What shall we have for dinner? Is there any part of housework more trying to the average woman than this continual, tri-daily guest for proper food for her family? There are so many questions at stake—the cost of food and the fuel needs of the family as well as their whims and fancies

Bailey, Beth

English

What shall we have for dinner? Is there any part of housework more trying to the average woman than this continual, tri-daily guest for proper food for her family? There are so many questions at stake—the cost of food and the fuel needs of the family as well as their whims and fancies.</p

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THE lOW A HOMEMAKER "A Magazine for Homemakers from a Homemaker's School" VOLUME I JANUARY, 1922 NUMBER 10 The "Why" and "How" of Meal Planning By BETH BAILEY, Associate Professor of Home Economics W HAT SHALL we have for dinner? Is there any part of housework more trying to the average woman than this continual, tri-daily guest for proper food for her family? There are so many questions at stake-the cost of food and the fuel needs of the family as well as their wh1ms and fancies. If one could only follow a set of menus found in a magazine or a paper. But at best, such menus can give only a few suggestions. Every family is a special problem. Every woman must determine by scientific calculation or practical ex-periment, what type of meal is best suit-ed to the needs of her family; then it be-comes her problem to so vary and change its form that there . will be no monotony. Because, after all, one of the most important elements of successful menus is variety and change. As one patient husband said to his wife, "I don't mind baking powder biscuits three hun-dred and sixty-five times a year, but I wish you . would make them square for awhile instead of round." The basis of all meal planning is the dietetic needs of the family. The adult person requires a certain amount of fuel foods for the constant functioning of the many involuntary body activities, plus increasing fuel for all increasing ex.-ercise and work. Therefore, the more an adult works the more fuel is required to produce the necessary energy. The fuel foods are fats, starches and sugars. The man who works in the field needs almost twice as much of these foods as does the office man of similar size. There is a certain repair of body tis-sues constantly necessary. So to meet these needs, we must have tissue build-ing foods as milk, eggs, cheese, meat, fish, and dried beans and peas. This factor remains almost constant in spite of increased work. If these foods are eaten in large amounts at the sacrifice of the fuel foods, these tissue builders may also be used as fuel, but when so used, they are an expensive fuel and leave unused wastes in the · body that may prove harmful. Therefore, we may say that the bulk of our foods should be starches and sugars with a moderate amount of the tissue builders. Our bodies are so complicated in form, that starches, fats and proteins are not sufficient to supply all our needs. Cer-tain minerals as iron, calcium, phosphor-us, and iodine are equally important in the repair and functioning of the body. Calcium forms a large percent of the bones and teeth. Therefore no one can afford to overlook a generous amount of calcium foods as milk, milk products and oranges. Iron is needed in the blood and Fruits Must Have A Place in the Daily Dietary in other body fluids. Sources of iron are eggs, fresh leafy green vegetables, on-ions, carrots, and the bran of cereals. In general we may say, the necessary min-erals may be secured by using daily a variety of vegetables, fruits, whole cer-eals and plenty of milk and eggs. Another dietetic factor is the cellulose or bulk of the food. In recent years, there has been a tendency to so refine our foods that we do not get the proper amount of bulk. The bulk is obtained from fibrous part of fruits and vegetables and from the outer coats of cereals. Cel-lulose is neither fuel nor tissue builder, but as waste, it increases the rythmic movement of the digestive tract and acts as a cleanser. Much has been said in the past few years about a new set of necessary food constituents called vitamines. Scientists have found that w~thout these ,the body ceases to function properly. Many of the common diseases attributed to mal-nutrition are now said to be caused by a lack in the diet of one, or two, or. all three vitamines. Vitamine A is found in leafy green vegetables, egg yolk, butter, cream, car-rots, rutabagas, spinach, cabbage, yellow corn and sweet potatoes. Lt is not stable to !:}eat. Lack of this constituent causes eye diseases and forms of rickets. Vit-amine B is found in plant life as oranges, spinach, cabbage, turnips, beets, toma-toes, carrots, potatoes, onions, and seeds of cereals. Deficiency of B causes a lack of appetite and general lassitude with a slowing of metabolism. Vitamine C is easily destroyed by heat except in acid solution. Good sources of C are to-matoes, and uncooked greens, orange and lemon juice, fresh fruit, raw cab-bage and raw milk. Its absence is shown in skin diseases. We may say then that to avoid any dangers due to shortage of these pro-tective foods, the diet must contain milk, fresh vegetables, leafy greens, eggs, butter fat, and whole cereals. Canned vegetables may lose much of their value as sources of vitamines due to the high pressure cooking, especially if one does not use the liquid in which they are canned. One notices that .the diet which is re-stricted to a very low expenditure of money is apt to be low in minerals and vitamines; since fresh fruit, green vege-tables, and eggs are among the more costly foods. Milk must not be consid-ered expensive at even sixteen cents per quart because of its supply of fuel,- tis-S)le builder, calcium and vitamine A. This general review of body needs holds for the normal adult. In many families, one or more members is in need of special foods to remedy specific ills, so the family meals must be sub-stituted with others supplying the neces-sary constituents. Then too, in families where there are growing children, the meal planner must provide plenty of tissue builders of the easily assimilated sort and a generous supply of fuel foods for the ever active bodies. For the growing child one must provide a goodly supply of foods rich in 2 mineral and vitamines. In the delicate and intricate weaving of new body cells it is of the utmost importance that not one of the vital constituents be omitted. There is no one perfect food. No vege-table or fruit can be used to the exclu-sion of all others. A variety of all the many fruits and vegetables is essential not only for appetites sake, but for the actual needs of the body. A good balance between fat, sugar, and protein is to be desired. Excessive sugar ferments in the stomach causing distress from gas. Fat retards stomach diges-tion. Therefore in a meal rich in fat and sugar, the action of the stomach is de-layed until fermentation takes place. This is apt to happen after a holiday dinner. Then one has "heart burn" or indigestion. Excessive use of meat tends to intes-tional disorders due to increased bacter-ial action. Meat is of such pleasing flavor that one must guard against the excessive use of meat to the exclusion of the all essential vegetables, fruits, and dark breads. It is not expected that every meal of the day will contain all of the desired food stuffs in the proper amounts, but the day's meals' or the week's meals can be considered as a unit. Surely in the course of a week the meals can have a good balance of starch, sugar, whole cereals, fat, milk, milk products, eggs, meat, and a variety of vegetables and fruits. Taber in "Business of the Household" gives the following as a satisfactory amount of food per day for a man at moderate work: Vegetables and fruits, rich diet 2lh lbs. to plain diet 1lh lbs. Milk, rich diet 8 oz. to plain diet 8 oz. Meat, eggs, cheese, rich diet 14 oz. to plain diet 6 oz., 2 oz. less for each added % pint of milk. CPreals, rich diet 8 oz. to plain diet 16 oz. THE lOW A HOMEMAKER Fresh Leafy Green Vegetables Are A Source of Iron, Cellulose and Some of the Vitamines Sweets, rich diet 3 oz. to plain diet 1lh oz. Fats, rich diet 3 oz. to plain diet 1lh oz. Another way of determining the proper balance is by a study of the bills for one month. 1. One-fourth to one-third of the mon-ey for bread, cereals, macaroni and rice. 2. One-third to one-half quarts milk per person per day. 3. Spend as much for vegetables and fruits together as for milk. 4. Spend no more for meat and eggs than for vegetables and fruits. 5. Decrease the meat as the milk is increased. In 1918 a survey in Massachusetts gave these figures which are low for present prices. For a family of four on $10.00 per week the average amount spent for different kinds of food · was: $2.50 for grain products. $2.00 for milk. $2.00 for meat•, eggs, fish. $2.00 for fruit and vegetables. $1.50 for fat, sugar and miscellaneous. It is often by a study of monthly totals of the different classes of foods that the housewife can best check on her wisdom in buying and the adequateness of the meals for her family. Confessions of a Trained Aunt I T is of little consequence whether the word is spelled ant or aunt. In either case it is true that aunts are ubiquitous -even indispensable. Aunts are to be found literally every-where, fQr I have yet to see the place where there isn't an unmarried female person declaiming on the charms of a sister's or a brother's offspring. I .have known some who were willing to listen to talks of marvelous children, but such aunts are few a'nd far between. Personally, I belong to the much larger number who only enjoy talking about their own nephews and nieces; listening is dull work. No one knows the self-control it re-quires for me not to share with all my friends and acquaintances the stories of "our baby." I chuckle to myself as I read the letters about this fascinatin~­person. To put the letter in my pocket and steadfastly refuse to read it to the first friend I meet is one of the hardest things I do. Herein lies part of the training. By EDA LORD MURPHY I've only been an aunt two and one-half years. The first year and a half were easy-it is after the darling begins to talk that we suffer most. I just ache to recount all her mother writes me. At times when my ardor has overcome my better judgment my friends have shown such sweet and obvious efforts to smile and to be interested in balbY talk that I've reformed (in spots). Several of my friends have deceived me into believing they have a genuine in-terest in Janet. They even go so far in their friendship for me as to ask, "What's the latest baby news?" If it is one of my homesick days I jump at a chance to tell them of her extraordinary vocabulary and Hibernian imagination; the lovely quality of her voice when she calls her father and mother by their first names or speaks in tenderness of her grandmother who is gone. Her affec-tionate ways-her coquettry at two, her intensity of grief or joy, her social grace, her fearlessness (she went swimming on l:er second birthday and ·adored being ducked) her dramatic instinct, her sense of humor-who wouldn't love to talk about such charms. ,_ I know so many aunts who buy clothes and toys and fairly support their nieces that it seemed as tho I ought to do some-thing. So I offered to take care of her a week while the little mother went on a motor trip. And if they didn't accept my offer! .so one morning while we were chasing the neighibor's chickens the road-ster went off with the gay young parents. I "majored" that week in the "Care and F eeding of Infants." I lived by the clock. My preference for sleeping late and for a nap after luncheon were re-linquished for a schedule like the follow-ing. Crack of dawn! awakened by a tiny voice calling my name in two tones, one high and one low. What I thought would be a stern command to turn over and go to sleep would collapse into abject ador-ation when I saw those pink cheeks, smil-ing eyes and arms outstretched. Breakfast at .seven and all was right 

The "Why" and "How" of Meal Planning

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The Why and How of Meal Planning

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