Some simple combinations will serve to show how few foods may be put together and yet answer all requirements.

Menu I

Whole-wheat bread

Whole-milk

Prunes

A dietary must be built on broad lines even if it is simple, and care must be taken not to err by a simplicity which excludes any needed food constituent.

There are many persons who have acquired a distaste for milk unless it is served in some cooked form. When this is the case and when warm food is desired, a meal but little less simple than the one just suggested may be prepared by making the "hearty dish" a vegetable cream soup. Such soups, which are easy to make, nutritious, and very delicious if well cooked and seasoned, are too little used in the family dietary.

Menu II

Cream of potato soup, or any vegetable soup having a milk foundation Bread and butter Fruit or a succulent vegetable

Any one of the following combinations makes a well-balanced meal if sufficient amounts of the food are consumed. This does not indicate that they are ideal for all conditions. Babies, small children, and persons who have a weakened digestive system would not be given baked beans and brown bread, or bread and cheese.

Menu III Eggs

Bread and butter Fruit or some vegetable

Menu V

Baked soybeans Brown bread Cabbage salad with egg dressing

Menu IV

Oatmeal, with sugar and thin cream or whole-milk

Fruit Menu VI

Bread and cheese

Onions

Menu VII Meat

Bread and butter Green vegetables

While the food combinations just given theoretically answer all dietary requirements, they may not be practical in those cases in which food habits of long standing lead the individual to demand a greater variety. The appetite accustomed to stronger fare might pall if stimulated only with such simple mixtures.

A basis for more elaborate menus is as follows:

Menu VIII

Cream soup

Bread and butter

Meat

Potatoes

Cabbage

Baked apples and cream