Habitual worriers use up force and become thin more quickly than those whose work is muscular. Those who spend their lives fretting over existing conditions, or worrying over things which never happen, use up much brain force and create disagreeable conditions within, resulting in digestive ills. These again react on the body and continue the process of impoverishment of the tissues.
Certain it is that improper foods affect the disposition, retard the spiritual growth, and change the current of one’s life and of the lives about one. Therefore the intelligent care of the body—the medium through which the soul communicates with material surroundings—is a Christian duty.
“The priest with liver trouble and the parishioner with indigestion, do not evidence that skilled Christian living so essential to the higher life.”
Man has become so engrossed and hedged about with the complex demands of social, civic, and, domestic life, all of which call for undue energy and annoyance and lead him into careless or extravagant habits of eating and living, that he forgets to apply the intelligence which he puts into his business to the care of the machine which does the work. Yet the simple laws of nature in the care of the body are plainer and easier to follow than the complex habits which he forms.
The “simple life” embraces the habits of eating as well as the habits of doing and of thinking.
The whole problem of perfect health and efficient activity is in keeping the supply of assimilated food equal to the demand, in keeping a forceful circulation that the nourishment may freely reach all tissues and the waste be eliminated, and in full breathing habits that sufficient oxygen be supplied to put the waste in condition for elimination.
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 on Let’s Be Healthy. This traces the food through the digestive canal, indicating the juices which act on it, putting it into the state in which it can be absorbed by the body and appropriated to its various uses.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER I | |
| PURPOSES OF FOOD | |
| PAGE | |
| Production of heat and energy; derivation of foodelements; composition of the body; buildingand repair of cells; necessity of exercise; foodelements as used in body building | [1-7] |
CHAPTER II | |
| CLASSIFICATION OF FOOD ELEMENTS | |
| Definition of food stuffs, of foods; basis of classificationsof foods; tabulations of classes of foods andfoodstuffs; proteins or tissue builders; carbonaceousfoodstuffs; carbohydrates; fat; water; mineralsalts | [8-37] |
CHAPTER III | |
| CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS | |
| Carbonaceous: roots and tubers, green vegetables,fruits; nitrogenous: flesh, fish, eggs; carbo-nitrogenous:cereals and cereal preparations, legumes,nuts, milk and milk products; table of food values | [38-102] |
CHAPTER IV | |
| HEAT AND ENERGY | |
| BEVERAGES AND APPETIZERS | |
| Tea; coffee; cocoa and chocolate; lemonade and otherfruit drinks; effervescing waters; condiments andspices; vinegars; sauces; food adulteration; preservationof foods; heat and energy | [103-129] |
CHAPTER V | |
| REPAIR AND ELIMINATION OF WASTE | |
| (METABOLISM) | |
| Chemical changes in foods in body; work of assimilation;food reserve; digestion, its processes andferments; absorption of food; economy in food;selection of foods for need of body; mouth andnasal passages | [130-150] |
CHAPTER VI | |
| ORGANS AND CONDITIONS AFFECTING DIGESTION | |
| The liver, the muscles, the nerves, the kidneys, the skin,the intestines, the blood, summary of work oforgans and tissues; season and climate; habit andregularity of eating; frequency of meals; exerciseand breathing; ventilation; fatigue; sleep; influenceof thought; the circulation; gum chewing;tobacco and alcohol | [151-184] |
CHAPTER VII | |
| COOKING | |
| Importance of proper cooking; purposes of cooking;meats; cereals and cereal products; vegetables;fruits | [185-199] |
CHAPTER VIII | |
| FOOD REQUIREMENTS OF THE SYSTEM | |
| Elements determining quantity of food necessary;selection of dietary food required by workers atvarious occupations; average requirement; energyderived from various foods; mixed diet versusvegetarian diet | [200-215] |
CHAPTER IX | |
| DIETS | |
| Constructing balanced meals; in sedentary occupations;the girl or boy from thirteen to twenty-one;the athlete; the laboring man; condition of “age”;model diets; tables of use in making up a balanceddiet | [216-241] |
CHAPTER X | |
| DIET IN ABNORMAL CONDITIONS | |
| Importance of proper diet in conditions of disease;anemia: indigestion or dyspepsia; gastritis,dilatation of the stomach; intestinal disorders;constipation; derangements of the liver; gallstones; neuralgia; kidney derangements; excessof uric acid; asthma; tuberculosis; neurasthenia;skin diseases; when traveling; in convalescence;leanness; obesity | [242-304] |
CHAPTER XI | |
| RECIPES FOR FOODS FOR INVALIDS AND SEMI-INVALIDS | |
| Waters; fruit juices; liquid foods; farinaceous beverages;meat juices; semi-solid foods; gruels; souffles | [305-319] |
CHAPTER XII | |
| INFANT FEEDING | |
| Problem of correct feeding; breast feeding; wet nursing;contra-indications to nursing; anatomy andphysiology of the infant; intestinal disturbance;times of feeding; water; normal development inthe breast-fed; weaning; artificial feeding; bacteriology;composition of human milk; top-milk; top-milkmixture; certified milk; milk modifications;sterilizing and pasteurizing; comparative analysisof milks and infant foods; gruels; vomiting; colic;the stools in infancy; constipation; diarrhea;anemia rickets; scurvy; feeding the second year | [320-356] |
APPENDIX | |
| Measures and Weights | [357-359] |
| Index | [361-366] |