A Well-Balanced Dietary by F. O. Raymond

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 13, 1906

A Well-Balanced Dietary

By F. O. Raymond

F. O. RAYMOND

While striving to obtain that incorruptible crown of righteousness, we must be temperate in all things; but in so doing it is our privilege and duty to heed the injunction, “Eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness,” doing all to the glory of God.

When a reform is demanded, the enemy of our souls may try first to make us indifferent and careless; but if he fails in this, his purpose is just as surely gained if he can drive us to the opposite extreme. “Changes should be made with great care; and we should move cautiously and wisely. We want to take that course which will recommend itself to the intelligent men and women of the land.” “Two classes were presented before me: first, those who were not living up to the light which God had given them. . . . Some can not be impressed with the necessity of eating and drinking to the glory of God. The indulgence of appetite affects them in all the relations of life. It is seen in their family, in their church, in the prayer-meeting, and in the conduct of their children. It has been the curse of their lives. . . . Another class who have taken hold of the health reform are very severe. They take a position, and stand stubbornly in that position, and carry nearly everything over the mark.” “They must eat just such an amount and just such a quality, and confine themselves to two or three things.” “I have been shown that many take a wrong view of the health reform, and adopt too poor a diet. They subsist upon a cheap, poor quality of food, prepared without care or reference to the nourishment of the system.”—“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. II, pages 367-369.

“I saw that God does not require any one to take a course of such rigid economy as to weaken or injure the temple of God. . . . Those who labor with their hands must nourish their strength to perform this labor, and those also who labor in word and doctrine must nourish their strength; for Satan and his evil angels are warring against them to tear down their strength.”—Id., Vol. I, pages 205, 206.

“The one who prepares the food that is to be placed in our stomachs to be converted into blood to nourish the system, occupies a most important position. The position of copyist, dressmaker, or music teacher can not equal in importance that of the cook.”—Id., Vol. III, page 158.

Suggestive Menus

Breakfast

Boiled Rice with Cream or Fruit Sauce Baked Potatoes Scrambled Eggs Hot Milk Bread and Butter Zwieback Apple Sauce

Dinner

Vegetable Soup Mashed Potato Pease Patties with Tomato Sauce Corn Bread Zwieback Fresh Fruit and Nuts

Recipes

Boiled Rice

Take 1 cup of best head rice, wash in several waters, put into a saucepan, add 2 quarts of cold or warm (not hot) water, salt well, and boil rapidly for about twenty minutes. Just as soon as the kernels are tender, but not broken or mushy, remove from the fire, and pour into a colander to drain, reserving the water for soup. To remove any excess of starch and still further to separate the kernels pour more water over the rice in the colander, cover and keep hot. Serve with cream or any suitable fruit sauce, avoiding the very acid fruits. Other methods of cooking rice will be given in future lessons.

Scrambled Eggs

To each cup of milk allow 4 eggs. Measure the milk, and scald in a pan or basin on the stove. Break the eggs into a bowl, and with a spoon stir just sufficiently to break the yolks, then turn into the milk, salt, and as fast as the egg cooks, keep it scraped off the bottom and sides of the pan until the whole is thickened, then remove at once from the stove. If cooked too rapidly or allowed to remain a moment too long, they will become watery.

Vegetable Soup

Take ½ of a small turnip, 2 onions, 4 potatoes, 1 tablespoonful of rice, 2 cups of strained tomato, 2 bay leaves, salt, 1 tablespoonful of butter.

Cut the vegetables quite fine, add the rice, and boil in one quart of water. When nearly done, add tomato, bay leaves, butter, and salt, and water to make at least two quarts of soup. Other vegetables, such as cabbage, carrots, celery, okra, green peas and corn, may be used, and the soup strained through a colander if preferred, adding a little minced parsley before serving. The rice water and some of the boiled rice left from breakfast may be very nicely utilized here.

Pease Patties

Soak overnight 1 cup of Scotch or English peas. In the morning remove to fresh water, and gently boil until tender. When the peas become softened and in danger of scorching, cover and remove to the oven until thoroughly cooked and quite dry, then pass through a fine colander to remove hulls. If necessary stiffen the pulp with toasted bread or cracker crumbs, season with salt, and if liked, add a little rich cream, dairy butter, or nut butter. Form into patties, and brown in the oven. Serve with a simple sauce consisting of strained tomato slightly thickened with corn-starch or flour, and seasoned to taste.

Similar cakes may be made of beans, lentils, or peanuts. They are simple, practical, inexpensive, and from a health standpoint have scarcely a superior as a meat substitute.

Corn Bread

Take 2 cups of corn-meal, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, boiling milk or cream, ½ teaspoonful of salt.

Sift meal with sugar and salt. Pour over this enough boiling milk or cream to make a stiff drop batter. Stir constantly, that the meal may not lump. When perfectly smooth, drop in large spoonfuls on a cold buttered baking sheet, and bake in a brisk oven. The cakes should be browned on top. If milk can not be obtained, rub a large spoonful of cooking oil into the meal, and use boiling water.

In our last lesson we learned of the various food elements, most important among which are the proteids, carbohydrates, and fats. Carefully conducted experiments have demonstrated that the human economy requires six or seven times as much of the carbonaceous elements—the carbohydrates and fats—as of the nitrogenous or proteid elements.

In this country people generally depend mainly upon flesh-meats for their proteids, so in changing to a vegetarian diet, unless other proteids are supplied, the diet will be impoverished or lacking in those elements so necessary for the nourishment of the tissues, and there will be an unsatisfied craving for meat or something to take its place. If, on the other hand, these elements are taken in excess, there may be an accumulation of uric acid in the body, giving rise possibly to gout, rheumatism, or Bright’s disease.

The above menus are well balanced because they provide the required elements in about the right ratio—one part of proteid to six or seven parts of carbohydrate and fat.

For breakfast the starchy or carbohydrate rice and potatoes are balanced by the albuminoids or proteid milk and eggs. For dinner the potato is balanced by the proteid peas and nuts. The necessary fat is found in cream, butter, and nuts. Bread, zwieback, and most other preparations of wheat, corn, oats, and barley are well-nigh perfect foods because they supply the necessary elements

in about the right ratio to meet the requirements of the system.

The topic of this lesson is one of the most important of any which we shall have to consider. We shall recur to it again and again in future lessons.