Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-29
AND HEALTH

1t is a commonplace that some articles
OF food are injurious to few individuals,
while they may be taken by the average
person with impunity. Some substances,
too. are generally regarded as being very
"nourishing," while many foods harmless
in health are thought to be most unde-
sirable for an invalid.
These notions, too, as far as they go, are
quite useless in practice, as they are not
founded on any scientific knowledge Of
what they really mean, but are the relics
of body of traditions handed down by our
great-grandmothers, and many of them
arising from conceptions of the functions
Of the human body, founded upon a physi
olcgy whose inspiration may have ranged
from witchcraft to the Immoral pathol
ogy"
seeking Of cause of melancholy in a
blackening of the bile, familiar in
stances of this.
At the risk of repeating what should be
well known, for Ut Is now taught in primary
schools, it will be necessary to give a short
resume Of the way in which foodstuffs are
classified, and how and when each class
should be consumed.
There are five of these classes, namelyi
L. Water; this Is the most essential of all,
for without 1t the vital processes rapidly
cease. 1t Is well known that shipWrecked
crews and explorers, when deprived of food,
can live several weeks, but when without
water few days terminates their lives.
2. Saline (salty) substances. These are as
necessary as the former, for though they
are not generally taken deliberately and by
themselves, they are contained in nearly
all the materials Of our ordinary food. The
fact that their necessity Is not sufficiently
recognized is a fruitful source of many
minor ailments; and their deprivation for
a Long time leads to the diseases which
chiefly people our spas and water cure es-
Establishments.
Without saline substances, water itself
is powerless to take its part in the vital
processes, and the interdependence between
the income and output of water and salines
is one of the most wonderful and beautiful
Of the interesting methods shown by the
chemical laboratory of the body.
These salines are present in large amounts
in juicy fruits, the more succulent vege-
tables, the extract of meat; while they are
present in smaller amounts In practically
every substance eaten by man, the most
notable exception being certain ertifically
prepared starches, where their proportion is
SO small as to be useless
A class by themselves may be formed by
the phoSphateS, soluble and inSoluble. The
chief source Of these is the cereals, and in
them they occur chiefly in the germ or the
seed and just within the outer husk The
preparation of germ bread Is founded on
there is secured besides the nutritious ele-
.ments of the germ, an indigestible residue
consisting of the insoluble of the brand.
These are necessary for all animals except
those carniVorous, and man is SO consti-
tuted as to be unable to maintain good
health without a certain proportion of in
digestible substances to give bulk to the
contents of his intestine. He is an omnivor
and his place in the animal kingdom, with
regard to dietic habits, Is between that of
Z ruminants like the OK on the one hand and
the felidae the other His nearest allies
are dietetically considered the pig and the
monkey.
The best means to obtain this bulkiness
Is by the consumption of whole cereals,
especially wheat; for the residue of these
is such as to undergo Preventative decom-
position only with difficulty. 1t can readily
be understood that the larger the amount
of easily decomposible matter in the intes-
tine, the more difficulty and the less likeli-
hood Of success will the natural juices man.
ufactured by the intestine find in prevent
ing the fermentation always liable to occur
there unless neutralized.
The best means to prevent salt starvation
Is to make point Of consuming, at least
twice a week, a large portion of some sue
culent fruit or vegetable. This insures a
saline food, so to speak, and when this
Is followed by water food, there takes
place in every nook and Granny of the body
a publication similar. though on q smaller
scale, to the one effected by course of
treatment at a mineral wells and analogous
to the cleansing of the skin by water after
the foreign substances we wish to remove
have been taken possession of by the soap
we employed. or on par with the removal
of dust on floor after 1T has been taken
up by the wetted tea leaves we spread for
that purpose. The water should be taken
not less than an hour after the salines, and
no large meals should be eaten either be-
fore or after the procedure for at least four
hours.
g. heterogeneous or proteid substances.
20 mil iaY ha bfafr laY,f
Of flesh and eggs. They occur also in large