Mary A. Heard Hygeia Cook Book

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. One of the chief ailments of mankind is indigestion, with its kindred ills, especially flatulence. To avoid this, one must needs eat food which will digest easily, and not be retained in the stomach long enough to ferment. If food is agreeable in taste and varied in charac ter it is more readily assimilated by the system. The word diet does not convey a pleasant idea, - it brings to mind food that is good for us, but not palatable. In this collection we have endeavored to have a variety of recipes of foods that are good for us, and at the same time tasty and appetizing. All foods of a fermenting nature have been eliminated, so far as possible; but we must bear in mind that a weakened stomach will not be able to digest certain articles of food, with which a healthy stomach would have no difficulty. Almost any food left too long in a moist, warm receptacle, like the human stomach, will ferment; hence the necessity of eating food which will digest easily. A food which is the product of fermentation, such as yeast-raised bread, and which still contains the yeast germs, will continue to ferment and produce carbonic acid gas as soon as it reaches the medium of the stomach. The yeast mav be killed in the crust of the loaf of bread' by baking, but it is still active in the crumb, even of stale bread, although it may be killed by long toasting. Bread raised by chemicals (soda and cream of tartar) should not be eaten, as it still contains the chemicals, which are injurious to the delicate lining of the digestive tract.