Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-11-18
.cURI0S!TIES 0E DIET.
How Nature Adapts Food to Man
 and Man to Food
GREAT VALUE OF CEREALS.
Why People Can Eat Bread at Every Meal Without Getting Tired of it. The Fruits of the Burning Tropics and the Fats of the Frozen Arctic.

Meal Without Getting Tired f it.
 The Fruits of the Burning Tropics
 and the Fats of the Froxsn Arctic.
 Modern science has shown that na- ture provides food for mankind with marvellous care and foresight. The hu. man system requires certain amount of proteld daily to replace wornout muscle and tissue. Fish and meat sup ply this in large quantities. h hot climates, however, these spoil so quick ly that their use is limited Nature. as if to compensate for this, has given to certain tropical fruits much larger quantity of proteld than northern fruits contain. Thus government analysis shows that figs have five units or calo- ries to the ounce, dates two and five tenths and bananas one and fye-tenths. Apples have fve-tenths, peaches nine- tenths and pears seven-tenths Prob ably the figs and dates tested had lost part of their moisture, and some allow ance should be made for this.
 The Arab can, therefore, maintain his vigor on a diet chiefly plucked from trees. Henry NJ. Stanley and his white companions subsisted almost entirely on banana flour for two years in the African jungle. Their freedom from disease was in part attributed to the wholesomeness of this diet. The dried banana contains 20 per cent of proteid, about double that of ordinary wheat i flour.
 At the opening of the mango season in Jamaica many of the natives prac- tically live on this fruit for two or three weeks. They fairly revel in 1t. An Englishman who was familiar with the science of diet could not under stand how they could not only main- tain their health on this fare, but actually grow sleek and fat. He knew that an effort to live on the fruits of his native country would result in weakness, sickness and eventual death. Chemical analysis showed, however, that the mango contained enough pro- teid to supply the bodily needs.
 If nature has been thus kind in adapting food to mans uses, she has been equally so in adapting man to his food. You may have wondered why people can eat bread at every meal without tiring of it. The difficulty of eating one quail day for thirty days is we'll known. Even such delicacies as asparagus and strawberries cause an aversion when served too frequently. 1. Nature sends men never failing ap- petite for cereals because they are alto gether the most valuable of foods. They contain a considerable amount. Of proteid, their salts are of importance to the organism, they are readily di- hgested when properly cooked, and they furnish great deal of nourishment in small bulk. .. ....
 Thus wheat -four, cornmeal, oatmeal (dry) and rice dry have more than 100 units to the ounce. Baked potatoes have 32.7 units, cabbage has 92, spin- ach ', asparagus s.5, apples 1894, straw berries 11.4, spring chicken 19.5 and tenderloip of beef broiled 5.9. If man tried to get even half of his nutrition from the coarse vegetables, which have considerable indigestible residue, he would have to eat pounds of them daily, and his stomach would be sadly overburdened. Nature gives US the de- sire for a varied diet, and science shows that this is altogether the best for us.
 In the arctic regions there is little vegetation. Man must live almost wholly on animal foods. Fish and meat would not suffice, because they contain only proteids. These would re- place wornout muscle and tissue, but could not be burned in the body to generate heat and energy. Fats, how ever, consist of carbon and hydrogen, which are the chief components of the foods of vegetable origin and supply the fuel needed by the body. The po- lar animals have fat in abundance, but residents of the temperate and torrid zones can eat 1t only in limited quan- titles. To them the mere thought of chewing chunks of grease is nause- ating.
 The children of the frozen north. however, are endowed not only with 1 the ability to eat and to digest large quantities of fat. but with a keen ap- petite for 1t. One who is sensitive to such impressions must turn away when he sees the natives of southern Alaska, the Thlinkits, swallowing seal oil favored by salmon berries with the gusto of a boy over ice cream. The Eskimos, farther north, will eat blub- Der, slightly cooked in the flames, to az indefinite number of pounds.-New York Tribune.