Page:Wood - Foods of the Foreign-Born.djvu/25

Rh, they eat less meat than Americans eat, and generally it is mixed with vegetables and well cooked. When not too highly seasoned, Mexican dishes are very tasty. During the winter, when vegetables are scarce, their food is limited almost entirely to beans, rice, and potatoes, using a little meat when they can afford it. Such a diet abounds in starch and has too little protein and mineral matters, thereby causing stomach troubles of all kinds. In some ways, however, their foods are superior to ours, and by making adjustments, if they do not acquire some of our bad habits, there ought to come from their dietary a sensible, economical, and nourishing group of foods. Only lack of variety and the use of hot flavors keep their food from being superior to that of most Americans.

Undernourished and malnourished children are frequently found in Mexican families. They are served with the same foods as the adults, foods highly spiced, with a large amount of fat added, or corn meal fried in fat. Bland foods are quite unknown in their dietary. Chicken, chicken soup with rice, vegetables, fruits and cereals, with milk and eggs, are good foods for the children. Clean milk, however, is not always easy to procure. Rice and oatmeal are the cereals most commonly used. These are boiled in water, with milk added when nearly done. They are eaten as a thick gruel instead of with cold milk poured over them as we have them.

Nephritis cases, in general, must have foods containing less spice and salt. The diabetic must be furnished with dishes that have no rice in them. This is difficult, as rice is used in many combinations with other foods.

When the Mexicans intermarry with Americans, the result of the cross dietary is that often there is double the amount of fat taken at a meal by the American. The