The Washington herald., 1915-02-07
BY FRED WELSH.


simply a question of anything 1 could
get And thought 1 was pretty lucky
rto get anything. Sometimes / didn't.
OF course, anything is good in an
emergency. But just the same it is
easy to go wrong with your eats. T
found that out years ago. just as many
others have. So when 1 started in to
build up my health about the first thing
did was to try to find out what to
eat for strength and endurance. I did
a lot of reading and studying and even
little experimenting. And 1 will say
frankly that what l don't know about
food and diet even yet would NIL a
few life-size encyclopedias. l am still
learning. The fact is that it is a ques-
tion that is still troubling the wise
man.
Difference of Opinion.
There is a great difference of opinion
on the subject. The cannibal chief and
his warriors think that the best diet
for strength is the flesh of other
strong, brave men. The Arab probably
thinks that the finest meal in the world
is a couple of dozen dates and a little
fermsnted camers milk. And the Es-
kimo thinks that he is strongest If he
can have one meal a day. lasting all
day, of about twenty pounds of wal
rus beef. bear meat and raw blubber.
! n Uu SO L uOn pTtltlu 10 say lllt last
word on the subject. But l do know
that many people go wrong on what
they eat.
| 1t has sometimes been said that the
! typical American cannot digest his
breakfast without the aid of the cor
ner drug store. That may be stretch
ing 1t a little bit. but there's a lot
of truth in il at that Nearly a hundred
! million breakfasts do a rapid disap-
Of ~ frNr nv
morning. and yet there seems to be
pretty nearly as many drug stores as
there are grocery stores. I have never
counted them. Anyway. il all goes to
show that there is a great deal yet to
learn about food. All the fatness, and
all the thinness, all the poor teeth and
! sickness and little. laxative liver pills
/ are the best possible evidence OF what
| people don't know about what to eat.
! And even among the professors the
subject of dietetics is not yet very
much of a real science. But that's the
{ best reason why we ought to take ad-
vantage of the few things that we
have really found out about foods.
Must BE Pure Food.
One OF the first requirements of food
is that it should be pure. This means
] great deal these days when every
thing is adulterated. preserved by
/ chemicals or even made up out of
chemicals. And the food should be
| fresh. a great deal has been said along
| this line in recent years. and the United
States Department of Agriculture has
been doing some good work. And yet
| the people themselves keep on buying
lot OF things that are hardly fit to
| eat when they could just as well get
! their foods in a pure. natural form.
! There is the question of white -four,
! for instance. Wheat in its natural form
| is a practically perfect food, and the
whole wheat flour contains all the
nourishinE qualities OF the wheat But
in making white -four the miller tries
his best to get rid OF everything but
/ the pure white starch, so that we can
starve our nerves when we eat the
bread. And not only that. but some of
! this white four is even bleached by
chemicals to make it still whittier.
Rice a Good Food.
! Never mind what the occasional col
Ilege professor tells you when he tries
| to defend white bread; your common
| sense will tell you that when you
throw away all but the starch of the
! wheat you. are losing a part Of its nat
uraI food value, and the best part
/ Again, the natural rice is a very good
/ food, but it is polished to make it look
nice until the best elements, in the
! slightly brown coating OF the rice are
taken away. In the same way. granu-
lated sugar is too much refined. 1t is
only a pure carbohydrate, and we are
robbed of the organic mineral salts
that are contained in the original cane
sap. And so on down the list. Our
! foods are refined to death-tO their
death and often to our death. So try
! to avoid these refined foods. and to get
| the natural unchanged product of ma
ture in every case. if you can, and you
will have good nerves and sound teeth.
But people not only buy these fancy,
refined foods, at fancy prices, so as to
/ partly starve themselves, but they
| make the same mistake in the kitchen
| in preparing some of the other foods
! that they do buy in good condition.
/ When they boil vegetables. they throw
the water away, and with the water
goes most of the minerals salts l have
| Just mentioned, which are the best part
! of the food in the case of many vege-
tables. You need the lime, and the iron,
and the phosphorus and other min
erals in their natural organic form. just
as much as you need 'proteid and fat
and carbohydrates, but your cook
| Iignorantly throws them away.
Baked Vegetables.
And some OF the finest COOK books
even tell the cooks how to drain the
water off the vegetables after. they are
| boiled The same thing is done with
spa ghetti, with rice, and l don't know
what else. Vegetables should be baked
when they can be, like potatoes. squash
and the like. Or they should be boiled
with only little water. cooking
| slowly, and then the water should be
consumed along with the vegetables.
guess YOU can understand now why ]
usually have my wife do the cooking
and getting of meals for me when l am
| in training 1t is a great little stunt.
and II means a lot to me in the way
| OF good, steady nerves and plenty Of
| endurance.
| Another important phase of the sub
| iect is how you eat. That means.
chewing your food. Now, don't think
that / chew my cud. or anything like
that, although 1 have heard of one or
two people who do that. too But they
are people who bolt their food in a
hurry. II you chew your food properly
| IL will be partly digested before it ever
reaches your stomach, and you will
have little use for a doctor even II
you live a hundred years. Horace
| Fletcher is all right. have been fol-
lowing his ideas more or less for ten
i wears. 1 don't believe that 1 spend
ouite as much time at my dinner as
| Fletcher, and know that i cannot get
along on so little, but 1 do know that
complete and thorough chewing of
your meals will help you to digest
them.
/ 4. 49,. ,..k.3 .,oos dnxvp