Food

“ I shall admire you then only when you scorn not plain bread, when you have persuaded yourself that herbs exist not for other animals only, but for man also—if you shall recognise that vegetables are sufficient food for the stomach into which we now stuff valuable lives, as though it were to keep them for ever. For what matters it what it receives, since it will soon lose all that it has devoured? The apparatus of dishes, containing the spoils of sea and land, gives you pleasure, you say.... ”

“ There are fruit and vegetables without number, and garlic and onions to the heart's desire. Then again, throughout the day there is a ceaseless screaming, bantering, singing, squalling, huzzaing, and laughing. The mildness of the air and the cheapness of the food make subsistence easy. Everything possible is done in the open air. ”

“ The mountain air, invigorating though bland, the exercise, the absence of care, the excellence of the food, which comprised fresh figs, a tree or two of tolerable sweetness having been found, the milk of the cocoa-nut, the birds, the eggs, the bread-fruit, &c., all contributed their share to render the meal memorable. ”

“ SCIENTIFIC ANSWER. By aliments are understood the substances which, when submitted to the stomach, may be assimulated by digestion, and repair the losses which the human body is subjected to in life.
The distinctive quality of an aliment, therefore, is its liability to animal assimulation.
ANALYSIS. The animal and vegetable kingdoms are those which until now have furnished food to the human race. ”

“ To make this the chief element of at least three meals daily, and to despise bread and vegetables, is for them no less a sign of taste than a declaration of belief in the perfection of such food for the purposes of nutrition. ”

“ Yet none can deny but that the food itself is a partial cause; for not only new fruit, bread, or corn, but flesh of the same year, is better tasted than that of the former, more forcibly provokes the guests, and enticeth them to eat on. ”

“ If the food selected by the appetite happens to be soup, or milk, or some mushy substance, get all the good taste out of it, doing all you can to accomplish this; for to get the taste out [Pg 55] of food is an assurance of digesting it, and the pleasure it gives in the process of Nature's way of getting you to do the right thing in helping her to nourish yourself properly. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Exalting grains, fruits, and vegetables, as the predominantly suitable staples of human food, she has something to say of the manner in which these things should be combined in a single meal—what of them should be eaten together—that deserves attention. ”

“ “True and constant vigour of body is the effect of health, which is much better preserved with watery, herbaceous, frugal, and tender food, than with vinous, abundant, hard, and gross flesh ”

“ That [411] person, then, who enjoys the best health, the keenest mentality and power of perception, the highest physical and emotional organism, is he who can select such articles of food as will supply all the constituent parts of the body most nearly in the right or natural proportions. The science of feeding, upon which this mainly depends, becomes possible only when food is taken in accordance with certain fixed, natural laws. ”

“ One food that is now receiving a good deal of attention is bread, and we ought to be sure that this is of the best kind, for as a nation we eat daily a pound of it per head. We consume more of this article of food than of any other, and this is as it ought to be, for bread is the staff of life, and many of the other things we eat are garnishings. ”

“ Wherefore we must guard against those articles of food which persuade us to eat when we are not hungry, bewitching the appetite. For is there not within a temperate simplicity a wholesome variety of eatables? Bulbs, [456] olives, certain herbs, milk, cheese, fruits, all kinds of cooked food without sauces; and if flesh is wanted, let roast rather than boiled be set down. Have you anything to eat here? said the Lord [457] to the disciples after the resurrection; and they, as taught by Him to practise frugality, “gave Him a piece of broiled fish;” ”

“ Hence our food-supplies, whether natural or prepared, offer increased variety of flavor, if not of nutritive qualities, and foods which were formerly restricted to the few are now commonly found on the tables of the many.
"Scientific research in every civilized nation has also diligently busied itself in the elucidation of the subject, and our knowledge has been increased in reference to the chemical composition, preparation, and physiological effects of food. ”

“ We did not stop to wash the grime of travel from our faces until after we had filled our stomachs. Once refreshed with food, our religion returned to us, in the desire to be clean and to establish a household. I learned then that food is the first thing in the world. ”

“ The health of mankind depends in great measure on the good or bad preparation of food, and on the purity of all sorts of provisions: and grain being the most essential article of sustenance, very much depends on the conduct of millers, bakers, and mealmen. ”

“ The preparation of food is of two kinds—public and private. The public consists in the ordinary modes of converting minerals and gases into vegetables, and vegetables into animals with milk, cream, cheese, flesh meat, and marrow-bones. ”

“ The great abundance and variety of food in this country, permit this principle to be put into practice. A variety of mixed foods, as milk, eggs, bread, and meat, are almost invariably associated to a greater or less extent at every meal. ”

“ Food has received thorough study with respect to preservation, preparation, serving, and the time of day when each item is most satisfying. Some of the conclusions have been arbitrary, but for the most part, people eat the food that agrees with them physiologically and psychologically. ”

“ The corn that makes the holy bread
By which the soul of man is fed,
The holy bread, the food unpriced,
Thy everlasting mercy, Christ. ”

“ The first meal was an object lesson of much variety. My father produced several kinds of food, ready to eat, without any cooking, from little tin cans that had printing all over them. ”

“ Linnæus, in speaking of fruits and esculent vegetables, says—"This species of food is that which is most suitable to man, as is evinced by the structure of the mouth, of the stomach, and of the hands." ”

“ The food which Nature provides for the human infant differs from that provided for the young carnivorous animal, just in the same way as flesh food differs from the cultivated and cooked vegetables and fruit within easy reach of man. ”

“ The difficulties in the way of supplying cooked instead of raw food are very similar to those being now overcome in the transport of delicate and perishable food, and in the preserving such food in perfection through the whole year. ”

“ The subject of food is a broad one,—one that is growing in interest. Many present-day scientists are finding a lifework in food study. "Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are," was spoken many years ago. The most recent work in science confirms the fact that the kind of food an individual eats has much to do with his health and his ability to work. If you would be well, strong, happy, and full of vim choose your food carefully. ”

“ The steadiness and clear shining of the flame of a lamp depend upon quality, as well as amount of the oil supplied, and, too, the texture of the wick; and so all human life and work are equally made or marred by the food which sustains life, as well as the nature of the constitution receiving that food.
Before the nature and quality of food can be considered, we must know the constituents of the body to be fed, and something of the process through which digestion and nutrition are accomplished. ”

“ Vegetable Food.—The list of vegetable articles of diet is a very long one, including the grains from which our bread-stuffs are made, the vegetables from the garden, and the fruits. All the products of the vegetable kingdom are not alike useful. ”

“ One shall make a better meal, and go away stronger and better fed, on a dish of oatmeal, than the other on a dinner that has half emptied his pockets. Shall we study physiological chemistry and know all about what is food for the body, and neglect mental chemistry, and be utterly careless as to what nutriment is contained in the food we give our minds? ”

“ 'Quantity in food,' she used to say, 'was more to be regarded than quality; that a full meal was the great enemy both to study and industry: that a well-built house required but little repairs.'
But this moderation in her diet, she enjoyed, with a delicate frame of body, a fine state of health; ”

“ We have given the precedence in this account to the fruit-trees and others which, by their delicious juices, first taught man to give a relish to his food and the various aliments requisite for his sustenance, whether it is that they spontaneously produce these delightful flavours, or whether we have imparted them by the methods of adoption and intermarriage,2191 thus bestowing a favour, as it were, upon the very beasts and birds. ”

“ The Larder.—Keeping Food fresh for a limited time; Storing Food without change, such as Fruits, Vegetables, Eggs, Honey, etc.
Curing Foods for lengthened Preservation, as Smoking, Salting, Canning, Potting, Pickling, Bottling Fruits, etc. ”

“ There is another popular article of food among us, which has a vital connection with bodily disorders and bad exhibition of character. Good in proper quantities and in its sphere, when made the largest and chief article of diet, for every meal, the one kind of food upon which we depend most for building up the wastes of our bodies, it indirectly does great damage. I refer to the ordinary fine flour bread made out of bolted wheat meal. ”

“ “The use of plants is all our life long of that universal importance and concern that we can neither live nor subsist with any decency and convenience, or be said, indeed, to live at all without them. Whatsoever food is necessary to sustain us, whatsoever contributes to delight and refresh us, is supplied and brought forth out of that plentiful and abundant store. And ah! [he exclaims] how much more innocent, sweet, and healthful is a table covered with those than with all the reeking flesh of butchered and slaughtered animals. ”

“ Animal food has a wider range than is usually included under that head. The vegetarian who announces that no animal food is allowed upon his table offers a meal in which one finds milk, eggs, butter, and cheese,—all forms of animal food, and all strongly nourishing. ”

“ The same conditions explain why the preparation of food is so choice in the case of the upper classes and so simple in that of the lower. Further, all the accessories of the meal, which are foretastes of the actual repast, are obviously designed to awaken the curiosity and interest, and to augment the desire for food. ”

“ When we talk of the fruits, indeed, which were formerly the chief food of a great part of mankind, we should recollect, that those fruits grew in countries that had a sun to ripen the fruits, and to put nutritious matter into them. ”

“ He describes the preparation, cooking, and preserving of food, tells the chemical composition and the special value of each of the common articles of food, the proper food for the individual at each period of life, from infancy to advanced age, tells how large numbers of persons may be fed cheaply and well, as in prisons, camps, and on board ship, and gives dietaries for all the principal diseases. ”

“ To-day, for instance, I’ll tell you what our food was. Breakfast: good oatmeal with boiled milk and sugar, coffee, war bread, which one of the group toasted before the fire for our table, “bacon” the eternal, which is fried ham, and not very good. Lunch: a kind of meat loaf, rice, with cheese (which we have about every other day) , bread and butter, cocoa, and stewed figs, stewed without sugar. ”

“ On the same theory we boil our water, which is our only drink, before we suffer it to come to table. Our children are perfect little Pythagoreans: it would do you good to see them in their nursery, stuffing their dried fruits, figs, raisins, and milk, which is the only approach to animal food which is allowed. ”

“ Not only must the body have the right food for each requirement, but it must have each type of food in proper amounts. The meal must be balanced—that is, it must contain energy-giving, tissue-building, function-regulating, and growth foods in right proportions. ”

“ Perhaps we might properly urge the advice of a recent writer.—‘Make use of every material possible for food, remembering that there are chemical affinities and properties by which nutriment may be extracted from almost every organic substance, the greatest art being in proper cooking. Make soup of every kind of flesh, fish, and leguminosæ.—Every thing adds to its strength and flavour.’
Man eats to satisfy his hunger, and to supply warmth to the body ”

“ One must have lived on such diet to discover what ghastly trouble the necessity of swallowing one’s food may become. ”

“ We know that it is easy to develop a taste for some one food in excess, as for instance, sweets or dishes rich in fat and too highly flavored, and the physician adds his word here to the plea for a study of food and its functions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A great variety of foods at one meal exerts a potent influence in creating a love of eating, and is likewise a constant temptation to overeat. Let us have well-cooked, nutritious, and palatable food, and plenty of it; variety from day to day, but not too great a variety at each meal. ”