The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1879-09-03
OF INTEREST TO EVERYBODY.

Following is the second part OF Miss
Juliet Corson's lecture on the Rela-
lions of Food to Health y delivered be-
fore the Farmers Club, New York:
Water has already. been mentioned as
a physical element, and its Importance
may be estimated when we remember
| that it constitutes at least two-thirds of
| the substance of the body, and enters
! into the blood to the extent of nine
| tenths of its volume. The quantity of
water used ev,ry day cannot be estima-
| ted by what is drank, because all fresh
| foods contain tito some extent, and dried
| foods are cooked with the addition of it.
Soup and stews, which are exceedingly
| wholesome, contain about three-fourths
their volume of water. Water for drink
ing or cooking should be clear and color
| less; it should present no odor, and have
| q pleasant, refreshing taste; cool, fresh
water is more wholesome than that
which has stood in the sun, or in a close,
warm room.
Hard water used for cooking purposes
| coats the surface of meat or vegetables
boiled in it with lime to such an extent
as sometimes to render them hard to di-
gest; this action results from the
presence of lime salts, and may be coun-
teracted by soaking the dried vegetables
over night, draining and cooking them
in fresh water; very soft water, either
rain OF spring water, does not answer as
a substitute for hard water.
! Medium soft water is the best for gen
eral cooking purposes. although vegeta-
| bles boiled in it without salt are often
soft and tasteless. Boiling water well
sailed should always be used for boiling
vegetables. Medium soft water makes
the best tea and coffee. Both tea and
coffee are luxuries, but custom makes
them seem necessary at nearly, all our
meals; their habitual use should, how
ever, be decided by their effect upon the
system of persons using them.
Tea generally causes fc. Eng of wake
| fitness. cheerfulness and clearness of
mind, sometimes accompanied by merry
business; it also retarrls destructive as
similatiOn or the change of the nutri-
ment contained in food into healthy and
well-nourished blood. For this reason
it should not be used in the morning,
when the physical forces are at their
lowest cbb and the body needs all the
nourishment it can derive from food. 1t
is during sleep that the vital forces
gather their strength from the nutritious
| clements of the food consumed durin g
the previous day. For the same reason
tea is very bad for children, whose grow
ing bodies need all the nourishment
which good food can supply. If tea is
properly made it may be used by robust
adults at the midday and evening meals
without injury to the general health.
Tea can best be made by putting the re-
| quired quantity, half an ounce or three
| heaping teaspoonfuls, into an earthen
! teapot, which has been well scalded out
with boiling water, pouring in about a
fourth of the quart of water intended
for use, letting it stand ABOUT five min
utes without boiling, then adding the
rest of the boiling water and using the
infusion at once. Coffee is the best
when bought in the bean and freshly
roasted or warmed just before grind
ing and using. A very good break
fast coffee can be made by using about
two ounces or four heaping tablespoon
fuls of finely ground coffee to each quart
OF boiling water. After the coffee is
made it should not boil, but should
boiling about ten minutes until settled.
The effect of boiling upon tea or coffee
is the extraction of fannie acid and the
dissipation of the delicate essential oil
which gives the aroma so mach priced
in these beverages. The action of tan
mic acid upon the milk used with tea OF
coffee is to harden it's albumen into an
indigestible substance. 1t also aug
ments the bitter taste of both tea and
coffee.
The actual quantity and variety OF
food required to maintain health varies
with different occupations and physical
peculiarities, but plenty of plain, nu-
tritious fare is called for early in the day
in order to replace in the blood those nu-
tritious elements which have been with,
drawn from it during the night.
A midday dinner is the best for hare
workers, because their store of strength
is decreased by every movement, ant
must be replenished frequently if they
are 10 be kept in good physical condition
A hearty dinner can be made from hal
:! pint of soup or stew, or three ounces o
fish; quarter of "a pound each of mea
and bread; and half a pound of vege
tables. A plain pudding or a little frui
and cheese are excellent 10 end moor
meal.
The supper may be a lighter repast o
bread and butter, little meat or chess
for relish, and some starchy food, sucl
as plain cake OF crackers
Whom an evening dinner is taken i
should be light if the digestion is at al
impaired.
In selecting dietary we must remem
Der that the greatest amount of nourish
ment is derived from combinations O
different alimentary substances. For in
|
vegetables, if cooked separately, woul,
make only a meager meal; but combine
with water and seasonings, in the form
of thick soup or stew, would make a
abundant and wholesome dish.
In estimating the value of differen
articles of food we must disregard thei
) actual cost and consider them with di
. rect reference to the degree of nourish
/ ment which they are capable of yieldin
f under proper culinary treatment.
J For instance, a pound OF round steal
: which costs about twelve cents in maj
+ ket, when cooked by itself does not fun
nish half as much nutriment as poun
p of lentils, the cost of which is about 81
! cents.
Water which is generally considere
as representing no money value, adde
to the pound of steak, together with
I few cents worth of vegetables, great
increases the nutritive value of the disl
o This is the reason why combinatio
dishes are more healthy as well as MOI
/ economical than joints.
8 Some Importance is attached to til
y class of food called by their advocate
\ g nerfect food" such as milk, eggs an
, gluten; the use of these foods is injur
Gus in proportion to the degree of col
n stipation which they produce.
i Not the least interesting discussio
Q upon this subject is that between mea
eaters and yegetarians
o When the diet of the latter include
milk, eggs and cheese, as it general
does, it answers the requirements
health pretty well in temperate an