THE HOUSEWIFE &> HEffi 
HOME fJIEDEFf j 
SALADS AS HEALTH BUILDERS 
G. O. LUROS 
Nutritional Chemist 
Raw Fruits and Vegetables as Nature’s Insurance Against Disease 
Tomatoes vs. Tuberculosis, and the Case of Carrots vs. Cancer 
Editors’ Note: The garden is, of course, not merely an outdoor plaything but an integral part of the household’s life, contributing not only diversion but often 
a very substantial share of the day’s menu. The most carefully raised vegetables, the most delicious of fruits, the loveliest of flowers may come to naught through 
careless or ignorant handling by those indoors, thus nullifying the gardener’s best efforts and completely discouraging their renewal. 
Intelligent housewifery is the garden's best ally; therefore we take pleasure in announcing the establishment of a new department—The Housewife and Her Home 
Garden—which will be concerned with matters of specific interest to the “lady of the house”—recipes, articles on flower arrangement, table decoration, food 
values in relation to family health, and all the diversified activates and interests of a competently run menage in whose success the garden is an important, if silent 
partner. (Thefirst article on “Prize Winning Jellies and Jams and Canning by the Fancy Pack Method” appeared in June.) 
E AT more fresh salads. Eat them for lunch and again 
for dinner. Nature has always been our best medi¬ 
cine man. Give her a chance to remake your system 
with her simple remedy of fresh, raw vegetables and 
fruits. Lurking in these raw vegetables and fruits we find those 
much-talked-of vitally important vitamins, invisible to the eye 
yet holding our very lives in their grasp. We know that raw 
foods contain in their most potent state all of the three main 
types of vitamins (see accompanying chart) which most con¬ 
cern us and therefore should fill a large place in our daily menu. 
Eat more raw foods is the cry of the modern dietitians and 
doctors. The first case of cancer among savage peoples has 
vet to make its appearance. The finger seems to point to the 
large amount of raw foods they eat daily. Millions of dollars 
are spent yearly in efforts to find a cure for 
this devastating disease that every year 
adds greater numbers to its toll of victims, 
and scientists are beginning to look for a 
connection between cancer and the amount 
of vitamins in the diet. Then these large 
amounts of vitamins in their natural state 
in our raw foods are also able warriors 
against diabetes, tuberculosis, and pneumo¬ 
nia, fellow ravagers of humanity. The old 
adage: “An ounce of prevention is worth a 
pound of cure,” again holds good so let us 
keep one jump ahead of disease by assur¬ 
ing ourselves of an abundance of all types 
of vitamins at all times. 
Where will you find raw foods more ap- 
petizingly served than in tempting salads? 
Here lettuce comes into its own. Can you 
imagine a salad without that background 
of crisp, green leaves? Even the sight of 
those masses of cool, crisp green, splotched- 
here and there with dabs of fluffy mayon¬ 
naise seems to put starch into our winter- 
limpened frames. But sight alone will not 
keep up this transformation. Don’t be over- 
polite and leave the best part of the salad 
as background, untouched on your plate! 
The Hood of vim and vigor we feel in early 
summer, after getting back to our simple 
appetizing salads, is due to the increase of 
vitamins furnished by the ingredients of 
these same salads, and the relative amounts 
of vitamins in the various fresh raw vegetables and fruits are 
indicated on the accompanying chart. 
Lettuce and its kin, the endives and cresses, along with our 
ever-faithful tomato, head the list. Next marches cabbage, 
followed by raw carrots and onions with cucumbers, celery, 
and radishes bringing up the rear. We have included the 
fresh fruits that we so enjoy in our salads and which de¬ 
serve a place because of the large amount of vitamins B and 
C they contain, also for the large amounts of mineral salts 
found in them as well as in our vegetables. 
Besides giving us the valuable vitamins and mineral salts in- 
their natural and most potent state, raw foods give them also- 
in greater quantity; whereas, cooked, the greater part of that 
precious store is lost in draining off the liquor. 
Since most of our foods greet us at our 
tables in a cooked or heated state, it is 
well to know what effect this heating or 
cooking has on the vitamins. It has beea 
found that common methods of cooking; 
and canning (with the exception of frying) 
have no disastrous effect on vitamin A, 
have very little on B (depending on the- 
length of time of heating), but do practi¬ 
cally destroy C, unless the cooking is done 
in a pressure cooker with absence of air, as, 
for example, with the commercially canned 
tomatoes which remain rich in vitamin C. 
O F THE dressings commonly served 
with salads, first in nutritional value 
comes our French mayonnaise, made by 
beating up the yolk of an egg with gener¬ 
ous amounts of either olive oil, purified 
cottonseed or corn oil and the juice of a 
lemon and then adding seasonings. The 
wealth of all three types of vitamins in 
this delicious mayonnaise is shown in the 
accompanying chart and it is easy to un¬ 
derstand why it should take the lead. 
Next in popularity comes French dressing 
made with olive oil, refined cottonseed or 
corn oil, together with vinegar or lemon 
juice, and seasonings. If you use lemon 
juice you have a nutritious dressing, rich 
in vitamins, but this is not the case when 
vinegar is used for it lacks practically all. 
VITAMINS IN OUR FRESH SALADS 
Vitamin 
A 
Vitamin 
B 
Vitamin 
C 
Lettuce, en¬ 
dives, cresses 
+ + 
+ 
+++ 
Tomatoes 
(raw) . 
+ + 
++ 
+++ 
Cabbage (raw) 
+ 
+ 
+++ 
Carrots (raw) 
+ 
+ 
+++ 
Cucumbers . 
+ 
— 
Celerv 
— 
+ 
— 
Radishes. 
— 
+ 
— 
Onions . 
— 
++ 
++ 
Oranges 
? 
++ 
+ + + + 
Lemons . 
— 
++ 
++++ 
Grapefruit . 
— 
++ 
+++ 
Apples . 
— 
+ 
+ 
Bananas 
+ 
+ 
+ 
Err yolk 
+ + 
++ 
— 
Olive oil . 
+*, 
— 
— 
Corn oil . 
+T 
— 
— 
Cottonseed 
oil 
+ 
- 
+contains small amount of vitamin. 
+ 4good source of vitamin 
+ 4-4- abundance of vitamin 
? doubt as to presence or relative amount 
—no appreciable amount of vitamin 
The three main types of vitamins which most con¬ 
cern us and which are so plentiful in our fresh salads 
are: 
Vitamin A," fat-soluble, absence in the diet produces 
a serious eye-disease called xerophthalmia, resulting in 
blindness and death. Fortunately this disease is very 
rare in this country. However, an abundance of A 
increases our resistance to colds and pneumonia, 
promotes the growth of luxuriant hair , preserves and 
safeguards our teeth from pyorrhea and decay, and thus 
adds years to our span of life. 
Vitamin B, water-soluble, absence in the diet pro¬ 
duces beri-ben, a serious disease of the nervous system 
very common among white-rice-eating Orientals but, 
fortunately, very uncommon in our country. An 
insufficient amount of B, however, tends toward lung 
infections, malnutrition, and general digestive dis¬ 
turbances. 
Vitamin C, water-soluble, absence produces scurvy. 
334 
