When the Pleasant Valley cooking class began to ask this question, there were so many different answers that the chairman of the luncheon committee for the week was* glad that they were not having breakfast at school, because it would be harder than ever to suit everybody. How can you explain such differences as these ? Miss James said that in the warm weather, even when she was teaching, she was satisfied with fruit, boiled eggs, buttered toast, and cocoa or coffee ; on a cold morning, in addition to the other things, she liked a large portion of oatmeal or some other cereal with cream or with but- 146 THE HOME BREAKFAST • 147 ter and sugar ; but she seldom ate meat for breakfast. Most of the pupils reported that their fathers were not suited at all with such a meal ; that for breakfast they called for ham and eggs, or bacon and eggs, boiled pota- toes, and hot biscuit or corn bread, perhaps doughnuts, or even pie. MoUie Stark said the doctor told her father that it was no wonder he had indigestion on Sunday when he ate sausages and buckwheat cakes with maple sirup for breakfast, and did much less work than usual ; and that, on a week day in the winter, if he were working in the wood lot at chopping trees, it would be quite an- other matter. This led to a very interesting talk about the kind and amount of food for different people, at different times. Breakfast plans. Several different plans for break- fast were put on the blackboard, somewhat as follows : V Fruit. Cereal Meat Another hot dish Toast Beverage Miss James explained that bread or biscuit might take the place of toast, and that eggs, milk, or fish could be substituted for meat. Miss James said, also, that in all these plans the foodstuffs are present ; that is. BREAKFAST PLANS I II III IV Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Toast Cereal Meat Cereal Beverage Toast Toast Meat Beverage Beverage Toast Beverage 148 FOOD AND HEALTH starch and sugar, fat, protein, mineral substances, and water. In breakfast V there is a greater quantity of food all together, and more of the protein and fat than in breakfast I. How can there be so many kinds of breakfast ? They are all real, because somewhere just such meals are being eaten by somebody. One reason for a light breakfast. When you are traveling on the continent of Europe you have coffee or chocolate, and rolls, with perhaps a little honey, given to you for the first meal of the day ; and you soon find it is all you want, because your last meal the evening before was dinner, the heartiest of the day. In some of the cities of our own country, many people eat very little breakfast, and that of a simple kind, be- cause they, too, have had tKeir dinner at night. So, after a heavy meal late in the day, a light breakfast seems to be the natural thing. But that is only one reason for the differences. Work and eating. There are people in the big city who want a breakfast like IV or V, and who might be willing to go without the fruit for something more ** hearty." The man who is working hard with his muscles in the open air eats more and can digest kinds of food that another cannot who is quieter, and who is sitting at a desk all day. Marjorie Allen said that her uncle, who is the cashier of a bank, wants a breakfast something like Miss James's, or like I, II, or III. The amount and kind of physical work that you are to do THE HOME BREAKFAST 149 after breakfast, then, should affect what you eat. If you yourself should eat sausages and breakfast cakes with sirup for breakfast and then should sit down to work on a problem in square or cube root, you would probably find yourself sleepy. But if you are in good health, if it is a Saturday morning in winter, and if you are going skating, you will be better able to digest such a breakfast.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

When the Pleasant Valley cooking class began to ask this question, there were so many different answers that the chairman of the luncheon committee for the week was glad that they were not having breakfast at school, because it would be harder than ever to suit everybody. How can you explain such differences as these ? Miss James said that in the warm weather, even when she was teaching, she was satisfied with fruit, boiled eggs, buttered toast, and cocoa or coffee ; on a cold morning, in addition to the other things, she liked a large portion of oatmeal or some other cereal with cream or with but- ter and sugar ; but she seldom ate meat for breakfast. Most of the pupils reported that their fathers were not suited at all with such a meal ; that for breakfast they called for ham and eggs, or bacon and eggs, boiled potatoes, and hot biscuit or corn bread, perhaps doughnuts, or even pie. MoUie Stark said the doctor told her father that it was no wonder he had indigestion on Sunday when he ate sausages and buckwheat cakes with maple sirup for breakfast, and did much less work than usual ; and that on a week day in the winter, if he were working in the wood lot at chopping trees, it would be quite another matter. This led to a very interesting talk about the kind and amount of food for different people, at different times. Breakfast plans. Several different plans for breakfast were put on the blackboard, somewhat as follows : Fruit. Cereal Meat Another hot dish Toast Beverage Miss James explained that bread or biscuit might take the place of toast, and that eggs, milk, or fish could be substituted for meat. Miss James said, also, that in all these plans the foodstuffs are present ; that is. BREAKFAST PLANS Fruit Fruit Fruit Fruit Toast Cereal Meat Cereal Beverage Toast Toast Meat Beverage Beverage Toast Beverage starch and sugar, fat, protein, mineral substances, and water. In breakfast V there is a greater quantity of food all together, and more of the protein and fat than in breakfast I. How can there be so many kinds of breakfast ? They are all real, because somewhere just such meals are being eaten by somebody. One reason for a light breakfast. When you are traveling on the continent of Europe you have coffee or chocolate, and rolls, with perhaps a little honey, given to you for the first meal of the day ; and you soon find it is all you want, because your last meal the evening before was dinner, the heartiest of the day. In some of the cities of our own country, many people eat very little breakfast, and that of a simple kind, because they, too, have had tKeir dinner at night. So, after a heavy meal late in the day, a light breakfast seems to be the natural thing. But that is only one reason for the differences. Work and eating. There are people in the big city who want a breakfast like IV or V, and who might be willing to go without the fruit for something more ** hearty." The man who is working hard with his muscles in the open air eats more and can digest kinds of food that another cannot who is quieter, and who is sitting at a desk all day. Marjorie Allen said that her uncle, who is the cashier of a bank, wants a breakfast something like Miss James's, or like I, II, or III. The amount and kind of physical work that you are to do after breakfast, then, should affect what you eat. If you yourself should eat sausages and breakfast cakes with sirup for breakfast and then should sit down to work on a problem in square or cube root, you would probably find yourself sleepy. But if you are in good health, if it is a Saturday morning in winter, and if you are going skating, you will be better able to digest such a breakfast.

Food and health