The Virginia enterprise., 1909-02-12
copyright. by Joseph B. Bowles.)
ECONOMICS OF EATING

E1OVOINlCS Or EAlMG
Desire Is the stimulus that nature
uses to lead to obedience to her COM
mands. And so long as the desire is
gratified naturally there is harmony,
health and growth. But when the de-
sire becomes depraved and it's salts
faction abnormal, there is inharmony,
unhappiness, disease and death. Eat
what you like" is, therefore, as we
have already concluded, the best rule,
In spite of purefood law, food reform
er and prohibitionist-so long, that is,
as you like what is good for you.
Certainly the average man eats
what he likes, without considering
whether it is good for him or whether
he is getting the most for his money.
Now is this wise? Would it not be
very much better to have a system of
eating-for at present we have none,
especially in America, where we eat
anything, any time, any way, almost
l was trying to show the members
Of woman's club awhile ago that the
Chinese system, living on rice centre
rice) almost exclusively, is better
than ours, because it furnishes better
nourishment, avoids sickness and
saves dish-washing To which one
woman replied when the time came
for questions and criticism: II sup
pose they live in that poverty-stricken
way in that poverty y-stricken country
because they have to. For my part,
I'm glad I don't have to live on rice
all the time. And if it is true that a
think China is good warning to the
rest of the world"
l have not advised living on rice,
not even on unbolted rice which diff
fers from the rice We use, as whole
wheat differs from fine white flour.
Rice is one-sided diet. The system
OF the Japanese, who eat also fresh
fish and beans, is much better, be-
cause it supplies, besides heat and en-
ergy, an adequate proportion of flesh
and nerve food. But the point is,
the Chinese, like the Japanese, and
most other nations, have a system,
and any system is better than none,
especially in eating. The Chinese is
the opposite of our extreme, but
hesitate not to say that the average
Chinaman is better fed than the av-
erage American, so far at least as the
laborer, who needs the least brain
food, is concerned.
But why" I am asked, if the
Chinese monodiet, is so good, has
China been for centuries a by-word
for unprogressiveness?
The resources of the Chinese are
not yet understood by the rest of the
world. Food, moreover, is but the
material factor in life; the mind is
the fundamental factor as have en-
deavored constantly to show. The
Chinese have had, from time immem-
orial, mind-dwart1ng system of edu-
cation that has effectually retarded
their progress, but all that is being
changed, which with the gradual
abolition of the death-dealing opium
habit will bring in new China, an
other light Of Asia.
A Scotchman and an Englishman
were arguing the relative merits of
their respective countries. In litera-
ture Scott and Burns were pitted
against Dickens and Shakespeare.
Anyway" said the Englishman, at
last exhausted by the resources of
Sandy, "the masses of the people in
England are better off than in your
country. In Scotland you feed your
people on the stuff we give to our
horses in England" "Yes," replied
the Scotchman, where will you find
such men and where will you find
such horses?"
In the course of an investigation
into the relation between food and
health, few years ago, I discovered
two interesting general facts, from
the statistics of the state boards of
health: Death from cancer, which,
according to the late DR.. Nicholas
Sem and other good authority, is a
disease caused by indulgence in eating
ESPECIALLY, I think, in meat), in
creases rapidly among Germans and
Irish immigrants and their descend
ants, the two races who most quickly
adopt our habits of eating, while there
IL,
Greeks, BOhemians and others who
continue, in the second generation, to
live largely on their native simple
diet. The average foreigner naturally
thinks that the chief benefit of high
er wages is not better schooling but
greater variety of food, including meat
every day, thing possible only for
the rich in his own country. Surely
good is not always unmixed with evil!
Herbert Spencer says that the
most valuable knowledge is that
needed for self-preservation, which
surely includes knowledge of food, it's
first essential. We have already con-
sidered the constituents of various
foods and the uses of each. Let us
now consider some of the leading ar
ticles of food not already dealt with
and their comparative values.
Apples contain but a small amount
of solid matter, chiefly sugar, but
their minerals, being perfectly assimil-
able, and their malic acid being bene-
ficial in most cases, they are to be
regarded as a most valuable food. In
a few peculiar conditions of the liver
and in excessive acidity they may be
injurious. but, they are especially
beneficial. in torpidity of the liver and
excessive alkaline conditions (the op-
posite of acid). The peach differs lit
tie from the apple, but it spoils easily
while the apple keeps good for
months. There is more or less danger
in spoiled or unripe fruit, and a bad
speck indicates that the entire fruit
l~ ~