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Show NMMHMHnnMWHMMmBMmnMMnPV DIET AND I : HEALTH By DR. J. T. ALLEN j I Food 3pecU1it H I 1 Author of "Bating for a I Vurpo-te." "The JVetv I Gospel of Health." H Etc. jj ; (Copyright, by Joseph IJ. Uowle.) WHA T SHALL WE EA T? If it Is true, as many eminent authorities au-thorities say, that health, happiness, beauty and efficiency depend upon eating moro than on anything else, It Is worth whllo to know what to cat. Henry Ward Beecher said that ft man with a poor liver can't ho n good Christian. Certainly It Is easlor to exorcise tho Christian graces when ono Is frco from biliousness. When Bishop Fnllows says that "You can mako a man good or bad according to tho way you feed him," ho Is not denying tho Importance of tho condition of tho heart, but emphasizing em-phasizing tho Importance of tho state of tho stomach. Daniel prepared himself him-self nnd his companions for tho wonderful won-derful ordeals through which thoy passed by dieting as well as by prayer, and tho Master hlmsolt by fasting 40 days. As wo watch tho amoeba, the typical typ-ical unicellular organism, which closely resembles a blood cell, under tho microscope, wo find It changing Its form, gradually, continually. It Is all stomach, enwrapping Its food and digesting It as n slnglo organ; and as a slnglo organ It adapts means to ends In securing a meal, "as perfectly," perfect-ly," says Cope, tho eminent biologist, "as a statcsmnu adapts means to ends In organizing a government." Tho body, therefore, Is mado up of a myriad of colls, each seeking Its own nutrition, Its primary, fundamental funda-mental function, yet possessing tho power of socialistic, harmonious action, ac-tion, organized ns lungs, liver, heart, etc., subject to tho lnlluenco of tho sympathetic nervous system, which binds nil tho bodily organs togethor, so that It ono suffers all must suffer In sympathy; carrying on tho vital processes Into which tho nutritional function Is orgnnlzcd, unceasingly, whllo ltfo lasts, yet ever amenable to suggestion through tho sovereign, conscious con-scious will. From thoso considerations of tho constitution of tho body It appears that wo think in a sonso with tho entire en-tire body, although thero Is a special organ of thought, and that wo dlgost with tho entlro body, although thero are special organs of digestion that, indeed, life Is, In the last nnalyBls, a mental-physical nutritional process at least in its manifestation on this plane of oxlstenco. Digestion Is not a purely physicnt process, performed independently by a sot of digestive organs. Tho entire organism Is engaged In tho process, controlled by tho sub-conscious mind, subject to tho Influence of tho conscious con-scious mind, tho sovereign will. And, convorsely, tho Influonce of feeding Is not confined to tho special digestive organs, nor to certain effects which wo denominate "physical." Tho Influonco of feeding Is nll pervndlng. It Is tho mainspring of tho mental-physlcnl life. In Its essence spiritual, it manl-I manl-I feats tho life through tho uso of material ma-terial substance, food. And upon tho quality of the food and tho degree of expenditure of vitality In the process of nutrition, depends largoly the quality quali-ty of tho life, mentalmoral nnd physical. phys-ical. Tho quostion: "What Shall Wo Eat?" becomes in this light doubly important. Tho essenttnl substance of which all animal tlssuo is mado, from bo amoeba to tho brain of man, Is albumen. albu-men. This albumen Is found in tho food of nil animals. Tho white of egg Is nlmost pure albumen; and In milk, the food of the young of nil the mammalia, mam-malia, albumen Is a largo constituent. Experiments have been made to determine de-termine what foods will alono support life, determining that wheat gluten, which Is almost pure alhumon, supports sup-ports llfo Indefinitely longer than any othor single element. Flosh, of which tho loan Is principally albumen, will support llfo Indefinitely, as will milk, eggs, nuts, benns, wheat, corn, oats, dates, which contain a largo percentage of albumen with uthcr food dements. Milk liasTJeeu cuiieu imTpeiieui, loou" because It contains, In addition to albumen, al-bumen, all tho oflier elomonts necos-sary necos-sary to build brain, musclo and bono; and tho samo Is true of wheat and of soma nuts nnd fruits. The milk of all :ho mammalia contains tho samo food elcmonts, differing chiefly In the amount nnd kind of tho nlbumon. Cow's milk Is not u perfect Infant's food becauso It contains a larger percentage per-centage of ulbiunon than Its natural food and of a somewhat different character. char-acter. This important subject will be treated In a subsequent article. Albumen Is found in largo percentage per-centage in all nuts, In benns, peus nnd entlro wheat bread. Peanuts contain about 30 per cent, of albumen, with E0 per cent, fat not inferior to olive oil. nnd four per cent, mineral. Recent experlmento hnvo shown that tho percentage of albumen required re-quired for perfect nutrition Is much less than was formerly supposed. Tho growing child requires probably three tlfues as much as the mature man bo-cause bo-cause It must build now tissue besides repairing waste. An insufficient supply sup-ply of albumen for tho child, If long continued, leads to serious results. A ease was recently brought to our attention at-tention in which an Infant had been fed for several weeks on fresh cream, becauso it was found that the .stomach retained that whllo the entire milk was persistently rojected. At first there was an apparently satisfactory gain In flesh, but this gave place to extreme weakness and , wasting. The cream was mixed with n part o( the balance of tho milk, gradually Increasing Increas-ing the amount of albumen and other necessary olements of nutrltton, and normal conditions soon returned, And here It may be remarked that excess of fatty tissue Is an Indication of disease, dis-ease, not of health. Tho necessary albumen can bo obtained ob-tained from flesh because It Is a necessary nec-essary constituent of tho flesh of nil animals, Including fish. But llosk contains con-tains 1 small percentage of waste mat-tfr mat-tfr of the animal's system. It has been repeatedly shown that flesh foods may commtmlcato disease, despite the Inspection; In-spection; nnd the human nllmontnry canal Is not as woll adapted to tho digestion of flesh as Is the rvrganlsm of tho carolvora, In which tho stomnoh nnd llvor aro relatively much larger nnd the Intestines much Bhortor thnn In man. Tho well-known tests of on-durnnco on-durnnco recently mado nt Yalo university uni-versity proved that nou-ftoali caters had much grcntgr suntnlnlng power. In nil tho great walking contosts In Gcrmnny and America tho winners havo been nbstalnors from flesh meat, The beat sources of albumen, nsldo from meat, nro nuts, beans, eggs nnd whole wheat or graham bread. But tho character of tho albumen is Important. Albumen coagulates at n tcmpcraturo of 1C0 F nnd is then nsslmllnted with difficulty. It Is for this reason, partly, that tho egg ts found to bo moro nutritious uncooked than cooked. And It Is for this reason, chlotly, that, such apparently wonderful results hnvo been obtained from tho uso of raw cereal foods, desplto the Indlgestlblllty of raw cereal starch. Understanding, then, that tho essen-v tlnl element of food Is albumen, In Kb natural state, tho question arlsed; What Is its best and most economical RourcoT Considering economic conditions, con-ditions, .which exclude tho pecan, walnut, wal-nut, and other cxponslvo nuts, the answer 1st Tho peanut, which furnishes fur-nishes nn abundant supply of easily nsslmllnblo albumen together with fnt, which vies In nutritive valuo with ollvo oil. This, with a small amount of graham bread, gives tho Ideal pro-told pro-told nnd fnt rntlon. Tho stato of Texas alono can furnish tho staplo food of our people. Tho rapidly in-creasing in-creasing consumption of tho peanut with the corresponding rlso In prlco should induce tho planting of n still larger crop tho coming season. Tho Incoming crop Is the largest evor produced pro-duced In this country. Certain minerals or earth salts are necessary to all animal life. Milk and-tho and-tho yolk of egg contain llmo, phosphorus, phos-phorus, sulphur, sodium, otc, and those aro also found In tho outor shell of wheat and other grains and In tho peanut, peas, bc'ans, nuts, potatoes, etc. Tho bean Is especially rich In theso mineral elements of food, ns Is tho pennut, which combines In a re-mnrkablo re-mnrkablo degree tho food qualities of tho nut and of tho legumes. Tho finer gtadea of whlto flour unfortunately oxcludo most of this Importnnt element ele-ment of food, but this wilt bo fully considered con-sidered In n later article. Not loss than 80 por cont. of tho Boltd part of our food should bo that which supports combustion, maintaining maintain-ing heat and muscular energy. This is taken as fat or oil, starch or sugar. A certain percentage of fat ts noces-sary noces-sary for tho best nutrition. It It bo truo, as many careful students of diet bollavo, that nuts and fruits nro the-most the-most natural food of man, this percentage per-centage of fat should bo large. Animal fats, oven milk fat when separated, are assimilated with difficulty nnd thoy, particularly lard, aro open toother tooth-er objections. Tho consumption of ollvo oil has Increased rapidly during tho past few years. It Is not generally general-ly known that pennut fat, as In tho uncooked un-cooked nut or In poanut butter In which fatty acid has not bcon developed de-veloped by oxcdsslvo dry roasting Is equal, It not superior, In nutritive qualities qual-ities to olive oil, being assimilated with wonderful facility, as the extreme ex-treme degreo of Its solubility In water would Indicate. There nro serious objections to cereal starch as tho major olement of food, which It now ts In the dietary of tho American people. Tho potato, especially es-pecially It baked, is .much to bo preferred pre-ferred to fine white' bread. Rico Is for suporlor to the ordlnnry cereals as a source of carbon, as tho example of the Japancso would Indicate. Sugars nro tho most easily assimilated assimilat-ed of foods (Including honoy), nnd fruit sugar should bo substituted for-a for-a large part of our cereal food, onno sugar being Inferior. AniT tho best sources of fruit sugar are tho rlpo banana (almost unknown In this country) coun-try) figs, dates and prunes. Fruits aro bettor eaten separately from other foods. NutB nnd meat digest In tho stomach, chiefly, requiring requir-ing about threo hours there; frultB digest In about ono hour, In tho In- tostlnu chiefly. Thero ts as jnuch ob-I ob-I Jectlon to mixing them ns thero Is to VifTiTii" mirTJrnrKrnrnrtrrrTitriTnr nre-ment. nre-ment. .Now' without hero considering further fur-ther the requirements of an Ideal dipt, dos It not seom ovldont that wo have nlrondy a knowledge of facts that would ennhle us to make a wondorful gain In good feeling nnd otflelency by Improving tho nutritive supply and saving a largo part of tho vital energy dally wasted In digesting and eliminating eliminat-ing Improper and unnecessary food, If not for tho n'verag person who Ib slow to realise tho benefit to be ob tained, at least for the nthleto who can quickly demonstrate n unlit In efficiency efficien-cy by right dlot, for the Invalid who needs to conserve his vitality und for tho ngod whose stock is low (but who hns, alas, lost to u great dosree tho powor of adaptation)? Hundreds of Invalids who havo nmdually changed their diet have found new llfo. Many who havo had only the doslro for greater efficiency and Immunity from disease have mado the change. A oil-known merchant of Aurora, III., for oxample, who has for neorly a year followed nn exclusive dlot of Juicy fruits In tho morning; peanuts with a sllco of Graham bread at noon and prunes only In tho uvenlng. drinking only water betweon meals, declares thnt nothing could tempt him to go back to the old way. Ho says, and his clerks corroborate tho statement, that ho Is worth threo tlmeu as much In his business; ho can write a bettor bet-tor advertisement, a bettor lettor; his mind Is clear, his conception brilliant, his Judgment prompt, -his oxocutlon sharp, decisive, lie rises two hours earlier than formerly and enjoys his work as never before. Here, surely, Is food for thought. 0 |