WISDOM WHILE YOU EAT

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 83, 6 January 1928, Page 3

WISDOM WHILE YOU EAT

♦ SCIENCE IN AMERICAN DAILY LIFE If democratic education is the imparting to as many people as -possible the knowledge accumulated by the world, then education in the United States is democratic indeed. History, geography, medicine, food values, literature, bodyculture, anthropology can be assimilated in small and easily digested doses merely by going about one’s' daily life, by reading advertisements, by visiting the kinema, Ry studying guide-books, life insurance policies, and business announcements generally, and by keeping one’s eyes open in ’bus, hotel, and subway. No longer does one have to visit libraries or pore over dusty tomes to find out the wisdom of modern authorities. Most of the New World methods of thus spreading education are common to the Old World, too, though in less degree. But it has been left to America altogether to give away knowledge while you eat, to show that several subjects can be combined and taken in while the unwary gastronome merely selects and digests liis lunch. An uncultured visitor, ignorant of the very rudiments of physiology, world literature, science, tlie chemistry of the body, and scientific feeding, will find, after one visit to one of the cheap and popular chain restaurants of the East, that he has gained some knowledge of all of them, and in addition he will have eaten a meal which, if chosen wisely, will have put him in company with some of rhe masters of the world. It will have been imbibed almost ununaware, with his Boston baked beans and custard-pie, for one of the secrets of the purveyors of education-while-you-eat is never to submit too much at one eating, and so induce indigestion and 1 despair. This particular eating-place wishes to instil the knowledge that it is healthy to eat vegetables; it therefore urges its patrons, at the head of every menucard, to: “Watch vour step; go vegetable wise.” To drive such excellent advice home—it is well known that one preaching is not enough to convince the sceptical—it gives twe little biographies, one each on the back and the front of the card, of some great men who followed it. Under the heading LIVES Ob' GREAT MEN. (Milton.) we are told:— “Early in life Milton dreamed of writing something the world would never let die. “But be did more than dream, he studied and thought far into the night. “Then, after years of preparation, he produced the immortal epic ‘Paradise Lost.’ “Good judges of poetry now place liis poetry next to that of Shakes-

peare. “Milton was a vegetarian. Join the company of the Great. Go vegetable wise.” The back of the card, under the same heading, sub-head (Newton.) runs “It is said that the fall of an apple suggested the Law of Gravitation to Newton. “Certainly England never produced a more skilful mathematician nor a greater scientist. “He readily solved the most difficult problems proposed to the wise men of Europe. “Knighted bv Queen Anne, arid honoured by all, he lived to a happy old age. “Newton was a vegetarian. Join the company of the Great. Go vegetable wise.” Literature is valuable, and literature is romantic, calculated to aid the digestion, but literature time is up; we must go on to dietetics. Before every item on tlie menu are mysterious letters—big V’s, little v’s, ov’s, and in parentheses after them mystic numbers. After the item of food itself are other digits, not so mystical, as they are in Italics and doubtless represent the price ,

of the dish. This is an example of what the luncher is faced with; — v(3-63) Fielded Beets. (There is no number after this because it comes under the 75-cent dinner.) Health Sandwiches. V(53-270) Savita, Cheese and Nut 20 Sandwiches. v (35-399) Cheese and Nut 20 (8-39) Individual Pot of Tea 15. A legend at the bottom of the menu solves part of the puzzle:— “(V),” we read, “indicates items rich in vitamines, (v) indicates items in which vitamines are present, and figures in parentheses indicate approximate protein calories and total . calories respectively. For more detailed information patrons are referred to our dietetic food list. . The complete booklet is a college course of information. First you learn what is a balanced ration, then the use and source of the various food elements. There follow ten pages of dishes, giving the number and sources of calories in each dish, “for the convenience of patrons in selecting and ordering a balanced meal.” Carbo Avoir- Protein Fat hydrate Total dupois color- calor- calov- calorweight, les. les. ics. ies.

“ov,” it is explained at last, means, “vitamines present provided butter, milk, or cream are used.” Not only is the difficult problem of feeding a child solved by this system, but a chemist —an unpractical, dreaming chemist—spending his life in retirement researching into the intricacies of calories and proteins and vitamines will be able bv visiting this restaurant to feed himself without having to wake up out of his dream into unpleasant reality, and the tables will at last he reversed upon us realists. For the experimentalist who wishes to put his new learning to the immediate test of experience, for the ignoramus who wishes to go back to his home boasting of the . culture he has acquired in the East, there is the last exciting item on the daily menu:— “V (31-81) Bacillus Acidophilus Milk 30.” —Ella Wimer in the “Manchester Guardian.’ ’

or Boiled rice .. Goz. 14 1 130 15 vv Baked b e aus, potato lloz. 62 US 2S0 44 v Egg ... 3oz, 43 100 117 26