of human foods, it is of great importance to know how to secure a
maximum amount of nutrition from a minimum expenditure of money. The
world is facing a food shortage that in some places has assumed the
proportion of the gaunt specter of famine. In view of this fact, it
is well to remember that flesh is the most costly source of food.
Sixty-two per cent of the best beefsteak is water. Flesh foods contain
but twenty-five per cent nourishment, and seventy-five per cent waste
matter. The grains contain seventy-five per cent nourishment, and but
twenty-five per cent waste. Now it does not require a knowledge of
higher mathematics to determine that since ten pounds of grain, when
fed to an animal, make but one pound of flesh, the latter becomes a
very costly source of our food supply.
_9. The Testimony of Anatomy and Physiology_
Even a kindergarten study of the structure of the human body reveals
the fact that man was not intended to be a carnivorous, a herbivorous,
or an omnivorous animal, but rather a frugivorous creature. He does not
possess the rough, raspy tongue of the cat family, the long, pointed
canine teeth of the lion, the sharp claws of the tiger, or the talons
and hooked beak of the eagle. In the carnivora, the alimentary canal
is very short, being only three times the length of the body. In
herbivora, as the sheep, it is thirty times the length of the body. In
frugivora, such as apes, monkeys, and man, it is twelve times the body
length. Baron Cuvier, a famous anatomist, writes, "The natural food of
man, judging from his structure, appears to consist principally of the
fruits, roots, and other succulent parts of vegetables."
_10. Flesh and Morals_
The menu provided for man in the beginning did not include animal food.
Not until one thousand six hundred fifty-six years of human history
had passed was man permitted to eat flesh, and then only after every
green thing had been destroyed by the Deluge. What we eat exercises a
profound influence upon what we are, how we think, and how we feel.
Let us divide the animal kingdom on the basis of diet and disposition.
On the one hand, we have the lion, the tiger, the wolf, the bear, the
leopard, the panther, etc.; all these are vicious, snarly, crabbed,
ferocious beasts. What comprises their diet? We call them "beasts of
prey." They feast upon the bloody, quivering flesh of their victims.
On the other hand, we might mention the horse, the ox, the deer, the
sheep, the elephant. Think of their dispositions, calm, quiet, pacific,
easily domesticated. May it not be that their diet of cereals and herbs
contributes to their peaceful temperament?
Dr. Curtis, the eminent physician to Mr. Garfield, said, "What parent
is there who has not viewed with alarm how old Adam enters into the
baby along with the first spoonful of chopped beef!" Gautier said,
on this point: "The vegetarian régime, modified by the addition of
milk, of fat of butter, of eggs, has great advantage. It adds to the
alkalinity of the blood, accelerates oxidation, diminishes organic
wastes and toxins. It exposes one much less likely than the ordinary
régime to skin maladies, to arthritis, to congestions of internal
organs. This régime tends to make us pacific beings, and not aggressive
and violent."
To these we may add the testimony of Holy Writ, "Be not among
winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh."
Physical Benefits of Joy
The emotion of joy finds physiologic manifestations exactly opposite
to those of sorrow and grief. There is increase of function in the
muscles, and expansion of the blood vessels. As a result of
increased muscular activity, the joyful person feels light and
springy. Children, when joyful, dance and skip and clap their hands.
The expansion of the blood vessels brings the "flush of joy." This
increase in the circulation causes increased secretion of the
digestive juices, with increased appetite, and increased power of
digestion and absorption. This means increased nourishment. "Laugh
and grow fat" has a physiologic basis. Fat people are not
good-natured because they are fat, but they are fat because they
are good-natured.
Laughter has a wonderfully beneficial influence on bodily
functions--a fact recognized centuries ago when the wise man
said, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine." Laughter is a
potent stimulant to all the helpful bodily functions. It hastens
digestion, stimulates circulatory reaction, promotes tissue changes,
enhances glandular activity, facilitates elimination, and altogether
radiates a most beneficent influence throughout the body. Laugh, and
the whole body laughs, and counts its work a pleasure.--_Dr. George
A. Thomason._
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
STIMULANTS _and_ CONDIMENTS
_by
ARTHUR N. DONALDSON, A.B., M.D._
of the Faculty of the College of Medical
Evangelists, Loma Linda, California
The Creator intended that the process of eating should be enjoyed. He
has gathered the tasteless, insipid food elements together, and mixing
in mineral and organic accessories, has produced for the tickling of
our palates all the numberless flavors that the combined action of
those highly specialized organs of taste and smell have enabled us
to enjoy. The tasteless starch is bound up in the palatable potato;
the insipid protein, in the pea, the lentil, and the bean; the rather
nauseating fat, in the plump, appetizing olive. To the child not yet
educated to the perverted demands of his father's palate, the thought,
taste, and smell of these aromatic and savory substances produces a
desire to eat. By the time he is twenty, he will not be satisfied with
the natural flavor of his food. The cook must pepper or ginger it up,
and he must further mustard or Worcestershire it to get it down. His
soups are hot, and his salads are hotter. The palatable pleasure in
a meal of his childhood is a lost asset. What has brought about this
change in the appetite of man?
We all know, from experience, that we handle our food better if we
relish it. This is due largely to the fact that the taste organs
telegraph ahead to the stomach to prepare for work. The stomach
responds by pouring out some digestive juices, and is consequently all
ready to begin business the instant the tourist arrives. But when the
food is bolted, there is a failure on the part of the taste nerves
to telegraph ahead, unless they are stimulated more intensely by the
addition of some readily diffusible sapid substance. Are we thus
fooling nature?--We are not. Primarily, this unnatural stimulation
leads to the most prevalent American dietetic sin; namely, overeating.
We do not know when we have had enough. Dr. Wiggers, of Cornell
University, has shown that overeating results in the surcharging of
the blood stream with elements of digestion; and this, through the
operation of physical laws, ultimately leads to arteriosclerosis and
its chain of disasters. Secondly, with this unnatural stimulation of
the taste nerves, the telegraphic messages to the stomach and the
intestine are unreliable. Normally the tract is informed as to the
nature of the food about to come, and is thus enabled to pour out a
specific juice for a specific kind of food. Obviously this specificity
which characterizes all normal processes is broken down, and the
digestive function is placed under a handicap, when we cover up the
natural taste with condiments.
The idea that condiments and stimulants act favorably in directly
stimulating the production of gastric juice and in increasing gastric
motor activity, and thus facilitating the digestive process, is a
delusion. Professor Carlson, of Chicago University, has shown that
these so-called stomachics and appetizers will have done their bit
ere they enter the misunderstood stomach. And, our savory sauces and
peppers being irritants in the mouth, they are no less irritants to
the lining membrane of the stomach. They are always taboo in mild
dyspeptic disorders, yet we think them just the appetizers for the run
down nervous individual who never enjoys the pangs of hunger. Rather,
he should be advised to oxygenate his impoverished blood by a brisk
walk, to stir up his eliminative organs by vigorous exercise and the
ingestion of water; for these bring no gastric catarrh, no sluggish
liver.
It is recognized by every writer on dietetics, that condiments are
irritating to the organs of elimination. The kidneys suffer, the
ureters suffer, the bladder suffers, and the urethra suffers. We are
very quick to stop the use of these substances when the kidneys give
evidence of disease, and we will with alacrity drop the hot stuff from
our dietary when the bladder and the urethra are inflamed. We do not
like the smarting, burning pain produced by their presence. If they
are detrimental during disease processes, they are just as detrimental
in health. The long continued use of minute quantities of an irritant
will incontrovertibly give ultimate evidence of its harmful nature,
and we may expect such pathology as congestion of the liver, catarrh
of the alimentary tract, hemorrhoids, nephritis, and general nutritive
disturbances to be the possible heritage of our stimulating diet.
It is an interesting scientific fact that the highly soluble substances
which are used as foods or food accessories are always irritating to
the living membranes, particularly to the mucous membranes of the
digestive organs with which they come in contact in the process of
digestion, whether these membranes are healthy or diseased. Among such
substances, we may mention sugar and salt.
Sugar and salt are excellent examples of the sapid, readily diffusible
condiment so essential to our table, yet so invariably used to excess.
We need about two teaspoonfuls of common salt a day--especially
those who enjoy the vegetarian diet. Most vegetables are rich in
potassium. This inorganic substance combines with sodium chloride, and
is eliminated from the body. Consequently, the greater the amount of
potassium in our food, the greater will be the loss of sodium chloride
from the blood and the tissues, where it is an essential element, with
the resultant need of an increased supply in our diet. Where there is
an insufficient use of salt, there is a manifest disinclination to
partake of the large variety of earth's products rich in potassium. But
we are accustomed to the use of far more salt with our food than is
necessary; and in excess, it is positively harmful, and the results of
its use are serious.
Sugar is a pure carbohydrate; yet, by reason of its nature and use,
it must be classed as a condiment. It, too, when used freely, brings
on gastrointestinal catarrh through its direct irritant action, and
affords unexcelled media for the growth of intestinal flora.
_Stimulants_
There are practically four strong stimulants to which civilized people
are addicted; namely, alcohol, tobacco, tea, and coffee. Of the action
of all, it may be said that the fatigue of nerve and brain is soothed
by a spur. That is the work of a stimulant,--to goad the worn system to
added effort, to produce an abnormal, false energy. Thus the individual
is led on to a state of actual exhaustion without a warning note from
his fatigued system. His energy is actually dissipated rather than
increased. The results are shown in his heart, his nervous system, and
his eliminative organs. Admiral Peary, speaking of the use of coffee
in the rations of polar explorers, states that with the added effect
of intense cold, it so stimulates the nerves as to cause the men to
exhaust themselves, and soon wear out, by doing more than they can
endure.
The actual extent of injury from the moderate use of tea and coffee has
not been scientifically determined. The difficulty is, as Irving Fisher
states it, "Sensitive people do not keep moderate." A little unnatural
stimulation calls for a little more, and the tendency is to create a
demand for something stronger. Fisher has truthfully declared that to
abstain is much easier than to be moderate.
The claim that alcoholic beverages give added strength is a fallacy.
The narcotic action of alcohol benumbs the sense of fatigue. From
reliable clinical and laboratory findings, we are warranted in
asserting with authority that alcohol lowers the power of all mental
processes. The muscular efficiency is reduced. The ability of the
body to protect itself against disease is undermined. The policemen
of the body--the white corpuscles--are rendered more or less
inactive--paralyzed; and the formation of other resistive elements of
the blood is restricted. In other words, vital resistance is below
par. Alcohol is furthermore a heart and circulatory depressant, and is
no longer used by competent physicians as a circulatory stimulant. In
short, it lowers mental and physical efficiency, and of course will
naturally give its stamp to the unfortunate offspring.
Tobacco, too, blunts the edge of fatigue and worry. But its effect
is transient, and the stimulation is followed by depression, which
of course calls for more of the stimulant. Statistics tell us that
where the weed is prohibited, efficiency is increased, and morale is
improved.
Among the serious consequences of smoking, we find cancer of lip,
tongue, and mouth, and serious cardiovascular changes. In a series
of one hundred cases of cancer of the tongue and mouth, Dr. Abbe, of
New York, found that ninety were inveterate users of tobacco; and he
gives the stimulant the credit of being the ætiological factor in a
high percentage of all malignant growths in this region. Tobacco not
only directly affects the heart muscle, but its nicotine, through
stimulation of the suprarenal gland, causes the production and throwing
into the blood of an excessive amount of adrenalin, which brings
about a tremendous rise in blood pressure, and of course an increase
in the burden that the heart must carry. The ultimate result is
arteriosclerosis, tobacco heart, nephritis, and very possibly a closing
of the scene with a paralytic stroke.
Professor Fisher very aptly appeals against the introduction of
more poisons into a system already burdened with poisons of its own
elaboration.
We are not at liberty to ignore nature and her laws. Our bodies are not
our own. When the Creator has opened to us of heaven's abundance for
the sustenance of life, and has given us a dietary that answers every
need of palate and body, we are palpably in error before our Maker when
we question His wisdom, and take into our systems those substances
which we know to be destructive to mind, soul, and body.
Our country, however, is blessed with an abundance of foodstuffs;
and if our people will economize in their use of food, providently
confining themselves to the quantities required for the maintenance
of health and strength, if they will eliminate waste, and if they
will make use of those commodities of which we have a surplus, and
thus free for export a larger proportion of those required by the
world now dependent on us, we shall not only be able to accomplish
our obligations to them, but we shall obtain and establish
reasonable prices at home.--_Woodrow Wilson._
[Illustration]
SIMPLE MENUS _and_ RECIPES
_by
Mr. H. S. ANDERSON_
Food Specialist, College of Medical Evangelists and
Loma Linda Sanitarium
The art of planning and combining the food for a meal is of no small
importance to the housewife or the cook. The very best foods may be
served in such combinations as to bring distress to the digestive
organs, and produce weakness instead of strength.
Because human beings differ so much, and their needs are so varied, it
is impossible to lay down any set of rules on diet alike for all. There
are general principles, however, by which all may be guided, and which,
if heeded, can accomplish more for the individual or the family, in
maintaining health, than all doctors' prescriptions. This is made plain
by the fact that it is better to know how to keep well than how to cure
disease.
It is therefore of great importance for those who have the
responsibility of planning for the table, to have a working knowledge
of the principles which guide in making out a balanced menu.
In the planning of a meal, careful study should be given to the
combination of foods. On the one hand, only such foods as digest well
together should be used at one meal. On the other hand, foods should
be chosen that will supply all the needed elements in about the right
proportion.
Because of the woody substances found in vegetables, especially the
coarse or fibrous vegetables, such as carrots, beets, turnips, cabbage,
potatoes, and others, they digest slowly, and consequently remain
a long time in the stomach before they are broken sufficiently for
intestinal digestion. Fruits remain in the stomach a short time, and,
owing to the large amount of saccharine matter they contain, are apt to
ferment if retained too long.
Fruit and vegetables therefore should not be eaten at the same meal.
This has special reference to the coarse and underground vegetables;
while the finer or fruity vegetables, such as green peas, corn, squash,
tomatoes, etc., and some others which also ripen in the sun, may be
used with almost any food.
A safe rule in planning a meal, is to be sure that the _soup_, the
_relishes_ (greens, salads, etc.), and the _dessert_, if used, combine
well together, as these are so generally used by nearly all classes
of people when placed on the menu. Then if fruit is used, in salad,
or as dessert, there should be on the menu at least one of the finer
vegetables, such as tomatoes, corn, or the like, which can be eaten
with the fruit; and if the meal is planned without fruit, any of the
coarser vegetables may be used as desired.
A large variety should not be planned for any one meal. It is a great
additional expense; and besides, when several articles are taken at
one meal, fermentation is likely to occur and the system will not be
so well nourished. Recent research work has shown that the digestive
juices vary both in kind and in quantity with different kinds of food
eaten. This may explain why many persons cannot digest complex mixtures
and extensive variety, and is a mighty argument for simplicity at
meal-time.
A select variety, of only a few kinds of food, at any one meal, with
diversity in the meals from day to day, will prove advantageous to the
individual and the family, both from the standpoint of economy, and
from the health point of view.
An excess of milk and sugar taken together clogs the system, and
should be avoided. Fats are more digestible cold than hot, because
hot fat tends to coat and intimately penetrate the food with which
it is cooked. This is especially true of fried foods, part of the
food being surrounded with a layer of fat, keeping the digestive
juices from acting on the other food elements. When subjected to a
high temperature, fats decompose, and the resulting acids are very
irritating to the mucous membranes of the stomach and the intestines.
The following combinations of food digest well together:
Grains, fruits, and nuts
Grains with milk
Grains with eggs
Grains, vegetables, and nuts
Foods that do not digest well together are:
Milk and sugar taken together, in large quantities
Fruit and vegetables
Foods cooked in fats
A balanced dietary is one that supplies in about the right proportion
all the kinds of food required to nourish the body. From the earliest
impressions of childhood, many persons have received the idea that the
most important article of diet is animal flesh. In most cases, this
idea has been accepted without question or thought, and probably has
never been challenged. A careful study of the subject, however, will
show that with the use of meat, there is great danger of an excess of
protein above the minimum requirements, there being thus placed upon
the liver and the kidneys an amount of work which should not be imposed
on these vitally important organs.
To combine foods in such a way as to supply all the needed elements,
we should choose something from each of the different classes of food
elements. There should also be among these such as supply sufficient
cellulose and mineral. To illustrate this point, a few menus will
be given that are extremely unbalanced, or one-sided, that we may
understand more forcibly, by contrast, what a good meal is:
1. Soy bean soup \
Lentil patties | / Too much building food
Cottage cheese | | Too concentrated
Custard pie | \ Too little bulk
Milk /
2. White rice \
Mashed potato |
Spaghetti | / Too much fuel food
White crackers | | Too little bulk and mineral
Butter | \ Lacks building food (protein)
Cake /
3. Vegetable soup \
Wax beans | / Too little building food
Lettuce | | Too little fuel food
Stewed beets | | Too bulky
Bran biscuit | | Lacking in nourishment
Strawberries / \ Bad combination
In order to make a balanced meal out of the above foods, it would be
necessary to choose something from each of these unbalanced meals, and
it would not be necessary to choose a large variety in order to supply
the needs of the body. Upon examination, we find that bread (entire
wheat) possesses properties which so nearly represent the constituent
parts of the body as to make such bread ideal for the building up and
keeping in repair of the human body. In the matter of building food
(protein), bread contains about ten per cent, or about the recognized
dietary requirement.
Bread is an exceedingly digestible food; and experiments taken as a
whole show nearly ninety-eight per cent of the starch, or carbohydrate
nutrients, and about eighty-eight per cent of the gluten, or protein
constituents, assimilated by the body. See Snyder's "Human Foods," page
179; also table, page 23.
Many other grains, such as corn, oats, rye, barley, and rice, all
contain heat- and energy-producing substances and tissue-forming
elements in about the right proportion to meet the needs of the body.
Exception is made of rice, which is slightly deficient in protein.
Bread of some kind, therefore, is the "backbone" of the meal. Around it
are grouped the various fruits and vegetables for change and variety,
alternating with one of the more solid foods, rich in protein, such
as cottage cheese, eggs, nuts, or any of the various legumes, as
peas, beans, lentils, etc. Of all the legumes, the soy bean takes
the lead for building food, containing nearly twice the per cent of
protein found in round steak. These more hearty foods should be used
with discretion, especially during the summer months, when well baked
breads, fruits, and green garden products constitute the ideal diet.
Potatoes, which are mostly starch, and eggs, which are largely albumen
and fat, may be combined in such a way as to furnish all the needed
elements in the right proportion. As rice is nearly all starch, and
beans are rich in protein, these make an excellent combination.
Nuts, rich in proteins and fats, and fruits, containing sugars and
acids, also make an ideal combination. To a meal composed largely of
rice and potatoes, which are deficient in fats, there may be added a
little cream, a few ripe olives, a few nuts, or an egg, to give a well
balanced ration.
The custom of eating a light lunch at noon, and reserving the heaviest
meal for the close of the day, while actuated to a great extent by
seeming necessities, or convenience, is not, as a rule, found a benefit
to health. As a result of a hearty meal at night, the digestive process
is continued through the sleeping hours; and though the stomach works
constantly, its work is not properly accomplished. The sleep is often
disturbed by unpleasant dreams; and in the morning, the person awakes
unrefreshed, and with little relish for breakfast.
The practice of eating but two meals a day is generally found a benefit
to health; yet under some circumstances, persons may require a third
meal. This should, however, if taken at all, be very light, and of
foods very easily digested, so that when we lie down to rest, the
stomach may have its work all done, and it, as well as the other organs
of the body, may enjoy rest.