Food and freedom

1. Determine number of calories in one pound, or other given quantity, of each ingredient called for in the recipe.^ 2. Determine number of calories in that por- tion of each ingredient represented in the recipe, and add these figures. Example: Cup Custard Ingredients I quart milk >^ cupful sugar 5 eggs Salt; flavoring 1. I pint of milk. . . = 325 calories I egg = 75 calories I pound of sugar = 1,860 calories 2. I quart milk . . = 2 x 325 calories = 650 calories 5 eggs = 5 X 75 calories = 375 calories % cupful sugar = % x 1,860 calories = 465 calories (Salt and flavor do not count.) Total = 1,490 calories 1,490 = calorie value of recipe. Divided into six equal portions, each portion would con- tain, approximately, 250 calories. ^ See "American Food Materials," Bulletin 28, United States Department of Agriculture. Also, Rose, Feeding the Family, Appendix, specifically pp. 349-354- JUST THOUGHTS 243 With a little practice one can learn very quickly- just how many calories are represented in one egg, one tablespoonful sugar, one cupful flour, etc., and^it will not be necessary to refer to a book or table each time the fuel or calorie value of a recipe is to be determined. By further analyzing the ingredients it is pos- sible to estimate how many of the total number of calories are carbohydrate calories, how many are fat calories, and how many are protein calories. Those interested will find clear di- rections in A Laboratory Handbook for Dietetics, by Mary Swartz Rose. For tables giving "100 Calorie Portions" of our usual or common foods, see Fisher and Fisk, How to Live, pages 170-190; also. Rose, Feeding the Family, Appendix. 244 FOOD AND FREEDOM ABOUT THE COST OF MILK " In deciding whether any food is high or low in price, we must ask not merely how much we must pay for a pound or a quart, but how great is the return in actual food value. . . . In buying milk at 1 2 cents a quart one gets protein as cheaply as in meat at 25 cents a pound, or eggs at 35 cents a dozen, or fresh cod at 20 cents a pound; and one gets energy more cheaply than from any of these other materials. Even at 18 cents, a quart of milk would be . almost as cheap a source of protein and a cheap- er source of energy than meat at 35 cents a pound, it would be a cheaper source of both protein and energy than eggs at 60 cents a dozen. Because of these fa^ts dietitians advise families who must make every penny count to cut down on their meat before they do on their milk." — Lafayette B. Mendel. ''Doctor Mendel does not wish to be under- stood as saying that milk is the cheapest source of energy. Cereal foods such as wheat, com, oats, and rice hold that distinction. But they lack lime and other nutritious substances which milk contains. 'Milk and cereals together,' says Doctor Mendel, 'make a remarkable com- bination; "bread-and-milk" is justified not only by experience, but by theory.'" — United States Food Administration. JUST THOUGHTS 245 LABOR-SAVING DEVICES VERSUS "HIRED HELP" "The labor-saving devices in America are aids to a new domesticity which will gradually do away with the servant question as it exists." — Mrs. Havelock Ellis.