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It is always interesting to visit a place where food of many
kinds is for sale. People who live in the country are fortunate, for they
can raise much of their own food; but they always enjoy going to the state
and county fairs where food is on exhibition and prizes are given out for
the biggest potatoes and pumpkins, the best bread and cake and jelly and
preserves as well as for the best sheep and pigs and oxen. In the city there
are often food fairs, and in the larger cities there are generally great
market buildings where farmers can bring their produce, have the use of a
stall, and sell directly to their customers. In many of the smaller cities
the "market" consists of a great room or hall with many counters, and on
these all kinds of food are placed, carefully protected by glass from dust
and flies, but open to view, and with each counter given up to some one kind
of food. These counters are skillfully arranged to induce customers to buy
more than they intended, the meat and vegetables farthest from the entrance,
because people will buy these anyway; and luxuries near the door, so people
will be tempted by them when waiting for a car.
Such markets are arranged for the benefit of the seller; but one
might be planned for the benefit of the buyer, not the buyer who merely
wants "something good to eat," but the intelligent buyer who knows that each
kind of food is of value for some special purpose.
Suppose there were such a market, or rather, a great food fair,
larger than any fair that was ever held before, and that all the kinds of
food that you ever saw were brought together so people could walk about and
look and buy whatever they chose. They might find the food arranged in five
great booths, so that each one contained the kinds of food that would do the
same kinds of work in the body. In the first booth would be the fruits and
vegetables, whose greatest value to us is in regulating the body. In the
second would be milk, meat, cheese, and other foods that furnish protein, a
very important building food. Milk is useful in so many other ways that I
might almost be put in every booth. In the third there would be chiefly
cereals, such as wheat, oats, and rye. These, too, contain protein, and they
also contain much starch, the cheapest kind of body fuel. In the fourth
booth would be sugar and different kinds of sweets, fuel foods that we like
for their flavor. In the fifth booth would be butter and bacon, oils, and
other fats. These are important fuel foods and they also make our food taste
good.
In a city small boys and girls are often sent to market to buy the
food for the family. "They know what they are about," the clerks say, "and
they get their money's worth." Imagine, then, some of these children with a
market basket visiting each booth and selecting the day's food for their
home.
At the first booth, they would find all the kinds of fruits and
vegetables ever heard of. There would be apples, pears, plums, cherries,
oranges, lemons, and pineapples, all the varieties of grapes that ever grew
on vines and all the kinds of berries that ever grew on bushes—for an
imaginary fair like this there is no reason why there should not be fruit
from every county and of every season. Of course there would also be plenty
of dried fruit, such as figs, raisins, apricots, and prunes.
At the same booth, there would be vegetables of all kinds. Green
corn an carrots, spinach, celery, salsify, lettuce, potatoes and sweet
potatoes, onions, string beans, green peas, okra and cabbages, and all the
other vegetables that ever grew in gardens or fields. There would be dried
ones, too, for people are beginning to discover that they can dry vegetables
as well as fruits, and if ever such a fair as this becomes a reality, there
will be a great display of vegetables which will need nothing but water to
make them ready to be cooked for the table. Boxes of dried carrots or
potatoes or peas do not look quite so warlike as a machine gun, but they, as
well as the gun, have helped to win the war. The process of drying made it
possible to preserve the products of our gardens and farms, and dried
vegetables take up so little room and weigh so little that they can be
carried across the ocean far more easily than fresh ones.
In these fruits and vegetables mineral matter is found, especially
lime and iron. These mineral substances are necessary to all the processes
going on in the body, and an important part of their work is helping to make
bones and teeth. If you leave a bone in weak acid, such as vinegar, for a
few days, the acid will eat most of the mineral matter out of it. The bone
will look much the same, but if you take hold of it, you will find that it
will bend almost like rubber and can actually be tied in a knot. This shows
how bones behave if they do not have enough lime to keep them stiff.
Children's bones have a hard time in one way. They have not nearly so much
mineral matter as those of grown folk, and therefore they are far more
likely to be bent out of shape. If a little child walks before the bones of
his legs contain enough mineral matter to strengthen them so they will hold
up the weight of his body, he may become bow-legged. In another way, the
bones of children have a great advantage. They do not break easily, and if
one does break, it will soon knit, or grow together again, while if an
elderly person breaks a bone, it may never knit at all.
Mineral matter is often found in some one part of a fruit or a
vegetable more than in other parts. In the potato, for instance, there is
much of it in the layer next to the skin. This is why potatoes ought to be
pared as thinly as possible or the baked skin eaten. In any case, to throw
away thick potato parings and buy other starch and mineral food is behaving
like the woman who paid one man ten cents a barrel to carry off her old
fruit baskets and wooden boxes, and on the same day paid his brother ten
cents a barrel to bring her bits of wood for kindlings.
Not only do the fruits and vegetables supply us with mineral
matter, but they make our food more bulky, and this is an aid to good
digestion. Fruits and vegetables are useful, too, in giving us water, and we
need much water, more indeed than most people are accustomed to drink. Sixty
pounds of the body of a ninety-pound child consists of water. This is
passing out constantly through the breath, as you can see by breathing on a
cold window pane, and through the tiny pores of the skin, but more in summer
than in winter; and we need a large quantity to take its place. When you are
thirsty, it is not only your throat, but your whole body, that is calling
for water. There is no water in sugar, starch, or lard, but there is in
almost all other kinds of food, even where one would hardly think of looking
for it. In wheat flour, for example, there is a good deal. If you should
keep ten pounds of wheat flour in a warm oven for a while it would weigh a
little less than nine pounds when you took it out. The lost pound was water,
and it has evaporated. Any one can see, even without testing the statement,
that there is much water in fruit and vegetables. Grapes are nearly
four-fifths water, tomatoes and celery more than nine-tenths.
It is because fruit and vegetables contain so much water that they
are difficult to transport, for not only do they spoil easily, but they are
heavy and take up too much room. That is one reason why, in these days, when
there is double work for every ship, we are asked to eat them as much as
possible, so that the more concentrated foods may be sent abroad. Entirely
aside from the needs of the countries that have been at war, however, they
are an extremely valuable food.
In the old fairy tales, there was always one fairy who was
forgotten and who made everything go wrong because she was not invited to go
to the wedding or the christening. There is a class of substances called
vitamines which are somewhat like the revengeful fairy. They are present in
certain kinds of food in minute quantities. Little is known about the
vitamines, but what is known is of the utmost importance, for it is certain
that they are necessary to life and health. There are two kinds. A good deal
of one kind is found in butter, the yolk of eggs, and in the leafy
vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach and dandelions. The other kind is found
in a great many kinds of food, especially in vegetables, in fruit, and in
whole cereals. Both are found in milk. They, like the fairy, should never be
forgotten at the feast.
We know fairly well how much people should eat of some kinds of
food; but no one has as yet found out just how much of the vitamines we
need. One thing is sure, namely, that fruits an vegetables which contain
them are a most valuable kind of food, and everybody, except babies, should
have at least one pound a day. They are so largely water that there is very
little danger of any one's eating too much of them, but i any case, it is
better to eat too much of these foods than too little and the children with
the market basket can hardly buy too freely at this booth.It is worth
remembering:
That the first of the five great groups is composed of
fruit and vegetables.
That we need, especially for the making of teeth and bones, the
mineral matter supplied by fruit and vegetables, and milk.
That if we use fruits and vegetables and milk freely we are quite
sure to get enough of the vitamines that are needed to make us grow.
That fruit and vegetables also help to supply us with water, and
add to our food the bulk which is needed in digestion.
That fresh fruit and vegetables are so hard to ship that we can
help by using those that grow near home. |
