Foods
The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat,
and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking
place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out
some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live.
Various vital processes remove these worn and useless particles; and to
keep the body in health, their loss must be made good by constantly
renewed supplies of material properly adapted to replenish the worn and
impaired tissues. This renovating material must be supplied through the
medium of food and drink, and the best food is that by which the desired
end may be most readily and perfectly attained. The great diversity in
character of the several tissues of the body, makes it necessary that
food should contain a variety of elements, in order that each part may
be properly nourished and replenished.
THE FOOD ELEMENTS.--The various elements found in food are the
following: Starch, sugar, fats, albumen, mineral substances,
indigestible substances.
The digestible food elements are often grouped, according to their
chemical composition, into three classes; _vis._, carbonaceous,
nitrogenous, and inorganic. The carbonaceous class includes starch,
sugar, and fats; the nitrogenous, all albuminous elements; and the
inorganic comprises the mineral elements.
_Starch_ is only found in vegetable foods; all grains, most vegetables,
and some fruits, contain starch in abundance. Several kinds of _sugar_
are made in nature's laboratory; _cane_, _grape_, _fruit_, and _milk_
sugar. The first is obtained from the sugar-cane, the sap of maple
trees, and from the beet root. Grape and fruit sugars are found in most
fruits and in honey. Milk sugar is one of the constituents of milk.
Glucose, an artificial sugar resembling grape sugar, is now largely
manufactured by subjecting the starch of corn or potatoes to a chemical
process; but it lacks the sweetness of natural sugars, and is by no
means a proper substitute for them. _Albumen_ is found in its purest,
uncombined state in the white of an egg, which is almost wholly composed
of albumen. It exists, combined with other food elements, in many other
foods, both animal and vegetable. It is found abundant in oatmeal, and
to some extent in the other grains, and in the juices of vegetables. All
natural foods contain elements which in many respects resemble
_albumen_, and are so closely allied to it that for convenience they are
usually classified under the general name of "albumen." The chief of
these is _gluten_, which is found in wheat, rye, and barley. _Casein_,
found in peas, beans, and milk, and the _fibrin_ of flesh, are elements
of this class.
_Fats_ are found in both animal and vegetable foods. Of animal fats,
butter and suet are common examples. In vegetable form, fat is abundant
in nuts, peas, beans, in various of the grains, and in a few fruits, as
the olive. As furnished by nature in nuts, legumes, grains, fruits, and
milk, this element is always found in a state of fine subdivision, which
condition is the one best adapted to its digestion. As most commonly
used, in the form of free fats, as butter, lard, etc., it is not only
difficult of digestion itself, but often interferes with the digestion
of the other food elements which are mixed with it. It was doubtless
never intended that fats should be so modified from their natural
condition and separated from other food elements as to be used as a
separate article of food. The same may be said of the other carbonaceous
elements, sugar and starch, neither of which, when used alone, is
capable of sustaining life, although when combined in a proper and
natural manner with other food elements, they perform a most important
part in the nutrition of the body. Most foods contain a percentage of
the _mineral_ elements. Grains and milk furnish these elements in
abundance. The cellulose, or woody tissue, of vegetables, and the bran
of wheat, are examples of _indigestible_ elements, which although they
cannot be converted into blood in tissue, serve an important purpose by
giving bulk to the food.
With the exception of gluten, none of the food elements, when used
alone, are capable of supporting life. A true food substance contains
some of all the food elements, the amount of each varying in different
foods.
USES OF THE FOOD ELEMENTS.--Concerning the purpose which these
different elements serve, it has been demonstrated by the experiments of
eminent physiologists that the carbonaceous elements, which in general
comprise the greater bulk of the food, serve three purposes in the body;
1. They furnish material for the production of heat;
2. They are a source of force when taken in connection with other food
elements;
3. They replenish the fatty tissues of the body. Of the carbonaceous
elements,--starch, sugar, and fats,--fats produce the greatest amount of
heat in proportion to quantity; that is, more heat is developed from a
pound of fat than from an equal weight of sugar or starch; but this
apparent advantage is more than counterbalanced by the fact that fats
are much more difficult of digestion than are the other carbonaceous
elements, and if relied upon to furnish adequate material for bodily
heat, would be productive of much mischief in overtaxing and producing
disease of the digestive organs. The fact that nature has made a much
more ample provision of starch and sugars than of fats in man's natural
diet, would seem to indicate that they were intended to be the chief
source of carbonaceous food; nevertheless, fats, when taken in such
proportion as nature supplies them, are necessary and important food
elements.
The nitrogenous food elements especially nourish the brain, nerves,
muscles, and all the more highly vitalized and active tissues of the
body, and also serve as a stimulus to tissue change. Hence it may be
said that a food deficient in these elements is a particularly poor
food.
The inorganic elements, chief of which are the phosphates, in the
carbonates of potash, soda, and lime, aid in furnishing the requisite
building material for bones and nerves.
PROPER COMBINATIONS OF FOODS.--While it is important that our food
should contain some of all the various food elements, experiments upon
both animals and human beings show it is necessary that these elements,
especially the nitrogenous and carbonaceous, be used in certain definite
proportions, as the system is only able to appropriate a certain amount
of each; and all excess, especially of nitrogenous elements, is not only
useless, but even injurious, since to rid the system of the surplus
imposes an additional task upon the digestive and excretory organs. The
relative proportion of these elements necessary to constitute a food
which perfectly meets the requirements of the system, is six of
carbonaceous to one of nitrogenous. Scientists have devoted much careful
study and experimentation to the determination of the quantities of each
of the food elements required for the daily nourishment of individuals
under the varying conditions of life, and it has come to be commonly
accepted that of the nitrogenous material which should constitute one
sixth of the nutrients taken, about _three ounces_ is all that can be
made use of in twenty-four hours, by a healthy adult of average weight,
doing a moderate amount of work. Many articles of food are, however,
deficient in one or the other of these elements, and need to be
supplemented by other articles containing the deficient element in
superabundance, since to employ a dietary in which any one of the
nutritive elements is lacking, although in bulk it may be all the
digestive organs can manage, is really starvation, and will in time
occasion serious results.
It is thus apparent that much care should be exercised in the selection
and combination of food materials. The table on page 484, showing the
nutritive values of various foods, should be carefully studied. Such
knowledge is of first importance in the education of cooks and
housekeepers, since to them falls the selection of the food for the
daily needs of the household; and they should not only understand what
foods are best suited to supply these needs, but how to combine them in
accordance with physiological laws.
CONDIMENTS.--By condiments are commonly meant such substances as
are added to season food, to give it "a relish" or to stimulate
appetite, but which in themselves possess no real food value. To this
category belong mustard, ginger, pepper, pepper sauce, Worcestershire
sauce, cloves, spices, and other similar substances. That anything is
needed to disguise or improve the natural flavor of food, would seem to
imply either that the article used was not a proper alimentary
substance, or that it did not answer the purpose for which the Creator
designed it. True condiments, such as pepper, pepper sauce, ginger,
spice, mustard, cinnamon, cloves, etc., are all strong irritants. This
may be readily demonstrated by their application to a raw surface. The
intense smarting and burning occasioned are ample evidence of the
irritating character. Pepper and mustard are capable of producing
powerfully irritating effects, even when applied to the healthy skin
where wholly intact. It is surprising that it does not occur to the
mother who applies a mustard plaster to the feet of her child, to
relieve congestion of the brain, that an article which is capable of
producing a blister upon the external covering of the body, is quite as
capable of producing similar effects when applied to the more sensitive
tissues within the body. The irritating effects of these substances upon
the stomach are not readily recognized, simply because the stomach is
supplied with very few nerves of sensation. That condiments induce an
intense degree of irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach, was
abundantly demonstrated by the experiments of Dr. Beaumont upon the
unfortunate Alexis St. Martin. Dr. Beaumont records that when St. Martin
took mustard, pepper, and similar condiments with his food, the mucous
membrane of his stomach became intensely red and congested, appearing
very much like an inflamed eye. It is this irritating effect of
condiments which gives occasion for their extended use. They create an
artificial appetite, similar to the incessant craving of the chronic
dyspeptic, whose irritable stomach is seldom satisfied. This fact with
regard to condiments is a sufficient argument against their use, being
one of the greatest causes of gluttony, since they remove the sense of
satiety by which Nature says, "Enough."
To a thoroughly normal and unperverted taste, irritating condiments of
all sorts are very obnoxious. It is true that Nature accommodates
herself to their use with food to such a degree that they may be
employed for years without apparently producing very grave results; but
this very condition is a source of injury, since it is nothing more nor
less than the going to sleep of the sentinels which nature has posted at
the portal of the body, for the purpose of giving warning of danger. The
nerves of sensibility have become benumbed to such a degree that they no
longer offer remonstrance against irritating substances, and allow the
enemy to enter into the citadel of life. The mischievous work is thus
insidiously carried on year after year until by and by the individual
breaks down with some chronic disorder of the liver, kidneys, or some
other important internal organ. Physicians have long observed that in
tropical countries where curry powder and other condiments are very
extensively used, diseases of the liver, especially acute congestion and
inflammation, are exceedingly common, much more so that in countries and
among nations where condiments are less freely used. A traveler in
Mexico, some time ago, described a favorite Mexican dish as composed of
layers of the following ingredients: "Pepper, mustard, ginger, pepper,
potato, ginger; mustard, pepper, potato, mustard, ginger, pepper." The
common use of such a dish is sufficient cause for the great frequency of
diseases of the liver among the Mexicans, noted by physicians traveling
in that country. That the use of condiments is wholly a matter of habit
is evident from the fact that different nations employ as condiments
articles which would be in the highest degree obnoxious to people of
other countries. For example, the garlic so freely used in Russian
cookery, would be considered by Americans no addition to the natural
flavors of food; and still more distasteful would be the asafetida
frequently used as a seasoning in the cuisine of Persia and other
Asiatic countries.
The use of condiments is unquestionably a strong auxiliary to the
formation of a habit of using intoxicating drinks. Persons addicted to
the use of intoxicating liquors are, as a rule, fond of stimulating and
highly seasoned foods; and although the converse is not always true, yet
it is apparent to every thoughtful person, that the use of a diet
composed of highly seasoned and irritating food, institutes the
conditions necessary for the acquirement of a taste for intoxicating
liquors. The false appetite aroused by the use of food that "burns and
stings," craves something less insipid than pure cold water to keep up
the fever the food has excited. Again, condiments, like all other
stimulants, must be continually increased in quantity, or their effect
becomes diminished; and this leads directly to a demand for stronger
stimulants, both in eating and drinking, until the probable tendency is
toward the dram-shop.
A more serious reason why high seasonings leads to intemperance, is in
the perversion of the use of the sense of taste. Certain senses are
given us to add to our pleasure as well as for the practical, almost
indispensable, use they are to us. For instance, the sense of sight is
not only useful, but enables us to drink in beauty, if among beautiful
surroundings, without doing us any harm. The same of music and other
harmonics which may come to us through the sense of hearing. But the
sense of taste and was given us to distinguish between wholesome and
unwholesome foods, and cannot be used for merely sensuous gratification,
without debasing and making of it a gross thing. An education which
demands special enjoyment or pleasure through the sense of taste, is
wholly artificial; it is coming down to the animal plane, or below it
rather; for the instinct of the brute creation teaches it merely to eat
to live.
Yet how wide-spread is this habit of sensuous gratification through the
sense of taste! If one calls upon a neighbor, he is at once offered
refreshments of some kind, as though the greatest blessing of life came
from indulging the appetite. This evil is largely due to wrong
education, which begins with childhood. When Johnnie sits down to the
table, the mother says, "Johnnie, what would you like?" instead of
putting plain, wholesome food before the child, and taking it as a
matter of course that he will eat it and be satisfied. The child grows
to think that he must have what he likes, whether it is good for him or
not. It is not strange that an appetite thus pampered in childhood
becomes uncontrollable at maturity; for the step from gormandizing to
intoxication is much shorter than most people imagine. The natural,
unperverted taste of a child will lead him to eat that which is good for
him. But how can we expect the children to reform when the parents
continually set them bad examples in the matter of eating and drinking?
The cultivation of a taste for spices is a degradation of the sense of
taste. Nature never designed that pleasure should be divorced from use.
The effects of gratifying the sense of taste differ materially from
those of gratifying the higher senses of sight and hearing. What we see
is gone; nothing remains but the memory, and the same is true of the
sweetest sounds which may reach us through the ears. But what we taste
is taken into the stomach and what has thus given us brief pleasure
through the gratification of the palate, must make work in the
alimentary canal for fourteen hours before it is disposed of.
VARIETY IN FOOD.--Simplicity of diet should be a point of first
consideration with all persons upon whom falls the responsibility of
providing the family bills of fare, since the simplest foods are, as a
rule, the most healthful. Variety is needed; that is, a judicious
mingling of fruits, grains, and vegetables; but the general tendency is
to supply our tables with too many kinds and to prepare each dish in the
most elaborate manner, until, in many households, the cooking of food
has come to be almost the chief end of life. While the preparation of
food should be looked upon as of so much importance as to demand the
most careful consideration and thought as to its suitability,
wholesomeness, nutritive qualities, and digestibility, it should by no
means be made to usurp the larger share of one's time, when simpler
foods and less labor would afford the partakers equal nourishment and
strength.
A great variety of foods at one meal exerts a potent influence in
creating a love of eating, and is likewise a constant temptation to
overeat. Let us have well-cooked, nutritious, and palatable food, and
plenty of it; variety from day to day, but not too great a variety at
each meal.
The prevalent custom of loading the table with a great number of viands,
upon occasions when guests are to be entertained in our homes, is one to
be deplored, since it is neither conducive to good health nor necessary
to good cheer, but on the contrary is still laborious and expensive a
practice that many are debarred from social intercourse because they
cannot afford to entertain after the fashion of their neighbors. Upon
this subject a well-known writer has aptly said: "Simplify cookery, thus
reducing the cost of living, and how many longing individuals would
thereby be enabled to afford themselves the pleasure of culture and
social intercourse! When the barbarous practice of stuffing one's guests
shall have been abolished, a social gathering will not then imply, as it
does now, hard labor, expensive outlay, and dyspepsia. Perhaps when that
time arise, we shall be sufficiently civilized to demand pleasures of a
higher sort. True, the entertainments will then, in one sense, be more
costly, as culture is harder to come by than cake. The profusion of
viands now heaped upon the table, betrays poverty of the worst sort.
Having nothing better to offer, we offer victuals; and this we do with
something of that complacent, satisfied air with which some more
northern tribes present their tidbits of whale and walrus."
TABLE TOPICS.
"Let appetite wear reason's golden chain,
and find in due restrain its luxury."
A man's food, when he has the means and opportunity of selecting it,
suggests his moral nature. Many a Christian is trying to do by
prayer that which cannot be done except through corrected
diet.--_Talmage._
Our pious ancestors enacted a law that suicides should be buried
where four roads meet, and that a cart-load of stones should be
thrown upon the body. Yet, when gentlemen or ladies commit suicide,
not by cord or steel, but by turtle soup or lobster salad, they may
be buried on consecrated ground, and the public are not ashamed to
read an epitaph upon their tombstones false enough to make the
marble blush.--_Horace Mann._
It is related by a gentleman who had an appointment to breakfast
with the late A.T. Stewart, that the butler placed before them both
an elaborate bill of fare; the visitor selected a list of rare
dishes, and was quite abashed when Mr. Stewart said, "Bring me my
usual breakfast,--oatmeal and boiled eggs." He then explained to his
friend that he found simple food a necessity to him, otherwise he
could not think clearly. That unobscured brain applied to nobler
ends would have won higher results, but the principle remains the
same.--_Sel._
Study simplicity in the number of dishes, and a variety in the
character of the meals.--_Sel._
I have come to the conclusion that more than half the disease which
embitters life is due to avoidable errors in diet, ... and that more
mischief, in the form of actual disease, of impaired vigor, and of
shortened life, accrues to civilized man from erroneous habits of
eating than from the habitual use of alcoholic drink, considerable
as I know that evil to be.--_Sir Henry Thompson._
The ancient Gauls, who were a very brave, strong, and hearty race,
lived very abstemiously. Their food was milk, berries, and herbs.
They made bread of nuts. They had a very peculiar fashion of wearing
a metal ring around the body, the size of which was regulated by act
of Parliament. Any man who outgrew in circumference his metal ring
was looked upon as a lazy glutton, and consequently was disgraced.
To keep in health this rule is wise:
Eat only when you need, and relish food,
chew thoroughly that it may do you good,
have it well cooked, unspiced, and undisguised.
--_Leonardo da Vinci_
THE DIGESTION OF FOODS.
It is important that the housekeeper not only understand the nature and
composition of foods, but she should also know something of their
digestive properties, since food, to be serviceable, must be not only
nutritious, but easily digested. Digestion is the process by which food
rendered soluble, and capable of being absorbed for use in carrying on
the various vital processes.
The digestive apparatus consists of a long and tortuous tube called the
alimentary canal, varying in length from twenty-five to thirty feet,
along which are arranged the various digestive organs,--the mouth, the
stomach, the liver, and the pancreas,--each of which, together with the
intestines, has an important function to perform. In these various
organs nature manufactures five wonderful fluids for changing and
dissolving the several food elements. The mouth supplies the saliva; in
the walls of the stomach are little glands which produce the gastric
juice; the pancreatic juice is made by the pancreas; the liver secretes
bile; while scattered along the small intestines are minute glands
which make the intestinal juice. Each of these fluids has a particular
work to do in transforming some part of the food into suitable material
for use in the body. The saliva acts upon the starch of the food,
changing it into sugar; the gastric juice digests albumin and other
nitrogenous elements; the bile digests fat, and aids in the absorption
of other food elements after they are digested; the pancreatic juice is
not confined in its action to a single element, but digests starch,
fats, and the albuminous elements after they have been acted upon by the
gastric juice; the intestinal juice is capable of acting upon all
digestible food elements.
[Illustration: The Alimentary Canal, _a._ Esophagus; _b._ Stomach; _c._
Cardiac Orifice; _d._ Pylorus; _e._ Small Intestine; _f._ Bile Duct;
_g._ Pancreatic Duct; _h._ Ascending Colon; _i._ Transverse Colon; _j._
Descending Colon; _k._ Rectum.]
THE DIGESTION OF A MOUTHFUL OF BREAD.--A mouthful of bread
represents all, or nearly all, the elements of nutrition. Taking a
mouthful of bread as a representative of food in general, it may be said
that its digestion begins the moment that it enters the mouth, and
continues the entire length of the alimentary canal, or until the
digestible portion of the food has been completely digested and
absorbed. We quote the following brief description of the digestive
process from Dr. J.H. Kellogg's Second Book in Physiology[A]:--
[Footnote A: Good Health Pub. Co., Battle Creek, Mich.]
"_Mastication._--The first act of the digestive process is mastication,
or chewing the food, the purpose of which is to crush the food and
divide it into small particles, so that the various digestive fluids may
easily and promptly come into contact with every part of it.