Solid food

“ Do not milk, butter, cheese, and eggs contain the same kind of matter as animal food does?" Strictly speaking, inasmuch as any article of food contains elements of nutrition, these elements are identical; but the form of the matter in which they are contained may be very different in producing or not the heating and stimulating effects which are opposed to the healthy condition of the body. Chemistry shews, moreover, that the elements of nutrition originate in vegetables. ”

“ Raw and Cooked Foods Compared.—Raw and cooked foods differ in chemical composition mainly in the content of water. The amount of nutrients on a dry matter basis is practically the same, but the structural composition is affected by cooking, and hence it is that a food prepared for the table often differs appreciably from the raw material. Cooked meat, for example, has not the same percentage and structural composition as raw meat, although the difference in nutritive value between a given weight of each is not large. ”

“ See that the proportion of proteid is one part to four of carbohydrates and fats. Adapt the dietary to the season and climate. Do not waste time and money in preparing rich puddings, entrees, cakes, etc., when fresh fruit, vegetables, salads, etc., are so much more nutritious, economical and convenient. Arrange to have a variety [129] of food—different kinds of meat, fish, and poultry—cooked in various ways. See that suitable food is provided for the children; especially pure milk and food containing mineral salts. Do not allow children to use tea, coffee, or other stimulants. ”

“ The proper adjustment of the relative quantities of the great groups of nutritive elements in the food is a matter the importance of which cannot be over-rated, for it is in fact the foundation of successful and economical feeding; and this will be readily understood if we consider what would be the result of giving to an animal a supply of food containing a large quantity of nitrogenous and a deficiency of fat-forming compounds. ”

“ It is furnished chiefly by meats, fish, cheese, milk, eggs, cereals, and legumes. (2) Fats, which furnish heat and energy, but are chiefly valuable for storing a reserve supply of fat in the body. They are furnished largely by butter, cream, olive and similar vegetable oils, bacon and other fat meats. (3) Carbohydrates, which furnish heat and energy. They [Pg 2] are supplied chiefly by potatoes and other vegetables, cereals, fruits, and sugars.
People who are eating the proper amount and kind of food should approximate the normal weight [3] for their sex, age, and height. ”

“ And the reason is not because these substances have no azote or nitrogen in them; nor is it because man necessarily requires a variety of alimentary substances, but simply and exclusively because the anatomical construction and vital powers of the alimentary organs, are constitutionally adapted to alimentary substances which consist of both nutritious and innutritious matter; and therefore a due proportion of innutritious matter in the food of man is as essential to the welfare of his alimentary 22organs, as a due proportion of nourishment is to the support of his body. ”

“ When we enquire more minutely into the chemical constitution of the different alimentary materials, which promote the growth, support the strength, and renew the waste of our body, we find that animal substances are not suited to form the whole of 9our daily food ”

“ It is a mechanical mixture of compounds made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur, and is composed of various individual organic compounds, as cellulose, starch, sugar, albumin, and fat. The amount in a food is determined by subtracting the ash and water from 100. The organic matter varies widely in composition; in some foods it is largely starch, as in potatoes and rice, while in others, as forage crops consumed by animals, cellulose predominates. The nature of the prevailing organic compound, as sugar or starch, determines the nutritive value of a food. ”

“ It is to be noted that, ordinarily, the foods which supply carbohydrates are flour, corn meal, cereal products, potatoes, beans, sugar, and milk; those which supply fat are milk, butter, lard, and meats; and those which supply protein in [Pg 263] liberal amounts are beans, cheese, meats, oatmeal, cereals, bread, and milk.
260. Average Composition of Foods.—The amounts of nutrients in foods are determined from the average composition of the foods. These figures for average composition are based upon analyses of a large number of samples of food materials. ”

“ The crude articles of diet offered them vary immensely in nature, bulk and utility, from which they must elaborate simple food-elements for absorption, incorporate them after absorption into complex organic substances properly designed to supply the constant needs of cellular activity, of growth and repair, and fitly harmonized to fulfil the many requirements of very divergent processes and functions. ”

“ In the animal and vegetable substances employed as food, these inorganic compounds are provided in small but sufficient quantities to meet the requirements of the healthy body, and in this state of combination alone can they be regarded in the light of aliments. A complete consideration of this subject embraces, not only all the substances used as food, but also those things which when taken with them improve their flavour, promote their digestion, and render them more wholesome and nutritive ”

“ I do not mean by this that the vegetable we should use shall be grass itself, or that grass should be one of the vegetables. We must, for our requirement, select vegetables that contain as much nutriment in a given bulk as our present mixed diet, but in doing so we encounter the serious difficulty of finding that the readily soluble cell wall or main bulk [178] of animal food—the gelatin—is replaced in the vegetable by the cellulose, or woody fibre, which is not only more difficult of solution, but is not nitrogenous, is only a compound of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. ”

“ White of egg and lean meat are almost pure protein and water. Proteins are most abundant, as we should expect, in those plants which are richly supplied with nitrogen; peas and beans, and in grains and nuts. Fats, which are melted into oils at the temperature of the body, are represented by the fat in meats, bacon, pork, lard, butter, and vegetable oils.
Water.—Water is, as we have seen, a valuable part of food. It makes up a very high percentage of fresh fruits and vegetables; it is also present in milk and eggs, less abundant in meats and fish, and is lowest in dried foods and nuts. ”

“ The chemical constitution of the human body is made up of a large variety of elements and compounds. From fifteen to twenty elements are found in it, chief among which are oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, and sulphur. The most important compounds [Pg 72] are protein, hydrocarbons, carbohydrates, organic mineral matter, and water. The food which nourishes the body is composed of the same elements and compounds.
Food serves two purposes,—it builds and repairs the body tissues, and it generates vital heat and energy, burning food as fuel. ”

“ Vegetable food, it is well known, contains, as its essential nutritive elements, albuminates, or nitrogenous materials, fatty matter, and hydrates of carbon, with water and nutritive salts. Such food, therefore, has the same elements as animal food ”

“ 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. ”

“ Nutritive or plastic, is given to those principles of food which are converted into fibrine or albumen of blood, and being assimilated by the various tissues through its medium, and those principles comprising the major part of the non-nitrogenous food, in the form of fat, gum, starch, and sugar, and other substances of a similar nature, are supposed to be utilised in the production of heat, and are termed calorifaciant, or sometimes respiratory food. ”

“ These contain less fat, less nitrogenous matter, more water, and more sugar (or starch, which becomes sugar during digestion) than animal food.
Those who advocate the use of flesh food usually do so on the ground that 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 the food. ”

“ THE PHYSIOLOGY OF NUTRITION. I have repeatedly spoken of the nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous constituents of food, assuming that the nitrogenous are the more nutritious, are the plastic or flesh-building materials, and that the non-nitrogenous materials cannot build up flesh or bone or nervous matter, can only supply the material of fat, and by their combustion maintain the animal heat. ”

“ It is not necessary to our present purpose to pursue the subject of the origin and nature of food in its general sense, but to emphasize the importance of the essential elements of food comprehended in the various organic and inorganic compounds of which food consists, as follows: Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, chlorin, iodin, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium and iron. ”

“ Food is necessary for growth, repair, and energy; therefore the elements composing the body must be found in the food. The thirteen elements named are formed into chemical compounds by the vegetable and animal kingdoms to support the highest order of being, man. All food must undergo chemical change after being taken into the body, before it can be utilized by the body ”

“ “To be sure. Our throats and stomachs are lined with solid gold, and we find the thistles nourishing and good to eat. As a matter of fact, there is nothing else in our country that is fit for food. All around the City of Thi grow countless thistles, and all we need do is to go and gather them. If we wanted anything else to eat, we would have to plant it, and grow it, and harvest it, and that would be a lot of trouble and make us work, which is an occupation we detest.” ”

“ My observations on nutrition tend to the conclusion that if you supply animals with starch, sugar, &c., to satisfy their requirements for respiration, you enable them to convert the oil of their food into butter or fat to such extent as their particular organism is fitted for effecting it. ”

“ In our own times, and among civilized peoples, bread has become an article of food of the first necessity; and properly so, for it constitutes of itself a complete life-sustainer, the gluten, starch, and sugar, which it contains, representing azotized and hydro-carbonated nutrients, and combining the sustaining powers of the animal and vegetable kingdoms in one product. ”

“ People who live on fruits, greens and nuts, or on fruits, greens and meats only, require a larger amount of protein food, in order to make up for the loss of cereals.
Teach a growing child that selecting and preparing his food is an important occupation. Do not allow a child to fill his body with trash.
MINERAL MATTER. In an organic form, we find mineral matter in large proportions in green leaf vegetables, small fruits and berries, bran, rye, green peas, string beans, tomatoes, yolks of eggs and in 15all the outer skins of legumes, grains and fruits. ”

“ Before giving you receipts for cooking peas, beans, and lentils, I want to show you how important they are as foods. I have already spoken of the heat and flesh forming properties of food as the test of its usefulness; try to understand that a laboring man needs twelve ounces and a half of heat food, and half an ounce of flesh-food every day to keep him healthy. One pound, or one and a quarter pints of dried peas, beans, or lentils, contains nearly six ounces of heat food, and half an ounce of flesh food; that is, nearly as much heat-food, and more than twice as much flesh food as wheat. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The problem of food is a chemical problem. Whenever energy can be obtained economically we can begin to make all kinds of aliment, with carbon borrowed from carbonic acid, hydrogen taken from the water and oxygen and nitrogen [Pg 95] drawn from the air.... The day will come when each person will carry for his nourishment his little nitrogenous tablet, his pat of fatty matter, his package of starch or sugar, his vial of aromatic spices suited to his personal taste ”

“ Therefore, overall nutrient content of a specific fruit or vegetable, whether fresh or preserved, may be about the same.
Top quality, garden fresh foods, served in season, provide the greatest satisfaction when served fresh as table-ready food. Individual preferences for market fresh, frozen canned, or dried food will differ. Since nutrient content is nearly the same, the choice is up to the consumer. Even more important is the choice of vegetables and fruits for a good diet. ”

“ Every mother, with growing children, should be a thorough student of the chemistry of food. If the child’s bones do not grow to sufficient size and strength, care in the selection of foods, rich in proteins, lime, magnesium and phosphates, may correct it. Such a child should have meat, whole wheat bread and eggs. ”