THE CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL review from May 1938
Foods America Gave the World. A. H. Verrill. 289 pp., $3.00. L. G. Page, Boston, .1938. How interesting a thing is food! Its sources, its variety, its history—all make up an absorbing picture, and the author of the book has made the most of his splendid subject. He concerns himself only with native American food plants, but that is a large "only". Not the least interesting point brought out is that our modern methods of curing and treating such food stuffs as cocoa, or vanilla, or of preparing various dishes from such a food as maize, were all thoroughly understood by the ancient American Indians. One admires also the little clearcut drawings of vessels and cooking implements in the shapes of various fruits and vegetables, such as the pineapple, corn, chocolate, beans, etc., all dating thousands of years back.
A good point is made of the fact that many tropical and subtropical fruits and vegetables are really of great value as being extremely good to eat, and yet are not brought to more northerly countries as much as they should be. Some of course are too delicate and can only be enjoyed in the tropics, but there are still a good many which should be more popular. The avocado pear for example is delicious and nutritious, but its introduction into Canada and the Northern States is slow. Incidentally, the author is a little hard on the genip which does not receive the praise it should as a delicious fruit. The book is well written and is full of an extraordinary amount of material, all well presented.