a fireless cooker); oatmeal flavored with apples in a pudding for dinner;
or oatmeal flavored with onions and tomatoes in a soup for supper; the
same food but quite different impressions on the palate.

Herbs and spices have from time immemorial given flavor to man's diet.
"Leeks and garlic," "anise and cumin," "salt and pepper," "curry and bean
cheese," are built into the very life of a people. The more variety of
natural foods we have the less dependent we are upon such things. Our
modern cooks, confronted in the present crisis with restrictions in the
number of foods which they may use, may find in bay leaves, nutmeg,
allspice, and all their kind, ways of making acceptable the cereals which
make a diet economical, the peas and beans which replace at least a part
of the meat, and dried fruits and vegetables which save transportation of
fresh or canned goods.

Tea and coffee are both flavors and stimulants. They are used literally by
thousands to give flavor to bread or rice. Dependence on a single flavor
is apt to result in a desire to have it stronger and stronger, and hence
less and less wholesome. This is a good reason for some variety of flavor;
better tea one meal and coffee another than the same one all the time. Too
freely used, and made too strong, tea and coffee may have a bad effect
upon the nervous as well as the digestive system. They should never be
given to children. It is better for adults to get their flavor from
something without such effects. Because the combination of bread and
coffee tastes good, one may be deceived into thinking himself well
nourished on a diet consisting of little else. And yet this is a very
inadequate diet for anybody, and disastrous to the normal development of
children. One must be on guard, then, lest one's desire for flavor be
satisfied without the body's real needs being met.