THE FOOD QUESTION

Letter from Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford University, and first assistant to Herbert Hoover, in Food Administration, to the chairman of the Pacific Press Publishing Committee, after reading the proofs of this book.

The
FOOD QUESTION

Health and Economy
BY EIGHT SPECIALISTS

"Eat ye that which is good."
"That thou mayest prosper and be in health."
"Eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness."
"Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost."

Copyright 1917 by
Pacific Press Publishing Association
Mountain View, California
Kansas City, Missouri   Portland, Oregon   Brookfield, Illinois
Calgary, Alberta, Canada   Cristobal, Canal Zone

CONTENTS

Publishers' Foreword

This book was planned before Food Conservation was by the mass considered seriously. The writers of the various articles are thoroughly qualified to speak where they have spoken. They are practical, conscientious, Christian, and have at heart the best in the needs of humanity. Every one strikes a major chord in the song of healthful, economical living. The recipes are from the author of "Food and Cookery," who has had a score of years' experience in every station and phase of the preparation of food, under French, English, German, and Spanish chefs. He has been second cook in the Calumet Club of Chicago, the California Club, Los Angeles, and in many leading hotels in various cities. For ten years, he has given his best thought and study to the preparation of the best in food, scientific, palatable, wholesome, and economic, most of this time in the Sanitarium and College of Medical Missionaries, Loma Linda, California. Special attention is called to the valuable tables of Food Elements, and to the newly demonstrated values of vitamines and the substances which destroy them.

We are grateful for the kind word spoken by Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford University, and first assistant to Mr. Hoover in the Federal Food Administration Department; also for the help and suggestions of Dr. Newton Evans, president of the College of Medical Evangelists, of Loma Linda, California.

The little book will, we believe, not only meet present needs, but be a safe counselor in the years to come.

Hoover
says—

© International Film

"Let the American woman stop, before anything is thrown away; and let her ask herself, 'Can it be used in my home, in some other home, or in the production of further food supply by feeding it to animals used also for food?'

"Let her order her meals so that there will be plenty—for there is plenty—but not too much.

"The intelligent woman of America must make a proper study of food ratios, so that the most nutritious foods will appear in their proper proportions on the home table.

"The man who complains at the result of his wife's efforts to conserve food is doing her an inexcusable injury. He should never hesitate to coöperate in her wise conservation plans."

Wilson says—

"In no direction can they [the women of America] so greatly assist as by enlisting in the service of the food administration and cheerfully accepting its direction and advice. By so doing, they will increase the surplus of food available for our own army and for exports to the allies. To provide adequate supplies for the coming year is of absolutely vital importance to the conduct of the war; and without a very conscientious elimination of waste and very strict economy in our food consumption, we cannot hope to fulfill this primary duty."

FOOD ECONOMY

by
E. A. SUTHERLAND, A. B., M. D.
of the State Bureau of
Food Conservation of Tennessee

From the days of ancient Egypt, when Joseph, who stood at the head of the great food conservation movement of the time, called the attention of the world to the need of food economy, down through history to the present time, the human race has passed through numerous crises when the questions of food production and food economy have been vital. That Hebrew, promoted to the first place in the Egyptian empire because of his wonderful grasp of a world problem and his executive ability, enabled that kingdom to feed the world. America to-day, as Egypt of old, is an international granary, and is asked to feed the nations; and her population—every man, woman, and child—must coöperate with America's Joseph to-day in meeting the situation by proper production, proper conservation, and strict economy. "This war is a food war even more than it is a gun war." Let us fight to save lives. That is the battle to be won through food economy.

It was when the Roman world was running riot that, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, Christ gave His wonderful lesson on the subject of food conservation. We call it a miracle when with five thousand men, besides the women and the children, seated about Him, He fed the multitudes. That same power is to-day, and always has been, feeding the men of earth. From a basket of seed, each recurring harvest puts thousands of loaves of bread into the hands of the world's hungry; the two small fishes continue to multiply; rich and poor alike are fed by the great Provider. And now as then, after human wants are met, the mandate goes forth, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." Economy is again being preached as it was once taught on the shores of Galilee. There has been started a great educational movement for increased food production. But that is only a part of the message. "Gather up the fragments," prevent waste, utilize the scraps, the gospel of a clean plate,—these are all familiar phrases in the great conservation movement of to-day. By many, food conservation and food economy are deemed not only national problems, but a part of the divine message taught by Christ and His disciples.

The great world war which began in 1914 has compelled every nation to halt and consider its national habits.

Undoubtedly the United States is the most prodigal of nations. Approximately sixty per cent of its population is now urban. Simple rural life is practically gone; and those artificial and extravagant standards of the city which destroy body, mind, and soul have taken its place. "Fullness of bread and abundance of idleness," two of the reasons assigned by the Scriptures for the downfall of Sodom, are conditions which to-day are ruining American civilization. No other nation has ever indulged such extravagance and prodigality as has the United States. We search the world over for table delicacies. American inventive genius has made it possible to have foods from all parts of the world, both in season and out of season. The arts of canning and preserving and the making of factory foods have loaded our cupboard shelves with eatables of which our fathers never dreamed.

While this interchange has its advantages, and we should appreciate the privilege of eating the wholesome products of other countries, yet when easy methods of transportation lead people to limit their productions to money crops, forsaking the raising of their own food, a wrong principle has been introduced. The benefit to be derived from this variety of imported food is neutralized by the extravagant habits and tastes thus cultivated.

Economy of Food Elements

Man is made from the dust of the earth; and by divine law, his body continues to build and rebuild from chemically organized soil. To be intelligent, food economists require a knowledge of the four food elements,—proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and minerals,—and the relation each sustains to the human body. Later chapters contain valuable instruction in these respects.

It is poor economy to allow valuable mineral salts to be removed from flour by milling, from rice by polishing, and from vegetables by wrong methods of cooking. These minerals are necessary for the development of the child, for the preservation of teeth and bones, for high efficiency in the nervous system, and for a proper functioning of the various organs in the body. There is no economy in buying denatured grain, even though it is put up in cartons, at ten times the price of the natural grain.

"Put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite." Stop the immense waste of strength, energy, money, and time due to mere gratification of appetite. Stop preparing food that is intended simply to coax the appetite to the point where eating becomes gluttony. In the words of an eminent authority, "Most men would attain better health and greater efficiency if they would reduce their rations by twenty-five per cent or more." The celebrated Dr. Osler tells us that "we eat too much after forty years of age," and he advises every wise man to restrict his eating as he grows older, "and at last descend out of life as he ascended into it, even into a child's diet."

Overeating

Food economy is not a call to a starvation diet, but to a balanced ration of wholesome, well prepared food. Overeating of even the best food produces poisons that injure the tissues, overwork the organs of digestion, and in time may bring the body to actual starvation conditions.

A man's appetite is not always a safe guide. Artificial surroundings in childhood make the normal appetite the exception rather than the rule. Few children are taught, by parents, teachers, or preachers, the importance of restricting the appetite. The seeds of intemperance sown by those who prepare food for the family table bring a larger harvest than does the work of all the devil's agencies in saloons and tobacco shops combined. Millions of dollars are worse than wasted by the conversion of food materials into strong drinks to satisfy appetites perverted by wrong habits of eating. Why are our schools and churches more interested in the maintenance of a worn-out, traditional educational system, and an abstract, impractical religion, than in some of these vital teachings? We look to legislation to cure degenerate appetites for which we are largely responsible through false education in home and school and church. Starving ones of earth are deprived of food when we convert it into strong drink; the process requires the time and strength of a great army of workers; and transportation facilities now used for carrying whisky, tobacco, and other body- and mind-destroying substances, might be used in transporting the foods we waste. It is estimated that we waste enough in our kitchens to feed ten million people. "Blessed art thou, O land, when ... thy princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!"

Some Economies

Dr. Osler has said that "pie north of the Mason and Dixon line, and hot bread south of it, have done more harm than alcohol." The best breads contain the whole grain; they are well baked, require considerable chewing, resist the pressure of the teeth, and save dental bills. Thorough mastication neutralizes an abnormal appetite.

Rich pastries, harmful condiments, tea and coffee,—narcotics recognized as extravagant, harmful, and useless beverages,—are being discarded for the sake of both health and economy. Remove the cream and the sugar from tea and coffee, and they have no food value.

Use the coffee mill to grind wheat, rye, and corn, that you may enjoy the vitamines, the mineral salts, and other elements often removed by the manufacturer.

Many people prominent in social circles are eliminating all lunches served between regular meals and eaten for merely social purposes. Such lunches impose a burden on the body and the purse. Wealthy and influential women are setting a good example by going to market in person, in order to make intelligent and economical purchases for their tables, and by carrying their supplies home, in order to save the added cost of the delivery system. People are beginning to realize that by such economical methods, they can serve their country, the world, and themselves.

Some have thought it necessary to eat from three to five meals a day. The war is helping them to appreciate a physiological truth taught for years by a few reformers,—that two meals a day are better even than three.

Many countries, for economy's sake, now prohibit the use, for food, of young and undeveloped animals. They discourage the extensive use of immature plant foods. The world war is terrible, yet there is some compensation in the fact that present conditions are making minds more susceptible to the principles of right living. For years, some earnest men and women have been teaching that God intended that man should live on a meatless diet. To-day, not only are nations asking that men eat less meat, but they are having their meatless days. Because of the impossibility of securing flesh foods in some countries, millions of earth's inhabitants have learned that the body can be kept in splendid condition without the use of animal proteins and fats. No strong arguments are necessary to convince people that flesh foods are expensive when it is known that ten pounds of grain suitable for human food are required to produce in the animal one pound of flesh food.

Meat Substitutes

The high cost of flesh foods is turning attention to meat substitutes. Proteins and fats of the vegetable world are not only cheaper, but they are more wholesome than flesh. For example: The soy bean, recently introduced to the American table, contains, pound for pound, and at one fifth the cost, almost twice as much available protein and fat as the best beefsteak. Besides that, it offers the eater a good supply of starch.

"We have got to learn to buy wisely, cook wisely, eat wisely, and waste nothing." The great countries of Europe are utilizing the best talent of their statesmen and scientists in teaching the people these ideas. This should be a most impressive lesson to home, to church, and to school, since these agencies have so far forgotten their mission that it is necessary for this great war to arouse us.

Let religious and educational leaders redeem the time. Let them coöperate with national economists who now are urging the people—

To use more home-ground flour and meal.

To use the natural rice with its vitamines instead of the polished product.

To substitute vegetable oils for dairy butter in cooking.

To have a simpler variety of food at each meal.

To serve a dessert, when one is deemed necessary, for its food value and as a part of a balanced ration.

To bake or boil potatoes in the skins, in order to preserve the mineral salts.

To utilize for soups and gravies the water in which vegetables, macaroni, and rice are boiled.

To serve only one food of high protein value at a meal.

To feed to animals nothing that can be utilized by the human body.

To allow vegetables, grains, and legumes to ripen, that their full food value may be obtained, and that the expense of canning may be avoided.

To can or dry all fruits and vegetables that cannot be preserved in any other way.

To substitute other cereals for wheat, which can be shipped abroad.

A wheatless meal every day will drive many to appreciate the value of other grains, whose use heretofore has been largely perverted. Corn, rye, barley, and oats are not appreciated as they should be. They have been used largely in the manufacture of intoxicating drinks and for feeding animals to procure meat. It has been said that the Revolutionary War was won by men fed on hasty pudding—in other words, corn meal mush. Learn to eat bread made from corn, rye, or oats, or a mixture of these grains. Form the habit of eating these more economical breads; then continue the practice. Such breads are far superior to the ordinary denatured white bread. If a dog is fed only white bread, death will result sooner than if it is fed nothing.

The Call of the Country

Land in Europe that for centuries was used to gratify the abnormal tastes of plutocrats and the aristocracy, is now being made to produce wholesome food to meet the world's needs. In America, people are still deprived of their divine right to a simple home, because millions of acres of land are held in a similar manner.

Schools and churches should encourage the cultivation of vacant city lots. City people may thus learn the secret of intensive farming. It may give some courage to make a home on a few acres of land and to raise the food for their own tables. Every turn in a congested center calls for an outlay of means. Modern methods of living are unnatural and extravagant. In the city, every article of food costs in proportion to its distance from the base of supplies. Transportation must be added to the original cost of production; the jobber, the wholesaler, the commission merchant, the retailer, the delivery man, and the baker must all have their profits.

Get out of the cities; get onto the land! Why not preach this part of the gospel? Help people to understand that the unnatural appetites and the desires for artificial food are penalties paid very largely by those who seek to maintain themselves by their wits. One mighty step has been taken toward the prevention of waste and in economy's favor when men learn to earn their bread in the sweat of their face while tilling the soil.

Late hours, business worry, nerve-wrecking noises, the hurry, the wear and tear of living in a crowd, the dust and filth of the city air, the struggle of competition,—these would be replaced by purer, saner surroundings if parents settled in some country place where children are born with a heritage of fresh air, grassy playgrounds, wholesome daily tasks in the house and out of doors, and are fed in a simple manner befitting their surroundings. But do not transfer the evils of the city to some country site. Not much need to urge "the gospel of the clean plate" to the healthy country child! A good appetite is the best seasoning for plain food.

Permanent Reforms

The world has been roughly awakened, and forcibly compelled to study food economy. This upheaval should result in permanent good to every individual. We have not fully appreciated the fact that our sinful indulgence and our careless waste of time, money, and food is a violation of the great commandment, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." By our extravagant ways, multitudes have been robbed of the necessities of life. But our horizon is broadening. We begin to understand why we should eat and drink to the glory of God. Provision is now being made for the bread we save to reach the hungry in distant parts of the earth. We can now prove that he who gives even a cup of cold water shall in no wise lose his reward. To-day, as truly as on the shores of Galilee, the great Master is saying, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." And if we enter whole-heartedly into this food conservation movement, we may expect the blessing of the Lord to rest so greatly upon the fragments saved that the wide world will be fed.

© Underwood, N. Y.

A ten-pound loaf of war bread baked on the old Gettysburg battle
field. This bread keeps in good condition three weeks.

FOOD ELEMENTS and
SIMPLICITY of DIET

by
E. H. RISLEY, M.D.
Chair of Chemistry, College of Medical Evangelists,
Loma Linda, California

"Food is any substance that, being taken into the body of animal or plant, serves, through organic action, to build up normal structure or supply waste of tissue."

Food principles or elements are commonly grouped into the following classes:

• 1. Proteins
• 2. Fats
• 3. Carbohydrates
• 4. Inorganic salts
• 5. Vitamines
• 6. Water

A brief discussion of these food elements will help our readers to select their food supply more intelligently.

Proteins

The first class of food substances mentioned above are of very great importance to the body. The term "protein" really means, "of first importance." These compounds are represented by such foods as the white of egg, lean meat, gluten of wheat, and casein of milk. Chemically, proteins are very complex, more so than any other class of food materials. They have in their structure the chemical elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, often sulphur and phosphorus, and, less commonly, iron. The nitrogenous element seems to be the most important, since the others mentioned can be obtained from other classes of food; but as these classes of food cannot take the place of protein, it seems clear that the nitrogen is the important constituent.

Most proteins coagulate on heating. An illustration of this property is the coagulation of the white of an egg when the egg is cooked. The proteins all undergo decomposition quite easily. This is evidenced by the ease with which eggs and meat spoil.

Protein molecules are made up of smaller molecules called amino acids. These are the "building stones" from which the working tissues of the body are formed. There are on the average about fifteen different kinds of these amino acids in the proteins, which are especially valuable in supplying building material for the tissues of the human body. These amino acids are united in long chains to form the protein molecule, and in this respect can be compared to cars in a train. By the work of digestion, the proteins are broken down into these comparatively simple building stones, which, when absorbed into the circulation, are used by the body in building working tissues as they are needed.

There are a number of classes of proteins; but since the classification is rather complicated, it will not be given here. To group the various foods as to their relative amounts of protein is often of interest. For example, foods very rich in protein, such as the gluten preparations, lean beef, and white of egg, may be regarded as the first class; a second class might be formed of those which are moderately high in protein, such as peas, beans, lentils, and walnuts; a third class having a moderate amount of protein, represented by the cereals and breads; and still a fourth class very low in protein, such as vegetables and fruits.

Protein is the tissue builder of the body; but the actual amount of tissue built new each day is very small, therefore the need for a large supply of protein for this purpose is not apparent. Protein not only supplies tissue-building material, but it can also supply heat and energy in a manner similar to the other classes of food elements, carbohydrate and fat, one ounce of the protein yielding one hundred sixteen calories of energy. The excess taken in may be used in this way, as there is no storage of this material in the body. However, to use this kind of fuel takes more work on the part of the body as a whole, as the nitrogenous wastes must be eliminated by the kidneys.

One can see, then, that a certain amount of protein is needed to keep the tissues in good repair, but that it is better to get most of the heat and energy from the food elements specially designed for that purpose; that is, carbohydrate and fat.

The Chittenden standard of diet gives ten per cent of the total fuel value in the form of protein. On the basis of two thousand five hundred total calories a day, two hundred fifty calories of protein would be required. This is equal to two and one seventh ounces actual dry protein. This amount is thought by some to be low, but experimental evidence seems clearly to prove its adequacy in keeping up nutrition.

Fats

The second group of food elements in our classification are substances having a greasy feeling and taste. They are lighter than water, leave a grease spot upon paper, are insoluble in water, and soluble in such chemicals as gasoline and ether.

Fats have in their molecules the chemical elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. These elements are put together into two groups, or compounds, glycerin and fatty acids, which, when chemically united, form a fat. When fats are exposed to the open air, and thus contaminated with bacteria, they are likely to become rancid; that is, some of the glycerin and fatty acids are set free from each other. If butter is the fat so decomposed, it becomes very disagreeable, on account of the volatile butyric acid that is set free.

Fatty bodies are usually grouped under a general heading called lipins, but the consideration of the other classes is not essential in this study.

The vegetable kingdom offers a large list of products containing fats, many of which are suitable for food. Following are a few examples, with the percentage of fat in each case: coconuts, sixty-eight per cent; olives, fifty-six per cent; peanuts, forty-one per cent; cotton seed, twenty per cent; oatmeal, six per cent; corn, four per cent.

The animal kingdom is also rich in fat products, illustrated by the following substances used as foods: butter, eighty-five per cent; bacon, sixty-five per cent; cheese, thirty per cent; eggs, eleven per cent; cow's milk, four per cent.

The function of fat in the body is to yield heat and energy primarily. Each ounce of fat yields two hundred sixty-four calories of heat, making the group two and one fourth times as active as either protein or carbohydrate in this respect.

Fats ordinarily supply from twenty-five to thirty per cent of the total calories of a well balanced dietary. On the basis of two thousand five hundred total calories a day, about seven hundred fifty should be fat. At two hundred sixty-four calories to an ounce, we have about three ounces as our daily need of this food element.

Fats are also stored in the body as a reserve of energy. Every one has more or less of this sort of reserve, unless he has been starving for some time, or is suffering from a wasting disease. This reserve of fat also acts as a protection, and gives shape and symmetry to the body.

Recently methods have been devised for changing the unstable vegetable oils into stable, lardlike, solid fats. This process is called hydrogenation, so named because the process is really one of adding hydrogen until the fat becomes saturated and less likely to undergo decomposition into fatty acid and glycerin. The fats thus formed seem to be equal to the animal fats so far as digestion and utilization are concerned, and hence are of considerable economic value at the present time.

Certain fats, including those of butter and milk, are rich in the so-called vitamines, and have been shown, by recent experiments upon animals, to be efficient growth stimulants.

Carbohydrates

The carbohydrates are made up of the chemical elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. By noticing the name, one readily sees that the first part stands for the carbon. The latter half, "hydrate," indicates that water might be present; and in fact, nearly all of these bodies have hydrogen and oxygen present in the proportion to form water, that is, two parts hydrogen to one of oxygen. Carbohydrates ordinarily make up about sixty to sixty-five per cent of the total number of calories of our diet. Most carbohydrates, when pure, are either white powders or white crystalline solids. Many of them are sweet to the taste. The starches and the celluloses are not soluble in cold water, but the sugars are readily soluble.

The classification of the carbohydrates is comparatively simple; and part of it is given here, as it will help in our discussion of the properties of the group:

Cellulose is the coarse woody fiber found in the stems of all plants and in the outer coating of the various grains. Unless cellulose is very young and tender, it is not digested by the human digestive system. However, some forms of it are of value, as they give bulk to the food residue in the digestive tract, and thus stimulate the activity of the intestinal muscle. In this way, cellulose acts as a natural laxative, and in some cases is a very desirable substance to have in the food eaten. The bran of wheat and other cereals is an especially valuable form to use.

Starch is found in all cereals, in many vegetables, in some fruits, and in nuts. It occurs in these different foods in the form of a white, granular substance. The granules have characteristic forms for the different grains, fruits, etc., which can be recognized by the aid of the microscope. Raw starch is insoluble in cold water; hence to be most readily digested, it should be cooked. The cooking process ruptures the granules, and makes the starch itself partially soluble; and in this form, it is more easily attacked by the digestive juices.

Dextrin is formed by heating starch to about 350° F., as in an oven. This degree of heat changes the starch chemically to dextrin. In this dextrin form, it is soluble, and is in reality one step along in the process of digestion.

TABLE A—CEREALS AND LEGUMES

TABLE B—FRUITS

TABLE C—NUTS

TABLE D—VEGETABLES

TABLE E—MISCELLANEOUS FOODS

Thoroughly toasted bread is quite well dextrinized. It is more easily digested, has a sweeter taste than ordinary bread, and in some cases, is more desirable.

Sugar Group

Cane sugar is probably the most important member of the sugar groups. It is obtained from the sugar cane and the sugar beet, the two forms being identical chemically. It can be obtained in a high state of purity, often up to ninety-nine and eight tenths per cent. The English-speaking races use the largest amount of this sugar, in some countries averaging as high as eighty-five pounds per capita a year. Cane sugar is white, crystalline, soluble in water, and has a very sweet taste.

Malt sugar is obtained from grains, such as barley or wheat, by allowing them to sprout. During the sprouting process, there is developed in the grain a ferment that is capable of changing starch to malt sugar. After the malt diastase, as the ferment is called, has had a chance to convert the starch to malt sugar, the sugar is extracted with water, and the resulting solution evaporated to a sirup. This sirup can be evaporated further and the malt sugar or maltose taken out as a solid; but it is usually used in the form of a sirup. This maltose is a natural product to the body, as it is formed by the saliva and the pancreatic juice when they act upon starch.

Milk sugar is found to the extent of about five per cent in cow's milk. It is obtained as a by-product in the manufacture of cheese. The whey, or watery fluid left after the removal of the curd, is evaporated and purified until a fine, white, rather gritty powder, or in some cases a crystalline solid, is obtained. This milk sugar, or lactose, is soluble in water, and has a fairly sweet taste. Lactose is one of the essential food elements for the normal growth of a child or a young animal. Hence one can see why children cannot be reared easily without milk.

Glucose is the most important sugar in the third group of carbohydrates as given above. It is found naturally in many fruits, and is here called grape sugar. It is the normal sugar of human blood, and in this connection, is usually called dextrose. Glucose is made commercially by boiling starch, most frequently cornstarch, in water, to which sulphuric acid has been added up to one to one and one half per cent. After sufficient boiling, the acid is neutralized with lime, and the sugar separated by chemical methods. If the process is carried out carefully, and reasonably pure reagents are used in the process, the result will be a sirup of fair purity and one of value as a food. Impure and poorly made samples of glucose have given this otherwise wholesome sugar a bad name.

Glucose can also be obtained in solid form by continuing the process of purification a few steps beyond the sirup stage. But let it not be forgotten that any of the sugars, taken in large amounts, may overload the digestive system and the liver, and hence they should be used in reasonable amounts.

Levulose, called also fruit sugar, is found in some of the sweet fruits and in bees' honey. The chief sugar of honey is called invert sugar, and is really made up of equal parts of dextrose and levulose. It is present up to seventy-five per cent in good samples of honey. These sugars, properly used, are excellent foods.

Importance of Carbohydrates

The carbohydrates are our chief source of heat and energy, and as previously stated, furnish sixty to sixty-five per cent of the total fuel value of our food. Each ounce of pure carbohydrate yields one hundred sixteen calories of heat when burned. In caloric yield, they are equal to the proteins gram for gram, but yield less than one half that of the fats. If two thousand five hundred calories are again taken as our standard, then sixty per cent would make one thousand five hundred calories to be furnished by the carbohydrates. At one hundred sixteen calories an ounce, we find that it would require thirteen ounces of pure carbohydrate a day to balance this part of our diet.

Other Essential Elements

The inorganic salts or ash of food are just as essential to the body as the other groups of food elements. These essential salts consist of the most common chemical elements, such as soda, potash, lime, magnesia, iron, phosphorus, sulphur, etc. One might expect to find some rare elements in a piece of mechanism as complicated as the human body, but such is not the case. The body salts are of the most common kinds. These salts are found in proper amounts in foods as produced by nature. We cannot take these salts as they are found in the chemical laboratory and use them to good advantage, but we should make sure that we are taking foods that will supply them in the proper amounts. Our best sources of supply are the grains, the fruits, and the vegetables. It is interesting to note that these mineral elements are generally found most abundantly, in the grains at least, in or near the outer coating, and that our high-grade flours are partially robbed of them when the bran and the middlings are removed. The same seems to be true of potatoes. In peeling, a large part of these salts is removed, and thus the real value of this splendid food product is lessened. This is one of the strong arguments for the use of whole wheat flours and other whole grain products. These inorganic salts are needed in the body to keep the various tissues up to their normal in composition. For example, the blood constantly needs some iron to build the red cells. Though the actual amount needed is very small, yet that small amount is exceedingly important to have at hand.

As some of these salts are constantly being eliminated from the body, there must be a constant supply to keep the tissues in equilibrium.

Vitamines

Vitamines are elsewhere considered in this booklet, hence only a very brief summary here. The chemistry of these products is very little understood at present. They were so named by Funk because of their nitrogen content and similarity to ammonia, the name really meaning vital ammonias. The term "vital" carries with it the idea of their importance to life. Some persons have questioned this name; but up to the present, it seems to be the best suggested.

The importance of the vitamines in nutrition has been very clearly demonstrated in experiments upon animals, and these experiments have been repeated a sufficient number of times to be conclusive. Animals have been fed upon pure protein, fat, carbohydrate, and salts, but with vitamine removed or destroyed; and although receiving calories enough, they fail to keep up their nutrition. With a simple change of dietary to include a small amount of food containing the vitamine, without any change in the total calories eaten, their nutrition improves quickly, and they come back to a normal state.

Foods rich in vitamine are represented by milk, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grain products. Foods poor in these substances are represented by sterilized and preserved milks, dried fruits, dried vegetables, white flour, and polished rice.

Vitamines are reduced or lost by the following processes in the preparation of foods: taking off the coating of grain, overheating, washing out in cooking, and drying.

Importance of Water

Water, although not a food in the sense of yielding fuel value to the body, is a most important agent in all the various chemical processes taking place in the tissues.

Water is the universal solvent; and because of this property, it carries both food and waste to and from the tissues. The average person needs from three to five quarts a day, a part of which is taken as a portion of the food eaten. This leaves from three to five pints to be taken as a drink. Good drinking water should be colorless, odorless, and of an agreeable taste; should be free from organic matter, poisonous metals, and the bacteria of disease; and should be low in nonpoisonous mineral salts—that is, should be reasonably soft.

There are three common classes of water that are used for drinking purposes; namely, rain water, surface water, and ground water. Rain water is the purest if properly collected. Surface water—water from lakes, streams, etc.—is most likely to be contaminated with organic matter and bacteria. Ground water—that is, water from springs and wells—is likely to be the hardest, but is usually free from bacteria of disease unless there is some contamination from the surface. To take a fairly good quantity of water between meals is better than to drink too freely at the meal hour.

Great care should be taken in selecting the supply of drinking water, as when contaminated, it is a very fruitful means for the transmission of diseases, particularly such diseases as typhoid fever. If not certain of the purity of a water supply, one can be sure to destroy all the disease-producing bacteria by boiling the water for a few minutes, then cooling, and drinking as usual.

Simple Dietetic Principles

1. Food should be pleasant to the sight and the taste.

2. Eat slowly. Masticate thoroughly.

3. Do not wash down your food with water or any kind of beverage.

4. Cheerfulness is an important aid to digestion. The mind should be free from care, and the surroundings pleasant.

5. Avoid overeating.

6. There should be between five and six hours' interval between meals, and no food should be taken during this interval.

7. Make your list of foods balance up with about ten per cent protein, twenty-five to thirty per cent fat, and sixty to sixty-five per cent carbohydrate.

8. Eat few kinds of food at a meal, but vary the menu from day to day.

9. Food should be properly cooked to get the best results.

10. Do not eat late at night. The evening meal should be the lightest.

11. Eat green vegetables frequently in season.

12. Fresh fruits are very helpful in the diet.

13. Combine fruits, grains, and nuts.

14. Fruits and coarse vegetables are not a good combination.

15. It is better not to take large quantities of cane sugar and milk together.

16. Do not eat rich and complicated mixtures of food.

17. Flesh meats are expensive, they make the protein high, and are second-hand foods. Their place may easily be supplied by other foods.

18. Avoid excessive amounts of salt.

19. Do not use pepper or other irritating condiments and spices in seasoning your food.

20. Tea and coffee are not foods, and should be entirely dispensed with.

21. Alcohol is a poison, and should be entirely eliminated from the menu.

Necessary Knowledge to
Careful Planning

To thousands of home-keepers the requirements are new: a correct knowledge of proteids, of carbohydrates, of calories is unfamiliar to them. They cannot grasp what is asked of them, in a day or a week or a month. Suddenly has housekeeping been transformed from a daily round to a science and a business.... It all calls for intelligent study and the most careful planning. It is not a small "bit," it is a full-sized job: never has the American woman faced a bigger job. As she does it or fails of doing it, will this great country win or lose the war.—Ladies' Home Journal.

VITAMINES and CALORIES

by
D. D. COMSTOCK, M.D.
for years Medical Superintendent of Glendale
Sanitarium, Glendale, California

The body is a machine, intricate, complicated, "fearfully and wonderfully" constructed. In one way, it is simple in its operations; but in another, so ultrascientific in the detail of its automatic control, and so deep in the mysteries of its chemical processes, that the investigation of ages has not been able to fathom its greater scientific depths, and bring to the surface a knowledge of its ultimate structure and its wonderful workings. The Master Designer of the living machine so adjusted its mechanism that in its original environment and relationship, its care would be easy, and the laws of its preservation few and exceedingly simple.

Like most machines, the human machine requires the impartation of energy. Similarly, also, this is supplied by the combustion of certain carbonaceous substances. It needs constant repair. These and its other needs are all furnished in the daily food supply.

The life of this machine can be greatly lengthened by intelligent care, or shortened by neglect and abuse. Its efficiency may be similarly affected. While one cannot hear the pounding of the engine or the rattling of the machinery, yet the machine is damaged if run under too high a pressure and at too great speed.

There are seven classes of the essential elemental food substances,—proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamines, salts, cellulose, and water. The ideal diet is one in which these seven elements are regularly supplied to the body in the amounts required to meet its daily needs. A person living close to nature, receiving his food first-handed, direct from nature's health food factory, and eating it with only the cooking and seasoning necessary, and with a reasonable variety, would probably find his diet sufficient, and the elements in about the proper proportions; and with an honest appetite, steadied by a little temperate-in-all-things ballast, he probably would not go far astray as to the proper amounts. But unfortunately, the average individual is not living close to nature. Much that is artificial has come in. Our appetites are capricious, deceitful, and unreasonable. Our foods come to us processed, cartonned, and tinned, often embalmed, devitalized, or adulterated. They are often served to us so disguised that we cannot tell whether their nutritive substance has been concentrated or diluted, or indeed whether or not the body will recognize it as having any nutritive value at all, despite its pleasing flavor. Therefore, in order that the ideal may be approximated to a reasonable and practical degree, we must have some knowledge not only of the needs of the body, but also of these food elements, and how their values may be estimated in the various food substances.

The foods that enter into the make-up of the body and supply its heat and energy are three,—protein, fat, and carbohydrate. While the salts to a certain extent enter into the body structure, they have but little to do with heat and energy production. The remaining food classes are adjuncts, their use being simply to make possible the utilization, by the body, of the tissue and fuel foods. The cellulose assists mechanically in digestion; the water furnishes the necessary fluid; and the vitamines provide the battery, as it were, which sets the whole apparatus in motion.

The Heat Unit

Of the many persons who, for economical or hygienic reasons, have tried to adjust their diet better, some have undertaken the task without a fundamental knowledge of the physiological and caloric value of foods, their composition, or the nutritional needs of the body, and have done themselves more harm than good. It is possible for us to measure the value of our foods, and to express it in terms of heat units; and with a knowledge of the bodily needs, we may supply ourselves with foods in approximately the amounts needed, and in the best combinations. Food oxidized in the body produces the same amount of heat as that burned outside the body, and the instrument by which the heat value of any substance is determined is called a calorimeter. The unit of measure of heat is called the calorie or heat unit.

The calorimeter consists of a double chamber, the outer one containing a given quantity of water. The inner chamber is thus surrounded by a water jacket. In it is placed a definite amount of pure, water-free food to be tested; for example, an ounce of sugar. By means of an electric connection, the sugar is ignited and burned, and the heat produced thereby is imparted to the water in the outer chamber. When the process is complete, the difference in the temperature of the water is noted, and the amount of heat generated is computed. The calorie is the amount of heat necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of water four degrees F., or one kilogram one degree C. In this way, the heat values of pure protein, fat, starch, and sugar have been determined. In the laboratories of the United States government, the composition and caloric value of practically every food substance known has been worked out. Any person can have access to these tables of food values by applying to the government, or by purchasing from almost any bookstore any one of the several books on food values, that are on the market. (See pages 23-27 of this book.)

The heat value of a gram of pure, water-free protein—for example, the casein of milk, egg albumen, or fiber of meat—is a trifle more than four calories. That of pure starch or sugar is also four calories. Fat is more than double this value, one gram yielding nine and three tenths calories. Since an ounce equals about thirty grams, the number of calories to an ounce is determined by multiplying the above figures by thirty. Different kinds of food vary greatly in the proportion of the food elements and also of the water and cellulose they contain. (Cellulose has no fuel value in the human body.) We therefore find a great variation as to their caloric values also. For example, one heaping tablespoonful of home-baked beans will weigh about fifty grams, thirty of which is water and cellulose. Its total caloric value is one hundred, divided among protein fifteen, fat forty (the fat has largely been added), and carbohydrate forty-five. Contrast with this the same quantity of mashed turnips. One heaping tablespoonful will weigh about seventy grams, of which sixty-five is water and cellulose. Its total fuel value is three calories.

By a little study, one may very readily become familiar with the approximate values of the more common foods, and be able to arrive at some conclusion in regard to the correctness of one's daily food ration as to amount and proportions. Many would be surprised to see how far short their diet comes of the ideal.

It is easy to remember that an ordinary slice of bread—about three and one half inches square—contains approximately one hundred calories; an average egg, sixty-five; a glass of milk, one hundred fifty; an average potato, one hundred twenty-five; a tablespoonful of gravity cream, fifty; the usual serving of cooked cereal, seventy-five to one hundred; vegetables, except potatoes, an ordinary serving, twenty-five to fifty, depending on the amount of fat or milk added as seasoning; legumes, average serving, one hundred to one hundred fifty. Desserts are usually high in value, ranging from one hundred twenty-five calories in the usual serving of simple custard or junket to three hundred fifty or more in the usual one sixth of some pies, or the ordinary piece of cake.

Housewives who wish to go into the question of foods thoroughly, and combine the science with the art of cookery, may arrange a table of the staples and raw food that ordinarily enter into their various recipes, somewhat after the following, the items of which have been taken at random from such a list or table already prepared and in use:

If the housewife desires to know the food value of a cake, for instance, that she is about to bake, whose recipe calls for two cups flour, one and one half cups sugar, one half cup butter, four eggs, she can very easily find out by consulting her table; as:

If the cake is cut into twelve servings, the value of each may be determined by dividing each of these sums by twelve. Thus each piece will represent in value, protein, twenty-one calories; fat, ninety calories; carbohydrate, one hundred seventy-five calories; total, two hundred eighty-six calories.

The number of calories needed by the individual varies with height, age, sex, climate, and state of muscular activity; but for the average person, two thousand calories daily may be taken as a working basis. If one is engaged in active muscular labor, the requirement may be three thousand or more. Many persons of sedentary habits do better on less than two thousand. Other things being equal, men need about ten per cent more than women. Children need about ten per cent more than adults. An obese individual, or one suffering from the results of imperfect oxidation, as manifested in rheumatism, neuralgia, and myalgia, may do well for a time on as low an allowance as one thousand one hundred to one thousand two hundred food units daily, experiencing marked relief from symptoms, and if obese, a reduction in weight of from one to four pounds a week.

It should be kept in mind that the amount of protein needed is quite constant, and does not vary with one's state of activity, as does the demand for the fats and the carbohydrates. From two hundred to two hundred fifty calories of this element are needed daily, even though the total ration be low. If one does well on the low ration suggested above, the protein should not be lowered proportionately, as would be the tendency. This is the repair substance, which the body, not being able to store up, must have supplied to it in regular daily amounts.

Excess in eating is often due to the use of certain concentrated foods. A teaspoonful of olive oil contains forty calories; the ordinary pat of butter (one fourth ounce), fifty calories; a heaping teaspoonful of sugar, forty calories; one English walnut, thirty-three calories; a fair sized olive, twenty calories. While these are good foods, they should be eaten with due regard for their high energy value, that the proper food balance be not disturbed. After eating a good square meal, the average individual calls for the dessert, which, with its accompaniments, actually constitutes a second meal; as, for example, a serving of pie, three hundred fifty calories; its cheese accompaniment, another one hundred calories; a few stuffed dates, another one hundred calories; a few nuts and raisins and a cup of chocolate bringing the total value of this second meal forced upon the body up to seven hundred or eight hundred calories.

Vegetables of themselves are low in caloric value, their importance being due to the cellulose, salts, and vitamines they contain. But they are usually prepared with so much butter or cream that as served they have a high caloric value in fat. Lean meat is practically pure protein, and the tendency of the meat eater is to get an excess of this element. The vegetarian often goes to the other extreme, his diet showing a deficiency in protein, with an excess of fats and carbohydrates. That the protein balance be kept normal is an important matter, for a person may at one and the same time be suffering from the results of a deficient diet and also from the effects of overeating. The protein needed daily is from ten to thirteen per cent of the total ration. If the total daily ration is but one thousand five hundred calories, the protein should still be two hundred calories, and therefore thirteen per cent of the total. Thus if a person is living on foods containing less than ten per cent, there is danger of not getting enough of this important element. Much of the food eaten is less than ten per cent protein, because of the addition to it of fat and sugar in large amounts.

So-called meat substitutes should be high in the percentage of protein, in order to make up for the butter, sugar, oils, olives, desserts, fruits, and other very low protein foods that enter so largely into one's dietary. The question has been asked, Why object to the addition of fat to a meat substance, since it does not actually reduce the quantity of protein, though it does relatively? In reply, it may be said that the relative reduction makes necessary an excess of the nonnitrogenous foods, to get enough protein; and even though one's capacity should receive it comfortably, still the objection to the excess aliment remains.

A study of food composition and values will enable the housewife so to plan her meals that the various elements may be served to her family in the proper proportions. A knowledge of calories, and an intelligent application of the principles involved in these questions of nutrition, will enable any housewife to reduce the cost of feeding her family from twenty-five to fifty per cent, which would be worth while from an economical standpoint, not to mention the advantage to be realized healthwise.

Vitamines

Says Lusk, "It has thus far been shown that nutrition means fuel for the machinery, new parts with which to repair the machine, and minute quantities of vitamines, which produce a harmonious interaction between the materials in the food and their host."

In the words of another investigator, "The study of dietetics from the standpoint of the vitamines has only just begun." Sufficient has been learned and demonstrated about them, however, to show that they play a most important part in nutrition and in vital tissue processes. Since they are so little understood, a complete definition is not yet possible. The pure vitamine, it seems, cannot be isolated, so their exact chemical nature is not known. The chemical process necessary to free it is no sooner begun than the vitamine is apparently decomposed, and all trace of it is lost. One is reminded of the efforts of some early investigators to submit living protoplasm to a chemical analysis, they hoping thereby to reveal the mysteries of physical life itself; but at the first intrusion, this subtle something flees, taking its secrets with it, and leaving us only the empty shell of dead protein matter. While the activities and manifestations of life are seen on every hand in animal and plant, we are but little the wiser as to what life really is.

Vitamines seem to stand closely related to the living process in the tissue cells. Some investigators have thought them to be the mother substances of the various bodily ferments and internal secretions, any disturbance of which produces serious constitutional troubles. Therefore the continuous use of a diet lacking in any of these mother substances would of necessity lead to a deficiency of these absolutely essential vital secretions and ferments.

Vitamines and Disease

Years were spent in investigation before it was found out that beriberi, a disease of the Orient, could be cured and prevented by the addition, to the diet, of certain nutritive elements in the covering of the rice, that are ordinarily removed in the polishing process, and thrown away. Just what these nutritive elements were, was not understood; but the fact remained that a diet of polished rice resulted in symptoms of beriberi, while a diet of the unpolished grain was sufficient to prevent any manifestations of the disease. In Java, where the people lived largely on whole rice, beriberi was unknown. For years, the fact had been recognized, that sailors living on canned and preserved foods sooner or later developed scurvy, which could be quickly cured by an addition of fresh vegetables or the juice of fruits, especially lemons and oranges, to the diet. In 1535, when all but three of Cartier's one hundred ten sailors had scurvy, he cured them all by giving them a decoction of fresh pine needles. Babies fed on Pasteurized milk often develop infantile scurvy.

Convincing Experiments

Vitamines are made only in nature's laboratory. The body cannot make them, therefore mother's milk is deficient in vitamine if her diet is. This is demonstrated in a decided way in the Philippine Islands, where the diet is deficient in the vitamine preventing beriberi. Among the Filipinos, one half the deaths take place before the end of the first year of age; and in these infants, one half the deaths are due to beriberi. Pellagra, a disease of obscure ætiology, or cause, manifests itself principally among a class of people who live on a monotonous diet of corn bread, bacon, soda biscuit, and sirup. Some authorities are quite convinced that it is a "deficiency" disease. Also rickets, eczema, pyorrhea, and a number of other diseases of obscure cause are beginning to be regarded as being, in part at least, deficiency diseases. A predisposition to tuberculosis and other infections may be of similar cause. There are probably a number, possibly many, of these vitamine substances. At least two have been quite fully demonstrated,—the one preventing scurvy, and the one preventing beriberi.

The experiments of Cosimir Funk, a Russian, are convincing. He was able to produce experimental beriberi in pigeons by feeding them for three weeks on polished rice, then readily to cure them of the disease by feeding the polishings from the same rice, showing that in the rice polishings are certain elements absolutely essential to life. He finally isolated what appeared to be this substance, one pound of the polishings yielding about three grains of the material. Injecting under the skin of pigeons dying of beriberi one third of a grain of this crystalline substance, he was able not only to make them perfectly well in a few hours, but to keep them in health for three weeks with but the one dose, even though they were continued on a diet of polished rice. Funk named this wonderful life-giving substance vitamine, because its effects were life-giving, and chemically it seemed to belong to the amines.

Where Found

Vitamines are found in plants, and especially in their seeds. Fresh meat and raw milk contain them, although animals seem incapable of making them. In summer, milk is richer in them than in winter, because of the difference in feed for the cattle. They are contained also in yolks of eggs, whole grains, potatoes, carrots, beans, peas, lentils—in fact, practically all green garden vegetables, and fruit. In the grains, they are found in the dark layer near the outer surface or branny layer, and in the germ. In potatoes and other vegetables, they lie immediately under the skin. Yeast bread contains more than baking powder breads.

Vitamines are lost by the processing of grains; that is, by the removal of the outer layers, which contain most of these substances. Hence the whole grain should be included in the flour. They are also destroyed by the subjection of foods to too high a temperature. It is therefore best to cook cereals at a low temperature, as in a fireless cooker. The vitamines are sacrificed in the drying of foods, and in the paring of vegetables. If potatoes are boiled, there is great advantage in boiling them in their "jackets," in which case the vitamines and the salts are not lost. If they are pared before they are boiled, the potato water should not be thrown away, as it is rich in vitamines, salts, and protein. Parboiling of other vegetables is objectionable for the same reason. Soda and baking powder and similar chemicals seem to destroy the vitamines. This is one reason why yeast breads are better than baking powder breads. Furthermore, in yeast fermentation, the vitamine preventing beriberi is actually formed, but not the vitamine preventing scurvy. The natural foods that require cooking to make them edible and wholesome contain vitamines which are not destroyed thereby if the cooking is done in the most wholesome and hygienic way.

A Word of Advice
to Women

Stay at home and work. Do not rush into some romantic and picturesque bit of action to the detriment of your home duties. Work in your homes, and do whatever you can outside; the humbler and more inconspicuous your accomplishment is, the more it may be needed. There are enough women who will snatch at what is accompanied by the limelight. Make your contribution of personal service without thought of self, and keep on to the end.—Lord Northcliffe.

FRUITS AND THEIR
DIETETIC VALUE

by
GEORGE A. THOMASON, M.D., L.R.C.S., L.R.C.P.

No other class of foods more delightfully or deliciously contribute to the needs of the body than fruit. Fresh from the lap of Nature, lavishly supplied, and delightful to the eye, fruit makes most satisfying appeal to the appetite of every one, from the quite indifferent to the most discriminating epicure. Most easy of digestion, in fact, practically predigested, fruit is most appropriate for all people both in sickness and in health, and at all periods of life, from babyhood to extreme age.

Fruit is made up of water, sugar, acids, some proteid, and organic salts. Water is by far the largest constituent of fruit, being seventy-five to eighty-five per cent. The water of fruit is of the greatest possible purity, being doubly distilled, first as rain, then as sap, drawn and filtered through the tree.

The sugar of fruit is one of the most easily digested forms, that of levulose. The starch of the unripe fruit is converted into sugar in the ripening process, or in the cooking of partially ripened fruit. Sugar is present in varying amounts in fruits, averaging from five to ten per cent. A well ripened banana contains twenty-one per cent of sugar, dates about fifty per cent, while grapes contain from fourteen to twenty per cent.

The outward appearance of the fruit is often a fairly reliable indication of the amount of sugar. Trielle has observed that fruits with yellow skins contain much sugar, and have a very penetrating odor. Fruits with red skins contain a medium amount of sugar, and have a pleasant, delicate perfume. Fruits with a reddish brown skin usually contain much sugar, and have very little perfume.

As showing its perfectly digested state, demonstrations have proved that fruit sugar may be injected directly into the blood, from which it will be utilized in nourishing the body. This is in marked contrast with ordinary cane sugar, which, if injected directly into the blood, is expelled through the kidneys, the body being unable to appropriate it as such from the blood.

Fruit sugar may be eaten in practically unlimited quantities. It supplies the body with heat and energy in the most available form. For this reason, fruit when eaten will quickly relieve the sense of exhaustion.

Fruit Acids

The acids of fruits give to them their delightful and appetizing flavors. Fruits in the unripe state contain tannic acid, a marked astringent. The gastric and peristaltic woes of the small boy the night following the green apple episode are due to the tannic acid the unripe fruit contains. The three chief acids of fruit are citric acid, found in oranges, lemons, and grapefruit; malic acid, as found in apples, pears, peaches, and similar fruits; and tartaric acid, as found in grapes. These are organic acids, recognized and readily digested by the body.

The acids of fruits are remarkable peptogens; that is, they stimulate the appetite and promote the flow of the digestive juices. Fruit acids are most efficient disinfectants. Some years ago, an eminent medical authority of this country, in a representative medical gathering, said, "We are as yet without a satisfactory medicinal intestinal disinfectant." In fruit acids, we possess such an agent in a most desirable form. No germ, disease-producing or otherwise, can live in the presence of fruit acid. Fruit acids can be taken practically ad libitum. Fruit acids taken freely by mouth or diluted and injected into the bowel, most efficiently asepticize the intestinal canal. Three or four pints of water to which the juice of one lemon has been added, injected into the bowel following a cleansing enema, will thoroughly destroy disease-producing bacteria in the colon. Flushing the bowel frequently with such a solution is one of the most efficient known means of successfully combating the fetid summer diarrheas of children.

The proteid or nitrogenous element of fruits, as well as their fatty element, may be passed over with little consideration. Fruit contains little proteid; and aside from the olive, there is almost no fat in fruit. The fat of the ripe olive, however, is one of the most delicious and digestible forms of fat. Ripe olives contain about fifty per cent fat. Olive oil can be mixed with water; therefore it readily mixes with the intestinal juices, and is most easily digested.

Fruit Salts

The salts of fruit are most desirable, being so essential in tissue building. Some of the most important of these salts are potash, lime, phosphoric acid, and iron. Deficiency of the lime salts in the bones of children produces conditions of bone softening, or rickets. This can be largely prevented by adding fruit to the diet of these afflicted children, using especially grapes, oranges, lemons, and grapefruit, which contain high percentages of lime salts.

The condition of anæmia is a lack of iron in the blood. This cannot be replaced by medicinal or metallic iron, as the body is unable to appropriate these inorganic substances; but the iron in fruit is perfectly adapted to the body needs. Plums, cherries, and especially strawberries and currants contain considerable iron, and are most helpful in the treatment of anæmic conditions.

It is perfectly apparent that fruits possess qualities and constituents that make them of the greatest value as an essential part of the daily ration to nourish and energize the body, and to promote vital activities in the maintenance of strength and healthful vigor. Fruit is also an exceedingly important and efficient factor in restoring to normal function tissues and organs that have become vitiated and are functionating abnormally.

In spite of the widespread opinion to the contrary, it can be positively asserted that fruit is of great service in the prevention as well as in the treatment of rheumatism and gout. The prejudice against the use of fruit in rheumatism originated with the idea that the acids of fruit tend to acidify the body. Quite the reverse is true. The acids of fruit, when taken into the body, are promptly converted into the alkali carbonates, thus increasing the alkalinity of the blood, tending greatly to benefit and cure the rheumatic condition, as well as to lessen the general tendency to the formation of various calculi, or stones, in the kidneys, the urinary bladder, and the gall bladder.

Fruit and Obesity

A fruit diet is of great value in obesity. An exclusive fruit diet may be taken to the greatest possible advantage by the too corpulent who wish to reduce in weight. For this purpose, fruit has the advantage of satisfying the appetite while at the same time contributing very little nutrition to the body. The free use of fruit is the method par excellence for overcoming constipation. The eating of a half dozen raw prunes before breakfast, or the taking of the juice of one or two oranges, will in the majority of cases be all that is necessary to maintain regular bowel activity.

For an overworked liver, the so-called "bilious" state, fruit is the best of all means of relief. Auto-intoxication due to an excess of poisons circulating in the blood, is treated most naturally and efficiently by a fruit diet.

The natural diuretic properties of fruit are very well known. Nearly all fruits stimulate the kidneys to greater activity, but watermelon is of particular service in this respect.

Fruit and fruit juices greatly aid in successfully combating alcoholism. The acid of the fruit juices help materially in quenching the abnormal thirst.

There are but few individuals who would not be benefited by an occasional exclusive fruit meal; and in many cases, this can be maintained with greatest benefit for even several days. This is a very popular method of treatment in Europe, particularly in Switzerland, where the "grape cure" is utilized. Patients are placed upon a diet of grapes alone for several weeks, consuming from seven to ten pounds of grapes a day. Wonderful results are recorded at these resorts in the treatment of rheumatism, gout, obesity, constipation, intestinal catarrh, liver and kidney disorders, high blood pressure, arterial sclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, and many more physical disabilities.

Certain fruits, especially tart apples, are of great value in the treatment of diabetes, lessening the toxæmia of this condition, as well as mitigating the abnormal thirst that is so frequent and often distressing an accompaniment of this condition.

In the eating of fruit, some care must be exercised not to swallow large seeds or fruit pits. While the danger of appendicitis from fruit seeds' becoming lodged in the appendix has been greatly exaggerated, yet fruit seeds have occasionally been found in the appendix, and proved the exciting cause of the inflammation which followed. Cases are on record of children who have swallowed considerable quantities of grape seeds, suffering for months of colic, and being only relieved by discharging quantities of these seeds during energetic purgation.

It has been said that fruit is "gold in the morning, silver at noon, and lead at night." But fruit is golden all the time. This wonderful gift, one of the greatest and best physical gifts of an all-wise Providence, cannot be prized to highly; for it is considered sufficiently valuable to endure for both time and eternity. Of the first man and woman, it was said that they might eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; and it is said of the inhabitants of the renewed earth, during eternity, that "they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them."

Too much good food makes one auto-toxic. Too muck fun makes one asinine. But keep sunny. A cheerful disposition, a happy temperament, is the master key that unlocks more secrets, more riches, more success, than anything else. A sunny temper is an "aroma whose fragrance fills the air with an odor of Paradise." Bury everything that makes you unhappy and discordant, everything that cramps your freedom and worries you. Bury it before it buries you. Adopt the sundial's motto, "I record none but hours of sunshine."—Thomason.

TEN REASONS FOR A
FLESHLESS DIET

by
A. W. TRUMAN, A.B., M.D.
Superintendent of Loma Linda Sanitarium, Loma
Linda, California; Professor of Neurology, Loma
Linda College

1. The Strength Delusion

Every movement we make, every thought we think, and every heart throb, involves waste and the expenditure of energy. There is a constant breaking down of our tissues; and the food ingested is the source of the material for repair. By its oxidation, digestion, and assimilation, energy is liberated for life's varied activities.

The primary object of taking food is, in the words of the wise man, "for strength, and not for drunkenness." Any one who makes the pleasure of eating the chief requisite will some day find, by a disordered stomach and a clogged liver, that eating has ceased to be a pleasure.

The idea has long been current that superior qualities of body and mind come from eating flesh food; but the verdict of science, after long observation and careful investigation and various experiments, is rapidly reversing this opinion.

The experiments of Prof. Russell H. Chittenden, president of the American Physiological Society, and director of the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale, are convincing. His elaborate investigations, extending over long periods of time, prove that persons of widely varying habits of life, temperament, occupation, and constitution, can maintain and even heighten their mental and physical vigor while subsisting upon a diet containing but one half the usual amount of protein, and in which the flesh is reduced to a minimum or is entirely absent.

The subjects of the first experiment were three physicians, three professors, and a clerk,—men of sedentary and chiefly of mental occupation. For a period of six months, they were required to reduce the amount of meat and other protein food about one half. "Their weight remained stationary; but they improved in general health, and experienced a quite remarkable increase of mental clearness and energy."

Chittenden's Researches

For his next experiment, Professor Chittenden used a detachment of twenty soldiers from the hospital corps of the United States army, "representing a great variety of types of different ages, nationality, temperament, and degrees of intelligence." For a period of six months, these men lived upon a ration in which the proteid was reduced to one third the usual amount, and the flesh to five sixths of an ounce daily. There was a slight gain in weight, "the general health was well maintained, and with suggestions of improvement that are frequently so marked as to challenge attention." "Most conspicuous, however," remarks Professor Chittenden, "was the effect observed on the muscular strength of the various subjects.... Without exception, we note a phenomenal gain in strength which demands explanation." There was an average gain in strength for each subject of about fifty per cent.

For the third experiment, Professor Chittenden secured as subjects a group of eight leading athletes of Yale, all in training trim. For five months, they subsisted upon a diet comprising from one half to one third the quantity of protein food they had been in the habit of eating. "Gymnasium tests showed in every man a truly remarkable gain in strength and endurance."

Fisher's Experiments

Dr. Irving Fisher, professor of political economy of Yale University, concluded a series of experiments testing the endurance of forty-nine persons, about thirty of the number being flesh abstainers. The first endurance test was that of "holding the arms horizontally." The flesh eaters averaged ten minutes. The flesh abstainers averaged forty-nine minutes. The longest time for a flesh eater was twenty-two minutes. The maximum time for a flesh abstainer was two hundred minutes. The second endurance test was that of "deep knee bending." The flesh eaters averaged three hundred eighty-three times, the flesh abstainers eight hundred thirty-three times. Professor Fisher explains the results on the basis that "flesh foods contain in themselves fatigue poisons of various kinds, which naturally aggravate the action of the fatigue poisons produced in the body."

Dr. J. Ioteyko, head of the laboratory at the University of Brussels, compared the endurance of seventeen vegetarians with that of twenty-five carnivores, students of the University of Brussels. "Comparing the two sets of subjects on the basis of mechanical work, it is found that the vegetarians surpassed the carnivores on the average by fifty-three per cent."

Professor Fisher remarks, "These investigations, with those of Combe of Lausanne, Metchnikoff, and Tisier of Paris, as well as Herter and others in the United States, seem gradually to be demonstrating that the fancied strength from meat is like the fancied strength from alcohol, an illusion."

Tests in Germany

Professor Rubner, of Berlin, "one of the world's foremost students of hygiene," read a paper before the recent International Congress of Hygiene and Demography on the "Nutrition of the People," in which he said: "It is a fact that the diet of the well-to-do is not in itself physiologically justified; it is not even healthful; for on account of the false notions of the strengthening effect of meat, too much meat is used by young and old, and this is harmful."

In the long distance races in Germany, the flesh abstainers have invariably been easy victors. Upon this point, Professor Von Norden, in his monumental work on "Metabolism and Practical Medicine," says: "In Germany at least, in these competitive races, the vegetarian is ahead of the meat eater. The non-vegetarian cannot compete with the vegetarian in the matter of endurance in these long distance walks. The vegetarian is ahead in the matter of rapid pedestrian feats."

A few years ago, a well-known athlete, Dr. Deighton, walked from the southernmost point of England to the northernmost point of Scotland, a distance of almost a thousand miles, in twenty-four days and four hours. His chief subsistence en route was a much advertised meat juice. Mr. George Allen, who for a number of years had subsisted upon a strict non-flesh diet, undertook the same task, which he accomplished in a little less than seventeen days, that is, in seven days less time.

As in the heat engine, energy for light, heat, or power does not come from burning copper, lead, or iron filings, but from carbonaceous materials, as coal, coke, fuel oils, etc., so in the human body, energy for warmth and muscular effort comes not from oxidizing the metal repair foods, the proteins, but from those foods which are rich in carbon, the starches and the sugars, called the carbohydrates.