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The Ministry of Healing
When hot or new, raised bread of any kind is difficult of digestion. It
should never appear on the table. This rule does not, however, apply
to unleavened bread. Fresh rolls made of wheaten meal without yeast
or leaven, and baked in a well-heated oven, are both wholesome and
palatable.
Grains used for porridge or “mush” should have several hours’
cooking. But soft or liquid foods are less wholesome than dry foods,
which require thorough mastication. Zwieback, or twice-baked
bread, is one of the most easily digested and most palatable of foods.
Let ordinary raised bread be cut in slices and dried in a warm oven
till the last trace of moisture disappears. Then let it be browned
slightly all the way through. In a dry place this bread can be kept
much longer than ordinary bread, and, if reheated before using, it
will be as fresh as when new.
Far too much sugar is ordinarily used in food. Cakes, sweet
puddings, pastries, jellies, jams, are active causes of indigestion.
Especially harmful are the custards and puddings in which milk,
eggs, and sugar are the chief ingredients. The free use of milk and
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sugar taken together should be avoided.
If milk is used, it should be thoroughly sterilized; with this pre-
caution, there is less danger of contracting disease from its use.
Butter is less harmful when eaten on cold bread than when used
in cooking; but, as a rule, it is better to dispense with it altogether.
Cheese is still more objectionable; it is wholly unfit for food.[
The
safeguarding of the purity of all foods of dairy origin is a matter of
prime importance. While frequent testing of dairy herds, together
with thorough pasteurization and refrigeration, serves to this end,
such foods, if from uncertain sources, or if carelessly handled, con-
stitute a serious menace to health; for,as stated in U.S. Department
of Agriculture Farmers’ Bulletin No. 1705 by a Government expert,
Rowena Schmidt Carpenter: “The same chemical constituents and
physical properties that recommend milk as a human food make
it an excellent food for bacteria.” The reader will understand that
the reference to cheese
does not
include cottage cheese or foods of
a similar character, which were ever recognized by the author as
wholesome.—Publishers.
]
Scanty, ill-cooked food depraves the blood by weakening the
blood-making organs. It deranges the system and brings on disease,