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Diet and Health
213
with its accompaniment of irritable nerves and bad tempers. The
victims of poor cookery are numbered by thousands and tens of
thousands. Over many graves might be written: “Died because of
poor cooking;” “Died of an abused stomach.”
It is a sacred duty for those who cook to learn how to prepare
healthful food. Many souls are lost as the result of poor cookery. It
takes thought and care to make good bread; but there is more religion
in a loaf of good bread than many think. There are few really good
cooks. Young women think that it is menial to cook and do other
kinds of housework, and for this reason many girls who marry and
have the care of families have little idea of the duties devolving upon
a wife and mother.
Cooking is no mean science, and it is one of the most essential
in practical life. It is a science that all women should learn, and it
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should be taught in a way to benefit the poorer classes. To make food
appetizing and at the same time simple and nourishing, requires skill;
but it can be done. Cooks should know how to prepare simple food
in a simple and healthful manner, and so that it will be found more
palatable, as well as more wholesome, because of its simplicity.
Every woman who is at the head of a family and yet does not
understand the art of healthful cookery should determine to learn that
which is so essential to the well-being of her household. In many
places hygienic cooking schools afford opportunity for instruction
in this line. She who has not the help of such facilities should put
herself under the instruction of some good cook and persevere in her
efforts for improvement until she is mistress of the culinary art.
Regularity in eating is of vital importance. There should be a
specified time for each meal. At this time let everyone eat what
the system requires and then take nothing more until the next meal.
There are many who eat when the system needs no food, at irreg-
ular intervals, and between meals, because they have not sufficient
strength of will to resist inclination. When traveling, some are con-
stantly nibbling if anything eatable is within their reach. This is very
injurious. If travelers would eat regularly of food that is simple and
nutritious, they would not feel so great weariness nor suffer so much
from sickness.
Another pernicious habit is that of eating just before bedtime.
The regular meals may have been taken; but because there is a sense