THE HYGIENE OF FOOD.

Western Star, Issue 346, 24 April 1880, Page 7 (Supplement)

THE HYGIENE OF FOOD.

The last number of the. contains the first of a series of articles by Mr Ernest Hart on /“The Hygiene of Food.” It relates to the, breakfast table; He would like to see the teapot abolished from the breakfast table, as he believes tea to be a ; drink utterly unsuited for an: early morning meal, and one which has only come; into general use because .it: is the. easiest sort of infusion which, bad cooks,, careless: housewives, and thoughtless mothers can prepare. Tea is an aliment of physical economy”— using that word in its physiological sense. So far as the alkoloid of tea has a physiological effect in the small quantity in which we get; it at breakfast it is a nerve stimulant,' a property which does hot indicate * it as a breakfast drink, and which is not what is looked for in the morning. Breakfast should; be digestible, warm,. abundant, unexciting, nourishing. Bread and butter and hot cocoa make a very , good breakfast for working people, but not perhaps the; cheapest they can get or the handiest. For. the working man,' for the poor man, and for everyday use, Mr Hart doubts whether anything has yet been produced in any country of’ the World which is equal to the English household bread. But wheat is a costly cereal, and’ it is not the most nourishing; nor does it lend itself to those pleasant,; wholesome, nutritious, and comforting form ;of food known as porridges, which do form ;the; staple breakfast throughout Scotland and throughout: that vast American continent which is now. peopled with English, Scotch,.and Irishmen.. There is no reason, he .says, why, oatmeal should cost nearly twice as much in . as it does in Edinburgh, or why porridge, Which is the perfection of a breakfast luiury, should be so rarely seen on London tables. Hominy porridge is' the staple breakfast' of; of the American ? continent, and for yopng people, for dyspeptics, and for’ working people it is the only foad. Hominy is nothing else than a fine kind of .■ Indian: corn, ground roughly and largely like Scotch oatmeal 5 and the; way to make the . porridge - is to soak it in cold water all night, and to boil it for half an, hour in the morning, stirring; it frequently to prevent it from burning. It is eaten with milk and sugar or with milk and

treacle, ahcTtKe witer ojfihion that it .requires only to be fashionable in this country in order to .become universal* and to ba as popular in the palace as in the peasants cottage,