TELEGRAM CONSERVATION COOK BOOK

Meat Substitutes as a Health Necessity

Dear Friends: In beginning our last week's work on meat substitutes I want to tell you a little of what I have been reading- about giving up the use of meat as a health necessity. We often read a vague reference to a meat diet as harmful, but the num- ber of people — particularly men — who are suffering with heart trouble, hardening of the arteries, Bright's disease, etc., in middle age is appall- ing, and Dr. Louis Faugeres Bishop (with all kinds of letters after his name) and professor of heart and cir- culatory diseases in Fordham univer- sity, tells us that this class of dis- eases is now claiming twice as many victims as it did 30 years ago, and from those who can least be spared by their families and the state. "One has only to read the morning papers to note the number of men and wom- en— unfortunately most often those living at high pressure in solving some of the problems of our complex civilization — who are cut down with- out warning.

"In a double sense, the way to a man's heart is by the food he is given, and the more elaborate the food the more quickly does his heart succumb to the strain put upon it. So it falls upon the woman to meet this condi- tion and without delay.

"The insidiousness of auto-intoxi- cation is that it runs on for some time without showing any outward effect, so that food poisoning has gen- erally existed for five or ten years before the heart is sufficiently dam- aged to cause distress or exertion, and it is very hard to persuade a sick per- son who does not feel any discomfort from his high blood pressure, or leak- ing heart, that a change of diet is essential.

"It has been found that, under cer- tain circumstances, the cells of the body become sensitive to the protein element of certain kinds of foods, and from that time on, as long as this sensitiveness lasts, that kind of food acts as a poison to the cells of the body. The only way to limit the damage is to exclude the offending article of food from the diet. Another important point in the matter is that when a person is sensitive to a par- ticular kind of food the cells are al- most as much irritated by a little of

this food as by a great deal, so that t a diet, to be of much use, has to be a strict diet. Many failures can be laid at the door of a slight indulgence in the type of food to which the per- son is sensitive. It is hard to believe that a little will do any harm, or that food damage can be entirely inde- pendent of any discomfort, but such is the case. The things that do dam- age are usually found in the group including eggs, fish, meat and stock soups (made from meat), but there is no definite way of determining which of these things are at fault. This has to be accomplished by the study of each individual person by means of the absolute withdrawal of all those things until there is an improvement in the action of the heart and blood vessels. Now one article of food, and then another, is added to the diet, and it is discovered by experiment which one the person can use without a re- turn of the disorder. It may be only eggs, or fish, or meat, in the begin- ning that causes trouble, but in per- sons seriously ill with hardening of the arteries all these things cause trouble and must be absolutely elim- inated from the diet."

One of our kitchen visitors told me that she had eaten no meat or soup from meat, or red fish, or carrots, in two years, and was nearly cured of her heart trouble. Cheese and nut dishes are the very things, with good vegetables and fruits and breads, that people suffering from heart derange- ment should use as articles of diet. And for all of us in middle life who feel "under the weather" and op- pressed, without exactly knowing what is the matter with us, it is sure- ly worth while to try for a month leaving meat, fish, eggs and soup out of our diet altogether, and see if we don't feel better. If we do we know that some one of these has been poi- soning us — probably not all of them, however — and we can try eating eggs and see if we feel any worse, etc. It for 25 years, that a middle-aged per- son of good, sound, common sense is far more likely to be able to locate a chronic trouble for himself if he sets his mind to it than the average "reputable physician" can do for him.

Phone Your Want Ads to The Telegram — Broadway 200, A 6701

Cooked Vegetables

Without Meat

Cooked Vegetables

Without Meat

Vegetables used instead of Meat — Various general suggestions for preparing and cooking vegetables.

Recipes for —

Vegetable pot pie Vegetable combinations, baked Vegetable stew Vegetable sausages

Escalloped vegetables Macedoine of vegetables Jellied vegetables

New England Texas Uncle Sam's

Spanish and Lima String beans Stewed and creamed

With cream sauce Minced

Sliced Baked

Bavarian Delicate Fried Creamed

Red Blue Souffle Sauer-kraut

To cook Creamed

Stewed Casserole

Cauliflower —

To cook whole

Escalloped

Mock crabs Pudding With Peppers

Escalloped

Parsnips — Fried

In cream sauce

In turnip cups

Potatoes —

Escalloped

Croquettes

With Dumplings Balls Pie

Patties Baskets Hash

Sweet Potatoes —

In butter Browned

Au caramel

Radishes —

Japanese to bake

Succotash —

Baked Stewed

With dumplings

Escalloped

Tomatoes —

With macaroni

With rice

With corn With cheese Chowder

Turnips — Au gratin

How to cook Steamed

With corn meal With vegetables

Cooked Vegetables

Using Vegetables Instead of Meat.

Here are some general remarks on vegetable eating by Mrs. Sarah Tyson Rorer. I wish I had space for more, as what she says is surely worth our consideration.

The American people, as a class, in their rushing and bustling life, pre- fer to take their nitrogen from ani- mal products, which are rather more easily digested and assimilated than vegetables. It is a fact, however, that all the elements necessary for the building of the body are found in the vegetable world. Our working ani- mals, "beasts of burden," build and repair their large bodies, under heavy labor, on materials from the vegetable kingdom. True, their digestive ap- paratus is rather different from man's, and is better suited to the dry, concentrated cereals. We do not, how- ever get from the animal a single element except that which the ani- mal has taken from the vegetable world. His flesh is the result of the digestion of vegetable materials.

Meat is rich in water, containing less nitrogen than peas, beans and lentils, but in a more acceptable form to American and English business men or teachers who spend most of their lives in close, ill-ventilated rooms. There are many sides to the vegetarian question worthy of con- sideration.

The true vegetarian uses all forms of vegetable foods; he does not try to live upon potatoes and so-called green or succulent vegetables. These do not contain nitrogen, and are in- sufficient to sustain life. Nuts well prepared and mixed with cereals, and such easily digested foods as rice give sustaining power not attainable by meat. Health and nutrition de- pend entirely upon the class of vege- tables selected. The Japanese, who do in their country the work per- formed by horses here, are practical- ly vegetarians.

Nitrogeneous vegetables are slow of digestion; hence, the vegetarian re- quires but two meals per day; but in those two meals, especially if his diet is well selected, he will receive more nourishment than from three meals of meat. Two points have been gained, time spent in eating and money saved. Then, too, he has had much greater variety. The vegetarian is not compelled to eat steaks, chops; and roasted beef to be followed by roasted beef, steaks and chops; but selects from a score of dishes made by blending different vegetables, nuts and fruits.

The amount of cellulose or waste in vegetable foods keeps up the peri- staltic motion of the intestines and lower bowels; hence, vegetable eaters are very rarely troubled with consti- pation and torpid livers. Skin dis- eases are frequently due to a lack of green vegetables.

An observer can readily understand, however,, why we have grown into a meat-eating nation. A short visit into the house of a neighbor makes this point quite plain. The so-called cook, an uneducated woman, who is perhaps a second rate scullery maid, presides over the kitchen. She does not know the chemical composition of a single article she cooks, nor the ef- fect of heat upon them. She does know how to cook meats; they can be broiled or roasted. These two methods form the limit of her horizon. Broiling intensifies the flavor of steak, and with a little seasoning of salt and pepper, and a bunch of pars- ley, makes a palatable and sightly dish. The cook has given it little care and less thought. Not so with vege- tables; they owe their flavor to vola- tile oils which are easily dissipated by careless or rapid cooking. Badly cooked vegetables are tasteless; all the flavor has been cooked out and poured down the drain. Potatoes, a common vegetable, served in nearly every household once or twice a day, are seldom well cooked, palatable or sightly. Rice is almost unfit for food; in nine cases out of ten it is yellow, not white, heavy and sod- den, a mass of wet starch. Few things show the difference between com- fortable and slovenly housekeeping more quickly than the dressing of vegetables.

Cooking Vegetables.

Mrs. Spencer, 1260 East Davis street, city, says: I suppose most of the readers will think that this week's work is easy and simple, as it is just vegetables, but I know that a great many people spoil the best vegetables by cooking in too much water and then draining it off, there- by losing all the juices and the very essence of the vegetables. It seems to me this is one of the most essen- tial things in the art of cooking. For instance, I have noticed the difference in greeen peas or string beans, and can tell if they have been cooked in a large quantity of water or sim- mered down till there is very little of the liquor left — there is no compari- son in the taste. Green vegetables should be thoroughly washed in cold water, then dropped into water that is just beginning to boil. There should