DIET.
328. Which is the more wholesome, coffee or tea, where milk does not agree, for a youth's breakfast?
Coffee, provided it be made properly, and provided the boy or the girl take a great deal of out-door exercise; if a youth be much confined within doors, black tea is preferable to coffee. The usual practice of making coffee is to boil it, to get out the strength! But the fact is, the process of boiling boils the strength away; it drives off that aromatic, grateful principle, so wholesome to the stomach, and so exhilarating to the spirits; and, in lieu of which, extracts its dregs and impurities, which are both heavy and difficult of digestion. The coffee ought, if practicable, to be freshly ground every morning, in order that you may be quite sure that it be perfectly genuine, and that none of the aroma of the coffee has flown off from long exposure to the atmosphere. If a youth's bowels be inclined to be costive, coffee is preferable to tea for breakfast, as coffee tends to keep the bowels regular. Fresh milk ought always to be added to the coffee in the proportion of half coffee and half new milk. If coffee does not agree, then black tea should be substituted, which ought to be taken with plenty of fresh milk in it. Milk may be frequently given in tea, when it otherwise would disagree.
When a youth is delicate, it is an excellent plan to give him, every morning before he leaves his bed, a tumblerful of new milk. The draught of milk, of course, is not in any way to interfere with his regular breakfast.
329. Do you approve of a boy eating meat with his breakfast?
This will depend upon the exercise he uses. If he have had a good walk or run before breakfast, or if he intend, after breakfast, to take plenty of athletic out-door exercise, meat, or a rasher or two of bacon, may, with advantage, be eaten; but not otherwise.
330. What is the best dinner for a youth?
Fresh mutton or beef, a variety of vegetables, and a farinaceous pudding. It is a bad practice to allow him to dine, exclusively, either on a fruit pudding, or on any other pudding, or on pastry. Unless he be ill, he must, if he is to be healthy, strong, and courageous, eat meat every day of his life. "All courageous animals are carnivorous, and greater courage is to be expected in a people, such as the English, whose food is strong and hearty, than in the half-starved commonalty of other countries."—Sir W. Temple.
Let him be debarred from rich soups and from high-seasoned dishes, which only disorder the stomach and inflame the blood. It is a mistake to give a boy or a girl broth or soup, in lieu of meat for dinner; the stomach takes such slops in a discontented way, and is not at all satisfied. It may be well, occasionally, to give a youth with his dinner, in addition to his meat, either good soup or good broth not highly seasoned, made of good meat stock. But after all that can be said on the subject, a plain joint of meat, either roast or boiled, is far superior for health and strength than either soup or broth, let it be ever so good or so well made.
He should be desired to take plenty of time over his dinner, so that he may be able to chew his food well, and thus that it may be reduced to an impalpable mass, and be well mixed with the saliva,—which the action of the jaws will cause to be secreted—before it passes into the stomach. If such were usually the case, the stomach would not have double duty to perform, and a boy would not so frequently lay the foundation of indigestion, etc., which may embitter, and even make miserable, his after-life. Meat, plain pudding, vegetables, bread, and hunger for sauce (which exercise will readily give), is the best, and, indeed, should be, as a rule, the only dinner he should have. A youth ought not to dine later than two o'clock.
331. Do you consider broths and soups wholesome?
The stomach can digest solid much more readily than it can liquid food; on which account the dinner, specified above, is far preferable to one either of broth or of soup. Fluids in large quantities too much dilute the gastric juice, and over-distend the stomach, and hence weaken it, and thus produce indigestion: indeed, it might truly be said that the stomach often takes broths and soups in a grumbling way!
332. Do you approve of a boy drinking beer with his dinner?
There is no objection to a little good, mild table-beer, but strong ale ought never to be allowed. It is, indeed, questionable whether a boy, unless he take unusual exercise, requires anything but water with his meals.
333. Do you approve of a youth, more especially if he be weakly, having a glass or two of wine after dinner?
I disapprove of it: his young blood does not require to be inflamed, and his sensitive nerves excited, with wine; and, if he he delicate, I should be sorry to endeavour to strengthen him by giving him such an inflammable fluid. If he be weakly, he is more predisposed to put on either fever or inflammation of some organ; and, being thus predisposed, wine would be likely to excite either the one or the other of them into action.
"Wine and youth are fire upon fire."—Fielding.
A parent ought on no account to allow a boy to touch spirits, however much diluted; they are, to the young, still more deadly in their effects than wine.
334. Have you any objection to a youth drinking tea?
Not at all, provided it be not green tea, that it be not made strong, and that it have plenty of milk in it. Green tea is apt to make people nervous, and boys and girls ought not even to know what it is to be nervous.
335. Do you object to supper for a youth?
Meat suppers are highly prejudicial. If he be hungry (and if he have been much in the open air, he is almost sure to be), a piece of bread and cheese, or of bread and butter, with a draught either of new milk or of table beer, will form the best supper he can have. He ought not to sup later than eight o'clock.
336. Do you approve of a boy having anything between meals?
I do not; let him have four meals a day, and he will require nothing in the intervals. It is a mistaken notion that "little and often is best," The stomach requires rest as much as, or perhaps more than (for it is frequently sadly over-worked) any other part of the body. I do not mean that he is to have "much and seldom:" moderation, in everything, is to be observed. Give him as much as a growing boy requires (and that is a great deal), but do not let him eat gluttonously, as many indulgent parents encourage their children to do. Intemperance in eating cannot be too strongly condemned.
337. Have you any objection to a boy having pocket money?
It is a bad practice to allow a boy much pocket money; if he be so allowed, he will be loading his stomach with sweets, fruit, and pastry, and thus his stomach will become cloyed and disordered, and the keen appetite, so characteristic of youth, will be blunted, and ill-health will ensue. "In a public education, boys early learn intemperance, and if the parents and friends would give them less money upon their usual visits, it would be much to their advantage, since it may justly be said that a great part of their disorders arise from surfeit, 'plus occidit gula quam gladius' (gluttony kills more than the sword)."—Goldsmith.
How true is the saying that "many people dig their graves with their teeth." You may depend upon it that more die from stuffing than from starvation! There would be little for doctors to do if there were not so much stuffing and imbibing of strong drinks going on in the world!