I Don't Understand You. Do You Mean It Should Be Eaten Hot Or Cold, With Or Without Sugar, At The Beginning Or The End Of A Meal?

"Well, if proteid food (tissue formers) are eaten with starchy food, generally speaking, the starch should be taken first, so that the digestion of the starch will be as far advanced as possible before the stomach becomes acid, though this is unimportant. The greatest difficulty and objection to all soft, starchy foods is that they slip down too easily when taken in the mouth. I have already explained that saliva contains a digestive agent or solvent. This solvent is an important factor in the digestion of starch. Now, if the food is already moistened, there is noinclina-tion to keep it in the mouth long enough for the saliva to be thoroughly mixed with it. and if it does not receive this digestive agent in the mouth, it is not digested until it passes through the stomach; most likely not at all."

Wouldn't It Be A Good Scheme To Take A Certain Number Of Bites On Each Mouthful?

"Yes, but rather hard to practice, but if you will try it, you will be surprised at yourself when you discover that you have been swallowing your food with so little mastication. Bread should receive from forty to sixty bites or chews according to its texture, on each mouthful, and mush or porridge at least half as many. Some people prefer to eat some solid food with their porridge, which of course increases the flow of saliva and makes it necessary to retain the porridge in the mouth for a greater length of time. This partially overcomes the objection to soft foods."

Have You Ever Thought Of Any Other Remedy For The Constant Tendency To Eat Too Rapidly?

"Perhaps where families are good enough natured not to quarrel, some system of small fines or forfeits for each one caught swallowing his food too quickly would work the best results."

Doctor, You Have Criticised Almost Everything Pertaining To The Preparation Of Oatmeal, Is There Any Other Reason Why It Might Disagree With People?

"Yes, when it remains in stock too long it becomes vormy and when people are troubled with acid dyspepsia diey should not eat sugar with oatmeal or for that matter, with anything else. Oatmeal has aboutthe right proportion of flesh forming elements to that of heat or force producing. Now, if sugar be added, the proportion of heat or force producing element becomes far too high and whenever people live on food too rich in either tissue or heat producing elements the results will be disastrous. The fact that people do not know this is one of the prinapal reasons why so many become ill. They do not have their food supply adjusted to their needs. The addition of milk and cream to oatmeal makes the food well nigh perfect. The cream supplying fat, in which oatmeal is deficient, and milk increases the proportion of tissueform-ing food and supplies some of the necessary mineral matter, which is particularly important for growing children."

"But, Doctor, most people think oatmeal unpalatable without sugar."

"That is also a habit. If they would eat it a few times without sugar, they would prefer it that way."

"But suppose they don't like it at all. You know there are many people who care very little for cereals of any kind."

"That is true, and is a matter which needs careful consideration. Much of the dislike as already indicated, results from improper cooking, and a dislike formed in this way is exceedingly hard to overcome. It sometimes happens that by the addition of fruit flavors, what would otherwise be unpalatable, is highly relished. Then, there are other ways. For people who like eggs, a very palatable dish can be made by stirring a raw egg into a dish of hot oatmeal."

"Doctor, I notice that some people say that oatmeal is a very rich food and that children should not eat it; that it is only suitable for those who exercise a good deal in the open air."

"It is rather difficult to see upon what such a statement could be based. The heat of the body must be kept up by some means, and starch, in which oatmeal abounds, is the least concentrated of heat producing foods. Sugar and fat both requiring much more air andexercise for their ox idation than starch; it follows that the charge that oatmeal is too rich cannot be sustained."

How Is Oatmeal For Old People, Or Those Of Sedentary Habits?

"Old people or persons who do not take much exercise, need food containing a larger proportion of tissue forming elements. This is especially true if they happen to be fat."

Then The Force Producing Food, Is Also Fat Forming And Those People Who Are Already Too Fat, Don't Need Fattening Food?

"That is only true to a limited extent. No one can live for a long period without some fat forming food, but people who are very corpulent need much less than others."

Is There Any Known Reason For This?

Yes. Layers of fat keep the heat in the body, so that a fat person needs much less heat forming food. Old people who are fat and sluggish need very little starchy food, but for active mechanics, farmers, laborers and growing children, oatmeal should form a considerable portion of their diet."

"Doctor, are there any other conditions in which oatmeal should not be eaten for food."

"Yes. In case of diahrroea or any inflamed condition of the bowels, no coarse food should be eaten."

Doctor, It's A Common Practice Of Many People To Eat Fruit Before Breakfast, Especially Oranges, And Then Eat Oatmeal, Is This Right?

"No indeed! Oatmeal being principally starch, requires an alkaline medium for digestion. It ordinarily receives very little because it is swallowed so quickly and then if acid be added, there can be no digestion until it passes through the stomach, with a chance that it will not be digested at all."

'Whatfoods are suitable to eat with oatmeal."

"No foods containing any considerable quantity of acid should be eaten for at least half an hour afterwards. This of course would exclude sour fruits, pickles or any dish on which vinegar is used. As to other foods, that would of coarse depend largely upon other conditions. One working in the timber with very severe labor, with temperature say 20 below zero, could well eat a greatdeal of fat and sugar as well as meat with oatmeal, while those who are corpulent and take but little exercise, would require food containing less starch or heat producers, and more tissue forming food; such as wheat gluten, peas, beans, milk, eggs, lean meat, oysters and cheese."

"Doctor, I suppose most of the barley that is consumed is taken in the form of lager beer."

"Not altogether so. Barley is used extensively for thickening soups."

What Are Its Properties?

Well, barley is mostly starch, perhaps 8 times as much starch as gluten. It is also rich in-mineral matter. Before wheat became so universally cultivated, barley was a very important food, but now the only form known to the trade is that of pearl barley. It requires much cooking and in this respect it is very similiar to oats and wheat. There is still another use for barley and that is barley water. This is used extensively as a drink in cases of fevers, also useful for infants or invalids. It is made as follows: Grind half an ounce of pearl barley in a coffee mill, add 6 ounces of water, boil 30 minutes, add salt and strain. It should be made fresh daily and kept in a cool place. Another preparation of barley more used as a medicine than food, is malt."

What Is The Process For Making Malt?

"Malt is made by applying a considerable degree of moisture to the barley and allowing it to remain in a room heated sufficiently warm to cause the grain to germinate. It is then dried by different degrees of heat according to the use for which it is intended. During the germinating period, a digestive agent known as diastase is formed. This is both a medicine and a food and is used to great advantage in diseases of the digestive organs where the chief difficulty is the digestion of starch