Food Guide for War Service at Home Part 6

EVERY POUND OF FOOD GROWN IN THESE HOME AND COMMUNITY GARDENS RELIEVES THE RAILROAD CONGESTION AND GIVES MORE s.p.a.cE FOR TRANSPORTING MUNITIONS AND COAL. EVERY POUND OF FOOD GROWN RELEASES STAPLES FOR EUROPE. Extra production of food of any kind, anywhere, takes on a new significance in the presence of half a world hungry.

IF YOU CANNOT GROW VEGETABLES, USE THEM IN ABUNDANCE ANYWAY. They are too perishable to ship abroad and too bulky, containing so much water that it would be an uneconomical use of shipping to export them.

But the more America eats of almost any kind of vegetable or fruit, the less of the more durable, concentrated foods will she require. The products are so varied in kind and composition that they can be used to serve almost any purpose--beans and peas to save meat; potatoes and others to save wheat; sweet fruits to save sugar; jams, even, when spread on bread, to save fat. All will improve the health and therefore increase human energies for winning the war.

IN THE WAR DIET

_To Save Meat_. Beans and peas and peanuts are the only vegetables with much protein, so that they are the ones thought of primarily as meat subst.i.tutes. There are many kinds of them, fresh or dried, more than most of us realize. It is worth while to add to the diet not only the ordinary white or navy beans, but kidney, lima, black or soy beans, cow-peas, the many colored beans such as the pinto, frijoles, and the California pinks. It is these latter kinds that are used by the Mexicans as their chief standby. The Army and Navy use huge quant.i.ties of the white beans, and the Allied Governments are also buying tons of the pintos.

The 1917 bean-crop, in response to the patriotic appeal, was 50 per cent higher than the normal. Nearly all this increase was in the colored beans, chiefly pintos. The Food Administration, fearing that some of this unusual surplus might be wasted and the farmer discouraged from producing a large output in 1918, bought up the extra crop and distributed it for sale at the different markets.

Though soy beans and peanuts at least are exceptions, the protein in beans and peas is not so satisfactory as a bodybuilder as that in animal foods, so that a diet in which they are a large part should contain also some milk or eggs or a little meat. Two cups (half a pound) of sh.e.l.led green peas or beans, or one cup with a cup of skim milk gives as much protein as a quarter of a pound of beef. Dried beans and peas are, of course, cheaper than the canned with their larger amount of water. At the usual market prices as much fuel can be bought for 5 cents spent for dried peas as for 25 cents for canned peas.

Meat-savers do not all have to be high-protein foods, since the diet of most of us contains considerably more protein than is necessary.

Any vegetable can be a "meat extender." The pleasant flavor of meat can be obtained in meat stews, such as the delicious French "pot-au-feu." Stews can easily be made with less meat and more vegetables than usual. The meat allowance is now so very small in France and the vegetables so scarce in the cities, that the ingenuity of even the French woman is taxed to get a meal.

_To Save Wheat_. Potatoes to save wheat! The great potato drive to utilize the surplus of our huge 1917 potato-crop, 100,000,000 bushels above normal, has fixed in every one's mind the interchangeableness of these two foods. Potatoes are one-fifth starch--almost the same quant.i.ty as in cooked breakfast cereals. Because of this starch, they give as satisfactory a fuel as wheat or corn or any other cereal. One medium-sized potato supplies the same number of calories as a large slice of bread, and contains more mineral salts than white bread.

Europe has learned to eat potatoes instead of wheat. When bread has been short potatoes have been the mainstay in every country. They are to-day the largest single element, in terms of energy, in the German war ration.

Sweet potatoes are also first-cla.s.s wheat-savers. So to a lesser extent are most vegetables and fruits. Very few except white and sweet potatoes contain much starch, but many of them have considerable sugar, which serves as fuel just as starch does--carrots, beets, onions, parsnips, and practically all fruits such as bananas, oranges, and grapes.

_To Save Sugar_. We want sugar, of course, both for fuel and flavor.

The vegetables and some fruits have their sugar so covered up by other tastes that it does not help to make the food sweet. It does, of course, serve for fuel. Bananas especially are fuel foods, containing much starch when green, which changes to sugar as the fruit ripens.

The sweetest fruits are the dried ones--dates, figs, raisins, prunes.

They have so much sugar that they can well be used in place of candy.

_To Save Fat_, Although few common fruits and vegetables contain fat, jam is a real fat-saver. It is of high fuel value, and has the advantage of being a "spreading material" so that it can replace b.u.t.ter with bread and cereals. Jam is of great importance in Europe to-day and all the Governments have taken steps to keep up the supply.

It is a regular part of the English army ration.

_To Keep the Nation Well_. An increase in the use of vegetables and fruits is practically sure to mean an increase in health. Many of us, especially city-dwellers, do not eat enough of them. Many a young girl who "does not like vegetables" probably owes part of her languor to inadequate diet. The old-fashioned "touch of scurvy" formerly noticed at the end of the winter and even now not an unknown thing, was probably due to lack of vegetables in the winter diet. The constipation which is so disturbingly prevalent can usually be cured or prevented by eating vegetables and fruits in sufficient quant.i.ties.

One of the most serious limitations in the diet of many of the very poor is the lack of vegetables as well as milk and the unduly large proportion of meat and bread. In a community in New York City with high mortality rate, 75 mothers whose diet was observed, ate vegetables on the average only twice a week, and fruit about the same number of times.

It is not difficult to understand why vegetables and fruits are so important. Only a few are especially valuable as fuel or as a source of protein, but almost all are high in mineral salts and can supply the "roughage" desirable in the diet. Some also contain the vitamines, the leafy vegetables being especially valuable because, like milk, they contain the two kinds. The "greens," leafy vegetables like spinach, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, and lettuce, are the ones that help most in these last ways--"protective foods," they have been called. They are rich in the iron, calcium, and other minerals that some of the other foods lack. The use of plenty of these vegetables should go far toward keeping up health.

CANNING AND DRYING VEGETABLES AND FRUITS

The value of these foods both for the nation's health and for saving staples applies just as much in winter as in summer. In war-time, a winter supply, either stored, dried, or canned, takes on special significance because of their subst.i.tute value if the supply of staples runs critically low.

The canning industry, because it makes vegetables obtainable at all times and places, has been of great importance in the health and development of the country. Smith, in his "Commercial Geography," says that "canning, more than any other invention since the introduction of steam, has made possible the building up of towns and communities beyond the bounds of varied production." A century or two ago, sailors after a voyage of a year or two, almost always came home with scurvy.

Recently Nansen and his men drifted in the Arctic ice for years and remained in good health, because of their supply of canned vegetables, fruits, and meats.

The Government has not been slow in appreciating the need of canned vegetables for the Army and Navy. It has commandeered about 25 per cent of the canned beans, 12 per cent of the corn, and 18 per cent of the tomatoes of the 1917 pack. Large amounts will be needed this year also. Much of the 1918-19 supply for our troops in France is to be canned in France, by arrangement with the French Government, thus saving valuable shipping s.p.a.ce.

Drying, or dehydrating, has long been known for beans, peas, and corn, and for dates, prunes, figs, and raisins. But dried potatoes, beets, carrots, and "soup mixtures" are more or less new. The drying, of course, merely removes most of the water from the vegetable, and if the process is properly carried out, soaking the vegetable in water restores its original freshness.

The war, with the need for every ounce of food and the increasing transportation difficulties, has brought the process into prominence.

The dehydrated products, if properly stored, seem to keep a long time.

Their saving in freight and shipping is plain, when it is remembered that the fresh vegetables and fruits often contain over 90 per cent water, and the dried from 8 per cent to 10 per cent. Ships are too precious to be used for carrying unnecessary water. Our Government has placed orders for several thousand tons of dehydrated potatoes for the Army and may use other dried products as they can be obtained.

Canada has sent abroad within the past 3 years over 50 million pounds of dehydrated vegetables, about two-thirds of which was the vegetable-soup mixture and one-third dried sliced potatoes. When reconst.i.tuted this would make about 400,000,000 pounds of vegetables.

Germany has been drying her vegetables and fruits far more than we. In 1917 she had over 2,000 commercial plants, and an elaborate system of distributing all the available fresh material to the different plants to avoid waste.

Individuals and communities with gardens or wherever fresh products can be obtained should not be dependent upon commercial agencies.

AS FAR AS POSSIBLE EVERY FAMILY AND EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD SHOULD BE SELF-SUPPORTING. HOME AND COMMUNITY CANNING AND DRYING ARE IMPORTANT DUTIES. CAN AND DRY THE SURPLUS. STORE UP ENOUGH TO CARRY THROUGH THE NEXT WINTER. FOLLOW EXPERT ADVICE AS TO METHODS. USE THE GREATEST CARE TO PREVENT SPOILAGE. WHEREVER POSSIBLE UNITE WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS IN COMMUNITY CANNERIES AND DRYERS SO THAT EVERY ONE CAN HAVE THE BENEFIT OF THE BEST EQUIPMENT AND THE MOST SKILLED SUPERVISION.

A GREAT DEAL WAS DONE IN 1917; MILLIONS OF CANS WERE PUT UP AND GREAT WASTE PREVENTED. BUT IN 1918 MORE MUST BE DONE. MORE VEGETABLES MUST BE RAISED AND MORE MUST BE CANNED. A GREAT RESERVE FOR THE WINTER IS MORE NECESSARY THAN EVER.

CONCLUSION

Almost a year of food control in this country has pa.s.sed and the great new experiment in democratic administration of the nation's food is succeeding. The method of well-directed voluntary co-operation, much more characteristic of our food control than of any other country's, can be judged by its results to date. We have sent abroad six times the wheat that we had believed was in the country for export. We have exported vastly increased shipments of the other cereals, of beef and pork, of fats and condensed milk. With Canada, we are supplying 50 per cent of the Allies' food, instead of barely 5 per cent, as before the war. Meanwhile our own population has been taken care of. No one has gone hungry because of the shipments of food out of the country. The price of the most important food, bread, has been kept stable--a new experience in time of war.

These and others are great accomplishments, brought about through the co-operation of the nation, BUT THEY ARE SLIGHT IN COMPARISON WITH WHAT MUST STILL BE DONE. The huge resources for extra food production and conservation have hardly been touched. The imagination is just beginning to be stirred by the immensity of the whole undertaking and the sacrifice required to win the war. Men, ammunition and food, in a steadily increasing stream, must go across.

"OUR DUTY, IF WE ARE TO DO THIS GREAT THING AND SHOW AMERICA TO BE WHAT WE BELIEVE HER TO BE--THE GREATEST HOPE AND ENERGY OF THE WORLD--IS TO STAND TOGETHER NIGHT AND DAY UNTIL THE JOB IS FINISHED."--PRESIDENT WILSON.

A FEW REFERENCES

American Academy of Political and Social Science. "World's Food."

Philadelphia, 1917. (_Annals of the American Academy_, November, 1917.)

Carter, Howe and Mason. "Nutrition and Clinical Dietetics."

Philadelphia, Lea & Febiger, 1918.

Holmes, A.D., and Lang, H.L. "Fats and Their Economical Use in the Home." Washington, 1916. (Department of Agriculture Bulletin 469.)

Kellogg, Vernon, and Taylor, Alonzo E. "Food Problems." New York, Macmillan, 1917.

Langworthy, C.F. "Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, and Other Starchy Roots as Food." Washington, 1917. (Department of Agriculture Bulletin 468.)

Langworthy, C.F. "Eggs and Their Value as Food." Washington, 1917.

(Department of Agriculture Bulletin 471.)

Lusk, Graham. "Food in War Time." Philadelphia, Saunders, 1917.

Lusk, Graham. "Fundamental Basis of Nutrition." New Haven, Yale University Press, 1915.

Mendel, Lafayette B. "Changes in Food Supply and Their Relation to Nutrition." New Haven, Yale University Press, 1916.

Mendenhall, Dorothy R. "Milk." Washington, 1918. (_Children's Bureau_, Publication 35.)