The Prospective Mother, a Handbook for Women During Pregnancy

by J. Morris Slemons

The property of protein to build living tissue and replace tissue waste probably depends upon several factors; but certainly one of them is the presence of nitrogen. So intimately associated are the consumption of the tissue substance and the elimination of nitrogen that we have no better way of judging the amount of tissue substance used in the body than by determining the quantity of nitrogen that appears in its various waste products. From such investigations it has been found that the quantity of protein required to repair the breaking down of the tissues is not great. The average man consumes approximately a quarter of a pound (100 to 120 grams) of protein daily; but this quantity is in excess of his real needs. Indeed, Chittenden has shown that for various classes of individuals, namely, students, athletes and soldiers, half as much is sufficient. Other physiologists, though admitting that this is true, contend that it is inadvisable to regulate one's diet on such a slender basis. Very good reasons are assigned for the view that more protein is needed than just enough to counterbalance the tissue waste. Thus, in the case of animals, it has been found that a diet low in protein finally causes digestive disturbances and other ailments.

Although it does not seem advisable to practise rigid economy in arranging the protein content of the diet, it is equally important that we should not go to the other extreme. The consumption of over- large quantities of protein, as would be the case if we lived exclusively upon meat, increases putrefaction in the intestines and throws unnecessary work upon the kidneys, which are the organs chiefly concerned in getting rid of the waste products of protein.

Carbohydrate is the name given the group of foodstuffs to which the sugars belong. The food value of cane sugar, the most familiar member of the group, was recognized even in prehistoric days by the natives of India. By boiling the plant we call sugar-cane they obtained a substance to which they gave the name Sakkara, and from this our word sugar evidently originated. The roots of this plant were carried into Europe and cultivated during the Middle Ages. Obviously, its value was and is appreciated, since the cultivation of the sugar-cane and the sugar-beet has become the foundation of a great modern industry.

There are some persons, perhaps, who do not realize that beside cane sugar many kinds of carbohydrate occur in our food. Glucose or grape sugar, for example, occurs not only in the fruit indicated by its name, but also in other fruits, in corn, in onions, and in the common vegetables. Glucose is especially suited to act as nourishing food. In keeping with that fact our digestive juices convert most of the sugars we eat, if not all of them, into glucose, which is regularly present in our blood. It is unnecessary to enumerate all or even the more important compounds included in the carbohydrate group; but everyone should know that starch is its chief member, and that after being thoroughly digested starch enters the body as glucose and therefore serves the same purpose as sugar.

The value of carbohydrates as a source of heat and energy may be accurately measured, and is technically expressed in terms of a unit, called the calorie. As the energy which our bodies require may be estimated in the same terms, it is possible to determine whether or not our food is equal to our wants. Very naturally the energy requirements of any individual are influenced by his weight and by the work he does. But we may take as a standard the results of an extensive study of American families which indicate that women require four-fifths as much energy-yielding food as men. It also seems safe to conclude that a woman weighing 130 pounds who does her own housework requires food every day having an energy-value of 2,500 calories; smaller women and those who do no work require somewhat less. In a mixed diet the chief source of this energy—and the source from which it is most economically obtained—is the carbohydrates.

Fat yields more energy and heat than does carbohydrate, bulk for bulk; but fat is burned by our tissues less readily. We instinctively avoid eating a great deal of this food-stuff; in the course of a day the average person consumes no more than one or two ounces. The natural aversion which many feel toward fat may possibly depend upon the difficulty with which they assimilate it. In colder climates, however, we know fat to be a staple article of diet; and it is not unlikely that the very conditions which make it necessary there explain the unusual tolerance for it.

Fat is more than fuel. Deposited in our bodies, beneath the skin for example, it prevents the escape of heat that we generate and protects us against the penetration of cold. This food-stuff, therefore, contributes in several ways toward maintaining the temperature of the body at a constant level.

Our source of fat is chiefly animal food and in a smaller measure vegetables; but the fat our food contains is not altogether responsible for the fat in our bodies. Carbohydrates, if in excess of momentary needs, are partly converted into fat and stored as such. A reserve supply of nourishment is thus provided, and is drawn upon only when the food that we consume does not contain as much energy as we expend.

WHAT WE DO TO OUR FOOD.—With the exception of water and mineral substances, the food-stuffs must undergo chemical alterations before they are capable of being absorbed into the body; this is the work of digestion. The digestive processes, the main purpose of which is to break up the carbohydrates, proteins, and fats into substances of much simpler chemical structure, begin in the mouth and are not completed until some time after the food has entered the intestine. As the food moves through the alimentary canal, it is mixed with the various digestive juices containing ferments, such as pepsin, which are the active agents of digestion. Although digestive processes go on automatically, they are, in a degree that is far from negligible, influenced by the mind. Thus, cheerfulness promotes digestion, and not infrequently mental depression may be the direct cause of indigestion. Indeed, it is chiefly in regard to the state of the mind of the prospective mother that the existence of pregnancy may be said to have a bearing, whether favorable or unfavorable, upon her digestion.

The digestive juices are prepared in glands which lie either within the lining of the alimentary canal or adjacent to it. In the latter event the glands are connected with the canal by means of tubes. These glands must be warned when to pour out their secretion, and their very first warning usually comes from the agreeable sensations experienced when we see, smell, or taste inviting food. If we are hungry, our viands attractive, and our surroundings congenial, the stimulus excites a plentiful secretion of the digestive juices; conversely, the opposite conditions, to some extent, check their flow.