FOOTNOTES:
[1] It is impossible in this book to go into the anatomy and physiology of digestion exhaustively.—The reader is respectfully referred to Miss Cocroft’s book upon “The Vital Organs: their Use and Abuse.” This traces the food through the digestive canal, indicating the juices which act upon it, putting it into a necessary state to be absorbed by the body and appropriated to its various uses.
PURPOSES OF FOOD
The purposes of food are:
To supply the material of which the body is made.
To rebuild tissue, which is constantly being torn down and eliminated.
To produce heat, and to supply muscular and mental energy.
Let us discuss these purposes in above order.
Food Supply
By food supply is meant not only that the proper foods in kind and quantity be eaten, but that the body be in condition to digest, absorb, and assimilate the foods, and to eliminate the waste, otherwise the foods fail to supply the body needs. It is the nourishment which the body assimilates and appropriates to its needs which counts in food economy.