O L K A N I N (i S I K B F. E C tM. T U R E 



515 



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WHEN I was 

 a small 

 girl study- 

 ing geography in 

 the grade schools 

 we were taught 

 that the superi- 

 ority of the peo- 

 ples of Europe 

 and North Amer- 

 ica over the inhabitants of the tropical 

 countries was due to climate, that cool or 

 cold and bracing weather was conducive to 

 energy, and for that reason Europeans and 

 their descendants had always been progres- 

 sive and the dominant race. Personally I 

 shall continue to believe there is some truth 

 in that theory, for altho I love summer days 

 with sunshine, blue skies, and moderately 

 warm weather, the kind of a day when bees 

 are busy on the basswoods wilts energy and 

 ambition right out of me. 



But now comes Dr. McCollum, of Johns 

 Hopkins TTniversity, with the claim that the 

 cause of the inferiority of the peoples of the 

 tropics, represented by a large part of India, 

 China, Japan, and the Philippine Islands, is 

 because they have never developed a dairy 

 industry, that they have never used milk, 

 and their consumption of eggs is small ex- 

 cept among the well to do. He says they 

 are with few exceptions undersized, poorly 

 nourished, and have a short span of life, 

 that their infant mortality is the highest of 

 any peoples of the world. They have never 

 achieved much in the fields of science, 

 literature, art, or invention, but have been 

 content to go on generation after generation 

 in the ways of their forefathers. 



Dr. McCollum is professor of chemical hy- 

 giene of Johns Hopkins University and has 

 been in charge of prolonged feeding experi- 

 ments both upon animals and groups of hu- 

 man beings, these feeding experiments, some 

 3,100 in all, extending over a period of 

 eleven years. These experiments developefl 

 the fact that it is impossible to make up 

 animal diets which would preserve the spe- 

 cies thru three generations without milk, 

 eggs, or the leafy portions of plants. Animals 

 which were fed a ration of cereals, legume 

 seeds, such as dried peas and beans, tubers 

 and edible roots, even with the addition of 

 as much as ten per cent of meat, such as 

 steaks and other muscle tissues, failed to 

 make a normal growth, and premature de- 

 generation took place in the older animals. 

 There are three reasons why diets lacking 

 the above-named foods are inadequate: 

 first, all such diets are deficient in certain 

 soluble minerals; second, they lack the so- 

 called vitamine soluble in fats, called by 

 McCollum "Fat soluble A;" third, the pro- 

 teins found in milk, eggs, and meats are 

 worth about six times as much to the living 

 body as the protein found in legumes, such 

 as dried peas and beans. 



It is for these three reasons that McCol- 

 lum coined the term "Protective Foods" for 

 milk, eggs^ ajld tJjf leafy vegetables, such as 



OUR FOOD PAGE 



Stancy Puerden 



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spiuacli, lettuce, 

 Swiss Chard, 

 cabbage, celery 

 tops, turnip tops, 

 Brussels Sprouts, 

 etc. 



At this point 

 someone may 

 wonder why we 

 human beings 

 may not depend entirely upon the leafy 

 vegetables for our protective foods instead 

 of being obliged to supplement them with 

 milk. Human beings do not seem to be so 

 constituted as to be able to use the leafy 

 vegetables for a very large proportion of 

 their diet. Apparently our digestive appar- 

 atus is not designed to accommodate enough 

 of the leafy portions of plants for safety, 

 and we must, therefore, in addition to a 

 generous supply of the leafy vegetables, de- 

 pend upon the grass-eating, milk-producing 

 animals for milk if we wish to be adequately 

 nourished. The meat of these same animals, 

 tho a valuable food, will not take the place 

 of their milk. It is deficient in the growth- 

 promoting principle, essential not only to 

 the young but also to the adult to prevent 

 premature degenerative changes. 



McCollum points out that the Orientals 

 and the peoples of the tropics eat much more 

 of the green leaves than we do, and he be- 

 lieves it is this which has preserved them 

 from total extinction. 



Let me quote a little direct from Dr. A. C. 

 Sherman, professor of food chemistry of 

 Columbia University and author of several 

 valuable books on foods and food chemistry. 

 "So far as things so different in character 

 can be compared with each other, it seems 

 perfectly safe, in view of our present knowl- 

 edge of nutrition, to say that a quart of 

 milk is a greater asset to the family dietary 

 than is a pound of steak, and anyone that 

 can afford to buy meat at all can better af- 

 ford to buy milk. Lusk 's dictum that the 

 housewife having a family of five to feed 

 should buy three quarts of milk before buy- 

 ing a pound of meat remains as sound as 

 ever, altho the prices of both have risen." 



Do you sometimes wonder why Our Food 

 Page touches on this subject so frequently? 

 It is because in these days of rapidly ad- 

 vancing prices too many housekeepers are 

 inclined to economize on the milk supply 

 and the amount of green vegetables, regard- 

 ing the first as a beverage and the second 

 as a luxury with little food value. A walk 

 in the residence district of almost any town, 

 just after the milkman has been on his 

 rounds, reveals milk bottles all too small 

 and too few in number. As a result the 

 dairy herds all over the country are being 

 reduced and there is a prospect of our race 

 suffering from mal-nutrition and deteriorat- 

 ing physically and mentally. 



NOW that we have reached the conclu- 

 sion that we should all use milk and 

 plenty of it, let us consider the subject 



