The Virginia enterprise., 1908-12-11
! DIET ] :! = AND
HEALTH
By DIR. J. T. ALLEN
Food Specialist
Asfhor f.."Eetfn& for a
Gospel Of fHeolfb,"
iCopyright, by Joseph B. Bowles)
WHAT SHALL WE EAT?

eating more than on anything else, it
is worth while to know what to eat.
Henry Ward Beecher said that a
man with poor liver can't be a good
Christian. Certainly it is easier to
exercise the Christian graces when
one is free from biliousness.
When Bishop Fallows says that
You can make a man good or bad
according to the way you feed him, -
he is not denying the Importance of
the condition of the heart, but en-
phasiziDg the Importance of the state
of the stomach. Daniel prepared him.
self and his companions for the won
derful ordeals through which they
passed by dieting as we'll as by prayer,
and the Master himself by fasting 40
days.
AS we watch the amoeba, the typ.
lcal unicellular organism, which
closely resembles a blood cell, under
the microscope, we find it changing
its form, gradually, continually. 1t is
all stomach, enwrapping it's food and
digesting it as a single organ; and
as a single organ it adapts means to
ends in securing meal, las perfect
ly,' says Cope, the eminent biologist,
as a statesman adapts means to ends
in organizing a government
The body, therefore, is made up of
myriad of cells, each seeking it's
own nutrition, it's primary, funda-
mental function, yet possessing the
power of socialistic, harmonious ac-
tlOn, organized as lungs, liver, heart,
ETC., subject to the influence of the
sympathetic nervous system, which
binds all the bodily organs together,
so that if one suffers all must suffer
in sympathy: carrying on the vital
processes into which the nutritional
function is organized, increasingly,
while life lasts, yet ever amenable to
suggestion through the sovereign, con-
scious will.
From these considerations of the
constitution Of the body it appears
that we think in a sense with the en-.
tire body, although there is special
organ Of thought, and that we, digest
with the entire body, although there
are special organs of digestion-that,
indeed, life is, in the last analysis, a
mental-physica nutritional process
at least in its manifestation on this
plane OF existence.
Digestion is not purely physical
process, performed independently by
set of digestive organs. The entire
organism is engaged in the process,
controlled by the sub-consciOus mind
subject to the influence of the con-
scious mind, the sovereign will. And,
conversely, the influence of feeding Is
not confined to the special digestive
organs, nor to certain effects which we
denominate Physical" The influence
Of feeding is all-pervading. 1t is the
handspring of the metaphysical
life. In its essence spiritual, it mani.
tests the life through the use of ma,
terial substance, food. And upon the
quality of the food and the degree of
expenditure of vitality in the process
of nutrition, depends largely the quail
ty of the life, mental, moral and phys.
ical. The question: What Shall We
Eat?' becomes in this light doubly
important.
The essential substance of which all
animal tissue is made, from the
amoeba to the brain of man, is albu
men. This albumen is found in the
food Of all animals. The white of egg
Is almost pure albumen; and in milk
the food of the young of all the nam.
malia alhumen is a large constituent
Experiments have been made to de-
termine what foods will alone support
life, determining that wheat gluten
which is almost pure albumen, sup
ports life indefinitely longer than any
other single element. Flesh, of which
the lean is principally albumen, will
support life indefinitely, as will milk
eggs, nuts, beans, wheat, corn, oats
dates, which contain large percentage
of albu1nen with other food elements
| Milk has been called the perfect food
because it contains, in addition to al
bumen, all the other elements neces
sary to build brain, muscle and bc2e;
and the same Is true of wheat and OF
some nuts and fruits. The milk of all
the mammalia contains the same food
elements, differing chiefly in the
amount and kind of the albumen.
Cows milk is not perfect infants
food because it contains a larger per
centage of albumen than it's natural
food and of a somewhat different char
acter. This important subject will be
treated in subsequent article.
Albumen is found in large per
centage in all nuts, in beans, peas and
entire wheat bread. Peanuts contain
about 80 per cent OF albumen, with
SO per cent. fat not inferior to olive
oil, and four per cent. mineral
Recent experiments have shown
that the percentage of albumen re-
quired for perfect nutrition is much
less than was formerly supposed. The
growing child requires probably three
times as much as the mature man be-
cause it must build new tissue besides
repairing waste. An insufficient sup
ply of albumen for the child, if LONG
continued, leads to serious results. A
case was recently brought to our at
! tention in which an infant had been
fed for several weeks on fresh cream
because it was found that the stomach
retained that while the entire milk
!! was persistently rejected. At first
there was an apparently satisfactory
gain in flesh, but this gave place tc
extreme weakness and wasting. The
cream was mixed with a part OF tie
balance of the milk, gradually increas