FoodNet

Foods of the foreign-born in relation to health

1922

Page 40

Presented as published in 1922. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
An International Menu is needed for use in institu- tions of all kinds receiving any number of foreign-bom. An "International Menu" is one which is not confined to "American" dishes, but which contains each day at least one dish especially adapted to at least one of the nation- 6r race s represented among the patients. This Would demonstrate to the patients that the dietitian had considered them and would have a good psychological effect which would of itself help them physically. Thus in a menu for an institution with many different race groups, a characteristic Italian dish might be included one day, a Polish dish at another meal, or on another day soon thereafter, and similarly the next day might remember the Jewish or Russian patients. So during each week they would all be better satisfied, both phys- ically and mentally. Such an "International Menu" need not make the diet less acceptable to the native-bom Americans. It would give greater variety and would help the dietitians in their endless search for something new. As must be borne in mind, the practical value of 98 FOODS OF THE FOREIGN-BORN such a menu is its psychological e£Fect upon the immi- grant, almost if not quite as much as its physiological. The work of making up such an International Menu is a matter of practical and not difficult detail. The dietitians, or other persons responsible in hospitals, sanitoria, con-^ valescent homes, restaurants in industrial plants, etc., should (wherever the racial constitution of their people •requires it) be made responsible for developing something of this sort. The diet lists used by medical institutions such as hos^ pitals and dispensaries should be adapted to the people, as well as to the diseases which are treated. The habitual foods of the nationality or race dealt with must be in the mind of the person who prepares the diet list, if it is to be of much real service. This means that the dietary problems of patients need to be handled by dietitians, visiting nurses, or social workers who have some knowl- edge of foreign as well as of the characteristic American diet. The average visiting nurse or medical-social service worker cannot become an expert in dietetics, and must depend upon the advisory dietitian or the visiting house- keeper. It may be expected that dispensary and visiting nursing associations should provide themselves directly, or through the cooperation of some other organization, with at least the advisory services of such a dietitian. Food Clinics, in which dietitians can be consulted by nurses or general workers, and to which patients can be sent when necessary, are needed in the large dispensaries and in connection with the Health Centers which are now being established so rapidly throughout the country. r \ } 1 f / i ^' °*\'8