Food preparation should be simple. With modern methods of cooking, it can be reduced to a minimum of time. The preparation of a meal, when based upon scientific principles, should be a delightful product of art and science. Whether one prepares a simple breakfast or luncheon or an elaborate banquet dinner, the meals should be unspoiled by overprocessing.
In this chapter I offer twenty breakfast food combinations, as well as suggestions for luncheons and dinners. Unlike the conventional breakfasts consumed by the great majority of uninformed people today, breakfasts that are composed of fermenting combinations which cause indigestion, gas, pains of various sorts, regurgitation, etc., the food combinations that I suggest would be health building, would enable one to start the day with all the energy and vitality necessary for a day’s work or a day’s play.
BREAKFAST MENUS
Fruit for Breakfast
As I have stressed throughout this entire book, fruit is the ideal food at any meal to build and maintain health- It is particularly advisable to start the day with a fruit breakfast. Throughout this chapter on menus, the reader will find many fruit combination break-fasts, the preparation of which will be found in the chapter on recipes.
Eggs and Cheese for Breakfast
Eggs, when fresh, taste good when they are coddled. Coddled eggs are soft-boiled eggs, heated in hot water (not boiling water) for three to six minutes. Fresh raw fruit following eggs or cheese will give a good taste to the mouth and a good digestive condition to the stomach and intestines. The combination of eggs with bread or cereal as commonly eaten, causes pains, gas, regurgitation, etc. Fresh and stewed fruits are lighter foods and help to digest protein. Eggs combine well with grapefruit, oranges, or fresh pineapple.
Starch Breakfasts
The dry cereals make an excellent basis for a starch breakfast. Whole-wheat toast and whole-wheat crackers are also easy to prepare.
The cooking of cereals involves a little knowledge. Never try to cook cereal in a hurry. Any kind of cereal such as oatmeal, Maltex, Wheatena, or other kind of whole-grain product should be simmered on a low flame, after it has been brought to the boiling point, until it is really “mushy.” Well-cooked starch is much easier to digest in the human alimentary tract than poorly cooked or raw starch. The heat of cooking “does something” to the starch chemically that pre-pares it for further digestive action within the alimentary canal.
For toasting bread, use if possible an electric toaster in preference to one that works on gas. Toasted bread is easier to digest because the heat of toasting converts the starch of bread into dextrin, and dextrin is a disaccharide product intermediate between starch and monosaccharide dextrose. In digestion, starch breaks down into the disaccharide dextrine and the monosaccharide dextrose.
It is not advisable to eat too many mixtures at the first meal of the day. If you have an appetite for cereal or bread and butter, eat all you can enjoy comfortably.
Beverages for Breakfast
Beverages should always be taken before any other course for breakfast.
Children may be given whole milk. Adults should take the milk diluted with hot water as follows: boil a glass of water, add a glass of milk to boiling water, heat together 2 minutes. This is a light breakfast beverage for adults who need easily digestible food.
If desired, the diluted milk may be sweetened with honey. Half water with half milk, plus stewed warm apples, makes an easily digestible meal. It is also laxative to those who have a tendency to constipation. Stewed fruit of any kind may be combined with milk and cream.
Breakfast for Adults with a Tendency Toward Overweight
Older people who tend to be overweight should go without the milk course for breakfast. A half grapefruit is a good start for breakfast. The juice of a lemon in a little cold or warm water is also good to stimulate sluggish digestive organs. When an individual has a tendency to become overweight, there is a constitutional sluggishness which can be checked by taking citrous fruit for breakfast and later in the day as “medicine.” Persons who are overweight must curb their appetites for heavy breakfasts. One slice of toast, or a couple of tablespoons of cooked cereal, or a few tablespoons of dry cereal, is enough for the person who does not want to put on any excess weight.
Breakfast for the Growing Child
Children may have whole milk, Postum or fruit juice as a beverage, to be followed by stewed apples (warm or chilled), or three or four stewed prunes in addition to a raw apple, a raw pear, a persimmon (well ripened, soft and jelly-like), or a ripe avocado (one-quarter to one-half per portion). This is an especially good breakfast during the summer, being low in calories.
Growing children and youths may eat twice as much as an adult of normal weight. They need not be restricted in the quantity of food, unless they show tendencies to surplus fatty weight. Children of school age are seldom hungry for any breakfast. Some mothers coax their children to eat when they are not hungry. This is a mistake. This habit tends to cultivate gluttonous tendencies and disease.
Most people decline in health when they reach middle age, past forty and fifty. It was reported in the press that over eighty percent of the youths examined for army induction were found physically defective. This is an alarming revelation. The health of our young boys and girls is breaking down because their teachers have failed them. Their education is short of knowledge on food and on the care of the body.
Cake eating, candy eating, and the eating of “any old thing” between meals or during intermission periods at schoolthese habits destroy normal desire for the type of food the body needs. These foods are raw salads and raw fruits. Authorities on nutrition mention a phenomenon (actually a disease) called “hidden hunger.” By hidden hunger they mean that the body is short of vitamins and minerals that ordinary pastries, candy bars, frankfurters, white bread, etc., do not contain.
Boys and girls on reaching the age of 18 ought to be strong in physical vitality and stamina. Strong bodies can be built only by foods that are ‘not processed in the commercial food factory. How many children are trained to cultivate an appetite for a bowl of raw salad or a plate of raw fruit? Raw salads and fruits can help to build healthy bodies when they are taken as main courses in the meals of the day. Breakfast should consist of two courses only-raw fruit and starch, milk and fruit, or protein and fruit. Simple, isn’t it?
Breakfast Combinations for Strict Vegetarians Who Do Not Eat Any
Dairy Products
Fresh raw fruits such as oranges, pineapples or grapefruit may be cut up into a salad together with a handful of shelled pecans or other kinds of nuts, and one or two teaspoons of honey. Masticate thoroughly.
Another food combination of this type consists of two or three sliced bananas with a dozen cashew nuts and one or two teaspoons of honey, if desired. With this combination a sweet apple, a ripe pear, or a bunch of grapes may be eaten.
A third combination is one half of a ripe avocado, one or two bananas, oranges, tangerines, or a dish of stewed fruit, or both.
Lemonade sweetened with honey, or grapefruit juice with hot water and honey, is a good addition to the fruit and nut breakfast combination in cold weather.
When Not to Eat
It is a mistake to eat in the morning, or for that matter at any time, without an appetite. It is a greater mistake to eat when one wakes up with a headache or a bad taste in the mouth. In these in-stances it is wiser to omit any kind of breakfast food, except the juice of a lemon in a little water, and a half a grapefruit or a couple of oranges.
When people awaken in the morning weak in their limbs, they need other props for strength instead of food. Weakness is a danger signal that the body organism needs rest-including rest from food and rest from work. At the present time, many men and women who are enlightened in all other respects are losing their health because they know very little about the food their bodies need. It is very important to know the guiding principles of food in relation to health and to know and apply them in daily living. Animals do not eat when they are indisposed- Human beings who awaken in the morning with a sour or bitter taste in the mouth, a headache, weak legs, or a general feeling of fatigue, are just adding injury to an ailing, diseased body if they try to eat in order to gain strength-
There would be far fewer patients in hospital beds and in wards for the incurable if people knew how important it is to miss breakfast or eat a light breakfast when they wake up with any of the above discomforts. And how many people are there who wake up feeling fit?
Sunday and Holiday Breakfasts
A combination of eggs with fruit, cheese with fruit, or nuts with fruitthese are breakfast feasts. One may eat such a meal when feeling exceedingly energetic on rising in the morning. The protein break-fasts are particularly nice on holiday mornings when breakfast is eaten late in the form of “brunch.”
Breakfasts to Restrict Fluid Intake
Cottage cheese, fresh pineapple, one or two oranges, or a half to a whole grapefruit. One or two coddled eggs also combines well with the above fruit.
Breakfast Rule
A glass or two of fruit juice, mixed with water, should be taken on risinga half hour to one hour before breakfast.
Notes on the Sample Menus
The starchy and protein breakfasts may be eaten by people who arise with a hearty appetite and by people who do outdoor exercise. Indoor workers, people with poor appetites, should be satisfied and enjoy more comfort with a lighter breakfast (one that does not include cheese, eggs or nuts).
Summer breakfast menus may be planned like winter ones. Berries or raw fruit in season, such as cherries, peaches or apricots, may be used instead of the common winter fruits. Cold dry cereals, instead of the hot cooked cereals, are more appropriate for summer breakfasts.
What about melons as a breakfast food? They contain much cellulose and sugar. Therefore, they are harder to digest than the foods recommended in our twenty breakfasts below. Healthy individuals may eat melon with enjoyment, but then it should be eaten as the only food courseas the entire meal.
SAMPLE SUMMER AND WINTER MENUS
(Breakfasts)
Recipes for items marked by asterisk are included in this book
1. Baked or stewed apples, cream, milk.
2. Baked or stewed apples with raisins, milk.
3. Stewed prunes, oranges, buttermilk. (Note: a hot drink may be added-a cup of cereal beverage or lemonade with honey.)
4. Mixed dried fruits, two dates, two figs, a spoonful of raisins, a pint or more of diluted milk (half and half), an orange or an apple.
5. Bunch of grapes, milk and water, sweetened with honey.
6. Bunch of grapes, buttermilk.
7. Cottage cheese, pineapple, and lemonade with honey.
8. Coddled eggs (see section on eggs for breakfast), sliced oranges and pineapple, lemonade with honey.
9. Cashew nuts, sliced oranges and pineapples, lemonade with honey.
10. Pecan nuts, citrous fruit, lemonade with honey.
11. Ripe bananas, cream, sweet apple.
12. Ripe bananas, cream, pear, tangerines.
13. (a) Persimmons, milk, or diluted milk.
(b) Persimmons, 6 pecan nuts, 6 cashew nuts, an orange.
14. Avocado, sliced oranges, beverage optional.
15. Tangerines or oranges, baked apple.
16. Toast, butter, sweet raw fruit, cup of hot water, a little cream or cereal beverage.
17. Shredded Wheat, toasted and buttered, followed by any fresh raw sweet fruit, simple beverage such as Postum or “Minute-Brew” (similar to Postum but not sold in ordinary grocery stores), cream, honey.
18. Oatmeal well cooked, sweet cream, a little vegetable salt, no sweetening. (Chew well.) A little raw fruit -a pear, sweet apple, or grapes.
19. Whole-wheat well-cooked cereal cream, raw fruit, apple, pear, sweet orange.
20. Brown rice, cream or butter, raw fruit.