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Page 23
With this basis, to give us some understanding of the complicated and
delicate machinery with which we must work, the question arises, what food
contains all these constituents, and what its amount and character must
be. The answer to this question will help us to form an intelligent plan
for providing a family with the right nutrition.
CHAPTER VIII.
FOOD AND ITS LAWS.
We have found, that, in analyzing the constituents of the body, water is
the largest part; and turning to food, whether animal or vegetable, the
same fact holds good. It forms the larger part of all the drinks, of
fruits, of succulent vegetables, eggs, fish, cheese, the cereals, and even
of fats.
Fat is found in butter, lard, drippings, milk, eggs, cheese, fish, meat,
the cereals, leguminous vegetables,--such as pease and beans,--nuts,
cocoa, and chocolate.
Sugar abounds in fruits and vegetables, and is found in milk and cereals.
Starch, which under the action of the saliva changes into glucose or
grape-sugar, is present in vegetables and cereals.
Flesh foods, called as often nitrogenous foods, from containing so large a
proportion of nitrogen, are made up of fibrine, albumen, caseine,
gelatine, and gluten; the first four elements being present in flesh, the
latter in vegetables.
Salts of various forms exist in both animal and vegetable food. In meat,
fish, and potatoes are found phosphorus, lime, and magnesia. Common salt
is largely made up of soda, but is found with potash in many vegetables.
This last element is also in meat, fish, milk, vegetables, and fruits.
Iron abounds in flesh and vegetables; and sulphur enters into albumen,
caseine, and fibrine.
The simplest division of food is into _flesh-formers_ and
_heat-producers_; the former being as often called nitrogenous food, or
albumenoids; the latter, heat-giving or carbonaceous foods. Much minuter
divisions could be made, but these two cover the ground sufficiently well.
For a healthy body both are necessary, but climate and constitution will
always make a difference in the amounts required. Thus, in a keen and
long-continued winter, the most condensed forms of carbonaceous foods will
be needed; while in summer a small portion of nitrogenous food to nourish
muscle, and a large amount of cooling fruits and vegetables, are
indicated; both of these, though more or less carbonaceous in character,
containing so much water as to neutralize any heat-producing effects.
Muscle being the first consideration in building up a strong body, we need
first to find out the values of different foods as flesh-formers, healthy
flesh being muscle in its most perfect condition. Flesh and fat are never
to be confounded, fat being really a species of disease,--the overloading
of muscle and tissue with what has no rightful place there. There should
be only enough fat to round over the muscle, but never hide its play. The
table given is the one in use in the food-gallery of the South Kensington
Museum, and includes not only the nutritive value, but the cost also, of
each article; taking beef as the standard with which other animal foods
are to be compared, beef being the best-known of all meats. Among
vegetables, lentils really contain most nourishment; but wheat is chosen
as being much more familiar, lentils being very little used in this
country save by the German part of the population, and having so strong
and peculiar a flavor that we are never likely to largely adopt their use.
About an equal amount of nourishment is found in the varied amounts
mentioned in the table which follows:--
TABLE.
Cost about
Eight ounces of lean beef (half-pound) 6 cts.
Ten ounces of dried lentils 7 cts.
Eleven ounces of pease or beans 5 cts.
Twelve ounces of cocoa-nibs 20 cts.
Fourteen ounces of tea 40 cts.
Fifteen ounces of oatmeal 5 cts.
One pound and one ounce of wheaten flour 4 cts.
One pound and one ounce of coffee 30 cts.
One pound and two ounces of rye-flour 5 cts.
One pound and three ounces of barley 5 cts.
One pound and five ounces Indian meal 5 cts.
One pound and thirteen ounces of buckwheat-flour 10 cts.
Two pounds of wheaten bread 10 cts.
Two pounds and six ounces of rice 20 cts.
Five pounds and three ounces of cabbage 10 cts.
Five pounds and three ounces of onions 15 cts.
Eight pounds and fifteen ounces of turnips 9 cts.
Ten pounds and seven ounces of potatoes 10 cts.
Fifteen pounds and ten ounces of carrots 15 cts.
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