Birds and game of all kinds are to be avoided. The flesh of the goose, duck, etc., is very oily, greasy and unwholesome. Chicken, turkey, etc., are somewhat better, but their flesh is not nearly so nutritious as beef and mutton, while the amount of poisons they contain is certainly equal to the latter. It must be remembered that these animals are frequently confined and artificially fed, in order to “fatten” them for the market; and even when this has not been done, the birds have very rarely sufficient room to exercise as they ought to, and their food and water supply is by no means what it should be. Of course, when artificial feeding has been employed, their flesh is little short of poisonous. The “fat” noticed and so highly praised is merely retained filth and excreta, and should be outside the animal’s body, and not in it. Needless to say, the flesh of all such birds should be eschewed.
Fish is considered by some to be a very fine article of diet—being nutritious and easily digested. For that reason, it is often given to invalids! Where such a curious hallucination could have arisen it is hard to see. Its flesh is exceedingly gross, tough, fibrous, and contains but little nutriment. The flesh of all animals partakes more or less of the nature of their diet; and fish and fowl are certainly not the cleanest of feeders! Their flesh is in no sense superior to that of the cow or sheep; but is, on the contrary, distinctly inferior. All shellfish are unclean articles of diet—they being merely the scavengers of the sea; and should be avoided most carefully. They are exceedingly indigestible, and frequently the cause of skin disease, on the one hand, and of ptomaine poisoning, on the other.
It seems hardly necessary to say that all internal organs of animals are to be avoided! Not only for the reason that a large number of the animals found on the market are diseased; but also because all these organs are merely depurating organs, should they be eschewed. If any person were to consider for one minute the function of the liver or the kidneys, it is more than probable that he would not touch them! During the whole of the animal’s life, they have been merely filters for the filth and excreta which passed through its body; they were the great reservoirs of poisons and toxins of all sorts! The idea of eating such offal should be repellant to any sensitive, even sensible, mind.
Soups.—But little need be said of soups. As a whole, they may be said to be lacking in every essential which is necessary in order to recommend them as suitable articles for human diet. Meat soups, broths, beef teas, etc., we have already discussed. They are practically stimulants, and consist of water, and poisonous excreta in solution! They contain no fats, carbohydrates or salts of value, and but very little proteid. Vegetable soups have somewhat more to recommend them, but all soups are open to the prime objection that they are invariably eaten without mastication, and hence are taken into the stomach in a condition totally unsuited for the initial stages of digestion—which the stomach is called upon to perform. It must be remembered, in this connection, that mastication is not only for the purpose of dividing the food into small particles, so that the gastric and intestinal juices may act upon them, but also, that important chemical changes take place in the mouth—starch being converted into dextrine, etc. Soups are always swallowed without this initial process. Further, the large amount of water they contain renders them unsuitable food for the adult—whose food should be less in quantity and more solid in quality; and any liquid which is supplied during the process of digestion by way of solvent and dilutant should be the digestive juices only. Jellies are of very low nutritive value, and should never be administered to invalids. Animals fed on jelly die as soon as if they were not fed at all. In her “Notes on Nursing,” Miss Florence Nightingale contends very strongly against the use of jellies of any kind, and finds it difficult to select words strong enough to suit her antipathy to jellies.
Puddings, Pies, etc.—It is now all but universally admitted that these articles of diet are indigestible—rich, greasy, and objectionable in many ways. The usual crust which is bought is made of white flour, in the first place, while the grease contained is a poor quality of lard. As animal food, this is certainly objectionable; lard being a filthy article of diet in any case. The sugar, flour, grease, and all the other ingredients used are generally harmful, and exceedingly indigestible. All the constituents can be supplied in a pure form in other foods. The fruit is the best thing contained in such pies, etc.; and this is spoiled by being cooked, and is also covered with spices and nutmeg, etc., which offset all its original value, and spoil its flavour to all educated palates. As usually presented, such foods have nothing to recommend them.
Still, as Dr Trall said[46]: “the crust for pies and tarts may be made comparatively wholesome in a variety of ways. Any kind of flour or meal, or various admixtures of them, may be wet with water and shortened with sweet cream, or the flour or meal may be wet with milk and shortened with olive oil.” In this book, and in various others, may be found a number of recipes for making bread, pies, puddings, etc., in the hygienic style. I shall not discuss this aspect of the question in the present work, which is devoted more to the philosophy of diet than the details of cooking—especially since I am recommending no cooking at all! However, there is doubtless a right and a wrong way to do everything; and if people continue to feel that they must have breads and pies, they might as well have them made as hygienically as possible. There is no reason why such foods should be indigestible or innutritious, if properly made. It need hardly be said that all hot breads, buckwheat cakes, etc., should be sedulously avoided.
Sugar.—Hygienists have no objection to the use of saccharine matter, provided it is taken in the natural way—that is, in organic combination with other food principles—not separated as a proximate element. Sugar contained in fruits, grains, vegetables, etc., are thoroughly wholesome; but an excess of sugar of the ordinary sort, as bought upon the market, is very detrimental. Particularly is this the case when the sugar is not rightly combined with other articles of food. We have discussed this at greater length, however, when considering “food combinations.” Miss Mary H. Abel, in her pamphlet, “Sugar as Food,” published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says:
“Within certain limits we can look upon sugar as the equivalent of starch that has been digested and made ready for absorption, A mealy, boiled potato, or a lump of laundry starch, is, in fact, very akin to a lump of sugar; and the potato, like all forms of starchy food, must be turned into a kind of sugar by the digestive juices before it can be absorbed as food by the system.... The main function of sugar, as found in the blood, whether resulting from the digestion of sugar or of starch, is believed to be the production of heat and energy. The proof has been amply furnished by experiment. By ingenious devices, the blood going to and from the muscle of a living animal, may be analysed, and it is thus shown that more blood traverses an active or working muscle, and more sugar disappears from it than is the case with the muscle at rest.”
While the system needs sugar, this should not be supplied in the form of the common beet sugar upon the market—since this is adulterated in various ways, and contains, in addition to the saccharine elements, much inert, mineral matter. Sugar in its pure form, however, is a very important article of diet—far more important, probably, than has hitherto been acknowledged. Not only are starches, etc., converted into sugar in the process of digestion, but it has frequently been noted that when a lesser amount of proteid is consumed, a proportionately larger amount of sugar is craved. Mr Horace Fletcher noticed this in his diet experiments, and stated that, as the appetite for meat decreased, that for sugar increased—which is a very significant remark. If the saccharine elements in the food-supply were increased, there can be little doubt that there would be a decreased consumption of meat and all proteid matters. The craving of children for sweets is to be looked upon, not as a morbid appetite, but as a physiological craving of the organism. In saying that this appetite should be gratified, however, I do not mean that unlimited quantities of sweets and sweet-stuffs, as found upon the market, are to be allowed the child, but a greater proportion of sweet-stuffs should be allowed in the form of sweet fruits—such as dates, figs, etc. Administered in this way, sugar will be found a highly valuable article of diet.