CHAPTER IV
FOOD AND HEALTH
Meats.—Beef is the best of all meat for food. Nearly one fifth of it can be used to repair the worn-out parts of the body. Mutton, the meat of sheep, is almost as good for food as beef. Veal and pork also contain much body-building matter, but the stomach must work hard to prepare them for use.
Fish is an excellent food, but it has only little more than one half as much flesh-building matter as good beef. Poultry is a healthful food, especially for the weak and sick, but it is more expensive than the other meats. Oysters are largely made of water and do not contain much to strengthen the body.
In all meat there is some waste matter. This may harm the body if we eat too much meat. It is no longer thought healthful for most persons to eat meat more than once a day. Too much meat used daily for several years is likely to cause disease.
Fig. 12 —Each of these articles costs the same, but the bread will furnish four times as much food for the body as the cabbage, more than twice as much as the fish, and nearly twice as much as the milk.
The Cooking of Meat.—The best meat if poorly cooked is unfit for eating. Broiled and roasted meats are more healthful than boiled or fried meat. Meat is broiled by holding it in a wire frame over a flame or hot coals. It is roasted by placing it in a covered pan in a hot oven for two or three hours. It is boiled by keeping it in hot water several hours.