(2) The use of lean meats or fish for all three meals would require the use of such foods as rice, tapioca, or cornstarch pudding, considerable quantities of sugar and butter, and more vegetables, in order to furnish sufficient fuel value.

(3) Since flour, sugar, and butter or lard enter very largely into pastries and desserts, the larger the quantities of these dishes that are consumed the larger does the fuel value tend to become as compared with the protein."

The principal classes of food materials may be roughly grouped as follows as regards the proportion of protein to fuel value, beginning with those which have the largest proportion of protein and ending with those which contain little or no protein:—

The Menus.

To illustrate the ways in which milk may be combined with other food materials, to form daily dietaries with about the amount of protein and the fuel value called for by the standard for men at moderate muscular work, a few menus are given in the following pages. These menus are intended to show how approximately the same nutritive value may be obtained by food combinations differing widely as regards the number, kind, and price of the food materials used to make up three daily meals. They also illustrate how the cost of the daily menu may vary greatly with the kind and variety of materials purchased, though the nutritive value remains the same. These sample menus should not, however, be regarded as in any sense "models" to be followed in actual practice. The daily menus for any family will necessarily vary with the market supply, the season, and the relative expensiveness of different food materials, as well as with the tastes and purse of the consumers. The point to which we wish here to draw especial attention is that the prudent buyer of foods for family consumption can not afford to wholly neglect their nutritive value in making such purchases.

With reference to the following daily menus, several points must be definitely borne in mind. (1) The amounts given represent about what would be called for in a family equivalent to four full-grown men at ordinary manual labor, such as machinists, carpenters, mill-workers, farmers, truckmen, etc., according to the usually accepted standards. Sedentary people would require somewhat less than the amounts here given. (2) Children as a rule may be considered as having "moderate muscular exercise," and it may easily be understood that the 14-year-old boy eats as much as his father who is engaged in business or professional occupation, both requiring, according to the tentative standard, 0.8 of the food needed by a man with moderate muscular work. (3) It is not assumed that any housewife will find it convenient to follow exactly the proportions suggested in the menus. The purpose is to show her about what amounts and proportions of food materials would give the required nutrients.

A family equivalent to four men having little muscular exercise—i.e., men with sedentary occupation—would require but about 0.8 the quantities indicated in the following menus. It would be very doubtful, however, if they would eat proportionally less of every food material. It would, in fact, be more probable that the amounts of meat, fish, eggs, potatoes, and bread eaten would be reduced in a much greater proportion than fruit, pastry, coffee, etc.

Pecuniary Economy of Milk and Other Foods.

Amounts of actual nutrients obtained in different food materials for 10 cts.