The preface in Salads for Health offers insights into the gender roles of the time,  specifically women's responsibility of being their family's caretaker. The last sentence of the preface states “the following recipes for salads have been prepared in the hope that they will help the housewife in her big problem of safeguarding the health and happiness of her family.” After the First World War ended, many of the women who had joined the workforce during the war years to compensate for the men who enlisted were expected to vacate their positions and return to their families. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, women were still expected to be housewives and shoulder the responsibilities of maintaining the home and family. A significant part of this job included cooking, grocery shopping, and budgeting. This job was especially important during the Great Depression of the 1930s because most Canadian families were struggling with a high unemployment rate and reduced wages. 

Many of the recipes within Salads for Health include ingredients that were dried or canned, including fruits such as dates and pineapple, which would have been easier and cheaper to acquire during the Depression. According to Statistics Canada, for example, on average, families were able to afford a pound of prunes and evaporated apples, which cost them approximately thirty cents. Limited options forced many women to get creative with recipes and work with what was available, so cookbooks that assisted in this process became essential in the kitchen. Throughout the book, there are several recipes that make what is a seemingly common food seem more fun and appealing. The cookbook also highlights some food trends popular at the time. An example of this is dishes using gelatine or Jell-O, which were newer ingredients that Canadians were experimenting with. Salads for Health dedicates a quarter of its content to moulded fruit and vegetable salads, and there are also a few gelatine salad recipes in the “Miscellaneous Salad” section.

This cookbook also tells us a lot about how food was prepared and by whom during the 1930s. Intended for the housewife, the book emphasizes that the cook should always ensure their dishes look appealing, no matter what is being served. Another prevailing theme in the cookbook is the popularity of social dining and acting as a 'host' at dinnertime. Social gatherings were important during this period when money was tight and many kinds of entertainment were luxuries that most could not afford. As a result, social get-togethers where food was served became a popular alternative. The book discusses preparing items ahead of time and using lemon juice to prevent the yellowing of the fruits before serving. These suggestions allude to the importance of the hostess spending time with guests and not being in the kitchen preparing food the entire night.

Salads for Health also demonstrates some of the ethnic biases and popular stereotypes of the period in relation to food. For example, the “Japanese Salad” and “Mexican Vegetable Salad” show the limitations of Canadians' understanding of peoples and nations beyond their own. The only ingredient that differentiates the “Japanese Salad” from the “Salmon Salad” in the cookbook is the addition of rice. This suggests that Canadians did not accurately understand the complexities of authentic Japanese cuisine, and simply associated it with the consumption of rice.