Science in the Kitchen / A Scientific Treatise On Food Substances and Their Dietetic Properties, Together with a Practical Explanation of the Principles of Healthful Cookery, and a Large Number of Original, Palatable, and Wholesome Recipes

by E. E. Kellogg

A milk, grain, and fruit diet is undoubtedly the one best suited to the average person in old age. Vegetables and legumes in well-prepared soups may also be used to advantage. Directions for such soups, as also for cooking grains and grain products, will be found in the preceding pages.

The following bills of fare, one for each season of the year, will perhaps serve to illustrate how a varied and appetizing regimen may be provided without the use of flesh foods:—

BREAKFAST Fresh Fruits Graham Grits and Cream Prune Toast Graham Puffs Cream Crisps Strawberries Caramel Coffee or Hot Milk DINNER Vegetable Broth with Toasted Rolls Baked Potato with Pease Gravy Stewed Asparagus Cracked Wheat and Cream Whole-Wheat Bread Canned Berries Manioca with Fruit Caramel Coffee or Hot Milk	BREAKFAST Fresh Fruits Rolled Oats and Cream Baked Sweet Apples Macaroni with Cream Sauce Whole-Wheat Puffs Stewed Peaches Caramel Coffee or Hot Milk DINNER Lentil Soup Baked Potato with Cream Sauce Escalloped Tomato Green Corn Pulp Browned Rice and Cream Fruit Bread Lemon Apple Sauce Prune Pie Caramel Coffee or Hot Milk
BREAKFAST Fresh Fruits Blackberry Mush and Cream Cream Toast Graham Crusts Blueberries Caramel Coffee or Hot Milk DINNER Green Pea Soup Mashed Potato Macaroni with Tomato Sauce Pearl Barley and Cream Cream Rolls Blackberries Stewed Fruit Pudding Caramel Coffee or Hot Milk	BREAKFAST Fresh Fruits Rolled Wheat and Cream Tomato Toast Corn Bread Graham Gems Stewed Prunes Caramel Coffee or Hot Milk DINNER Vegetable Oyster Soup Baked Sweet Potato Mashed Peas Steamed Rice with Fig Sauce Graham Bread Stewed Dried Fruit Apples Caramel Coffee or Hot Milk

In the selection of a dietary for elderly persons, much must depend upon their physical condition, the daily amount of exercise to which they are accustomed, their habits in earlier life, and a variety of other circumstances.

The quantity as well as quality of food for the aged should receive consideration. Diminished bodily activity and the fact that growth has ceased, render a smaller amount of food necessary to supply needs; and a decrease in the amount taken, in proportion to the age and the activity of the subject, must be made or health will suffer. The system will become clogged, the blood filled with imperfectly elaborated material, and gout, rheumatism, apoplexy, or other diseased conditions will be the inevitable result. The digestion of heavy meals is a tax upon vital powers at any time of life, but particularly so as age advances; and for him who has passed his first half-century, over-feeding is fraught with great danger. Cornaro, an Italian of noble family, contemporary with Titian in the sixteenth century, after reaching his eighty-third year wrote several essays upon diet and regimen for the aged, in one of which he says: "There are old lovers of feeding who say that it is necessary that they should eat and drink a great deal to keep up their natural heat, which is constantly diminishing as they advance in years; and that it is therefore their duty to eat heartily and of such things as please their palate, be they hot, cold, or temperate, and that if they were to lead a sober life, it would be a short one. To this I answer; Our kind Mother Nature, in order that old men may live to still greater age, has contrived matters so that they may be able to subsist on little, as I do; for large quantities of food cannot be digested by old and feeble stomachs."

Cornaro lived to be one hundred years old, doubtless owing largely to his simple, frugal habits.

DIET FOR THE YOUNG.

A very large share of the mortality among young children results from dietetic errors which proper knowledge and care on the part of those who have them in charge might commonly avoid. From infancy to the age of twelve or eighteen months, milk is the natural and proper food. Milk contains all the food elements except starch, which cannot be digested by very young children, owing to the insufficient formation of digestive elements of the salivary secretion during the first few months. If the child is deprived of the milk provided by nature, the best artificial food is cow's milk; it, however, requires very careful selection and intelligent preparation. The animal from which the milk comes, should be perfectly healthy and well cared for. The quality of her food should also receive attention, as there is little doubt that disease is often communicated to infants by milk from cows improperly fed and cared for. An eminent medical authority offers the following important points on this subject:—