Susanna Cocroft.

What to Eat and When

By

Susanna Cocroft

Author of
“Let’s Be Healthy,” “The Woman Worth While”
“Growth in Silence,” etc.

Fourth Edition

With Additions and Revisions to Date

Illustrated

G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York and London
The Knickerbocker Press
1916

Copyright, 1916
BY
SUSANNA COCROFT
The Knickerbocker Press, New York

PREFACE

THE subject of dietetics has only of late years begun to come into its own. For centuries it was thought that the body was a thing to be neglected and despised; that it was a clog to the soul. The teachings of dogma and the life of the hermit and the ascetic glorified the mortification of the body and the elevation of the soul.

The study of the functions of life and the manner in which those functions are upheld and vivified—the development of the sciences of Biology and Physiology—have placed the relations of the body and its inhabitant the soul on a more consistent and rational basis. It is coming to be recognized that the mind cannot function to its highest efficiency in a body below par; that in order to work harmoniously and to accomplish the most for humanity, the sound mind must dwell in a sound body, with all of its functions active, its organs in vigorous condition, kept so by a thorough assimilation and a forceful circulation. These are to be secured by means of daily exercise, abundance of fresh air, and healthful, happy, constructive thoughts.

It has been well said that the distinguishing feature between man and other animals is the fact that he is a cooking animal. Until he discovered fire man’s subsistence was little more than that of the brute. Out of his discovery of the varied uses of this element came modern civilization. Much of this advance was made possible through the added strength of mind that was given man by a more varied diet. His limited raw diet gave little scope to his inventive faculties. From the discovery of the possibilities in cooked food his mind was stimulated to research in other directions. With the lessened need for vigorous mastication, however, the degeneration of man’s teeth began and we are slowly learning now that exercise for the teeth and gums is as necessary for their health as it is for the rest of the body.

Dietetics is, in itself, both an Art and a Science. Food can be prepared so tastefully and its appearance made so pleasing as to become a fit subject for a painter. But the selection of food that shall give the body all the elements it needs in its work of growth and repair, with the greatest economy of effort, of purse, of time, and of energy, needs the trained judgment, the knowledge of comparative values and of chemical combinations possessed by a scientist. This is especially true from the fact that so many bodily ills result from a faulty digestion, due either to the food itself or to the condition of the organs which must handle the food.

The subject is so vast and its ramifications so many that all the resources of chemistry own themselves baffled at some of its intricacies. However, an intelligent working knowledge of the processes undergone by food in its progress through the body, and its transformation into vital force, can be attained by anyone.

This book is the outcome of years of experience in correcting bodily ills caused by wrong hygienic habits. It has been written out of a sincere desire to awaken the every-day individual to the important relation that food bears to his well-being.

Much has been written on this subject by medical men for the medical profession, in language too technical for the layman. It is believed that in this book the layman will find a fund of information hitherto not available to him, in language stripped of technicalities, plain and easily understood. I have tried to make it logical and interesting.

When the American people become convinced that a thing is needed they generally “go after” it, and sooner or later the desired thing is attained. When they arouse themselves to see that the food they eat is pure, well prepared, and taken into digestive systems vigorous by means of proper exercise and fresh air, a new and far more virile race will be the outcome.

Acknowledgment is here made of the valuable assistance of Winfield S. Hall, Ph.D., M.D., Professor of Physiology in the Northwestern Medical School, Lecturer, and Author of Nutrition and Dietetics; of Alida Frances Pattee, late Instructor in Dietetics, Bellevue Training School for Nurses, Bellevue Hospital, New York City, Author of Practical Dietetics.

The tables of Food Values and the classification of foods are kindly furnished by Dr. Hall and used by the courtesy of his publishers, while a few of the recipes are generously furnished by Miss Pattee. Recognition is also made of the good work of Miss Helen Hammel, former dietitian in Wesley Hospital, Chicago, in the preparation of some of the recipes.

The Author.

INTRODUCTION

THE problem of proper nutrition for the body is as vital as any study affecting the morals, health, and consequent power of a nation, since on the quality and quantity of food they assimilate, depend the sustenance, health, and strength of its citizens.

The food eaten by a nation largely determines the character of that nation.

No subject is so vital to the individual, to the family, the community, the nation, as health. No education is so vital as a knowledge of foods, sanitation, hygiene.

Health is the basis of happiness and the attainment of happiness is man’s chief pursuit. The very foundation of national life is the education of its citizens in its preservation. The nation seeks prosperity and happiness—yet true prosperity is based on these fundamentals.

Money can be expended for no object which will yield the nation, or the individual, greater returns than in the acquisition of a knowledge of how to keep well. Health specialists, in the future, will direct their work more to the prevention than to the cure of diseases.

The strongest powers are those which most fully guard the health of their citizens. The endurance of an army lies in the strength of the individual soldier.

The basic work for “preparedness” is in building the bulwarks of physical strength and endurance.

The study of life is of most vital interest. The enjoyment and maintenance of life is inbred. It is intuitive. The infant’s first instinct is the preservation of life; almost immediately he seeks for nourishment.

His body is an ever awakening wonder to him. He begins his education by testing his lungs, by studying his hands, his legs, and his flesh.

The human race spends more time in providing nourishment for the body than in any other line of activity. Yet we are wasteful; we have not studied to make the food yield its greatest nourishment and the body its greatest efficiency.

Unless the system is thoroughly nourished we miss much of the physical satisfaction of life; we miss the joys of mental development, the inspiration of soul, the sense of growth, of freedom, of expansion, and the self-satisfaction of accomplishing. The satisfaction resulting from greatest usefulness and the enjoyment of the results of usefulness, the greatest blessings and the largest measure of life come only to those whose nutriment is proper in quantity and quality, taken properly as to time, and is thoroughly assimilated, because both body and brain are thereby enabled to develop most fully.

The enjoyment of vibrant life, of bodily efficiency, is far beyond the fancied joys of the intemperate or the ascetic.

That one may thoroughly enjoy life in the freedom which comes from perfect activity of bodily functions, it is necessary that proper habits be formed, then the energy of thought is not constantly engaged in deciding what is best. Habit calls for no conscious expenditure of energy.

Nutrition is a broad subject. It means not only that the foods be supplied which contain elements required to rebuild body substance and to create heat and energy, but it embraces, also, the ability of the body to appropriate the foods to its needs.

The study of nutrition in its full sense, therefore, must embrace not only foods, but anatomy and physiology (particularly of the digestive system). A knowledge of chemistry is also necessary that we may know the changes foods undergo in being converted into tissue, heat, and energy.[1] This science is known as Dietetics.

Scientific research along the lines of electricity, psychology, metaphysics, medicine, and art has been tenaciously pursued for centuries; yet scientific study of the natural means of keeping the body in health, that the individual may be in physical, mental, and moral condition to enjoy and to profit by researches made in other lines, has been neglected.

The entire framework of the body—bone, muscle, blood, brain, and nerve—as well as the heat and the mental and physical energy necessary for every motion is supplied from food and drink, and from the oxygen breathed into the lungs.

We are learning that derangements of the body are largely caused by injudicious eating, yet, vital as it is, the subject of foods, except in recent years, has not had a place in the courses of study in our public schools.

We have given much attention to the “pound of cure,” but insufficient attention to the “ounce of prevention.” Man does not enjoy life to its full, nor do his physical or mental efforts yield him his best returns unless his system is thoroughly nourished.

Formerly, the physician gave general directions, or none at all, as to the diet. His directions, when given, were often indefinite because the subject was not definitely understood, due to the fact that the course of instruction in medical colleges contained practically nothing on the subject of foods. This study is not in the curriculum of all of our medical colleges to-day.

Our public-school curriculum contains no more important study than that of health and of the simple, hygienic laws which enable us to retain it. The science of foods in their relation to health, sanitation, and general hygiene should be among the foremost requirements of our public-school courses of study. Mothers’ clubs will find no more interesting or profitable study than Dietetics.

It is coming to be widely recognized that a far larger number of diseases arise from the food habit than from the liquor habit. Many who look with contempt or pity on the victims of alcohol, are themselves diseased of body through the unintelligent use of food.

Habitual overeating not only produces diseases of the digestive organs, from overwork and excessive secretory activity, but also of the excretory and glandular system, as the kidneys and the liver, and may give rise to functional disturbances of the heart.

Food, if taken in greater quantity than the digestive juices can handle, either passes out of the system without being absorbed or it ferments or decomposes, giving rise to constipation, diarrhea, or other intestinal disturbances.

If the stomach and intestines are active and can handle the excess of food, its absorption beyond what the system requires overloads the blood and causes obesity or diseases of the skin and kidneys. It thus brings about abnormal deposits as in gout, or the calculi found in the kidney or the gall-bladder. Biliousness and congestion of the liver may follow, with constant headache, coated tongue, foul breath, and languor of body and of mind.

Many habitually eat too much and take too little fluid, though, due to a greater spread of knowledge, overeating is becoming less common.

On the other hand, an insufficient or illy balanced diet will bring in its train disorders of the system scarcely less harmful. A large number, particularly of young girls, take insufficient food, eat irregularly, and are undernourished.

When one does not eat sufficient food or the proper kind and variety, the tissues of the digestive organs are undernourished and do their work imperfectly.

The undernourished are usually those who work at high tension, those who worry, or those who do not get bodily exercise proportionate to the mental.

Mental workers are liable to become preoccupied and forget to take food. Growing girls who are over-interested in studies, anxious concerning examinations, etc., neglect their meals. Parents are often to blame in these cases by unduly encouraging the intellectual effort.

Members of some religious sects practice undereating as a form of asceticism; many others from poverty are unable to procure a sufficient amount of food.

Too many, if not the majority of those concerned with the purchase and preparation of food, understand but little of food values and the importance of their proper combination. No matter how simple the menu, it should embrace the elements the system needs for its complete sustenance.

The problem of nutrition must be solved largely through chemistry. The health and efficiency of the individual and of the nation depend on careful study of the foods placed on the market, their chemical components, and their possible adulteration.

Happily the United States Government, realizing that its power as a nation depends on the strength and health of its citizens, has established experimental and analytical food departments. As a result of the findings of the government chemists, there was enacted in 1906, the Food and Drugs Act, which has raised the standard of food purity, by prescribing the conditions under which foods may be manufactured and sold. The law compels the maker of artificially colored or preserved food products to correctly label his goods. The national law instigated the passage of various state laws, which have further helped to insure a supply of pure food products; yet we need other laws which shall have greater efficiency and wider scope.

The strength of Germany as a nation is due very largely to the government supervision of foods manufactured and imported.

There is no more important branch of the United States Government than that which protects the health of its citizens.

The custom among some nations of retaining a physician to maintain the health of the family rather than to regain it, to avoid disease rather than to cure it, has its distinct advantages.

We should not be satisfied with anything less than perfect health and we are beginning to realize that this perfect health is a possibility for almost every individual.

In the maintenance of health, as well as in the cure of disease, diet is often more important than drugs.

To-day, scientific knowledge of hygiene and of food values is within the reach of all, and every mother and teacher may learn how to guard the health of those in her charge.

It is necessary to know the comparative values of foods as nutrient agents, in order to maintain our bodies in health and strength, and with economy of digestive effort, as well as efficiency.

There is no study, therefore, more important than that of bodily nutrition, which comprises not only the right proportion of food and drink, but also the manner in which they must be prepared in order to yield the best returns under varying conditions—age, employment, health, and sickness.

The body is certainly a marvelous machine! It is self-building, self-repairing, and, to a degree, self-regulating.

It appropriates to its use foodstuffs for growth and for repair.

It eliminates its waste.

It supplies the energy for rebuilding, and eliminating this waste.

It directs its own emotions.

It supplies the energy for these emotions.

It discriminates in the selection of food and casts out refuse and foodstuffs not needed.

It forms brain cells and creates mental force with which to control the organism.

It keeps in repair the nerves, which are the telegraph wires connecting the brain with all parts of the body.

It converts the potential energy in the food into heat with which to keep itself warm.

Withal it is not left entirely free to do its work automatically. It has within it a higher intelligence, a spiritual force, which may definitely hamper its workings by getting a wrong control of the telegraph wires, thus interfering with the digestion, the heart action, the lungs, and all metabolic changes. The right exercise of this higher intelligence, in turn, depends on the condition of the body, because when the mechanism of the body is out of repair it hampers mental and spiritual control.

About one-third of the food eaten goes to maintain the life of the body in its incessant work of repairing and rebuilding, the remaining two-thirds being held in reserve for other activities.

One of the most remarkable and the least understood of any of the assimilative and absorptive functions, is the ability shown by one part of the body to appropriate from the foods the elements necessary for its own rebuilding, while the same elements pass through other organs untouched. The body has the power, also, not only to make use of the foods, but to use up the blood tissue itself. Just how this is done is also a mystery.

There is surely a great lesson in industry here, and one of the most profound studies in economics, physics, and chemistry.

Habitual worriers use up force and become thin more quickly than those whose work is muscular. Those who spend their lives fretting over existing conditions, or worrying over things which never happen, use up much brain force and create disagreeable conditions within, resulting in digestive ills. These again react on the body and continue the process of impoverishment of the tissues.

Certain it is that improper foods affect the disposition, retard the spiritual growth, and change the current of one’s life and of the lives about one. Therefore the intelligent care of the body—the medium through which the soul communicates with material surroundings—is a Christian duty.

“The priest with liver trouble and the parishioner with indigestion, do not evidence that skilled Christian living so essential to the higher life.”

Man has become so engrossed and hedged about with the complex demands of social, civic, and, domestic life, all of which call for undue energy and annoyance and lead him into careless or extravagant habits of eating and living, that he forgets to apply the intelligence which he puts into his business to the care of the machine which does the work. Yet the simple laws of nature in the care of the body are plainer and easier to follow than the complex habits which he forms.

The “simple life” embraces the habits of eating as well as the habits of doing and of thinking.

The whole problem of perfect health and efficient activity is in keeping the supply of assimilated food equal to the demand, in keeping a forceful circulation that the nourishment may freely reach all tissues and the waste be eliminated, and in full breathing habits that sufficient oxygen be supplied to put the waste in condition for elimination.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] It is impossible in this book to go into the anatomy and physiology of digestion exhaustively. The reader is respectfully referred to Miss Cocroft’s book on Let’s Be Healthy. This traces the food through the digestive canal, indicating the juices which act on it, putting it into the state in which it can be absorbed by the body and appropriated to its various uses.

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

What to Eat and When

CHAPTER I
PURPOSES OF FOOD

The purposes of food are:

To supply the material out of which the body may rebuild the tissues.

To produce heat, and to liberate muscular and mental energy.

Every particle of body substance is constantly changing. The new material for cells and tissues, the substance to supply the energy needed in the metabolic work of tearing down and rebuilding, the energy used in the digestive process of converting the food into condition to be assimilated, and the energy used in muscular, brain, and nerve movement must all be supplied by food.

Every effort of the brain in the process of thinking, every motion, and every muscular movement requires energy which the food must supply.

The body is composed of a vast number of cells varying according to the tissue or organ in which they are found. The characteristic of all living matter is that it constantly reproduces itself. Cells perform their appointed work, wear out, and must be replaced by new ones or derangements follow.

The new cells constantly being formed, increase in size and in so doing push the worn-out, dying, and dead cells out of the way. The process of building and eliminating continues within the body and on its surface every instant of life.

An idea of the number of dead cells constantly being thrown off from every part of the body may be gained by noticing the amount of dead skin cast off. The fine scales of “scarf” or “dead” skin, which we easily rub off in a friction bath, are composed of these dead cells which have been crowded out by the hosts of vital cells constantly forming beneath. The process is the same in every tissue and organ. The dead or worn-out matter within the body is burned by oxygen and put in condition to be carried by the blood to the organs of elimination, the kidneys, intestines, lungs, and skin.

Much waste is eliminated in liquid form through the sweat glands. It is said that stokers throw off four pounds of water and waste a day through the skin.

In the growing child the process of building and of eliminating is active and rapid. In the youth it is less rapid, in the adult still less, but unless the process is kept active, stagnation and death ensue.

Daily exercise is necessary to keep up the body activities; yet very few take the trouble to secure daily a complete, thorough circulation of blood, especially through the vital organs and the deeper tissues. Perfect circulation is the key-note of health.

Activity of any kind necessitates the expenditure of energy. The process is a chemical one and in all chemical processes heat is necessary to cause the decomposition of elements and their recomposition into different substances.

Heat in its turn has two functions. It enables the chemical changes to be carried on which fit the food for the use of the various tissues, and it burns to an ash the worn-out products of the body’s activity, fitting them for elimination.

It keeps the tissues flexible and the secretions fluid; coagulation takes place when the secretions become cold.

As previously stated, food in the body, then, is needed for two purposes:

(1) to build and maintain the cell until its work is done;

(2) to furnish the heat necessary to decompose the food into its elements, and to produce the energy by which all the body processes are carried on.

Food Elements

That the food may be appropriated by the body it must be not only proper in kind and quantity, but the body must also be in condition to digest, absorb, and assimilate it and to eliminate the waste, otherwise the body needs are not met.

It is the nourishment which the body assimilates and appropriates to its needs which counts in food economy, not necessarily the amount consumed.

Therefore if the food is to economically serve its purpose, the body must be in a condition to digest and assimilate it—this condition depends largely on perfect circulation, correct position of organs, and correct breathing habits.

Of the fifteen to twenty substances contained in foods and comprised in the body, the principal ones are oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, chlorin, sodium, potassium, magnesium, iron, calcium, phosphorus, and sulphur. The differences in the forms of matter lie in the proportions in which these elements are combined.

Those containing the largest proportion of nitrogen are called Nitrogenous foods or Protein—such as meat, eggs, and some vegetables.

Those containing the largest proportion of carbon are known as Carbonaceous—such as cereals, sugar, and fat.

The four food elements, indispensable to life, either of plant or animal, are oxygen, hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen.

Carbon combined with oxygen forms carbon dioxid.

Oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxid largely form the air.

Oxygen and hydrogen form water.

Calcium, iron, magnesium, sodium, and potassium are used in the formation of the various tissues and secretions of the body.

The substances contained in living organisms are the same as those in inorganic matter, only in different complexities as appropriated to the needs of each organism.

The difference between living and non-living matter is in the relative proportion and arrangement of the same elements.

Before it is fit to supply the needs of the body, the raw material must undergo a chemical change.

It has been demonstrated by scientific investigation that no unorganized elements, such as pure nitrogen, pure iron or magnesium, are assimilated by the system and converted into its various structures.

While the body needs carbon, it cannot use coal; it needs nitrogen, yet it cannot appropriate it to rebuilding bone and muscle, until, by chemical action with other elements, it has been converted into complex substances called proteins.

The muscles, ligaments, and labor-performing structures contain the largest amount of nitrogen.

The fat contains the largest amount of carbon.

The brain, the nerves, and the bones contain the largest proportion of phosphorus compounds.

Yet, while the brain contains phosphorus, and the tissues nitrogen, the brain cannot be built up by eating elementary phosphorus, nor the muscles by pure nitrogen, but compounds rich in phosphorus or nitrogen may be utilized.

Plants use the simple compounds of the earth, air, and soil, and, within their own cells, build them up into such complex substances as starch, sugar, protein, fat, and salts, putting them in condition for man and other animals to appropriate to their use.

All plant life is compounded from the elements in the soil, air, and water, by the action of the sun’s rays. The rays of heat and light store something of their power in latent heat and energy in these plant compounds.

The end of plant life is the completion of its compounds—when it has matured them, the plant dies.

All organic matter is thus formed by the action of the sun’s rays on inorganic matter.

The gluten of wheat is formed from the chemical union of nitrogen in the air and nitrogen in the soil with other substances.

The starch of wheat and other grains is from carbon which the plant has taken from the soil and combined with other substances.

All meats are largely derived from plants which have appropriated the elements from the soil, water, and air. The chemical processes of the animal convert the energy latent in the plant foods into the more concentrated form of meat. The animal thus performs a part of the chemical work for man—the digestive organs of one animal convert the food contained in certain plants, into a substance more easily assimilated by another animal.

Man would need to eat a large amount of nitrogen-containing plants in order to get as much protein as is contained in one egg or in a piece of lean meat the size of an egg. It is because the nitrogen is in such condensed form in meat and eggs that one is likely to take more than the system can handle, if he eats too freely of these two foods, particularly of meat. We will discuss this question more fully under “Proteins.”

Most domestic animals take their food elements from air and water, as well as from the compounds which the plants have formed, while wild animals and some domestic ones, such as hogs and chickens, make use of meat as well.

The greater part of muscle, nerve, and gland is composed of protein.

When the muscles are exercised constantly they use up their protein and must have it resupplied, or the muscle substance will waste. When the muscles are exercised freely, as in the laborer, or the athlete, they need more building material.

The skeleton is composed largely of deposited salts, as calcium. If, therefore, the growing child be not supplied with a sufficient amount of this substance, the bones will be weak and liable to deformity and the teeth will be slow in coming or will be small and malformed. Children need foods rich in lime.

The elements which supply heat and keep up muscular activity are starches, fats, and sugars.

It must be apparent to every thoughtful person, that, since the nerves, muscles, and glands are composed largely of protein and the skeleton largely of calcium salts, in order to furnish the body with the elements necessary for growth and repair, all of these elements, as also the energy-producing substances, must be provided.

Each individual, therefore, should learn how much he requires to replace his daily waste, both for rebuilding tissue and for supplying heat and energy.

The day laborer, though he may do more muscular work than an athlete in training, expends scarcely any nervous energy. Therefore he needs less protein in his diet than one does who expends both nervous and muscular activity, as does the athlete.

CHAPTER II
CLASSIFICATION OF FOOD ELEMENTS

By foodstuffs are meant the chemical elements appropriated by the animal for the use of the body, as previously described.

By foods are meant those articles of diet found in the market which contain the chemical elements used by the body in various combinations. Bread, for example, contains all of the foodstuffs and has been called the staff of life, because it sustains life. This refers to bread made from the whole of the grain. White bread, as commonly eaten, is not the “staff of life.”

Foods may contain elements, not foodstuffs, and not used by the body, but cast out as waste. Certain foods, such as sugar, corn-starch, olive oil, and egg albumin, contain only one foodstuff, as will be noted in the following classification, in which the foodstuffs are grouped according to the body uses.

The classification of foods is based on the principal organic foodstuffs they contain. The preponderance of the elements in any one food determines its chief use in the body.

It will be remembered that the chief uses of foods are to produce heat and energy, to build the tissue of the growing child, and to repair the tissues in the child and the adult.

Nearly all foods are made up of a combination of substances.

The following tabulations give the classification of foods based on their predominating elements.

Nitrogenous foods:

Lean meat
Eggs
Gluten

Carbonaceous foods:

Sugars
Starches
Root and tuberous vegetables
Green vegetables
Fruits
Fats

Carbo-nitrogenous foods:

Cereals
Legumes
Nuts
Milk

Vegetables are mixtures of sugars and starches;

Fruits are mixtures of sugars, vegetable acids, and salts;

Milk, legumes, cereals, and nuts contain a more equal division of sugars, fats, and proteins, and are therefore represented as carbo-nitrogenous;

Lean meats, with the exception of shellfish, contain no starch, but all meats contain protein, fat, and water.

In the above tabulation, examples are given of foodstuffs which are almost pure representatives of their classes.

Corn-starch, sago, and tapioca are practically pure starch, containing very little of any other element;

Glucose, cane sugar, syrups, and honey are almost pure sugar;

Butter, lard, and olive oil are nearly all pure fat;

Egg albumin, gluten of flour, and lean meat are almost pure protein.

As previously stated, however, no food contains but one element of foodstuffs.

NITROGENOUS FOODSTUFFS OR PROTEINS

Protein is a complex combination consisting of seventeen elements. The digestive organs split up protein into these seventeen substances, and they enter the blood thus split. When they reach the tissues, each tissue selects the elements it needs and recombines them according to its own peculiar functional uses.

Meat and eggs contain the complete protein.

Protein exists in all vegetables, but few vegetables contain protein which is made up of the whole seventeen substances, hence more vegetable food has to be eaten to secure the protein in the quantity and combination necessary to maintain life.

Of these seventeen elements the predominating ones are nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphates. The predominance of nitrogen has given the proteins the name nitrogenous.

Proteins are the tissue builders.

In this connection it may be well to state that blood is a tissue; thus meat and eggs build the blood, as well as muscle and sinew.

All nitrogenous foods contain considerable carbon—mostly in the form of fat in the meat elements—but the carbonaceous foods contain so little protein that the protein elements do not appreciably enter into the nutrition.

Carbon and nitrogen in the carbo-nitrogenous foods are about equal in proportion.

The nitrogenous or protein elements in the body constitute about one-fifth of its weight. They form the basis of blood, lymph, muscle, sinew, bone, skin, cartilage, and other tissues.

Worn-out body tissue is constantly being torn down and eliminated and the protein in the foods must daily furnish material for repair, as well as for building new tissue.

A young animal’s first need is for growth, as it has not learned to exercise sufficiently to use much latent energy. The first food it receives is an animal product—milk to babes and other mammals—while the young chicken or bird is nourished by the yolk of the egg contained within it. Sufficient yolk substance remains within the chick when it is hatched to sustain its life for the first day or two.

Nitrogenous foods are more concentrated and contain less waste; thus a smaller bulk is required than of vegetables and fruits. According to recent experiments, the average adult requires from two to four ounces of nitrogenous foods a day, to repair the waste. Happily, when more is consumed, the system has the power up to a certain limit (depending on the physical condition and the daily activity), to eliminate an excess.

It is needless to say that if the daily waste is not replaced, digestion and nutrition suffer. The system must have the two to four ounces necessary to supply the nitrogen daily excreted, or the tissues themselves will be consumed.

The proteins, of which meat is the principal member, are classified as:

Albuminoids: albumin (white of eggs), casein (curd of milk), myosin (the basis of lean meat and gluten of wheat);

Gelatinoids: (connective tissue of meat);

Extractives: (appetizing and flavoring elements).

If protein material is taken into the body in excess of its needs the excess is used as fuel. While vastly more expensive, an excess of protein is worth no more as fuel than starch is; 1 gram of protein produces 4.1 calories of heat, no more than 1 gram of starch.

The proteins produce heat and energy when the supply of sugars, starches, and fats is exhausted, but proteins alone form muscle and the larger part of blood and sinew. They are, in this sense, the most important of foods; they are also the most costly.

An excess of protein, usually eaten in the daily intake of food, then, is of no practical use and can be eliminated with great benefit to the pocketbook. Meat once a day is sufficient. The excessive consumption of meat can be lessened with no lack of nutrition to the body. The trouble is that meat is the first thing thought of for a meal; it is easily prepared and housewives are not willing to use the thought and effort necessary to secure a balanced meal without it.

CARBONACEOUS FOODSTUFFS

The carbonaceous foods are those used by the body for heat and energy and are so named because they contain a large proportion of carbon—the heat-producing element.

It is the carbon in wood, which, uniting with oxygen, produces heat and light.

The carbonaceous foods are all composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the difference between them being in the different proportions in which these elements are combined.

They are divided into two classes, Carbohydrates and Fats.

Carbohydrates

The carbohydrates embrace the sugars and starches and include such substance as the starches of vegetables and grains (notably corn, rice, wheat, and the root vegetables), and the sugar of milk, of fruits, vegetables, and the sap of trees. Their chief office is to create energy.

The starches are converted into sugar, so they are together given the one name of carbohydrate. The name means that carbon and hydrogen are contained in them in such a proportion that when oxygen unites with the hydrogen, water is produced and the carbon is liberated. In this chemical process heat is produced. One gram of carbohydrate produces 4.1 calories of heat.

They are almost entirely absent from meat and eggs, the animal having converted them into fats.

When the digestive organs are in a normal condition carbohydrates are easily digested.[2] They do not play a large part in the growth of the body tissues, but they are utilized by the body to spare the consumption of the fat which is stored in the tissues as a reserve. This explains their action in preserving but not producing fat. When there is an excess of fat and the desire is to reduce, the carbohydrates should be limited that the body may call on the reserve fat for heat and energy.

Few realize that after the starches and fats have been consumed in heat and energy the tissues are consumed.

The assimilation of the carbohydrates is almost complete, so that the energy derived from them may be closely calculated.

SUGAR

There are many varieties of sugar. Those commonly used as foods are, cane sugar (sucrose), fruit sugar (levulose), sugar of milk (lactose), sugar of malt (maltose), sugar of grapes or corn (glucose), maple sugar, honey, and saccharin—a coal-tar product. They are derived from plants, from trees, and from tubers or other vegetables.

Cane sugar (sucrose) is derived from the juice of the sugar cane and from beets. One-third of the world’s supply of sugar is derived from the sugar cane and two-thirds from beets. From two to ten per cent. of sucrose may be obtained from the maple tree. It is also found in the sugar pea.

All sugars are carbohydrates—carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen—the oxygen and hydrogen being in the proportions which form water (two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen).

Brown sugar is granulated sugar in an early stage of refinement.

Maple sugar is obtained by boiling down the sap of the maple tree. It is often adulterated with other sugars or with glucose from corn, because they are cheaper. This adulteration does not make it unwholesome, but causes it to lose its distinct maple taste.

The nutritive value of sugar is said to be about ninety-five per cent.

Glucose was formerly derived almost entirely from grapes. Later the process was discovered by which the starch in corn was converted into glucose. It is produced so much more cheaply from corn that this is now the chief source of supply.

Glucose is also found in most of the fruits, in combination with other sugars. It needs little change to be absorbed by the system and quickly overloads the digestive apparatus if much of it is eaten.

It is pure, wholesome, and cheap, and for this reason it is often combined with other sugars. It is not so sweet as cane sugar, though just as nutritious. Many of the syrups on the market are made from it.

Candy is often made from glucose instead of from molasses or cane sugar.

Much candy, unless one is actively exercising, tends to produce indigestion.

While glucose is wholesome, it ferments readily.

Before sugar can be used by the system, it is changed into the easily absorbed form of the sugar in grapes, by a ferment in the small intestine. Hence digested sugar in the body is called grape sugar.

Milk sugar needs less chemical change than other sugars and is taken almost at once into the circulation. It is contained in the natural food for the infant.

The digested sugar (grape sugar) is further changed in the body into glycogen. When an excess of sugar or starch is consumed, it is stored within the body as glycogen, until required.

Sugar is perhaps a better food than starch, because less force is required for its digestion and it is easily assimilated, being more readily converted into dextrose than are starches.[3] Moreover it furnishes the heat and energy needed by those having small power to digest starch.

Sugar is soon oxidized, and, for this reason may be eaten by those who need to use an extra amount of muscular strength, or to get strength quickly. It yields heat and energy within thirty minutes after eating, and in times of great exertion or exhausting labor, the rapidity with which it is assimilated gives it advantage over starch. Because it is so quickly converted into energy it is valuable for children at active play.

Experiments with soldiers on forced marches, and in Arctic explorations, have shown the value of sugar as a food, in enabling the men to withstand hunger, thirst, and fatigue. Taken in excess, however, particularly by those of sedentary habits, it clogs the system as does any other excess of material, creating difficulties for the liver and kidneys.

During muscular activity, four times as much sugar is consumed in the body as is ordinarily used in the body processes.

Used in limited quantities, therefore, according to the muscular or brain power exercised, sugar is one of the best foods for the production of energy.

When much sugar is eaten the starches and fats in the food should be lessened to avoid overloading the system.

When eaten in excess, sugar may temporarily appear in the urine unaltered.

It might be inferred that, as all starch must be converted to sugar before it can be used by the body, starches might be discarded and replaced by sugars. A small quantity of sugar, however, soon surfeits the appetite, and if the foods were confined to those having a surplus of sugars, sufficient food would not be eaten to supply other needs of the body. This lack of appetite occasioned by an excess of sugar is due, partly, to the fact that the gastric juice is not secreted so freely when there is much sugar in the stomach.

Because of the slower secretion of gastric juice and the surfeit of the appetite occasioned by them, sweetened foods should not be used at the beginning of a meal, and, while a moderate amount of sugar is desirable, a surfeit will cause indigestion. This is particularly liable when one eats sufficient starch and sugar at a meal and then eats candy between meals.

Sugar is so readily oxidized and supplies heat and energy so promptly, that the fats stored in the tissues are not called on until the latent energy in the sugar is used. The power of sugar to fatten thus lies in sparing the use of body fat; when starch and fat are used in addition to sugar an excess of fat quickly results. Therefore, those who wish to reduce in flesh should eat sparingly of sugar that the starches and fats may be used to furnish energy, but sugar should be as freely used as the system can handle it, by those who wish to build up in flesh.

Broadly speaking, about one-fourth of a pound of sugar, daily, in connection with other foods, is well utilized by the system, the quantity depending on whether one leads an active or a sedentary life.

The natural flavor of fruits and grains is very largely destroyed by sugar, which is used too freely on many articles of diet. Sugar should never be added to fruits while cooking, if intended for immediate use, as the acids of the fruits neutralize a portion of the sugar. More sugar is thus used than is needed after the cooking process is completed.

The sweet taste in all fruits and vegetables is due to the presence of sugar. Sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, grapes, figs, and dates are especially rich in sugar, and when these are furnished with a meal, in any appreciable quantity, the starches should be restricted—notably bread, Irish potatoes, and rice.

Those who do hard work in the open air, because of the increased oxidation, can consume larger quantities of sugar in pie or other pastry, which ordinarily would be difficult to digest. One who lives an indoor life should refrain from an undue indulgence in such foods.

For one who is undernourished, sugar is a desirable food, if the starch be diminished in proportion as the amount of sugar is increased; but the tendency in sweetening foods is to take more starch also than the system requires, since it is the carbohydrate foods which are ordinarily sweetened—not the proteins.

On account of their latent heat and energy, sugars are more desirable in cold weather than in warm. For this reason Nature supplies them more abundantly in the root vegetables, eaten more freely in cold weather. More puddings and heavier desserts may be eaten in cold weather.

The desire of the child for sweets is a natural one, because the child uses much energy, and sugar supplies this energy with less tax of the digestive system. When the child begins to eat more solid foods, if sugar is used in abundance for sweetening, he is no longer attracted by the mild sweetness of fresh milk, and it is well not to sweeten cereals or other foods, also to limit other sweets, when the child turns against milk, in order to restore the taste for this valuable food. Many authorities state that a child, up to its third year, should not be allowed to taste artificial sweets, in order that the appetite may not be perverted from the natural sweets of milk.

Sugar is better supplied the child in a lump or in home-made molasses candy, rather than in the sweetening of porridge, oatmeal, or bread and milk, etc.

Molasses is readily absorbed and is mildly laxative, and when young children are not allowed to eat too much, it assists in keeping the bowels open.

Sweet fruits, fully ripened, contain much sugar and should be freely given to the child.

Starch

Starch is one of the most important carbohydrates. It is formed from the carbon dioxid and water in the air and in the soil by the chemical action of the sun’s rays on the cells of living plants.

As stated, corn-starch, sago, tapioca, and arrowroot are practically pure starch. Rice is almost pure starch.

Corn-starch is obtained from young maturing corn; tapioca comes from a tropical plant, cassava; sago from the pith of the sago palm; arrowroot from a plant of the same name, a native of the West Indies.

Starch lacks flavor and for this reason all starchy foods are seasoned with salt. Salt increases the activity of the saliva and pancreatic juices.

All starches must undergo much chemical change by action of the saliva and the intestinal juices, before they can be used by the body.

The digestion is begun by the saliva in the mouth and is continued in the stomach, by the saliva, until the gastric secretions begin to act.

Starch is not acted on by the gastric juice but passes unchanged into the intestines, where it is converted, by the pancreatic juice, into dextrin, maltose, and glucose. It is thus absorbed into the blood.

After the digested starch passes into the blood it is taken to the liver and is there changed into glycogen and is stored in reserve. When the system needs to produce energy it is first furnished by the glycogen. When this is exhausted the fats and proteins are used.

The starches and sugars then are really the energy “reserves” of the body, any excess over the daily needs being stored until required.

Starchy foods should not be given to any one in whom, from disease or derangement, the starch-converting ferments, ptyalin in the saliva and pancreatin in the pancreatic juice, are lacking.

Because the child has not developed the ferment in sufficient quantities necessary for starch digestion, starchy food must not be given to a child under twelve to eighteen months; at least not until he has teeth and chews his food. Then he should be given starchy food in the form of a crust or hard cracker which he chews thoroughly and mixes with saliva.

Potatoes or bananas which the child does not masticate, should not be given him under the age of two years.

Fat

Fat is the most concentrated form of fuel and is readily oxidized. It has about twice the fuel value of carbohydrates. It is almost pure carbon, hence less chemical work is required to convert it into fuel, but more oxygen is needed.

The average fat person does not breathe deeply and does not take in sufficient oxygen to cause a combustion of the fat and produce energy. He is thus inclined to be lethargic.

A pound of fat has about three times as much fuel value as a pound of wheat flour, which consists largely of starch.

Common examples of fat are butter, cream, the fat of meat and of nuts, and the oil of grains and seeds—notably the cocoanut, olive, and oatmeal.

Fat forms about twenty per cent. of the weight of the normal body.

The body cannot remain in health for long unless a proper amount of fatty food is eaten. Muscular and nerve action, and the formation of the digestive secretions are all dependent on the energy derived from the combustion of fat. Its use in this way spares the tissues from destruction in the chemical processes necessary to life.

Both carbohydrates and fats are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the difference being that there is less oxygen in fat. One pound of starch requires one and one fifth pounds of oxygen for perfect combustion, while one pound of suet requires three pounds of oxygen. One ounce of fat yields two and one-half times as much energy as an ounce of sugar or starch.

Fats are not digested in the stomach. The connective tissue about the fat is dissolved here, and the fat is passed on into the small intestine, where it is acted on by the bile and the intestinal juices. These first change the fat into an emulsion and then into the form of soap and glycerin. In this saponified form, it is in condition to be absorbed and carried to the tissues, where it is assimilated and used in energy. The commercial production of soap from oil is similar to the chemical change in the body of fat into soap.

The supply of fat stored in the body depends on the quantity consumed with the food, on the quantity used up in heat and energy in muscular or mental exercise. The quantity assimilated depends somewhat on the condition of the nerves. If the nerves are weak, they do not strongly direct digestion and assimilation and less fat is used in the digestive and assimilative processes; thus, in case of weak nerves more fat is often stored in the tissues. An excess of fat often indicates sluggish nerve activity.

Manual laborers require more fat for energy than do people whose habits are sedentary. School-children, or children who play hard, should have sufficient fat and sugar.

Butter and Cream. The fat present in milk, depends of course, on the quality of the milk. There is as much butter-fat in a glass of fresh Jersey milk as in a glass of cream from the milk of some cows. The cream from some Jersey cows is eighty per cent. butter-fat.

Skimmed milk contains very little fat. If milk is drunk by the adult, as a means of storing up more fat within the body, the cream, if assimilated, should be stirred into it.

The Fat of Meat. This should be thoroughly cooked. All meats in the process of baking or frying should be covered, in order to retain the moisture. The fat in well-roasted beef is nutritious, but to make fat easily digestible it should be well masticated so as to break up the tissue fibers which surround it.

While fried foods are difficult of digestion (see page [192]) because the surface albumin is coagulated and the hot fat forms a coating around it, making it difficult for the digestive juices to reach the tissue, the fat of bacon is more easily dissolved because of the delicacy of the fibers surrounding the fat cells. If thinly sliced and fully immersed in its own grease in the process of frying, bacon is an easily digested fat. The process of smoking the bacon renders it easier of digestion.

Cooked bone-marrow is an easily digested form of fat which is usually relished by those to whom any other fat is repulsive. It is useful in some forms of anemia, as it contains considerable iron.

Eels, salmon, and mackerel contain much fat.

The Eskimos extensively use both whale and seal oil as a food.

The yolks of eggs are also rich in fat.

Cod-Liver Oil, pressed from the liver of the codfish, is easily absorbed and assimilated by some. The odor is not pleasant and a little lemon juice, salt, baking soda, or any flavoring substance may be added to make it palatable. The pure oil taken in this way is, perhaps, preferable to the prepared emulsions.

Olive Oil is derived from ripe olives. It is often used when cod-liver oil is not well borne. Many take olive oil for the purpose of rounding out the figure with fat. If the system will assimilate fat, taken in quantities, the fat may be stored; but, as a rule, one is underweight because of a failure to assimilate the regular diet and overloading the digestive organs with fat will not cause a better assimilation. If the lack of flesh is due to sluggish assimilation exercise should always accompany a diet for the building of flesh.

Olive oil, in moderation, is a good food when much heat and energy are required, but if one’s occupation is sedentary, much fat is not necessary.

Cotton-seed Oil is often substituted or mixed with the cheaper grades of olive oil. It is wholesome, if fresh, but has not the pleasing flavor of the olive.

Nut Oils are good, but, with the exception of peanut butter, are not often used. English walnuts, hickory nuts, pecans, cocoanuts, and Brazil nuts contain much oil. Nut oils are not well borne by some, hence nuts must be sparingly used by them. If taken they should be used with salt, and be thoroughly masticated.

Almond oil and olive oil are used in cooking, to some extent.

To summarize—digested sugar is called dextrose or glucose; digested starch becomes first dextrin, then maltose (animal sugar); digested protein is peptone; and digested fat is saponified fat.

WATER

No food element is more important for the needs of the body than water. It is composed of oxygen and hydrogen. It forms the large part of the blood and lymph.

The body will subsist for weeks on the food stored in its tissues; it will even consume the tissues themselves, but it would soon burn itself up without water, and the thirst after a few days without it almost drives one insane.

Though it produces force only indirectly, it is entitled to be classed as a food, because it composes about two-thirds of the weight of the body and a large part of all the tissues and secretions. Yeo estimates that the supply of water to the body should be averaged at half an ounce for each pound of body weight.

It has been estimated that from four to five pints of water are excreted each day by the body and therefore a similar amount should be consumed daily. The average individual at normal exercise, requires about seventy one and one half ounces of water daily, which equals about nine glasses (one glass of water weighs one-half pound). Some of this may be obtained from the food.

By reference to Tables I to V it will be noted that water forms a large percentage of all food, particularly of green vegetables and fruits.

In order that the body may do efficient work in digestion and in the distribution of the nutrient elements of the foods, and that the evaporation from the body may be maintained, the water in the foods, together with the beverages drunk, should consist of about seventy-five per cent. liquid to twenty-five per cent. nutrient elements, or about three times as much in weight as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates combined.

Much of the water taken passes through the system without chemical change and is constantly being thrown off by the skin, lungs, kidneys, and intestines.

Some of the water is split up into hydrogen and oxygen to unite with other substances in the chemical changes carried on during the process of digestion, and some water is obtained from the food by the union of hydrogen and oxygen liberated by the action of the digestive juices.

Few people give much thought to its resupply; yet, ignorant of the cause, they suffer from its loss, in imperfect digestion and assimilation, and in kidney and intestinal difficulties. If it is withheld from the diet for a while, marked changes occur in the structure and processes of the body. The effect is seen in the lessening of the secretions, the increasing dryness of all the tissues, including the nerves, and if the lack is long continued, in progressive emaciation, weakness, and death.

Water is the heat regulator of the body, and the more energy used, either in work or in play which results in more heat and evaporation, the more water is required. An animal, if warm, immediately seeks water.

It is constantly being used in the body to form solutions in which the waste products are held so that the eliminative organs may dispose of them.

It is the chief agent in increasing the peristaltic action of both the stomach and intestines, thus aiding in mixing the food with the digestive juices and assisting the movement along the alimentary canal.

It increases the flow of saliva and of the digestive juices and aids these juices in reaching every particle of food.

It dissolves the foods, and helps in the distribution of food materials throughout the body, carrying them in the blood and the lymph from the digestive organs to the tissues, where they are assimilated.