FoodNet

Food and freedom

1918

Page 21

Presented as published in 1918. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
" Do not use butter for cooking. Do not demand solid fats for frying. Certain of the oils, particu- larly cottonseed and peanut oil, serve practically as well as do the high melting fats. We have a much greater supply of oils than of solid fats. A saving in this direction is very important. Milk or egg-yolk fats should always be supplied in the diet of children, for they contain something which is indispensable to health and growth. This element is not present in fats of vegetable origin." ^ United States Food Administration Bulletin. 46 FOOD AND FREEDOM The question of milk is also most important, and its use and conservation should not be con- fused or misunderstood. While we are asked to conserve milk, we are urged, at the same time, to increase its use, and this issue is sometimes perplexing. Milk is one of our most valuable foods. Its use insures a good diet; it saves meat; it requires no cooking, therefore saves fuel and time. Because of its value, even when compara- tively high in price, it is a cheap food. As the Food Administration says: ''No substitute for milk as a food has ever been found. ... Its importance in the diet of children under ten cannot be overestimated. . . . Experts say that every child under six years should have a quart of whole milk every day. . . . Whole milk for the children is playing safe; no matter what the price we cannot afford to let them go with- out it." More specifically, milk contains all the food principles, in some proportion, required by the body — balanced proteins, carbohydrates, fat, min- eral matter, and accessory factors. Quoting again from the Food Administration : Its protein is most adaptable to uses by the body in building and renewing tissue. Its sugar is easily utilized by the body. THE WORLD ON A DIET 47 It supplies lime; the lime salts, which are abun- dant in milk, are also importantxin building the body and keeping it in good condition; there is no other food from which lime salts can so readily be obtained; it would take, for example, 8^ eggs to provide the same amount of calcium as is contained in one glass of milk. Its butter fat, because of its *' growth determi- nants" (as described above), is absolutely neces- sary for children, and probably for older persons as well. To which Doctor McColliim adds: "Milk is an indispensable article of the diet of any people who wish to achieve. . . . Milk is worth much more than its energy value or its protein content would indicate. It is the great factor of safety in making good the deficiencies of the grains which form and must continue to form the principal source of energy in our diet. Without the continued use of milk, not only for the feeding of our children, but in liberal amounts in cookery and as an adjuvant to our diet, we cannot as a nation maintain the position as a world power to which we have arisen. The keeping of dairy animals was the greatest factor in the history of the development of man from a state of barbarism. We are now in a critical time when the dairy industry is in jeopardy. I feel it my privilege to point out that we are still dependent upon the dairy industry for our con- tinued prosperity." — From Brader's Gazette, De- cember, 191 7. 48 FOOD AND FREEDOM