River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1901-08-22
SCIENCE OF EATING.
1t Is Being Studied by the Depart
ment of Agriculture.
Selection of Foods with Reference
to Human Requirements-SiOw
Cooking Is the Best OF All
Cooking.
Especial washington Letter.l


ing prepared in the department
of agriculture; lectures which
teach temperance in all things, such
as eating, drinking, tilling, planting,
hoeing, moving, reaping. Every
branch and division of the great de-
partment of agriculture is working
on common sense practical lines.
In one of the divisions to-day it was
was ascertained that the people of
this country do not know how to
choose the foods they eat or how to
cook them afterward. This burden
of ignorance falls most heavily upon
the wage-workers who, taking an av-
erage among them, use one-half of
their money to buy food, this esti-
ing. The poor man wastes in pur-
chasing proyender; his wife wastes
in preparing it for the table. When
an intelligent person buys a coat he
has a pretty fair idea as to whether
it fits him and how it viii wear. But
when he invests in meat and pota-
toes he. has little information as to
how much nutriment they contain
or whether it is of kind suited to
his bodily requirements.
These men of science say that
when man buys coal or wood for
the winter he knows exactly how
many tons or cords he will need;
but that the average man has no
idea of the amount or kind of fuel he
needs for his body-for food is fuel
to keep the human physical ma
chinery going.
1t is of interest and value to know
that the average human being, lead
ing a moderately active life, requires
SO ounces of food per diem. He con-
sumes 81 ounces of water and alb
serbs in breathing 30 ounces of oxy-
gen from the air. His total bodily in
come, therefore, is about eight
pounds daily. What he needs for his
support each day is four and one-fifth
ounces of transforming albumen;
two ounces of fat-enough to make
fair sized candle-171s ounces of
sugar and starch; four-ffths of an
ounce of mineral matters, such as
common salt, potassium, ETC.; two
quarts of water, and $50 gallons of
oxygen. So much water is contained
in solid foods that we may be said
to eat as much water as we drink.
In order to supply the substances
above mentioned a man should eat
daily 90 ounces of bread, eight
ounces of beefsteak, so ounces of po-
tatoes and one ounce of butter, with
one quart of water or the equivalent.
A human being is composed mostly
of water. The body of a man weigh
ing 154 pounds contains 90 pounds or
46 quarts of water. To complete his
makeup must be added 10 pounds of
.albumen, ten pounds of gelatine, %
pounds of fat, S1s pounds of phos-
plate of lime, one pound of carbon
ate of lime, three ounces of sugar
and starch, seven ounces of fiuoride
of calcium, six ounces of phosphate
of magnesia, a trifle of chloride of
potassium and little ordinary table
salt.
The students of food do not ex-
pect all men and women to know all
of these facts by their own expert
enee, but they expect ultimately to
be able to teach people the science
and art of eating so that life may be
greatly prolonged. They have gone
so far as to invent and construct an
apparatus for measuring the physic-
al income and outgo of human be-
sngs.
1t is a metal box, inside of which
a man is placed. He stays there for