HEALTHFUL FOOD



IX.

HEALTHFUL FOOD.


The person who decides what shall be the food and drink of a family,
and the modes of its preparation, is the one who decides, to a greater
or less extent, what shall be the health of that family. It is the
opinion of most medical men, that intemperance in eating is one of the
most fruitful of all causes of disease and death. If this be so, the
woman who wisely adapts the food and cooking of her family to the laws
of health removes one of the greatest risks which threatens the lives
of those under her care. But, unfortunately, there is no other duty
that has been involved in more doubt and perplexity. Were one to believe
all that is said and written on this subject, the conclusion probably
would be, that there is not one solitary article of food on God's earth
which it is healthful to eat. Happily, however, there are general
principles on this subject which, if understood and applied, will prove
a safe guide to any woman of common sense; and it is the object of the
following chapter to set forth these principles.

All material things on earth, whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, can
be resolved into sixty-two simple substances, only fourteen of which
are in the human body; and these, in certain proportions, in all
mankind.

Thus, in a man weighing 154 lbs. are found, 111 lbs. oxygen gas, and
14 lbs. hydrogen gas, which, united, form water; 21 lbs. carbon; 3
lbs. 8 oz. nitrogen gas; 1 lb. 12 oz. 190 grs. phosphorus; 2 lbs.
calcium, the chief ingredient of bones; 2 oz. fluorine; 2 oz. 219 grs.
sulphur; 2 oz 47 grs. chlorine; 2 oz. 116 grs. sodium; 100 grs. iron;
290 grs. potassium; 12 grs. magnesium; and 2 grs. silicon.

These simple substances are constantly passing out of the body through
the lungs, skin, and other excreting organs.

It is found that certain of these simple elements are used for one
part of the body, and others for other parts, and this in certain
regular proportions. Thus, carbon is the chief element of fat, and
also supplies the fuel that combines with oxygen in the capillaries
to produce animal heat. The nitrogen which we gain from our food and
the air is the chief element of muscle; phosphorus is the chief element
of brain and nerves; and calcium or lime is the hard portion of the
bones. Iron is an important element of blood, and silicon supplies the
hardest parts of the teeth, nails, and hair.

Water, which is composed of the two gases, oxygen and hydrogen, is the
largest portion of the body, forming its fluids; there is four times
as much of carbon as there is of nitrogen in the body; while there is
only two per cent as much phosphorus as carbon. A man weighing one
hundred and fifty-four pounds, who leads an active life, takes into
his stomach daily from two to three pounds of solid food, and from
five to six pounds of liquid. At the same time he takes into his lungs,
daily, four or five thousand gallons of air. This amounts to three
thousand pounds of nutriment received through stomach and lungs, and
then expelled from the body, in one year; or about twenty times the
man's own weight.

The change goes on in every minute point of the body, though in some
parts much faster than in others; as set forth in the piquant and
sprightly language of Dr. O. W. Holmes [Footnote: Atlantic Almanac,
1869, p. 40.], who, giving a vivid picture of the constant decay and
renewal of the body, says:

"_Every organized being always lives immersed in a strong solution
of its own elements._"

"Sometimes, as in the case of the air-plant, the solution contains all
its elements; but in higher plants, and in animals generally, some of
the principal ones only. Take our own bodies, and we find the atmosphere
contains the oxygen and the nitrogen, of which we are so largely made
up, as its chief constituents; the hydrogen, also, in its watery vapor;
the carbon, in its carbonic acid. What our air-bath does not furnish
us, we must take in the form of nourishment, supplied through the
digestive organs. But the first food we take, after we have set up for
ourselves, is air, and the last food we take is air also. We are all
chameleons in our diet, as we are all salamanders in our _habitats_,
inasmuch as we live always in the fire of our own smouldering
combustion; a gentle but constant flame, fanned every day by the same
forty hogsheads of air which furnish us not with our daily bread, which
we can live more than a day without touching, but with our momentary,
and oftener than momentary, aliment, without which we can not live five
minutes."

"We are perishing and being born again at every instant. We do literally
enter over and over again into the womb of that great mother, from
whom we get our bones, and flesh, and blood, and marrow. 'I die daily'
is true of all that live. If we cease to die, particle by particle,
and to be born anew in the same proportion, the whole movement of life
comes to an end, and swift, universal, irreparable decay resolves
our frames into the parent elements."

"The products of the internal fire which consumes us over and over
again every year, pass off mainly in smoke and steam from the lungs
and the skin. The smoke is only invisible, because the combustion is
so perfect. The steam is plain enough in our breaths on a frosty
morning; and an over-driven horse will show us, on a larger scale, the
cloud that is always arising from own bodies."

"Man walks, then, not only in a vain show, but wrapped in an uncelestial
aureole of his own material exhalations. A great mist of gases and of
vapor rises day and night from the whole realm of living nature. The
water and the carbonic acid which animals exhale become the food of
plants, whose leaves are at once lungs and mouths. The vegetable world
reverses the breathing process of the animal creation, restoring the
elements which that has combined and rendered effete for its own
purposes, to their original condition. The salt-water ocean is a great
aquarium. The air ocean in which we live is a 'Wardian case,' of larger
dimensions."

It is found that the simple elements will not nourish the body in their
natural state, but only when organized, either as vegetable or animal
food; and, to the dismay of the Grahamite or vegetarian school, it is
now established by chemists that animal and vegetable food contain the
same elements, and in nearly the same proportions.

Thus, in animal food, carbon predominates in fats, while in vegetable
food it shows itself in sugar, starch, and vegetable oils. Nitrogen
is found in animal food in the albumen, fibrin, and caseine; while in
vegetables it is in gluten, albumen, and caseine.

[Illustration: Fig. 55]

It is also a curious fact that, in all articles of food, the elements
that nourish diverse parts of the body are divided into separable
portions, and also that the proportions correspond in a great degree
to the wants of the body. For example, a kernel of wheat contains all
the articles demanded for every part of the body. Fig. 55 represents,
upon an enlarged scale, the position and proportions of the chief
elements required. The white central part is the largest in quantity,
and is chiefly carbon in the form of starch, which supplies fat and
fuel for the capillaries. The shaded outer portion is chiefly nitrogen,
which nourishes the muscles, and the dark spot at the bottom is
principally phosphorus, which nourishes the brain and nerves. And these
elements are in due proportion to the demands of the body. A portion
of the outer covering of a wheat-kernel holds lime, silica, and iron,
which are needed by the body, and which are found in no other part of
the grain. The woody fibre is not digested, but serves by its bulk and
stimulating action to facilitate digestion. It is therefore evident
that bread made of unbolted flour is more healthful than that made of
superfine flour. The process of bolting removes all the woody fibre;
the lime needed for the bones; the silica for hair, nails, and teeth;
the iron for the blood; and most of the nitrogen and phosphorus needed
for muscles, brain, and nerves.

Experiments on animals prove that fine flour alone, which is chiefly
carbon, will not sustain life more than a month, while unbolted flour
furnishes all that is needed for every part of the body. There are
cases where persons can not use such coarse bread, on account of its
irritating action on inflamed coats of the stomach. For such, a kind
of wheaten grit is provided, containing all the kernel of the wheat,
except the outside woody fibre.

When the body requires a given kind of diet, specially demanded by
brain, lungs, or muscles, the appetite will crave food for it until
the necessary amount of this article is secured. If, then, the food
in which the needed aliment abounds is not supplied, other food will
be taken in larger quantities than needed until that amount is gained.
For all kinds of food have supplies for every want of the body, though
in different proportions. Thus, for example, if the muscles are worked
a great deal, food in which nitrogen abounds is required, and the
appetite will continue until the requisite amount of nitrogen is
secured. If, then, food is taken which has not the requisite quantity,
the consequence is, that more is taken than the system can use, while
the vital powers are needlessly taxed to throw off the excess.

These facts were ascertained by Liebig, a celebrated German chemist
and physicist, who, assisted by his government, conducted experiments
on a large scale in prisons, in armies, and in hospitals. Among other
results, he states that those who use potatoes for their principal
food eat them in very much larger quantities than their bodies would
demand if they used also other food. The reason is, that the potato
has a very large proportion of starch that supplies only fuel for the
capillaries and very little nitrogen to feed the muscles. For this
reason lean meat is needed with potatoes.

In comparing wheat and potatoes we find that in one hundred parts wheat
there are fourteen parts nitrogen for muscle, and two parts phosphorus
for brain and nerves. But in the potato there is only one part in one
hundred for muscle, and nine tenths of one part of phosphorus for brain
and nerves.

The articles containing most of the three articles needed generally
in the body are as follows: for fat and heat-making--butter, lard,
sugar, and molasses; for muscle-making--lean meat, cheese, peas, beans,
and lean fishes; for brain and nerves--shell-fish, lean meats, peas,
beans, and very active birds and fishes who live chiefly on food in
which phosphorus abounds. In a meat diet, the fat supplies carbon for
the capillaries and the lean furnishes nutriment for muscle, brain,
and nerves. Green vegetables, fruits, and berries furnish the acid and
water needed.

In grains used for food, the proportions of useful elements are varied;
there is in some more of carbon and in others more of nitrogen and
phosphorus. For example, in oats there is more of nitrogen for the
muscles, and less carbon for the lungs, than can be found in wheat.
In the corn of the North, where cold weather demands fuel for lungs
and capillaries, there is much more carbon to supply it than is found
in the Southern corn.

From these statements it may be seen that one of the chief mistakes
in providing food for families has been in changing the proportions
of the elements nature has fitted for our food. Thus, fine wheat is
deprived by bolting of some of the most important of its nourishing
elements, leaving carbon chiefly, which, after supplying fuel fur the
capillaries, must, if in excess, be sent out of the body; thus
needlessly taxing all the excreting organs. So milk, which contains
all the elements needed by the body, has the cream taken out and used
for butter, which again is chiefly carbon. Then, sugar and molasses,
cakes and candies, are chiefly carbon, and supply but very little of
other nourishing elements, while to make them safe much exercise in
cold and pure air is necessary. And yet it is the children of the rich,
housed in chambers and school-rooms most of their time, who are fed
with these dangerous dainties, thus weakening their constitutions, and
inducing fevers, colds, and many other diseases. The proper digestion
of food depends on the wants of the body, and on its power of
appropriating the aliment supplied. The best of food can not be properly
digested when it is not needed. All that the system requires will be
used, and the rest will be thrown out by the several excreting organs,
which thus are frequently over-taxed, and vital forces are wasted.
Even food of poor quality may digest well if the demands of the system
are urgent. The way to increase digestive power is to increase the
demand for food by pure air and exercise of the muscles, quickening
the blood, and arousing the whole system to a more rapid and vigorous
rate of life.

Rules for persons in full health, who enjoy pure air and exercise, are
not suitable for those whose digestive powers are feeble, or who are
diseased. On the other hand, many rules for invalids are not needed
by the healthful, while rules for one class of invalids will not avail
for other classes. Every weak stomach has its peculiar wants, and can
not furnish guidance for others.

We are now ready to consider intelligently the following general
principles in regard to the proper selection of food:

Vegetable and animal food are equally healthful if apportioned to the
given circumstances.

In cold weather, carbonaceous food, such as butter, fats, sugar,
molasses, etc., can be used more safely than in warm weather. And they
can be used more safely by those who exercise in the open air than by
those of confined and sedentary habits.

Students who need food with little carbon, and women who live in the
house, should always seek coarse bread, fruits, and lean meats, and
avoid butter, oils, sugar, and molasses, and articles containing them.

Many students and women using little exercise in the open air, grow
thin and weak, because the vital powers are exhausted in throwing off
excess of food, especially of the carbonaceous. The liver is especially
taxed in such cases, being unable to remove all the excess of
carbonaceous matter from, the blood, and thus "biliousness" ensues,
particularly on the approach of warm weather, when the air brings less
oxygen than in cold.

It is found, by experiment, that the supply of gastric juice, furnished
from the blood by the arteries of the stomach, is proportioned, not
to the amount of food put into the stomach, but to the wants of the
body; so that it is possible to put much more into the stomach than
can be digested. To guide and regulate in this matter, the sensation
called _hunger_ is provided. In a healthy state of the body, as
soon as the blood has lost its nutritive supplies, the craving of
hunger is felt, and then, if the food is suitable, and is taken in the
proper manner, this sensation ceases as soon as the stomach has received
enough to supply the wants of the system. But our benevolent Creator,
in this, as in our other duties, has connected enjoyment with the
operation needful to sustain our bodies. In addition to the allaying
of hunger, the gratification of the palate is secured by the immense
variety of food, some articles of which are far more agreeable than
others.

This arrangement of Providence, designed for our happiness, has become,
either through ignorance, or want of self-control, the chief cause of
the many diseases and suffering which afflict those classes who have
the means of seeking a variety to gratify the palate. If mankind had
only one article of food, and only water to drink, though they would
have less enjoyment in eating, they would never be tempted to put any
more into the stomach than the calls of hunger require. But the customs
of society, which present an incessant change, and a great variety of
food, with those various condiments which stimulate appetite, lead
almost every person very frequently to eat merely to gratify the palate,
after the stomach has been abundantly supplied, so that hunger has
ceased.

When too great a supply of food is put into the stomach, the gastric
juice dissolves only that portion which the wants of the system demand.
Most of the remainder is ejected, in an unprepared state; the absorbents
take portions of it into the system; and all the various functions of
the body, which depend on the ministries of the blood, are thus
gradually and imperceptibly injured. Very often, intemperance in eating
produces immediate results, such as colic, headaches, pains of
indigestion, and vertigo.

But the more general result is a gradual undermining of all parts of
the human frame; this imperceptibly shortening life, by so weakening
the constitution, that it is ready to yield, at every point, to any
uncommon risk or exposure. Thousands and thousands are parsing out of
the world, from diseases occasioned by exposures which a healthy
constitution could meet without any danger. It is owing to these
considerations, that it becomes the duty of every woman, who has the
responsibility of providing food for a family, to avoid a variety of
tempting dishes. It is a much safer rule, to have only one kind of
healthy food, for each meal, than the too abundant variety which is
often met at the tables of almost all classes in this country. When
there is to be any variety of dishes, they ought not to be successive,
but so arranged as to give the opportunity of selection. How often is
it the case, that persons, by the appearance of a favorite article,
are tempted to eat merely to gratify the palate, when the stomach is
already adequately supplied. All such intemperance wears on the
constitution, and shortens life. It not infrequently happens that
excess in eating produces a morbid appetite, which must constantly be
denied.

But the organization of the digestive organs demands, not only that
food should be taken in proper quantities, but that it be taken at
proper times.

[Illustration: Fig. 56.]

Fig. 56 shows one important feature of the digestive organs relating
to this point. The part marked LM shows the muscles of the inner coat
of the stomach, which run in one direction, and CM shows the muscles
of the outer coat, running in another direction.

As soon as the food enters the stomach, the muscles are excited by the
nerves, and the _peristaltic motion_ commences. This is a powerful
and constant exercise of the muscles of the stomach, which continues
until the process of digestion is complete. During this time the blood
is withdrawn from other parts of the system, to supply the demands of
the stomach, which is laboring hard with all its muscles. When this
motion ceases, and the digested food has gradually passed out, nature
requires that the stomach should have a period of repose. And if another
meal be eaten immediately after one is digested, the stomach is set
to work again before it has had time to rest, and before a sufficient
supply of gastric juice is provided.

The general rule, then, is, that three hours be given to the stomach
for labor, and two for rest; and in obedience to this, five hours, at
least, ought to elapse between every two regular meals. In cases where
exercise produces a flow of perspiration, more food is needed to supply
the loss; and strong laboring men may safely eat as often as they feel
the want of food. So, young and healthy children, who gambol and
exercise ranch and whose bodies grow fast, may have a more frequent
supply of food. But, as a general rule, meals should be five hours
apart, and eating between meals avoided. There is nothing more unsafe,
and wearing to the constitution, than a habit of eating at any time
merely to gratify the palate. When a tempting article is presented,
every person should exercise sufficient self-denial to wait till the
proper time for eating arrives. Children, as well as grown persons,
are often injured by eating between their regular meals, thus weakening
the stomach by not affording it any time for rest.

In deciding as to _quantity_ of food, there is one great difficulty
to be met by a large portion of the community. The exercise of every
part of the body is necessary to its health and perfection. The bones,
the muscles, the nerves, the organs of digestion and respiration, and
the skin, all demand exercise, in order properly to perform their
functions. When the muscles of the body are called into action, all
the blood-vessels entwined among them are frequently compressed. As
the veins have valves so contrived that the blood can not run back,
this compression hastens it forward toward the heart; which is
immediately put in quicker motion, to send it into the lungs; and they,
also, are thus stimulated to more rapid action, which is the cause of
that panting which active exercise always occasions. The blood thus
courses with greater celerity through the body, and sooner loses its
nourishing properties. Then the stomach issues its mandate of hunger,
and a new supply of food must be furnished.

Thus it appears, as a general rule, that the quantity of food actually
needed by the body depends on the amount of muscular exercise taken.
A laboring man, in the open fields, probably throws off from his skin
and lungs a much larger amount than a person of sedentary pursuits.
In consequence of this, he demands a greater amount of food and drink.

Those persons who keep their bodies in a state of health by sufficient
exercise can always be guided by the calls of hunger. They can eat
when they feel hungry, and stop when hunger ceases; and thus they will
calculate exactly right. But the difficulty is, that a large part of
the community, especially women, are so inactive in their habits that
they seldom feel the calls of hunger. They habitually eat, merely to
gratify the palate. This produces such a state of the system that they
lose the guide which Nature has provided. They are not called to eat
by hunger, nor admonished, by its cessation, when to stop. In
consequence of this, such persons eat what pleases the palate, till
they feel no more inclination for the article. It is probable that
three fourths of the women in the wealthier circles sit down to each
meal without any feeling of hunger, and eat merely on account of the
gratification thus afforded them. Such persons find their appetite to
depend almost solely upon the kind of food on the table. This is not
the case with those who take the exercise which Nature demands. They
approach their meals in such a state that almost any kind of food is
acceptable.

The question then arises, How are persons, who have lost the guide
which Nature has provided, to determine as to the proper amount of
food they shall take?

The best method is for several days to take their ordinary exercise
and eat only one or two articles of simple food, such as bread and
milk, or bread and butter with cooked fruit, or lean meat with bread
and vegetables, and at the same time eat less than the appetite demands.
Then on the following two days, take just enough to satisfy the
appetite, and on the third day notice the quantity which satisfies.
After this, decide before eating that only this amount of simple food
shall be taken.

Persons who have a strong constitution, and take much exercise, may
eat almost any thing with apparent impunity; but young children who
are forming their constitutions, and persons who are delicate, and who
take but little exercise, are very dependent for health on a proper
selection of food.

It is found that there are some kinds of food which afford nutriment
to the blood, and do not produce any other effect on the system. There
are other kinds, which are not only nourishing, but _stimulating_,
so that they quicken the functions of the organs on which they operate.
The condiments used in cookery, such as pepper, mustard, and spices,
are of this nature. There are certain states of the system when these
stimulants may be beneficial; such cases can only be pointed out by
medical men.

Persons in perfect health, and especially young children, never receive
any benefit from such kind of food; and just in proportion as condiments
operate to quicken the labors of the internal organs, they tend to
wear down their powers. A person who thus keeps the body working under
an unnatural excitement, _live faster_ than Nature designed, and
the constitution is worn out just so much the sooner. A woman,
therefore, should provide dishes for her family which are free from
these stimulating condiments.

It is also found, by experience, that the lean part of animal food is
more stimulating than vegetable. This is the reason why, in cases of
fevers or inflammations, medical men forbid the use of meat. A person
who lives chiefly on animal food is under a higher degree of stimulus
than if his food was chiefly composed of vegetable substances. His
blood will flow faster, and all the functions of his body will be
quickened. This makes it important to secure a proper proportion of
animal and vegetable diet. Some medical men suppose that an exclusively
vegetable diet is proved, by the experience of many individuals, to
be fully sufficient to nourish the body; and bring, as evidence, the
fact that some of the strongest and most robust men in the world are
those who are trained, from infancy, exclusively on vegetable food.
From this they infer that life will be shortened just in proportion
as the diet is changed to more stimulating articles; and that, all
other things being equal, children will have a better chance of health
and long life if they are brought up solely on vegetable food.

But, though this is not the common opinion of medical men, they all
agree that, in America, far too large a portion of the diet consists
of animal food. As a nation, the Americans are proverbial for the gross
and luxurious diet with which they load their tables; and there can
be no doubt that the general health of the nation would be increased
by a change in our customs in this respect. To take meat but once a
day, and this in small quantities, compared with the common practice,
is a rule, the observance of which would probably greatly reduce the
amount of fevers, eruptions, headaches, bilious attacks, and the many
other ailments which are produced or aggravated by too gross a diet.

The celebrated Roman physician, Baglivi, (who, from practicing
extensively among Roman Catholics, had ample opportunities to observe,)
mentions that, in Italy, an unusual number of people recover their
health in the forty days of Lent, in consequence of the lower diet
which is required as a religious duty. An American physician remarks,
"For every reeling drunkard that disgraces our country, it contains
one hundred gluttons--persons, I mean, who eat to excess, and suffer
in consequence." Another distinguished physician says, "I believe that
every stomach, not actually impaired by organic disease, will perform
its functions, if it receives reasonable attention; and when we perceive
the manner in which diet is generally conducted, both in regard to
_quantity_ and _variety_ of articles of food and drink, which are mixed
up in one heterogeneous mass--instead of being astonished at the
prevalence of indigestion, our wonder must rather be that, in such
circumstances, any stomach is capable of digesting at all."

In regard to articles which are the most easily digested, only general
rules can be given. Tender meats are digested more readily than those
which are tough, or than many kinds of vegetable food. The farinaceous
articles, such as rice, flour, corn, potatoes, and the like, are the
most nutritious, and most easily digested. The popular notion, that
meat is more nourishing than bread, is a great mistake. Good bread
contains more nourishment than butcher's meat. The meat is more
_stimulating_, and for this reason is more readily digested.

A perfectly healthy stomach can digest almost any healthful food; but
when the digestive powers are weak, every stomach has its peculiarities,
and what is good for one is hurtful to another. In such cases,
experiment alone can decide which are the most digestible articles of
food. A person whose food troubles him must deduct one article after
another, till he learns, by experience, which is the best for digestion.
Much evil has been done, by assuming that the powers of one stomach
are to be made the rule in regulating every other.

The most unhealthful kinds of food are those which, are made so by bad
cooking; such as sour and heavy bread, cakes, pie-crust, and other
dishes consisting of fat mixed and cooked with flour. Rancid butter
and high-seasoned food are equally unwholesome. The fewer mixtures
there are in cooking, the more healthful is the food likely to be.

There is one caution as to the _mode_ of eating which seems peculiarly
needful to Americans. It is indispensable to good digestion, that food
be well chewed and taken slowly. It needs to be thoroughly chewed and
mixed with saliva, in order to prepare it for the action of the gastric
juice, which, by the peristaltic motion, will be thus brought into
contact with every one of the minute portions.

It has been found that a solid lump of food requires much more time
and labor of the stomach for digestion than divided substances. It has
also been found, that as each bolus, or mouthful, enters the stomach,
the latter closes, until the portion received has had some time to
move around and combine with the gastric juice, and that the orifice
of the stomach resists the entrance of any more till this is
accomplished. But, if the eater persists in swallowing fast, the stomach
yields; the food is then poured in more rapidly than the organ can
perform its duty of preparative digestion; and evil results are sooner
or later developed. This exhibits the folly of those hasty meals, so
common to travelers and to men of business, and shows why children
should be taught to eat slowly.

After taking a full meal, it is very important to health that no great
bodily or mental exertion be made till the labor of the stomach is
over. Intense mental effort draws the blood to the head, and muscular
exertions draw it to the muscles; and in consequence of this, the
stomach loses the supply which it requires when performing its office.
When the blood with its stimulating effects is thus withdrawn from the
stomach, the adequate supply of gastric juice is not afforded, and
indigestion is the result. The heaviness which follows a full meal is
the indication which Nature gives of the need of quiet. When the meal
is moderate, a sufficient quantity of gastric juice is exuded in an
hour, or an hour and a half; after which, labor of body and mind may
safely be resumed.

When undigested food remains in the stomach, and is at last thrown out
into the bowels, it proves an irritating substance, producing an
inflamed state in the lining of the stomach and other organs.

It is found that the stomach has the power of gradually accommodating
indigestive powers to the food it habitually receives. Thus, animals
which live on vegetables can gradually become accustomed to animal
food; and the reverse is equally true. Thus, too, the human stomach
can eventually accomplish the digestion of some kinds of food, which,
at first, were indigestible.

But any changes of this sort should be gradual; as those which are
sudden are trying to the powers of the stomach, by furnishing matter
for which its gastric juice is not prepared.

Extremes of heat or cold are injurious to the process of digestion.
Taking hot food or drink, habitually, tends to debilitate all the
organs thus needlessly excited. In using cold substances, it is found
that a certain degree of warmth in the stomach is indispensable to
their digestion; so that, when the gastric juice is cooled below this
temperature, it ceases to act. Indulging in large quantities of cold
drinks, or eating ice-creams, after a meal, tends to reduce the
temperature of the stomach, and thus to stop digestion. This shows the
folly of those refreshments, in convivial meetings, where the guests
are tempted to load the stomach with a variety such as would require
the stomach of a stout farmer to digest; and then to wind up with ice-
creams, thus lessening whatever ability might otherwise have existed
to digest the heavy load. The fittest temperature for drinks, if taken
when the food is in the digesting process, is blood heat. Cool drinks,
and even ice, can be safely taken at other times, if not in excessive
quantity. When the thirst is excessive, or the body weakened by fatigue,
or when in a state of perspiration, large quantities of cold drinks
are injurious.

Fluids taken into the stomach are not subject to the slow process of
digestion, but are immediately absorbed and carried into the blood.
This is the reason why liquid nourishment, more speedily than solid
food, restores from exhaustion. The minute vessels of the stomach
absorb its fluids, which are carried into the blood, just as the minute
extremities of the arteries open upon the inner surface of the stomach,
and there exude the gastric juice from the blood.

When food is chiefly liquid, (soup, for example,) the fluid part is
rapidly absorbed. The solid parts remain, to be acted on by the gastric
juice. In the case of St. Martin, [Footnote: The individual here
referred to--Alexis St. Martin--was a young Canadian, eighteen years
of age, of a good constitution and robust health, who, in 1822, was
accidentally wounded by the discharge of a musket which: carried away
a part of the ribs, lacerated one of two lobes of the lungs, and
perforated the stomach, making a large aperture, which never closed;
and which enabled Dr. Beaumont (a surgeon of the American army,
stationed at Michilimackanac, under whose care the patient was placed)
to witness all the processes of digestion and other functions of the
body for several years.] in fifty minutes after taking soup, the fluids
were absorbed, and the remainder was even thicker than is usual after
eating solid food. This is the reason why soups are deemed bad for
weak stomachs; as this residuum is more difficult of digestion than
ordinary food.

Highly-concentrated food, having much nourishment in a small bulk, is
not favorable to digestion, because it can not be properly acted on
by the muscular contractions of the stomach, and is not so minutely
divided as to enable the gastric juice to act properly. This is the
reason why a certain _bulk_ of food is needful to good digestion;
and why those people who live on whale-oil and other highly nourishing
food, in cold climates, mix vegetables and even sawdust with it to
make it more acceptable and digestible. So in civilized lands, fruits
and vegetables are mixed with more highly concentrated nourishment.
For this reason also, soups, jellies, and arrow-root should have bread
or crackers mixed with them. This affords another reason why coarse
bread, of unbolted wheat, so often proves beneficial. Where, from
inactive habits or other causes, the bowels become constipated and
sluggish, this kind of food proves the appropriate remedy.

One fact on this subject is worthy of notice. In England, under the
administration of William Pitt, for two years or more there was such
a scarcity of wheat that, to make it hold out longer, Parliament passed
a law that the army should have all their bread made of unbolted flour.
The result was, that the health of the soldiers improved so much as
to be a subject of surprise to themselves, the officers, and the
physicians. These last came out publicly and declared that the soldiers
never before were so robust and healthy; and that disease had nearly
disappeared from the army. The civic physicians joined and pronounced
it the healthiest bread; and for a time schools, families, and public
institutions used it almost exclusively. Even the nobility, convinced
by these facts, adopted it for their common diet, and the fashion
continued a long time after the scarcity ceased, until more luxurious
habits resumed their sway.

We thus see why children should not have cakes and candies allowed
them between meals. Besides being largely carbonaceous, these are
highly concentrated nourishments, and should be eaten with more bulky
and less nourishing substances. The most indigestible of all kinds of
food are fatty and oily substances, if heated. It is on this account
that pie-crust and articles boiled and fried in fat or butter are
deemed not so healthful as other food.

The following, then, may be put down as the causes of a debilitated
constitution from the misuse of food. Eating _too much,_ eating _too
often,_ eating _too fast,_ eating food and condiments that are _too
stimulating,_ eating food that is _too warm_ or _too cold,_ eating food
that is _highly concentrated,_ without a proper admixture of less
nourishing matter, and eating hot food that is _difficult of digestion._