Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-06-04
WHY FOLKS EAT MORE.
\ REASON FOR THE INCREASING
CONSUMPTION OF NUTRIMENT.

than they did. say. nifty years or more, but
mere weight i immatrrIal. for "A COnSpiCu
Gus improvement Of the food Of the present
over that Of the past is ia its nutritious
properties, so that even though the weight
be less now, we get more uutriment. In
many articles however. the weight has
increased by large percentages The means
are not at hand for making an eNhausting
showing of relative food consumption at
different periods but nevertheless such
materials as are available. SO far aS they
20, warrant some differences that can
hardly be questioned.
The fact can hardly be questioned that
the per capita food consumption has
enormously increased. The inference
usually drawn from this fact is that life
Is more pleasurable than il used Ia he,
which is Of course. true enough. Not
only have the gustatury nerves been in
troduced to more prolonged delights, but
the physical VigOr that distinguishes a
well fed man from one who is poorly fed
has become the good fortune IF the race.
Though the world may now be living
within only year or SO of starvation, il is
kept far enough ahead Ia be beyond all the
peradventures of misfortune in the pro
duction of food supply. 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 equival-
ence of forces. Our dependence for main
tanning physical and mental energies is
the nutriment that goes into our stom-
achs, and we can get no more of these en-
ergies than are contained i'll our food. just
aE fha work hf ~ lS h,a a.
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 long period,
but the greatest increase being in mental
and nervous power.
THE GREAT DEMANDS OF MODERN LIFE
The people of lazy races eat less than
the people of industrious ones. Observe
the regularly fed Mexican or Indian and
notice how mucl. less he eats than the
New Englander. There is nearly as great
a difference in the food consumption OF
the southern poor white and the active
and vigorous men of the north rs | have
repeatedly noticed when seeing them eat
together Universally in animal life, force
expended, mental and physical, bears a
relation to food consumed, The inactive
snake will live on a 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 have been sufficient to
maintain the kind of life that existed, say,
a century ago. There was brute force
expended then and not much else;
there was then no fine social and indus
trial adjustments 10 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 mul-
tiplying the mass of our active energy by
its speed. The serious increase in nervous
diseases proves how much greater the
strain now is than our furefathers had to
endure. To sustain the greater demands
Of progressive living, the food eaten must
bear some correspondence with the energy
that il is necessary 10 obtain; not that in
telligence, nerve power and physical re-
sistance have no source but food; the in
heritance of the organism and its train
ing are not ignored, but power can not be
used until il is supplied i'll 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
10 do, and civilized man is unhappy under
dyspepsia which Is aggravated 10y seden-
tary life. unrelieved by due physical eNer-
else and by some excessive eating caused
by the delICiouSness of the food, which our
modern cooks know So well how TO make.
But changing needs must in time end in
suitable adjustments. and among people
who are in the line of progress, dyspepsia
and nervous diseases must lose al last their
worst features There is one thing in these
statistics that temperance agitatUrs ignore
and that is, notwithstanding the large in
tOXicating liquor bill Of the nation, the
per capita consumption Of distilled spirits
has declined 81 per cent. in fOrty-tive years,
the reason being that this drink is becom-
ing incompatible with progressing civiliza
tion, the small increase i'll Great Britain
probably indicating a Stationary or deteri-
Grating condition of some branches Of the
lowest working classes. - George X.
Holmes IN Good Housekeeping.