The Egg Yolk Diet; 1918.

Yesterday I gave you the Diet for Professional Singers and Lecturers recommended in Dietotherapy, which was published in New York in 1918. Before I put it aside for another day, I want to give you one more extract from this book – some advice and menu suggestions for those who are underweight.

The Egg Yolk Diet.

Egg yolks as an addition to the diet of the underfed and badly nourished are often of the greatest service in a variety of forms of faulty nutrition. In certain instances in which there is inability to assimilate the entire egg, the yolks are of great value. A daily portion of from ten to forty yolks may be added to the customary diet. The white of the egg consists of a solution of protein shut up in the interior of many millions of cells. The protein of the white of egg is called "egg-albumin."

The yolk is a storehouse of nutriment for the young chick, and consequently has a very different composition from the white. It contains much less water and more solids, among the latter being a large proportion of fat. The general composition of the white and yolk is contrasted in the table on page 351, to which the reader is referred. The palmitin, stearin and olein are simply fats such as we have already encountered in butter and have the same nutritive value as these. Their presence in the form of an emulsion in the yolk makes them more easily digested, which renders the yolk particularly suited to individuals whose nutrition is below par and who do not do well on ordinary diets.

Stern (88) gives the following simple dietary for a patient whose normal weight should be 140 pounds, but who, owing to debilitation, weighs only 110 pounds:

Breakfast:

250 c.c skim milk with 4 yoks;

30 grams wheat toast

Forenoon Lunch:

Cup of coffee, 2 yolks.

Dinner:

One plate of soup, 4 yollks;

Beef (very lean), 150 grams;

30 grams wheat toast

Afternoon Lunch:

25 c.c. skim milk, 30 c.c. whiskey; 3 yolks.

Supper:

Porridge of farina or rice, 100 grams; 1 yolk; skim milk;

Apple sauce, 75 grams.

At Bedtime:

Night cap (90 c.c. hot water, 10 c.c. whiskey, 1 yolk, teaspoonful granulated sugar.

If it should be deemed expedient to continue this dietary over any great period of time, the dishes in which the yolks of eggs are incorporated should be varied as much as possible. The great richness of yolk of egg in fat and lime salts and in organic compounds of phosphorus and iron make it peculiarly valuable as an adjunct to the dietary of infants and young children, especially those which are suffering from rickets, malnutrition, athrepsia, etc., for it is these very compounds which the child needs, especially the rickety child.

My own humble opinion is that the above diet is not sufficiently rich or delicious to cause weight gain. Tasteless and boring are the words that spring to mind. And, for a diet proposing to aid weight gain, it contains no dessert!

Here is a nice egg-yolky suggestion to help you gain weight:

Chocolate Custard

Scrape fine half a pound of the best chocolate, and pour on it a pint of boiling water. Cover it, and let it stand by the fire till it has dissolved, stirring it twice. Beat eight eggs very light, omitting the whites of two. Stir them by degrees into a quart of cream or rich milk, alternately with the melted chocolate, and three tablespoonfuls of powdered white sugar. Put the mixture into cups, and bake it about ten minutes. Send them to table cold, with sweetened cream, or white of egg beaten to a stiff froth, and heaped on the top of each custard.

Directions for Cookery, in Its Various Branches (1844) Eliza Leslie.