FoodNetArchive

The national course in home economics

1917

Page 287

Presented as published in 1917. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
At first the change in diet from meats to vegetables will perhaps seem difficult but if persisted in one will be able to say with a prominent vege- tarian, "I had been considerable of a vulture, and for some tim.e after eliminating flesh from my menus I had desire for it. But gradually that desire faded, and there came in Its stead a growing horror of flesh. After a few weeks of fruits and vegetables there came over me a feeling of exultation and superiority and erispness that was truly novel" 410 HEALTH PARAMOUNT TO ALL ELSE. HOMEKEEPINQ NOT HOUSEKEEPING. "Oh, to be strongi each morn to feel, A fresh delight to wake to life. To spring with bounding pulse to meet Whate'er of work, of care, of strife Day brings to mel each night to sleep The dreamless sleep that health can give No weary ache, no wearing pain — Ah, then indeed, 'twere joy to live. What a ringing chorus of joy and ecstacy would swell up to heaven, if the many thou- sands who are suffering could toss aside their aches and pains and sing the glad song of returning health. Every woman desires to be beauti- ful, yet, where is beauty , without health? Strange to say, health is within the reach of all if the simplest rules of every-day life be observed. Let us remember the adage: "We do not live upon what we eat, but upon what we digest." When we ignore our natural instincts, which are satisfied with the proper amount of food and continue to impose extra duties upon the stomach, the first step is taken toward destroying health. We can well learn a lesson from the animals — none of the animal king- dom ever eats except when it is hungry and as soon as it has consumed suflficient to gratify that hunger, it cannot be tempted to continue Its repast. The mothers, the real homekeepers, are coming to the front in that, as in all the other grand reforms of our progressive age. They are studying the subject of the relations of food, exercise and ventilation to health, and are becoming acquainted with the methods by which nutri- ment is best introduced into the system, and are exercising a sensible supervision over the food of their children. When an author makes the assertion and proves it — that the nature and character of the man or woman has a close relation to what the child was fed upon, it Is a truth that will strike home to the mother's heart. Every mother in the land should learn something of the chemistry ot cooking. This knowledge would not only enable her to keep her family In health, but would teach them how to take care of themselves. How often it is true that a mother studies every other method of bringing up her children in a successful way, but neglects their food? A mother who looks well after these things may truly be called a Homekeeper. Home- keeping and housekeeping should go hand in hand — but it seems as HEALTH PARAMOUNT TO ALL ELSE 411 Lillian Whiting says in the World Beautiful that the two "have gotten sadly taken, — one for the other. The finest and most liberal culture is none too fine to fit a woman for homekeeping; but mere industry and trained intelligence is the basis of housekeeping The woman unlearned in art, literary or social culture, may be a most admirable housekeeper; but the highest and greatest gifts and the most exquisite cultivation are none too much for homekeeping."