THE VITAMIN AGE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 176, 11 July 1927, Page 4

THE VITAMIN AGE

FOODS THAT ARE HEALTHGIVING. Vitamins and calories were words of mystery only a short time ago. Now we chat lightly of them, seriously oo®aider them, and if we do not already try snch consideration for onr various ailments then onr doctors suggest that we do.

“Tell me how you are and I’ll to® you whta yon eat,” they say, and the viamin they press upon us, especially now that spring is here and the healthgiving vegetables can be had for the asking( says (■."'writer in "The Daily Chronicle.") THE CABBAGE AS MOWARCH. The cabbage is the monarch of all vitamin producers. Americans laugh at our consistent cabbage eating, but after all we are only following Greek and Roman habit. These ancients knew the valu e of the cabbage, as did the Egyptians. They did not mention vitamins, but the Romans regarded it as a preservative from the plague and urged its use medicinally. The Greek* served it with pomp and ceremony, made it the moat highly prized dish on a menu, and some even raised altars to it Think of that when you see it in its fresh spring green and respect it enough io steam rather tban bo-fl it, so that not a serap of its virtue may escape. A GOOD SPRING VEGETABLE. Lettuce is another food whose value has come down through the agei, though few of us realise that The Greeks ate it freely in the spring, scrv ing it at the end of a meal without condiments. The Romans liked it better at the beginning of a meal as an appetiser with the broad flat dish on which it lay garnished with egg.

AN AGE-OLD REMEDY. It was remedy for insomnia and nervous troubles, and so highly did one epicurean philosopher esteem his lettuces that he used to walk around his patch by night, picking out the lettuces for next day’s meal and pouring wine over them, which gave them a mysterous pleasing flavour that called forth exclamations of surprise and delight. Yet they could hardly have been as delicious soaked in wino as when well marinated with a good French dressing which has two and a half times as much oil as vinegar. , SOMEWHAT NEGLECTED IN ENGLAND. We do not give as much attention as we should to the leaf of French artichoke, perhaps because it is never really cheap with us. In France 1 have seen it bought at a penny apiece. In America where whole tracts of land are given over to its cultivation in the Far West, it is even cheaper. It was brought to Venice in the 16th century from Asia Minor, it is said, and its firm green leaves, so rich in iron, were a t once properly respected and much eaten. Indeed, it* greatest popularity is still in Latin countries, where it is eaten as a salad, or its hearts are cooked as a vegetable. The bean and the tomato both suffered from slander in ancient times, and the tomato's bad reputation clung to it through the ages, though merely due to superstition, such as Pythagoras was suffering from when he said the bean had malignant qualities. Both are now in high favour —the tomato especially for its storehouse of vitamins—while the bean, once it lived down prejudice, became the stapel food of the poor. The string bean, another health giver, was a lafer development.