CHAPTER XI.
WHAT DOES THE BODY NEED FOR FOOD?
OW that you know how the body is fed, you must next learn what to feed it with; and what each part needs to make it grow and to keep it strong and well.
WATER.
A large part of your body is made of water. So you need, of course, to drink water, and to have it used in preparing your food.
Water comes from the clouds, and is stored up in cisterns or in springs in the ground. From these pipes are laid to lead the water to our houses.
Sometimes, men dig down until they reach a spring, and so make a well from which they can pump the water, or dip it out with a bucket.
Water that has been standing in lead pipes, may have some of the lead mixed with it. Such water would be very likely to poison you, if you drank it.
Impurities are almost sure to soak into a well if it is near a drain or a stable.
If you drink the water from such a well, you may be made very sick by it. It is better to go thirsty, until you can get good water.
A sufficient quantity of pure water to drink is just as important for us, as good food to eat.
We could not drink all the water that our bodies need. We take a large part of it in our food, in fruits and vegetables, and even in beefsteak and bread.
LIME.
Bones need lime. You remember the bone that was nothing but crumbling lime after it had been in the fire.
Where shall we get lime for our bones?
We can not eat lime; but the grass and the grains take it out of the earth. Then the cows eat the grass and turn it into milk, and in the milk we drink, we get some of the lime to feed our bones.
In the same way, the grain growing in the field takes up lime and other things that we need, but could not eat for ourselves. The lime that thus becomes a part of the grain, we get in our bread, oat-meal porridge, and other foods.
SALT.
Animals need salt, as children who live in the country know very well. They have seen how eagerly the cows and the sheep lick up the salt that the farmer gives them.
Even wild cattle and buffaloes seek out places where there are salt springs, and go in great herds to get the salt.
We, too, need some salt mixed with our food. If we did not put it in, either when cooking, or afterward, we should still get a little in the food itself.
FLESH-MAKING FOODS.
Muscles are lean meat, that is flesh; so muscles need flesh-making foods. These are milk, and grains like wheat, corn and oats; also, meat and eggs. Most of these foods really come to us out of the ground. Meat and eggs are made from the grain, grass, and other vegetables that the cattle and hens eat.
FAT-MAKING FOODS.
We need cushions and wrappings of fat, here and there in our bodies, to keep us warm and make us comfortable. So we must have certain kinds of food that will make fat.
Esquimaux catching walrus.
There are right places and wrong places for fat, as well as for other things in this world. When alcohol puts fat into the muscles, that is fat badly made, and in the wrong place.
The good fat made for the parts of the body which need it, comes from fat-making foods.
In cold weather, we need more fatty food than we do in summer, just as in cold countries people need such food all the time.
The Esquimaux, who live in the lands of snow and ice, catch a great many walrus and seal, and eat a great deal of fat meat. You would not be well unless you ate some fat or butter or oil.
WHAT WILL MAKE FAT?
Sugar will make fat, and so will starch, cream, rice, butter, and fat meat. As milk will make muscle and fat and bones, it is the best kind of food. Here, again, it is the earth that sends us our food. Fat meat comes from animals well fed on grain and grass; sugar, from sugar-cane, maple-trees, or beets; oil, from olive-trees; butter, from cream; and starch, from potatoes, and from corn, rice, and other grains.
Green apples and other unripe fruits are not yet ready to be eaten. The starch which we take for food has to be changed into sugar, before it can mix with the blood and help feed the body. As the sun ripens fruit, it changes its starch to sugar. You can tell this by the difference in the taste of ripe and unripe apples.
CANDY.
Most children like candy so well, that they are in danger of eating more sugar than is good for them. You would starve if fed only on sugar.
We would not need to be quite so much afraid of a little candy if it were not for the poison with which it is often colored.
Even what is called pure, white candy is sometimes not really such. There is a simple way by which you can find this out for yourselves.
If you put a spoonful of sugar into a tumbler of water, it will all dissolve and disappear. Put a piece of white candy into a tumbler of water; and, if it is made of pure sugar only, it will dissolve and disappear.
If it is not, you will find at the bottom of the tumbler some white earth. This is not good food for anybody. Candy-makers often put it into candy in place of sugar, because it is cheaper than sugar.
REVIEW QUESTIONS.
1. Why do we need food?
2. How do people get water to drink?
3. Why is it not safe to drink water that has been standing in lead pipes?
4. Why is the water of a well that is near a drain or a stable, not fit to drink?
5. What food do the bones need?
6. How do we get lime for our bones?
7. What is said about salt?
8. What food do the muscles need?
9. Name some flesh-making foods.
10. Why do we need fat in our bodies?
11. What is said of the fat made by alcohol?
12. What kinds of food will make good fat?
13. What do the Esquimaux eat?
14. How does the sun change unripe fruits?
15. Why is colored candy often poisonous?
16. What is sometimes put into white candy? Why?
17. How could you show this?