OILS AND FATS.
Oils and fats are the most concentrated foods we have. Weight for
weight, they contain more than twice as much fuel or energy value as any
other food. Taken in moderation they are easily digested, but if taken
in excess they become a burden to the system. About 7 or 8 per cent of
the weight of a normal body is fat, and this fat is formed chiefly from
the fatty foods taken into the system, supplemented by the sugar and
starch.
When the body becomes very fat, it is a disease, called obesity. Fat
people are never healthy. The fat usurps the place that should be
occupied by normal tissues and organs. It crowds the heart and the
lungs, and even replaces the muscle cells in the heart. The result is
that the heart and lungs are overcrowded and overworked and the blood
gets insufficient oxygen. Not only the lungs pant for breath after a
little exercise, but the entire body. Much fat is as destructive of
health as it is of beauty. Those who find themselves growing corpulent
should decrease their intake of concentrated foods and increase their
physical activity.
Our chief sources of fat supply are cream and butter, vegetable oils,
nuts and the flesh of animals. Most meats, especially when mature,
contain considerable fat. When the fat is mixed in with the meat, it is
more difficult to digest than the lean flesh. Fresh fish, most of which
contains very little fat, is digested very easily, while the fattest of
all flesh, pork, is tedious of digestion.
There is an instinctive craving for fat with foods that contain little
or none of it. That is why we use butter with cereals and lean fish, and
oil dressings on vegetables. In moderation this is all right. Fats are
not very rich in salts, which must be supplied by other foods.
Because of their great fuel value, more fats are naturally consumed in
cold than in hot climates. The Esquimeaux thrive when a large part of
their rations is fat. Such a diet would soon nauseate people in milder
climes.
Fats and oils are used too much in cooking. Fried foods and those cooked
in oil are made indigestible. Sometimes we read directions not to use
animal fats, but to use olive oil or cotton seed oil for frying. It is
poor cooking, no matter whether the grease is of animal or vegetable
origin.
So far as food value and digestibility are concerned, there is no
difference between animal and vegetable fats. Fresh butter is very good,
and so is olive oil. Some vegetable oils contain indigestible
substances. Cotton seed oil and peanut oil are much used. Sometimes they
are sold in bottles under fancy lables as olive oil. The olive oils from
California are fully as good as those imported from Spain, Italy and
France and are more likely to be what is claimed for them than the
foreign articles. In the past, much of our cotton seed oil has been
bought by firms in southern Europe and sent back to us as fine olive
oil! Such imposture is probably more difficult under our present laws
than it was in the past.
Most oils become rancid easily and then are unfit for consumption. If
taken in excess as food they have a splendid opportunity to spoil in the
digestive tract, and then they help to poison the system. Taken in
moderate quantities they are digested in the intestines and taken into
the blood by way of the lymphatics. They may be stored in the body for a
while, but finally they are burned, giving up much heat and energy.
Taking oils between meals as medicine or for fattening purposes is
folly. People get all they need to eat in their three daily meals.
Lunching is to be condemned.