_Chlorine_ is ordinarily combined in our foods with sodium or potash, forming the chlorides. It is essential to life. He who gets enough sodium also gets enough chlorine. In its elementary form it is an irritating gas, used for bleaching purposes.
_Fluorine_ is present in small quant.i.ties in the body, appearing as fluorides in the bones and teeth. It is supplied by the various foods.
In its elementary form it is a poisonous gas.
_Pota.s.sium_ is found in the body in very small quant.i.ties, but it is very important. It is mostly in the form of pota.s.sium phosphate in the muscles and in the blood. It is necessary for muscular activity. It is found in most foods in greater abundance than is sodium, which indicates that it plays an important part in development. Like sodium, it is easily dissolved out of foods which are soaked in water, and this is one of the reasons that vegetables should not be soaked and the water thrown away. It is very peculiar in its metallic state, being a silvery metal, very light in weight, which burns when thrown upon water. That is, it decomposes both itself and the water with the liberation of so much heat that it fires the escaping hydrogen, which burns with a violet flame.
Pure pota.s.sium is not found in nature.
_Iron_ is found in very small quant.i.ties in the human body, but it is absolutely essential to life. Animals deprived of iron die in a few weeks, and people will do the same under similar circ.u.mstances. Iron is obtained princ.i.p.ally from fruits and vegetables, but it is also present in other foods. Man can not make use of inorganic iron. He has to get his supply from the vegetable and animal kingdoms. The giving of inorganic iron is folly and helps to ruin the teeth and the stomach of the one who takes it. In the form of hemoglobin this element is the chief agent in carrying oxygen from the lungs to the tissues of the body. In the manufacture of foods, much of the iron is lost. For instance, whole wheat flour contains about ten times as much iron as does the white flour. Too little iron causes, among other ills, anemia, and if the iron is very low, chlorosis or the green sickness may ensue.
_Magnesium_ is found princ.i.p.ally as phosphate in the bones. It is present both in animal and vegetable foods. Its function in the body is not well understood, but it appears to a.s.sist the phosphorus.
_Silicon_ is found in traces in the human body. It is supplied in small quant.i.ties in nearly all of our foods, and therefore we must take it for granted that it is necessary, although we are in the dark as to its uses. It is very abundant in various rocks. The cereals are especially rich in silicon. In wheat it is found in the bran and is removed from the white flour.
The elements mentioned are the most important in the body, though others are found in traces. We do not find the elements present as elements, but in the form of very complex compounds. Under our present conditions of living, we generally partake of too much carbonaceous and nitrogenous food, and get too little of the salts, except sodium chloride, which is taken in too great quant.i.ty. Salt, to most people, means but one thing, sodium chloride or table salt. However, there are thousands of salts, and when salts are mentioned in this book, all those necessary for the processes of life are meant, whether they be compounds of fluorine, sulphur, phosphorus, calcium, iron or magnesium or other metals and minerals.
Salts are not usually cla.s.sified as foods, but they are essential to life. Supply the body with all the protein, sugar, starch and fat that it requires, but withhold the salts, and it is but a question of a few weeks before life ceases. This is why it is so important to improve our methods of cooking. A potato that is peeled, soaked in cold water and boiled, may lose as much as one-half of its salts, according to one of the bulletins sent out by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Other vegetables not only lose their salts by such treatment, but as high as 30 per cent of their nutritive value.
The lesson we should learn from this is that ordinarily if it is necessary to soak foods, such as beans, they should be cooked in the water in which they have been soaked. Furthermore, where possible, as it is with nearly all succulent vegetables, we should take the fluid in which the vegetables have been cooked as a part of the meal. If the vegetables are properly cooked, there will not be much fluid to take. To pour away the water in which vegetables have been cooked means that perhaps one-third of the food value and one-third to one-half of the valuable salts are lost. Why continue impoverishing foods in this way?
Dr. Charles Page deserves much credit for calling our attention to this fact when most healers neither thought nor talked about it. Now all up-to-date healers with a knowledge of dietetics realize how important it is to give good food. For those who wish more detailed information on the composition of the salts, I insert a table which was compiled by Otto Carque and published in "Brain and Brawn," February, 1913. Those who wish still more detailed knowledge can find it in volumes on food a.n.a.lysis and in some government reports.
MINERAL MATTER IN 1000 PARTS OF WATER-FREE FOOD PRODUCTS.
========================================================================== P P M h o a o C t C g s S S h a S a n p u i l s o l e h l l o s d c s I o p i r i i i i r r h c i u u u u o u u o n m m m m n s r n e TotalSaltsK2ONa2OCaOMgOFe2O3P2O5SO2SiO2Cl -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Human milk 34.7011.733.165.800.750.077.840.330.076.38 Cow"s milk 55.3013.705.3412.241.690.3015.790.170.028.04 Meat (avge) 40.0016.521.441.121.280.2817.000.640.441.56 Eggs 41.806.279.564.560.460.1715.720.130.133.72 Seafish 84.2018.3512.5512.803.28....32.13........9.60 Cottage Cheese 64.308.500.9022.501.500.5024.350.10....11.20Apples 33.0011.788.611.352.890.464.522.011.42....
Strawberries 65.0013.7218.539.23....3.737.972.057.821.10 Gooseberries 29.0011.222.873.541.701.325.711.710.750.22 Prunes 37.7518.283.414.341.360.946.031.211.190.15 Peaches 17.609.631.501.410.920.182.671.000.26....
Cherries 34.6017.940.762.601.900.695.541.763.110.46 Grapes 25.2014.160.352.721.060.453.931.410.700.38 Figs 41.0011.6310.777.753.780.600.532.772.431.10 Olives 33.4027.022.522.490.060.310.460.360.220.06 Apricots 33.6019.683.761.082.890.464.522.011.42....
Pears 25.6014.002.172.051.520.253.901.450.38....
Watermelons 40.0018.003.754.002.101.755.602.107.601.10 Bananas 32.4016.200.800.250.320.102.030.21....2.47 Oranges 38.1518.620.958.652.030.384.702.000.250.29Spinach 191.0021.7157.4222.7312.226.4019.5813.188.6012.03 Onions 48.4012.101.5510.652.552.207.252.658.101.35 Carrots 69.0025.4614.637.803.040.708.834.451.663.18 Asparagus 86.4020.7414.779.333.722.9416.075.369.505.10 Radishes 110.4035.3323.3715.453.423.0912.037.181.0010.10 Cauliflower 91.2040.465.385.103.370.9118.4211.863.373.10 Cuc.u.mbers 100.0041.2010.007.304.151.4020.206.908.006.60 Lettuce 180.7067.9413.5526.5611.209.4016.626.8714.6413.82 Potatoes 44.2026.561.331.152.180.487.472.890.881.55 Cabbage 123.0045.3311.6821.654.900.8611.0717.101.1010.45 Tomatoes 176.0082.5032.9011.3513.551.0010.755.007.7518.00 Red Beets 41.658.4521.602.500.101.002.550.502.002.95 Celery 180.0048.6065.2514.706.751.6014.506.504.3017.80Walnuts 17.402.200.170.972.880.6110.100.220.120.12 Almonds 21.002.310.383.043.950.2310.100.960.040.06 Cocoanuts 18.708.211.578.601.76....2.180.950.092.50Lentils 34.7012.084.622.180.870.6912.60........1.61 Peas 30.0313.060.301.452.420.2410.871.030.270.53 Beans 38.2015.850.421.912.730.1914.861.300.250.69 Peanuts 24.309.270.210.952.290.2710.600.450.050.23Whole Wheat 23.107.200.500.752.800.3010.900.090.460.07 White flour 5.701.820.080.430.440.032.80............
Rye 21.306.840.310.612.390.2510.160.280.300.01 Barley 31.305.101.280.023.920.5310.270.938.98....
Oats 34.506.180.591.242.450.418.830.6213.520.03 Corn 18.505.500.020.042.870.158.440.150.390.35 Whole Rice 16.003.600.670.591.780.228.600.080.420.02 Rice, polished 4.000.870.220.130.450.052.150.030.110.01 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please remember that most of the salts must be worked into organic form for us by vegetation, and that we are able to take but few elements that have not been thus elaborated.
We need a moderate amount of food to maintain the body in health, but we should be careful not to overindulge.
Perhaps the most injurious errors are made by people who eat because they wish to gain in weight. They consider themselves below weight and they try to force a gain by overeating. This is a serious mistake and leads to much suffering.
There is no weight that can be called ideal for all people. To get a basis, I copy a table from the literature of an insurance company. This is for people twenty years old:
Height Weight 5--0........114 1........117 2........121 3........124 4........128 5........132 6........136 7........140 8........144 9........149 10........153 11........158 6--0........162 1........167 2........172 3........177
If the weight is much above this, it is a sure sign that the individual is building disease. It may be Bright"s disease, fatty heart, arteriosclerosis, cancer or any other ill. The muscles can not be increased in size very much by eating and there is a limit to the amount of fluid that can be stored away. Stout people generally carry about a great amount of fat.
Excess of fat is a burden. It replaces other tissues and weakens the muscles. It overcrowds the abdominal and thoracic cavities, thus making the breath short and the working of the heart more difficult, also producing a tendency to prolapsus of the various abdominal organs.
People make the mistake of thinking that stoutness indicates health. It indicates disease. Going into weight is going into degeneration. Women like to be plump for various reasons, some of which are not the most creditable to either men or women. Fat people are not good looking.
There is not a statue in the world sculptured on corpulent lines that is considered beautiful.
It is natural for some people to be slender and for others to be rather plump, but fatness is abnormal. Rolling double chins and protruding abdomens are signs of self-abuse in eating and drinking. As a rule women are at their right weight at twenty and men at twenty-two or twenty-three. This weight they should retain. If twenty or thirty pounds are added to it life will be materially shortened.
Perfect health is impossible for obese people, but it is within the reach of lean ones. In getting well, it is often necessary to become quite slender, but after the system has cleansed itself, it gains in weight again. It may take from several months to several years to obtain a normal weight after the ravages of disease. A healthy body is self-regulating and will be as heavy as it ought to be.
Those who eat too much in order to gain weight sometimes wreck their digestive and a.s.similative powers to such an extent that they lose a great deal of weight, and the more they eat the more they lose. Then it is necessary to reduce the food intake until digestion and a.s.similation catch up with supply. Then if the eating is right the individual goes to the proper weight and retains it.
The slender people are in the safest physical condition. The vast amount of statistics gathered by the life insurance companies bears this out.
Remember that fat is a low grade tissue, which sometimes crowds out high grade tissue, that an excess indicates degeneration and that obesity is a disease. All fat people eat too much, even though they consider themselves small eaters. They should regulate their eating and drinking so that they will return to a normal weight. This is the only safe way to reduce.
Pay no attention to underweight. Eat what the body requires and is able to digest and a.s.similate, without causing any inconvenience. The organism will take care of the rest. To attempt to force weight onto a body at the expense of discomfort, disease, reduced efficiency and premature death shows poor judgment.
Losing weight does not matter at all if there is no discomfort or disease. It is all right to be a little lighter during summer than in winter.
In discussing food and its use, two words are frequently employed, digestion and fermentation. Strictly speaking, digestion is largely a process of fermentation, consisting of the breaking down of complex substances into simple ones, by means of ferments. However, in the popular mind digestion and fermentation are not synonymous, and will not be so considered in this book. To make my meaning clear, in this book the words will have the following meaning:
Digestion--the normal breaking down of food and formation into substances that can be used by the blood for building, repairing and producing heat and energy.
Fermentation--the abnormal breaking down of food in the digestive tract, producing discomfort and health impaired. This process manifests in various ways, such as the production of much gas in the digestive tract or hyperacidity of the body.
We will consider digestion as a process conducive to health, but fermentation, as one that leads to disease, being an early stage of digestive derangement.
CHAPTER IV.
OVEREATING.
All agree that excessive indulgence in alcoholics is harmful physically, mentally and morally. We condemn the too free use of tea and coffee and nearly all other excesses. However, intemperate eating is considered respectable. A large part of our social life consists in partaking of too much food.
Medical text-books say that we must eat great quant.i.ties of food to maintain strength and health. Humanity views the subject of eating from the wrong angle, and it will perhaps be many years before the majority gets the right point of view. We should eat to live, but most of us eat to die. Benjamin Franklin said that we dig our graves with our teeth.
Men and women band themselves into societies and a.s.sociations for the purpose of decreasing or doing away with the use of tobacco and alcoholic drinks. They advocate temperance and even abstinence in the use of those things which do not appeal to their own senses; but most of them are far from temperate in their eating. They have very keen vision when searching for weaknesses and faults in others, but are quite near-sighted regarding their own.
Is excessive indulgence in liquor any worse than overeating? Not according to nature"s answer. The inebriate deteriorates and so does the glutton. Both cause race deterioration. Gluttony is more common than inebriety and is responsible for more ills. Gluttony is often the cause of the tea, coffee, alcohol and drug habits. Overeating often causes so much irritation that food does not satisfy the cravings, and then drugs are used.
Improper eating, chiefly overeating, causes most of the ills to which man is heir. If people would learn to be moderate in all things disease and early death would be very rare.
It is quite important to combine foods properly, but the worst combinations of food eaten in moderation are harmless, as compared to the damage done by overeating of the best foods. Overeating is with us from the cradle to the grave. It shortens our days and fills them with woe.
There is a h.o.a.ry belief that a pregnant woman must eat for two. The mothers have generally obeyed this dictum. The result is that women suffer greatly during pregnancy and at childbirth. The morning sickness, the aching back, the headache, the swollen legs and all of the discomforts and diseases from which civilized woman suffers during this period are mostly due to improper eating. Pregnancy and childbirth are physiologic and are devoid of any great amount of discomfort, pain or danger when women lead normal lives.
The overeating affects both mother and child. The mothers are often injured or lose their lives during childbirth. Sometimes labor is so protracted that the child dies and at other times the baby is so large that it can not be born naturally. The mother"s suffering is frequently very great. In fact, it is at times so great that it is like a threatening storm cloud to many women, and some of them refuse to become mothers for this reason.
Babies born of normal mothers, who have lived moderately on a non-stimulating diet during gestation, are small. They rarely weigh more than six pounds. Their bones are flexible. The skull can easily be moulded because the bones are very cartilaginous. The result is that childbirth is rapid and practically devoid of pain. However, there are very few normal mothers, and consequently normal babies are also rare.
A heavy baby is never healthy. Its growth has been forced by excessive maternal feeding. It is no hardier than other growing things which result from hot-house methods. Such babies show early signs of catarrhal afflictions, indigestion or skin disease. Their bodies are filled with poisons before they are born.
Mothers who overeat invariably overfeed their babies. And why should they do otherwise? Family, friends and physicians give the same advice: The mother must eat much to be able to feed the child, and the child must be fed frequently in order to grow. It sounds very plausible, but it does not work well in practice.