THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2693, 24 December 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE CHRISTMAS PUDDING.

A NUTRITIOUS FOOD, BUT TAKEN

AT THE WRONG TIME.

(By W. H. Riddle,. M. 8., in the “Daily Mail.”)

A careful study of the constituents and method of preparation of a pudding must lead the unbiassed observer to the conclusion 'that the Christmas pudding is a much-maligned object. Instead of being a bugbear to the careful mother who i s always watching over the health of her children, it deserves a much more friendly .-place in her consideration.

Like many another dog with a bad name, the Christmas pudding’s evil re-, putation has not risen .from its intrinsic had qualities, but from its being misused, or at any rate used at the wrong time. It may come as a surprise to some to learn that there is perhaps no other article of diet that has so many healthful food ingredients as this same pudding. THE PUDDING DISSECTED. It would, indeed, be hard to think out a more complete food. Our diet must fulfil certain conditions and attend to several important needs of the body. It must, in the firt place, be nourishing, so as to repair the waste of tissues that is always going on. Every movement that takes place in the body (whether voluntarily, such as of the arms and legs, etc., or involuntary, as those of the heart or diaphragm), uses up a certain amount of tissue, and. both this energy and the used-up tissue must he replaced by our food if we are to go on living. Besides storing up energy and repairing waste, our food must supply us, when combined with the oxygen in the air we breathe, with bodily heat. Every wind of ordinary, temperature that blows on the body carrie s with it a portion of our store of heat, just as every breath exhaled reduces the store of heat left in the body.

Now let us return to the ingredients of the Christmas pudding. The carbohydrates, or starchy foodstuffs, are considered the most valuable source of muscular energy. These very necessary elements of diet are well supplied by the breadcrumbs and fruit with their contained sugars. CHRISTMAS PUDDING A MEAL IN ITSELF.

Nitrogenous or -proteid food is essential for the repair, maintenance and functional activity of the tissues, and also plays a minor role in the production of heat and force. The eggs in the pudding supply this necessary nitrogenous or proteid element. Fats, which are the great heat producers, and also aid in the nutrition of the tissues, are well supplied in the suet. The mineral s alts winch the body cannot live without are supplied in varying quantities by nearly all the ingredients. • it will be seen that, as far as inessentials go, Christmas-pudding is a meal in itself, and supplies all the elements necessary .to keep the body in perfect health!

Perhaps, then, the cooking is at fault, for many highly nourishing and digestible foods may be rendered quite valueless and even harmful by a wrong method of cooking. Whether boiled or steamed, the first effect of the heat will be to coagulate the albumins ef the eggs on the outside of the pudding. Thi s coagulated albumin is insoluble in water, and keens the water out, while preventing the juices of the fats, fruits and sugar from escaping. But no one ever heard of a Christmas pudding being insufficiently cook - ed, so there is little danger of eating uncooked starches, which, of course, are highly indigestible.

THE FAULT IS WITH THE EATING Apart from this remote possibility of the starches not being reduced to more digestible forms by thorough cooking, the method of preparation cannot be improved. The fault, then, must lie not with the pudding, hut with the eating. Wny should we expect, when we have already filled our stomachs with an unusual amount of strong, rich food, that our digestive .organs can be happy at having to' cope, not with some light sweet, but with a second heavy full meal? This meal, the Christmas pudding,. would alone require hours for its own assimilation. With the magnificent food in itself, and deserving of a much more frequent place on our tables,"it is eaten at the wrong time, and so never gets « chance to prove its worth.

On Christinas arid other . holidays, when custom. practically forces us greatly to over-eat, why not cut out the sweets entirely, dr else, at any rate, see they-are not a further tax on the digestion? .. ; , Sugar has a. cloying or satiating effect on the appetite which gives sweets their appropriate place of last on the .menu. ' '•;! ;;'v . h v '- ’t./ •. - A - .v ;: \

Therefore, as no further satiating effect can possibly be needed after the usual English Christmas, dinner, let the pudding be saved oyer for some other day, when the rest of the fare is not so filling, and the pudding can receive that serious attention from the digestive organs which, as a highly nutritious, palatable ana digestible food, it deserves. ' : ;t ‘ 1