The health of her family is naturally the housewife's first and greatest
consideration, and as this depends so much on correct diet, it should be
the aim of every housewife to plan her meals in the careful, intelligent
way required to supply her household with the food each member needs.
2. As has already been learned, a knowledge of the selection, care, and
preparation of food is absolutely necessary in providing proper diet.
But correct feeding requires more than this. In addition, the housewife
must have a working knowledge of what foods contain and their effect in
the body. She must also learn what her family needs and then make every
effort to supply this need in the most economical way. The result will
be a sufficient amount of food of the right kind at a minimum
expenditure of funds.
She should keep in mind, however, that the cost of diet has no direct
relation to its food value, but that economy and proper feeding are
closely connected. For instance, an inexpensive diet may be just as
satisfactory from a food-value standpoint as an expensive one. But in
order to make the inexpensive one adequate and the expensive one
balanced, the housewife must apply her knowledge of the general
composition of food; that is, she must know whether a food predominates
in carbohydrate, fat, or protein, and whether or not it furnishes
minerals.
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