The body needs food to keep it warm, to furnish energy for the activities of daily life; to build and repair tissue and to regulate the body process.

Proteins, fats, carbohydrates, mineral matter, and water, are the chief classes of food. The chief work of proteins is to build and repair tissue. Meat and milk are the principal sources of protein. Nuts, vegetables and some cereals also supply this element.

Carbohydrates are the starches and sugars. They are found in vegetables, cereals, and fruits and give heat and energy to the body. Fats give two and a half times as much energy as any other food.

Mineral matters enter into the composition of the body tissues and blood. They act as regulators, preserving the alkalinity of the body. They are found in varying proportions in all foods, but milk contains all the essential ones.

Vitamines are necessary for growth and are abundant in leafy vegetables and milk. Foods rich in vitamine content are known as protective foods. They prevent the development of deficiency and old age diseases.

Water is necessary as a carrier and regulator. It aids digestion, removes waste, and keeps the temperature normal.

Balanced Rations

A general balance of food should be maintained in each day’s diet: 1/5th meat or meat alternatives, 1/5th fat, and 3/5ths carbohydrates, with a serving of fruits and vegetables and plenty of liquid, completes the necessary variety.

WHERE THE CALORIE COMES IN

Before assimilation, the food we eat must be oxidized or burned. The heat resulting from this oxidation is measured in terms of calories, or heat units.

While the number of calories supplied by the diet is important, the proper balance as to the classification of the food is of prime importance. We cannot build up the diet on calorie values alone without consideration of the food elements.

Rubner’s Chart of Calorie Requirements

PROTECTIVE FOODS

The responsibility for the correct development of a family rests more and more surely at the door of the one who plans and cooks the meals for that family.

Nutrition experts are continually making careful tests and giving us valuable information through the newspapers and women’s national publications. With such easy access to the fundamentals of correct eating, it comes close to criminal negligence for a mother to feed her family improperly; the present percentage of under-nourished children is appalling, and many of these are in the homes of the well-to-do.

The most important “food finding” of the year has been the information given the public regarding Protective Foods, sometimes called dietetic ferments or the foods rich in the vitamines that promote growth and those rich in the vitamines that protect one from deficiency diseases such as scurvy, beriberi, pellagra and less dangerous skin diseases.

Milk and its products, butter and cheese, are foremost growth promotors. In this class comes also the yolk of eggs, glandular meats, and grains with the living germ still intact. Leafy vegetables, such as spinach, lettuce, cabbage, chard, cauliflower, kale, all greens, water cress, onions, string beans, and a few others are classed with protective foods.

While Professor McCullom does not yet definitely list the tomato under protective foods, it is found to have valuable protective qualities, often being substituted for orange juice in preventing scurvy in baby feeding. The protective substance of the tomato is not easily destroyed.

Experiments are continually being completed which add new foods to this important group.