Aliment

“ Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principal diet. ”

“ He can even subsist on every variety of these substances, under every mode of preparation, dried, preserved in salt, hardened in smoke, pickled in vegetable acids, &c.
The Author of Nature has so constructed our organs of digestion, that we can accommodate ourselves to every species of aliment; no kind of food injures us; we are capable of being habituated to every species, and of converting into nutriment almost every production of nature. ”

“ This appears from those people who live solely on vegetables, as the Gentoo tribes, and those who subsist solely on animals, as the fish eaters of the northern latitudes, being a feebler generation than those of this country, who exist on a proper mixture of both. A due proportion, therefore, of the two kinds of nourishment, seems undoubtedly the best.
Having taken a general view of the course of the aliment into the blood, I shall now examine more particularly, how each part of the organs concerned in digestion, or connected with that function, contributes to that end. ”

“ And then, in the mysterious depths of vegetable existence is organized that wonderful quadrille of the aliments of nutrition, the history of which has now been sufficiently explained to you.
The vegetable kingdom, therefore, is simply the great kitchen in which the dinner of the animal kingdom is being constantly made ready; and when we eat beef, it is, in fact, the grass which the ox has eaten, which nourishes us. The animal is only a medium which transmits intact to us the albumen extracted in his own stomach from the juices furnished to him in the fields. ”

“ I do not say that the alimentary organs of man cannot, by long habit, be brought into such a condition as that, while that condition remains, they will not manage a mixed ingestion of animal and vegetable food, with more immediate comfort and satisfaction to themselves and the individual, than they will an ingestion of pure vegetable food. ”

“ The diet must be nutritious, cabonaceous, and of sufficient quantity. Beef, milk, rich cream, plenty of good butter, eggs, fish, wheat bread from unbolted flour, supply the appropriate alimentary substances for perfect nutrition and the maintenance of animal heat. ”

“ We can better understand the use of foods and the process they undergo in building the body by considering separately each class of food material from the time it is absorbed from the alimentary tract until it is excreted from the bowels, or from the lungs and the kidneys, or deposited in the body as bone, fat, or tissue. ”

“ Owing to the marked individuality which man exhibits in the selection of his food, and to the intimate relationship subsisting [115] between food and the organism it nourishes, it is impossible to arrange the alimental substances in the strict order of their nutritive values. You can bring a horse to the water, but you cannot compel him to drink it; you can swallow any kind of food you please, but you cannot force your stomach to digest it. ”

“ Then plants are obliged to accept the nourishment that their fixed position furnishes to them; whilst animals, on the contrary, by means of their external organs, can range far and near in search of the aliments most congenial to their appetites. ”

“ The flavour and texture of food, its taste, in fact, stimulates the production of those secretions—such as the saliva and the gastric juice—by the action of which the food is digested or dissolved, and becomes finally a part of the body, or is assimilated. As food, then, must be relished it is desirable that it should be varied in character—it should neither be restricted to vegetable products on the one hand, nor to animal substances (including milk and eggs) on the other. ”

“ Hence our appetites and the bountiful provision made for us extend our choice to both the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and it is possible to find vegetable foods on which man could live as long as upon animal food alone. Bread is in vegetable foods that which flesh is in animal foods, and each within itself contains nearly all the elements required for nutrition. ”

“ Classification of Foods.—For increasing weight and producing heat, the fatty portions of meat, butter, and lard, together with wheat, Indian corn, and sugar, are best adapted; for muscle-making, lean meat, peas, beans, oatmeal; for brain and nerves, shell-fish, lean meats, peas, and beans. Those who lead an active, bustling life, especially if they take an abundance of out-door exercise, will naturally crave strong food in unstinted supply. The busy brain-worker, who is housed all day, and scarcely rises from his chair, needs to be much more careful in his diet. ”

“ The most special feature is an additional vow to keep a perpetual Lent of the strictest kind, not only flesh meat but fish and all animal products—eggs, milk, butter, cheese, dripping—being forbidden, so that the diet was confined to bread, vegetables, fruit and oil, and water was the only drink. ”

“ Meat.—Meat contains albumin and fat, but no sugar. Fish, oysters, and clams are like meat. They all make good food. Boys and girls should eat milk, eggs, and meat. These foods are the best to give strength to the body. Nearly all food from animals is more quickly digested and gives more strength than food from plants.
32. Bread.—White bread is a food made from wheat. The wheat is ground to flour. Flour is mixed with water, and yeast is added. The yeast makes a gas, and the gas puffs up the wet flour and makes it full of holes. The holes make the bread light. ”

“ Shows how food is digested and gives the constituent elements of all food products, their cost, food values, time of digestion, etc., Comparative value of beef, mutton, pork, eggs, fish, fowl, oysters, the grains, breads, peas, beans, milk, butter, cheese, sugar, beer, fruits, nuts, etc., which make flesh, bone, nerve; which gives most for least money. ”

“ A complete diet may be selected without animal flesh, but including animal products of eggs, milk, cream, and butter, together with vegetables, fruits, cereals, and nuts, yet if the vegetable diet be selected the legumes, the whole of the grains, and nuts must be given their share in each day’s rations. ”

“ Moreover, the fact that the teeth and digestive organs of man, which seem to be fitted both for vegetable and animal food, and the fact that the supplies of food on the earth make it needful to adopt sometimes animal, and sometimes vegetable diet, and sometimes a mixture of both, furnish an à priori argument in favor of a mixed diet. ”

“ What is the natural food of man? As an abstract truth, the maxim [1] of the physiologist Haller is absolutely unimpeachable: "Our proper nutriment should consist of vegetable and semi-animal substances which can be eaten with relish before their natural taste has been disguised by artificial preparation." For even the most approved modes of grinding, bolting, leavening, cooking, spicing, heating, and freezing our food are, strictly speaking, abuses of our digestive organs. ”

“ Because the Stomachs of locomotive Beings appear to have been provided for the purpose of conveying about, with the moving animal, nutritive Substances, analogous in effect to the Soil in which are fixed the roots of plants, and consequently nothing ought to he introduced into the stomach for Digestion and for Absorption by the Lacteals, or Roots of the Animal System, but the natural bases of simple Nutrition, as the saccharine, the oleaginous, and the farinaceous matter of the Vegetable Kingdom. ”

“ Foods are substances which, when introduced into the system, supply the necessary material for growth, renewal and maintenance of the vital structures. Food is anything that nourishes.
Foods must contain the same elements found in our bodies. The body requires a combination of different food elements in proper proportion to produce a suitable diet. Foods are divided into five classes: water, protein, fats, carbohydrates and mineral matters. ”

“ Having reviewed the physiological, chemical, and dietetic qualities of milk, having proved its richness in every constituent of animal flesh, we may fairly compliment our waggish friends, the Vegetarians, in having added to their vegetable bill-of-fare, milk and eggs, two of the best, most concentrated, and nutritious articles of human food. ”

“ The diet should consist as nearly as possible of foods in their natural condition, such as extremely ripe fresh fruits and fresh vegetables, and of the proteid group such as eggs, milk, cheese, gelatin, legumes, and now and then a limited quantity of fish. ”

“ More particularly defined, food is that material taken into the body in the ordinary process of eating which contains the elements necessary for the growth of tissues, for the repair of the destruction to which the tissues are subjected during the ordinary vital processes and for furnishing heat and energy necessary to life. Incident to the utilization of these elements there is consumed, also, a considerable quantity of matter inextricably mingled with food in a natural way, which takes no direct part in nutrition and yet which is useful, as a mass, in promoting the digestive processes. ”

“ In passing, it is interesting to observe the following: the fact that in a mixed fruitarian diet the proportion of the nutrient compounds is such as to satisfy natural requirements is another proof of the suitability of the vegetable regimen to the human organism. It is a provision of Nature that those foods man's digestive organs are constructed to assimilate with facility, and man's organs of taste, smell, and perception best prefer, are those foods containing chemical compounds in proportions best suited to nourish his body. ”

“ Fruit and fruit juices keep the blood in a healthy condition when the supply of fresh meat, fish, and vegetables is limited and salt or smoked meats constitute the chief elements of diet. Fresh fruit is generally more appetizing and refreshing than cooked. ”

“ The midday meal should consist of fresh meat, fish, or poultry, with an abundance of green vegetables and a liberal helping of sweet pudding. The articles of diet which are most deficient in our lists are milk, butter, and sugar. ”

“ Twenty-six months of entire abstinence from all animal substances, excepting butter and milk. Salt is used regularly.
7. Through life inclined to a vegetable diet, with few stimulants.
8. Drinks have been milk, milk and water, or cold water.
9. A well-selected vegetable diet appears to produce a very regular action of the stomach and bowels.
10. I think the health of laborers and students would be promoted by a great reduction of the usual quantity of animal food, and perhaps by discontinuing its use entirely. I feel no want. ”

“ All food substances contain them to a greater or lesser extent. The order in which foods stand in the matter of freedom from earthy impurities is as follows: Fruits, fish, animal flesh (including eggs) , vegetables, cereals; so that the advocates of a strictly vegetable diet find themselves confronted by the formidable fact that their mainstay is that class of foods that contain the largest proportion of those substances that hasten ossification. ”

“ The patient may have any easily digested food that she wishes, such as buttermilk, soup, beef-tea, milk or milk and lime-water, soft-boiled egg, etc. The food should be given frequently in small quantities. ”

“ Abstinence from wine—alcoholic stimulants, we would say at present—and from all animal food is the keystone of the Pythagorean system, which also denounced the shedding of blood, and recommended the use of "food which needs no cooking"—fruit, nuts, honey, milk, and the like. ”

“ A diet of milk, cereals, vegetables, nuts, and fruits, raw or simply cooked, with a small amount of animal foods, will perhaps give [Pg 278] the best results in this climate. Food fried in fats, rich pastries and gravies are the hardest to digest, and better health will usually follow discontinuing them. ”

“ When we consider the organization of the human system, the form and arrangement of the teeth, the structure of the stomach and intestines, we are led to conclude, that both animal and vegetable food is requisite, and that a mixed diet is most conducive to strength, health, and long life. ”

“ Summing up the matter of your diet, we find that you should have light, nourishing, easily digestible food, consisting chiefly of cereals, creamed dishes, creamed soups, eggs, meat in moderation, salads and the fresh fruits and vegetables that ordinarily agree with you. Many doctors advise at least a quart of milk daily, in addition to that which is used in preparing the meals and an abundance of water to drink. ”

“ Those who advocate the use of flesh-food usually do so on the ground that it it is more nutritious, contains more nitrogenous material and more fat than vegetable food. So much the worse for the human being, says Nature, when she prepares food. ”

“ It ought to be made an article of diet more often than it is, as the particles it contains tend to purify the blood from the grossness it receives in partaking of animal food; and when taken at the commencement of dinner, tends to assist the digestion of those substances which form the more substantial part of the meal. ”

“ The food of human beings and of the lower animals who inhabit cold countries is nearly exclusively composed of animal substances. The flesh, fat, and oil of animals occupy less space than do the corresponding elements of vegetables; consequently the nutriment they afford is more concentrated, and a larger quantity can be stowed away without inconvenience in the stomach. ”

“ Now, it is more than sufficiently manifest, that the greatest part of Men live of Vegetables, as of Bread, Beer and Wine; also for Nutriments they use Flesh, Fish, Butter and Cheese: which kinds of Meat and Drink, so soon as put down into the Stomach by a certain natural Coction and Fermentation are so inverted, as some natural Mercury is thence progenited. ”

“ It has been already remarked that there are three great purposes to which the food consumed is appropriated; the increase of weight of the animal—the object the feeder has in view and desires to promote—the supplying the waste of the tissues, and the process of respiration, both of which are sources of loss of food, and which it must necessarily be his aim to diminish as much as possible. ”