Electric Bean Chemical Co.’s Calendar and Household Recipe Book for 1911 offers insight into the lives of Canadians around the year 1911. The recipes included are glimpses into the foods housewives made throughout the year according to the months they are associated with in the calendar. The recipes are simple for the most part and expect that readers will have specific knowledge regarding the preparation of the dishes, especially baked goods like cakes and buns. There are also many savoury foods included in the cookbook, which are positioned as easy to prepare, such as cabbage balls, gravies, and preserves. These recipes showcase the ingredients and foods that were popular at the time, including ones less common like sago and dates. This cookbook would have been read by both men and women living in a household and used to record important dates in the calendar. Canadians living in rural areas would have appreciated the advice offered regarding agriculture. As Canada was still mostly rural until 1921, the farming information would have appealed to most of the readers who lived in rural communities.

Outside of larger urban centers and towns, in some areas of Canada it was difficult to find a proper medical practitioner that you could consult when you were sick or injured. This reality made treatments like Electric Beans appealing because consumers needed a valuable mode of self-treatment and a cure-all that would cover a range of ailments. The treatments discussed in this cookbook demonstrate illnesses and conditions that were most common at the time, including eczema, ringworm, and persistent coughs. 

The number of testimonials documenting how Electric Beans and Electro Balm allegedly helped both male and female customers suggests that Canadians had a lot of kidney, blood, gastrointestinal, and adrenal concerns. Many of the symptoms listed are consistent with those associated with anemia. Anemia is defined as the lack of healthy red blood cells which carry oxygen to the tissues in the body. While the extent of iron’s role in anemia may not have been fully understood at the time, North Americans knew that iron was a key component in maintaining bodily health. In 1832, a supplement called Blaud’s Pills was first sold, which combined iron and potassium carbonate to treat chlorosis in women. Physicians also promoted the consumption of iron with arsenic as a treatment until the 1930s. Electric Beans was likely another product created due to the growing interest in iron supplements and their benefits for the body.

The extent of understandings of medicine at the time is also shown in the many blurbs promoting the effectiveness of Electric Beans and Electro Balm in the Electric Bean Chemical Co.’s Calendar and Household Recipe Book for 1911. Conditions like dyspepsia and heart palpitations are mentioned, as well as issues related to sedentary lifestyles. There is also a section that explains how “Disease Germs,” and not evil spirits, were the causes of illness, showing recognition of germ theory.

Though Electric Bean Chemical Co.’s Calendar and Household Recipe Book for 1911 may have seemed like a reliable source at the time of its publication, it is likely that the products being advertised would not be considered healthy or nutritional today. Vitamins were only discovered in the early 1900s, with the term "vitamine" appearing around 1912. At that time, knowledge of essential nutrients and nutrition were still in their infancy. Ideas around deficiencies in the body, such as iron deficiency, were beginning to be recognized, but the book's reference to anemia as “the female weakness” suggests that it was not taken seriously by the medical community. Instead, the consumption of an unregulated supplement was suggested, in the hopes of curing North Americans of a variety of illnesses.