St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-06-16
ADVICE ABOUT EATING.
eminent Physicians smashing Some Old
Time Superstitions.

Il
! Time Supersttions.
| Some recent remarks by James c.
i White, professor of dcrmatology in
! Harvard University, are directly in line
with an article published only a few
days ago on the subject of sensible eat
ing. There is, of course, no subject
concerning which people need informa-
ton more than they do about eating,
and there are very few subjects on
which more ridiculous notions are ex-
tant. "One mans meat is another
man poison is an old and true say
ing yet great majority of mankind
have ideas of diet that are formed from
the experience of other people, and
these ideas are very commonly absurd.
Dr. White disroses of some of these
notions, by the authoritative utterance
OF thorough scientist. For example,
he touches on the old wives fable that
butter i'll liberal quantities will cause
children faces to break out with "but-
ter sores" He declares, what intelli-
gent people aveiong known, that good
butter uncooked is perfectly harmless
f0od so far as the skin is concerned,
and he might Rave gone much farther,
Tor the limitation was unnecessary.
lie says, however, that the notion al
luded to probably came from the fact
that the use of impure butter in food
otherwise indigesible, may have dis
turbed the stomach and produced i'm
pure blood in some cases. 1t is more
likely to have come from the efforts of
parents of limited means to curb their
chlldren's indulgence in an expensive
dainty. 1t is certain that much of the
prejudice against candy came from
THIS particular cause, though with can
dy as with butter, the prejudice is en-
tirely justitiable in reference to adul-
terated and impure grades. Nothing
Is more common than to hear parents
tell their children that eating candy |
will ruin their teeth, but it is most
likely to be an utterance dictated by
economy. At all events, no educated
dentist will endorse the statement.
The notion that buckwheat cakes and
oatmeal are productive of skin diseases
is also attacked, and pretty thoroughly
demolished by Prof White, rs well as
that absurdity about tomatoes, which
was started by bio Lewis generation
or so ago. He said that tomatoes were
productive of cancer, and that they
loosened and destroyed the teeth. DR..
white declares tomatoes and oatmeal
to be harmless and valuable foods, and
points at the simple fact that the only
LANCER in eating buckwheat lies in the
TACT that it is apt to be served up hot in
The form of improperly cooked cakes.
These may, and are very likely to up
set the digestion. He declares, more
over, that 4 good digestion and a
healthy appetite will take care of the
skin, so far as the effects of food are
concerned, and that it matters little
what kind of food is used so long as it
S pure, of good quality and properly
prepared. The healthy stomach will
urn it into good blood. This, it will
re seen, is a similar utterance to that
II DIR. Austin Flint, recently quoted,
my that Dr. White, treating as he did
N the skin only, did not make so ,
weeping statement as DIR. Flint who .
aid: Eat what you like, when you
ike, and eat as much as you like. You !;
nay get govt that way, but not dys- =
'epsia. N T. Mail and Erpress.