TWELVE MISTAKES ABOUT FOOD.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 November 1918, Page 2

TWELVE MISTAKES ABOUT FOOD.

Walter M. Galliehan writes as follows in a London paper:— Most of us are wont to accept the often-stated as proven truth in dietetic matters. The common fallacies about food are repeated from generation to generation. analysis disproves many suppositions. (Here are instances:—■

1. It is often aaid that beef is more nourishing than bread and cheese. There is, however, far more nutriment in one shilling's worth of 'bread and cheese than in beef of the value of one shilling. Lean beef ia very inferior to ciieese as nutriment.

2. Skim-milk is supposed to be valueless as food. This la an orror. Skimmilk taken with bread constitutes a sustaining meal. 3 Most persons imagine that batter is considerably more nourishing than margarine. The fact is that the best fresh butter and the best kinds of m&rb.'irine contain exactly tho same amount of nutriment per pound4. It is believed, than costly eheese is tho most nourishing. The cheaper "theeses are mostly richer in proteid than the expensive sorts. 5. That potatoes are a cheaper food than bread is incorrect It potatoes are eaten as substitutes for wheaten bread the quantity must be very large, and the cost ■will not be less than that of bread. 6- We are often told that oatmeal is not so nutritive as wheatmeal- On the contrary, oats contain mora fatty ingredients than wheat and tho mpst nutritious of grain foods.

7. Most people think that rice is indigestible. Experiments prove that well-cooked rice Ls easily digested. 8. Maize Is thought to be inferior to wheat as human food. Maize undoubtedly contains more fat than wheat. 9. A Dover sole is esteemed as more valuable food than a dried herringGenerally speaking, cured fish is more nourishing, than fresh. A kippered herring is better food than a sole of first quality. 10. Nuts aro regarded as dessert dishes and not as nourishing food. Brazil mrts, almonds, and walnuts have 50 per cont of fat, and are very good foods. Butter made from nuts is nearly a 9 nourishing as milk butter. 11. It is thought that fruit is not a food. Th'l3 depends on the kind of fruit. Kates are a staple diet m parts of the East, and figs and Taisins in a dry state are very nntritive.

'l2. Tea and coffee are supposed to he "sustaining." Neither of these beverages contains nutriment. Milk and snirar give a small food value to t''-e ordinary cup of tea or coffee.