FOODS AND FADS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXI, Issue 3160, 27 April 1931, Page 2

FOODS AND FADS.

There is no more annoying person to have as a guest than the Food Faddist. One of those arrived at a busy household, and. next morning the housewife sent up a tray with fruit and toast for breakfast to her guest, who, on her last visit, had been a vegetarian and a fruitarian, had scorned anything cooked, and bad rather given the impression that those who ate bacon an eggs were both greedy and disagreeable! On this visit, however, the food faddist demanded bacon and eggs for breakfast, and gave voice to a theory about uncooked fruit being bad for the digestion, so that the unfortunate hostess who had set in a good store of bananas and nuts found that these were not included in her friend's menu any longer! This is possibly an extreme case, but it is quite true that the food faddist is a most selfish person. Too often fads are started in childhood, and, therefore, nursery cookery should be plain and wholesome, and as far as possible children should be made to eat what is put before them. Notice the qualifying phrase "as far as possible." There are some children who cannot eat certain things, but normal healthy children enjoy good, plain food, and it is only fair that they should be encouraged in their liking of the best, but should be discouraged from all fancy touches, especially piquant things, such as pickles. The wise mother prepares a special menu for the children, although she does not announce this to them, but you will always find on the table of 4 healthy household that there are dishes which would not spoil the most delicate digestion. Of course, the fairly healthy child has not the time for fads and fancies, and, indeed, these should be looked upon as a danger signal, and it is only the sick or ailing child whose appetite requires to be tempted. Soups are excellent for children, especially in the autumn or winter but it is not necessary to give a child much meat at all. White meat, such as rabbit and chicken, with good gravy and potatoes and vegetables are far better for the nursery than overmuch butcher meat.

Children who have been brought up properly to enjoy their food will seldom ibecome faddy in later years. The plainer the food given in childhood the less is the temptation to experiment with specialised menus when grown up, for it becomes part of one's nature to take what is placed in front of one. * The children who are petulant may grow up a nuisance to other people, and the little girl who likes this and who can't eat that, and whose ideas are humored, without the reason for these ideas being discovered, is sure to be a nuisance to her friends at a later date. Do not make food faddists in the nursery. You are only going to create a nuisance for yourself and other people when your little ones grow up.