The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-01-08
Kinds or Food.


four elements, called organogens-oxv-
gen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon.
The varieties of food, animal and yeye-
tai, are caused by the various proper
tons in which these clements are COM
bined. Animals and vegetals have
nearly the same constituents. They
both answer the same general purposes
They furnish nourishment to the yari-
Gus tissues, and then they furnish the
means OF generating heat. In warm
air, less heat is needed to be generated
In the body. In cold, more heat is needed
than in warm. Food is devided into
tissue-forming and heat-forming. Car
bon is the chief element used for warm
ing the animal body; SO articles con-
tanning much carbon are called carbona-
ceous articles of food, or eat-forming,
as the fat OF butter, ellis, sugars and
molasses. Br.Tlean meat has less car
bon than vegetapio- Health demands
that we regulate the amount of carbon
food given. Too much may do harm,
II the organs that have the power do
not remove it. Nitrogen is largely found
in flesh. No animal can long live If it
does not get nitrogen in its foed. AMI
NAL flesh yields it in abundance, and
wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, and other
Vegetais contain some nitrogen, but
much smaller per cent. than animal
food. So animal and vegetal food supply
all the means needed for promoting bodi-
ly health and growth. The great differ
ence between animal and vegetal food is
that the former is more concentrated
than the latter. Observation shows that
articles containing nitrogen have a
stimulating quality. They excite and
hasten the action of the heart and SO
compel all the organs to act faster than
is normal. Animal flesh contains large
per cent, of nitrogen and so is the most
stimulating food we eat. Stimulating
is not necessarily nutritious Nutritious
food contains in given weight, the
largest amount of the elements that
nourish and warm the body. Beans
have more nourishment in a given
weight than any other ordinary food.
Wheat and rye have more nourishment
other meat. The lean flesh of animals
has only twenty-five per cent. of solid
matter and seventy-five per cent. of
water. but bread has seventy-five perce
OF solid matter andtwenty-five of water.
Vegetal food digests quicker than ami
NAL. Bean soup, boiled rice, potatoes,
etc., digest sooner than any kind of
meat. Laborers are compelled to live
chiefly on vegetal food, because it is
much cheaper. Some nations live
chiefly on potatoes, as the Irish, others
have lived almost entirely on vegetals,
as the Arabs and Spartans. Sixty-six |
per cent, humankind never have animal
food. Still it may be truly said that |
they often could not get meat, that |
their abstinence was not q matter of |
choice, but of necessity-that meat is
more nutritious and more stimulating |
than vegetals. The two kinds of food, |
animal and vegetal, in certain proper
tions combined to suit different condi- |
tons of men, are best fitted to produce |
health, strength and activity. A GER
tain bulk in food aids in digestion. So |
that highly concentrated food is often
not easy to digest. Concentrated food |
needs, to render it easy of digestion, q
large per cent. in bulk OF innutritious
food. Vegetals increase the bulk ana
stimulate the inner organs, as the stom-
ach and intestines, to greater activity.
Potatoes, turnips and other vegetaIs
contain but a small amount of nourish-
ment and still they are very useful ar
ticles of food by way of diluting meat.
Unbolted meal has more innutriOus SUBJ
stance. more bulk than fine -four. The
more infinitely any food is divided, the
easier the gastric tluid comes in contact |
with its particles and the more easily it I
is digested. The value of food does not |
depend upon the amount of nourishment
it actually contains but upon the amount
of nourishment that is so soluble that it
can be absorbed and enter the veins
The most digestible kinds of meat or
vegetals are the most nutritious.
The proportions of the tissue-making
food and the heat making food must de-
pend upon the peculiar condition of
each person, and very much more upon
the occupation and the kind and amount
of exercise, but most of all upon tenn
perature. In hot temperatures the body
does not need to generate much if any
heat. Hot air is diluted air, and so con-
tains less oxygen to burn the waste, or
carbon in the various capillaries. So
we should avoid oil, sugar, fat and 9TH
er carbon food and consume chiefly
cooling and mild food. Heat stimulates
the organs of digestion and ultimately
exhausts them. We all feel weak and
exhausted in hot days and prefer fruit
to meat. We instinctively avoid meat
and seek bread, vegetals and fruits.
These latter articles of diet are suffi-
GENTLY nutritious, but not so stimula-
ting as to hasten the organic action of
the system. In winter and cold seasons
of the year. in frigid climates, men
prefer and have a strong desire and
real necessity, for meat, that may rouse
the organs of digestion to greater activ-
ity and force. So we clearly see that
health and strength require that our
food should vary with the temperature
in which we live. The same general
principle appears in young children.