[Sidenote:  Important]

But remember this point:  Any food eaten beyond what your system requires for its energy, growth, and repair, is fattening, or is an irritant, or both.

[Sidenote:  A Moderate Sized Chocolate Cream]

If a food contains much fat, you will know that it is high in food value, for fat has two and one-quarter times the caloric value that proteins and carbohydrates have.  Dry foods are high in value, for they are concentrated and contain little water.  Compare the quantity of two heaping teaspoonfuls of sugar, a concentrated food, and one and one-half pounds of lettuce, a watery vegetable, each having the same caloric value.  A moderate sized chocolate cream is not only concentrated but has considerable fat in the chocolate.

[Sidenote:  Enuf Sed]

It is not necessary to know accurately the caloric values.  In fact, authorities differ in some of their computations.  The list is not mathematically correct, but it will give you a good idea of the relative values, and is accurate enough for our purposes.  I have purposely given round numbers, where possible, in order to make them more easily remembered.

In reckoning made dishes, such as puddings and sauces, you must compute the different ingredients approximately.  About how much sugar it has, how much fat to the dish, and so on.  In reckoning any food, if you are reducing, give it the benefit of the doubt on the high count; and if trying to gain, count it low.

It is well, if you are much overweight or underweight, to have some of these foods that are given weighed, so that you can judge approximately what your servings will total.

[Sidenote:  A Mixture]

A mixture of foods should be used, in order to get the different elements which are necessary for the human machine.  It is not wholesome to have many foods at a meal; but the menu should be varied from day to day.

Any regimen which does not allow some carbohydrates and fats for the fuel foods is injurious if persisted in for a length of time.

[Sidenote:  Thoroughly Masticate Everything]

As to harmful combinations; there are not many, and if your food is thoroughly masticated you need not concern yourself very much about them.  However, if you find a food disagrees with you, or that certain combinations disagree, do not try to use them.  Underweight individuals sometimes have to train their digestive tracts for some of the foods they need.

Coffee, tea and other mild stimulants are not harmful to the majority; but, like everything else, in excess they will cause ill health.  Alcoholic drinks make the fat fatter and the thin thinner, and both more feeble mentally.

[Sidenote:  I Love Her]

I hope I have stimulated you to an interest in dietetics.  There are many books which go into the subject much more deeply.  I recommend, especially, “The Home Dietitian,” written by my beloved colleague and classmate, Dr. Belle Wood-Comstock.