Uncooked Foods & How to Use Them - Soil and Health Library

THE SELECTION OF FOODS.
IN the adoption of uncooked foods more care in selection is
required than when they are to be cooked, for in the process
of cooking, mixing and dressing, the real quality, taste and
flavor of the articles, becomes changed, lost and dissipated.
The most inferior articles of food can be cooked and
artificially flavored, as they usually are, and still appeal to
and satisfy the taste.
In all public eating places the special duty of the chef and
steward is to use left-over foods. They are hashed, minced,
flavored, spiced and peppered until the smell from the
fermented or decayed portions is so concealed that they
cannot signal the olfactory nerves; therefore the most inferior
and unhealthy articles can be used which could not be done
were these foods not cooked.
When using uncooked foods the senses of sight, smell
and taste demand the best, and it is only fair that these senses
should be satisfied. It is as criminal to deceive our taste and
sight in matters of food, as it is to obtain money under false
pretense from our friends; and the penalty for this
wrongdoing is more certain to be paid. We often escape
justice in deceiving our friends, but never in deceiving
ourselves. We cannot jump our bail with nature. We are
always caught and punished for two crimes instead of one.
One may be thoroughly convinced that the theory is
correct, but if such articles are selected as do not conform or
appeal to the taste, the effort will prove a failure. Food should
be selected that has ripened on the parent stalk or tree, in the
sunshine, as far as possible. Those who are acquainted with
the curative and life-giving properties of air and sunshine will
readily perceive why the selection of thoroughly ripe and fullgrown
foods are so necessary.
In selecting an apple of a red variety, get a deep, rich red,
not a pale pink one. The deep red color indicates that the fruit
has ripened on an outer twig of the tree, exposed to the
sunlight; while the paler colors show that it has ripened under
cover of the foliage. This rule should be observed in the
selection of all fruits and berries, and melons of every kind as
far as possible, the rule being that whatever color is selected,
get it as pronounced as possible. In other words, get the best.
BANANAS.
Bananas, the second-best article of food known, should
never be eaten so long as a spot of green is visible on the
skin. The majority of people seem to select this most
delicious and nutritious fruit merely to please the eye; and
just when it is at its best, that is, when the skin is covered
with tiny black spots, or assumes a pied appearance, it is
discarded and considered unfit for use. Where the
consumption of bananas is large enough, they should be
purchased by the bunch,* and where it is not, they should
always be purchased by the hand, not detaching them until