LESSON LXXVIII
HOME PROJECTS [Footnote 57: See Lesson IX]
SUGGESTIONS FOR HOME WORK.--Set the table for the evening meal each day.
Cook at least one tough cut of meat each week.
Suggested Aims:
(1) To lay the cloth smooth and straight.
(2) To place the dishes in a neat and orderly way on the table.
(3) To make as few trips as possible from the cupboard to the dining table.
(4) To plan the entire number of dishes, knives, forks, spoons, and other things needed during the meal, and then place these on the dining table or other suitable place where they may be conveniently obtained when the meal is being served.
(5) To prepare the tough meat so that it is tender, moist, and tasty.
(6) To determine the cost of meat.
DIVISION SEVEN
HEALTH AND GROWTH-PROMOTING FOODS,--RICH IN VITAMINES
LESSON LXXIX
VITAMINES--VEGETABLES OF DELICATE FLAVOR
VITAMINES.--In determining the proper diet for perfect nourishment, scientists long since came to the conclusion that the body needed a certain quantity of carbohydrates, fats, protein, ash, and water. They were all agreed that all these foodstuffs needed to be represented in the foods making up a day's diet. Scientists also found that these foodstuffs must exist in a certain proportion in a day's food,--that there should be enough of each of the foodstuffs to meet the needs of the body. A diet made up of foods in which all the foodstuffs were represented in the proper proportion was termed a balanced ration.
Investigations of recent years, however, show that these foodstuffs alone do not afford perfect nourishment. Much valuable scientific work is being done on the question of adequate diet. It is found that certain substances contained in foods in small amounts are absolutely essential in diet. When animals are fed foods containing only the foodstuffs mentioned above and none of these other substances, they cease growing, become diseased, and eventually die.
These materials so necessary to the growth and maintenance of animal life are termed Vitamines by some authorities. There are three classes of Vitamines, called Fat-soluble A, Water-soluble B, and Water-soluble C. It is now believed that there is at least one more vitamine.
Although vitamines exist in foods only in minute quantities it is necessary to use foods containing all the kinds of vitamines to promote growth and to keep in health.
Fat-soluble A, especially with certain minerals, is thought to prevent rickets and a disease of the eye called xerophthalmia. During the war, because of inadequate diet, many cases of these diseases developed in Europe.
Water-soluble B is called the anti-neuritic vitamine because it is necessary to prevent a disease called polyneuritis or beri-beri (see Polished and Unpolished Rice).
Water-soluble C is called the anti-scorbutic vitamine because it is necessary to prevent a disease called scurvy.
FOODS CONTAINING FAT-SOLUBLE A are milk, eggs, and leafy vegetables. Leafy vegetables include: spinach, lettuce, celery tops, beet tops, Swiss chard, collards, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and onions. Milk products, such as butter and cheese, and cod-liver oil also contain fat-soluble A. It is also thought to be present in certain vegetables such as carrots, which are not leafy vegetables. Not all fat foods contain fat- soluble A. It does not exist in the vegetable oils.
It has been demonstrated that foods rich in fat-soluble A, especially milk, eggs, and leafy vegetables, are most essential in diet. According to McCollum, dry leaves contain 3 to 5 times as much total ash as do seeds; the former are also especially rich in the important elements calcium, sodium, and chlorine, in which the seed is poorest. Hence leafy vegetables not only abound in the growth-promoting vitamine but in certain essential minerals. Cereals, root vegetables, and meat need to be supplemented with milk and leafy vegetables. Because milk, eggs, and leafy vegetables are so valuable and essential in diet, these foods have been termed protective foods.