"Proteins?" "Here!" Answer somewhat faint but suggesting remarkable worth.
"Carbohydrates?" Loud note from "Starch."
"Mineral salts?" "Here!" From a regular chorus, among which "Potassium" and "Iron" easily distinguishable.
"Vitamines and "Here! Here!" Especially vociferous, the Other Accessories?" "Anti-Scorbutic Property."
"This is a good showing for any single food material. The potato, as truly as bread, may be called a 'staff of life.' Men have lived in health upon it for many months without any other food save oleomargarine. Its protein, though small in amount, is most efficient in body-building, its salts are varied in kind and liberal in amount, and it furnishes a large amount of very easily digested fuel besides. It is at its best when cooked in the simplest possible way--baked or boiled in its skin. Nevertheless we are not absolutely dependent upon the potato."
"Alas," said the housewife, "this doesn't tell me what to cook for dinner!" "Patience, Madam, we shall see about that." The fact that starch is present is what makes the potato seem so substantial. But bread, rice, hominy, in fact, all cereal foods can supply starch just as well. Pick out the one you fancy and serve it for your dinner. One good-sized roll or a two-inch cube of corn bread, or three-fourths of a cup of boiled rice will sustain you just as well as a medium-sized potato. A banana, baked or fried, makes an excellent substitute for a potato. An apple is also a very palatable potato equivalent, if you want something more spicy than hominy or corn bread. Why mourn over the lost potato?
But how about those mineral salts? Well, the potato has no monopoly on those, either, though it is ordinarily a very valuable contributor. Milk has already been mentioned as one of the great safeguarding sources of so-called ash constituents. Others are vegetables and fruits of different kinds. These have been a neglected and sometimes a despised part of the diet: "Why spend money for that which is not meat?" is often taken literally. Even food specialists have been known to say, "Fruits and vegetables are mostly water and indigestible fiber; they have little food value." This is a good deal like saying, "If your coat be long enough you do not need a pair of shoes." A potato has as much iron as an egg yolk or a medium-sized chop. This is one more reason why we should be sorry to take the useful tuber from our tables, but we may feel a certain independence, even when meat and eggs are prohibitive in price, since by canning or drying, if in no other way, we can have green vegetables as a source of iron the whole year through. Some people are afraid that canned vegetables will prove unwholesome; but if removed from the can as soon as opened and heated to boiling before they are eaten, we are recently assured that the danger of food poisoning will be materially lessened. Even when such vegetables are wanted for salads, boiling and subsequent cooling are advised. The mineral salts of vegetables dissolve into the water in which they stand, and in any shortage of such food, or for the greatest economy, it would seem wise to save the water in the can, which is often thrown away to secure a more delicate flavor. Water from the cooking of fresh vegetables which are not protected by skins (among them spinach, peas, carrots, and asparagus), can often be reduced to a small amount by steaming instead of boiling the vegetable, or any drained off can be used in gravy, soup, sauce, or some similar fashion. The strong flavor of some vegetables, however, makes such economy rather impractical.