A safe rule in planning a meal, is to be sure that the _soup_, the _relishes_ (greens, salads, etc.), and the _dessert_, if used, combine well together, as these are so generally used by nearly all classes of people when placed on the menu. Then if fruit is used, in salad, or as dessert, there should be on the menu at least one of the finer vegetables, such as tomatoes, corn, or the like, which can be eaten with the fruit; and if the meal is planned without fruit, any of the coarser vegetables may be used as desired. A large variety should not be planned for any one meal. It is a great additional expense; and besides, when several articles are taken at one meal, fermentation is likely to occur and the system will not be so well nourished. Recent research work has shown that the digestive juices vary both in kind and in quantity with different kinds of food eaten. This may explain why many persons cannot digest complex mixtures and extensive variety, and is a mighty argument for simplicity at meal-time. A select variety, of only a few kinds of food, at any one meal, with diversity in the meals from day to day, will prove advantageous to the individual and the family, both from the standpoint of economy, and from the health point of view. An excess of milk and sugar taken together clogs the system, and should be avoided. Fats are more digestible cold than hot, because hot fat tends to coat and intimately penetrate the food with which it is cooked. This is especially true of fried foods, part of the food being surrounded with a layer of fat, keeping the digestive juices from acting on the other food elements. When subjected to a high temperature, fats decompose, and the resulting acids are very irritating to the mucous membranes of the stomach and the intestines. The following combinations of food digest well together: Grains, fruits, and nuts Grains with milk Grains with eggs Grains, vegetables, and nuts Foods that do not digest well together are: Milk and sugar taken together, in large quantities Fruit and vegetables Foods cooked in fats A balanced dietary is one that supplies in about the right proportion all the kinds of food required to nourish the body. From the earliest impressions of childhood, many persons have received the idea that the most important article of diet is animal flesh. In most cases, this idea has been accepted without question or thought, and probably has never been challenged. A careful study of the subject, however, will show that with the use of meat, there is great danger of an excess of protein above the minimum requirements, there being thus placed upon the liver and the kidneys an amount of work which should not be imposed on these vitally important organs.