(11) People today are no less influenced by food than were their predecessors. Americans annually spend an estimated $250 billion on food. About 10 percent of that is spent on fast food, and another large portion in other restaurants. In fact, since 1980, Americans have eaten less than half of their meals at home. An abundance of other trends have affected both American eating habits and food-related industries, including processed foods, microwavable foods, "natural" foods, gourmet foods, and diet foods, which alone capture 30 percent of the American food budget. Although the quality of American food may have decreased as a result of mass production and high technology, its prominence in daily life was never more visible.

Recipes

Apple soup

(6 servings)

3 Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled and sliced

1 large onion, sliced

1 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons curry powder 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper salt and pepper to taste

3 cups chicken broth 1 cup dry white wine

1 cup light table cream Garnishes (mint, apple slices, paprika or chopped nuts)

Slice apples and onion. Melt butter in a medium-size skillet, add the apples and onion. Add curry powder and cook 5 minutes; add cayenne and salt and pepper. Add the chicken broth and wine; cook 10 to 15 minutes. Place in blender; blend, then chill. Stir in cream and serve. Garnish as desired.

Per serving: 199 calories, 24 gm carbohydrates, 20 mg cholesterol, 218 mg sodium, 3 gm protein, 8 gm fat, 5 gm saturated fat

Butterball biscuits

(makes 12 biscuits)

1/2 cup melted butter or margarine for the muffin pan and topping,

plus 1/3 cup softened butter or margarine for the dough

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Place 1 teaspoon of the melted butter into each of 12 21/2-inch muffin-pan cups. Reserve remaining melted butter. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt into mixing bowl. Add the 1/3 cup softened butter or margarine and cut it in with pastry blender until mixture resembles cornmeal. Using a fork, stir in milk. Fill each prepared muffin cup almost to the top with dough. Bake to minutes. Remove from oven and spoon 1 teaspoon reserved melted butter over each biscuit. Return to oven and bake 10 minutes longer. Serve piping hot with butter, jam or honey. Per biscuit: 1199 calories, 17 gm carbohydrates, 37 mg cholesterol, 189 mg sodium, 3 gm protein, 13 gm fat, 8 gm saturated fat

Miss Irene’s meatloaf

(6 servings)

21/2 pounds regular ground beef

1small onion, chopped

1medium green bell pepper, diced

1celery stalk, chopped

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup ketchup, any brand

1/4 cup whole milk

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the ground beef, chopped onion, green pepper, celery, eggs, ketchup, milk, bread crumbs, garlic powder and salt and pepper to taste. Pack into 9-by-5-inch loaf pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes.

Per serving: 489 calories, 17 gm carbohydrates, 187 mg cholesterol, 555 mg sodium, 35 gm protein, 30 gm fat, 12 gm saturated fat.

Miss Irene’s pecan pie

(makes 1 pie, 8 to 10 servings) 3/4 cup chopped pecans 8-inch unbaked pie shell 3 eggs, beaten 2/3 cup maple syrup

2/3 cup sugar

dash of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scatter chopped pecans over bottom of the pie shell. Beat eggs until frothy; add syrup, sugar, salt, vanilla and melted butter. Mix well and pour over pecans. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes. Serve warm.

Per serving: 375 calories, 45 gm carbohydrates, 84 mg cholesterol, 231 mg sodium, 5 gm protein, 20 gm fat, 4 gm saturated fat.

To Be or Not To Be a Vegetarian

A strict vegetarian is a person who never in his life eats anything derived from animals. The main objection to vegetarianism on a long-term basis is the difficulty of getting enough protein – the body-building element in food. If you have ever been without meat or other animal foods for some days or weeks (say, for religious reasons) you will have noticed that you tend to get physically rather weak. You are glad when the fast is over and you get your reward of meat meal.

Proteins are built up from approximately twenty food elements called ‘amino-acids’, which are found more abundantly in animal protein than in vegetable protein. This means you have to eat a great deal more vegetable than animal food in order to get enough these amino-acids. So from the physiological point of view there is not much to be said in favour of life-long vegetarianism.

Vegetarianism is definitely unsatisfactory for growing children, who need more protein than they can get from vegetable sources. A lacto-vegetarian diet, which includes milk and milk products such as cheese, can, however, be satisfactory as long as enough milk and milk products are consumed. Meat and cheese are the best sources of usable animal protein and next come milk, fish and eggs.

Most nutrition expert today would recommend a balanced diet containing elements of all foods. A well-balanced diet usually provides adequate minimum daily requirements of protein and all the vitamins.

Traditional Meals in Britain

The usual meals in Britain are: breakfast, lunch, tea and supper. Breakfast is generally a bigger meal than they have on the Continent, though some English people like a continental breakfast of rolls, butter 198

and coffee. But the usual English breakfast is porridge or cornflakes with milk or cream and sugar, bacon and eggs, marmalade made from oranges with buttered toasts and tea or coffee. For a change, you can have a boiled egg, cold ham or, perhaps, fish.

People in Britain generally have lunch about one o'clock. The businessman in London usually finds it impossible to come home for lunch, and so he goes to a cafe or restaurant; but if he is making lunch at home, he has cold meat (left over probably from yesterday's dinner), potatoes, salad and pickles with a pudding of fruit follow. Sometimes people have a mutton chop or steak and chips followed by biscuits and cheese, and some people like a glass of light beer with lunch.

Afternoon tea you could hardly call a meal but it is a sociable sort of thing as friends often come in then for a chat while they have their cup of tea with cake or biscuit.

In some houses dinner is the biggest meal of the day. In a great many English homes people make the midday meal the chief one of the day, and in the evening they have the much simpler supper - an omelette or sausages, sometimes bacon and eggs, and sometimes just bread and cheese, a cup of coffee or cocoa and fruit.

Some people also have «high tea». They say there is no use for these afternoon teas where you try to hold a cup of tea in one hand and a piece of bread and butter about as thin as a sheet of paper in the other. They have it between five and six o'clock, and have ham or tongue and tomatoes and salad or sausages with good strong tea; plenty of bread and butter, then stewed fruit, with cream or custard and pastries or a good cake. And that's what an Englishman calls a good tea.

In common with other West European countries the British diet has changed over the last twenty years. In general, people are responding to recent medical advice and are cutting down on fatty food, heavy puddings and stodgy cakes. Food such as pizza, pasta and baked potatoes are now commonly served in English homes in preference to heavy evening meals during the week. People are more prepared to experiment with different styles of cooking.