Food and freedom

This will mean that in the great majority of homes in the United States, in place of fine white bread and rolls and the customary cakes and pastry, coarser breadstuffs — made from whole wheat, com, oats, rye, barley, rice, buckwheat in various interesting combinations — will be sub- stituted. It will mean that in these new breads and 'cakes, butter — the customary shortening — will no longer be used, but that other fats will be sub- stituted— not only drippings, suet, chicken fat, but cottonseed, com and nut oils of many varieties. It will mean, too, that instead of eating these different breads spread with butter, butter will be spared occasionally, perhaps frequently, and peanut butter, syrup or honey or jam used in its place. It will mean, further, that instead of the con- ventional roast beef, mutton, or pork for dinner, we will serve beans, combination cheese and cereal dishes, local game, poultry, fish, eggs. It will mean fewer cakes, puddings, less pastry; it will mean more dates and figs and raisins and less sugar in whatever cakes and puddings are served; it will mean no icing on the cakes; it will mean that the use of fresh fruits and vege- tables of all kinds will be greatly increased. It will mean, moreover, individual appetite control. "Food conservation is a long, hard pull 42 FOOD AND FREEDOM every day, at every meal, for months at a time • — possibly for years." While the Food Adminis- tration is trying to "adjust the food-supply to the world's appetite," as far as the one hundred and ten million people of the United States are them- selves concerned, however, each must adjust his appetite to the world's food-supply, or the other adjustment will not work. Surely we shall live, doubtless for some time, very differently in many ways than we did before the Great War came. In our patriotic enthusi- asm, however, we must not forget that "the proper nourishment of every member of our family is our first duty," and that unless all these dietary changes are met with wisdom the desired end shall not be attained. We must not neglect to ask to what extent certain of these newer or different foods may be identical in nourishment with the original foods replaced. We must select and buy and prepare these different foods with judgment ; we must plan our menus intelligently, so that, if a certain food must be omitted, some- thing equivalent in food value is taking its place. Fortunately, in the majority of substitutes offered or available there is little chance for trouble. The Food Administration has thrashed the prob- lem out too thoroughly for that ; the normal food wealth of the United States offers a too safely flexible dietary. THE WORLD ON A DIET 43 "Oats, rye, barley, commeal, or other cereals give bread an equal or even greater food value thkn all wheat." ^ Pure honey, maple sugar, and reliable syrups can supply the energy value more normally obtained from butter, while the sparing of sugar in other ways more or less automatically controls any excess use of sweets in the diet. Fish, eggs, and poultry are all normal substitutes for beef, mutton, or pork; beans, nut and cheese dishes, properly prepared, understandingly served, and wisely combined with other foods, afford a wholesome and welcome change in the diet. The freer use of fruits and vegetables is always a blessing.