Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1878-10-04
HOW TO EAT TO LIVE.
BY A FAMILY DOCTOR.

aliment these are the aqueous, the
saccharine, the albuminous and the
oleaginous. Milk is good sample of a
perfect ife-sustaining food, being COM
posed of water, sugar, albumen and
oil. Now it must be evident to every
one that as a large portion of our bodies
(four-fifths) is composed of water which
is constantly passing off in the form of
vapor, our food must contain due pro.
portion of the aqueous element. The
albuminous portions of our food are
economical for the purpose of building
up certain tissues, such as the nervous
and the muscular. The oleaginous are
indispensable as heat-givers, and also
to help to nourish the tissues, and keep
up animal force and motion. The
sugars and starches, on the other hand,
are wholly heat-givers. In addition to
these, various salts are found in the
blood, which must be supplied from the
food partaken of, and the supply must
be constant, owing to the fact that the
body is continually parting with them,
and because they enter into the forma-
| tion OF bone, muscle and nerve. The
salts 1 refer to are the chloride OF
sodium, or common salt, and various
phosphates which fortunately are plenti-
fully found in the bread we eat, and in
vegetables, hence the value of the latter.
ought also to mention what are known
to psychologists as the conapIenaentaI
foods, such as coffee, cocoa, tea, etc.
Taken in small quantities, these are
said to hinder the destructive assimila-
tion Of tissues, and their use-not
abuse-not only comforts and calms the
mind, but also renders all kinds of
labor less fatiguing than it would other
wise be.
In our choice of food, the appetite or
taste may usually be followed as pretty
safe guide. "Nothing," says Mon
taigne, "hurts me that 1 eat with appe-
tite and delight" There are, however,
one or two exceptions to this rule, for
the very articles which we are most fond
of sometimes tend to produce disease.
Obesity, for instance, is nowadays
looked upon as disease. Admitting
that a certain amount of fat may be
taken as sign of good health, nothing
in my opinion could be conceived as
more burdensome to the bearer than q
body over-laden with adipose tissue.
Let me give my fat friends q hint or
two, what to avoid eating if they wish to
reduce their "huge hills of flesh. !"
Partake of just as little fluid OF any kind
as you can with comfort, avoid sugar or
molasses, fat meat or butter, pastry or
potatoes, bread or milk, or beer. What
then are you to eat +? you ask. Let
your breakfast consist principally of
animal food, cold meat or lean chop,
kidneys or broiled fish, with just one
small biscuit or slice of toast, or crust
of brown bread, and tea minus milk or
sugar. Let your dinner also be of meat
or fish; care not which you choose if
you avoid pork, salmon, mackerel, her.
rings or eels; you may partake of any
vegetable except potatoes, and any kind
of poultry or game, and, as at breakfast,
a morsel of toast and little tart fruit
Let your supper also be principally
flesh. Watch your health and weigh
yourself occasionally, and take as medi-
cine once day, on an empty stomach,
and in glass of water, a teaspoonful
and half of sal volatile and fifteen or
twenty grains of carbonate of magnesia.
The reduction should not exceed pound
O week.
The food we eat ought to be as fresh
and pure as possible, else it cannot but
be detrimental to the system. Fish, in
particular, cannot be cooked too soon;
and even vegetables are more sweet and
wholesome if cooked almost as soon as
culled.
There are some peeuliarities Of taste
or constitution which I need but
mention, in which certain articles of diet,
however wholesome they may be, not
only disagree, but seem to act as verita-
BILE poisons. Well, this but warns us to
study which of the different kinds of
food we consume agree with us, and
which irritate the stomach. We soon
get old enough to learn what kind of
aliment is best fitted for our constitu-
tions. And now for few remarks on
our meals. The first is called breakfast.
If we have been temperate the evening
before, this meal, which ought to be a
hearty one, will indeed be breakfast
if not, it will merely be sham, sat
down to for fashion sake. If you have
been out of bed and in your bath by
seven or half past, if you have not slept
in stuffy room, you will be able to do
Justice to your breakfast. Coffee ]
think is better than tea, and good cocoa
more nutritious than either. Eat what
ever you have mind to, at this meal
hat is, if you are in good health but
land speak from experience) there is
no better breakfast dish than good oai
meal porridge, with new milk, for giving
stamina to brain and muscle. You may,
if you feel inclined, partake of relish
after it, a kidney nicely done, or fried
egg, with cup of tea and a slice oil
toast, but woe is me for the man who
needs to shiver over his tea before he
can pass ON to something solid
Six hours is quite a long enough in
terval between breakfast and dinner
Now to dine we'll and comfortably one
needs first and foremost to have O good
appetite. This will presume you have
obtained without the pernicious aid oi
sherry and bitters, or brandy and Cura
Goa. One needs, too, to sit down to thii
most important meal with as quiet and
calm mind as possible, and to have {
,, period of fully half an hours rest before
,, hand, for heat, hurry and fatigue viii
! spoil the best dinner in the world, anG
spoil the diner too. Shall we take
, soupp In my opinion it is, especially
! in summer time, quite unnecessary.
am we'll satisfied, however, that plural
ity of dishes is hurtful. Change you
dishes every day and you do a goo(
thing, but abiure variety of viands a
a single meal-that is if you care to livt
, long and comfortably. There is econo
I my also in what I advise, for the poores
t man can thus afford to have one favorit,
a dish daily. I do not think, however