=Questions.= 1. What effect has improper cooking on foods? 2. Why should starches be thoroughly cooked? 3. What is the objection to starchy foods fried in grease? 4. What changes take place in fatty food when it is fried over a very hot fire? 5. Why should all meats be cooked? 6. What is the objection to cooking meat until the juices are dried out? =Remember.= 1. Starchy foods should be thoroughly cooked so that the fine grains may be softened and the food thus made more easy to digest. 2. Fats should not be fried over a very hot fire because too much heat causes a poison to form in the fat. 3. Meats should be cooked, but never until they become dry, as the juices in the meat contain most of the nourishing material. CHAPTER IX HOW NEATNESS, CHEERFULNESS, AND GOOD MANNERS PROMOTE HEALTH [Sidenote: Why mealtime should be pleasant] The dining table should be the pleasantest and most inviting place in the house. If you are complaining and quarreling during the meal, you cannot enjoy the food; you cannot eat it properly; and your ill temper will so affect your body that you cannot properly digest what you eat. A dirty table, with flies swarming over the food, is not very tempting, and when seated at such a table, one does not eat the things that are best for him and sometimes does not eat anything at all. [Illustration: FIG. 21. A clean, inviting dining-room.] [Sidenote: How uninviting luncheons affect the appetite] The luncheons that boys and girls take to school with them are often prepared in so careless a way that they are extremely uninviting. The substantial school lunch can be made just as appetizing as the dainty refreshments at an afternoon tea or at a party. If the same care is devoted to the preparation of the one as of the other, boys and girls will eat their lunches with enjoyment and good appetites. [Sidenote: Why an attractive table calls for pleasing guests] If the table is made to look clean and inviting, do you not think that you, in your turn, should make yourself as neat and clean as possible before you come to it? Dirt on your hands and face not only does not look well, but contains a great many germs that may get into your food and thus find their way into your body and try to make you ill. [Illustration: FIG. 22. Two lunches. Which is the more tempting?] [Sidenote: How foods should be eaten] Besides being eaten in pleasant surroundings, all food should be eaten slowly. Let us suppose that we are all seated at a clean, inviting table and everyone is clean and happy. Before the children is the very kind of food that is best for them. It looks good and they know it is good, and they want to eat all they can of it. But they think of a game of jacks or of ball that they want to play as soon as dinner is over, so they simply "bolt" their food.