The Morgan City daily review. (Morgan City, La.) 1916-1920, 1918-04-13
THE BALANCED DIET
By Edwin F. Bowers, M. D.
OF the Vigilantes


unless properly fed. This requires
proper balance of the elements IN
the food. so that there can be pro-
per balance in the elements that make
up the body. There are very few
nroducts in all the world that have
this proper balance.
Milk is one of these. 1t contains
all the materials that go to build bone
and tissue. Its four per cent, to SIX
per cent, of sugar and It's two per
cent, to nine per cent, OF tat are am
ple to furnish heat for the body and
force to run the intricate chemical
engine that maintains vitality and
promotes nutrition and life.
But milk cannot take the place OF
all other foods. Not with most peo-
pie. For the 81 per cent of water 1t
contains would founder many before
they got nearly enough to eat.
In other words, the elements that go
to make milk perfect food are
drowned. So one who tried to live on
milk alone-unless he were obese, or
unless he possessed one of those d.
gestive apparatuses that turned every
particle of food into nutrient material
would either get water-logged from
count of matter it would be
I
cessary for him to drink every ~
order to get his proper number OF
food Galleries, or he would develop
dilated condition such as condition
of the gastric juices as would destroy
his ability to digest real food.
The iustly-prized and highly famed
"staff of life" is the next food that
comes nearest to filling all the re-
ouirements of a properly balanced
diet. Whole nations live almost ex-
clusively on wheat.
But wheat lacks fat-especlaiiy
necessary to those living in temper
ate or cold climates. That's why we
use butter on bread. That's why the
growing child, whose body uses up a
great deal of fuel to keep his engine
running. uses butter and bread, IN
stead of bread and butter.
Potatoes, formerly the Irish staff
of life, have this same lack OF fats,
made up by the addition of curds and
whey to the ''pratie."
The rice of the Japanese and Chin
csc is reinforced by scraps Of fish
or other proteid foods.
The flesh food of the Esqulmo IS
supplemented by blubber, and the
date of the South Sea Islander by
vans and other articles of diet.
1t is possible that corn comes near
er than any other food in filling all
the requirements of a balanced ra-
tion-one that contains all the ele-
ments required for human nutrition.
Corn is rich in the protein that
builds tissue and repairs body waste.
1t contains the carbohydrates (sug-
ars and starches, without which the
body would be as impotent as dy-
namo without electricity
1t contains the mineral salts SO nee
essary to the building of bone, teeth
and nerve cells. And it is rich in
ole O., the most easily-digested and
n 5st readily inflated oils known
to scio.cc-an Gil that is rapidly re-
p. ci..g butter and cream, cod-liver
Of, Give oil and other fats in the
trc 4 tment Of all wasting diseases.
Experience with corn-oil shows |
th1.. it is better borne over long pc
RODS Of time than most fats-except,
Of course, the almost prohibitively-
priced butter, cream and olive oil.
And also, it is pleasant and agree
able to the taste.
The average patient will take care
of" a dessertspoonful of oil of corn
two or three times day. And it /
may be used freely on salads-just !
as olive oil Is used.
Altogether, we are discovering in
corn food usually fed to hogs and
cattle, and hardly known as an arti- i
Gle Of diet to millions Of Americans !
to say nothing Of Europeans-that
bids fair to increase the food supply
of the world in a most substantial
way.
For corn is q well-balanced ration.
And, inasmuch as 88.6 of all the
farms in the country are producing
more or less Of it, it ought to help
shave something off the top" Of this