Cream of celeryOnionPotatoRiceTomato, etc.
{AsparagusFresh{Squash{Spinach
The above vegetables contain much cellulose or pulp which should be entirely discarded, leaving only the meat or purée; but to the child from eleven to fifteen months old, they should be administered in very limited quantities.
Especial attention should be given to simplicity in feeding:
If the above rules are observed, it is reasonable to assume that normal hunger of the child will guide it very correctly in selecting, proportioning, and combining its food through the period of childhood until it enters the period of youth.
Necessity for old age diet
There seems to be two critical periods in every life—the ages of thirty and sixty. If the sixtieth year can be turned with good digestion, normal assimilation and excretion, it is fair to assume that with reasonable care the century mark may be easily reached. It is also reasonable to assume that experience will have taught most thoughtful people what to eat and what not to eat, but the mortality tables of nearly all civilized countries, of which the writer has made a careful study, prove that a majority of people do not reach their sixtieth year, and but a very small per cent of those who do are blessed with good digestion. Therefore an old age diet is quite as important to the student as infant feeding.
For purposes of convenience, I will put all cereal products, legumes, and white potatoes in the starch or bread class, and henceforth theywill be referred to as such.
Meat and bread produce old age
The majority of disorders that mark the difference between youth and age may be traced directly to the overconsumption of meat and bread, especially cereal starch. The hardening of the arteries, the stiffening of the cartilage, the enlargement of the joints, and the general lack of flexibility throughout the body is due almost wholly to the overconsumption of these two staples.
Uric acid in rheumatic conditions
Uric acid is always present in gouty and rheumatic conditions, but it is there as Nature's defense against our sins, and not as a primary cause. Meat is not the cause of uric acid as has been popularly taught. Uric acid is one of the constituent elements of all animal bodies, and when the normal supply in the human body is supplemented by that which is contained in the body of the animal upon which we prey, we areoversupplied. This is as far as meat-eating contributes toward uric acid poisoning.
Soluble starches desirable
When the body is young and growing, it can consume and appropriate a considerable quantity of starchy or structural material, but when it is fully grown, or has turned forty, it can subsist healthfully upon a diet containing only from three to five per cent of starch, and as one becomes older the more soluble forms of starch should be taken, such as the starch contained in green peas, beans, and corn, which, immature, is readily soluble and assimilable. The starch in the banana is also easily appropriated and easily oxydized, and will be found to agree with many who cannot eat starch in any other form without producing fermentation.
After the fiftieth year the diet becomes more and more a factor needing special attention in the daily regimen, both as to selection and quantity; and with advancing age the quantity of food should begradually reduced until the minimum which will support life healthfully is reached.
Importance of diet with advancing age
In old age the diet should be governed by the same general rules as those of younger people; that is, elderly people should select, combine, and proportion their food according to temperature of environment, labor, and age. Those performing manual labor can use and eliminate food material which would produce uric acid and other poisons in the body of the sedentary worker.
Diet from fifty to sixty
Old age may be divided into three periods. From fifty to sixty the diet should consist of a very limited quantity of bread products (not more than two per cent); fresh green vegetables, fresh mild fruits, nuts,a normal quantity of milk and eggs, a limited quantity of sugar, and a moderate amount of fats.
Diet from sixty to seventy
From sixty to seventy the amount of cereal starch should be reduced to one per cent, or not more than two per cent, while the other articles named may be taken as suggested from fifty to sixty, gradually eliminating starchy foods, and increasing foods containing proteids, casein, and albumin.
Diet from seventy to one hundred
Between the ages of seventy and one hundred, the same general suggestions as those above laid out should be followed, eliminating entirely all cereal products. The more soluble forms of starchy or carbohydrate foods, such as potatoes, bananas, and green peas, beans, corn, etc., may be taken. (See Lesson XIII, Vol. III, p. 632.)
The necessary amount of fats, albumin, casein, and proteids must be governed by activity and temperature of environment.
The following are suggestions for one day's menu, in spring and summer, age between fifty and sixty. Choice of menus may be exercised, but each menu should be taken in its entirety.
BREAKFAST
Melon or subacid fruitOne or two very ripe bananas,One egg—coddledwith figs, cream, and nutsA potato or a very littleChoice of fruit—non-acidcoarse breadTwo glasses of milkA glass of clabbered milk orbuttermilkTwo tablespoonfuls of raisins,with cream and nuts
LUNCHEON
Choice of peas, corn, beans,Choice of carrots, parsnips,or creamed onionsbeans, squash, or asparagusEggs or buttermilkA baked sweet or a white potatoA baked potatoA glass of buttermilkA salad or something green,Cream cheese, dates, and nutswith nutsA very small portion ofA banana, with cream, nuts and datesgreen salad, with grated nuts
DINNER
One fresh vegetable—spinach,A green saladcooked ten minutesTwo fresh vegetablesOne egg or a very small portion of fishA sweet or a white potato,A baked potatowith sweet butterChoice of dates, figs, orA glass of sour milkraisins, with cream cheese and nuts
In cases of constipation, two or three tablespoonfuls of coarse wheat bran (cooked, if desired) should be taken with the breakfast and the evening meal, and a spoonful just before retiring, taken in a glass of water. Such fruits as plums, peaches, or berries should be taken daily, just after rising and just before retiring.
The following are suggestions for fall and winter menus, for a person between the ages of fifty and sixty:
BREAKFAST
Note:Sweet fruits may be taken instead of the acid fruits suggested, and milk instead of eggs.
LUNCHEON
If not very active, the luncheon may consist of two glasses of buttermilk and a spoonful of wheat bran.
DINNER
All fresh, watery vegetables should be cooked in a casserole dish.
A sufficient quantity of water should be drunk at each of these meals to bring the moisture up to about sixty-six per cent of the meal—two to three glasses.
These meals are mere suggestions, and are therefore subject to many variations.
All green salads may be substituted for one another; all starchy products—grain, potatoes, and legumes—may also be substituted for one another.
Every diet should be an athletic diet
The diet for the athlete really differs but little from that which should be taken by every person in normal health, the object in all cases being to secure the greatest degree of energy from the least quantity of food. In order to do this, the laws governing the selecting, the combining, and the proportioning of foods should be observed. When the digestive, the assimilative, and the excretory organs are properly performing their functions, the object should be to gain the highest efficiency in food with the least amount of loss or waste. Every diet, therefore, should be made an athletic diet.
In dealing with the public at large, the work of the practitioner will be confined very largely to prescribing for those who, by violation of Nature's laws, have become dis-eased, or in some way physically abnormal, and in these cases, of course, a remedial or counteractivediet first becomes necessary.
General diet for normal athlete
In dealing with the athlete as a special class, however, we must consider him as a normal creature, somewhere between the ages of twenty and forty. We must also consider that his digestion and assimilation of food, and elimination of waste are normal. Under these conditions, the diet should consist of highly nitrogenous and proteid compounds, leveled or balanced by the requisite amount of carbohydrates and fats.
Quantity of fat required at different seasons
If the athlete is training for action in summer, the quantity of fat should be reduced according to temperature or climate. When the thermometer ranges in the seventies and eighties, one ounce of fat each twenty-four hours would probably be sufficient, while if the mercury is down in the twenties or thirties, from two or three ounces may berequired to keep up bodily heat.
The following are suggestions for summer athletic diet:
BREAKFAST
LUNCHEON
DINNER
[1]Note:Corn to be prepared as follows:Cut lightly from cob with a sharp knife and scrape down with a dull one; serve uncooked with a little salt, sugar and cream.
[1]Note:Corn to be prepared as follows:
Cut lightly from cob with a sharp knife and scrape down with a dull one; serve uncooked with a little salt, sugar and cream.
The following are suggestions for winter athletic diet:
BREAKFAST
LUNCHEON
DINNER
These menus, like those given for summer, are merely for the purpose of suggesting selections, combinations, and proportions of food that will meet the exigencies of temperature, environment, and work. The quantity of food required will depend largely upon the size (physique) of theindividual, the severity of training, and the feats to be performed. It is especially important that these suggestions be well considered at least one day before engaging in any athletic event or work requiring extraordinary physical effort, as the human body appropriates or uses food from twenty-four to thirty-six hours after it is eaten.
Exposure to extreme cold or exertion
If one is to be exposed to extreme cold, an excess of fats should be taken, beginning thirty-six hours before exposure. If much physical effort is to be exerted, the diet should be balanced as to all nutritive elements, with an excess of nitrogenous foods. In fact, these rules should be observed by every one who desires to make feeding scientific, and to make food his servant instead of his master, as our civilized habits have a tendency to do.
Cessation of activity means disintegration
Nature demands from every form of life a certain amount of activity or motion. Any transgression of this law means disintegration. Rest is merely the process adopted by Nature to reconvert matter into its original elements. To whatever extent one ceases activity, Nature, under normal conditions, inflicts this penalty.
The penalty of civilization
Man's civilized habits and customs have produced a class of workers who, while at work, are deprived of their requisite amount of motion, and who, therefore, pay the penalty by shortened periods of life, and by numerous disorders which we have come to characterize as dis-ease. There is but one method known to science by which these penalties may be avoided, and by which the worker whose occupation must be sedentary may become as healthful as his brother who can order his life inconformity with Nature's laws. That method lies in the ordering of his diet.
Dis-ease is merely congestion
All dis-ease may be calledcongestion, or the failure of the body to eliminate poisons and waste matter. The process of elimination is assisted by activity (work or play). The accumulation of waste and poisons in the body is measured or determined almost wholly by the diet.
Diet governed by work
The man who is swinging a pick or a sledge hammer in the open air may eat or drink almost anything, because his powers of eliminating waste are aided by his work. It follows, therefore, that those whose work is of a sedentary nature must procure their nutrition from substances containing the minimum of waste, and producing the maximum of energy, and the quantity must be measured accurately by the demands of the body, or autointoxication (self-poisoning) will result.
Intestinal congestion (constipation), which is almost universal among sedentary workers, is caused in nearly all cases by consuming a quantity of food in excess of the physical demands, and which cannot be thrown off owing to the lack of exercise. It is at this point that science must lay out the dietetic regimen so as to make it conform to the occupation, or to the lack of physical activity.
The following are suggestions for a spring or summer diet for the average sedentary worker:
BREAKFAST
LUNCHEON
DINNER
The student will recognize that in these menus the heavier foods are prescribed sparingly, while the lighter or the more readily soluble articles predominate. From these suggestions a fair idea of a fall and winter diet can be drawn.
Indigestion, sour stomach (hyper-chlorhydria), constipation, malassimilation, and general anemia are the disorders with which the sedentary worker is most commonly afflicted.
In dealing with each and all of these conditions, including obesity, which is often the result of sedentary habits, the first thing to be done is to limit the quantity of food to the normal requirements of the body, and in extreme cases a diet below the normal should be observed; no one was ever made ill by underfeeding. Then, with proper care as to the selection, combination, and proportions of food, and an increasedamount of exercise and deep breathing, the person of sedentary habits should be made as healthy and strong as the outdoor worker in the fields of manual labor.
In considering a diet to meet the requirements of climatic extremes, either hot or cold, it is necessary to reckon from normality, both as to climate and as to the health of the individual.
All the foregoing lessons, taken as a whole, are designed to teach one method or theory, involving two principles:
Under normal conditions the temperature of the body may be thoroughly controlled by feeding. The principal process of metabolism is that of making heat out of the fuel given to the "human boiler." The amount of heat, therefore, that a given quantity of food will produce is determined very largely by the amount of resistance that is met from natural environment.
Amount of fat required in different temperatures
The human body, under ordinary conditions, in a temperature of 60° Fahrenheit, will use about two ounces of pure fat every twenty-four hours. If the temperature should drop to 30° Fahrenheit, it would require about three ounces of fat every twenty-four hours to keep the temperature of the body at normal. Under certain conditions ofexposure it might require as much as five and even six ounces of pure fat to maintain normal temperature of the body, and in the extreme north, where the temperature ranges in winter from 25° to 30° below zero, the natives often take as much as sixteen ounces of fat during the day. Fat being the principal heat-producing element, it is, therefore, the most necessary thing to consider in a temperature of extreme cold.
The student will readily understand that, in order to maintain a normal standard of vitality and endurance, the selection of foods must be made according to age, activity, and temperature.
For a person undergoing a reasonable amount of exposure, and working in a climate where the temperature is ranging between 20° and 30° Fahrenheit, the following menus, covering one day, may be suggested:
Immediately on rising, drink a cup of hot water, then take vigorous deep breathing exercises, followed by a cool sponge bath and rub down.
BREAKFAST
(An hour later)
LUNCHEON
DINNER
As the temperature becomes lower, the amount of fats and proteids should be increased according to exposure and activity.
The student should bear in mind that carbohydrates, proteids, and fats are the most important factors in the winter dietary. Other articles can be held level over a wide range of temperature, provided these three staple nutrients are taken in the requisite proportions.
Summer diet requires scientific consideration
Nearly all people in normal health instinctively avoid heat-producing foods in hot weather, and as in warm or hot climates people live more in the open air, oxidation is therefore more perfect, and has a tendency to aid elimination, so the errors of diet are not so serious. Nevertheless, the food to be taken in hot climates, or the heated term of summer, should receive scientific consideration.
Anthropoid life, of which man is the highest type, originated in the tropics, and nearly everything necessary for his highest physical development grew prodigally in that country. His natural or primitivediet was nuts, fruits, and salads (edible plants).
Civilization has transplanted him in the north, and has laid heavier burdens upon him, therefore he needs, in many instances, heavier and different foods, such as the carbohydrates, proteids, fats, and the albumin and the phosphorus in eggs.
As the temperature becomes warmer, the heat-producing factors, such as fats and carbohydrates (starch and sugar), should be gradually reduced.
The following menus are suitable for the average person, in normal health, between the ages of thirty and sixty, when the temperature is ranging from 70° to 90° Fahrenheit:
BREAKFAST
LUNCHEON
DINNER
These menus are mere suggestions, not invariable, and in following them it should be remembered that all green salads may be substituted for one another, and as a general rule such underground articles as beets, carrots, turnips, and parsnips may be substituted for one another. Also green corn, peas, and beans are in the same general class. (See"Constipation," Vol. III, p.761.)
Observation of these rules will give the student rather a wide range of articles to draw upon in selecting a diet for the normal person.
The nerves of the human body are the most important, the most complex, and probably the least understood of any part of the human anatomy. In conditions of health they are never heard from, therefore every expression of the nervous system is a symptom of some abnormal physical condition.
True meaning of nervousness
The usual term "nervousness" conveys to the mind of the average person such conditions as sleeplessness, restlessness, lack of mental and physical tranquillity, but to the trained mind of the food scientist or physician, it means mental aberration, hallucinations, morbidity, mental depression, lack of self-confidence, uncertainty, loss of memory, fear of poverty, anticipation of accident, tragedy, death, insanity, anda multitude of things that never happen. Language cannot adequately describe or convey to the mind of another person the strange impressions that sweep o'er the mind—the mental anguish caused by an ordinary case of nervous indigestion. Those only who can understand why many good men and women sometimes take their own lives, or commit some great crime, are those who have experienced the same affliction.
If we could correctly interpret the various symptoms given to the brain from the nervous system, and would heed these symptoms, the body might be kept in almost perfect health under all conditions of civilized life.
Relation of nutrition to nervousness
The lack of fresh air and exercise is always told by nervous expression, but the most important and significant message conveyed by the nerves at the brain is that concerning food and general nutrition.Instinct often leads us to fresh air and exercise, but with our food it is vastly different. We acquire a taste for certain things; the habit grows upon us, and though the nerves tell the story to our senses over and over, we heed it not because we are held behind the bars of habit by the tyranny of appetite. In this respect the tobacco fiend, the drug fiend, and the food fiend are all in the same class.
Nervousness usually has its origin in disorders of the functions of metabolism, assimilation and elimination. In other words, somewhere between the time the food is first taken into the system, and the time the poisonous débris of the food and the body waste is finally eliminated, there are some grievous faults of function.
Some deficiency in the activity and in the secreting power of any of the digestive organs; some defect in the assimilation of the finishedpabulum; some short-coming in the process by which oxygen is carried through the system to convert the "end-products" into less toxic substances for final excretion—any or all of these causes may conspire to produce nervousness. These may again, in their turn, be due to causes that arise within the mind, inhibiting the proper functional activity of the body.
But overfeeding, or eating the wrong combinations of food, and lack of proper elimination, are probably the most frequent causes of nervousness. When we take into the system more food than the body requires, there is bound to be a certain amount of it which cannot be utilized to build tissue, or furnish heat, or supply mineral salts.
This excess food, under the influence of fermentative processes, breaks down into various poisonous products. This is especially true of thealbuminous elements of the food. For these, in the heat and moisture of the small intestine, rapidly undergo a process of rotting—this is exactly what it is—and develop some of the most virulent organic poisons known to man.
They exercise a profound depression upon all the physiological functions, and cause an actual toxic degeneration of the nervous protoplasm. This, in turn, causes nerve irritability, insomnia, and many of those protean symptoms roughly grouped under the head of neurasthenia.
To completely relieve the condition means that a thorough reform in habits,—and particularly in dietetic habits—must be undertaken.
Excesses of every kind—even of play or work—must be stopped. All possible sources of worry must be removed. Rest and recreation should be made quite as important—in fact more so, than house-work or business.
Sleep, and plenty of it, should be secured at all costs. Eight hours are none too many—although ten would be better.
Needless to say, the question of diet is of prime importance. The use of tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, and all stimulant beverages, as well as condiments, should be discontinued.
Plain, wholesome food—with an ample supply of lecithin (or nerve fat) such as eggs, milk, olive oil, etc., should be taken liberally.
All sources of fermentation—especially those forms due to an excess of starch, sugars, and acids, should be avoided. Careful attention should be given to securing free bowel movement.
And, above all, an equable frame of mind should be cultivated; the way to defeat this purpose is to overwork and worry in order to accumulate the thing called property.
Working for wealth alone defeats its purpose
The desire to accumulate property has for its excuse immunity from work at some future time so that we can enjoy life, but experience teachesus that the physical cost of this effort defeats the very purpose for which we are striving.
The victim of nervousness should first seek a complete change of environment, and engage in pleasant, and, if possible, profitable occupation.
Therapeutic value of working for the public good
Thousands of people become nervous wrecks by pursuing work for which they have no natural taste or ability, and many become nervous from the monotony of environment. This is especially true with women, and while it is exceedingly difficult for countless housewives and mothers to escape from this monotony, yet they can secure relief by becoming interested in some work of a public or quasi-public nature, or by taking up a "hobby" that has for its purpose some form of public good.
All people love the plaudits and esteem of their fellow-creatures, and there is nothing that will relieve the monotony and bring that satisfaction which all of us desire more quickly than earnest labor in a worthy cause. Therefore, this is one of the first and the best remedies for that character of nervousness caused by the monotony and narrowed life of the average woman.
The effects of wrong eating and drinking
The most prolific cause of nervousness, however, is incorrect, unnatural habits of eating and drinking, therefore, the logical remedy must be found in simplifying, leveling, and making the diet conform to the requirements of the body governed, of course, by age, occupation, etc.
The nervous person should eliminate from the diet acids, sweets (see Lesson VIII, Vol. II, pp. 313 and 332>), flesh foods, and all stimulating beverages.
The following menus, with variations according to the available supply of fruits and vegetables in season, should be adopted:
Choice of the following menus:
MENU IMENU IIBREAKFASTA cup of hot waterVery little farina or oatmeal,Two baked bananaswith creamSteamed wheat—creamA glass of buttermilkLUNCHEONCorn hominy, with butterA white potato, bakedor creamA large, boiled onionRaisins, nuts, cream cheeseCorn breadOne or two glasses of waterA glass of milkDINNERA pint of junketOne egg or a morsel of fishBran gemsA baked potatoA coddled egg (For branChoice of carrots, parsnips,meal and coddled eggs,or onionssee Vol. III, pp. 677 and(A green salad or spinach683)may be eaten at thisHot watermeal, if desired)
One or two glasses of water should be drunk at each of these meals.
If there is a tendency toward constipation, a liberal portion of wheat bran, thoroughly cooked, should be taken at both the morning and the evening meal.
Bran possesses valuable nutritive properties, such as mineral salts, iron, protein and phosphates, and it harmonizes chemically with all other foods.
BREAKFAST
LUNCHEON
DINNER
In adopting the two-meals-a-day system, the noon meal should be omitted. This gives the stomach and the irritated nerves a rest, and creates natural hunger which augments both digestion and assimilation. (See Lesson XIII, p. 630).
BREAKFAST
A green salad or some sweet fruit may be eaten at noon if very hungry.
DINNER
First Day: On rising, drink two cups of cool water, and devote from five to ten minutes to vigorous exercises and deep breathing.
BREAKFAST
LUNCHEON
DINNER
Just before retiring, take exercises as prescribed for the morning, and, if constipated, two or three tablespoonfuls of wheat bran.
Second Day: The same as the first, slightly increasing the quantity of food if hungry.
Third Day: The same as the second, adding one or two baked bananas to the morning meal, and varying the vegetables according to the appetite for the noon and the evening meal. Nearly all vegetables such as turnips, beets, carrots and parsnips may be substituted for one another.
Fourth Day:
BREAKFAST
LUNCHEON
Choice of eitheraorb:
DINNER
Choice of any two fresh vegetables
Choice of:
Exercise the same as prescribed for the first day.
Fifth Day: The same as the fourth day.
Sixth Day: The same as the first, repeating these menus for a period of three or four weeks.
The nervous person should eat very sparingly of bread and cereal products, with the exception of bran and a few coarse articles, such as flaked or whole wheat or rye, and these should be taken sparingly while under treatment.
A generous quantity of water should be drunk at meals, and mastication should be very thorough.
If the body is overweight or inclined toward obesity, the diet should consist of fewer fat-producing foods, such as grains, potatoes, milk,eggs, and an excess of vegetable proteids. If underweight or inclined toward emaciation, the fat-producing foods should predominate.
Under all conditions of nervousness the patient should take an abundance of exercise and deep breathing in the open air, and sleep out of doors, if possible. An abundance of fresh air breathed into the lungs is the best blood purifier known, and if the blood is kept pure, and forced into every cell and capillary vessel of the body by exercise, the irritated nerves will share in the general improvement.
The cool shower or sponge bath in the morning, preceded and followed by a few minutes' vigorous exercise, is a splendid sedative for irritated nerves.
The nervous person should divide the day as nearly as possible into three equal parts—eight hours' pleasant but useful work; eighthours' recreation, and eight hours' sleep.