Meat is not Essential

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 35, 14 March 1930, Page 26

Meat is not Essential

Dishes for Lent are Tasty and Appetising

WHetHEer or not we have decided to keep Lent as a fast. many of us welcome a partial or temporary abstinence from meat and find our health all the better for it. To a gouty person the advantages of a meatless diet or one in which meat is restricted is too obvious to need enlarging upon. At the same time it is necessary for the housewife to ensure that the substitutes employed contain the needful protein for body-building purposes in the case of young people, and for the repair of waste tissue and the furnishing of energy for old and young wike. Happily it is contained in cheese, milk. eggs. fish. cereals, beans, peas and lentils. Carbo-hydrates. which also provide energy and maintain the heat of the body, are present in vegetables, fruit, eereals and sugar: and all the necessary fat and oi] in butter. cream, milk. etc. Macaroni. spaghetti, and vermicelli are valuable foodstuffs made from wheat and rich in gluten. They are cheap and nutritious. but being deficient in fats should be combined with butter. cream or cheese. Vegetables, either cooked or raw in the form of salads. supply minera} salts and vitamines, Bees are a particularly valuable article of diet. sinee. like milk. they contain all the elements necessary for the support of the human body. and. moreover. in the right proportion: but their nutrition being so highly concentrated. they need to be combined with such starchy foods as bread or potatoes to obtain milk. Fish is an animal food. next in importance to meat and poultry: less stimulating and nourishing but usually easier to digest. Cheese is a very valuitble food. so rich in protein that it may be used as a substitute for meat. One ponnd of cheese actually contains as much vrotein as two pounds of heef.

Fruits are chiefly valuable for their sugar, acids and salts. They are cooling, refreshing and stimulating. They act as a tonic and assist in purifying the blood. Bananas, dates,.figs, prunes and grapes are the most nutritious, being the richest in sugar. These who are obliged to exclude sugar as much as possible from their dietary may like to know that plums, peaches, apricots and raspberries contain the least. Apples, lemons and oranges supply potash salts, oranges and lemons being especially valued for. the citric acid they contain.

— >| ak I \ Readers of the "Radio Record and Electric’ Home Journal" who have cooking difficulties or require help with recipes for electric cooking, or desire special hints in connection with their electric ranges, may write to "Electra,’ P.O. Bos 1032, IWellington. Replies will be published either in these columns or im urgent cases seit! direct, provided a stamped addressed envelope is enclosed.