2. Condiments are substances added to food to give it a flavor or to modify its flavor. Examples are: Pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, sage, thyme, mustard, ginger, mace, horseradish, vanilla, dill, etc. The active principle in each of these is a volatile oil peculiar to the substance. These volatile oils have no importance as foods, but they serve as stimulants to the buccal mucous membrane, and in that way frequently serve a good purpose in inciting an increased flow of the digestive juices.

Common salt, though usually spoken of as a condiment, is, strictly speaking, a food, and is necessary to the animal body, as one of the mineral salts used in the tissues and fluids of the body. However, the amount of salt used by many people is far in excess of the needs of the body. When salt is thus used in excess of the needs of the body, and used simply to modify the taste of the food, the excess so introduced into the dietary becomes a food accessory.

Though the condiments possess this mild stimulative effect upon the tissues with which they come into contact, it is very doubtful if, on strictly physiological grounds, their use is justifiable. This thing is certainly true: young children should never be given highly spiced foods; in fact, it is probably wiser to give them no spices. Appetites for these condiments are artificial and acquired ones. A person who has acquired an appetite for condiments may be unable to relish his food without these. That being the case, the condiment becomes more or less of a physiological necessity to such person. However, if from early childhood an individual receives no condiments in his food, he learns to relish them for their own natural flavors. In such a person the use of condiments is altogether unnecessary if not actually disadvantageous.