Muscatine journal. [volume] (Bloomington, Iowa) 1849-185?, 1853-07-08

The Food of Man and its Effects.

The Food OF Man and It's Elects.
| One class OF Substances taken as food
supply the fuel for the. system, and o,he.
substances supply the materials that
| form the flesh aud the bones. A inan
absorbs about 700 lbs. of oxygen in
| year, to support the combustion OF $50
lbs. of carbon. The consumption OF
the~carbon in the system (fat is princi-
| pally composed of it) is so great that il
would be all exhausted in about ihres
days, If il were not re supplied by food
As the temperature of The body is always
The same under evesy climate, those
| who live in the colder regions Of the
earth require food which contains a
larger amount of carbon, than those who
live in warmer climates; This is for the
purpose of promoting grea,er amount
of combustion--a larger fire as itwere--
consequentlya man living in the arctic
regions will inhale more than doubie
the amount of oxygen of man living
in the tropics, in one year. Fire and
warm clothing. however. diminish the
necessity of eating so much food in the
cold regions, hence farmers who keep
their cattle warmly housed in the, win
ter, are enabled 10 maintain them in better
condition and with less food than those
who have not warm and welt sheltered
stables. Substance used for food, which
contain great amount of heat, power.
are oils, fat meat. sugar, and rice
Flesh-giving substances are those which
contain greater amount of nitrogen,
uch as lean meat, peas, cheese, &c
As different kinds of solid food produce
different effects in the nutriment of
the body, i; is requisite that in a we'll
regulated dietary that the proportions of
the fiesh-giving and heat producing foods
should be property adjusted, taking into
consideration. age. employme mt, aud eli
mate. Playfair alluded tos very prey
alent opinion respecting changes in the
human body, viz, that the entire sub.
stance off changes in seven years. He
could not onceive on what founda tien
this opinion rested, for judging from the
chemical decompositions, il might be
assumed that an entire change takes
place in the hu man body in forty days,
rather than seven years, and some parts
of The humao body changed much faster
thar this.
La reference TO the much disputed
question of The relative values OF ami
mai aud vegetable food. he observed
that there could be no difference between
them, che micslly speaking, for sil aui
mails derive their Eutyneat from vege
table matter, eli her eaten directly or
after IL ASS formed para OF the orgsnisn,
Of an herblyerous animal He be,ierec.
however, that there was much truth in
the observation, that the character of a
nation depends on the food of people;
hence, be said, "we may attribute the
passion 70, honor and glory in the
French, and the excitab!e ,empera men.
OF the Irish 10 the vegetable diet, whilst
the sound sense Of the Englishman may
be attributed TO his beef and beer."-
The practical conclusion he arrived at
was, ;hat the regimen Of roast bcefaud
beer should be given to the Irish, in or
der to bring them up to the character OF
the English, and to do this potato di-'
ct should be discountenanced.
The character of the Irish, according
to DR.. Playtalr, must have entirely
changed within 200 years, for the pots:
to is no older in Irels nd; and good sense
is dependent on beef and beer. These
neiher desire for military glory. an buf
are very certainly funny conclusions,
excitab temperament, nor sound sense +.
are dependent upon the general food
used by any people; all history is an
evidence Of the truth of what we as
sert, or else we must be forced to the
conclusion that the rise, progress aud
downfall of all the great nations Of an
tiquity were the results of the food ia,
ken al different periods in the history of
those nations, which is absurd. Sci.
american.