Every mother, with growing children, should be a thorough student of the chemistry of food. If the child’s bones do not increase sufficiently in size and strength after the second year, care in the selection of foods rich in protein and phosphates of lime and magnesium may correct it. Such a child should have scraped meat and whole wheat bread with milk and eggs.
If the child stores up too much fat, increase the amount of exercise and of oxygen consumed, and either cut down the proportion of sweets and starches or decrease the quantity of food and require more thorough mastication.
If one is thin and undernourished, chemical analysis of the contents of the stomach, intestines, and urine is sometimes desirable. The nerves should be relaxed, and proper food, exercise, and breathing should accompany medical treatment, if medicine is needed. Often an entire change in thought and diet are helpful.
Sometimes a torpid condition of the liver and sluggish activity of the intestines are indicated. Special exercises to stimulate this activity and to encourage correct poise and deep breathing are most essential. The mind must often be stimulated and an interest be awakened, directing the thoughts in new channels.
Worry and tensity of thought are among the chief causes in the majority of cases of lack of flesh and of a very large number of blood and digestive disorders.
Anemia
In anemia there is either a decrease in the number of red blood corpuscles or an insufficient amount of blood. When there are too few red blood corpuscles, “oxygen carriers,” the necessary quantity of oxygen is not furnished the tissues and the system becomes clogged with waste. The patient easily tires and is disinclined to exercise, thus the decreased number of red corpuscles are not kept in forceful circulation and the carbon dioxid is not freely thrown off by the lungs; this further aggravates the condition.
Since the blood is made from the foods assimilated, the point is to supply food which builds blood tissue. Exercise and deep breathing will encourage the elimination of waste and promote a forceful circulation which insures nourishment to the tissues. As stated, it is the food assimilated, not always the amount eaten, that counts.
In this condition it is of vital importance that one keep up a good circulation; the stomach, intestines, liver, and spleen must be strengthened through exercise and deep breathing of pure air, for the red blood corpuscles are oxygen carriers, and the insufficient supply must do double duty or the waste of the system will not be oxidized and eliminated, and the blood-forming organs will further fail in their task.