The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1909-02-12

again gradually. So when there is,
temporarily, great mental strain, 1T is
best rather to decrease than to in
crease the ration, and make it up
when normal conditions are restored.
The strain will be better borne if the
digestive system is relieved partly or
entirely, allowing the nervous energy
to be diverted to the brain or mus
cles, as the case may be. If this be
not done the digestive system will be
weakened, whereas by the other
course it will be strengthened. There
is no danger in the normal case, in
entirely relieving the digestive and
eliminative system for hours or even
days A thorough understanding of
the philosophy of this conservation of
vitality with the increased confidence
and self-reliance that such understand
ing brings, is of great value. Espe-
cially important is it to the pro-
fessional man who must often be sub
jected to great mental strain for long
er or shorter periods, and to the ath-
lete; who must drop weight steadily
in any endurance test You cannot
work brain or muscle to their fullest
capacity, and at the same time work
the digestive and eliminative system
to its limit
I have found, by experiments on
myself and others, that there is loss
in weight of about pound day, dur
ing the first few days of a fast, when
little work is done. Now the de-
mands of the system are supplied by
consumption of the tissues, and analy-
sis of the excreta and secretions
shows the proportions of the food ele-
ments required to sustain life. Add
ing for the work of digestion and
elimination and increased work, we
get the estimate above given.
When intense mental work is being
done, there is an extraordinary waste
of phosphorus and albumen especially.
These can be supplied quickly without
great draft on vitality for digestion
and elimination, by eating flesh, fish
eggs and milk. These are quickly con.
verted into force. But they are as
quickly expended, and thus produce
results equivalent to stimulation.
This is especially true of meat Meat
contains the waste of the animal sys-
TEN from which it was taken, particu-
larly uric acid; and it has been fully
proved that the chief cause of fatigue
is the accumulation in the tissues of
waste, particularly uric acid. In all
the recent great tests of endurance
non-fesh eaters have excelled flesh
eating competitors. To the physiolo-
gist familiar with the principles OF
nutrition involved, it is as clear that
it should be so as that an engine
should run better on clean coal than
on coal and slate, Of the same weight
Sugar, especially fruit sugar, as in
prunes, dates, figs, dried currants
and oil (olive oil or peanuD are the
most economical sources of heat and
muscular energy. In athletic work
these will supply the extraordinary
waste of carbon with the least ex
penditure of vitality for digestion and
elimination. The articles of diet to
be most surely avoided in athletic
work, where long sustained effort is
required, are meat, white bread
(fresh), fried potatoes, pies, boiled
cabbage, pickles, beans, coffee, tea, al
cohol, cooked oysters, fish. If meat
must" be eaten, let it be little NUT
ton or fresh white fish.
These suggestions apply equally tt
the invalid, but each case requires
special consideration. Sugar, for in
stance, should be altogether omitted
in certain cases.
A food may show, on analysis
high nutritive value, yet may
require so much energy to digest
it to appropriate its nutritive sub
stance and to eliminate it's waste, that
the net profit may be little or moth
ing. There should be no hesitation
in preferring, for instance, olive oil
to cod liver oil. Meat digests more
easily in the stomach than does wheat
gluten, but digestion is not completed
| in the stomach, and the elimination OF
meat is much more expensive than
and-most important consideration
examination of the excreta from
meat shows much greater number
of germs depending much on the
| kind of meat than the eXcreta from
bread, thus clearly indicating that
meat is a much more active cause OF
auto-intoxication than bread.
Boiled cabbage, again, is an expen
sive article of diet because it (boiled)
contains little or no nutritive elements
that the system can use, and 1t re
quires more energy to digest than
bread.
Now to arrange a satisfactory, eco
nomic dietary one must consider all
the facts in a given case. Tables OF
food value, including digestibility, are
useful or not according as one under
stands them properly.
Following is comparison of the
values of IL principal foods reduced
to units of nutrition" published by
our government, department of agri
culture, bulletin No. %:
Nutritive Cost per
units 1000 units
per pound. in cents
Skim milk ............ W. IO.a
Skim milk cheese. 500 IL
F,,ll milk 145.5 lie
Bacon .......-........lZoi.I To-,
Butter 1868 20.4
Veal ................... DOS ZH.-
Beef .................-. ooo.9 ~o.t
Peas .................. Iio.o T.
Potatoes .............. 49, o.
Rive four 6O3.6 &C
Rice . 534.6 100
Peanut meal..1 1850 sc
In the foregoing paragraph is the