Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-11-27

regimen, been moderate drinkers and
smokers very often lose, wholly or in
| part, the taste for alcoholic beverages
or tobacco. If the adoption of q vege-
t tartan diet so speedily overcomes the
| craving for stimulants, it is not diff
| cult to understand how a prolonged
national diet of rice or other protein
/ lacking foods may have the opposite
| effect and make a people indolent, ia
/ talistic and narcotic slaves.
| The most general national error in
diet seems to be d lack of balance.
| Food has two funetions-to build and
| repair body tissue and to furnish en-
| ergy For the first essential. foods con
| tanning heterogeneous material, such. for
! instance, as lean meat, egg white and
| the gluten of wheat, must be eaten.
while for the other essential the body
requires foods containing Fats and car
| bOhydratcs. The average man requires
| about five times as much energy pro-
| ducing food as tissue building food
and unless a national diet is based up
on this proportion, it is deficient, and
| the error is bound in time to show it
! self in the national character.
The average man, for instance should
eat sufficient lean meat, eggs and
| bread per day To furnish him with a
quarter Of a pound of protein or It's
sue building material. and sufficient
cereals, vegetables, butter and fat to
supply his body with one and a quar-
ter pounds OF fat and carbohydrates,
or energy producing elements.
To take more than the required
amount of protein into the system will
not only do no good but in the major
ity of cases result in positive harm,
and the same is true of the energy
producing constituents of food
The food Of a nation is determined to
large extent by circumstances \
people whose natural food resources
enable it TO select welI-balanoed diet
develops physically and mentally I'M
der the most favorable auspices,
| whereas a nation whose food selection
is limited is bound eventually to de-
teriorate.
Thus the Indians OF North America
lived not alone by hunting and fishing,
but cultivated a number of food plants
on an extensive scale. Maize. beans,
pumpkins and sunHowers We're the
most common crops. Indian corn being
easily first. All kinds of animals,
birds, fish and shell fish were eaten,
and large supplies of such animal foods
Were dried ana smoked for winter use.
Scar fat and animal fats generally
were collected in quantity, as was oil
from the sunhower seed, and on the
whole the diet of this race was we'll
balanced and calculated 10 bring ont
the best qualities latent in the noble
red man.
Other races, however, We're less for
tunate. In the Arctic regions, at the
present time as in the past, the food is
always exclusively animal, because
that is the only sort that is available
in quantity In the tropics. again.
! where vegetable food is abundant, and
animal foods readily decay, plant pro-
aHcts are and always have been of
very great Importance in the diet.
In India, where the natives subsist
on a diet low in protein and rich in en-
ergy. the inhabitants are poorly deVeI-
oped physically and their general con-
dition is less satisfactory than that Of
Anglo-1ndians and other eolonists who
| live under similar conditions but ON a
! more generous diet The same has
been noticed in China and Japan. too.
What is true of the development OF
national character as result Of food
| habits is true, though to lesser eX-
| tent. perhaps, in the case of individu-
ais and scientific investigators have
recently been looking into the relation
between limited diet and retarded or
arrested developmnt in the case of in
| diyiduais,
| DR. c. f. LangWorthy, the Govern
ment expert in charge of nutrition in
| Vestigations in the Department of Ag-
riculture, recently made a special re-
| port on food customs and diet in AM
erican homes
THE fact that the food supply mate
rally influences the animal body" he
said lis of particular Importance in
| respect to the diet of young children
and clearly shows that there is good
reason for the general belief that in
| childhood the diet should be generous
as we'll as composed of suitable food
materials.
Fortunately for the United States,
the question of physical deterioration
cannot be raised with reference to the
people as a whole, The large capacity
| for useful labor and the high average
reached as to the grade of work per
formed are conceded by careful stu
dents of this subject in this country
| and elsewhere. The comparatively high
standard as regards family and COM
munity hygiene and sanitation, and
other similar factors, undoubtedly nave
a bearing on these questions, but no
one can doubt that diet exercises an
influence which is certainly not less
great than any other single factor, and
| the American diet as a whole is varied
and liberal. Spokesman Review.
German Standards.