Why We Eat.—During the early period of life, and until we reach maturity, food is necessary not only to repair the daily waste, but for the nurture and growth of the body. The intense bodily activity of childhood is attended with a large consumption of material and a great amount of waste. The food is converted into blood, which circulates through the arteries of the body, carrying the nutritive particles to the remotest parts, and returns through the veins, conveying the waste and worn out matter to be expelled from the system.
Quantity of Food.—Placing the average weight of an adult man at one hundred and forty-four pounds, the average daily amount of food and drink needed would be six pounds, or about one-twenty-fourth the weight of his body. Food should be taken in sufficient quantity to repair the waste, and no more. Most persons habitually eat and drink more than they need, while a few eat less than they should. Those who lead very active lives, or live much in the open air, require more food than the old, the inactive, and the sedentary. Habit, too, has much to do with the quantity of food taken. Over-indulgence in eating is the fruitful cause of a long train of evils. The appetite is pampered by tempting viands, and the stomach is overtaxed with work. The sensation of hunger is Nature’s demand for food; the lack of such sensation should suggest abstinence.
Mixed Diet.—In infancy the digestive powers are weak and undeveloped, and food must be taken in its simplest form. Milk alone, at this period of life, seems best adapted to sustain life and growth. After this period has been passed, no single article of food furnishes all the principles necessary to support the growth, repair the waste, sustain the strength, and preserve the health. A mixed diet, therefore, becomes necessary.
Feeding Children.—There is no greater error in the management of children than that of giving them animal diet too early. That portion of the digestive apparatus intended to dispose of this kind of diet is in an embryonic condition up to a certain age, and in the efforts of digestion, inflammation, possibly convulsions and death, may follow as the immediate result.
Impaired digestion acquired in childhood is apt to continue through life. The structure of the human body being so largely dependent upon good, wholesome food taken at proper intervals, the importance of laying a good foundation in childhood needs no argument.
The practice of allowing children to eat at short intervals through the day is exceedingly deleterious. Cakes, nuts, fruit and other good things, in carefully regulated quantities, should form a part of the regular meal, when the children are old enough to have them, and should not be eaten between meals. When it is remembered that one-half of all the children born into the world die before reaching the age of sixteen, the importance of children’s diet becomes apparent.
Selection.—In the selection of food, reference should be had to climate, season, occupation, and suitability. The races of the far North subsist largely on the blubber of seals and other fatty substances. In the winter season, persons living in the temperate zones require more of the heat-producing foods, and in summer, fruits and vegetables are more largely used. The man who leads an active out-door life consumes more oxygen, and requires not only more food, but of a kind that will rapidly build up muscle and impart strength. And not the least consideration, in the selection of food, is that of suitability or adaptation to the individual’s condition or peculiarity. “What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” says the old proverb. Most persons have found that certain fruits or vegetables or other articles of diet, which are generally considered wholesome, do not agree with them. It is important that each individual should study his peculiarities, in this respect, and abstain from eating or drinking those things which experience has shown will produce discomfort.
Happy is the man whose digestion is so perfect that he is never reminded that he has a stomach. But even those who cannot boast of such enviable powers of digestion, may yet, by a proper amount of exercise and the regulation of their diet, build up health and strength, and lead lives of usefulness and happiness, free from the many ills growing out of improper eating.
Proper Food.—Life is conditioned upon the proper supply of food. Men may, and do, exist upon very unsuitable food. To be able to do a good day’s work within the hours of a reasonable working day is every man’s birthright. Many men, like Esau of old, sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. Unlike him, however, they are not pressed by stress of hunger, but, merely to please the palate for five minutes, they burden the digestive organs for five hours, and repeat the process day after day. The comparison, therefore, is rather complimentary to Esau.
Constituents of the Body.—As already remarked, a large part of the human body is water. The body of a man weighing one hundred and fifty pounds contains less than fifty pounds of solid matter. The blood, brain, and nerves are about eighty per cent water; the muscles, nearly eighty per cent; and even the bones and the teeth contain a large percentage of water. Man may be deprived of solid food for a day or more without suffering, and, in some instances, persons have subsisted for several weeks on water alone, but to be deprived of water for ten or twelve hours causes much suffering.