What to Eat and How to Cook It (1874)

 

What to Eat and How to Cook It : With rules for preserving, canning and drying fruits and vegetables  by: John Cowan, MD (1874)

https://archive.org/details/whattoeathowtoco00cowa/mode/2up

TO LIVE a sweet, healthy life implies the use of simple, nutritious food, cooked in a plain, simple manner, and as nearly in its natural relations as possible.
A ripe, mellow apple, and a biscuit made of unbolted wheat meal and water only, represents, when eaten and digested, every constituent required in the nourishing and building up of the
body. Pure blood, firm tissue, clear brain, perfect health, and enjoyable life, would—could not help
—resulting from the use of such plain, simply prepared food.

But the great majority of people do ‘not and will not believe this, else there would not be such a demand for the cooking receipts in fashion, and other magazines, and papers, and cook-books.
And such receipts—such conglomerate mixtures —grains, fruits, flesh, grease, spices, minerals, mixed in all shapes, in all measures, under all conditions, and which, if swallowed by human beings—
and it is presumed they must be, as no animal certainly would touch them, excepting, perchance; the hog—cannot possibly otherwise result than in impure blood, flabby muscles, clogged brain, and a sickly and un-enjoyable life.

No matter what the department involved in living, the further we get away from the simple, just so far do we get away from Nature, and the true laws that govern our mundane existence.