in nutritive value, may be very dissimilar in their
superficial appearance. For instance, all the nutritive requirements may
be met in a ration composed of three food materials, as milk, whole wheat
bread, and apples; on the other hand, by one composed of canvas-back duck,
truffles, lettuce, celery, cranberries, white bread and butter, cream,
coffee, and perhaps a dozen other items. We love all the various
sensations that come from the mingling in a meal of food hot and cold,
moist and dry, crisp and soft, sweet and sour, exhibiting the artistic
touch as well as the homelier virtues; it is the sacrifice of pleasure of
the esthetic sort that food economy and to some extent food conservation
entail.

The first step in food economy (aside from saving of waste) is to
emphasize the use of cereal foods. As much as one-fourth the food money
may be invested in grain products without nutritive disadvantage. But this
is not the last word on the subject, since cereal foods, while cheap,
differ among themselves in cost and somewhat in nutritive value. It is
possible to confine one's choice to some which contribute little besides
fuel to the diet, such as rice and white flour, or to include those which
are rich in other essentials, such as oatmeal. It is difficult to express
briefly this difference in foods in any concrete fashion, but recently a
method of grading or "scoring" foods has been introduced which may help to
make clearer the relationship between nutritive value and general economy.

We cannot live exclusively upon foods which furnish nothing but fuel,
though fuel is the largest item in the diet and one which in an effort to
economize is apt to fall short; hence a food which furnishes nothing but
fuel will not have as high a "score" as a food which will at the same time
supply certain amounts of other essentials, such as protein, calcium
(lime), iron, and the like. By giving definite values to each of the
dietary essentials taken into consideration and comparing the yield of
these from different foods, we may have such a score as follows:[1]

Grain Score value
products per pound

White flour 1,257
Graham flour 2,150
Rye flour 1,459
White bread 1,060
Graham bread 1,525
Cornmeal 1,360
Oatmeal 2,465
Cream of wheat 1,370
Hominy 1,147
Corn flakes 1,090

[1]