Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1886-06-03
ress ana 9akutaian
WHY FOLKS EAT MORE.
a REASON FOR THE INCREASING
CONSUMPTION OF NuTRlMENT.

. - 1
CONSUMPTION OF NuTRiMENT.
Tlie Significance of Changes in Our Food
Consumption-Lazy Races Eat Less
Than the industrious Ones-The Great
Demands of Modern Life.
The significance OF changes in our food
consumption seems not to be generally
recognized, If, indeed, it is commonly
known that there are any material
changes. 1t Is quite a we'll established fact
that, while the quality of food has greatly
gained, the amnunto of nutrimentthat each
individual consumes has increased and
that in many articles the increase is enor-
nous. 1t can not be made absolutely GER
tain that people eat more food in weight
han they did, say, fifty years or more; but
mere weight is ifnmateTial, for a c%onspicu-
u improvement Of the food of the present
over that of the past is in its nutritious
properties, so that even though the weight
be less now,w we get more nutriment. In
many%a articles, however, the weight has
increased by large percentages. The means
are not ut hand for making an exhausting
showing OF relative food consumption at
different periods, but nevertheless such
3sAsN tthA tto - y oo ~ to NA.SJ
go, warrant some differences that can
hardly be questioned.
The fact can hardly bs questioned that
the per capita food consumption has
enormously increased. The inference
usually drawn from this fact is that life
is more pleesurable than it used to be,
which is, of course true enough. Not
only have the gustatorysnerves been in
troduced to more prolonged delights, but
the physical yigor that distinguishes n
well-fed man from one who is poorly fed
has become the good fortune of the race.
Though the world may now be living
within only a year or SO of starvation, it is
kept far enough ahead to be beyond all the
peradyentures of misfortune in the pro-
duction of food supply, a happy situation
that was not always that of our ances-
tors.
The reason for our increasing food con-
sumption lies in the law of the equiyal-
ence of forces. Our dependence for-saain-
tanning physical and mental energies is
the nutriinent that goes into our stom-
achs, and we can get no more OF these en-
ergies than are contained in our food, just
as the work of a steam engine is the me-
chanical equivalent of the heat contained
in the coal that fires the furnace. The re-
quirements of progressing civilization de-
mand more abundant power in the indi-
vidual to meet them, the increase being
somewhat in physical power; perhaps,
comparing the extremes OF u long period,
but the greatest increase being in mental
aad eryous power,
II GREAT DEMANDS OF SioDERN LIFE.
The people of lazy races eat less char
the people of industrious ones. Observe
the regularly fed Mexican or Indian and
notice how much less he eats than the
New Englander. There is nearly as great
difference in the food consumption of
the southern poor white and the active
and vigorous men of the north, as / have
repeatedly noticed when seeing them eat
together. Universally in animal life, force
expended, mental and physical, bears q
relation to food consumed, The inactive
snake will live on d toad for months; a
small bird, Darwin has shown, would not
do well unless he ate his weight in worms
every days.
What the great demand of modern life
is upon the human body, and particularly
its nervous structure, appear upon noting
how little must lave been sufficient to
maintain the kind of life that existed, say,
n century ago. There was brute force
expended then and not much else;
there was then no fine social and indus
trial adjustments to be made, there was
a little feeble.thought and the striking
force OF the energy expended was insig-
niticant beside what we now get by null
tiplying the mass of our active energy by
ats speed. The serious increase in nervous
diseases proves how much greater the
strain now is than our forefathers had to
endure. To sustain the greater demands
of progressive living, the food eaten must
- hQnJ.-SnpnaF pQrIayYNoi,IaI,pa with fba on y.rrr
that it is necessary to obtain; not that in
telligence, nerve power and physical re.
sistance AVE nj source but food, the in
heritance OF the organism and it's train
ing are not ignored, but power can not. be
used until 1T is supplied in some form of
equivalence, and the human body depends
!. for this supply on its food, which reap
pears In infinite degrees of utilization ac-
cording to the ability to assimilate and
transform.
This Increasing consumption of food has
called upon our digestive system to make
adjustments that they are not always able
To do, and civilized mar is unhappy under
dyspepsia, which is aggravated by seden.
tary life, nnrelievea by due physical exer.
else, n by some excessive eating caused
by the Righteousness of the food, which oul
modern cooks know SO well how to make
n Icuu CitLllSiISd ucSdS liuSG al UlIlC SUu II
suitable adjustments, and among people
who are in the line of progress, dyspepsia
and nervous diseases must lose at last theil
worst features. There is one thingi in thest
statistics that temperance agitators ignore
and b a is, Notwithstanding the large in
toxicating liquor bill of the nation. thu
per capita consumption of distilled spirit.
has declined 81 per cent. in fortySfiye years
the reason being that this drink is'becom
ing incompatible with progressing cigiliza
tion, the small Increase in Great Britain
probably indicating a stationary or deteri
Grating condition of some branches of tn,
lowest working classes. George K
Holmes in Good Housekeeping,
ProyiRcialism of Australians.
Our ways are essentially and exasperat
ingly provincial. Take a community O
Englishmen knowing that they are as sucl
the chosen Of the Lord; place them in
country Of boupdless resources and con
stantly Increasing prosperity; locate sail
country forty odd days by steam from civ