How would you define food? Here’s what a 1921 cookbook called The Science of Food and Cookery had to say:
Foods are substances which, when taken into the body, supply the necessary elements for promoting growth, repairing its broken-down tissue, and furnishing it with heat and power for muscular work. True foods contain the same elements as are found in the human body, and thus they are able to build and maintain the body.
A Hundred Years Ago 
getting at the kernal of truth
I always find it interesting how definitions may differ across the years – yet say essentially the same thing. Google defines food as, “any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth.”
I just love these old ads. How sophisticated we are now by comparison, and how quaint we’ll look in a few more decades.
It’s fascinating to think about how things that seem modern and cutting edge today will be considered quaint in a few decades.
Well, I guess that is a very simple way of looking at it!
Food is one of those words that has many layers of meaning.
I think they had it right.
The old definition works for me.
Spot-on article, I’d say. 🙂
I like how succinctly the author explained what food is.
Strictly speaking, we should eat what is good for us, but they left out joy!! There is more to life than looking at things in a sterile way.
Your comment makes we think about the many wonderful meals I’ve shared with family and friends across the years.
That’s a rich heritage.
Interesting definition!
It’s interesting to see how the author thought about food.
Very!
A lot of truth there, chips, cakes and such are for to enjoy not used as health supporting food.
There’s something to be said for foods to enjoy.
You can see the influence of domestic things becoming scientific in this paragraph, needing to sound equal to the other sciences and becoming “Domestic Science.”
I also noticed that – and the drawing from the chapter heading in the old book of two men in a food laboratory also suggests that the author considered it important to think about food through the lens of science.
It’s annoying that domestic arts are constantly having to prove their worth.