The House We Live In; or, The Making of the Body

by Vesta J. Farnsworth

FOOD AND FUEL

FOOD AND FUEL

OTHER: See that engine. Can you tell me what gives it the power or strength to draw its heavy load?

Helen: Steam gives it power.

Mother: And what makes the steam?

Elmer: The fire in the furnace makes the water boil, and steam comes from the boiling water.

Mother: Then the engine can do nothing unless it has fuel to burn and water to boil. It might be the best ever made, and yet do no work and have no power even to move itself. Do you suppose the engineer is careful to take plenty of the best fuel he can get, and to have a good supply of water, when he has a long journey and a heavy train?

Percy: I am sure he would be. I have read that it is counted one of the worst things an engineer can do to let his boiler get dry.

Mother: Well, in some ways our bodies are like the engine. Can you guess what the fuel is we must have?

Amy: Oh, I know! It is the food we eat.

Elmer: And we must have water to drink, too.

Mother: Yes; but what would you think of an engine driver who would fill the furnace of his engine with stones or sand, and fill the boiler with beer or whisky?

Percy: I think he wouldn’t have much steam, and his engine would soon be ruined.

Mother: Then what shall we say about food and drink for the body, which is a hundred times more perfect in all its parts than the best engine men ever built, and so is much more apt to be injured?

Helen: We ought to give it the very best food and drink we can get.

“The engine takes water without stopping.”

Mother: I think so, too. You know an engine works several hours, and is then sent to an engine house to be made ready for another trip, and, while it is running, the driver steps out at every station, almost, with his oil-can in one hand and something to clean with in the other, and he keeps cleaning it, oiling it, feeding it, and letting it drink till he comes to the end of his journey. Can you think how the body is different from this?

Elmer: When the body-machine starts running in the journey of life, it never stops to rest till it is worn out and can work no more.

Mother: Yes, and we must remember that some parts work night and day, summer and winter, as long as we live. Yet they are wearing out all the time, and must be fed and cleaned and cared for while they are working. There are some railroads made with tanks or ditches between the rails, and the engine takes water without stopping. So our bodies must take food, drink, and all they need without stopping the living machinery. It is true some parts must rest every day; but others never stop working till we die. We should study, then, to know what we ought to eat and drink to make up the waste and keep the body well. Some kinds of birds and animals live on flesh. Others eat only grass and grains. The squirrel and the monkey eat nuts and fruits. Can you tell me some of the different things that men use as food?

Amy: They eat flesh, grains, and fruits.

Elmer: And we eat other things, such as salt, sugar, and milk.

Mother: Yes, while people can eat all these things, yet all of them are not the very best food, and, like the careful engineer, we should learn just what is good for the human machine, and give it only the best of what it can use. What do you think was given to men to eat at first?

Amy: Where can we find out, mother?

Mother: In the first chapter of the Bible. Perhaps Helen will read it for us.

Helen: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”

Mother: The word “meat” means food. This was spoken before God had cursed the earth on account of sin, and so everything that grew was “good,” as He had said. We see from this that all kinds of plants bearing seed, and all kinds of fruit, were good for food. No doubt if God had thought meat was good for man, He would have had a butcher shop somewhere in the garden of Eden, and some beef or mutton hanging from the limb of a tree.

Percy: But what made the people begin to eat flesh, mother?

Mother: After a time the flood came and destroyed everything on the earth except what Noah had in the ark with him, and when he came out of the ark, God told him that people might eat the flesh of animals, and they have kept on eating it ’til the present time.

Elmer: But is it the best food, mother?

Mother: No, we can not say it is the very best; for, as time has passed, the animals have become sickly, and many wise doctors say it is unsafe to eat their flesh. Cattle which have been killed to eat have been found with diseased lungs, livers and kidneys. People sometimes become very ill and many have died from eating their flesh.

Helen: I should think if they choose such food it would be like the engine driver filling his furnace with poor coal when he could get plenty that was better.

Mother: Perhaps so. When we can get good vegetables, grains, and fruits, it is much safer to use them for fuel in the body than to run the risk of giving it anything which might put the delicate machine out of order.

I saw a poem not long ago, written by Dr. J. H. Kellogg, which you might like to have read to you. It is called

A VEGETARIAN SONG.
	“You may talk of mutton-chop, You may say it is tip-top For a man who wants to live both well and long; But you’re much behind the time, As I’ll show you in this rhyme; For there’s better food than flesh to make one well and strong. ”Chorus—— “On the glorious trees! on the glorious trees! There the fruits and nuts, the fruits and nuts do ever grow. This is heaven’s own food, God pronounced it very good; Yes, upon the trees, kissed by the breeze, the best foods grow.
“There are pippins rich and rare, There are plums and peaches fair, There are huckleberries, raspberries, and pears so sweet; There are grapes upon the vine, Never made for use as wine, All of which with one accord invite us, ‘Come and eat.’
	“There’s the orange and the lime, Lemons, too, for summer-time, Which so often do refresh us in the toil and heat; There are nectarines so bright, There are cherries, red and white, All of which with one accord invite us, ‘Come and eat.’
	“There are English walnuts rich, And delicious almonds, which All alone supply us cream and milk, how rich a treat! There are coconuts and pine, Pecans, hickory-nuts so fine, All of which with one accord invite us, ‘Come and eat.’
	“There’s the ox, an honest beast, See him served up at a feast, Notwithstanding he has been a faithful, true helpmeet To the farmer in his task; Yet he never once has asked More than humblest fare, and now his blood cries, ‘Do not eat.’
	“There’s that scavenger, the pig, Grown to be so fat and big That he scarce can stand or walk upon his clumsy feet; Though he lives a life of ease, He is full of dire disease, And he surely is of all things most unfit to eat.
	“There’s the sheep with fleece so warm, Never did a bit of harm, But for cruel man provides good clothing, warm and neat; Ere you raise the sharpened knife, Cut his throat, and take his life, Listen to his sad though mute appeal, ‘Don’t slay to eat.’
	“There’s the oyster in his bed, Eating everything that’s dead; He’s the scavenger that cleans the bottom of the sea; He lives in the mud and slime, Catching microbes all the time, And his occupation surely says, ‘Oh, don’t eat me!’
	“There are turkeys, daily fed On the best of household bread, So that they’ll be fat and toothsome for Thanksgiving day; What a sin it is and shame, Crime without a proper name, For a man these gentle creatures first to feed, then slay!
	“There are birds that sing a lay Full of joy at break of day, That will silent be forever at the set of sun. Some will slay the songsters sweet On pretense that they would eat, While a thousand more admit they kill them just for fun.
	“List and hear these creatures all, Mighty beasts as well as small, With a thousand, thousand voices, loud and long repeat, We beseech you, let us live; Take not life you can not give; Only kill ferocious creatures; never slay to eat.
	“It was God’s appointed plan, Given long ago to man, That no creature of another creature’s flesh should eat, But that all alike should dine On the fruit of tree and vine And the toothsome grains, which heaven has given man for meat.
	“Better far it is to be A vegetarian, don’t you see? As thus we take our daily food direct from heaven’s own hand. When we eat another’s flesh, We’re not taking food that’s fresh, But are living on a diet that is second hand.
	“Oh, then, let us all resolve That, while earth and years revolve, We will never more pollute our mouths with bloody meat, But will choose a diet pure, From disease and germs secure, And of fruits and nuts and grains so wholesome ever eat!”

Helen: I’m glad you read it to us, mother. It does seem, when the cattle eat the grass and grain, and then we eat them, as though we were eating second-hand food.

Percy: I don’t propose to do that way any longer. I think I should have what I eat first-hand, as well as the sheep and ox.

Mother: I am sure if you carry out your resolve you will have pure blood and a more healthy body. I saw some pictures of children not long ago who had never tasted meat in their lives, and they were as happy and hearty as you could wish to see. I want you each to act for yourselves in this matter, and do what you think will be the best for your health.

Elmer: Is salt a food, mother?

Mother: No; salt is a mineral, yet it is found in all parts of the body. It is also found in nearly all our foods. We add it to some things when cooking to give them flavor, but it is hurtful to eat much of it.

Amy: Are mustard, pepper, spices, ginger, and hot sauces good to eat?

Mother: No; some people think they taste good, but they are bad for the body. If you put some mustard on your skin, it makes it red, and may cause a blister. You know a very little pepper in your eye makes it smart. These hot things in the kitchen of our body-house make the walls red, and the cooks get very cross. When people eat such things, they become thirsty, and sometimes, instead of drinking water to cool the heated walls and put out the fire these hot things have made, they pour down beer, whisky, and other drinks, which makes the mischief worse. When once the habit is formed of using such things, they keep wanting them hotter and stronger, till nothing tastes good unless it is highly seasoned. Many become ill, and this is one way drunkards are made.

Helen: But how do they make drunkards, mother?

Mother: These hot things which people sometimes put in the stomach make them thirsty, as I have said, and so they think they must have beer or something stronger. Such drinks do not quench thirst, and so they keep on drinking more and more. If you want the walls of your body-kitchen to be a pretty pale pink color, you will keep the doors shut tight against mustard, spices, pepper, and all hot sauces. You can teach your taste to like the fine flavors which are in our foods already, and which do no harm to the body.

Amy: But sugar is a good food, isn’t it, mother?

Mother: I thought my little girl who is so fond of sweet things would ask this question. It is true sugar is a food, but to use much of the kind we buy is hurtful to the body. Nearly all the foods we eat, such as flour, oatmeal, pease, beets, and milk, have sugar in them. Some fruits, such as figs and grapes, have a large amount. It is not well to eat food made very sweet with sugar, such as rich cakes, jams, and preserves. It is also harmful to eat candies and lollies, for many are made from a poor kind of sugar, and the coloring matter used to make them look pretty is hurtful. Besides, as the body-house has a sugar factory of its own, you see it gets too much sugar when we eat many sweet things.

Helen: But where is the sugar factory, mother?

Mother: The liver, the largest worker in the house we live in, makes a kind of sugar, as well as the bitter bile. How it is done I can not tell, but it is true that in the hundreds of little rooms of which the liver is made, all the sweet things we eat are changed to liver sugar before they can be used in the body. The liver, also, makes starch into sugar, I mean the starch found in bread, potatoes, and other foods. Now if the fireman on an engine should shovel so much coal into his furnace that it was filled full, what would happen?

Elmer: The furnace would be choked up so the fire would go out, or else it would burn very slowly.

Mother: That is just what takes place in this wonderful sugar factory. Since the liver makes sugar out of starch which is found in our foods, if we swallow a big piece of cake, a lot of jam, some syrup, and some candy, such treatment makes the liver cross. When all those little, living kettles are full of sugar already, how can they hold any more?

Percy: How does the liver show it is cross, mother?

“He has a sorry time.”

Mother: It goes to work to punish the master of the house. It gives him a nasty taste in his mouth, and he feels so sick that he thinks he wants nothing to eat. Perhaps the liver sends word to the stomach that it has “struck work,” and it will have nothing to do with such messes as are sent it to work over. Then the stomach, not knowing what else to do, sends all there is in it back upstairs out through the passage, and the master of the house tells his friends who come to visit him, that he is “bilious,” or that he has a “bilious attack,” and you may be sure he has a sorry time. There may be a dreadful aching up in the cupola; perhaps there is pain all over the house, all because the right kind of food and the right amount were not sent in to build up the body. The same thing is likely to happen if the master of the house sends a lot of pastry, fat meat, and fried or greasy foods into the kitchen. Bile is the one to care for them all, and he will bear such treatment awhile without complaining; but when once his temper is up, he will not be kind to anything the master may send him. Like other good servants, he makes a bad master. Perhaps he will try to do some work in a lazy sort of way; but he keeps grumbling all the time, till he makes the other servants as cross as himself.

Percy: I think I will try to keep Bile good-natured, and send the right things and the right amount down to the sugar factory.

Mother: You may be sure you will not be happy unless you do; for, though strange, yet ’tis true that when things go wrong in the stomach and liver, it makes the master of the house very cross and unhappy.

Not long ago I visited a lady who has a pleasant home and all she could wish to make her comfortable. I found her face gloomy, and she was crying. She said she was not well; that a skin disease was troubling her; that her children did not do right; and that she was very miserable.

“I think it is my liver,” she added; “for when my blood is right and my liver works well I am not troubled this way.”

Poor woman! She thought she was not a Christian, and she made herself and her friends unhappy by her fault-finding. Her liver was to blame, or rather she was to blame for giving it so much work to do that it made her life hard, when it ought to have been most pleasant.

Helen: But, mother, you make us feel as though we hardly ought to eat at all, for fear of making somebody sour down-stairs.

Mother: Oh, no; I don’t want you to feel that way, but I wish you to use these servants in your body-house so well that it will be a pleasure to them to serve you! We should eat plenty of good, plain food at proper times. We are made so we will get hungry and want to eat; and it is well that we do, or we might forget that fuel is needed in the body. Not only should we eat proper kinds of food, but we should be careful not to eat too much. You remember that Di-ges´tion must have plenty of room in which to do her work, or she gets peevish and does her task poorly.

Amy: How much should we eat in order not to eat too much?

Mother: Some persons need more food than others, and no one can tell another just how much he should eat; but it is safe to say that we should not put into the stomach all it will hold, nor eat just for the pleasure of eating. In very cold countries people can eat more without harm to themselves than they can in warmer climates. I once read of a traveler in the frozen north who saw an Esquimau eat thirty-five pounds of meat and several tallow candles in one day; but such a story seems almost too big to be true, and we would certainly hardly feel able to take such an amount of food in the same time. Children should have plenty of good, simple food while they are growing.

Elmer: I think I will take a little food at a time, and take it often. That’s the way the fireman feeds his engine.

Mother: That may do for an engine, but not for a stomach. It must have rest as well as food. We should eat what we need, give the stomach time to digest it, let it rest after it has finished its work, and then give it more to do. One great cause of illness among people now is that they eat too often and too much. Three meals a day at regular times are enough, and the last should be a light one and taken early, to allow the cooks time to do their work before the master goes to bed. Then all will be quiet in the body-house, and the servants can rest after their toil. If treated in this way, the morning will find them fresh and ready for their duties.

Helen: Should our food be cooked or eaten raw?

“Lay the table in a neat, pleasing way.”

Mother: I am glad you asked that question. Most kinds of foods are better cooked, but many things are made unfit for food at all by being badly cooked. To be able to prepare healthful food in a neat, tasteful way is the best and most useful knowledge a girl can obtain. Every one should know how to make good, light bread, how to prepare vegetables, cook grains and fruits, and lay the table in a neat, pleasing way.

Amy: Will you teach us how, mother?

Mother: Certainly; we will begin this very day. I think we will form a class of four; for the boys will wish to learn too. I am sure you will soon be able to prepare food very nicely.

Elmer: Then we shall not always need to have a cook when we go out camping, but we can do our own cooking and care for ourselves.

Mother: There is still one other thing that I wish you never to forget, and that is that many men become drunkards because they do not have the right kind of food. It may be it is made so hot with pepper, mustard, and spices that it creates thirst, or it may be but half cooked, so they feel poorly fed. Such men are much more apt to go to the bar-room than the man who sits at a neatly-spread table furnished with plain, healthful food.

Percy: But isn’t alcohol a kind of food, mother? I have seen drinking men who looked so fat and strong it seems as if it must build up the body.

Mother: No, my son, it is a great mistake to think there is any food in alcohol or in any drink that contains it. A noted doctor in England says this about it: “There is more nourishment in the flour that can be put on the point of a table knife than in eight quarts of the best beer.”

Elmer: But why do people who drink beer look so fat, then?

Mother: It is true many who drink it increase in flesh, and so they think the beer makes them large and strong. Fat men are not always strong men. The alcohol in the beer changes the muscles of the body into fat. It pushes the skin out and makes the face look round and plump.

“People who drink beer look fat.”

Amy: And red, too.

Mother: Yes; and all the time the man is growing weaker instead of stronger. His liver changes into a mass of fat, and it crowds other rooms of the body-house so they can not properly carry on their work. The fleshy body of the beer-drinker is a diseased body, and you will find that it does not have firm muscles, a strong heart, or a healthy liver.

Percy: But you have not told us what we should drink, mother.

Mother: Water, pure water, is the best drink for every one. Sometimes people become very ill from drinking bad water, so care should be taken to have it clean and pure. Bad water may be made harmless by boiling it, and this should always be done if it is not known that it is harmless. It may look all right, and yet cause sickness and death.

The well should never be near a pig-sty, barn-yard, or other filthy place. The seeds of sickness, which the doctors call “germs,” may travel through the ground a long distance and so get into the water in the well. This is more likely to be the case if the ground is sandy or slopes toward the well.

“Water, pure water, is the best drink for every one.”

Elmer: Wouldn’t it be better to drink tea or coffee than bad water?

Mother: Tea and coffee are not foods, and both contain poisons which are hurtful to the body. It does not make bad water better to put poison into it. Besides, these drinks are often taken with food, and we have found that the cook down-stairs can do nothing while a lot of liquid is pouring down over her. It is also true that hot drinks weaken the walls of the stomach. It is better to drink pure water, and to take it before eating or some time after, and then we shall not be tempted to swallow our food without properly chewing it. Alcohol, tea, and coffee are stimulants.

Helen: And I think you said once, mother, that a stimulant is like a whip to a tired horse.

Mother: Yes; to stimulate means to prick, or goad, to excite, or rouse to action. When a horse is very tired from climbing a steep hill his driver strikes him with a whip. That stimulates but it does not strengthen him. At first it takes but one blow to make him go faster, then two or three, and he finally becomes so weak that he does not respond to the whip at all.

That is just what happens when a person uses tea, coffee, tobacco, beer, or whisky. At first only a little will make him feel rested and as though he were stronger. But soon he wants more, and does not feel as strong as before he took the stimulant the first time. These drinks stimulate, but do not give strength. When a horse is tired he does not need a whip, but food and rest. The same is true of a man or woman when tired. Instead of putting poison in the stomach they need good food and rest, and these will make them really stronger.

Giving him a stimulant.

Percy: I am glad that I know why all those things are called stimulants.

Mother: And I must tell you one more thing about the liver which will help you understand what a wonderful part of the body-house it is, and why we should treat it kindly. As you already know, it is the largest room in the body. We might call it the store-room; for after the fuel is ready to use, it is stored up in the liver, where it is kept till needed, just as the tender carries a supply of coal for the engine.

We can not always be eating, and the body needs fuel when we are asleep as well as when we are awake, so the liver stores it away and sends it out when needed. Now if the master of the house sends a lot of alcohol to his liver, at first the little rooms fill up with fat, so they can not do their work or store up food for the body. If he keeps sending more and more whisky to his liver, it finally becomes small and hard, and when he goes to the doctor to find out what disease he has, the wise man tells him he has “the drunkard’s liver.”

Helen: What a pity it is that men should abuse the liver so!

Mother: Yes, it is a pity, but some women are as bad, though not as many of them as of the men take alcohol. Some of them who would never think of doing that, think that their liver is too big, and that it makes the waist too large, so they gird it up with tight clothing and do not give it room to work. One doctor found a woman who had squeezed her waist so long that the liver was cut in two; and she died for her folly.

When Liver finds his room growing smaller, he gets cross, and says, “We’ll see about this;” and he gives the young lady a pain in her side. Her skin begins to look yellow and dirty, and the silly girl goes to the doctor for some medicine to make her well, when all she needs is to give Liver room to do his work, and give her body the right kind of fuel. Perhaps she is so foolish that she would rather be ill than let her waist grow as large as God made it; and, if so, she and her friends have a sorry time.

Amy: My liver shall never scold because it can’t have room enough in which to work.

Mother: That’s like my sensible girl, and I wish every other in the land would say the same.

Helen: But, mother, I have heard girls say that their dresses were not a bit tight, when I am almost sure they were.

Mother: The only safe way is not to wear corsets or tight bands at all, and the clothing should be so loose that it will not compress the body when one draws a deep, full breath.

Percy: I should think there was enough sickness in the world without people eating, drinking, and dressing to make themselves ill.

Mother: Many people do not know that it is what they do that makes them ill. They think people must be sick sometimes, and they do not study to know how to care for themselves in such a way that they may keep well. For this reason I wish you to learn how to care for the holy temple of your body while you are children, and we must also do all we can to help others by living right ourselves.