The Road to Wellville/Chapter 10

by The Postum Cereal Company

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

The Appendix

A SET OF WELL-DIGESTED ROAD RULES
FOR THE SERIOUS SEEKER
AFTER HEALTH

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

Building Balanced Menus for All Seasons

◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆

Food expenditures are investments in health and happiness, if wisely made. Thrift lies in getting full nutritional value for the money spent. Inexpensive foods are often more wholesome than luxuries. For instance, milk and cereals supply proteins more cheaply than meat and “throw in” more mineral salts and vitamins. Also the cheaper cuts of meat, cooked in savory stews and pot roasts, are just as nutritious as expensive cutlets and tenderloins.

For vitamins, humble cabbage and canned tomato can hold their own in any company, competing even with the orange. The latter has the advantage of being at its best served raw. There is no temptation to cook it and destroy the vitamin C. Its flavor, fragrance, and mild acidity make its frequent appearance on the menu welcome, especially at breakfast. The cheaper sources of vitamin C should be used often for luncheon and dinner.

Vegetables and fruits should be used abundantly in the season when they are most plentiful and cheapest. This means economy but also ingenuity and good cookery to prevent monotony of service. Canned vegetables may be used combined in the menu with fresh raw foods. Carrots and potatoes, onions and turnips, and the faithful cereals we have always with us.

Season and climate have a bearing on the foods needed as well as on their economic use. In cold weather more of the fuel foods are used (fats and oils, starches and sugars). Cereals even in puddings and soups are welcome in December. Note the Esquimo on his diet of whale blubber and the dweller in the tropics with his banana and other fruits handy! The steam-heated American, well clad and exercising but little out-of-doors, needs little more food in winter than in summer. But even in summer the ration must be balanced; you need all kinds of food, but should cut down on the fuel foods a little, eat more fresh vegetables and fruit and less meat. The wholesome cereals are still needed for balance.

Personal peculiarities have a right to consideration. The woman who knows how to make the simple, wholesome foods palatable is greater than she who forces “what they ought to have” on the family, willy nilly. Such a simple and easily digested food as white of egg is poison to some, and strawberries cause discomfort to others. Even a matter of taste may be met by substituting one food for another, if it is done wisely, without cheating the body of necessities.

The ages of the family group and the size of the purse; taste and the amount of time needed for preparation for the table, will affect the form in which these foods will be served, but any woman can vary these items to suit her own conditions. These menus obviously are not made for very young children, but represent what an average family might profitably eat, with a view both to pleasure and health, during four weeks (one representing each season of the year), and be well fed from every angle.