What to eat and when

by Susanna Cocroft

In warm weather little fat is needed for fuel, and Nature provides fresh green vegetables to replace the root vegetables of the cold weather, which, consisting largely of starches and sugars, are readily converted into heat.

In cold weather, especially in high altitudes or latitudes, more fuel foods are required to keep the body warm and more fat is eaten.

It must be remembered that anything which creates a greater activity of the tissues, such as muscular exercise, liberates a greater amount of heat. The reverse is also true. A decrease in the amount of muscular movement means a decrease in the liberation of heat. During exercise, a large amount of carbohydrates and fats are released by the movements and oxidized; the liberated heat is carried to all parts of the system and the temperature is raised.

Food in the alimentary canal causes an activity in the glands of the digestive organs maintaining their temperature.

Of course, while digestion and muscular activity are at their height, the body temperature is highest. The temperature, as a rule, decreases from about six at night until four or five in the morning, when it is usually at its ebb. This is a point of importance. A degree or two of increase in temperature, above normal, if recorded about six at night, is not, in most conditions, considered alarming by the physician.

Anything which causes an increase in heat radiation, as perspiration, lowers the temperature, and the open pores of the skin are valuable aids in equalizing the body heat. A person who perspires freely does not suffer with heat during excessive exercise, as does one whose pores are closed.

Diuretic foods and beverages, such as water and fruits (melons, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, etc.), which increase the activity of the skin and the kidneys, also tend to lower the body temperature.

One ready means of regulating the body heat is the bath. If one takes a hot bath, the temperature is materially raised by the artificial heat, but there is a recompense in the increase of heat radiation from the skin and the reaction is cooling. If one takes a cold bath, the immediate effect is cooling, but the activity set up within, to create a reaction, soon heats the body to a greater degree than before the bath.

The best way to increase the evaporation and thus decrease the temperature of the body is by a tepid shower or a tepid sponge. The tepid water will not create a strong reaction, and it will cause a decrease in temperature. Thus, for fever patients or on a warm day, the tepid shower or sponge is commended; for a cold day, or for the individual whose circulation is sluggish, the cold bath, followed by friction, is desirable. When the vitality is low, so that reaction is slow or chilly feelings persist, the bath must be tempered and greater friction used.

The generation of heat is also increased by solid foods that require more than normal activity on the part of the digestive organs. For this reason the food given fever patients should be that most easily digested and should be reduced in quantity. Liquid or semiliquid foods are best.