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Nutrition is something no cook can ignore. Here the subject is reduced to a few words but only by over-simplifying. In each group which I have mentioned, I have selected only the good sources and ignored the hundreds of foods with lesser amounts of nutrients. If a food is omitted from this list it does not mean that it is not necessary to a normal diet. These are the good sources of body-building foods. Remember them, buy them and eat them.

Protein. This is essential every day for the normal action of the body (movement, respiration, etc.). Animal protein is the best (beef, veal, etc.), but vegetable protein is also good in dried peas, lentils, haricot beans and nuts (especially peanuts). Fish protein is as rich as meat. Two other good sources are dried egg, dried skim milk.

You could live on meat alone, but you would need 17 lb. per day. So, instead, we turn to the high-energy foods (i.e. carbohydrates and fats); but neither of these are body-building foods.

Calcium. This is a builder of bones and teeth. It is vital during the first six months of life and remains important throughout life for replacement. Cheese (Cheddar-type) and whitebait (surprisingly) are the two finest sources. Next come sardines and the soft cheeses and condensed milk, with fresh milk, watercress and tinned salmon at about one-third of the value per ounce that Cheddar cheese gives.

Iron. This is important for haemoglobin (the red in red blood-cells). The best way to get iron is to cook in iron cooking utensils.^* Once a week you should have a portion of undercooked liver. If you don’t like it, get to like it—you need it. The sausage called ‘black pudding’ and any sort of kidney is a good source, so are cocoa and lentils. Curry powder is chock-a-block with it (21 mgs. per oz.), but an ounce of curry powder goes a long way, so it won’t give you so much per serving.

Vitamins. There is no need to take vitamin pills if you are eating well, for the body adjusts its intake to the correct proportions for health.

Vitamin A. Important for cell-growth, especially cells of eye, mouth and intestines. It aids the retina in vision. Best sources are undoubtedly fish-liver oils (which are sold in chemists’). Sheep and beef liver also contain Vitamin A, but only one per cent of the amount the best fish liver does (measured ounce for ounce). If your diet is Western and adequate, you are getting enough.

Vitamin B. A large complex, covering many groups of chemicals. It is vital for the working of all muscles and nerves, and is needed in large quantities when convalescing from influenza, colds, pneumonia. If you eat much starch and sugar, you use Vitamin B to convert these foods into energy. Therefore, you need even more Vitamin B. Eat liver, lean meat, peas, whole-grain bread or flour, and lentils.

Vitamin C. This is needed daily because it cannot be stored. It is important in forming the connective tissue between cells. Gums, joints and muscles weaken when there is a deficiency of it. The best sources in order of descending value are: blackcurrants, or blackcurrant juice, brussels sprouts, cabbage, watercress (and other green vegetables) and citrus fruits. Remember Vitamin C is washed away by water and destroyed by heat.

Vitamin D. Important in the formation of bone and therefore growth. It also keeps the bone hard in normal wear and tear. We make it in our skin in sunlight (but we destroy some Vitamin B), and therefore need more Vitamin-D-rich foods in winter. They are the fish-liver oils (especially tuna and halibut), with cod-liver oil also a source. Certain whole fish are also rich sources, namely herring, sardine, pilchard and salmon. There are two other sources, but they are comparatively poor (about one-sixtieth of the poorest of the above foods); they are egg yolk, and the type of margarine that has added vitamin.

Carbohydrates and Fats. The eating of these is proportionate to the sophisticated wealth (but not health) of a person. If you care enough to read this book, you are probably sophisticated and wealthy and already cutting down on these foods.

Our civilization has developed a craving for starches. Starch gives a fast lift, because it is the upper intestine where the enzymes act upon starches and give a rise in blood sugar with its allaying of appetite within twenty minutes. The digestive enzymes that act upon protein do it when the middle intestine is reached, thus it is slower in allaying appetite.

Salt is a mineral (NaCl) of which the sodium (Na) is the part the body needs. Sodium occurs naturally, by permeation through the land-mass, in any fish, vegetable or food that is produced within 200 miles of the sea. Therefore only people living in the centre of a huge land-mass need salt, and in these regions one finds salt-traders bringing this life-giving food. Most people in the world use salt only as a luxury.

Salt is one of the most important elements in complex actions in the blood, and although it is true that if you lose sodium you lose weight, salt-restriction must not be used in slimming diets. Any chemist will sell you KCl (potassium chloride) as a salt-substitute, but this is a dangerous expedient, for the body cannot distinguish between K and Na, and will excrete Na, creating a sodium lack and a potassium build-up, which can lead to serious disorders. Use ‘salt-free salts’ only under medical supervision, if at all. Cooks preparing salt-free food should step up herb and spice content to help cloak the blandness of such a diet.

If you want to lose weight. Starch foods are cheap foods. It is very expensive to eat a non-fattening diet. If you want to lose weight, remember these four points:

1 Eat plenty of meat, fish and eggs, and you will find that (owing to specific dynamic action) you will be less hungry.

2 When eating ask: ‘Am I hungry?’ When you are not, stop eating.

3 It is hard, hard to remove fat once it has formed. On a good diet (i.e. not too quick) it is the fourth and fifth weeks which show the true loss of fat. The loss during the first two weeks is mostly fluid and is only too easily picked up again.

4 Eat two good protein meals a day. Do not have tasters or snacks. Don’t cheat.

Construct your diet around things you don’t like. Don’t cut out things you are very fond of and tell yourself it’s only for a few weeks—it’s far better to guide your eating habits into more sensible patterns. The things you must not eat should be left unbought, otherwise they provide a constant temptation. Lastly, remember that most of the world have a diet problem of a different sort: they are hungry.

* Strange but true.