This is the time of year when people make a resolution to lose weight or at least eat right and exercise. I thought it would be interesting to spend a few days sharing with you some of the guidelines our grandmothers were encouraged to follow to ensure proper nutrition for their families.
Ida Bailey Allen, in her cookbook Cooking, Menus, Service also published as Modern Cookbook (c. 1924, 1935) spends 43 pages explaining the proper foods to eat for a healthy diet (this was before “diet” meant “menu to lose weight). Mrs. Allen is one of those influential women that we never know about. She was a radio cooking show pioneer, wrote more than 50 cookbooks and, according to her obituary in the July 30, 1973, edition of Time Magazine, believed that “good home cooking was an antidote to the rising divorce rate.” (I also want to note that this is the cookbook that got me started on collecting vintage cookbooks.)
Here then, is a snippet of what she says (pages 14-17),
“Fifty percent of all illness may be traced to the wrong selection of food. No one can tell how many more sicknesses develop as a direct result of poorly cooked, tainted, or otherwise bad food. When Pandora opened the box and let loose all the ills she did no more than many a housewife is unwittingly doing three times a day.
On what does intelligent food selection depend? Upon a knowledge of the type of foods needed by the various component parts that make up the body; upon a knowledge of the type of food fitted to replace the body-waste, whatever it may be; upon a knowledge of each different food and its mission in the body.
This may sound difficult, but it is nothing that cannot be mastered by any home-maker. Its basis is but the physiology given in a child’s school-book. Its application needs only common sense and sufficient interest to mean perseverance.
The Balanced Ration
Here I might stop to talk about the balanced ration. I might explain that this means merely the combination of the right foods into meals so that the scale of supply and demand is balanced in the body.
Foods and Their Mission
Just as eight notes comprise the scale of music, eight factors must be considered in the scale of food; and just as the notes of music may be combined to produce harmony or discord, just so may the notes of food be combined to promote harmony or discord in the body. If a composer wishes to write an appealing composition he does not attempt to limit himself to but one or two notes. If he did this, monotony would kill his composition.
In a like manner, if meals are planned around but one or two of the eight factors, the diet is not only monotonous, but slow starvation must result. Just as certain notes in music are used more than others, certain food factors are used more frequently than others in making up the combinations for the perfect menu.
And what are these food factors and in what proportion should they appear in the meal? This is explained by the following simple table.
The Balanced Ration Table
I
The Proteins: Foods that mainly build muscle. Select one for each meal.
Dried mature peas, dried mature beans, lentils, milk, skimmed milk, dairy and cottage cheese, eggs, peanut butter, nuts, game, poultry, beef, lean pork, lamb, mutton, veal, fish, and all dishes containing a preponderance of any one or more of these foods, as cocoa made with milk, milk soups, escalloped cheese, hash, nut balls, etc.
II
The Starches: Foods that mainly supply fuel. Select two for each meal or three, serving smaller portions.
All cereals, all breads, crackers, macaroni, spaghetti, noodles, all starchy vegetables, as white and sweet potatoes, the dasheen, the beet, carrots, etc., bananas, all puddings with a basis of bread, cornstarch, tapioca, cereals, etc.
III
The Sweets: Foods that mainly supply condensed energy. Select one for each meal.
Frostings, candies, preserves and jellies, honey, maple syrup, molasses, sorghum, corn syrups, cookies, cakes, sweet puddings, ices, ice creams, and other sweet foods, sweet stewed fruit, and plain sugar as served in coffee, on cereals, etc.
IV
The Fats: Foods that mainly supply reserve force. Select two for each meal.
Cream, olive and all other salad oils, very fat ham or pork, very fat fish, salt pork, bacon, sausages, butter, margarine, peanut butter, all soups containing cream, full cream cheese, ripe olives, all salad dressings made with oil, rich gravies, rich pastry, most nuts, sweet chocolate, hot chocolate, ice cream, mousses, parfaits, and Bavarian creams made with cream, all puddings and cakes, containing an appreciable amount of fat, as suet pudding, puddings served with whipped cream, pound cake, etc., and all foods cooked in fat, whether it be lard or vegetable oil, as croquettes, fritters, and doughnuts.
V
The Tonics: Foods that mainly supply minerals or acids, or both. Select at least one for each meal.
All green vegetables, as cabbage, cucumbers, celery, onions, eggplant, all greens and all salad plants, rhubarb, and all fresh and dried fruits, except bananas. All fruit drinks, fruit gelatines, fruit ices, and canned fruits, and all undenatured or whole-grain cereals, also all dehydrated green vegetables and dried fruits except bananas.
VI
The Cleansers: Foods that mainly supply bulk. Select one or more for each meal.
All the Tonic foods, all coarse breads and gritty cereals, as cracked wheat or bran, all coarse vegetables, as parsnips or spinach, and all unpared fruits or those full of seeds, as well as bulky green vegetables.
VII
The Dissolvents: Foods that mainly furnish liquids to the body. Select two for each meal.
Water, all soups, tea, coffee, cocoa, skimmed milk, whey, buttermilk, all drinks (non-alcoholic), gelatines, ices, watery fruits, as watermelon, and vegetables, as cucumbers or tomatoes.
VIII
The Protectives or Vitamine Rich Foods: Foods that supply the vital elements necessary to life and growth. Select at least one or two for each meal.
The following foods contain two or three of the types of vitamines discovered to date:
Milk, butter, cream, cheese, nuts, tomatoes, cabbage, carrots, parsnips, cauliflower, chard, lettuce, white and sweet potatoes, spinach, honey, raw sugar, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, apples, sun-dried fruits, whole grains, etc. Certain meats, especially the vital organs of the animal, as liver, brains, kidneys, are rich in two of the vitamines. Several special vinamine rich foods may now be purchased.
There are several things that jump out at me as I read her instructions on building a balanced meal. The first is her very first sentence–I think when we give into the Siren of Frankenfood, we are forgetting the impact that what we eat has on us. We wouldn’t put sub-rate gasoline into our cars yet we think nothing of putting sub-rate foods into us and then wonder why we aren’t functioning like we would like.
Another thing that jumps out at me is her analogy of the musical notes and how the use of just a few notes in a musical composition would result in a boring performance. However, I remember reading somewhere that people eat the same 5 or 6 things over and over again (especially if they are relying on fast food–how many people hit Taco Bell for lunch every day and order the same thing every day?–and Frankenfood). I couldn’t find the article that I read but I came across a lot of discussion forums and questions to medical professions asking if there was a problem eating just the same things over and over again.
But of greater concern, in the long run, is that Barbara Kingsolver, in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, shares with us how we are rapidly losing our food biodiversity because food is produced based on profit margins and how well it will survive shipment and storage rather than on taste and nutrition. I know that a lot of the foods Mrs. Allen listed above have been missing from my grocery store for a long time and I have to find them either at the farmer’s market or an “ethnic” market. Many of the varieties of fruits and vegetables our grandmothers grew in their Victory Gardens are now considered extinct. We can counter this trend by buying the “old-fashioned” stuff instead of relying on stuff that is already packaged for us or growing heritage seeds in our own versions of a Victory Garden.
Finally, I really like the idea of categorizing food based on what it does for us rather than how it is done today. I try to plan my meals based on this type of thinking rather than “meats, vegetables, carbs, etc.” The modern food pyramid doesn’t help us remember that “coarse breads and gritty cereals” (currently known as “whole grain”) serve the purpose of cleansing the system. And, if our system isn’t cleansed, we can start getting grumpy really fast and then go down the slippery slope of relying on artificial cleansers. Contrary to commercials for restaurants on television that would have us believe that food is entertainment, food’s purpose is to provide us with fuel and to enable us to function properly.
What do you think? Anything jump out at you?
I don’t know why the blog sometimes doesn’t break between paragraphs like it is supposed to. All of the right code is in place. Anyway, I apologize for the weirdness of the formatting–it isn’t for a lack of trying to make it right.
Some interesting concepts here. It does seem a complicated system to me, but we have decided to take a closer look at it.
The plan seems to incorporate a lot of food. My husband and I eat fiber-rich cereal for breakfast (never eggs, bacon, cream), a light lunch (left-overs or soup), and a “main meal supper.” When she says, for example, one selection from a specific group at each meal, I’m afraid we fall short.
If I were to follow this plan, I would probably break it down to selections by meal.
I think what isn’t as obvious because of her writing style is that we can get “two-fers” from some of the selections. For example, fruit can be considered a tonic, cleanser, AND a protective. I guess an apple a day really does keep the doctor away! *grin*
[...] Mrs. Allen gave us food for thought (get it? food for thought? I crack myself up, sometimes…okay, [...]