The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-04-14
Kinds or Food.

gen, nitrogen. hydrogen anu CARBON.
The varieties of food, animal and vege-
tai, are caused by the various proper
tions in which these elements are COM
bined. Animals and vegetals have
nearly the same constituents. They
both answer the same general purposes.
They furnish nourishment to the vari-
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 heat-forming,
as the fat of butter, oils, sugars and
molasses. But lean meat has less car
bon than vegetables. Health demands
that we regulate the amount of carbon
food given. Too much may do harm,
il 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 food. Ami
NAL flesh yields it in abundance, and
wheat, rye, oats, potatoes, and other
vegetals contain some nitrogen, but a
much smaller per cent. than animal
foud. 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 a 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
in a given weight than beat, or any
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 per cent
of solid matter andtwenty-fiveo 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, of mankind never have animal
food. Still it may be truly said that
they often could not get meat, that
their abstinence was not 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 mon, 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 anG
stimulate the inner organs, as the stom-
ach and intestines, to greater activity.
Potatoes, turnips and other vegetali
contain but a small amount of nourish.
ment and still they are very useful ar.
4
| Unbolted meal has more innutrious sub
stance, more bulk than fine flour. The
more minutely any food is divided, the
easier the gastric tiuid comes in contac
with its particles and the more easily il
| is digested. The value of food does mo-
depend upon the amount of nourishmen
it actually contains but upon the amoun
of nourishment that is so soluble that i
can be absorbed and enter the veins
The most digestible kinds of meat o.
vegetals are the most nutritious.
The proportions of the tissue-makins
food and the heat making food must de
pend upon the peculiar condition o
each person, and very much more upol
the occupation and the kind and amour
of exercise, but most of all upon tenn
perature. In hot temperatures the bod
does not need to generate much if an,
heat. Hot air is diluted air, and so con
tains less oxygen to burn the waste, o.
carbon in the various capillaries. s.
we should avoid oil, sugar, fat and 9th
er carbon food and consume chief
cooling and mild food. Heat stimulate
the organs of digestion and ultimatel
exhausts them. We all feel weak AM
exhausted in hot days and prefer frui
to meat. We instinctively avoid mea
and seek bread, vegetals and fruits
These latter articles of diet are suf
ciently nutritious, but not SO stimula
ting as to hasten the organic action G
the system. In winter and cold season
of the year, in frigid climates, me
prefer, and have strong desire. and
real necessity, for meat, that may rous
( the organs of digestion to greater actiy
ity and force. So we clearly see tha
health and strength require that ou
food should vary with the temperatur
in which we live. The same gener;
principle appears in young children
They are sensitive and excitable. Cor
! suming meat makes them more 81
therefore they should avoid it and b
limited to bread and milk. vegetable
and fruits. The same general principl
, also appears in all, young and old, VIII
have an easily excited nervous system
They have better health, longer Life
s are more agreeable companions an
, useful members of society, when the
avoid meat and live on vegetals an
grains.
/. The food we need depends also G
the condition of the digestive organ
IL they be weak, meat and concentrate
: food does not easily digest and gradl
9 ally induce still greater weakness ar
ultimately some disease, as consumptic
c or anemia. The cause of these NAL
: dies is often improper food, and the GU
is nutritious and easily digested foo
: Exactly what food each person mf
need TO keep himself in health al
g strength must be determined in part
u least by personal experience. The ge
}. eral guiding rule must be to avoid {
&c food that does not easily digest or di
: turbs the organs of digestion. Und
e gested food is worse than none. 1t C;
d not be absorbed and so enrich the bloc
but irritates the food canal and induce