The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-01-22
Diet Prejudice.


The prejudice which the French man,
! ifested N the corn bread and mush-
/ honliny and grits. maizola and maizone-
j dished M cold III the French Exposition,
to tempt and educate the European
taste to eat and enjoy our American
staple corn, is only matched by the
prejudice of American farmers and
! farmers wives, who declare that oat
meal is only fit food for horses. Science
and the history of the Scotch tell US
that oat meal has no superior as an ar
! ticle of human diet. 1t feeds both
brain and muscle, and gives power of
endurance which can not be enjoyed
from our average American diet.
Dat meal and milk form a most nutri-
tious article of diet, and if American
children were brought up on such food,
rather than on nick nacks, candies,
pickles, pastry, cake and the thousand
denominations of the frying-pan, we
would have nobler race, and the type
of American manhood would be inn
proved in all that goes to make up a
great and powerful people. We are
careful to feed our young horses oats
and grass, and not allow them to have
corn, as it is too heating, but how
many farmers and their wives think of
the effect of the vile compounds of fine
-four and fat, sweets and acids, spices,
and condiments innumerable,upon their
childrens
Science and experience tell us tina
the whitest flour is not the most whole
some or nutritious. 1t is fashionable
and looks nice, and very poor people
can not afford to eat the whitest flour
Therefore it is iguoble and degrading
the children and family to the level of
the horse and of the poorer classes, g
feed our children on inferior and cheap
food, such as oat meal and cracked
wheat. Perhaps the Almighty might
have compounded more complete
article for human food than the grains OF
wheat or oats, but He has not done it
yet, nor has the ingenuity of caterer
and cook yet concocted any thing which
so completely meets the wants of the
human system. The nitrates, or muscle
makers; the carbonates, or fat pro-
ducers; the phosphates, or food for
brains and nerves, are happily combined
in the wheat grain to meet the wants OF
man.
But fashion and ignorance have per-
verified the taste and led parents to rob
their offspring of the better portion, and
to feed them mostly on carbOnates.
The nitrates and the phosphates are
deity eliminated by the sieve and the
boiling cloth, and the beautiful white
bread and flaky pastry and delicious
cake, the pride of the cook and the
baker, like the beautiful snow, are want
ing in the elements required to harmODi-
ously develope the complex structure of
brain, nerve, bone and muscle. The
fat formers are abundant in all the
fashionable articles of food; but on what
are the muscles, brains and nerves to be
developed when we studiOusly and care
fully withhold from them suitable sup
port?
The intelligent manager of poultry
knows that if he would expect eggs he
must feed for eggs and not for fat. The
successful horseman does not feed his
horse corn and middlings if he wishes
him to endure and win the race. The
wise breeder of swine and cattle varies
feed from bone formers to flesh and fat
formers, according as he wishes the ami
mails for meat or for breeders.
Let US be as careful to set before our
children food suited to the demands of
their nature. Less carbOnaceous food,
and more of the muscle and nerve and
brain formers will not be amiss in most
families.
Yet the American prejudices in the
matter of diet are not more commend
able than the prejudices of the French
man against our corn-dodgers and
mush.
The oa4 meal porridge of the Scotch
and the mush and milk of the American
are national dishes, good enough for
King, but the oat meal furnishes more
brain and nerve food, and should be
more used among Americans.-Cor.
Detroit Free Press.