ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
DIET
_A Treatise on the Food Question_
IN FIVE VOLUMES
EXPLAINING, IN PLAIN LANGUAGE, THE
CHEMISTRY OF FOOD AND THE CHEMISTRY OF
THE HUMAN BODY, TOGETHER WITH THE ART OF
UNITING THESE TWO BRANCHES OF SCIENCE IN THE
PROCESS OF EATING SO AS TO ESTABLISH NORMAL
DIGESTION AND ASSIMILATION OF FOOD AND
NORMAL ELIMINATION OF WASTE, THEREBY
REMOVING THE CAUSES OF STOMACH,
INTESTINAL, AND ALL OTHER
DIGESTIVE DISORDERS
BY
EUGENE CHRISTIAN, F. S. D.
VOLUME V
NEW YORK CITY
CORRECTIVE EATING SOCIETY, INC.
1917
COPYRIGHT 1914
BY
EUGENE CHRISTIAN
ENTERED AT
STATIONERS HALL, LONDON
SEPTEMBER, 1914
BY
EUGENE CHRISTIAN, F. S. D.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PUBLISHED AUGUST, 1914
CONTENTS
VOLUME V
_Lesson XVI_ _Page_
ADAPTING FOOD TO SPECIAL CONDITIONS 1145
Infant, Old Age, and Athletic Feeding;
Sedentary Occupations, Climatic Extremes 1147
Normal Diet 1152
Infant Feeding 1154
General Rules for the Prospective Mother 1157
Special Rules for the Prospective Mother 1159
The Nursing Mother 1162
Care of the Child 1164
Constipation 1169
Exercise 1171
Clothing 1171
Temperature of Baby's Food 1173
Bandage 1173
Emaciation 1173
General Instructions for Children after One Year 1174
General Diet from Ages One to Two 1174
Simplicity in Feeding 1175
Old Age 1178
Three Periods of Old Age 1181
Athletics 1188
Sedentary Occupations 1194
General Directions for Sedentary Worker 1198
Climatic Extremes 1199
_Lesson XVII_
NERVOUSNESS--ITS CAUSE AND CURE 1209
Causes 1213
The Remedy 1217
Suggestions for Spring 1220
Suggestions for Summer 1222
Suggestions for Fall 1223
Suggestions for Winter 1224
_Lesson XVIII_
POINTS ON PRACTISE 1231
Introduction to Points on Practise 1233
Suggestions for the Practitioner 1236
Value of Experience 1239
Value of Diagnosis 1241
Educate Your Patient 1242
Effect of Mental Conditions 1245
Publicity 1247
Be Courteous and Tolerant 1250
_Lesson XIX_
EVOLUTION OF MAN 1253
What is Evolution? 1255
The Three Great Proofs of the Evolution of
Animal Life 1261
Man's Animal Kinship 1265
_Lesson XX_
SEX AND HEREDITY 1277
The Origin of Sex 1279
A Rational View of Sexual Health 1285
Embryological Growth--Prenatal Culture 1289
Heredity 1293
What Heredity Is 1295
Summary of Facts regarding Sex and Heredity 1297
_Lesson XXI_
REST AND SLEEP 1299
Rest 1301
The Old Physiology 1305
Rest and Recreation 1306
Sleep 1308
Some Reasons 1310
Oxidation and Air 1312
_Lesson XXII_
A LESSON FOR BUSINESS MEN 1315
A Good Business Man 1320
The Routine Life of the Average Business Man 1322
Some Suggestions for a Good Business Man 1324
_Lesson XXIII_
EXERCISE AND RE-CREATION 1327
Exercise 1329
Constructive Exercises 1330
Exercise for Repair 1331
Physiology of Exercise 1333
Systems of Physical Culture 1338
Program for Daily Exercise 1343
Re-creation 1346
LESSON XVI
<sc>Adapting Food to Special Conditions</sc>
INFANT, OLD AGE, AND ATHLETIC FEEDING,
SEDENTARY OCCUPATIONS, CLIMATIC
EXTREMES
Diet may be divided into three distinct classes--normal, preventive, and
curative. In order to understand the application of diet to these
several conditions, it is necessary to observe the following rules:
1 Foods must be selected which contain all the desired nutritive
elements.
2 They must be so combined as to produce chemical harmony, or
should at least produce no undesirable chemical action.
3 They must be proportioned so as to level or balance their
nutritive elements; that is, to prevent overfeeding on some elements
of nourishment, and underfeeding on others.
Many fine specimens of men and women have been produced without
knowledge of these laws, but in nearly every case it may have been
observed that the person was normal as to habits, and temperate in
eating, therefore led aright by instinct.
If one lives an active life, spending from three to five hours a day in
the open air, the body will cast off and burn with oxygen much excess
nutrition, and will also convert or appropriate certain nutritive
elements to one purpose, which, according to all known chemical laws,
Nature intended for another. Much better results, however, will be
obtained by giving Nature the right material with which to work, thus
pursuing lines of least resistance.
What foods to select, how they should be combined and proportioned, is
determined mainly by laws dependent upon the following conditions:
1 Age.
2 Temperature of environment--time of year or climate.
3 Work or activity.
(1) As to age:
If we wish the best results we must select and proportion our food
according to age, because the growing child or youth needs much
structural material--calcium phosphates--with which to build bone,
teeth, and cartilage. This is found in cereals and in all grain foods.
The middle-aged person needs but little of these--just enough for
repair, and the aged person needs practically none.
While the growing child needs calcium phosphate, he also needs milk and
natural sweets, which named in the order of their preference are honey,
maple-sugar, dates, figs, and raisins. This does not mean that a
generous quantity of vegetables and fruit cannot be taken, but that the
articles first mentioned (cereals and starchy foods) should form a
conspicuous part of the child's diet.
The adult needs a much less quantity of the heavier starchy foods,
because the structural part of the body has been built up. The diet of
the adult should consist of vegetables, nuts, and a normal quantity of
sweets, a normal quantity of fruits, milk and eggs, with rather a
limited amount of cereal or bread products, while the aged, or those
having passed sixty, could subsist wholly upon a non-starch diet
(non-cereal starch), such as vegetables, milk, nuts, eggs, salads, and
fruits, including bananas, which is not a fruit, but a vegetable, and
which contains a splendid form of readily soluble starch.
(2) As to time of year:
In selecting and proportioning our food we should observe the laws of
temperature or time of the year. We should not eat foods of a high
caloric or heating value at a time when the sun is giving us this heat
direct, thus building a fire inside, while the sun is giving us the same
heat outside. The violation of this simple law is the cause of all
sunstroke and heat prostrations. On the contrary, if we are going to be
exposed to zero weather, we should build a fire inside by eating foods
of a high caloric value.
(3) As to work or activity:
We should select and proportion our food according to the work we do,
because eating is a process of making energy, while work is a process
of expending energy, and we should make these two accounts balance.
THE NORMAL DIET
[Sidenote: Effects of overfeeding on starchy foods and sweets]
While in some respects each body is a law unto itself, there are a few
fundamental rules and laws that apply to all alike. For instance,
overeating of starchy foods, in every case, will produce too much uric
acid, and finally rheumatism. Also the overeating of sweets and starches
will cause the stomach to secrete an over-supply of fermentative acids,
the effects of which have been discussed in a previous lesson.
[Sidenote: Temporary disturbances caused by radical changes in diet]
In laying out the diet, under all conditions, the practitioner must be
governed by the above-named rules. He should exercise his judgment,
however, in each case according to the prevailing conditions. In
prescribing diet it is well to remember that Nature will not tolerate,
without protest, any radical change. It often occurs, therefore, that
the most correct and thoroughly balanced menu will cause violent
physical disturbances which the inexperienced may consider as
unfavorable symptoms, but in a majority of cases this is merely the
adjusting process, similar to that which occurs when the body is
suddenly deprived of narcotics and stimulants after their habitual use.
The practitioner should exercise much care in diagnosis. He should study
all symptoms and lay out the diet so as to counteract prevailing
conditions, and to produce normality.
[Sidenote: The stomach should agree with natural food]
The tendency of the body, that has been incorrectly fed for many years,
to protest against the right kind and the right combinations of food, is
often very deceptive. It is not always correct to say that the food did
not agree with the stomach, but more correct to say that the different
foods did not agree with themselves. The patient should be thoroughly
acquainted with these facts, and mentally prepared for some temporary
discomforts or physical protest against the new system.
INFANT FEEDING
[Sidenote: Large percentage of infant mortality due to incorrect
feeding]
The tremendous mortality among infants and children is due to incorrect
feeding more than to all other causes. In the process of reproducing
animal life, nearly all abnormal conditions are eliminated. The best
that is in the mother is given to the child. The trend of Nature is
upward toward higher intelligence and more perfect physical development.
For this reason infants are usually healthier than their parents, though
millions of babies are rapidly broken in health by improper feeding.
The economy of Nature is perfect, therefore all natural forces conspire
to preserve the life of the young. This is the natural law governing the
preservation and the development of human life, and that this condition
does not obtain is the most striking evidence of our lack of knowledge
in feeding the young.
[Sidenote: Point of view to be considered in infant feeding]
Infant feeding must be considered from two points of view: (1) Dealing
with the child or infant as we find it, where the mother has so violated
Nature's laws of nutrition and hygiene as to afford no breast-milk for
her child; (2) where this condition does not prevail, and the child
receives ample nourishment from the breast of the mother.
We will first consider the diet and the conduct of the mother during
pregnancy and prior to it.
Preparation for motherhood is one of woman's most sacred duties, because
it involves not only the happiness and health of herself, but it
shapes, in a large degree, the mental and the physical conditions of
another being which will wield an influence over its whole life.
[Sidenote: The unwelcome child]
The common error of most women is that they do not desire children when
they are first married, and in the pursuit of other pleasures they
violate and disregard the laws of Nature; the baby is a mere
accident--probably unwelcome. During the entire embryonic period the
same old habits and diet are indulged in; the mental and the physical
condition of the being-to-be has received no consideration, and,
unwelcome in a strange world, the little eyes are opened. Then the
instinctive love of the mother is kindled and lavished; the child's
every want is law; it needs maternal nourishment and the mother desires
to give it, but the natural fountain is insufficient, and probably dry.
The mother's thoughts and inspirations can no longer become a part of
the child, except through education in later years--they are two
separate beings; the opportunity to endow it with a part of her life is
forever gone.
[Sidenote: Resistance to infant life should be removed as much as
possible]
Under the most favorable conditions we meet a constant resistance to
life, and the higher we ascend in the scale of civilization the greater
is the resistance encountered. It is therefore the duty of the mother,
as also of the father, to remove every obstacle that would offer
resistance to the physical and mental growth of the child. In order to
do this it is necessary to carry out certain well-established laws
concerning diet, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and mental training.
GENERAL RULES FOR THE PROSPECTIVE MOTHER
From the time conception is recognized the following general rules
should be observed:
1 The corset or all tight-fitting garments that would in any way
interfere with freedom of exercise and thorough development of the
abdominal muscles should be discarded.
2 As much time as possible--at least two hours each day--should be
spent in the open air, and a system of moderate trunk exercises
followed, together with deep breathing, calculated to expand the
lungs to their fullest cell capacity, which is Nature's method of
burning or oxidizing waste matter, and thereby keeping the blood
pure.
3 The mental occupation should be an important factor in the daily
regimen. Some congenial study should be chosen with the view of
making it useful, while some remunerative employment should be
sought and indulged in for a portion of each day. Avoid idleness
by all means, or an idle roaming of the mind and spirit. Learn to
think, to concentrate, to work, and to do something for others, as
it is from these things that all happiness is gained.
4 The diet of the future mother should be governed somewhat by the
laws laid out in the first part of this lesson; that is, age,
temperature of environment, and occupation should be considered in
its selection.
SPECIAL RULES FOR THE PROSPECTIVE MOTHER
[Sidenote: Suggestions for the diet]
There are some specific rules in regard to diet, however, which every
mother should observe. The diet should be balanced so as to contain all
the needed elements of nourishment in approximately the right
proportions. The proportions, however, should differ in many cases from
that which she would take if she were in a normal state, especially in
regard to starchy foods or calcareous matter. An abundance of green
salads, sweet ripe fruits, fresh vegetables in season, eggs, milk, nuts,
and not more than two ounces of bread, potatoes, or dried beans should
be taken daily. If flesh food or something salty is craved, tender
chicken, or fish, may be allowed in small quantities.
[Sidenote: Abnormal appetite during pregnancy]
It should be borne in mind that I do not advocate the use of flesh
foods, but during pregnancy the appetite is varying and sometimes
tyrannical, and it has been found better to compromise with this
condition than to combat it. The use of a limited quantity of tender
meat, or any other article of good food for which there should arise a
craving, is therefore advisable.
[Sidenote: Flesh of young animals preferred]
In the selection of meats, the flesh of young animals is best, for the
reason that young animals are more healthy and less liable to
contamination by dis-ease. The meat of either fowl or fish is rather
appetizing, and often satisfies the craving that many pregnant women
have for the heavier meats such as pork or veal, which are, of course,
very much more difficult to digest.
There is, notwithstanding the opinion foolishly held by many doctors, no
difference in the nutritive qualities of white or dark meat, as either
variety is nourished by identically the same blood supply, and contains
the same sort of protoplasm.
So it is a mistaken idea to think that there is any appreciable
difference in the digestibility of white meat as compared with dark,
except as the effect of mental suggestion may be operative. Of course,
we know that if you tell a person often enough that a certain thing is
true, eventually he will act upon it automatically. And so it is with
the white and dark meat fetich.
THE NURSING MOTHER
[Sidenote: Breast milk vs. artificial foods]
If the mother supplies enough milk, this is infinitely superior to any
artificial combination of so-called infant foods. Unfortunately a large
majority of children are not breast-fed, and must depend upon the
various commercial infant-foods, or upon the judgment of the untrained
nurse, or the mother.
[Sidenote: The lives of babies often depend upon the mother's diet]
The majority of mothers, if so disposed, could, by studying their own
diet, supply the most robust child with ample breast-nourishment until
it is ten or twelve months old, after which period the infantile crisis
would be passed, and millions of little lives would thereby be saved.
However, the confinement and the trouble to which the mother is
subjected by the nursing baby causes the majority of infants to be
weaned within a few weeks after birth, and turned over to the hazard of
prepared food, soporific drugs, and nurses.
[Sidenote: Child-love stimulated by nursing]
If mothers could realize the love that is daily kindled and
strengthened; if they could be made to know how much more their children
would love them, and they would love their children; if they could look
into the years and see how the link of love between them and their
children had been shaped, molded, and fashioned by the simple act of
nurturing them from the breast (to say nothing of the lives that would
be saved), the artificially-fed baby would be a rarity, and the mother
would be queen in the hearts of the nation's children.
The most beautiful thing that ever graced the canvas of art, or shed its
love into the cold realism of nature, is a nursing baby pushing from
its satisfied lips the mother's breast, and smiling its sweet content
into her face.
It is almost criminal to withdraw the breast from an infant, and to turn
it over to the treachery of prepared foods, when, by devoting a little
time each day to the study of the science of eating, it is possible for
the mother to supply the child with her own milk.
CARE OF THE CHILD
The following are general rules for feeding the infant from birth to
about one year of age.
These rules cannot be made inflexible because all children differ in
temperament, vitality, and as to prenatal influences, but if the mother
will observe these instructions with reasonable care, her child can be
brought healthfully through the most critical period of its life, and
will enter the solid food age with good digestion, a strong body, and an
excellent chance to withstand all children's dis-eases.
Where artificial feeding becomes necessary, then the preparation of the
baby-food is of primary importance. Cow's milk is, of course, the
logical food, but taken whole, that is, the entire milk, it is too high
in proteids, and deficient in sugar; therefore, in order to make a
healthful infant-food, it must be modified according to the requirements
of the infant body.
The nurse or the mother should prepare a quantity sufficient for only
one day's supply at a time, after the following formula:
Cream 2 ounces
Milk 2 ounces
Water 15 ounces
Milk-sugar 4 level teaspoonfuls
Lime-water 2 teaspoonfuls or 1/2 ounce
This should be thoroughly mixed, placed in the bottle, and set in warm
water until it is brought to the temperature of breast-milk. The above
formula may be used during the first month of the baby's life.
The quantity and the frequency of feedings should be according to the
following table:
AGE FEEDINGS OUNCES INTERVALS OF
1st day 5 to 6 1 3 or 4 hours
2d day 7 to 8 1 2-1/2 to 3 hours
3d to 7th day 9 to 10 1-1/4 2 to 2-1/2 hours
2d, 3d, and 4th weeks 10 2 to 3 2 hours
Formula for the second and the third months:
Cream 3-1/2 ounces
Milk 1-1/2 ounces
Water 14 ounces
Milk-sugar 5 teaspoonfuls
Lime-water 2-1/2 teaspoonfuls
Quantity and frequency of feeding should be about as follows:
MONTHS FEEDINGS OUNCES INTERVALS
2d and 3d 7 to 8 3 to 4 2 or 3 hours
Formula for period from the fourth to the twelfth month:
Cream 6 to 8 ounces
Milk 2 to 3 ounces
Water 10 ounces
Milk-sugar 5 to 6 teaspoonfuls
Lime-water 2 to 3 teaspoonfuls
Quantity and frequency of feedings should be about as follows:
MONTHS FEEDINGS OUNCES INTERVALS
4th, 5th, and 6th 5 to 6 4 to 6 3 to 3-1/2 hours
7th, 8th, and 9th 5 6 to 7 4 to 4-1/2 hours
10th, 11th, and 12th 5 6 to 8 4 to 4-1/2 hours
The above formulas for infant-food are the best that can be made from
ordinary cow's milk.
The milk-sugar and the lime-water herein named can be purchased at any
first-class drug store.
[Sidenote: Avoid too frequent feeding]
These tables are not given as exact. The mother should exercise careful
vigilance and judgment, especially in reference to the quantity of each
feeding, and the frequency. The moment the child shows symptoms of
overfeeding, which symptoms are usually evidenced by vomiting or
discomfort, the quantity of cream and the amount at each feeding should
be reduced. In fact, it is healthful, and often necessary for the child
to allow it the opportunity to get hungry. The digestion of many a baby
is totally ruined by continuous feeding, which is done out of motherly
sympathy, or merely to keep it quiet.
[Sidenote: Importance of cleanliness in preparing child's food]
The mother or the nurse should exercise great care in the cleanliness
and the hygienic preparation of children's foods. Milk should be fresh,
and of the very best. It should not be left uncovered or exposed. It
should be kept continually on ice until ready for use. The cream should
be taken from the top of the bottle, or from fresh milk. This insures
better quality of butter-fat than is generally supplied in ordinary
commercial daily cream.
As the child advances in age, whole milk, cereal gruel, and egg mixture
(two whites to one yolk) may be administered according to the child's
normal appetite and digestion. The egg may be prepared by whipping the
whites and the yolks separately, adding to the yolk a teaspoonful of
cream and one of sugar, then whipping the beaten whites into this, and
serving.
CONSTIPATION
The stools of natural, healthy children should be bright yellow and
perfectly smooth. If grainy and soft, food should be made richer. If in
curds, it evidences too rapid coagulation; therefore an alkali should be
added. If the stools are white and oily, it indicates an excess of
cream. If hard and dry, it indicates an insufficient amount of cream.
If green, reduce the quantity of milk, or omit it altogether, and
increase the quantity of barley-water.
The majority of bottle-fed children suffer greatly from constipation,
caused largely by the milk, or the failure to modify the milk properly,
or to make it contain the constituent elements of breast-milk. This
condition can be relieved by giving the child sweet orange juice every
night and morning, or the juice from soaked prunes, if preferred. This
should be administered in quantities ranging from a dozen drops to two
or three teaspoonfuls, according to the age of the child and the
severity of the condition. Intestinal congestion can often be relieved,
however, by giving the abdomen gentle massage, preferably with a rotary
or kneading motion.
In cases of diarrhea, infants from three to eight months old should be
given first an enema, and then a diet entirely of boiled milk mixed
with rice or barley-water.
EXERCISE
All infants need some exercise. They should be gently rubbed and rolled
about after the morning bath, before they are dressed. There is nothing
more healthful than exposure of the baby-skin to fresh air in a normal
temperature.
CLOTHING
Next in importance to the food of the infant is its clothing. The usual
style of dressing babies the first three months of their lives is
positively barbaric; not that it imitates uncivilized people, but
because it evidences the grossest ignorance and cruelest vanity. The
mother seems to have no way of expressing her pride in her child except
by bedecking it with elaborate garments. These usually consist of three
long skirts, two of them attached to bands which are fastened around
the body. The weight of this clothing prevents the free use of the
baby's feet and legs, putting it into a kind of civilized strait-jacket,
thus preventing it from exercising the only part of its anatomy that it
can freely move.
It is nothing uncommon to see a beautiful baby sore, irritated, and
broken out with heat all over its little body by being heavily enveloped
in barbaric rags. The child, therefore, is made to suffer merely that it
may please a proud mother, and conform to an ignorant custom a thousand
years old.
The only purpose clothing should serve is that of bodily warmth. When it
is made the instrument of painful adornment it is serving the same
purpose as "rings in the ears and bells on the toes," and the mind of
the mother who thus afflicts her child is in the same class as that of
the ignorant barbarian whom she imitates.
TEMPERATURE OF BABY'S FOOD
It should be remembered that all liquid food for a child up to twelve or
fifteen months old should be administered at a temperature no lower than
blood-heat. The liquid mixtures named herein may be made in advance of
the needs, and placed upon ice merely to preserve them, but should be
warmed to a temperature of at least ninety-nine degrees Fahrenheit
before administering to the child.
Pure water should be given to all children from the time they are two
weeks old.
BANDAGE
The bandage should be removed about the close of the third month.
EMACIATION
In case of slight emaciation or lack of fat, the child should be given
an olive-oil rub once or twice a week, rubbing gently into the skin
about one teaspoonful of oil.
GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR CHILDREN AFTER ONE YEAR
All children, whether breast-fed or bottle-fed, are subject to
practically the same health rules after they are about one year old.
Therefore I will now consider all children in the same class, and lay
out for them what may be termed general instructions in health and
hygiene.
Care should be exercised to omit from the diet of children just
beginning to take solid food, all articles that will not dissolve
readily without mastication.
GENERAL DIET FROM AGES ONE TO TWO
The diet from the first to the second year should consist of:
Baked apples
Baked potatoes--sweet or white
Cereal--limited quantity (thoroughly cooked)
Cream soups--home-made, such as:
Cream of celery Onion
Potato Rice
Tomato, etc.
Eggs
Milk
Pulp of soft ripe fruits
Vegetables--thoroughly mashed, such as:
{Asparagus
Fresh {Squash
{Spinach
The above vegetables contain much cellulose or pulp which should be
entirely discarded, leaving only the meat or purée; but to the child
from eleven to fifteen months old, they should be administered in very
limited quantities.
SIMPLICITY IN FEEDING
Especial attention should be given to simplicity in feeding:
1 Avoid giving too many things at the same meal; from three to four
articles at one time are sufficient
2 Mothers should be especially cautioned against giving a child
bread made with yeast, or baking powder, and against the old diet of
milk toast
3 All meat, flesh food, stimulants or narcotics of every kind should
be omitted from the diet of children
4 The crowning mistake of the doting mother is often made in feeding
her child from the conventional table, on such things as weakened
coffee or tea, meats, and condiments
5 The custom of giving children an excess of sweets has ruined
millions of little stomachs, and has given them a heritage of
dis-ease and suffering before they have entered their 'teens
6 All condiments, such as pepper, salt, vinegar, pickles, and all
pungent things should be eliminated from the diet of children--the
taste of the child is very susceptible to cultivation, and with very
little encouragement it will accept things that have no place in the
human economy, and which are positively harmful
7 When a child begins teething, it may be given a small piece of
hard water-cracker with safety
If the above rules are observed, it is reasonable to assume that normal
hunger of the child will guide it very correctly in selecting,
proportioning, and combining its food through the period of childhood
until it enters the period of youth.
OLD AGE
[Sidenote: Necessity for old age diet]
There seems to be two critical periods in every life--the ages of thirty
and sixty. If the sixtieth year can be turned with good digestion,
normal assimilation and excretion, it is fair to assume that with
reasonable care the century mark may be easily reached. It is also
reasonable to assume that experience will have taught most thoughtful
people what to eat and what not to eat, but the mortality tables of
nearly all civilized countries, of which the writer has made a careful
study, prove that a majority of people do not reach their sixtieth year,
and but a very small per cent of those who do are blessed with good
digestion. Therefore an old age diet is quite as important to the
student as infant feeding.
For purposes of convenience, I will put all cereal products, legumes,
and white potatoes in the starch or bread class, and henceforth they
will be referred to as such.
[Sidenote: Meat and bread produce old age]
The majority of disorders that mark the difference between youth and age
may be traced directly to the overconsumption of meat and bread,
especially cereal starch. The hardening of the arteries, the stiffening
of the cartilage, the enlargement of the joints, and the general lack of
flexibility throughout the body is due almost wholly to the
overconsumption of these two staples.
[Sidenote: Uric acid in rheumatic conditions]
Uric acid is always present in gouty and rheumatic conditions, but it is
there as Nature's defense against our sins, and not as a primary cause.
Meat is not the cause of uric acid as has been popularly taught. Uric
acid is one of the constituent elements of all animal bodies, and when
the normal supply in the human body is supplemented by that which is
contained in the body of the animal upon which we prey, we are
oversupplied. This is as far as meat-eating contributes toward uric acid
poisoning.
[Sidenote: Soluble starches desirable]
When the body is young and growing, it can consume and appropriate a
considerable quantity of starchy or structural material, but when it is
fully grown, or has turned forty, it can subsist healthfully upon a diet
containing only from three to five per cent of starch, and as one
becomes older the more soluble forms of starch should be taken, such as
the starch contained in green peas, beans, and corn, which, immature, is
readily soluble and assimilable. The starch in the banana is also easily
appropriated and easily oxydized, and will be found to agree with many
who cannot eat starch in any other form without producing fermentation.
After the fiftieth year the diet becomes more and more a factor needing
special attention in the daily regimen, both as to selection and
quantity; and with advancing age the quantity of food should be
gradually reduced until the minimum which will support life healthfully
is reached.
[Sidenote: Importance of diet with advancing age]
In old age the diet should be governed by the same general rules as
those of younger people; that is, elderly people should select, combine,
and proportion their food according to temperature of environment,
labor, and age. Those performing manual labor can use and eliminate food
material which would produce uric acid and other poisons in the body of
the sedentary worker.
THREE PERIODS OF OLD AGE
[Sidenote: Diet from fifty to sixty]
Old age may be divided into three periods. From fifty to sixty the diet
should consist of a very limited quantity of bread products (not more
than two per cent); fresh green vegetables, fresh mild fruits, nuts, a
normal quantity of milk and eggs, a limited quantity of sugar, and a
moderate amount of fats.
[Sidenote: Diet from sixty to seventy]
From sixty to seventy the amount of cereal starch should be reduced to
one per cent, or not more than two per cent, while the other articles
named may be taken as suggested from fifty to sixty, gradually
eliminating starchy foods, and increasing foods containing proteids,
casein, and albumin.
[Sidenote: Diet from seventy to one hundred]
Between the ages of seventy and one hundred, the same general
suggestions as those above laid out should be followed, eliminating
entirely all cereal products. The more soluble forms of starchy or
carbohydrate foods, such as potatoes, bananas, and green peas, beans,
corn, etc., may be taken. (See Lesson XIII, Vol. III, p. 632.)
The necessary amount of fats, albumin, casein, and proteids must be
governed by activity and temperature of environment.
The following are suggestions for one day's menu, in spring and summer,
age between fifty and sixty. Choice of menus may be exercised, but each
menu should be taken in its entirety.
MENU I MENU II
BREAKFAST
Melon or subacid fruit One or two very ripe bananas,
One egg--coddled with figs, cream,
A potato or a very little and nuts
coarse bread Choice of fruit--non-acid
A glass of clabbered milk or Two glasses of milk
buttermilk
Two tablespoonfuls of raisins,
with cream and nuts
LUNCHEON
Choice of peas, corn, beans, Choice of carrots, parsnips,
or creamed onions beans, squash, or asparagus
Eggs or buttermilk A baked sweet or a white
A baked potato potato
A salad or something green, A glass of buttermilk
with nuts Cream cheese, dates, and
A banana, with cream, nuts nuts
and dates A very small portion of
green salad, with grated
nuts
DINNER
One fresh vegetable--spinach, A green salad
cooked ten minutes Two fresh vegetables
One egg or a very small A sweet or a white potato,
portion of fish with sweet butter
A baked potato A glass of sour milk
Choice of dates, figs, or
raisins, with cream cheese
and nuts
In cases of constipation, two or three tablespoonfuls of coarse wheat
bran (cooked, if desired) should be taken with the breakfast and the
evening meal, and a spoonful just before retiring, taken in a glass of
water. Such fruits as plums, peaches, or berries should be taken daily,
just after rising and just before retiring.
The following are suggestions for fall and winter menus, for a person
between the ages of fifty and sixty:
BREAKFAST
Oranges, apples, pears, or soaked prunes
An egg and a small portion of either plain boiled wheat or rice
A very ripe banana, with nuts and raisins
NOTE: Sweet fruits may be taken instead of the acid fruits suggested,
and milk instead of eggs.
LUNCHEON
One or two fresh vegetables, such as carrots, onions, turnips,
cabbage, or beans
Celery or any coarse plant
A potato or a very small portion of corn
If not very active, the luncheon may consist of two glasses of
buttermilk and a spoonful of wheat bran.
DINNER
Choice of two fresh vegetables
A baked potato
Choice of fish, eggs, or buttermilk
Corn bread or a very small portion of coarse cereal
All fresh, watery vegetables should be cooked in a casserole dish.
A sufficient quantity of water should be drunk at each of these meals to
bring the moisture up to about sixty-six per cent of the meal--two to
three glasses.
These meals are mere suggestions, and are therefore subject to many
variations.
All green salads may be substituted for one another; all starchy
products--grain, potatoes, and legumes--may also be substituted for one
another.
ATHLETICS
[Sidenote: Every diet should be an athletic diet]
The diet for the athlete really differs but little from that which
should be taken by every person in normal health, the object in all
cases being to secure the greatest degree of energy from the least
quantity of food. In order to do this, the laws governing the selecting,
the combining, and the proportioning of foods should be observed. When
the digestive, the assimilative, and the excretory organs are properly
performing their functions, the object should be to gain the highest
efficiency in food with the least amount of loss or waste. Every diet,
therefore, should be made an athletic diet.
In dealing with the public at large, the work of the practitioner will
be confined very largely to prescribing for those who, by violation of
Nature's laws, have become dis-eased, or in some way physically
abnormal, and in these cases, of course, a remedial or counteractive
diet first becomes necessary.
[Sidenote: General diet for normal athlete]
In dealing with the athlete as a special class, however, we must
consider him as a normal creature, somewhere between the ages of twenty
and forty. We must also consider that his digestion and assimilation of
food, and elimination of waste are normal. Under these conditions, the
diet should consist of highly nitrogenous and proteid compounds, leveled
or balanced by the requisite amount of carbohydrates and fats.
[Sidenote: Quantity of fat required at different seasons]
If the athlete is training for action in summer, the quantity of fat
should be reduced according to temperature or climate. When the
thermometer ranges in the seventies and eighties, one ounce of fat each
twenty-four hours would probably be sufficient, while if the mercury is
down in the twenties or thirties, from two or three ounces may be
required to keep up bodily heat.
The following are suggestions for summer athletic diet:
BREAKFAST
Fruit or melon
*Corn, or boiled wheat, with nuts and cream
Eggs, whipped, with sugar and cream--lemon juice flavor
LUNCHEON
Break from four to six eggs into a bowl, adding a heaping
teaspoonful of sugar to each egg; whip five minutes; while
whipping, add slowly one teaspoonful of lemon juice to each egg; to
this add half a glass of milk to each egg, and drink slowly
*Corn or a potato
DINNER
Fruit, berries, or melon
A salad of lettuce, tomato, and grated carrots; serve with dressing
of lemon juice, grated nuts and olive-oil
One fresh vegetable
An egg or tender fish
A baked potato
Buttermilk
[Footnote: NOTE: Corn to be prepared as follows:
Cut lightly from cob with a sharp knife and scrape down with a dull one;
serve uncooked with a little salt, sugar and cream.]
The following are suggestions for winter athletic diet:
BREAKFAST
A baked apple or an orange
One coarse cereal, with nuts and cream
Two eggs, either whipped or boiled two minutes
Very ripe bananas, with dates, nuts and cream (If bananas are not
very ripe, they should be peeled and baked) See recipe, Vol. III,
p. 677
LUNCHEON
Beans or lentils
Carrots, turnips, squash, or corn
Fish or eggs
A baked potato
Buttermilk
DINNER
Two fresh vegetables
A green salad, with oil
Omelet, with grated nuts
A banana, with nuts and cream, and either dates or raisins
Buttermilk
These menus, like those given for summer, are merely for the purpose of
suggesting selections, combinations, and proportions of food that will
meet the exigencies of temperature, environment, and work. The quantity
of food required will depend largely upon the size (physique) of the
individual, the severity of training, and the feats to be performed. It
is especially important that these suggestions be well considered at
least one day before engaging in any athletic event or work requiring
extraordinary physical effort, as the human body appropriates or uses
food from twenty-four to thirty-six hours after it is eaten.
[Sidenote: Exposure to extreme cold or exertion]
If one is to be exposed to extreme cold, an excess of fats should be
taken, beginning thirty-six hours before exposure. If much physical
effort is to be exerted, the diet should be balanced as to all nutritive
elements, with an excess of nitrogenous foods. In fact, these rules
should be observed by every one who desires to make feeding scientific,
and to make food his servant instead of his master, as our civilized
habits have a tendency to do.
SEDENTARY OCCUPATIONS
[Sidenote: Cessation of activity means disintegration]
Nature demands from every form of life a certain amount of activity or
motion. Any transgression of this law means disintegration. Rest is
merely the process adopted by Nature to reconvert matter into its
original elements. To whatever extent one ceases activity, Nature, under
normal conditions, inflicts this penalty.
[Sidenote: The penalty of civilization]
Man's civilized habits and customs have produced a class of workers who,
while at work, are deprived of their requisite amount of motion, and
who, therefore, pay the penalty by shortened periods of life, and by
numerous disorders which we have come to characterize as dis-ease. There
is but one method known to science by which these penalties may be
avoided, and by which the worker whose occupation must be sedentary may
become as healthful as his brother who can order his life in conformity
with Nature's laws. That method lies in the ordering of his diet.
[Sidenote: Dis-ease is merely congestion]
All dis-ease may be called _congestion_, or the failure of the body to
eliminate poisons and waste matter. The process of elimination is
assisted by activity (work or play). The accumulation of waste and
poisons in the body is measured or determined almost wholly by the diet.
[Sidenote: Diet governed by work]
The man who is swinging a pick or a sledge hammer in the open air may
eat or drink almost anything, because his powers of eliminating waste
are aided by his work. It follows, therefore, that those whose work is
of a sedentary nature must procure their nutrition from substances
containing the minimum of waste, and producing the maximum of energy,
and the quantity must be measured accurately by the demands of the
body, or autointoxication (self-poisoning) will result.
Intestinal congestion (constipation), which is almost universal among
sedentary workers, is caused in nearly all cases by consuming a quantity
of food in excess of the physical demands, and which cannot be thrown
off owing to the lack of exercise. It is at this point that science must
lay out the dietetic regimen so as to make it conform to the occupation,
or to the lack of physical activity.
The following are suggestions for a spring or summer diet for the
average sedentary worker:
BREAKFAST
Cantaloup, berries or peaches, with sugar and cream
An egg
One or two bananas, with nuts, cream, and raisins (Bananas should
be baked, if not very ripe)
LUNCHEON
Peas, beans, or asparagus
A heaping tablespoonful of nuts
A salad of lettuce and tomatoes, with nuts
A baked potato, tender corn, or a very little coarse bread
DINNER
Melon or cantaloup
Two tablespoonfuls of nuts
One or two fresh vegetables, including an ear of tender corn
Fish, eggs, or buttermilk
Plain ice-cream, if something sweet is desired
GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR SEDENTARY WORKER
The student will recognize that in these menus the heavier foods are
prescribed sparingly, while the lighter or the more readily soluble
articles predominate. From these suggestions a fair idea of a fall and
winter diet can be drawn.
Indigestion, sour stomach (hyper-chlorhydria), constipation,
malassimilation, and general anemia are the disorders with which the
sedentary worker is most commonly afflicted.
In dealing with each and all of these conditions, including obesity,
which is often the result of sedentary habits, the first thing to be
done is to limit the quantity of food to the normal requirements of the
body, and in extreme cases a diet below the normal should be observed;
no one was ever made ill by underfeeding. Then, with proper care as to
the selection, combination, and proportions of food, and an increased
amount of exercise and deep breathing, the person of sedentary habits
should be made as healthy and strong as the outdoor worker in the fields
of manual labor.
CLIMATIC EXTREMES
In considering a diet to meet the requirements of climatic extremes,
either hot or cold, it is necessary to reckon from normality, both as to
climate and as to the health of the individual.
All the foregoing lessons, taken as a whole, are designed to teach one
method or theory, involving two principles:
1 Selections, combinations, and proportions of food that will
counteract and remove the causes of unnatural conditions called
dis-ease
2 Selections, combinations, and proportions of food that will bring
the body up to its highest degree of development and there maintain
it
Under normal conditions the temperature of the body may be thoroughly
controlled by feeding. The principal process of metabolism is that of
making heat out of the fuel given to the "human boiler." The amount of
heat, therefore, that a given quantity of food will produce is
determined very largely by the amount of resistance that is met from
natural environment.
[Sidenote: Amount of fat required in different temperatures]
The human body, under ordinary conditions, in a temperature of 60°
Fahrenheit, will use about two ounces of pure fat every twenty-four
hours. If the temperature should drop to 30° Fahrenheit, it would
require about three ounces of fat every twenty-four hours to keep the
temperature of the body at normal. Under certain conditions of exposure
it might require as much as five and even six ounces of pure fat to
maintain normal temperature of the body, and in the extreme north, where
the temperature ranges in winter from 25° to 30° below zero, the natives
often take as much as sixteen ounces of fat during the day. Fat being
the principal heat-producing element, it is, therefore, the most
necessary thing to consider in a temperature of extreme cold.
The student will readily understand that, in order to maintain a normal
standard of vitality and endurance, the selection of foods must be made
according to age, activity, and temperature.
For a person undergoing a reasonable amount of exposure, and working in
a climate where the temperature is ranging between 20° and 30°
Fahrenheit, the following menus, covering one day, may be suggested:
Immediately on rising, drink a cup of hot water, then take vigorous deep
breathing exercises, followed by a cool sponge bath and rub down.
BREAKFAST
(An hour later)
Add half an ounce of sugar to two or three eggs, and whip five
minutes; add a tablespoonful of lemon juice while whipping; mix
with this two glasses of rich milk
A tablespoonful of nuts
One very ripe banana, with cream
LUNCHEON
One fresh vegetable
Lima or navy beans
A salad, with either olive-oil or nuts
A baked potato or boiled wheat (A liberal supply of butter or
cream)
DINNER
A baked sweet potato
One or two vegetables
Eggs, or buttermilk, unskimmed
A baked white potato, with either olive-oil or butter
Dates, with cream cheese, or gelatin, with cream
As the temperature becomes lower, the amount of fats and proteids should
be increased according to exposure and activity.
The student should bear in mind that carbohydrates, proteids, and fats
are the most important factors in the winter dietary. Other articles can
be held level over a wide range of temperature, provided these three
staple nutrients are taken in the requisite proportions.
[Sidenote: Summer diet requires scientific consideration]
Nearly all people in normal health instinctively avoid heat-producing
foods in hot weather, and as in warm or hot climates people live more in
the open air, oxidation is therefore more perfect, and has a tendency to
aid elimination, so the errors of diet are not so serious. Nevertheless,
the food to be taken in hot climates, or the heated term of summer,
should receive scientific consideration.
Anthropoid life, of which man is the highest type, originated in the
tropics, and nearly everything necessary for his highest physical
development grew prodigally in that country. His natural or primitive
diet was nuts, fruits, and salads (edible plants).
Civilization has transplanted him in the north, and has laid heavier
burdens upon him, therefore he needs, in many instances, heavier and
different foods, such as the carbohydrates, proteids, fats, and the
albumin and the phosphorus in eggs.
As the temperature becomes warmer, the heat-producing factors, such as
fats and carbohydrates (starch and sugar), should be gradually reduced.
The following menus are suitable for the average person, in normal
health, between the ages of thirty and sixty, when the temperature is
ranging from 70° to 90° Fahrenheit:
BREAKFAST
Cantaloup, peaches, or berries
Very ripe bananas, with grated nuts and cream
A glass of milk
LUNCHEON
One whipped egg
A fresh vegetable
A teaspoonful of nuts
A lettuce and tomato salad
A baked sweet or white potato
DINNER
Peas, beans, asparagus, or corn
A salad, with grated nuts and carrots
A potato
One whipped egg
Half a glass of milk
A service of gelatin
These menus are mere suggestions, not invariable, and in following them
it should be remembered that all green salads may be substituted for one
another, and as a general rule such underground articles as beets,
carrots, turnips, and parsnips may be substituted for one another. Also
green corn, peas, and beans are in the same general class. (See
"Constipation," Vol. III, p. 761.)