple cottage cheese to the fancy Swiss, it equals in quality any in the world and could be used to great advantage, advan-tage, being'superb as a food because of the high quality of its proteins." |