The good old things have passed away in silent, sad retreat,
We’ve a lot of high-falutin things, but nothing much to eat.
And while I never say a word, and always pleasant look,
I have had sore dyspepsy since my daughter learned to cook.”
Well cooked vegetables, bread made from unbolted flour which contains all the nutritive properties, cereals cooked sufficiently, meat—not fried—once a day, plenty of fruit cooked and uncooked, milk and water, should be all that are allowed growing children; and if desserts are given at all, simple puddings, not pie, should be in the dietary.
A story is told of a mother who took her twelve-year-old boy to her physician, complaining that he would eat only those things that he should not have, and that he felt so poorly that she could not get him out to play. The wise doctor advised her to take him out for a ride of two miles each day, and compel him to run behind the carriage on the way home. His food should be bread and milk three times daily, allowing positively nothing else for a month. He should be put to bed every night at eight o’clock, and report to him in a month. A few bread pills completed the prescription. The result seemed marvelous to the mother, and the medicine was “wonderful.”
It is undoubtedly true that as a rule we eat too much, and are surely too much a meat-eating people for the best results. Meat once daily is by the best authorities on the subject, considered sufficient for our needs. It gives nutritive elements in a more concentrated form, but in this very fact the danger lies.
It will be well for us to remember that food effects temperament decidedly, and we need only compare the different temperaments found in flesh eating and herb eating animals to learn the effect a generous meat diet has upon the human family.
I was interested in noticing the dietary of the world’s bicycle champion, for the longest six days’ ride yet made. It consisted of rice, oatmeal, barley, fruit, boiled milk, koumiss, coffee, and no meat. Arab porters, who carry great loads trotting from six in the morning until six in the evening, during one month of the year, are by their religion forbidden to partake of food between sunrise and sunset. Their morning meal is not mentioned, but at eventide they have a moderate meal of wheatmeal porridge mixed with large proportions of butter, or olive oil. “The French inspectors who are in charge of these gangs of porters, declare that during the month of fasting they do better work than at any other time because their strength is not needed for digestion.” These statements only prove to us, that as a people, we eat too much, and of too rich food, and such facts invite us to a plainer mode of living, if we desire to conserve our strength and do our best for ourselves and mankind.