Feeding families and children--1776 to 1976. A bicentennial study.

The food heritage which Americans enjoy today owes its great diversity to the influences of many ethnic groups--the native Indians, Franciscan friars in California, Mexican-Americans, the British, the French, the Creoles, and later, northern Europeans and those of Mediterranean stock. Geography and climate in different parts of our large country and religious beliefs have also played a part in the development of our present-day, varied cuisine. In our colonial and pioneer days, most people raised their own food, but as our nation has become industrialized and urbanized, we find that now only 7 per cent of our population produces the food for our entire nation, and our consumers generally buy their food in stores. Even as late as the beginning of the twentieth century, infant feeding practices could be considered unscientific and primitive. Only in recent years have knowledge of metabolism and the rapid increase in nutritional science permitted progress in infant feeding. Problems of feeding families remain, nevertheless--different than in the early days of our nation--and their solution challenges American ingenuity.