IS ICE CREAM GOOD?

Lake County Mail, Issue 43, 31 March 1948, Page 8

IS ICE CREAM GOOD?

By the Department of Health

Because of, its high sugar content, an ice cream within an hour of the next meal will certainly, spoil the appetite. Ice cream should not be served at meal time until all body-building and protective foods have been eaten. Bor the same reason it will steal away appetite for other food. At lunch time, for example, if you let the child eat ice cream as part of the meal, see that it does not displace other foods. From the nutritional angle there is bettor value in milk. There is a great difference in the food value of ice cream and milk. In body-building protein there is over seven times more value in a three-quarter pint glass of milk than there is in a threepenny ice cream. In energy value the milk gives over four times as much benefit as the ice cream.

“ Should the children be allowed ice cream? was a qustion recently received by the Department of Health. The answer is —“ Yes, but at the proper time.” Ice cream should never be allowed to spoil an approaching meal.

\ If the child lias an adequate number of sandwiches, a fruit, and a drink of milk, there is no objection to the addition of an ice cream. The danger is that the ice cream may become the all-in-all to the child, and displace food of better value. If this is guarded against, ice creams have their place in the total diet. Another question .received by the Department of Health was rather surprising. There has apparently been a mistaken rumour going the rounds that parsnips can be poisonous if eaten freshly dug from the garden. The correspondent says she was warned “to have parsnips dug out of the ground for several days before use, to let the poisonous moisture out.” The answer to this is brief: Dig your parsnips freshly as desired. They are better for you as fresh as possible.