MEAT AND VEGETABLES.
It is an old German habit to consider meat and vegetables as belonging
together.
In the common kinds of vegetables there is very little nutriment. Nearly
nine-tenths of the weight of cabbages and other varieties consist of
water. There is therefore but little left for nutriment proper, as, for
example, vegetable albumen, gluten, vegetable fat, starch, and sugar. It
is only such vegetables as turnips, etc., that contain much sugar, for
which reason they are well adapted for children and convalescents. In
fine, if nutriment alone were considered, the enjoyment of our common
vegetables would be nothing but a luxury.
In truth, however, they possess elements which make them very beneficial
to man, if he takes them together with meat. They contain organic
acids--like fruit, which for this reason is so universally liked--and
have the quality of preserving in a state of dissolution the soluble
albumen of the meat. Thus they save much labor to the digestive organs,
and accelerate the transition of meat into chyle. Hence the well-known
fact, that after dinner, though we can eat nothing more, yet we like to
taste some good raw fruit, or cooked fruit of any kind. Vegetables are
taken for a similar purpose, and are therefore very healthy when eaten
with meat.
But why is it that our housewives often serve vegetables _before_ they
do meat, and fruit _after_ the meat?
Very likely they themselves do not know why, as is the case so often;
yet they act here, as in many other things, with wise instinct. Fruit
contains organic acid, which, in a ready-made condition, is very
beneficial to us; it needs only to be taken up by the stomach. We do
well, therefore, if we take fruit after the meat, and allow digestion to
go on with it. From vegetables, however, this acid is only produced in
the stomach, and during the process of digestion. If taken before meat,
the acid may promote the digestion of the meat; while if it is taken
after the meat, the acid comes much too late to be of any benefit. This
explains the fact, that vegetables in which this acid has been produced
by fermentation--as is the case, for example, with sour-crout--are
usually taken together with meat.
Another great advantage of vegetables is, that they are rich in mineral
salts necessary for the health of the body. There are ingredients in the
various kinds of vegetables, of which it may scarcely be believed that
they can be eaten, for they belong to the metals and metal combinations;
as, for example, chlorine, iron, potassium, and natron; these play an
important part in the body. It is, therefore, not surprising to us that
a judicious physician will more often prescribe a good vegetable than
medicine; and one ought to be thankful to him if he sends people more to
the market than to the drug-store. There are, indeed, many diseases
successfully cured by such organical remedies, which only nature knows
how to prepare. To mention but one remedy, spinage, so highly beneficial
to children and young girls of very pale appearance. Their
green-sickness takes origin from a want of iron in the blood. Though
every physician is able to prescribe medicine which contains iron, yet
the effect of such artificial inorganic remedies is often very doubtful;
while spinage itself contains iron, and therefore offers a better
organic remedy, and food.
Meat and vegetables are sufficient for the body. There is not need of
much meat. From six to eight ounces a day constitutes the quantity
sufficient for a man. Meat and vegetables compensate each other's wants;
the former is poor in water, the latter rich; vegetables are wanting in
albumen, which is found abundantly in meat. This happy circumstance is
favorable to the formation of that mixture of elements essential to the
preservation of the body.
Household fare, according to what we have seen, is precisely what it
ought to be, and does not, as some people are inclined to think, result
solely from the whims of the housewives. Thus is proved again what we
have said above, viz., that the natural instinct and tact of woman have,
by long years of practice, been guided by a better and more practical
course than science itself.
There are some other important articles of food, but we must keep them
for "Supper;" and our readers will no doubt be very glad if we conclude
this chapter, and treat in the next one the question,
"Is it good to take a little nap after dinner?"