Book 'M j&5~ 
 GopyrightN 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSJER 
 
EATING 
 
 FOR 
 
 HEALTH 
 
 AND 
 
 STRENGTH 
 
PORTRAIT OF THE' AUTHOR 
 
EATING 
 
 for Health and Strength 
 
 BY 
 
 BERNARR MACFADDEN 
 
 Author of "Macfadden's Encyclopedia of Physical 
 
 Culture," "Strengthening the Eyes," "Making Old 
 
 Bodies Young," "Manhood and Marriage," and 
 
 Other Works on Health and Sex 
 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 PHYSICAL CULTURE CORPORATION 
 
 . 119 West 40th Street 
 
►•* 
 
 ^ 6 
 
 Copyright 1921 by 
 
 PHYSICAL CULTURE CORPORATION 
 
 New York City 
 
 FEB 23 1922 
 
 9a.A6M9.18 
 
 Printed in U.S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 OUCCESS is the goal we all have in view. 
 ^ We want our lives to count for something. 
 Failure is, to a certain extent, a disgrace. 
 
 And to live the life of achievement you need 
 energy, enthusiasm, ambition. 
 
 You must have strength, vitality, endurance. 
 And the buoyant spirits that make play of all 
 work. 
 
 If all this is valuable, then the power behind 
 the man or the woman, in the form of food, 
 assumes great importance. 
 
 Day by day our bodies are evolved from the 
 food we eat. We are what we are, because of 
 food. We are hardy, vigorous and capable or 
 devitalized and incompetent, depending largely 
 upon the quality of nourishment that we furnish 
 ourselves day by day. 
 
 There never was a time in the history of the 
 world when the human diet was worse than it is 
 at the present day. 
 
 We are starving in the midst of plenty. 
 
 Devitalized foods of all kinds are depended 
 upon for sustenance. 
 
 People are dying, literally, by the millions, be- 
 
 vii 
 
Preface 
 
 cause of their pitiful ignorance on the subject of 
 diet. 
 
 You can starve to death while you are eating 
 three "square" meals a day, and that is exactly 
 the status of literally millions of people at this 
 time. 
 
 This book has been written with the aid of 
 various experts for the purpose of telling the 
 truth about food. It shows you, in a very defi- 
 nite manner, what to eat and how to eat, in order 
 to maintain your vitality at high water mark. 
 
 The facts presented here should be taught in 
 the primary schools, and the day is coming when 
 such knowledge will be possessed by every grow- 
 ing child. 
 
 And I believe that this book will help to bring 
 that day about. 
 
 To insure the keeping quality of the foods pre- 
 pared for the market, manufacturers often re- 
 move the life-building elements. 
 
 Devitalized foods of this character are being 
 sold everywhere. You should possess the knowl- 
 edge necessary to avoid products of this nature. 
 The facts presented in this book will be of ines- 
 timable value to you for this purpose alone. 
 
 Learn how to eat that you may build your 
 body into a masterpiece — mentally, physically 
 and spiritually. 
 
 viii 
 
Preface 
 
 Make a whole man or woman of yourself. 
 
 Proper eating will do much to bring about this 
 result. In fact, without an intelligent diet, the 
 most strenuous efforts towards the attainment of 
 life's great rewards are often wasted. 
 
 Learn the truth. Apply it and satisfying re- 
 wards will surely come to you. 
 
 l^yi OAAy /^Osc/*^^^ 
 
 IX 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Preface vii 
 
 I. Food Science and Personal Efficiency . 1 
 
 II. Food Chemistry 8 
 
 III. Physiology of Nutrition 24 
 
 IV. New Discoveries of Experimental Biology 40 
 V. What to Eat 52 
 
 VI. Balancing the Diet 72 
 
 VII. How Much to Eat 89 
 
 VIII. When and How to Eat 106 
 
 IX. Food Production, Manufacturing and 
 
 Marketing 119 
 
 X. Home Preparation of Food . . . .136 
 
 XI. Practical Food Economy 159 
 
 XII. Eating for Strength and Muscular 
 
 Energy 170 
 
 XIII. Food and Mental Efficiency . . . .186 
 
 XIV. Eating to Gain Weight 196 
 
 XV. Eating to Reduce Weight 206 
 
 XVI. Food and the Sexual Life 220 
 
 XVII. Feeding the Baby 229 
 
 XVIII. The Feeding of Children 240 
 
 XIX. Eating to Prevent or Cure Disease . . 260 
 
 XX. The Diet in Old Age 269 
 
 xi 
 
EATING FOR HEALTH 
 AND STRENGTH 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Food Science and Personal Efficiency 
 
 TT^OUR small boys once came to a green apple 
 ■*■ tree. 
 
 The first boy was innocent and ignorant, and 
 ate of the apples. 
 
 The second boy had been warned by his mother, 
 but the example of the first boy and the taste 
 of the apples overcame the force of that warning, 
 and he also ate of the apples. 
 
 The third boy had eaten of green apples be- 
 fore, and remembered the pains therefrom; but 
 the taste of the apples, being an immediate 
 pleasure, overcame the thought of future pain, 
 and he also ate of the apples. 
 
 The fourth boy was different. Perhaps he 
 had been warned, perhaps he had observed, 
 perhaps he had had experience; but he resisted 
 the temptation, and so avoided future pain. 
 
 1 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 So people differ in this world as to their ability 
 to resist temptation to indulgence or the erro- 
 neous example of others. 
 
 The woman who reclines among her pillows 
 reading novels and eating chocolate creams is but 
 another example of the small boy at the green 
 apple tree. While she reads of the "lithesome 
 form" and "bubbling vitality" of the heroine, and 
 sighs in covetous ecstacy for a share of the ro- 
 mance, she is deliberately killing her own chance 
 for either joy or romance, because her indul- 
 gence, whether born of ignorance or a weak will, 
 is storing up an obesity that will destroy her 
 beauty and shorten her life. 
 
 All of us humans want happiness, but we differ 
 as to our ideas of the way to get it. The sensual- 
 ist attempts to get his happiness from the im- 
 mediate stimulation of the appetites without 
 forethought as to the ultimate outcome. He 
 stuffs his stomach with the most stimulating and 
 delectable viands, regardless of the agony of 
 future dyspepsia, the pains of gout, the humilia- 
 tion of obesity or the tragedy of a death before 
 his time. 
 
 The temperate man takes forethought of the 
 total happiness to be had from life and, by the 
 study of the laws of human health and efficiency, 
 and the denial of the more immediate and in- 
 
Food Science and Personal Efficiency 
 
 dulgent pleasures, he safeguards his happiness 
 for the future by obedience to life's laws. 
 
 It is for those who have the forethought, who 
 wish to gain the most out of life as a whole, that 
 this book is written. 
 
 Granted that you believe the health of the 
 body, the efficiency of the mind and length of 
 life to be worth striving for, no argument should 
 be needed to convince you of the importance of 
 the subjects of food and the nutrition of the 
 body. 
 
 The business of eating is not a rare or remote 
 experience in life, but it is ever with us, usually 
 about three times a day. The question of eating 
 concerns all, but it concerns us differently. 
 
 It concerns the poor man chiefly from the 
 economic viewpoint. Wild animals and "savage" 
 men spend most of their time in food getting. 
 So even in the state of civilization the average 
 man spends nearly half his income — -that is, his 
 working time, of which his income is the measure 
 — in the getting of food, and a goodly share of 
 his leisure in the eating of it. The prosperous 
 man, for whom the getting of food becomes 
 relatively less of a problem, just because of the 
 fact of his greater wealth and leisure, is apt to 
 concern himself more with the question of the 
 taste and appearance of his food. 
 
 3 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 But neither rich man nor poor man, if he be 
 a forethinking man, who would gain the greatest 
 strength and health of body and mind and the 
 maximum length of life upon this earth, can 
 avoid the question of the effect of food upon the 
 health, vitality and longevity. 
 
 In this book, I shall not wholly ignore matters 
 of the economy or of the taste and palatability 
 of food; but the primary purpose of the work, 
 and the subject to which most attention will be 
 given, is the answering of questions concerning 
 the relation of food to health and strength and 
 the general efficiency of our lives. 
 
 For this purpose the subject cannot be intelli- 
 gently presented without some scientific discus- 
 sion. The necessary scientific knowledge I shall 
 strive to present as briefly as possible and with 
 a view to its practical application. 
 
 The scientific knowledge of food has made 
 rapid strides in recent years, partly on account 
 of the tremendous importance of food problems 
 during the war. Much new knowledge has also 
 been acquired recently from biological investiga- 
 tions or experimenting upon animals. It is pos- 
 sible that some readers may question the worth 
 of food facts derived from experimenting upon 
 pigeons or rats. We are not at liberty to ex- 
 periment so freely upon human beings; and as 
 
 4 
 
Food Science and 1 Personal Efficiency 
 
 the laws are fundamentally the same for all or 
 at least all kindred species, the student of human 
 food science should welcome this knowledge 
 derived from animal experimentation, but seek 
 to check it by practical observation upon human 
 beings. 
 
 I give the results of the biologists who experi- 
 ment on animals, because they throw interesting 
 light on human food problems, but the practical 
 teachings of this book are by no means wholly 
 derived either from investigation of chemists or 
 animal experimenters. The final and true source 
 of all knowledge of human nutrition and, for 
 that matter, all knowledge of human life and 
 health, must be derived from human observation 
 and experience. It is from this human source 
 that I have derived my own fundamental views 
 and practical knowledge of dietetics and health. 
 
 The second, third and fourth chapters of the 
 book will survey briefly the chemistry, the physi- 
 ology and the biology of food. In these chapters 
 you will find the necessary scientific groundwork 
 to enable you to understand better the later dis- 
 cussions. The fifth chapter considers "What to 
 Eat," and treats of the nutritional values of 
 various foods. Following this we consider the 
 balancing of the diet, or the effect of combining 
 and proportioning foods, and "How and When 
 
 5 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 to Eat." We then discuss "How Much to Eat," 
 or the question of food quantity. 
 
 The four chapters next in order will cover the 
 subjects of the production, marketing and manu- 
 facture of food, the preparation of food in the 
 home, or practical cpokery, and the question of 
 food economy or the "Cost of Living." 
 
 Those chapters thus far enumerated will serve 
 to give you a general knowledge of food science 
 and the practical application to the economical 
 and efficient nourishment of the body; all these 
 chapters will be of equal interest and importance 
 to all readers. The remaining eight chapters of 
 the book are devoted to eight special health or 
 personal living problems in which the reader's 
 interest may vary somewhat, according to his 
 own physical condition or personal needs. Thus, 
 some of you want to know how to eat to gain 
 weight, and others how to eat to reduce weight. 
 The problem of eating for maximum physical 
 strength and efficiency should interest all, and 
 the similar problem of the effect of food and 
 our eating habits upon mental efficiency is of 
 equal importance in the world in which most men 
 labor with their minds. Questions of the effect 
 of food upon the sexual and procreative life, and 
 problems of feeding children for health and 
 growth are vital ones for individual happiness 
 
Food Science and Personal Efficiency 
 
 and social welfare. The problem of the effect of 
 food upon the length of life concerns or should 
 concern us all, but will naturally be of more con- 
 cern to those advanced in years; hence is treated 
 from that viewpoint. The relation of food to 
 the prevention and cure of disease is but another 
 aspect of the general problem — for health is but 
 the absence of disease, and disease the absence of 
 health. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Food Chemistry 
 
 npHE human body and the foods eaten by man 
 A are of necessity composed of the same chem- 
 ical elements, since the one is made from the 
 other. This is strictly true if we class water as 
 a food. Oxygen from the air, while necessary 
 to life, is not found in the body, save in the 
 form of water. The elements composing water, 
 oxygen and hydrogen, are the two most abun- 
 dant elements composing the living flesh. The 
 next most important is carbon, which we know 
 in coal and also in diamonds, though neither 
 substance is used for food — which is fortunate 
 as they are both expensive. The fourth im- 
 portant element is nitrogen. We do not get 
 it from the air, though it is there in abun- 
 dance, in the elementary form. Nitrogen, com- 
 bined with the three preceding elements and very 
 small proportions of certain minerals, forms 
 complex substances known as proteins. Protein 
 in various forms and combined with from two to 
 three times its weight of water, composes all liv- 
 ing tissues except fat, and the mineral structure 
 of the bones. 
 
 8 
 
Food Chemistry 
 
 Fat, which is merely stored fuel, is composed 
 of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The bones and 
 teeth are chiefly made up of calcium phosphate, 
 a combination of calcium, phosphorus and oxy- 
 gen. About ten other chemical elements also 
 enter into the composition of the human body 
 and must, therefore, be derived from food. All 
 of these are minerals, and all are present only in 
 small quantities. Because of the small amount 
 of these minerals needed in the life processes 
 their importance was for a time overlooked. 
 More recent knowledge has shown this to be a 
 grave error. For illustration, iron existing in 
 the human body in proportions of only one part 
 in 25,000, is none the less absolutely essential to 
 life, since the hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying 
 substance of the red blood corpuscles, must con- 
 tain iron. The list of minerals includes calcium, 
 phosphorus, sodium, potassium, chlorine, iron, 
 sulphur, magnesium, iodine and fluorine. 
 
 We can not learn much of practical worth from 
 the mere statement of the chemical elements 
 present in the body. The reason for this is that 
 few of these elements are of use to the body if 
 taken in their elementary form. We can use in 
 breathing the elementary oxygen of the air, but 
 the body can make no use of nitrogen, even more 
 abundant in the atmosphere. Carbon, iron and 
 
 9 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 sulphur (and so on through the list), are ex- 
 amples of chemical elements that are of no use 
 to the body in their simple uncombined form. 
 Most of these food minerals cannot be utilized, 
 even in their compounds, unless these mineral 
 compounds or salts have previously been incor- 
 porated with the more abundant organic ele- 
 ments. This combination of minerals with car- 
 bon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, which takes 
 place in plant life, makes it possible for animal 
 life, including man, to exist. Without the ex- 
 istence of plants all higher animal forms would 
 perish. We, therefore, live on second hand food, 
 which has gone through one life cycle. The 
 carnivorous animals go a step further and secure 
 their food elements third hand, through the 
 previous life processes of plants and other 
 animals. 
 
 Man can exist either by this second hand or 
 this third hand process, or a combination of the 
 two. Human food, composed of the substance 
 or products of plant or animal life, is generally 
 classified by the chemist as "organic," as dis- 
 tinguished from inorganic or mineral substance 
 found in the earth. Man can utilize a few in- 
 organic substances, of which air and water are 
 the chief. He can also make limited uses of a 
 few minerals in their inorganic form, such as 
 
 10 
 
Food Chemistry 
 
 common salt. But for the most part man de- 
 pends upon organic food and can not utilize ele- 
 mentary or mineral substances. 
 
 As the various substances formed by the com- 
 bination of chemical elements are exceedingly 
 numerous, early food chemists attempted to 
 classify them into a few groups and so simplify 
 matters. The group names so chosen were 
 "protein," "carbohydrates," "fat" and "ash," or 
 "mineral salts." 
 
 Protein, as already explained, is the name not 
 for a single substance, but for a large group of 
 chemical substances, the essential similarity of 
 which is that they all contain the chemical ele- 
 ment nitrogen. In the early work of food analy- 
 sis no effort was made to determine the exact 
 nature of these proteins. In fact, the analysis 
 was usually made merely by determining the 
 amount of nitrogen present and calculating from 
 this the amount of protein, on the assumption 
 that proteins usually contain about sixteen per 
 cent of nitrogen. 
 
 Two errors were made by the early food chem- 
 ist in regard to protein. One was that of attach- 
 ing undue importance to it as a food substance, 
 and the other was in assuming that one protein 
 was as good as another. The first assumption 
 was only natural, as the body is composed chiefly 
 
 11 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 of protein; hence it seemed that protein should 
 be the most valuable food, and that its use in 
 larger quantities would lead to better nourish- 
 ment. This proved to be an error because it was 
 not fully realized that the chief function of food 
 in the body was that of a fuel to produce heat 
 and energy. For a rough illustration, we might 
 liken the body to a boiler and engine that served 
 the double purpose of heating the building and 
 supplying power. The boiler and engine are 
 made of iron. The fuel required is carbon 
 (coal). Attempting to fire the boiler with iron 
 would be absurd. Now the human boiler-engine 
 can, in fact must be supplied with a limited 
 quantity of the material of its construction, as 
 it has the power of constructing itself in the 
 growth or the "repair" of its mechanism. But 
 its chief requirement is fuel for the generation 
 of heat and energy. 
 
 The second error made regarding this group 
 of substances collectively known as proteins, has 
 led to many serious misconceptions regarding 
 food values. As large quantities of protein were 
 thought to be important, lean meat was formerly 
 very highly rated as a food. The vegetarians, 
 chiefly because of sentimental reasons, disap- 
 proved of the use of meat. But they fell into the 
 grave error of assuming the need of so-called 
 
 12 
 
Food Chemistry 
 
 "meat substitutes," or vegetable foods partic- 
 ularly rich in protein. We now know that this 
 was a double-barrelled mistake; in the first place 
 we need no meat substitutes because the meat 
 diet contains entirely too much protein to begin 
 with. Secondly, vegetable proteins, particularly 
 those of the legumes: beans, peas, peanuts, etc., 
 are decidedly inferior forms of protein and are 
 only partly utilized by the living organism. This 
 important subject will be considered further in 
 the fourth chapter. 
 
 The second group of food substances, chemi- 
 cally considered, is carbohydrates. The chief 
 carbohydrates are starches and sugars. There 
 are several forms of sugar differing only slightly 
 in their chemical composition. Carbohydrates 
 form the bulk (sixty to eighty per cent) of all 
 human diets of vegetable origin. There are no 
 carbohydrates in animal foods except the sugar 
 in milk. Carbohydrates are also the cheapest 
 food substance. Grains are composed of from 
 four-fifths to nine-tenths starch. Corn is the 
 cheapest known food in the central and eastern 
 United States. Wheat in the eastern United 
 States costs nearly twice as much as corn and is 
 still a very cheap food. Wheat at a dollar a 
 bushel, if a man lived on it and ate it straight 
 from the bushel, would make the cost of living 
 
 13 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 less than three cents a day. In some parts of 
 the world, where corn is not grown, wheat is the 
 cheapest food substance. They feed it to the 
 pigs and chickens in Oregon. In China rice, and 
 in India millet are the cheapest foods. In Rus- 
 sia it is rye and in Germany it is potatoes. The 
 potato, chemically, is practically the same as the 
 grains — the difference being that it is in moist 
 form, carrying about three-fourths water by 
 weight, and being very similar in composition to 
 a cooked cereal porridge, as boiled wheat or corn 
 meal mush. 
 
 Without the development of the grains and 
 cheap roots and tubers as the dominant elements 
 of the human diet, the present population of the 
 world could never have existed. These foods 
 must therefore form a great bulk of the total 
 human bill of fare. And this involves constant 
 danger of improper nutrition because carbohy- 
 drates, though a good fuel substance for the 
 human engine, do not supply the elements of 
 the body's growth nor for its proper function. 
 Starch and sugar are related forms and contain 
 the same elements. In fact, sugar can be made 
 from starch as is done in the case of glucose, 
 which is a sugar made from corn-starch. 
 
 The third general group of food substances is 
 fat. Some fat is essential in the human diet, as 
 
 14 
 
Food Chemistry 
 
 the Germans discovered during the war. A cer- 
 tain amount of fat makes the diet more palatable, 
 and most of our modern cookery is based upon 
 the use of fat to "enrich" other food substances. 
 Yet fats and carbohydrates contain the same 
 three elements: carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. 
 Their sole function in the body is that of being 
 oxidized, or burned in our slow physiological 
 fires, to produce heat and energy. The use of 
 fat from foods to make the human body fat is 
 not a case of physiological use but merely a 
 storing of fuel food for later use. The differ- 
 ence between fat and carbohydrates is in the 
 amount of oxygen present, or the degree to which 
 the hydrogen and carbon have already been 
 oxidized. Because the fat contains less oxygen 
 it is capable of further oxidization, and hence a 
 given amount of fat will create more heat and 
 energy — two and a fourth times as much — as 
 will starch or sugar. For this reason fat is worth 
 more per pound. Oil, at a price of twenty-two 
 cents a pound, is just as cheap as sugar at ten 
 cents. 
 
 In a carnivorous diet, the carbohydrates being 
 absent, fat becomes the chief source of body fuel. 
 Protein can also be burned, but it burns waste- 
 fully, leaving an unoxidized residue that must 
 be excreted from the body, chiefly through the 
 
 15 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 kidneys, a process which man is not as able to 
 handle as well as the carnivorous animals. 
 
 The remaining group of food substances have 
 variously been known as ash, minerals, or mineral 
 salts. Most of these salts, in order to be available 
 for human nutrition, must be chemically com- 
 bined with the organic food elements. Thus, 
 sulphur enters into the chemical composition of 
 some proteins, such as egg albumin ; phosphorus, 
 on the other hand, is present in some of the fat- 
 like substances of egg yolk. Calcium salts are 
 a fundamental and very vital element in milk. 
 The growth of the young animals, and conse- 
 quent rapid bone formation, requires a large 
 proportion of such bone-forming minerals. The 
 fact that the calf grows faster than a child results 
 from cow's milk being richer in protein and min- 
 eral salts than is necessary as a human food, 
 even for the young. Hence, cow's milk may be 
 diluted, or may form only a portion of the food 
 of the child. 
 
 Mineral salts are present in varying quantities 
 in foods of vegetable origin, but the proportion 
 is greater in the leaves or other growing tissues 
 than in those substances like seeds, tubers or 
 pulpy roots which serve the purpose of food 
 storage reservoirs in the plant's life and hence 
 contain large quantities of starch or fat. Green 
 
 16 
 
Food Chemistry 
 
 leaves are especially rich in iron; spinach being 
 richest of any known food in iron of a form that 
 may be utilized by the human body. 
 
 The usual tables of the chemical analysis of 
 food give the percentage of protein, carbohy- 
 drates, fat, mineral salts and water. The pro- 
 portion of the water is, of course, a very impor- 
 tant consideration when estimating the value of 
 food by the pound. For illustration, fresh fruit 
 such as peaches contains about eighty-five per 
 cent of water and only fifteen per cent of actual 
 food substance. But dried peaches contain about 
 fifteen per cent of water and eighty-five per cent 
 of food substance. Hence, the latter, ignoring 
 the question of the superior flavor of the fresh 
 fruit, would be worth nearly six times as much 
 per pound. Another illustration to show the 
 importance of considering the water in food, is 
 that of dry versus cooked cereals. A menu giv- 
 ing an item of "four ounces of cereal" if inter- 
 preted as the dry cereal, would have at least four 
 times the food elements than if the dish be con- 
 sidered as meaning four ounces of the ordinary 
 cooked cereal porridge. 
 
 Tables of food analysis also usually have a 
 column headed "calories per pound." The calory 
 is a unit of measurement taken from the physicist 
 and is primarily a unit of heat. If a given quan- 
 
 17 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 tity of food contains so many calories, it means 
 that if burned it would give off so much heat. 
 Most of our food is burned in the body; that is, 
 oxidized, with the result that heat is always 
 produced. A certain portion of this heat energy 
 may be transformed into mechanical or muscular 
 energy. But mechanical energy can not be cre- 
 ated in the living body, nor in the engine cited so 
 often to illustrate bodily functions, without the 
 producing of considerable heat. That is why we 
 get warm when we exercise. 
 
 The use of the term "units of heat" is some- 
 times misleading. Heat and temperature are 
 related but different things. The thermometer 
 measures units of temperature. 
 
 A pint of water at a temperature of 100 de- 
 grees is twenty temperature degrees hotter than 
 a pint or a quart of water at a temperature of 
 eighty degrees. The number of degrees of tem- 
 perature are not affected by the amount of water. 
 Heat units do consider the amount of water and 
 a quart of water at a given temperature contains 
 twice as many heat units as a pint of water at 
 the same temperature. It also takes twice as 
 many heat units to raise the quart of water a 
 given number of temperature degrees, and it 
 would take twice as much fuel to heat it. 
 
 The human body is always maintained at a 
 
 18 
 
Food Chemistry 
 
 temperature very close to 98 degrees. Any de- 
 parture from this temperature is a serious busi- 
 ness — fever temperature rarely rises above 105 
 degrees. 
 
 The heat of the body is supplied by the oxida- 
 tion or slow burning of the fuel foods. The 
 amount of heat required to maintain the body at 
 its normal temperature of ninety-eight degrees 
 will depend on the temperature of the surround- 
 ing air, the amount of clothing, and the size of 
 the body which affects the amount of radiating 
 surface from which heat may be lost. 
 
 The evaporation of water absorbs heat very 
 rapidly. And considerable water is constantly 
 being evaporated from the moist surface of the 
 lungs and from the moist skin. The over heating 
 of the body is prevented by the control of the 
 amount of this evaporation. On a hot day, or 
 when generating extra heat by muscular exer- 
 tion, a man sweats, while a dog or a chicken 
 "pants" to secure this extra evaporation. The 
 degree of relief from this extra evaporation will 
 depend on the humidity of the atmosphere. 
 
 The body is kept from getting too cold by the 
 actual stimulation of extra oxidation, but this 
 oxidation to generate extra heat seldom occurs 
 with a man wearing the usual clothing and ex- 
 posed to the usual temperatures. The muscular 
 
 19 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 action of heart, lungs, etc., ordinarily generates 
 ample heat indoors or in hot weather, while out 
 of doors in cold weather we instinctively keep the 
 voluntary muscles active. Man, therefore, sel- 
 dom needs extra food just to generate heat, as 
 the heat produced during the muscular action is 
 nearly always sufficient, and usually more than 
 sufficient so that the excess must be taken care 
 of by evaporation. 
 
 The calory measures the value of the food 
 from the standpoint of its power to produce heat 
 and energy. It takes "calories" to keep us warm 
 and to make our muscles work. Moreover, we 
 measure the fat-forming tendencies of food by 
 calories, because fat in the body is derived from 
 elements which, if oxidized or used as body fuel, 
 would create heat and energy. Bodily fat may 
 be derived either from fat or from carbohydrates 
 or, somewhat wastefully, from protein. 
 
 Because the bulk of our food is utilized in 
 creating heat and energy, or if taken in excess 
 is stored as fat, we commonly consider the num- 
 ber of calories in the diet as the unit of measure 
 of the amount of the food eaten. It is a some- 
 what dangerous method of food measurement, 
 because it measures only one essential function 
 of food. Thus out of the daily ration of two 
 pounds of food, eighty to ninety per cent may be 
 
 20 
 
Food Chemistry 
 
 utilized in the body for oxidation, and hence be 
 measured correctly by the number of calories, 
 yet the remaining ten to twenty per cent, includ- 
 ing the protein, is fully as essential to health and 
 life as the more bulky fuel portion, the measure 
 of which is expressed in calories. 
 
 Since fat and carbohydrates are utilized in the 
 body in almost exactly the same way, and the 
 essential value of both may be measured in 
 calories, it was formerly thought that the state- 
 ment of the number of calories and of the amount 
 of protein was sufficient to give a true concep- 
 tion of the worth of a given food or of a given 
 diet. By these two terms we may measure 
 ninety-eight or ninety-nine per cent of all the 
 weight of the food substance. But the remaining 
 one or two per cent, including the mineral salts 
 and the vitamines, while insignificant in quantity, 
 are still just as vital to life and health as the 
 more than bulky portions. We can even go 
 further and state that a single mineral or a single 
 vitamine, which in quantity may be less than one 
 thousand of the weight of the food, is absolutely 
 essential to life, and if "deficient" in a diet, its 
 lack will cause quite as serious results as if the 
 whole quantity of food was insufficient. 
 
 The term "calories" is of value in considering 
 food from the quantity standpoint. We can 
 
 21 
 
I 
 
 Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 form approximate ideas of the worth of food 
 per pound in the number of calories it contains. 
 We can also intelligently discuss the total amount 
 of food that should be eaten in terms of calories. 
 But such considering of food quantity is only 
 safe when the diet has first been properly selected 
 and proportioned to make sure of the inclusion 
 of sufficient variety and proper amount of the 
 essential minor food elements. Unless these 
 other factors are first considered the study of 
 food in terms of "calories" is apt to prove a 
 delusion and a snare. Thus "calories" alone will 
 proclaim that one and a half pounds of starch 
 or five-eighths of a pound of oil is a sufficient 
 daily food allowance for a man. Obviously, 
 neither substance, nor any combination of the 
 two substances, would support life; though they 
 would supply heat and energy, they would not 
 prevent starvation because of lack of other food 
 elements. In fact, it has been demonstrated that 
 an animal will starve to death more quickly on 
 such mere "fuel foods" than if undergoing a 
 complete fast. The reason for this is that the 
 process of digestion and the subsequent oxidation 
 of the fuel food consumes the body store of these 
 rarer food essentials and hence results in their 
 exhaustion more quickly than when undergoing 
 a complete fast. 
 
 22 
 
Food Chemistry 
 
 This old-time chemical analysis of food as 
 protein, carbohydrates, fat, mineral salts, and in 
 calories per pound, is still valuable information 
 for those who are also informed of other and more 
 recent aspects of food science. But this mere 
 chemical analysis taken alone is not of much 
 practical use and has doubtless often been worse 
 than useless. A little knowledge is a dangerous 
 thing, and what the analytical chemist can tell 
 of foods by consulting his test tubes and without 
 studying effects on the living body, is only a 
 little of the knowledge of foods that is available 
 for us today. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 TlROADLY considered, all physiological or 
 *~* life processes relate to nutrition, and are af- 
 fected, directly or remotely, by food. Digestion 
 is most immediately and wholly related to food, 
 since digestion is the process of Converting food 
 into those substances which then become the liv- 
 ing tissue, or which supply the living tissue with 
 materials for its activities. A second group of 
 physiological functions or activities most directly 
 connected with food or nutrition, includes the 
 transformation of food elements in the liver, 
 the distribution of these elements of food in the 
 muscles, and the elimination of waste products 
 of the body through the lungs and through the 
 kidneys. 
 
 The process of digestion is primarily a chemical 
 one, but there are also mental or nervous factors 
 and physical factors to be considered. The 
 chemical process of digestion begins in the mouth 
 and continues throughout the length of the ali- 
 mentary tract. 
 
 The transformation which the food undergoes 
 
 24 
 
The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 in the different digestive organs varies with the 
 nature of the food. Thus the digestion of starch 
 begins in the mouth and is checked in the stdmach, 
 but is completed in the small intestine. On the 
 other hand, the digestion of protein occurs chiefly 
 in the stomach. Fat is digested almost wholly 
 in the intestines. 
 
 The chemical process of digestion is carried on 
 by means of enzymes or ferments, secreted by 
 the digestive glands. With these ferments, 
 which are highly complex chemical substances, 
 the digestive glands secrete simpler substances, 
 the purpose of which is to give an alkaline or an 
 acid reaction to the material being digested. 
 
 The saliva or digestive juice of the mouth is 
 weakly alkaline and contains a ferment known 
 as ptyalin, which has the power of converting 
 starch into sugar. This may be demonstrated 
 by the fact that dry bread, when thoroughly 
 masticated, develops a sweet taste. 
 
 When the food passes into the stomach it meets 
 the gastric secretions, the strong hydrochloric 
 acid of which counteracts the alkaline effect of 
 the saliva and gives the contents of the stomach 
 an acid reaction. This acid, it seems, is necessary 
 to enable the ferment pepsin to get in its work — 
 dissolving the protein elements of our food. 
 Digestion, in the stomach, is not completed, how- 
 
 25 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 ever, even for protein. The main function of 
 the stomach seems to be to act as a warehouse 
 to take care of our irregularly eaten food and to 
 dole it out in a slow and carefully regulated 
 stream to the more important digestive organ, 
 the small intestine. During this period of tem- 
 porary storage, a certain churning about and 
 thorough intermixing of the food occurs. The 
 chemical transformations, however, are of a 
 preliminary nature. We are inclined to give the 
 stomach more credit and attention because of its 
 prominence and because when overloaded it 
 makes its presence known. 
 
 Shortly after the food passes into the small 
 intestines, it encounters the very powerful diges- 
 tive ferments secreted by the pancreas and also 
 the bile from the liver. Other ferments are 
 secreted from the walls of the intestines, the total 
 effect of these secretions in the intestine being 
 to give a strong alkaline reaction and to re- 
 continue the digestion of both starch and protein 
 as well as to commence and complete the diges- 
 tion of fat. 
 
 This process of digestion continues through- 
 out the length of the small intestine which is also 
 the chief organ of absorption of the digested food 
 elements into the blood stream. 
 
 Digestion is nearly completed by the time the 
 
 26 
 
The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 stream of material reaches the colon or large 
 intestine. The function of this latter organ is 
 chiefly that of retaining the unabsorbed material 
 or food waste. 
 
 The changes which occur in the digestion of 
 the various groups of food material are essen- 
 tially as follows: Water, whether taken sepa- 
 rately, or the water contained in moist food is 
 absorbed without chemical change. This ab- 
 sorption of water may take place in any portion 
 of the alimentary tract. Water drunk between 
 meals ;is absorbed directly from the stomach. 
 The rate of absorption of water will depend upon 
 the degree of moisture of the food, or the amount 
 of water drunk with it. If the food is eaten dry, 
 water will be secreted from the blood to bring to 
 the food a suitable liquid condition. It was 
 formerly given as a generally hygienic advice 
 not to drink with meals. More recent investiga- 
 tion has shown that moderate drinking with meals 
 aids digestion, provided the drinking of water or 
 other liquid is not for the purpose of washing 
 down foods and thus preventing sufficient masti- 
 cation and salivation. 
 
 Next to water, the sugars are absorbed with 
 the least digestive change. True fruit sugars 
 undergo no chemical change for they exist in 
 fruits in the same form as the sugar in the blood. 
 
 27 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 Cane sugar (that derived from beets is chem- 
 ically the same) is a more complex substance, 
 which must be broken up into the simpler sugars 
 such as exist in fruits or in the blood. 
 
 Starch is a still more complex substance, com- 
 posed of the same primary chemical elements as 
 the sugars. Starch is not soluble. In digestion 
 it undergoes a complex process of being "hy- 
 drolized," which merely means that more hydro- 
 gen and oxygen, in the form of water enters 
 into chemical combination with the starch and so 
 changes it into sugar. There are several steps 
 of this change, the intermediate products being 
 gum-like substances called dextrins. This pro- 
 cess of the simplification of the starch molecule 
 can be partly brought about by heat. This oc- 
 curs in the toasting of bread, or more completely 
 in the manufacture of zwieback. Certain manu- 
 factured cereals are similarly treated and are 
 known as pre-digested foods. There is no evi- 
 dence, however, that this partial performance of 
 the natural digestive function outside the body 
 is any advantage to a healthy man. 
 
 We were formerly taught that the human 
 being could not digest raw starch; a view which 
 seems rather absurd as it assumes that man is 
 by nature a cooking animal. The moist cooking 
 of starch does not change it chemically but only 
 
 28 
 
The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 results in the dry starch grains swelling up to 
 a pasty-like mass. The result is that digestion 
 may occur somewhat more rapidly, but unde- 
 sirable fermentation may also occur more readily. 
 Man has power to digest starch either raw or 
 cooked, and difficulties which occur in its diges- 
 tion are probably due to the use of too great a 
 proportion of starch in the diet. 
 
 Another artificial process of "digesting" starch 
 is by means of treating it with strong acids, as 
 in the manufacture of glucose from corn-starch. 
 Chemically pure glucose is a wholesome product, 
 for it is indeed the same sugar that occurs in 
 fruits and in the blood. The commercial product 
 may contain residues of chemicals used in its 
 manufacture, though these should be properly 
 neutralized. Moreover, the commercial glucose 
 contains the gummy dextrins. The prejudice 
 against glucose as food is founded upon igno- 
 rance of its nature; it is just as good a food as 
 ordinary starch or sugar, and these are whole- 
 some food substances. The practical trouble is 
 that the present-day civilized diet already con- 
 tains too much food of this sort which crowds out 
 other essential food elements. Hence, though 
 starch, sugar, glucose, etc., are all good foods, 
 their use should be discouraged as the tendency 
 is to over-use them. 
 
 29 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 Though we do not list soap as an article of 
 food — and only feed it to small boys who have 
 been telling lies — yet a substance very akin to 
 soap is found in food as an intermediate stage 
 in the digestion of fat. Fat is insoluble, and 
 hence cannot pass through the walls of the in- 
 testine, but fat treated with alkali becomes soap 
 or is saponified, and in this soluble form passes 
 through the intestinal wall; then the alkali is 
 removed again and the fat restored, existing in 
 the blood in the form of tiny fat globules. 
 
 The digestion of protein is a very complex 
 process. Like fat, protein is not soluble, and 
 hence it is broken down into its simpler ingre- 
 dients known as amino-acids. There are a large 
 number of these and they are not alike; the 
 different combinations and proportions of these 
 amino-acids account for the different kinds of 
 proteins. This explains why all proteins are not 
 of equal value for the nourishment of the body. 
 These various amino-acids are recombined, after 
 absorption, into the various proteins needed by 
 the body. These may be like the proteins of the 
 food, but are more apt to be entirely differ- 
 ent proteins which have been made out of the 
 food proteins but with the discarding of consid- 
 erable portions of their substance. The amount 
 of protein actually needed to nourish the adult is 
 
 30 
 
The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 small, and that amount depends upon the nature 
 of the protein in the food. Some proteins taken 
 alone will not support life at all. Gelatine is one 
 of these, and for this reason it was formerly 
 thought to be without food value. It is now 
 known that gelatine has food value when com- 
 bined with other proteins which supplement the 
 particular amino-acids which the gelatine lacks. 
 
 Chemically considered, the processes of diges- 
 tion seem to be exactly like similar processes 
 which may be conducted by the scientist in his 
 test-tubes. But into the chemistry of life pro- 
 cesses a factor enters which does not exist in the 
 laboratory processes. This factor is a nervous 
 or mental one. We have long known that the 
 sight, smell or taste of food causes the "mouth 
 to water," but it is only more recently that 
 scientists have discovered that the secretions of 
 digestive juices are influenced in quality as well 
 as quantity by such nervous or mental stimula- 
 tion. 
 
 Still more remarkable, as it at first seems, not 
 only is the secretion of saliva affected in this 
 manner, but the secretion of the gastric juice is 
 also affected by the offering of food to the senses, 
 and before such food enters the stomach. Thus, 
 if meat be held up before a hungry dog, the dog's 
 stomach immediately begins the secretion of 
 
 31 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 gastric juice — and a more acid juice is secreted 
 than if the dog be offered bread. From such 
 experiments we can reason that the entire process 
 of digestion is very skillfully adapted to the 
 nature and quantity of the food. Obviously, the 
 appeal of food to the senses has only a prelimi- 
 nary effect, and such adaptation by means of 
 nerve stimuli to the secreting glands must go 
 on throughout the entire process of digestion, 
 as it does indeed throughout all physiological 
 processes. 
 
 The practical application of such knowledge 
 would seem to argue in favor of the simplifica- 
 tion of the diet and of the use of foods in their 
 more elementary or natural form. How these 
 physiological instincts can adapt themselves to 
 the highly artificial and complicated civilized diet 
 is a mystery! Indeed, they probably do not 
 adapt themselves completely, which is doubtless 
 one of the reasons why the highly complicated 
 and over-seasoned bill of fare is not as digestible 
 and wholesome as a simpler diet derived from 
 natural foods. 
 
 We are frequently told that appetizing foods 
 and the enjoyment of our meals is conducive to 
 good digestion and proper assimilation. This is 
 unquestionably true, in so far as unpalatable food 
 cloys the appetite and fails to bring forth the 
 
 32 
 
The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 proper secretion of digestive ferments. It is also 
 true that anger, intense sorrow, or other distress- 
 ing emotions will check or even entirely stop the 
 process of digestion. But this argument in favor 
 of appetizing foods may lead to trouble, if it is 
 used to encourage us in the use of too highly 
 flavored or over-seasoned foods. Such foods 
 over-stimulate the jaded appetite, and result in 
 over-eating. Obviously, such artificial flavors, 
 which disguise the true nature of the food, can 
 serve no good purpose in the adaptation of the 
 digestive secretions to the nature of the food. 
 But the worst feature of the use of over-seasoned 
 food is that the man fed upon a highly stimulat- 
 ing diet loses the power to enjoy, and hence the 
 power to digest simpler food. There is a very 
 easy cure, however, for this condition, and that 
 is genuine hunger. The over-fed gormand, who 
 has lost all power to enjoy his meals, and who 
 would sniff contemptuously at bread and butter, 
 can very readily develop an appetite for old 
 boots when a wise Providence casts him adrift 
 at sea in an unprovisioned boat. 
 
 The third factor in the process of digestion is 
 a mechanical one. Our teeth are given us for the 
 purpose of chewing food, but entirely too much 
 of our civilized dishes have already been chewed 
 by the grinding burrs of mills, or by the chemical 
 
 33 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 processing of food factories. The result is that 
 these ground-up, mixed-up and pre-digested 
 foods not only discourage the use of our teeth 
 and the accompanying process of insalivation, 
 but a mass of food enters the stomach which is 
 too finely ground and too readily soluble. In 
 the natural process of digestion, the digestive 
 solvents gradually chip off or dissolve the ex- 
 ternal portions of the food particles. But when 
 food, instead of consisting of granules or solid 
 particles of the natural food substance, is in a 
 mushy, semi-soluble condition, the entire mass is 
 attacked too rapidly by the digestive ferment, 
 but the chemical process is not completed quickly 
 enough. The result is that unwholesome fer- 
 mentations, due to the presence of bacteria, 
 occur. Such bacterial fermentation or decom- 
 position may produce various toxins or poisons. 
 
 Similar undesirable fermentations with result- 
 ing developments of poisoning or auto-intoxica- 
 tion may occur, merely because the mass of 
 digesting food moves too slowly through the in- 
 testines, or because the residue is retained too 
 long in the colon. 
 
 The remedy for both evils is to be found in the 
 use of coarser and more natural foods. The 
 outer coatings of grain, most notably wheat bran, 
 and the fibrous portions of vegetables, particu- 
 
 34 
 
The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 larly of leafy vegetables, contain a woody fibre 
 known as cellulose. This cellulose fibre is not 
 digestible and does not ferment, but passes 
 through the alimentary tract unchanged. The 
 presence of such fibre increases the bulk of the 
 food waste, especially in the latter stages of the 
 digestive process. Man was fitted by nature for 
 a diet containing a considerable portion of such 
 fibre, and when deprived of it, and particularly 
 when all food has been finely ground or pre- 
 dissolved, the result is that digestion occurs too 
 quickly in the upper portion of the digestive 
 canal, and the small undigested residue remaining 
 fails to move along with sufficient rapidity. This 
 is the explanation of the common civilized com- 
 plaint of constipation, and the associated evil 
 results of bacterial fermentation and auto-intoxi- 
 cation. 
 
 The functions of digestion thus far considered 
 in this chapter are generally understood because 
 the subject is presented in the ordinary school 
 physiology. But the processes of nutrition that 
 occur after the food elements have been absorbed 
 into the blood are not so commonly understood. 
 
 The function of the liver, we are told, is to 
 convert the sugar, which results from the diges- 
 tion of all carbohydrate foods, into a substance 
 called glycogen. This material may be stored 
 
 35 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 by the liver in moderate quantities, and in this 
 capacity the liver acts as a sort of temporary 
 warehouse to store the fuel food as digested until 
 it is required for the production of heat or ener- 
 gy of the muscles. Fat, which serves the same 
 ultimate use, is not stored in the liver, but, if 
 taken in excess of the body's immediate power to 
 consume it, must be stored as fat throughout the 
 various fatty deposits of the body. Either 
 sugar or fat may be oxidized to produce heat and 
 energy. Moreover, when carbohydrate foods are 
 eaten in excess of the body's needs, or the liver's 
 capacity for temporary storage, the resulting 
 blood sugar may also be converted into fat and 
 stored in the fatty tissues, in the same way as 
 fat derived directly from the food. 
 
 Sugar in the blood, and hence ultimately fat, 
 can also be derived from protein foods when 
 these are eaten greatly in excess of our needs. 
 This is true because the protein molecule con- 
 tains carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, the elements 
 of both sugar and fat. But the protein also con- 
 tains nitrogen, and sometimes other elements 
 which cannot be oxidized or burned. When 
 protein is eaten in excess of the body's needs, a 
 portion of it is thus wastefully used, the same as 
 carbohydrates or fats, but the nitrogen is useless 
 and must be excreted as a waste product. This 
 
 36 
 
The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 excretion occurs through the kidneys in the form 
 of urea. This disposition of excess protein must 
 not be confused with the more normal use of pro- 
 tein, which is to build up the protoplasm of active 
 cells and tissues. In the case of growth, such 
 protein actually becomes a part of the living 
 tissue. The individual cells are constantly break- 
 ing down and being replaced by others, so that 
 there is a certain process of cell growth always 
 going on, even in the adult. The protein that 
 has gone through this cycle and become part of 
 the living tissue, only later to be discarded, is 
 ultimately disposed of in the same manner as the 
 excess protein taken with food. 
 
 It is because of this fact that scientists are very 
 slow in finding out the true protein requirements 
 of the body. They formerly assumed that the 
 amount of urea excreted by the kidneys indicated 
 the amount of protein that the life processes 
 really demanded. Hence their surprise and 
 scepticism when it was discovered a few years 
 ago that a man could live, and seemingly be the 
 better for it, on from one-fourth to one-half of 
 the amount of protein formerly thought neces- 
 sary. The scientists had been particularly pos- 
 itive that the body required these larger amounts 
 of protein, because, when the amount taken in 
 the food was decreased to less than the accus- 
 
 37 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 tomed figure, the result was that more nitrogen 
 seemed to be excreted than was being taken in 
 the food. They reasoned that this nitrogen must 
 come from the living tissue, and that the man 
 was therefore consuming himself, and would 
 ultimately waste away and die of starvation. 
 The error was in the fact that the observations 
 did not continue long enough. The extra nitro- 
 gen being excreted was derived from a sort of 
 floating surplus, and when this was disposed of 
 the amount of nitrogen excreted was reduced, or, 
 as the scientists say, the nitrogen balance was 
 re-established, and maintained on a lower level. 
 
 Excess protein is not only wasted in the 
 sense that it is not utilized, but it wastes other 
 food substances because it stimulates the rate of 
 metabolism, or physiological change, and causes 
 the rate of oxidation of the body to increase dur- 
 ing its period of protein digestion and absorption. 
 This effect of protein was only recently discov- 
 ered, but it has now been shown that a man, after 
 eating heavily of meat, will generate from ten to 
 thirty per cent more heat for a period of six to 
 eight hours after such a meal of meat than he 
 would on an empty stomach. Excess protein 
 therefore wastes other foods, as this extra oxida- 
 tion does not serve any useful purpose. 
 
 Some scientists still argue that there is an 
 
 38 
 
The Physiology of Nutrition 
 
 advantage to be derived in this wasteful and 
 excess use of protein. These arguments, how- 
 ever, seem to be based upon the natural prejudice 
 in favor of the maintaining of established habits. 
 By the same line of reasoning, many people 
 argue that the eating of all food in excess of our 
 actual needs is a good thing, as it makes us "fat 
 and prosperous" with a sort of surplus bank 
 account of nutriment always on hand. 
 
 The fallacy of this view will be fully considered 
 in our chapters on "How Much to Eat" and also 
 in the chapter on "Eating to Reduce Weight." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 New Discoveries of Experimental 
 Biology 
 
 TVEOLOGY is the science of life. Very nat- 
 -" urally, the subject includes physiology, and 
 both subjects include chemistry. But in this 
 chapter we will treat of the subject^ of human 
 nutrition from what is known as the biological 
 viewpoint. This particular knowledge, which is 
 the newest knowledge we have in the field of food 
 science, is called biological, not because the knowl- 
 edge relates to life — for the older knowledge also 
 related to life — but because the methods of gain- 
 ing this recent knowledge have been those of 
 biological research or experimentation upon 
 animals. 
 
 To our earlier knowledge of foods and nutri- 
 tion, the chemists made the greater contribution. 
 They analyzed foods and determined what they 
 consisted of. As physiological chemists, they 
 likewise determined the composition of various 
 tissues, fluids, and secretions of the body. From 
 these studies, there was worked out a rather 
 wonderful understanding of the complex life 
 
 40 
 
New Discoveries of Experimental Biology 
 
 processes. Yet that understanding was not com- 
 plete. The chemist's test-tube is, at best, a poor 
 imitation of the living organ or cell, and there 
 were many facts concerning the life processes 
 which eluded the chemist altogether. 
 
 Now the experimental biologist, though he 
 may know chemistry, does not depend upon the 
 test-tube as the chief source of his knowledge. 
 Instead, he experiments on the animal. By this 
 method of biological or animal experimentation 
 many ver^ important facts have recently been 
 discovered. 
 
 These biological experimenters have discov- 
 ered for us the existence of certain food essentials, 
 sometimes called food accessories (which the 
 chemists failed to discover). These substances 
 are known as vitamines. They were not discov- 
 ered by chemists because they exist in food in 
 small quantities, and perhaps because they were 
 destroyed by the chemists in the process of their 
 food analysis. 
 
 It has been known for generations that a diet 
 of artificial and preserved foods, especially a 
 diet lacking fresh fruit, would cause a disease 
 known as scurvy. The classic remedy for scurvy 
 is the juice of citrous fruits. Fresh vegetables, 
 such as cabbage, potatoes and tomatoes will also 
 prevent or cure the disease. In fact, any mod- 
 
 41 
 
Eating foe Health and Strength 
 
 erate amount of fresh, unheated fruit or vege- 
 tables, or the use of raw milk, will prevent scurvy. 
 The disease usually occurs at sea, or in prison, 
 or among soldiers fed dry rations. There is no 
 excuse for its existence in a population that has 
 access to natural foods. 
 
 Men subject to scurvy may have ample food 
 containing sufficient carbohydrates, fats and pro- 
 tein and minerals — hence, so far as the chemists 
 could determine, an adequate diet; and yet the 
 food lacked something or was deficient, and this 
 deficiency caused the disease. Whatever was 
 missing was supplied in the fresh fruit juices or 
 other foods used to relieve scurvy. I cite the 
 example of scurvy first, as the disease and the 
 means of curing it have been longest known. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the discovery of vitamines 
 occurred through researches concerning beri-beri. 
 This disease was at one time a terrible scourge 
 in the Japanese navy, but existed elsewhere in 
 the Orient among the poorer classes whose diet 
 was simple and monotonous. It was discovered 
 some years ago that the use of polished rice as a 
 chief article of diet was responsible for this 
 disease, and that it could be prevented by the 
 use of unpolished rice, from which the natural 
 bran and germ had not been removed. Here 
 again, as in the case of the relief of scurvy with 
 
 42 
 
New Discoveries of Experimental Biology 
 
 orange juice, the addition of some food ingredient 
 which had escaped detection by the chemists 
 prevented the disease. 
 
 Scientists found that pigeons, if fed on polished 
 rice or similar denatured cereals, developed a 
 condition of paralysis known as poly-neuritis — 
 a disease similar to beri-beri — and that the disease 
 could be prevented or cured by adding rice 
 polishings to the diet. The substance added, the 
 exact chemical nature of which was unknown, 
 was called a vitamine. By experimenting upon 
 various foods it was possible to determine what 
 foods contained this vitamine, and what foods did 
 not contain it. 
 
 In the first edition of my book: "Strength from 
 Eating," published in 1901, I gave an account 
 of the feeding of pigeons upon a diet of pure 
 starches, fat and carbohydrates. As I then re- 
 ported: "These pigeons took their food regu- 
 larly, but soon lost all liveliness and sat dumb 
 and motionless on the bars of their cages. On 
 the twenty-first day one of them had a fit, and 
 both refused to eat. One died on the twent}^- 
 sixth day and the other on the thirty-first day, 
 both from fits. . . . The nervous system was 
 most affected, resulting in a sort of paralysis." 
 
 This experiment, reported by me several years 
 before the discovery of vitamines, was evidently 
 
 43 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 a case of the poly-neuritis or paralysis now so 
 commonly observed in pigeons and some other 
 animals fed on denatured foods, and akin to the 
 disease, beri-beri, in man. At that time I attrib- 
 uted the trouble to lack of mineral salts in the 
 diet, for vitamines had never been heard of. As 
 far as practical results are concerned I was right, 
 for whatever may be the exact chemical nature 
 of vitamines, in practice they are found to be 
 usually absent from diets that are also deficient 
 in minerals. 
 
 A third vitamine has been discovered by similar 
 experiments. The absence of this third vitamine 
 results in generally faulty nutrition, and specifi- 
 cally in a disease of the eyes known as Xeroph- 
 thalmia. The substance which protects against 
 this disease is known as the fat soluble vitamine. 
 It is abundant in the fat of milk or butter or the 
 fat of egg yolk, and in the fat of animal glands, 
 such as liver and kidneys. It is not found in 
 vegetable fats or oils. It is found, though in less 
 abundance, in the leaves of plants, presumably 
 associated with the green coloring matter. The 
 cow gets her fat-soluble vitamine from the green 
 grass she eats ; and the more green grass she eats, 
 the yellower the butter — a seeming scientific veri- 
 fication of our notion that yellow butter is the 
 best butter. Obviously, the kind that is yellowed 
 
 44 
 
New Discoveries of Experimental Biology 
 
 with artificial dyes does not count in this scale 
 of quality. 
 
 I have mentioned three vitamines, the absence 
 of which from the diet causes the three diseases: 
 scurvy, beri-beri and this eye disease with the 
 unpronounceable name. It is not that these 
 particular diseases are of great importance, for 
 most of us have never heard of them, but the 
 discovery of vitamines is important as a warning 
 against the possibilities of the diet being defici- 
 ent in small amounts of food essentials, the lack 
 of which may result in faulty nutrition, or per- 
 haps cause diseases, or make us susceptible to 
 diseases which we have hitherto attributed to 
 other causes. 
 
 It is important, also, for us to realize that 
 the mere chemical analysis of food does not tell 
 the whole truth about foods. The discovery of 
 the vitamines has indeed been a great stimulus 
 to research in all phases of nutrition. Previous 
 to this event, those who had studied food chem- 
 istry and could tell the percentages of carbohy- 
 drates, protein and fat, and the number of cal- 
 ories per pound thought they knew all there 
 was to know upon the subject. Those of us who 
 had studied the food question from a more prac- 
 tical, human standpoint had observed much evi- 
 dence of the superiority of natural foods. The 
 
 45 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 discovery of the vitamines backs, with scientific 
 fact and theory, these more practical human 
 observations. 
 
 The following account of an experiment in 
 the feeding of rats will serve to show the method 
 of these biological researches in food science. 
 Rats were fed from weaning time on, exclusively 
 upon a diet consisting of — 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Bolted wheat flour 20 
 
 Degerminated cornmeal 10 
 
 Cooked and dried potato 30 
 
 Peas 10 
 
 Navy beans 10 
 
 Beets 5 
 
 Turnips 5 
 
 Cooked and dried beefsteak 10 
 
 This diet affords a sufficient variety of food and, 
 for the rats at least, was entirely palatable. As 
 far as chemical analysis can show, the diet seems 
 to be nutritious and well balanced. Note that 
 it is not exclusively vegetarian, but contains ten 
 per cent of beef by dry weight. Since beef is 
 about sixty per cent water, this would mean a 
 considerably larger proportion, by weight, of 
 fresh meat. From this proportion of meat, and 
 the peas and beans, the rats unquestionably 
 would derive sufficient protein. In short, accord- 
 ing to the old ideas of food chemistry, this would 
 seem to be a suitable diet for the growth and 
 
 46 
 
New Discoveries of Experimental Biology 
 
 sustenance of rats, which are omnivorous creat- 
 ures whose nutritional needs are very similar to 
 those of man. 
 
 Yet rats fed on the above diet did not thrive. 
 In fact, they were barely able to maintain life at 
 all and never grew to more than two-thirds their 
 normal size. Even this growth was slow, and 
 before the rats were one-quarter through the 
 normal life-span of the species, these individuals 
 were rough-looking and thin-haired and had all 
 appearance of extreme old age. Such rats pro- 
 duced but few, if any young, and never succeeded 
 in keeping these alive through the nursing period. 
 
 But when there was added to this diet about 
 ten per cent of milk (by dry weight) the entire 
 results were changed. This addition of milk 
 makes the diet complete and wholesome, and the 
 rats fed thereon grew rapidly, reached their full 
 size, reproduced their kind, and lived out the 
 normal span of rat life as healthy, well-nourished 
 individuals. A similar improvement to the above 
 diet for rats can be secured by the addition of 
 leafy vegetables, such as spinach, cabbage, turnip 
 tops, etc. 
 
 The chief deficiencies in the experimental diet 
 is probably that of both the fat-soluble and the 
 water-soluble vitamines and of mineral, partic- 
 ularly calcium, needed for bone growth. All 
 
 47 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 these elements may be supplied either from whole 
 milk or from leafy vegetables. 
 
 The diet which proved so disastrous for these 
 rats is not very different from the diet used by a 
 great portion of our population. At least the 
 bulk of conventional food is of a similar nature, 
 consisting largely of refined cereal products, po- 
 tatoes or other root vegetables and meat. That 
 similar disastrous results do not occur more 
 frequently in human experience is merely be- 
 cause the diet is not held rigidly to such foods, 
 but includes at least some variety of fruits, leafy 
 vegetables and dairy products or eggs. 
 
 The biological method of research by animal 
 experimentation has thrown much light upon the 
 importance of the various mineral salts. While 
 the presence of these minerals in food was known 
 to the chemists, they were not able to tell us in 
 just what quantities they were needed, nor in 
 just what form. Indeed, it is impossible for the 
 chemist to find this out, for he changes the form 
 of the minerals from organic to inorganic in the 
 process of his analysis. By animal experimenta- 
 tion it is possible to determine what minerals are 
 essential and from what foods they may best be 
 derived. Indeed, this experimentation may be 
 extended to human beings; thus, at the time of 
 the present writing, the food experts of Colum- 
 
 48 
 
New Discoveries of Experimental Biology 
 
 bia University are conducting researches to de- 
 termine the amount of calcium necessary for the 
 proper growth of children. This calcium, needed 
 for bone growth, can best be secured from milk. 
 While no intelligent man, who was not poverty 
 driven, would deprive his child of the milk needed 
 for its growth, yet, among the poorer classes 
 of our large cities, children are frequently stunted 
 and diseased by just such deprivation. There- 
 fore, the scientific determination of the quantity 
 of milk needed will presumably be of importance 
 in arousing legislation to protect these children. 
 
 A further fund of information which these 
 biological experimenters have uncovered relates 
 to the relative value of various protein foods. 
 
 In the previous chapters I have mentioned the 
 fact that proteins are highly complex substances, 
 composed of many similar but distinct chemical 
 compounds known as the amino-acids. The chem- 
 ists were able to discover these amino-acids and 
 to determine the various percentages of each con- 
 tained in the various proteins. But this informa- 
 tion was of no particular use, because the chem- 
 ists could not find out in what proportion the 
 living body required these numerous substances. 
 
 It was here that the biological experimenters 
 took up the problem by feeding experiments. 
 They found out some surprising facts about the 
 
 49 
 
Eating foe Health and Strength 
 
 relative value of protein from various sources. 
 In one test, rats were given a diet complete and 
 well balanced in respect of fats, carbohydrates, 
 mineral salts and vitamines. To such a diet the 
 protein from a single food would be given until 
 an amount was found which was just sufficient 
 to maintain the weight of the experimental 
 animal. The following table shows the amount 
 of protein from various sources needed to keep 
 up such weight : 
 
 TABLE 
 
 Per cent of 
 the entire food 
 
 Milk protein 3 
 
 Oats protein 4.5 
 
 Corn protein 6 
 
 Wheat protein 6 
 
 Rice protein 6 
 
 Flaxseed protein 8 
 
 Bean protein 12 
 
 Pea protein 12 
 
 A somewhat similar experiment was conducted 
 in feeding young pigs; but in this case the pro- 
 tein was supplied in abundance and the amount 
 retained or converted into living tissue by the 
 pigs was determined. The figures are as follows : 
 
 TABLE 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Corn protein 20 
 
 Wheat protein 23 
 
 Oat protein 26 
 
 Milk protein 63 
 
 50 
 
New Discoveries of Experimental Biology 
 
 These results show how dangerous it is to de- 
 pend upon chemical analysis alone in matters 
 of food science. From both experiments, the 
 great superiority of milk protein was revealed. 
 We also observe beans and peas were not so 
 highly rated as sources of protein, really not 
 supplying any more net protein to the body than 
 the cereals, which the chemist tells us contain 
 only about half so much protein, but which the 
 biologist finds to be twice as well utilized. 
 
 Although the data is not available in regard to 
 all foods, we have sufficient facts to warrant us 
 to believe that the natural animal foods — milk 
 products and eggs — supply the highest grade of 
 protein. The protein from meats is more avail- 
 able than that from vegetables, but there are 
 other objections to meat that do not apply to 
 milk and eggs. Of proteins of vegetable origin, 
 we have reason to believe that the best are de- 
 rived from the active growing cells of plant life, 
 rather than from the stored protein in the dried 
 seed. Those seeds which contain the' greatest 
 quantity of protein seem to have protein of the 
 poorest quality, and it is, therefore, a mistake to 
 attempt to derive our protein from beans, peas, 
 nuts, etc. We need little protein; hence we 
 should get it from the very best sources, and 
 these are unquestionably milk, cheese and eggs. 
 
 51 *" 
 
CHAPTER V 
 What to Eat 
 
 IN this chapter we will consider the dietetic 
 * values of various foods. Our estimate of the 
 worth of various foods, or groups of foods, will 
 take into consideration all scientific facts dis- 
 cussed in the last three chapters, that is, the 
 chemical analysis, digestibility and effect upon 
 the digestive action, and also the question of the 
 presence or deficiency of vitamines, etc. But in 
 this chapter we will consider the foods for their 
 qualitative worth only. The questions of pro- 
 portioning the food, and of the total quantity of 
 food to be used will then be considered in the 
 two chapters that follow. 
 
 In considering the entire list of human foods, 
 the simplest and most natural grouping or divi- 
 sion is that of animal versus vegetable foods. The 
 question of vegetarianism is indeed the oldest, 
 and has been the most discussed of all food 
 problems. Modern scientists insist that man is 
 omnivorous — that is, that he can eat and can, if 
 necessary, live on either vegetable or animal 
 foods, or a combination of the two. In this re- 
 
 52 
 
What to Eat 
 
 spect he differs, on one hand, from such species 
 as the cow or horse, which are obviously vege- 
 tarian; and on the other hand, from the lion or 
 wolf, which are strictly carnivorous. Man shares 
 this omnivorous habit with many other species. 
 To mention familiar examples: the rat, the pig 
 and the chicken. 
 
 Man, like other omnivorous species, has teeth 
 and digestive organs that are intermediate be- 
 tween the strictly vegetarian and the strictly 
 carnivorous species. Many students of the sub- 
 ject, have, however, questioned the fact that man 
 is naturally a meat-eating animal. They hold 
 the view that his teeth and digestive organs are 
 adapted to a diet of fruits and nuts, which are 
 unquestionably the chief items of food eaten by 
 man's nearest kin, the apes, and therefore, pre- 
 sumably, by man's ape-like ancestors. These 
 two views are not as divergent as they may at 
 first seem, for most apes probably add to their 
 nut and fruit diet birds' eggs, and perhaps some 
 insects and lizards. 
 
 All things considered, we are safe in assuming 
 that man's natural diet was predominantly a 
 vegetarian one, with a smaller proportion of 
 foods of animal origin. The two chief changes 
 in the diet of civilized man are the inclusion of 
 meat from larger animals, and hence in larger 
 
 53 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 quantities, and the use of grains or cereals. 
 Neither of these types of foods which make up 
 the bulk of man's present diet were available to 
 his ape-like ancestors. The use of weapons and 
 of fire accounted for the addition of meat, and 
 the development of agriculture and devices for 
 the harvesting and milling of grain made pos- 
 sible the second addition. Such resources greatly- 
 increased the total foods available for man, and 
 largely accounted for the increase of the species, 
 and the establishment of the human animal as the 
 ruler of the earth. 
 
 It does not follow, however, that the diet con- 
 sisting chiefly of meat and grain is the most 
 wholesome and beneficial diet that man can use. 
 Indeed, present-day scientific knowledge indi- 
 cates that such a diet is not the best, and that 
 while it has advantages of economy, its use has 
 only been possible because it has been supple- 
 mented by animal products, such as milk and 
 eggs, and by a considerable variety of vegetable 
 foods other than grains. 
 
 No one today among civilized men advocates 
 an exclusive meat diet, except where prescribed 
 for the treatment of consumption and other 
 diseases. Indeed, no men have ever existed upon 
 it, except the Eskimos, and their rather miserable 
 existence has been possible only by the abundant 
 
 54 
 
What to Eat 
 
 use of the internal organs of animals — a diet 
 which no civilized man would care to adopt. The 
 meat diet may have advantages to the Eskimo 
 not only because the fat gives him large quanti- 
 ties of fuel to keep him warm, but because lean 
 meat stimulates the rate of heat production in 
 the body during the process of its digestion. 
 
 On the other hand, many races and groups of 
 men have existed upon an exclusively vegetarian 
 diet. The consensus of opinion today is that the 
 best diet for man is what is known as the lacto- 
 vegetarian diet, that is, a diet consisting of foods 
 of vegetable origin, supplemented by milk (and 
 milk products ) , or milk and eggs. 
 
 Moderate quantities of meat foods may be used 
 in the diet without materially changing its effect. 
 And remember that lamb, veal, and pig of all 
 kinds should especially be avoided. When you 
 actually need meat, beef is probably the best kind 
 to select, though mutton can sometimes be recom- 
 mended. My favorite meat is the top cut of 
 "round" steak ground up and boiled for one or 
 two minutes in a few spoonfuls of water or until 
 the red color disappears. It is also palatable 
 broiled. Chicken and fish are also desirable 
 meats, but not as nourishing as beef. 
 
 Meat, however, is inferior to milk and eggs in 
 most cases — there are exceptions. Both groups 
 
 55 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 of food supply growth proteins of superior qual- 
 ity to those derived from any vegetable foods, 
 but meat is deficient in minerals and in vitamines. 
 A diet consisting of a goodly variety of vege- 
 tables, including an abundance of green leafy 
 vegetables, and containing a small proportion of 
 meat, will support life without the use of milk. 
 This indeed is the type of diet upon which 
 Chinese and Japanese have subsisted for centu- 
 ries. Population is too congested in those coun- 
 tries to permit of the keeping of dairy herds; 
 they do, however, keep poultry, and hence eat 
 eggs. But this Oriental diet is not equal, espec- 
 ially from the standpoint of the nourishment of 
 children, to the diet available in dairying coun- 
 tries. Recognizing this fact, the Japanese Gov- 
 ernment has made every effort to increase the 
 dairy industry in their crowded land, and in lieu 
 of their inability to produce sufficient milk, the 
 Japanese import condensed milk from other 
 countries. 
 
 Meat adds no essential food values that can not 
 be derived more cheaply from other sources if 
 the digestive organs are normal. As used in the 
 conventional American diet, meat supplies en- 
 tirely too much protein, which sometimes results 
 in overburdening the excretory organs with nitro- 
 genous waste products. Moreover, meat con- 
 
 56 
 
What to Eat 
 
 tains the waste products of the animal and these 
 substances are very similar to the waste from 
 human cells, though with a healthy digestion this 
 is easily eliminated in the alimentary canal. 
 
 For the further consideration of foods of 
 vegetable origin, we can divide them in the fol- 
 lowing groups : 
 
 Grains and Grain Products 
 
 Roots or Tubers 
 
 Leafy Vegetables 
 
 Fruits 
 
 Nuts 
 
 Extracted Oils 
 
 Extracted or Manuiactured Sugars 
 
 All of the above groups of foods are whole- 
 some and may be included in the diet, but they 
 are not equally complete, or of equal dietetic 
 worth. Some of these foods, while harmless if 
 used in moderate quantities and in proper com- 
 bination with other foods, result in a seriously 
 deficient diet if used in such proportions as to 
 crowd out other groups. 
 
 Because of the mistakes of flour manufacturers 
 all grains and grain products could be entirely 
 eliminated from the human diet, and thereby 
 decrease the danger of dietetic deficiencies and 
 inadequate nutrition. But it is difficult to do this 
 because grains and their products supply the 
 great bulk of human food. Indeed it would not 
 
 57 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 t>e possible, without revolutionary changes in our 
 agriculture and food producing methods, to sup- 
 port the human race without the use of grain. 
 
 Grains are the seeds of various grass plants. 
 The bulk of the substance of all grains is starch. 
 Together with this starch is incorporated from 
 eight to fifteen per cent of vegetable protein. 
 This protein we will ignore in the present dis- 
 cussion as it is not of a very high order of nutritive 
 value and better protein may be derived from 
 other sources. The starchy substance of grain 
 may be ground up to produce flours and meals 
 which keep well and which are the basis of our 
 bread-making and baking arts. In addition to 
 this starchy portion, which fills the endosperm 
 or bulky interior of the grain, all grains have an 
 outer coating of bran, and also a germ. The 
 milling industry adopted the practice of remov- 
 ing both bran and germ. There were several 
 reasons for this. In the first place, the bran and 
 germ cannot be ground as fine as the starchy 
 interior of the grain. Also, they are usually 
 darker in color. Therefore the inclusion of the 
 bran and germ produces a coarser, darker flour. 
 The refined flour from which these elements of 
 grain have been removed is whiter and finer and, 
 incidentally, will make a lighter, airier loaf of 
 bread. Such a flour appealed to the fastidious 
 
 58 
 
What to Eat 
 
 taste of the housewife; hence as they developed 
 machinery with which to manufacture it, the 
 millers vied with each other in the production of 
 the whitest, finest flour possible. Another reason 
 that favored the production of this super-refined 
 flour was that the exclusion of the germ made 
 the flour of better keeping qualities. The germ 
 contains a small proportion of oil, and if the flour 
 was stale, this oil became slightly rancid, giving 
 the flour a strong flavor. 
 
 In the manufacture of degerminated cornmeal, 
 both the bran and the germ are removed. While 
 rice is never ground, this same idea of a white 
 and seemingly pure product resulted in the de- 
 velopment of the process of polishing, in which 
 the bran and germ are rubbed off the grain. 
 
 In all these cases, the removal of the bran and 
 germ results in a serious loss in nutritive values. 
 The interior white portion of the grain is almost 
 entirely devoid of minerals and vitamines. These 
 are more abundant in the bran and germ ; more- 
 over, the bran, especially in the case of wheat, is 
 exceedingly valuable to give bulk to the diet and 
 prevent constipation or intestinal congestion. 
 
 If white flour and similar denatured cereal 
 products were used only in small quantities and 
 combined with ample quantities of milk and 
 green vegetables, it is probable that no serious 
 
 59 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 harm would come from their use. But, as these 
 cereal products, in the form of bread and other 
 bakery goods usually compose a large portion of 
 the diet, a denaturing of the grain in the milling 
 process is a very serious evil. Even though the 
 use of the denatured product might be tolerated 
 with the precautions above mentioned, the dis- 
 carding of the bran and germ is a serious eco- 
 nomic waste, for it must be replaced with similar 
 nutrients from other and more expensive sources. 
 
 By all means, I heartily advise the use of whole 
 wheat and whole wheat products, of cornmeal 
 made from the whole grain, and of unpolished 
 rice. These natural cereal products contain the 
 coarser fibre substance of the bran, and the min- 
 erals and vitamines of the germ, and are unques- 
 tionably more nearly complete foods than the 
 refined products. Used with whole milk or milk 
 and butter, the entire grain cereals, particularly 
 wheat, make a practically complete diet. Such 
 a combination is one of the cheapest and most 
 palatable diets possible and may be safely used 
 as the basis or bulk of any low-cost diet. 
 
 In cases where there is too much fermentation 
 in stomach and bowels, bread of any kind is often 
 troublesome. This is especially true where there 
 are catarrhal conditions of nose, throat and lungs. 
 And this reference applies more particularly to 
 
 60 
 
What to Eat 
 
 breads made of yeast or other similar ferments. 
 Unleavened bread is not so objectionable, though 
 a diet devoid of breads of any kind is often de- 
 sirable in cases like this. Zwieback can be ex- 
 cepted, as its fermentative elements are destroyed 
 in the prolonged cooking process to which it is 
 exposed. 
 
 Roots and tubers, of which the potato is the 
 most used, are somewhat similar to grain in com- 
 position. In either case, the bulk of the food 
 material is starch — or, in the case of beets and 
 sweet potatoes, starch may be in part replaced by 
 sugar. But the root vegetables are moist, and 
 contain from seventy-five to eighty-five per cent 
 of water. If roots are dried, they then become 
 quite similar in composition to dry cereal prod- 
 ucts. 
 
 The natural roots contain considerably more 
 minerals than do the refined cereals. The pro- 
 portion of the various minerals are different in 
 different root vegetables. Turnips, for illustra- 
 tion, are very rich in calcium. Taken as a group, 
 the root vegetables are equal or superior to 
 whole wheat as a source of minerals. Like the 
 grains, the root vegetables are devoid of the fat- 
 soluble vitamine which is found in butter or milk 
 fat, in the egg yolks and in green leaves. The 
 addition of potatoes or other root vegetables to 
 
 61 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 a diet of grains and meat does not, therefore, 
 make the diet complete. 
 
 The root vegetables should by all means be 
 used in the diet in moderate proportions. They 
 supply cheap and nourishing fuel food in the 
 form of starch and sugar combined with fibrous 
 or cellulose matter, and a variety of mineral salts. 
 The fact that such vegetables are marketed in a 
 moist condition makes them palatable, and per- 
 mits of their being cooked and served in a variety 
 of pleasing and tasty ways. Moreover, the mill- 
 ers have not gotten in their work of refining them 
 and removing their more valuable ingredients. 
 
 The leafy vegetables have many attributes to 
 recommend them. On the whole, present scien- 
 tific knowledge rates them as the most essential 
 foods known, with the exception of milk and eggs. 
 This does not mean that leafy vegetables would 
 do as the whole diet of man. Indeed, they are 
 so bulky that a man would have difficulty in eat- 
 ing enough of them to sustain life. But their use 
 to supplement other foods and prevent the defi- 
 ciencies of our conventional foods cannot be too 
 highly recommended. 
 
 The essential qualities of leafy foods are : first, 
 the vitamines, all of which seem to be present in 
 leaves; second, the minerals, in which leaves are 
 very rich ; and third, in the presence of cellulose, 
 
 62 
 
What to Eat 
 
 which gives bulk to the food in the same way that 
 wheat bran does. Leaves are also richer in pro- 
 tein than grains or roots, and this protein is 
 probably more available than the stored protein 
 of dry vegetable food. 
 
 As an illustration of the mineral value of 
 leaves, spinac h contains more phosphorus, cal- 
 cium and iron in proportion to its other food 
 ingredients than any other food of which we 
 have the analysis. Lettuce ranks as a very close 
 second. Cabbage, in which the leaf is not quite 
 so active, has only about half as much mineral 
 as spinach. But all these leafy foods out -rank 
 in their proportion of mineral ingredients any 
 of the foods derived from grains, fruits, nuts or 
 meat. They are equalled only by milk, cheese 
 and eggs. 
 
 It does not, of course, follow that all leaves 
 are suitable for human food. The leaves usually 
 used are the tender leaves of quick-growing 
 vegetables. The leaves of trees usually contain 
 tannin or other substances that are either un- 
 wholesome or unpalatable. Leaves may also 
 have too much cellulose or fibre to be palatable. 
 For this reason we prefer the quickly grown 
 tender leaf and have selected for garden cultiva- 
 tion the tender and more tasty varieties. Tea 
 leaves are an illustration of the use of a leaf as a 
 
 63 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 food which is hardly in keeping with the recom- 
 mendations of leaves here given. The tea leaf is 
 nearly as strong in tannin as the oak leaf and, like 
 the coffee berry contains an alkaloid narcotic 
 peculiar to the species. 
 
 The edible leaves, in their fresh condition, con- 
 tain large amounts of water. Hence, they should 
 not be valued too highly per pound, as it is only 
 the dry weight that counts as food. However, as 
 leaves are not to be relied upon for the fuel sup- 
 ply of the diet, this watery condition or low 
 calory rating does not count heavily against them. 
 
 The high value of leaves as food is attributed 
 to the fact that they contain the active, growing 
 cells of the plant. This same thing is true of 
 buds and very tender shoots, or of seed-pods in 
 the immature stages of development. Thus 
 asparagus tips and string beans may, for prac- 
 tical purposes, be considered in the leafy vege- 
 table group of foods. Some of these same 
 attributes are found in the immature green corn 
 or green pea. 
 
 There are a few vegetables in which the por- 
 tion used as food consists of a tender stalk. For 
 illustration: celery and rhubarb, or pie-plant. 
 These tender stalks rank between the root vege- 
 tables and the leaves in food quality. 
 
 There are a few foods classed as vegetables 
 
 64 
 
What to Eat 
 
 commercially which botanically rank as fruits; 
 such as melons, tomatoes, cucumbers and the 
 egg-plant. Melons have no particular food 
 value; they consist chiefly of sugar and water. 
 The cucumber is about as devoid of food value 
 as any substance eaten by man. The pulp of 
 pumpkins and squashes ranks somewhat lower 
 than the poorest root vegetables. The value of 
 the pumpkin pie is in the milk and egg. 
 
 The tomato, on the other hand, is a distinctive 
 and valuable food, being rich in minerals and in 
 organic acids. 
 
 Fresh fruits, considered for the food substance 
 contained, are the most expensive of all foods. 
 This expense is due to the fact that fresh fruits 
 contain very large quantities of water. Dried 
 fruits are of much greater value per pound. 
 Such foods as dates, figs, raisins and prunes, even 
 considered from the standpoint of their caloric 
 or fuel value, are worth nearly as much as dried 
 cereals. In all other attributes they excel cere- 
 als. In the first place, their fuel substance is in* 
 the form of sugar, and this natural sugar, unlike 
 that from the cane or beet, is already in the form 
 in which it may be absorbed directly into the 
 blood; hence, is less likely to ferment in the di- 
 gestive organs. Secondly, fruits contain min- 
 erals which are absent from refined sugar. Fruits 
 
 65 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 also contain a proper amount of fibre or cellulose 
 which aids digestion. Lastly, fruits contain 
 organic acids which, strange to say, actually pre- 
 vent an acid condition of the blood. This seem- 
 ing contradiction is due to the fact that the 
 organic fruit acids are really acid salts formed 
 of a combination of organic acids with basic or 
 alkaline minerals. In the process of digestion 
 and assimilation, the organic acids are oxidized, 
 freeing the alkaline salts for new combinations 
 which serve to neutralize the harmful acids devel- 
 oped by the physiological processes. 
 
 The vitamine content of fruits has not been 
 fully investigated, but we know that the juice of 
 limes or oranges is a remedy for scurvy, and we 
 may safely assume that fruits contain the water- 
 soluble vitamine. Fruits are probably deficient 
 in the fat-soluble vitamine, which seems to be 
 supplied in abundance only from milk or egg fat, 
 or from green vegetables. 
 
 No scientific consideration of the subject can 
 fully portray the dietetic value of fruits; for 
 above all other foods, their value lies in the flavor 
 or appetizing quality, and the consequent pleas- 
 ure to be derived from their use. Fruits are the 
 natural dessert and should be used as such. With 
 the possible exception of dates, figs and raisins, 
 fruits are not to be considered as suitable for 
 
What to Eat 
 
 forming any great bulk of the diet, or replacing 
 other food groups. But these sweet fruits may 
 be very profitably used in the place of artificial 
 sugars, and also to cut down the quantity of 
 cereal starch. 
 
 Nuts are botanically similar to grains or dried 
 legumes in that they are the seeds of plants. 
 We, therefore, assume the nut to be deficient in 
 vitamines and minerals as are other seeds; but 
 nuts differ markedly from grain in that the 
 stored fuel food is predominantly in the form of 
 fat instead of in starch. This makes the nut 
 about twice as valuable, even as a source of fuel. 
 A certain portion of fat is necessary in the diet 
 as a matter of palatability. 
 
 Nuts have played a prominent part in all vege- 
 tarian menus. The high rating so given them was 
 originally due to the fact that they are the rich- 
 est in protein of any vegetable foods, with the 
 possible exception of beans and peas. From our 
 present knowledge we do not rate this protein so 
 highly, both because we now realize that the body 
 does not need so much protein, and because we 
 now know that vegetable proteins are not as 
 assimilable by man as protein of animal origin. 
 Thus it would seem that our recent knowledge 
 indicates that we formerly placed too high a value 
 upon nuts. This much may still be said in their 
 
 67 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 favor: the nut protein is free from any of the 
 toxic waste products that may be present in flesh 
 foods. Also the fat of nuts is exceedingly nutri- 
 tious and wholesome and has a decided advantage 
 from the standpoint of digestibility over the 
 animal fats which are used in frying or in the 
 making of pastry. 
 
 Nuts should be used in the diet as a food, not 
 as a relish; that is, they should be a part of the 
 meal and not taken in addition to the meal. Nut 
 meats should be thoroughly masticated, as they 
 are not digestible when swallowed in large par- 
 ticles. 
 
 While nuts are not essential to the diet, they 
 are a pleasing and tasty food and may be very 
 profitably used in moderate quantities, especially 
 in those diets from which meats and animal fats 
 are eliminated. 
 
 Extracted fats or oils, whether of animal or 
 vegetable origin, have no food value whatever 
 except as a source of fuel. In this respect, pure 
 oil is worth about two and one-quarter times as 
 much as sugar, or two and one-half times as much 
 as dry cereals. No diet is palatable and pre- 
 sumably is not wholesome without some propor- 
 tion of fat. The best source of fat in food is in 
 the form of the emulsified fat of milk, cream or 
 egg yolks — or in a somewhat more concentrated 
 
 68 
 
What to Eat 
 
 condition in butter and cheese. In all these 
 cases the fat contains the highly important fat- 
 soluble vitamine which does not exist in such fats 
 as lard, cotton-seed oil or oleomargarine. 
 
 The second preferable form of fat is that of 
 nuts. The amount of extracted nut fat to be used 
 in the diet will depend upon the amounts used in 
 the above-mentioned and preferred forms. I 
 should say that, in a meatless diet, the use of 
 niilk, butter, eggs and nuts would supply all 
 the fat actually needed, but that an additional 
 amount may be used in the form of oil, either 
 alone or combined with other ingredients, as 
 salad dressings. 
 
 Where fat is used in all the above-mentioned 
 forms, the additional use of fat in the frying of 
 foods or in the concocting of rich pastries is a 
 wasteful and harmful habit. In the first place, 
 such additional fat is not needed and is therefore 
 inclined to over-enrich the diet and lead to over- 
 eating. Secondly, the combination of fat with 
 starch and sugar, either in frying or when mixed 
 with the ingredients, results in a product which 
 is notoriously difficult of digestion. Thirdly, 
 such fats are absolutely devoid of minerals, pro- 
 teins and vitamines, and hence their use increases 
 the danger of deficiency of some of these most 
 essential elements. 
 
 69 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 All that has been said about the surplus use 
 of fat in cooking applies to the use of fat meat. 
 It has nothing to recommend it at all, except that 
 of being a source of fuel energy in a most con- 
 centrated form. Its use may be excusable in the 
 diet of the Eskimo, or other men doing severe 
 work in rigorous climates, but for the ordinary 
 American, especially if he be an indoor worker, 
 the use of fat meat or excessive fat in any form 
 is a dietetic evil. 
 
 Many of the arguments above given against 
 the use of fat apply to the use of ordinary com- 
 mercial sugar. In the plants from which sugar 
 is derived, it is at least combined with mineral 
 salts, cellulose and the water-soluble vitamines. 
 But in the refining process, all these elements 
 are discarded and we have chemically pure sugar. 
 We have no reason to believe that sugar in itself 
 is any other than a wholesome food, but the 
 trouble is that we add it to a diet of refined 
 cereals, meats, potatoes, and refined fats, all of 
 which are already deficient. This addition of 
 sugar merely results in increasing the proportion 
 of such deficiency. 
 
 If any one of the deficient foods enumerated in 
 this chapter were the sole offender in a diet other- 
 wise made up of natural foods, there would be 
 little occasion for concern over its use. But when 
 
 TO 
 
What to Eat 
 
 the millers rob us of the minerals and vitamines 
 of our grains, and we then add large quantities 
 of refined fats and sugars, the danger of food 
 deficiency is very real. It may be possible to pro- 
 tect against such deficiencies by the use of milk 
 and green vegetables, but the wiser plan would 
 be to use also natural whole grain products, and 
 to cut down the quantity of refined fats and 
 sugars to the minimum amount necessary to pre- 
 pare our food in palatable form. Even this last 
 suggestion is merely a concession to convention, 
 for it is entirely possible to select a diet contain- 
 ing dairy products, nuts and sweet fruits from 
 which refined fats and sugars may be eliminated 
 altogether. 
 
 71 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 Balancing the Diet 
 
 TN addition to knowing which are the better 
 * foods to use, it is important that we should 
 have some idea of the proportions in which to use 
 them and how to combine them into tasty menus 
 which shall also form an adequate or complete 
 diet. 
 
 The most common fault in the American bill 
 of fare is' the over-use of meats, denatured grain 
 foods (including breads, pastries and "cereal" 
 dishes), potatoes, and refined sugars and fats. 
 
 The simplest remedy for this fault is the de- 
 crease of the foods mentioned, and the increased 
 proportions of milk, butter, cheese and eggs and 
 of leafy vegetables. The increased use of natural 
 whole cereals, fruits, nuts and a general assort- 
 ment of vegetables, while not so important as 
 the milk and greens, is generally beneficial and 
 advisable. 
 
 Any menus prepared with these facts in mind 
 will not be far wrong. 
 
 In considering the subject of proportioning 
 and combining the foods, we should distinguish 
 
 72 
 
 
Balancing the Diet 
 
 between the matter of food combinations in a 
 single dish or a single meal, and the question of 
 the combinations or proportions of various foods 
 in the general diet over longer periods. 
 
 Our reasons for considering the more immedi- 
 ate combinations is either a matter of taste and 
 palatability or a question of the digestibility of 
 foods eaten together, or eaten at the same meal. 
 This question of immediate combination of foods 
 has little to do with the balancing of the diet as 
 a whole. The body has power to store the various 
 elements of nutrition for a considerable period; 
 therefore it is not necessary that we use all essen- 
 tial groups of nutritive elements in the same 
 meal, or even in the same day. A breakfast made 
 of sweet fruits and nuts, a dinner with an ample 
 proportion of green vegetables, and a supper 
 with an adequate quantity of milk would be more 
 satisfactory from the standpoint of nutrition than 
 if all these food groups were included in each and 
 every meal. The digestion would be better, due 
 to the simplification of the meal, and the fact that 
 the digestive ferments would have fewer kinds of 
 substances with which to deal. 
 
 On the question of the exact combinations of 
 food ingredients in each meal we have very little 
 definite knowledge. Even some of the views 
 generally held on this question are without scien- 
 
 73 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 tine foundation. Thus we are almost invariably 
 told that one should not eat acid fruit with milk. 
 The prejudice against this combination arises 
 from the fact that milk mixed with an acid is 
 curdled, producing a product of unattractive 
 appearance and which is supposed to be indi- 
 gestible. As a matter of fact, milk is invariably 
 curdled in the stomach by the hydrochloric acid. 
 Hence its mixture with the milder fruit juice 
 only anticipates this step a little and probably 
 does not affect the digestibility at all. 
 
 Another combination against which we are 
 sometimes warned is that of acid fruits and 
 starches. There is a little more scientific theory 
 to back this teaching. Starch is only digested 
 in an alkaline medium, and hence the addition of 
 acid in the food may interfere with its digestion. 
 Even in this case it is probable that, in a healthy 
 digestive tract, the acid is over-balanced by the 
 stimulation of an extra section of alkali, and 
 hence the matter is automatically righted. 
 
 The question of immediate combination foods 
 must rest, more or less, with the individual and 
 his personal observation of the ease with which 
 he digests various combinations. If he finds that 
 a particular dish or food combination gives him 
 digestive trouble of any sort, it is best either to 
 eliminate the trouble-giving foods altogether, or 
 
 74 
 
Balancing the Diet 
 
 to seek out simpler ways or simpler combinations 
 in which to use them. 
 
 Individuals differ greatly in their digestive 
 capacity, and in their susceptibility to digestive 
 troubles because of various foods or food com- 
 binations. There are some dishes that are notor- 
 iously indigestible, such as mince pie, plum pud- 
 ding or pig's knuckles and other heavy, "rich" 
 dishes. These will naturally be avoided by any 
 careful person. But with simpler and more 
 wholesome dishes, such as are advised in this 
 book, the question of immediate food combina- 
 tions need not trouble you, unless from personal 
 experience you find that they give you distress. 
 
 The two following menus, both of which in- 
 clude meat foods, will illustrate the difference 
 between an unbalanced or deficient diet and a 
 balanced or adequate one. Three meals per day 
 are presented because of conventional require- 
 ment, but my own personal requirements consist 
 of one or two hearty meals daily, though the num- 
 ber of meals daily is entirely a matter of habit, 
 and is not of great importance, provided one 
 does not eat without appetite, merely because it 
 is meal time, and does not eat beyond his digestive 
 capacity. It is the quantity and quality of the 
 diet, not the meal plan that is important. This 
 is dealt with more fully in later chapters. 
 
 75 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 A DEFICIENT MENU 
 Breakfast 
 
 Oatmeal with cream and sugar 
 
 Hot cakes with glucose or sugar syrup 
 
 Sausages 
 
 Coffee 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Roast Beef with gravy 
 
 Mashed Potatoes 
 
 White Bread and Nut Margarine 
 
 Canned Corn 
 
 Apple Pie 
 
 Supper 
 
 Beef Broth with Crackers 
 
 Salmon Patties 
 
 White Bread with Nut Margarine 
 
 Rice or Tapioca Pudding 
 
 Tea and Cakes 
 
 AN ADEQUATE MENU 
 Breakfast 
 
 Whole Wheat Bread or Muffins 
 
 with Honey and Dairy Butter 
 An Orange, or Soaked Prunes with Nuts 
 Cocoa or Cereal Coffee with plenty of Cream 
 or Rich Milk 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Kale or other Greens 
 Eggs or Beef or other meat 
 Corn Bread and Butter 
 Pumpkin Pie 
 Cereal Coffee 
 
 Supper 
 
 Cream of Celery Soup 
 
 Salmon and Lettuce Salad 
 
 Whole Wheat Bread and Dairy Butter 
 
 Fruit Gelatine Dessert 
 
 Grape Juice Punch 
 
 76 
 
Balancing the Diet 
 
 The first of these menus is over-supplied with 
 denatured cereal products and utterly lacking 
 in green vegetables. A hard working man able 
 to consume large quantities of such food might 
 exist on it, even without the addition of milk. 
 For a growing child or a person of sedentary 
 occupation, the diet would be unsafe. Even the 
 addition of milk, while it would help somewhat, 
 would still leave the diet devoid of bulky vege- 
 table fibre, which fact would probably produce 
 constipation; moreover, the body's craving for 
 missing elements would likely lead to over-eating 
 and consequent obesity. 
 
 When using milk also carefully note that sweet 
 milk does not combine very well with meats, 
 cooked eggs or some cooked vegetables. It is 
 better to make milk a large part of a meal when 
 used, and combine sweet or acid fruits with it. 
 Dates or raisins are ideal with it, though prunes, 
 figs or other sweet fruits can be recommended. 
 
 Soured milk products will combine satisfac- 
 torily with nearly all foods. 
 
 When digestion is normal vegetarian diets are 
 generally safer than meat diets because the ab- 
 sence of meat usually results in the eating of a 
 greater variety of fruits and vegetables in an 
 effort to gain palatability. But it is very easy 
 for a vegetarian diet also to be inadequate for 
 
 77 
 
Eating foe Health and Strength 
 
 complete nutrition if large quantities of cereal 
 starches are used. The following two examples 
 will illustrate the difference between a deficient 
 and an adequate vegetarian menu: 
 
 A DEFICIENT VEGETARIAN MENU 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 Cream of Wheat (Farina) with Sugar and Milk 
 Fried Mush with Syrup 
 Stewed Prunes 
 Cereal Coffee 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Bean Soup with Crackers 
 
 Baked Potatoes with Nut Butter 
 
 Bread Pudding 
 
 Supper 
 
 Macaroni with Tomato Sauce 
 Stewed Carrots with Cream Sauce 
 Nuts and Raisins 
 Fruit Punch 
 
 AN ADEQUATE VEGETARIAN MENU 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 Oranges 
 
 Whole Boiled Wheat with Nuts and Raisins 
 
 Milk 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Bean Soup with Whole Wheat Bread 
 
 Cabbage or Cauliflower dressed with Butter Sauce 
 
 Macaroni and Cheese 
 
 Supper 
 
 Mush, made of Whole Ground Corn and served 
 
 with plenty of Milk 
 A Lettuce-Fruit Salad 
 
 78 
 
Balancing the Diet 
 
 The first of the above named menus contains 
 entirely too much cereal food, and that cereal in 
 a denatured form. The use of nut butter and 
 fruits and vegetables given will not protect such 
 a diet from deficiencies. The second diet is 
 equally simple and inexpensive. By the in- 
 clusion of milk, butter and cheese and a little 
 leafy vegetables the menu becomes a safe one. 
 
 The following simple rules will summarize the 
 principles we have been considering and will 
 serve as a guide for the selecting and proportion- 
 ing of foods in the planning of menus. 
 
 The use of too much milk with other foods will 
 at times make one more liable to colds and the 
 various diseases that begin with symptoms of this 
 nature, though milk will always insure a satis- 
 factory quantity of nourishment. Some use a 
 quart of fresh whole milk a day for each member 
 of the family. This is usually too liberal a por- 
 tion though it will cover a multitude of other 
 possible defects in the diet, provided there is no 
 tendency to colds. It is given as a safe minimum, 
 especially for growing children, in case other 
 foods of the milk group are not used. If dairy 
 butter, eggs, and cheese are used liberally in the 
 diet, the quantity of milk per person may be 
 reduced to a pint or less a day. But growing 
 children should have their full allowance of a 
 
 79 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 quart of fresh whole milk and consume corre- 
 spondingly less of other foods if you are not 
 sure they are being thoroughly nourished with 
 other foods. With my own children, when I 
 give them a liberal quantity of milk they are 
 given fruit only (acid or sweet) with it. Raisins 
 and milk or dates and milk is a favorite meal. 
 When giving them a hearty meal composed of a 
 full variety of foods I rarely give them milk. 
 It is not desirable, and they do not need it at such 
 times. For milk used in cookery, canned or 
 evaporated milk may be substituted for the fresh, 
 the equivalent ratio being a pound can of the 
 evaporated milk for a quart of the fresh. 
 
 Use at least one dish of leafy vegetables per 
 day — or better still, one cooked dish of such vege- 
 tables and one of uncooked salad. Do not merely 
 use a few leaves of lettuce or sprigs of parsley 
 and call it a leafy salad; use ample quantities 
 of lettuce or other salad greens, combining with 
 other ingredients desired to give variety and 
 flavor. 
 
 The problem of getting leafy vegetables' in all 
 markets at all seasons of the year is sometimes 
 a vexatious one. On northern farms or in small 
 towns there are often few leafy foods available 
 from November to May. Cabbage and celery, 
 however, are leafy foods which keep well in the 
 
 80 
 
Balancing the Diet 
 
 winter. Kale, which should be more grown, has 
 wonderful frost-resisting powers, and will stay 
 green through the winter in all but the most 
 severe climates. In large city markets, even in 
 the North, kale, spinach and lettuce are on sale 
 throughout the winter. If, for a time, no fresh 
 leafy vegetables are available, use canned spin- 
 ach, canned string beans, and an abundance of 
 general fruits and vegetables. 
 
 Use whole grain products in both breads and 
 cereal dishes. This rule can be departed from, 
 in part, where the diet is adequately protected 
 otherwise, as here advised. White flour has some 
 uses in cookery, for which whole wheat flour 
 cannot be easily substituted. There is no excuse, 
 however, for the use of the devitalized white flour 
 bread in any diet unless you are suffering from 
 chronic diarrhea; then it may be advised for a 
 short time. Moreover, once you have found 
 where you can buy, or learn to make a good 
 quality of whole wheat bread, you will find that 
 you prefer it to the white variety. The same 
 is true of whole cornmeal and of unpolished rice. 
 
 Use sugar sparingly. Instead, use more 
 sweet fruits, honey, and, if possible, maple syrup. 
 Honey is the easiest of all sweets to digest, 
 provided its nourishing elements are needed 
 by the body. 
 
 81 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 If you use meat at all, learn to use it as a 
 flavor food and not as a filling food. A quarter 
 of a pound per person per day is usually an 
 ample quantity. 
 
 Use nuts, if you wish, in the place of meat. 
 Not that they are specifically needed as a meat 
 substitute, but rather that nuts used in cookery 
 will produce many delightful dishes and, there- 
 fore, reduce the temptation to use meat because 
 of habit or appetite. But to use large quantities 
 of both nuts and meat is foolish. It unduly 
 enriches the diet in protein and fat. 
 
 Use vegetable oils in salad dressings and in 
 cooking operations that require fat. Do not use 
 vegetable oils or nut margarines as a substitute 
 for dairy butter, except in menus containing very 
 considerable quantities of milk, or of milk and 
 eggs, or milk and cheese. 
 
 Use as much fresh fruit as you can reasonably 
 afford. 
 
 Use beans, peas and macaroni — so-called meat 
 substitutes — as you would use rice or hominy. 
 These foods are tasty, but have no superior value 
 over similar filling dishes derived from grains. 
 
 A very practical way to check up on the proper 
 proportioning or balancing of the diet is by "bal- 
 ancing the grocery bill." This is only an ap- 
 proximate method, to be sure, and no absolute 
 
Balancing the Diet 
 
 rules can be laid down because of the wide varia- 
 tions of food prices with locations, and from year 
 to year or season to season. Notwithstanding 
 these wide variations in price the summary of 
 the grocery bill with the items classified by groups 
 will generally show whether the diet is approxi- 
 mately correct or seriously unbalanced. 
 
 The following food lists will illustrate this 
 method. They may be taken as the grocery bills 
 of two families, each consisting of a man and wife 
 and two half grown children. The prices are 
 those prevailing in New York City at the time 
 this book is being written, and while these prices 
 will not be good for any other place and time, 
 yet the relative prices will not be very far off. 
 In both lists the weekly bill comes to just about 
 ten dollars and both lists contain approximately 
 the same fuel value or effective food quantity. 
 
 A BADLY BALANCED GROCERY BILL 
 
 Whole fresh Milk, 7 quarts @ 15c $1.05 
 
 Evaporated Milk, 3 cans @ 12c 36 
 
 Milk Group, $1.41 
 
 Meat, 9 pounds @ 30c Meat Group, 2.70 
 
 Oleomargarine, 2 pounds @ 30c 60 
 
 Lard, one pound @ 25c 25 
 
 Sugar, 3 pounds @ 10c 30 
 
 Oil and Sugar Group, $1.15 
 83 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 Potatoes, 10 pounds @ 4c 40 
 
 Sweet Potatoes, 2 pounds @ 5c 10 
 
 Onions, 3 pounds @ 4c 12 
 
 Root Vegetable Group, $ .62 
 
 (None used) Leafy Vegetable Group, $ .00 
 
 Bananas $ .20 
 
 Canned Fruit 1 .00 
 
 Fruit Group, $1.20 
 
 White Bread, 14 loaves @ 10c $1.40 
 
 Oatmeal and Breakfast Foods 50 
 
 Cakes and Pastry 1 .00 
 
 Grain Products Group, $2.90 
 Total Bill $9.98 
 
 A WELL BALANCED GROCERY BILL 
 
 Whole fresh Milk, 14 quarts @ 15c $2.10 
 
 Evaporated Milk, 5 cans @ 12c 60 
 
 Cheese, full cream, 1 pound @ 40c 40 
 
 Butter, 1 pound @ 50c 50 
 
 Eggs, 1 dozen @ 50c 50 
 
 Milk Group, $4.10 
 
 Meat, 3 pounds @ 30c $ .90 
 
 Nut Meats, 1 pound @ 70c 70 
 
 Meat Group, $1.60 
 
 Vegetable Oil, 1 pound @ 30c $ .30 
 
 Sugar, 1 pound @ 10c 10 
 
 Honey, 1 pound @ 25c 25 
 
 Oil and Sugar Group, $ .65 
 84 
 
Balancing the Diet 
 
 Potatoes, 5 pounds @ 4c $ .20 
 
 Onions, 3 pounds @ 4c 12 
 
 Carrots, 2 pounds @ 5c 10 
 
 Beets, 3 pounds @ 5c 15 
 
 Root Vegetable Group, $ .57 
 
 Cabbage, 5 pounds @ 4c $ .20 
 
 Lettuce 30 
 
 Celery 20 
 
 Spinach or other greens 15 
 
 Leafy Vegetable Group, $ .85 
 
 Dates, Raisins or Figs, 3 pounds @ 20c . . . .$ .60 
 
 Oranges 25 
 
 Other fresh fruit 25 
 
 Fruit Group, $1.10 
 
 Whole Wheat Bread, 7 loaves @ 10c $ .70 
 
 Navy Beans, 2 pounds @ 10c 20 
 
 Rice, 1 pound 15 
 
 Whole Wheat as cereal, 4 pounds @ 3c 12 
 
 Grain Products Group, $1.17 
 
 Total Bill $10.04 
 
 A study of the two grocery bills given above 
 will show that the heaviest items of the first badly 
 balanced bill are the meat group and the grain 
 products group. 
 
 The milk group is insufficient. At the prices 
 of milk given such a deficiency might be made 
 
 85 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 with a view of economy, but such economy is lost 
 by the introduction of the larger meat item, and 
 the use of canned fruits, cakes and pastry. 
 
 The second bill has a large, and, at these prices, 
 seemingly extravagant expenditure for the foods 
 of the milk group. But the total expenditure 
 for all foods is approximately the same and both 
 bills furnish approximately the same amount of 
 food value as measured in calories. The well- 
 balanced grocery bill gives us more variety and 
 should be more appetizing for all those not hope- 
 lessly wedded to the use of meats and pastries. 
 
 The chief distinction that we wish to point out 
 by these two illustrations is not a matter of either 
 economy or tastiness in the diet, but the differ- 
 ence between the complete versus the inadequate 
 diet. With the first bill there would be serious 
 danger of deficiency of vitamines and minerals, 
 while the second bill has abundance of both. 
 
 Because of the variation in food prices we can- 
 not give an absolute rule regarding the percent- 
 ages of the total cost of food that should be ex- 
 pended for each food group. The following 
 general rule will, however, be helpful. 
 
 The expenditure for the milk group, including 
 butter, cheese and eggs, should be by far the 
 greatest item. The expenditure of an amount 
 equaling thirty to forty per cent of the total food 
 
 86 
 
Balancing the Diet 
 
 bill upon foods of the milk group will do much 
 to safeguard the diet against deficiencies. 
 
 The expenditures for grain products need not 
 be over ten or fifteen per cent of the total bill; 
 this is only possible, however, when cakes and 
 pastries and the fancy breakfast foods are omit- 
 ted and grain products are used in simple, natur- 
 al forms as whole-grained cereals or simply and 
 preferably as whole-grained breads. 
 
 There is no need for any of the five remaining 
 food groups occasioning an expenditure of more 
 than fifteen per cent of the total bill; of these, 
 usually the meat and fruit will be the greatest. 
 Vegetables should not run over twenty per cent 
 of the total bill, and the amount may be kept at 
 much lower than this, except during the winter 
 season in the large cities; then the necessity of 
 securing sufficient leafy vegetables may run this 
 item up until it compares with the cost of fresh 
 fruits. 
 
 If the expenditures for any one of the seven 
 food groups do not vary over five per cent from 
 the amounts given below, the diet may be count- 
 ed on to be safe and well-balanced. Those who 
 are confused by percentages may merely con- 
 sider the items in this table as the number of 
 cents to be spent for each food group out of each 
 dollar of the total food bill. 
 
 87 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 APPROXIMATE PERCENTAGES OF EXPENDITURE FOR EACH 
 FOOD GROUP 
 
 Per cent 
 
 Milk Group 35 
 
 Meat Group 15 
 
 Oil and Sugar Group 5 
 
 Root Vegetables 10 
 
 Leafy Vegetables . . ." 10 
 
 Fruit 10 
 
 Grains 15 
 
 Total, 100 
 
 Obviously this table is made up for city 
 people. Those living on farms will be able to 
 secure the foods from some of these groups at 
 little cash cost; and attempting to calculate the 
 proportions on a farm cost basis would upset 
 the balance of the diet. If you live on a farm 
 you should be able to secure an adequate diet 
 more readily and more cheaply than the cit)^ 
 dweller. Yet the fact remains that the farm 
 diet is often badly balanced and lacking in the 
 items of the milk, leafy vegetables and fruit 
 groups. These highly essential foods, for which 
 the city man must pay what to the farmer 
 would be exorbitant prices, are part of your 
 compensation for living away from the bright 
 lights and superficial pleasures of city life. 
 When you fail to make use of the health-giving 
 elements of country life, you lose out all around. 
 
 88 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 How Much to Eat 
 
 TN" Chapter II, I discussed briefly the subject 
 of calories. There is no occasion for figuring 
 the number of calories in one's food from a prac- 
 tical standpoint of eating for health and strength. 
 However, we cannot consider the scientific data 
 and records of experiments that throw light on 
 that question of how much to eat without use of 
 the term calory. 
 
 One of the earliest lines of research in food 
 science was the effort to formulate dietary stand- 
 ards. The method of doing this was the keep- 
 ing of records of the quantities of foods eaten by 
 various groups and types of people. With the 
 kinds and amounts of food known, it was easy to 
 figure the total number of calories or the total 
 quantity of food, considered as body fuel. 
 
 The following table gives the number of calo- 
 ries per man per day for the various occupation 
 groups listed. These figures are for the most 
 part the averages of the diets of many individ- 
 uals, and fairly represent the conventional eat- 
 ing habit of Americans. 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 QUANTITIES OF FOOD EATEN BY VARIOUS 
 OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS 
 
 Calories 
 per day 
 
 Football teams 6,590 
 
 Lumbermen 5,420 
 
 Well Paid Laborers 3,925 
 
 College Clubs 3,580 
 
 Professional Men 3,480 
 
 Farmers 3,415 
 
 Southern Negroes 3,395 
 
 Skilled Mechanics 3,355 
 
 Teachers 3,195 
 
 Garment Workers 3,145 
 
 Office Clerks 3,125 
 
 Salesmen 2,980 
 
 Poorly Paid Laborers 2,810 
 
 It is seen that the amounts of food eaten by 
 these different groups of people vary widely. 
 The chief causes of these variations is the amount 
 of muscular labor performed and the amount of 
 money available to pay for the food. If indi- 
 vidual data be given for different men, or dif- 
 ferent families, even in the same occupational 
 groups, the figures would also show a wide range 
 in quantities of food eaten. 
 
 A very interesting check on these figures on 
 the amount of foods commonly eaten by Ameri- 
 cans was made by the Hoover Food Adminis- 
 tration during the war. Statistics were secured 
 of the entire quantity of food consumed in the 
 United States. Figured out according to popu- 
 
 90 
 
 
How Much to Eat 
 
 lation and reduced to a unit of man per day, 
 it was found that the average American man 
 consumes 3,424 calories per day. This backs up 
 very convincingly the figures secured by measur- 
 ing the foods actually eaten by various groups of 
 individuals. 
 
 From the studies of the amount of food that 
 men do eat, food scientists tried to derive definite 
 standards which should serve as a guide to tell 
 men how much they should eat. 
 
 Such a table of food standards was drawn up 
 by Atwater and was widely published by the 
 United States Government. It was as follows: 
 
 ATWATER TABLE OF FOOD STANDARDS 
 
 Calories 
 
 Men at very hard work 5,500 
 
 Men at hard work 4,130 
 
 Men at moderate work 3,500 
 
 Men at light work 3,150 
 
 Men at sedentary occupation or women at 
 
 moderate work 2,700 
 
 Men taking no muscular exercise or women 
 
 at light work 2,450 
 
 This seems to us now to be a rather foolish 
 method of reasoning. To assume that what men 
 do do is what they should do is certainly not the 
 way to learn the truth or to make progress in the 
 world. By a similar method of reasoning we 
 might determine the average amount of stealing 
 
 91 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 that men do and thereby derive a standard of 
 thieving. It also reminds one a little of the old 
 lady's assurance that every one of us must eat 
 his peck of dirt. 
 
 These illustrations are a little far-fetched, but 
 even in more closely related instances we can see 
 the fallacy of using the average man as a stand- 
 ard or guide for those seeking the best way to 
 live. The average amount of exercise taken, at 
 least by the city dweller, would hardly be ac- 
 cepted by the ardent physical culturist as a guide 
 for his own practice. In the matter of the body 
 weight this same error of accepting the average 
 as the standard has actually prevailed — as will 
 be fully brought out in our chapters which dis- 
 cuss the control of the body weight. 
 
 These dietary standards derived from obser- 
 vation upon average eating habits were further 
 checked, and to a large extent verified by a more 
 elaborate and scientific method. I refer to the 
 use of the Respiratory Calorimeter. This inter- 
 esting scientific device consists of an air-tight 
 chamber properly insulated against loss of heat. 
 If a man, or an animal, be placed in such a cham- 
 ber it is possible to measure very accurately the 
 amount of oxygen consumed and carbon diox- 
 ide given off, and so determine the amount of 
 oxidation that occurred. By further measure- 
 
 92 
 
How Much to Eat 
 
 merits may be determined the amount of heat 
 generated and the mechanical labor of the test 
 subject. By the usual chemical methods, both 
 the food and the excretory products may be anal- 
 ized. When such researches are continued for 
 sufficient time it is also possible to calculate from 
 this data, checked by the changes in the body 
 weight, the accumulation or loss of fat or protein 
 substance from the body. 
 
 By such elaborate and thorough investigation 
 scientists were able to learn just how much food 
 the body seems to require and how that food was 
 consumed or expended in the production of heat, 
 muscular work, or in additions to the body 
 substance. 
 
 The scientists reasoned that when a man's 
 body was not increasing in weight and he was, 
 therefore, utilizing all food eaten in the physio- 
 logical -and muscular activities, he required the 
 exact amount of food so consumed. Experi- 
 ments in giving him less food resulted in a loss 
 of body weight which seemed most positive evi- 
 dence that the amount of food could not be safely 
 decreased. 
 
 This was the general state of scientific knowl- 
 edge on the subject, "how much to eat," at the 
 beginning of the war; moreover, this knowledge 
 essentially verified the earlier food standards 
 
 93 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 that had been determined by investigating how 
 much people do eat. 
 
 However, many health authorities and students 
 of food problems who derived their opinions 
 from practical observation of the effects of food 
 on health and strength questioned these food 
 standards which had been determined by elabo- 
 rate scientific research. Among physical cultur- 
 ists and health reformers generally the opinion 
 prevailed that over-eating was not an excep- 
 tional, but a general fault. Such men as Horace 
 Fletcher and his associates had shown that better 
 health could be maintained upon smaller food 
 allowances. When Mr. Fletcher was sixty- 
 three years of age he was tested in the Calori- 
 meter and was shown to oxidize or metabolize 
 nine calories per pound of body weight. This was 
 the lowest ratio of metabolism observed among 
 eighty-nine men tested. Yet Mr. Fletcher at this 
 time was by no means poorly nourished, for he 
 weighed 180 pounds, and was not a tall man. His 
 years of careful eating had made it possible for 
 him actually to get fat on less food that other 
 men seemed to find necessary for existence. 
 
 Mr. Fletcher believed the chief benefit which 
 he derived from his careful eating habits was due 
 to thorough mastication. Dr. Chittenden, who 
 experimented with Mr. Fletcher's methods upon 
 
 94 
 
How Much to Eat 
 
 a group of soldiers and athletes, was of the 
 opinion that the benefits were due to the use of 
 smaller quantities of protein. None of these in- 
 vestigators laid chief stress upon the matter of 
 total food quantity, though in all such cases 
 there was a tendency to reduce it. 
 
 With the coming of the war, all manner of re- 
 search in food science was greatly stimulated. 
 Food economy became imperative for the whole 
 world, and in many countries there was not 
 enough food available to maintain anywhere near 
 the former eating habits of the people. 
 
 Great suffering, and loss of health and of life 
 resulted because of the food shortage during 
 the war and the years immediately following; 
 but if the teachings of the orthodox food science 
 regarding the amount of food necessary had been 
 true, the world's death list from food scarcity 
 would have been enormously greater. 
 
 The European nations found out that men 
 could live on much less food than they customarily 
 do eat when their eating habits are determined 
 by appetite, and there is ample food and sufficient 
 money available to pay for it. 
 
 It is not a convincing argument to claim that 
 the Germans or other peoples were benefited by 
 the food restrictions imposed by war necessity, 
 yet many careful observers of war conditions 
 
 95 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 were convinced that, as far as food quantity alone 
 was concerned, the restricted diet was actually 
 beneficial. The chief suffering came from the 
 restriction of food variety and the depreciation 
 of food quality. Not only were the poorer classes 
 unable to get enough food, but all classes suf- 
 fered from lack of proper food; especially from 
 shortage of milk, butter and eggs, fats and fresh 
 fruits and vegetables. The diet in many in- 
 stances was reduced virtually to potatoes and 
 cereals, an inadequate diet even if quantities were 
 unlimited. Moreover, there was such a vast deal 
 of suffering and privation from other than die- 
 tary causes that observations of the health, effi- 
 ciency, or death rate of the peoples under war 
 conditions are practically worthless as far as 
 deciding dietary questions is concerned. 
 
 In America, however, scientific researches 
 were conducted to determine the effect of re- 
 duced quantities of food, and from these re- 
 searches we have gained much new knowledge. 
 The investigations that I particularly refer to 
 were conducted by Dr. Benedict of the Carnegie 
 Institution. 
 
 Dr. Benedict experimented upon the students 
 of the Y. M. C. A. College at Springfield, Mass. 
 Many of the subjects of these experiments were 
 taking the training course as Y. M. C. A. physi- 
 
 96 
 
How Much to Eat 
 
 cal directors and all of them were taking gym- 
 nasium work, while many were active in outdoor 
 athletics. 
 
 The diet provided in the College dining hall 
 supplied 4,000 calories per day. This is a rather 
 heavy diet, but the students were very vigorously 
 exercised young men. Not all of these men may 
 have been in the habit of eating 4,000 calories a 
 day, but from actual records it was evident that 
 all of them were consuming well above 3,000 
 calories per day. 
 
 The method of the restricted diet experiment 
 was to cut down the food allowance of each man 
 individually until he had lost ten per cent of his 
 weight. After such a loss of ten per cent of 
 each man's weight, his food was carefully ad- 
 justed to a quantity that would just maintain 
 the body weight at ninety per cent of the original 
 figure. The amount of food that each man re- 
 quired to maintain this restricted weight was 
 then determined. The amounts varied accord- 
 ing to the size of the men and their habits of ac- 
 tivity, and ranged from 1,600 to 2,500 calories 
 per day. The average figure for the group was 
 1,950 calories per day. This was less than half 
 the food that had been previously provided for 
 these men, and certainly not over two-thirds the 
 amount that any such group of men would have 
 
 97 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 consumed if following the usual American eating 
 habits. 
 
 According to the old pre-war teachings of sci- 
 ence it would have been thought that men could 
 not have maintained their health and physical 
 efficiency upon such small quantities of food. 
 But these men did maintain normal health, and 
 elaborate studies of both their mental and physi- 
 cal efficiency showed that they suffered little, 
 if at all, due to living on the much reduced quan- 
 tity of food. This is the more remarkable when 
 we realize that these men did lose ten per cent of 
 their weight and that this loss of weight oc- 
 curred in men who entered the experiment as ac- 
 tive trained athletes and were not carrying a lot 
 of excess fat. Their muscles may have been actu- 
 ally reduced in volume, though probably the chief 
 loss in weight was due to a loss of a small portion 
 of fat that even the athletic man carries, if he be 
 a heavy eater. The nude photographs of these 
 men after their weight reduction still showed 
 them to be fairly well muscled and seemingly in 
 fit physical condition. Their athletic records 
 and physical tests on reduced diet showed that 
 they had lost neither strength nor endurance. 
 
 What really seems to have happened is that 
 the muscular tissues that they retained became 
 more efficient. Tests in the respiratory calori- 
 
How Much to Eat 
 
 meter showed that they were able to perform a 
 given amount of physical labor with a smaller 
 consumption of oxygen, which means that less 
 food substance was oxidized or consumed. The 
 physical engine actually became more efficient, 
 and turned out more labor per pound of "human 
 coal." 
 
 This extremely restricted diet was not, how- 
 ever, without certain effects which many people 
 would consider undesirable. For instance, the 
 rate of the heart beat was distinctly lowered ; the 
 circulation being slower, the skin temperature 
 was slightly reduced, and the men complained 
 of being chilly and were obliged to dress more 
 warmly. The blood pressure was also lowered, 
 a thing which most physicians consider an indi- 
 cation of health improvement. 
 
 On the whole, we may summarize the findings 
 of these extremely interesting experiments by 
 saying that the body has the power to adjust 
 itself to various food quantities or nutritive 
 levels. While the usual result of excessive eat- 
 ing is obesity, yet it is apparent that one may eat 
 more than he needs and yet not get fat ; he mere- 
 ly disposes of the extra food by using it waste- 
 fully. From such overeating the rate of the heart 
 beat and respiration are increased so that more 
 food fuel is oxidized with the production of an 
 
 99 
 
Eating foe Health and Stkength 
 
 excess of body heat — a very convincing argu- 
 ment in favor of a light diet during hot weather. 
 With the larger quantities of food the body sim- 
 ply runs at higher pressure ; all physiological ac- 
 tivities are speeded up or more extravagantly 
 conducted. 
 
 Just how much benefit or harm may come 
 either from this higher pressure living or the 
 physiologically more efficient low pressure living 
 is not so easily determined. Of this, however, 
 we have convincing proof: minimum eating is 
 not immediately harmful, nor is there any danger 
 or loss of efficiency from a reduction of weight 
 somewhat below the amount usually carried, even 
 of the athletic type. 
 
 An experiment of a few months' duration 
 proves but little as to the long run effects that 
 might occur from the same conditions maintained 
 for a life-time. Upon this subject we will take 
 up some interesting facts in our chapter: "The 
 Diet in Old Age." 
 
 From all scientific data now available, as well 
 as from practical observation, I would say that 
 the most nearly ideal dietary standards of food 
 quantities would be midway between the old At- 
 water standards and the minimum figures at- 
 tained in Dr. Benedict's experiments. This 
 should give us a figure of about 2,500 calories per 
 
 100 
 
How Much to Eat 
 
 day for a man of average size at moderate work, 
 which is 1,000 calories less than At water's stand- 
 ard. 
 
 The dietary figures for women have usually 
 been given as eighty per cent of those of men. I 
 believe that for the average woman, who takes 
 very little exercise and is inclined to be fat, even 
 this proportion is too high. For the woman who 
 is physically vigorous and active, as she should 
 be, the proportion is about correct, which would 
 give us a standard of 2,000 calories per day for 
 the average woman at moderate work, in the 
 place of 2,700 calories, as given in the Atwater 
 standard. 
 
 I give these figures only to show clearly the 
 changed views on the question of how much to 
 eat. In actual practice no dietary standard of 
 so many calories per day is of practical use to 
 the individual. In the first place the figuring 
 up of the calories of one's diet is an unreasonable 
 task to impose upon any one but a scientist. In 
 the second place, such general standards are 
 worthless when applied to an individual case, be- 
 cause individual needs vary so widely. The 
 chief cause of this variation is the actual size of 
 the active body or the weight of muscular tissue, 
 and this fact is difficult to determine. The big- 
 ger a man is, that is, the more muscle he has, the 
 
 101 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 more food he will need, but the heavier, that is, 
 the more fat he has, the less food he should eat. 
 Lastly, there is no way to tell just what is meant 
 by light, heavy, or moderate work. A man may 
 feel that he is working very hard, merely because 
 of monotonous labor, unpleasant surroundings, 
 or mental strain. Another man working pleas- 
 antly with a variety of muscular movements may 
 seem to be working less hard, though he would 
 require more food fuel for his activities. 
 
 There is only one practical method by which to 
 gauge the amount of food one should eat; and 
 that is by observing the weight of the body and 
 one's general feeling as to strength and health. 
 The ideal food quantity is that amount which 
 will just maintain a feeling of super bodily 
 strength and endurance and ideal weight. Here 
 again, of course, we are dealing with a standard 
 upon which peoples' opinion may differ. Al- 
 most any one has a fairly definite conception of 
 the ideal form of the human body. With proper 
 muscular development this ideal form will, for 
 each individual, be a sufficient guide to the ideal 
 weight. The practical trouble is that very few 
 individuals, under the conditions of modern civil- 
 ization, have sufficient muscular development. 
 
 If a lazy, unexercised man, five feet eight 
 inches in height takes as his model a perfectly 
 
 102 
 
How Much to Eat 
 
 developed athlete of the same height who weighs 
 one hundred and sixty pounds, and the lazy 
 man attempts to attain the athletic weight by 
 eating rather than by exercise, the result will 
 be a fat and over-fed man. On the other hand, 
 should an exceptionally well muscled man reduce 
 his food until it resulted in his coming down in 
 weight to reach the average figure, it would 
 merely mean that he would lose the exceptionally 
 fine physique that he had built up. In practice 
 there is much less danger of the latter error than 
 of the former one. 
 
 The ideal plan is, therefore, to eat just enough 
 to maintain a feeling of strength and all around 
 vigor and with the body in a well-muscled condi- 
 tion and without any visible evidence of surplus 
 fat. Even a very slight increase of the body 
 weight above this muscular minimum indicates 
 over-eating. The condition of the body is usually 
 most easily determined by the presence or absence 
 of fat on the abdomen. The man in first-class 
 physical condition has no more fat upon his 
 "stomach" than he has on his arm, and the form 
 of the abdominal muscles may be felt beneath 
 the skin as readily as the biceps. Few men main- 
 tain such fitness, but that is no proof that it can 
 not and should not be maintained. Most men 
 do over-eat and under-exercise ; and most men 
 
 103 
 
Eating foe Health and Strength 
 
 are too fat, and die from ten to twenty years 
 before their time because of it. 
 
 The above discussion has been written pri- 
 marily from a masculine standpoint. The femi- 
 nine form naturally carries less muscle and more 
 fatty tissue than the masculine. There are fun- 
 damental physiological reasons why this should 
 be so. Nature adapted the feminine body to a 
 more ready storage of surplus nutrition as a 
 preparation for child-bearing. Our ideas of 
 feminine beauty also require the presence of more 
 fat in the feminine than in the masculine form. 
 This ideal of fatness in feminine form was for- 
 merly carried to an extreme, which the present 
 generation is trying to get away from. The 
 modern woman wishes to be "slender," yet even 
 her ideal of slenderness usually means a compara- 
 tively fat condition, because of the lack of muscu- 
 lar development. The true ideal of feminine 
 form is only maintained by the athletic type of 
 woman, and a form maintained by over-eating 
 instead of by proper exercise is not a true or 
 lasting form of beauty. 
 
 Those who are obviously under-weight or over- 
 weight will find their problem most thoroughly 
 discussed in later chapters. For the individual 
 who is of approximate normal weight I suggest 
 an experimental cutting down of the amount of 
 
 104 
 
How Much to Eat 
 
 food eaten until it results in a loss of from five to 
 ten pounds of weight. Such an experiment will 
 do you no harm and you may find that it will 
 produce a marked benefit in health and efficiency 
 as well as in food economy. In such cutting 
 down of food quantities, as in reducing from 
 obesity, it should be the starches and fats that are 
 eliminated. Indeed, if you have been living 
 upon the conventional diet, almost invariably too 
 rich in the fat-forming foods, you are likely to 
 find that the adoption of the type of diet advo- 
 cated in this book will result in some loss of 
 weight without any conscious effort on your part 
 to reduce the food quantity. If so, be reassured 
 that this loss of weight will prove beneficial. 
 
 105 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 When and How to Eat 
 
 A S a practical means of controlling the quan- 
 tity of food, the number of meals per day is 
 very important. 
 
 The conventional custom of three meals a day 
 is purely an arbitrary one. Natural man proba- 
 bly ate when he found food, if for no other rea- 
 son than to keep the other fellows from getting 
 more than their share. As civilization developed 
 and acquired definite occupations, he adopted 
 the habit of regular meals. 
 
 The number of meals per day is probably of 
 less importance than the amount of food eaten. 
 A man can over-eat on two meals, but he is far 
 less likely to do so than on the three-meal 
 plan. This fact was absolutely demonstrated 
 by an investigation conducted by the Physical 
 Culture Magazine. A number of individuals 
 and families agreed to experiment upon the 
 three-meal versus the two-meal plan. Nothing 
 was suggested to these voluntary experimenters 
 as to the total quantity of food they should eat, 
 but all were asked to keep a record on their total 
 
 106 
 
When and How to Eat 
 
 food purchases for comparison under the two 
 competing plans. 
 
 In this investigation it was learned that the 
 adoption of the two-meal a day habit almost in- 
 variably resulted in a considerable cutting down 
 in the total quantity of food eaten. The 
 amount eaten per meal, however, averaged a 
 little more, the reduction of total food on the 
 two-meal plan being about twenty per cent, 
 whereas had the individual meals remained of 
 the same size it would have been a thirty-three 
 per cent reduction. This twenty per cent reduc- 
 tion of food quantity achieved by the two-meal 
 plan resulted in a general improvement of health 
 and vigor. There were a number of cases of a 
 loss in weight on the part of individuals who had 
 been over-weight. It is probable that the others 
 also lost some weight, but in too small amounts 
 to be noted and reported. 
 
 The only experimenters who were not enthusi- 
 astic about the two-meal plan were those who 
 were occupied at heavy manual labor. Al- 
 though there may be exceptions in either case, I 
 believe it is a very safe principle to advocate 
 three meals a day for manual laborers and for 
 growing children. For adult brain-workers the 
 two-meal plan is almost invariably an advantage. 
 To say nothing of the physiological benefits, the 
 
 107 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 two-meal habit is worth while as an economy of 
 food and time — most of all as an economy of 
 labor for the housewife. 
 
 Where the family contains manual workers or 
 children, three meals should, of course, be served ; 
 adult brain-workers in such families could either 
 skip one meal, or if they feel this to be an outrage 
 of the conventional family life, they may com- 
 promise by eating lightly at the first two meals 
 of the day. 
 
 The general habit of city dwellers of having 
 the heavy meal or "dinner" in the evening seems 
 to be correct, Not only is the food digested bet- 
 ter when one is resting, but both muscular and 
 mental work is better performed when one is not 
 digesting. The American farmer calls his mid- 
 day meal "dinner," and presumably it is the heavy 
 meal of the day. A man who gets up with the 
 sun can certainly work up an appetite by twelve 
 o'clock. None the less, over-eating at the noon 
 meal, followed by immediate return to heavy 
 labor, is not the best plan. The farmer puts in 
 the longest hours of work of any type of worker, 
 and it is unreasonable to expect him to subsist 
 on a grape fruit and shredded wheat breakfast 
 and a salad luncheon. Such a plan would merely 
 mean that he would have to gorge himself at 
 night. For the farm family I would, therefore, 
 
 108 
 
When and How to Eat 
 
 advocate moderate breakfasts and noon meals 
 and a slightly heavier evening meal. 
 
 The city manual laborer should follow the 
 same general plan with a somewhat greater pro- 
 portion of his food for the evening meal, for the 
 reason that he has leisure then to digest his food, 
 whereas the farmer's hours are often completely 
 filled with work until bedtime. 
 
 The brain- worker may omit either breakfast or 
 luncheon altogether, or he may gain the same 
 effect by taking a very light breakfast and a very 
 light luncheon, and in either case not "eating his 
 fill" until after his work for the day is over. 
 
 Where digestion is slow and imperfect a hearty 
 evening meal is sometimes unsatisfactory. Espe- 
 cially if you can not sleep or if you wake up 
 during the night or in the morning with a sour 
 or nasty taste in your mouth. Under such cir- 
 cumstances it is better to eat your hearty meal 
 at noon or in the morning, though if a hearty 
 breakfast is eaten, it is usually better to go to 
 bed hungry if your digestion is not over strong. 
 
 Here is a simple meal plan that I have recent- 
 ly been following myself and which I have found 
 eminently satisfactory. 
 
 I take only one full meal a day. I have no 
 exacting rules or regulations as to the quantity 
 of this meal. It is what is commonly called a 
 
 109 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 "square meal." In other words I eat all I want 
 to, and do not concern myself about restricting 
 the quantity. 
 
 The other two meals are very simple indeed. 
 One is composed of one or two oranges; the other 
 of nuts and raisins, which must be well masticated 
 and eaten slowly, and with which there is little 
 danger of over-eating. When these two simple 
 meals are so restricted there is little danger of 
 over-eating for the day, no matter what the na- 
 ture of the foods eaten in the full meal. 
 
 Whatever the meal plan followed, the idea 
 that absolute regularity is the most important of 
 all eating virtues is an illusion and often a very 
 harmful one. It is far better to eat irregularly 
 than to eat regularly without appetite. When 
 one is particularly over-wrought or over-worked, 
 eating frequently does more harm than good. 
 Strength from food does not come immediately 
 after it is eaten ; on the other hand, the process of 
 digestion temporarily subtracts from the vital 
 energy that would otherwise be available for 
 work. 
 
 Just as monotonous foods will cloy the ap- 
 petite so monotonous regularity of meals will do 
 so. It is far better to skip the meal entirely than 
 to eat it if it is not fully enjoyed. Proper ap- 
 petite or enjoyment of food is essential to prop- 
 no 
 
When and How to Eat 
 
 er digestion. Hasty eating is injurious, both 
 because one does not enjoy food so eaten and 
 because of the lack of mastication. 
 
 When it does not exist naturally, stimulating 
 the appetite by highly seasoned food is an abom- 
 ination — and an abomination all too frequently 
 practised upon those "enjoying ill health." The 
 subject of fasting as a curative agency I will not 
 take up in this book more than to say that fast- 
 ing is nature's remedy against over-eating and 
 the consequent accumulation of surplus food and 
 waste elements in the body — and that fasting is 
 the one sure cure for loss of appetite. 
 
 The adaptation of the diet to the climate and 
 the season of the year is of considerable impor- 
 tance in maintaining efficiency, health and com- 
 fort. Over-eating is at all times a favdt, but it 
 is particularly so in a warm climate, or in the 
 summer-time. 
 
 As pointed out in the last chapter, over-eating 
 increases the temperature of the body. In fact 
 the very act of digesting food creates a measure- 
 able amount of heat ; from ten to fifteen per cent 
 of energy of food being utilized in its digestion. 
 In the case of meat protein there is a stimulating 
 effect considerably greater than this figure. 
 Tests made upon a fasting dog showed that the 
 number of calories oxidized by the dog's body de- 
 
 111 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 pended on the temperature of the room and 
 ranged from about eighty-five calories per hour 
 at a temperature of forty-five degrees, down to 
 fifty-five calories per hour at a temperature of 
 eighty-five degrees. But the dog, after a heavy 
 meal of meat generated as many calories per 
 hour, while digesting it in a hot room, as he did 
 in a cold room — and had to keep cool, dog fash- 
 ion — by panting. In the case of a man the in- 
 crease of heat formation in the body from eating 
 a pound of meat is about twenty-five per cent. 
 
 In addition to the development of heat in the 
 process of digestion there is a further heat de- 
 velopment caused by the excessive oxidation of 
 food element in the overfed body. A man living 
 under a restricted or minimum diet can run a 
 foot race or perform other vigorous exercise with- 
 out getting so "heated up." This is indeed the 
 proper explanation of the greater endurance of 
 light eaters. 
 
 Comfort in hot weather, therefore, depends 
 upon the cutting of the diet down to the very 
 minimum needs. The natural diet of the sum- 
 mer should contain a large proportion of fruits 
 and succulent vegetables, whereas fats, meats, 
 sugars and starches should be greatly reduced. 
 In winter these foods may be restored to the 
 diet in somewhat larger amounts, but this should 
 
 112 
 
When and How to Eat 
 
 not be to the exclusion of the leafy veget ables 
 and foods of the milk group which are needed at 
 all times to supply essential vitamines and min- 
 erals. 
 
 Once a meal has been selected, prepared and 
 set before us, the two most important factors in 
 healthful eating are the enjoyment of the meal 
 and the mastication of the food. These two mat- 
 ters are closely allied, since food is never really 
 enjoyed if it is bolted down without proper mas- 
 tication. 
 
 I have already explained the effect of the ap- 
 petite and the enjoyment of food upon the secre- 
 tion of the digestive juices; likewise we learn 
 from similar studies that fear, worry and undue 
 excitement, or extreme fatigue seriously interfere 
 with the process of digestion. Not only do these 
 unhappy emotions check the flow of the diges- 
 tive juices, but they may stop the muscular 
 movement of the digestive organs. This effect 
 has been remarkably demonstrated with the 
 X-rays. An insoluble substance that is impervi- 
 ous to the X-rays is mixed with the food of a 
 small animal like a cat, whose body is then ob- 
 served in an X-ray chamber. After such an 
 experimental cat has become used to the cham- 
 ber, the process of digestion is resumed and the 
 pulsing peristaltic movement of the alimentary 
 
 113 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 tract may be plainly seen. Now, if the cat be 
 frightened by some unearthly noise, immediately 
 all movement of the stomach and the intestinal 
 muscles come to a dead stop. 
 
 But to command a person to enjoy his food 
 will not cause him to do so. Enjoyment of food 
 is a problem one must work out for himself as far 
 as the condition of the mind is concerned. The 
 more strictly dietetic factors in this matter of 
 appetite or food enjoyment are: First, true 
 appetite or hunger, which can only be regained 
 when it has been lost, by either decreasing the 
 amount of food, or increasing the amount of bod- 
 ily exercise until there is a true physiological 
 need of food. Second, the foods must be so 
 prepared and served that they will be attractive. 
 This question of the attractiveness of food is 
 largely a matter of habit. Those who have been 
 addicted to over-eating and the use of highly 
 seasoned dishes can only regain the appetite for 
 simple foods by going without all food until 
 genuine hunger is re-established. Any artificial 
 appetite which enables one to enjoy a food be- 
 yond the body's true needs is an acquired or 
 harmful appetite, like the appetite for alcohol or 
 tobacco. 
 
 The simplification of the diet by reducing the 
 number of foods eaten at one meal, and by the 
 
 114 
 
When and How to Eat 
 
 serving of such food in the elementary form with 
 a very simple combination of dishes will do much 
 to revive true food instincts, so that the appetite 
 will again become a natural guide as to both the 
 quality and the quantity of food required. 
 
 Thorough mastication is also of great help in 
 the establishing of a true, instinctive appetite. 
 Natural foods have their own flavors, but these 
 flavors are only fully brought out by a thorough 
 mastication and the full tasting of the food. 
 
 There is no food which should be swallowed 
 without mastication, or, in the case of liquid 
 foods, the natural insalivation which is accom- 
 plished by moving them about in the mouth until 
 they are thoroughly mixed with the saliva and 
 swallowed by instinctive motion rather than 
 by voluntary gulping. This effect may be very 
 readily noted in the case of milk. Milk may be 
 drunk outright, as is water, but such drinking 
 of milk or other liquid food is not correct; it 
 should be sipped slowly and swallowed instinc- 
 tively. 
 
 The more nearly you can approximate the 
 suckling baby in taking your milk the better it 
 will digest. The proper way to "eat" milk is to 
 place the lips to a glass of milk, and make the 
 opening between them so small that you have 
 to make quite an effort to "suck in" the milk. 
 
 115 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 This pressure forces more saliva into the mouth 
 and gives the milk a flavor that can not be se- 
 cured when one merely drinks it. 
 
 It is quite possible to acquire the habit of 
 masticating foods that have already been milled 
 and cooked until their mastication is a sort of 
 empty performance like boxing with a ghost. 
 This, indeed, was the distinctive feature of 
 Horace Fletcher's eating habits. However, it 
 seems to me that the more sensible procedure is 
 to adopt foods in their more natural forms so 
 that the act of mastication has some resistance 
 to work against. The average foods in man's 
 natural diet were neither as hard and gritty as 
 dry whole grain, nor were they as soft and sub- 
 stanceless as cornstarch pudding. Nut meats 
 and tender leaves and vegetables are about the 
 degrees of firmness to which man's teeth and 
 chewing powers seem to be adapted. Grains to 
 be reduced to like degree of masticability require 
 some softening. Rolled whole grains or firm 
 whole wheat bread are in a form that seems well 
 adapted to man's chewing powers. The same 
 is true of the general run of vegetables. When 
 foods are softened beyond these stages it will re- 
 quire a conscious effort to chew them more than 
 their mechanical condition really requires, if the 
 process of mastication is not to fall below the 
 
 116 
 
When and How to Eat 
 
 amount needed to bring out the proper flow 
 of digestive juices and a sufficient slowness of 
 eating. 
 
 Of all food substances the danger of lack of 
 mastication is greatest in the case of starchy 
 foods and nut-meats, the former requiring a thor- 
 ough admixture of saliva for their digestion; for 
 this reason all forms of starchy gruels or por- 
 ridges are less desirable than firm breads or gran- 
 ular cereals. In the case of nuts, thorough chew- 
 ing is necessary because the nut meats will not 
 digest well unless they are finely divided. Pulpy 
 fruit juices in which sugar is the main ingredient 
 require the least mastication of any food. Natural 
 sugars are already in a form to be absorbed by 
 the blood and hence require practically no di- 
 gestion. Eut even in this case there is no evidence 
 that mastication is of any harm and the better 
 rule is to masticate all food thoroughly. 
 
 Mastication is also a very good remedy against 
 over-eating. The act of mastication and the 
 thorough tasting of food result in the full se- 
 cretion not only of saliva, but, by the sympathetic 
 nerve coordination of the glands, the secretions 
 of the stomach are also influenced. Under these 
 proper conditions the appetite is normally satis- 
 fied and the instinctive warning to cease eating is 
 given us when we have eaten enough food to 
 
 117 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 meet the body's true requirements. But when 
 foods are hopelessly mixed up in cookery, over- 
 seasoned and ground and mushed until no chew- 
 ing is required, and then bolted down, the effect 
 of the whole process is to confuse and destroy 
 all instinctive appetite. As a result, the person 
 eating in this fashion does not know when to quit 
 and often does not quit eating until warned to 
 do so by the painful stretching of the walls of the 
 stomach, or perhaps by the limitations of the 
 girth of his belt. 
 
 118 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Food Production; Manufacturing and 
 Marketing 
 
 IXa book devoted to practical advice on eating, 
 A we can not attempt to give any encyclopedic 
 information regarding the production, manufac- 
 ture, and marketing of food. Such facts as I 
 note in this chapter are, therefore, given because 
 they throw light on the more immediate personal 
 food problem, or suggest industrial changes that 
 any one interested in food reform would do well 
 to comprehend and advocate. 
 
 As pointed out briefly in Chapter V, the pres- 
 ent diet of mankind is not the result of following 
 either the dictates of natural food instincts, or of 
 any recent and scientific plan for the proper 
 nourishment of the human race. Man made his 
 conquest of the world and became the dominant 
 species because of his ability to adapt himself 
 to changes in diet and his ingenuity in increasing 
 his food supply. As we see the world in its 
 present state, both the kind of food and the 
 amount of food produced are subject to the 
 economic laws of supply and demand. 
 
 119 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 In other words, food is at present produced 
 for profit, and the farmer or food manufacturer 
 gives us such food as he finds we will pay the 
 most for in proportion to its cost of production. 
 If the foods so provided for us are not tne 
 best that might be provided, it is because we 
 will not demand and pay for better ones. 
 
 The chief criticism that the food reformer, in- 
 terested in the health and efficiency of the race, 
 has of the present system of food production is 
 that it gives us an over-supply of foods derived 
 from grains and from the flesh of cattle and 
 swine. This overproduction of grains and meat, 
 which is the fault of the entire modern scheme 
 of world food production, is exaggerated in the 
 United States. This is due to the fact that this 
 country is still comparatively sparsely populated. 
 We wrested from the few roving Indians their 
 vast hunting ground and found it to be the richest 
 of the world's productive lands. The easiest 
 way to mine this store of fertility, accumulated 
 through vast geological ages, was to crop the 
 land with the grains or graze it with cattle. So 
 we have cereals and meat in abundance, and in 
 the matter of food quantity the United States 
 is the best fed nation on earth. But our system 
 of food production is not the best suited for de- 
 veloping human efficiency, nor is it the most 
 
 120 
 
Food Production 
 
 economical and efficient way to support mankind 
 from the soil. 
 
 Grains yield a comparatively large amount of 
 starchy fuel food with comparatively little labor, 
 but the cropping of the ground with fruits, nuts 
 and vegetables will yield more total food and far 
 more varied and wholesome food. One has but 
 to observe the corn plant in comparison with 
 lettuce or cabbage to appreciate the waste of 
 grain production. The stalk of corn, with its 
 abundant foliage, is a rank and luxuriant grow- 
 ing plant from which we merely shuck the seed 
 ear — the corn's provisional store for the next 
 generation of the plant — and discard as human 
 food the bulky remainder from the plant. 
 
 Though the leafy corn fodder finds some use 
 in feeding animals, the stalk is not even used for 
 that purpose. Worse yet, the great bulk of the 
 grain crop of corn is not used as human food, 
 but is also fed to animals. Agricultural author- 
 ities, in America at least, assume this to be a 
 proper form of husbandry. It is a profitable 
 form merely because it is less laborious than more 
 intensive agriculture required for the direct pro- 
 duction of the human food from the soil — and 
 also because we, as a comparatively wealthy na- 
 tion, can afford to eat the meat and pay for it. 
 We also thought until recently we could afford 
 
 121 
 
Eating for Health and Stkength 
 
 a similar waste of food substance in the produc- 
 tion of alcohol. The inference that meat is as 
 harmful as alcohol is an exaggeration; but meat 
 is certainly physiologically of less worth than the 
 better varieties of vegetables; and, economically, 
 the production of meat involves a total waste of 
 human food producing capacity of the soil many 
 times greater than the former waste in the pro- 
 duction of alcohol. 
 
 As calculated by the United States Food Ad- 
 ministration, the total amount of human food 
 consumed per year in the United States is 130 
 millions of millions of calories. But the total 
 amount of food substances consumed by farm 
 animals is 686 millions of millions of calories, 
 or five times as much! If we had no animals we 
 could support five times as many people ! Allow- 
 ing for the food eaten by horses, dairy cows and 
 laying hens, we can safely say that meat produc- 
 tion alone halves our available human food 
 supply. 
 
 The ratio of waste of nutritive substance in the 
 feeding of plant foods to animals varies with the 
 kind of meat or other animal products produced. 
 It takes about ten or twelve plant food units to 
 produce one food unit in the form of beef. The 
 ratio of waste in the production of mutton is 
 nearly as great, though it has in its favor not 
 
 122 
 
Food Pkoduction 
 
 only the great human utility of the production 
 of wool, but also sheep (and goats) which are the 
 most capable of all animals of existing in arid or 
 barren regions. Swine are much more efficient in 
 retaining the energy value of food, requiring 
 only about four or five plant food units to pro- 
 duce one food unit in animal form, but most of 
 this extra energy is in the form of lard. In both 
 beef and pork production the waste is inexcusa- 
 ble, not only because of the loss of the food sub- 
 stance, but because there is no nutritional superi- 
 ority in the quality of the products so wastefully 
 produced. 
 
 The dairy industry stands in an entirely differ- 
 ent class. The dairy cow is the most efficient of 
 all animals in this matter of food conversion, 
 requiring only about four units of plant food 
 substance to produce one food unit of milk. Still 
 more to the credit of the cow is the fact that her 
 product has a decidedly higher nutritional worth 
 than the plant foods from which the milk is pro- 
 duced. While the human race can exist without 
 the use of milk and its products, there is no 
 known diet as efficient as the lacto-vegetarian 
 for the nutrition of the race and particularly for 
 the nutrition of children. 
 
 The production of eggs by hens specially bred 
 for that purpose, while net as efficient as the 
 
 123 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 production of milk, is more efficient than the 
 production of beef; and like milk, eggs are a 
 food of superior nutritional value. 
 
 In the case of both dairying and egg produc- 
 tion there is a meat by-product that man. with 
 his meat loving appetite, will never have the 
 extravagance to waste. Uninformed city people 
 may be under the impression that beef produc- 
 tion and dairying are merely two halves of one 
 industry; this is not the case; the majority of 
 our beef comes from the beef breeds of cattle 
 which produce but little milk other than that used 
 for the calves. In well specialized dairy farming 
 the only meat produced is from the young male 
 calves and the cows that have served many 
 efficient years as milk producers. Such a meat 
 production, even with an increased milk produc- 
 tion, will be far less than our present output, and 
 the total nutritional waste involved will be much 
 less. The hog could be eliminated from our 
 civilization with no loss to mankind. The chief 
 use of this animal has been the production of fat, 
 and in America we have an abundant source of 
 food fat in economical cotton-seed oil. More- 
 over, the growth of the world's nut crops and 
 other oil producing plants, as well as the desira- 
 ble increase in the production of butter fat, would 
 permit of the elimination of lard from our diet. 
 
 124 
 
Food Production 
 
 We would not be much better off in matters 
 of food quality if we merely attempted to utilize 
 as human food the grains now wasted in meat 
 production. This change would indeed increase 
 the total quantity of food and enable America, 
 now producing scarcely enough to feed her own 
 population, again to contribute abundantly to 
 the feeding of other and less fortunately situated 
 people. 
 
 But it is not the mere utilization of these foods 
 now wasted on animals that is needed, but rather 
 the use of our fertile land to produce a better 
 quality of human food directly from the soil. 
 The most efficient method of converting the soil 
 fertility and the sun's energy into human food, 
 is in the production of quick-growing, tender 
 vegetables, all, or nearly all, of the substance of 
 which may be consumed by man. In the case 
 of fruit and nut crops, it is true that we consume 
 but a small portion of the plant; but that seem- 
 ing inefficiency is largely overcome by the fact 
 that the fruit or nut tree stands for many years ; 
 hence the bulk of the plant is not wasted each 
 season, but, like the body of the dairy cow, it is 
 maintained year after year as a comparatively 
 efficient instrument for producing a high quality 
 food crop. Moreover, the roots of trees go 
 deeper into the soil and utilize fertility that 
 
 125 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 can not be reached by shallow growing annual 
 plants. 
 
 It is to our vegetable gardens, to our orchards, 
 our dairy herds and our laying flocks of hens that 
 we must look for our most physiologically effi- 
 cient and economically efficient sources of food. 
 But these industries do require a higher order 
 of intelligent husbandry, a relatively greater 
 amount of skilled labor, and a greater degree of 
 foresight for the future than do the cruder and 
 more wasteful forms of skimming the cream of 
 nature's stored fertility by the grazing of animals 
 and the cropping of grains. The man who en- 
 gages in, or encourages any of these more effi- 
 cient food producing industries, is a benefactor 
 to the human race as certainly as the man who 
 founds a library, or makes a labor-saving inven- 
 tion. 
 
 The question of the marketing of foods is one 
 that more immediately concerns the consumer 
 than do these fundamental problems of food 
 production. The concentration of such a large 
 portion of our population in the cities results in 
 a great economic waste in the evil necessity of 
 feeding such population upon foods produced 
 on comparatively distant soil. Unfortunately 
 this cause of waste is the greatest in the case of 
 the best quality of foods; milk, eggs and fresh 
 
 126 
 
Food Production 
 
 fruits and vegetables are both bulky and perish- 
 able ; hence the process of getting them from the 
 farms to the cities is expensive, and, what is 
 worse, too often results in a loss of freshness and 
 deterioration of quality. 
 
 It is a painful fact for the city consumer that 
 the price he must pay for fresh milk or vegetables 
 is more than double — sometimes quadruple — the 
 price that the producer receives for them. The 
 middleman is usually blamed for this seeming 
 outrage. As a matter of fact, the middleman, 
 that is, the jobber or wholesaler, deals in food 
 products in large units and his profits per quart 
 or pound are not much of a tax on the price the 
 consumer pays. It is rather the cost of gather- 
 ing these food products from their scattered 
 sources, and, even more, the expensive process of 
 their retail distribution and delivery in the city 
 that piles up the cost. The entire scheme of food 
 marketing is complex and confused, and no 
 remedy has as yet been found that will entirely 
 overcome the obvious wastes. Co-operated mar- 
 keting by the producers is making rapid strides 
 and doing something to solve the problem, but 
 the chief financial benefits probably go to the 
 producer rather than to the consumer. More- 
 over, it is at the consumer's end that the costs pile 
 up most rapidly. What may be done to relieve 
 
 127 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 the situation, in the way of co-operated buying 
 by the consumers, public marketing enterprises, 
 or direct marketing by parcels post from the 
 producer to the consumer, remains to be seen. 
 As an individual problem there is only one 
 sweeping remedy for this high cost of food mar- 
 keting and that is to get out of the city and get 
 back to the land, or at least to the small commu- 
 nity in direct connection with the land. Those 
 who are in a position to make this change without 
 the loss of earning powers can certainly solve 
 the cost of living problem. Moreover, if they 
 will use intelligence, they can improve the qual- 
 ity of the diet. 
 
 While the country is the place where the best 
 food may be had, it is unfortunately not always 
 true that farmers are the best nourished. Igno- 
 rance and shiftlessness is the explanation. Many 
 farm families are content to eat a few fresh vege- 
 tables or fruits in season and to live the rest of 
 the year on pork, white flour and potatoes. The 
 fact that the food they grow is relatively cheap 
 makes them disinclined to buy vegetables, fruits, 
 nuts from distant markets; or, if they do buy 
 them, they get only the poor quality of com- 
 mercially canned or dried products. 
 
 A family living in the country should by all 
 means use an abundance of eggs and milk which 
 
 128 
 
Food Production 
 
 may be had by their own labors or be purchased 
 from the neighbors at half the price the city con- 
 sumers pay. Vegetable and fruit gardens should 
 likewise be developed to their fullest possibilities, 
 and the crops planted for a steady supply from 
 the first growth of "greens" in the spring to the 
 late fall crops of winter-keeping fruits and vege- 
 tables. For the months when fresh garden and 
 orchard products are not available the farmer 
 should preserve an abundance of canned or dried 
 fruit or vegetables. Though such practice is not 
 widely known, the exceedingly important leafy 
 vegetables or greens may be dried or desiccated 
 and so preserved for winter use. In warm and 
 dry countries this may be accomplished by sun- 
 drying, while in damp or cooler regions a simple 
 desiccator may be constructed by any handy man, 
 and all manner of fruit and vegetables, including 
 greens, may be admirably preserved by drying. 
 Another way in which the farmer, or dweller 
 in farm regions may very readily improve the 
 quality of the diet, and at the same time achieve 
 great economy, is by the use of whole grains. 
 Chief among these is wheat. No better cereal 
 food has ever been invented than whole boiled 
 wheat. When the cooking is started the day 
 oefore, and the grain allowed to soak the whole 
 night in warm water, or the wheat is left for sev- 
 
 129 
 
Eating fok Health and Strength 
 
 eral hours in a nreless cooker, whole wheat be- 
 comes delicious. Ground coarsely in any rough 
 mill, wheat makes a cereal food that may be more 
 quickly cooked. The same grinding process, 
 with the mill set firmer, produces the only genu- 
 ine whole wheat or Graham flour. 
 
 Whole corn hominy is another excellent and 
 exceedingly cheap food, available to anyone who 
 can procure clean, high quality corn. Corn must 
 be boiled a long time to become palatable. Be- 
 cause the outer thin bran of corn is quite tough 
 and also because of the presence of a wood tip 
 where it joins the cob, the pioneers developed 
 the process of making lye hominy. It is made 
 by cooking the corn in lye water for several hours. 
 Then the thin outer skin and the hard woody tip 
 may be easily rubbed off. The rich, oily germ is 
 retained. The corn must be soaked for many 
 hours, preferably in running water until all trace 
 of the lye has been removed. The chemically 
 inclined reader can make this product by boiling 
 the corn in caustic soda and washing out most of 
 the alkali and neutralizing the remainder with 
 hydrochloric acid, until it is neutral to litmus 
 paper. The only chemical then left in the corn 
 is a little common salt. 
 
 In commercial corn milling not only the outer 
 bran and tip are removed, but the large germ,. 
 
 130 
 
Food Peoductiox 
 
 rich in oil, vitamines, and minerals, is also dis- 
 carded. Freshly ground whole grain corn meal 
 is decidedly superior to this commercial product. 
 The fresher the corn the better. One of the most 
 tasty of cereal foods is grated corn meal made 
 from ear corn picked just before the grain hard- 
 ens. The new crop corn even when hard enough 
 to. grind is of nearly equal flavor. Only those 
 who have tasted corn meal mush or corn bread 
 made of such meal can realize the relative in- 
 feriority of the commercial corn meal made of 
 old dried corn and from which the germ has 
 been entirely removed. 
 
 These superior whole grain food products are 
 not so available to the city man. Whole or 
 cracked wheat can sometimes be purchased in 
 town, and genuine whole wheat flour and also 
 so-called water-ground or whole grain corn-meal 
 are in the market if one has the persistency to 
 search them out and refuse the inferior substances 
 offered by the millers. 
 
 The question of the preservation of food is im- 
 portant both from the standpoint of economy 
 and wholesomeness. It would be better if we 
 could partake of all foods in the freshest possible 
 condition. In such a state, foods are not only 
 more palatable, but in the various processes of 
 preservation some of the vital qualities may be 
 
 131 
 
Eating fob Health and Strength 
 
 actually lost. Still worse, in some of the many 
 manufactured foods harmful or poisonous chemi- 
 cals may be added. 
 
 This latter evil, which was once very serious, 
 has been abated of recent years by pure food 
 legislation. Some of the milder preservatives 
 are, however, still legally permissible, whereas 
 the old-fashioned methods of preservation by 
 salting, vinegar pickling, spicing and smoking 
 never came under the ban of the law. Any such 
 chemical method of food preservation degrades 
 the quality of the food as well as adding to it, if 
 the preservatives are not removed, an unnatural 
 and harmful substance. We do not ordinarily 
 think of salt and vinegar as "chemicals/ ' but it 
 is the writer's belief that used in excess these 
 old-fashioned preservatives are quite as harmful 
 as some of the strange, new chemicals, such as 
 benzoate of soda, which frighten the housewife 
 more because her grandmother did not use them. 
 
 Other than chemicals, there are three methods 
 of preserving foods: The first of these is the 
 application of heat, followed by sealing in air- 
 tight containers; the second is the continuous 
 application of cold, or what is familiarly known 
 as cold storage; lastly, there is the process of 
 removing all water by drying or desiccating. 
 
 The preservation of foods by heating and can- 
 
 132 
 
Food Production 
 
 ning ordinarily does no more harm than the 
 process of cooking; however, either process de- 
 stroys some of the vitamines, hence a diet having 
 no fresh or uncooked fruits and vegetables is 
 inferior to one in which these foods are available 
 only in the form of canned goods. 
 
 Cold storage is really one of the best methods 
 of preserving food, if the foods are of such 
 nature that they are not injured by freezing. 
 Little if any decay can go on in frozen food. 
 The prejudice against cold storage foods is partly 
 an economic one, the consumer believing that 
 the storage man buys the food cheaply in seasons 
 of plenty and holds it until the season of scarcity 
 and high prices. Of course, there is something 
 to be said on the other side, as it costs money to 
 run a cold storage warehouse, and the food specu- 
 lator has to take his chances on occasional losses. 
 The most important objection to storage food 
 is that many of them are stored without freezing, 
 and hence slowly decompose, sometimes develop- 
 ing ptomaine poisons in the process. Fortu- 
 nately, the present laws demand that the cold 
 storage food be sold as such, and the particular 
 consumer may avoid them if he wishes. 
 
 The preservation of food by proper drying or 
 desiccation is the least expensive and least ob- 
 jectionable method that can be used. As a mat- 
 
 133 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 ter of fact many of our foods, such as nuts and 
 grains, are naturally desiccated. Dates, raisins 
 and other evaporated fruits are a wholesome and 
 palatable form of desiccated food. Practically 
 all fruits and vegetables may be desiccated; even 
 milk, with proper facilities, can be reduced to a 
 dry powder which retains nearly all of the qual- 
 ities of fresh milk. 
 
 No form of preservation ever improves food, 
 but the canning and desiccating processes do 
 little harm other than the occasional loss of the. 
 fresh flavor. By all means use fresh foods at 
 all seasons when they can be had at reasonable 
 prices, but it is wiser to use the better forms of 
 preserved foods than to omit essential foods or 
 food ingredients from the diet. 
 
 The manufacture of food has, under our pres- 
 ent industrial system, been developed to a wholly 
 unnecessary degree. For the most part foods 
 do not need manufacturing, but commercial in- 
 stinct here steps in and finds some way to make 
 a, profit by grinding, mixing, pre-digesting and 
 processing food. If the resulting product is 
 something new or strange of appearance, or arti- 
 ficially flavored, the clever manufacturer is able 
 to foist it on the public as something superior, 
 and sell it at a sufficiently advanced price to make 
 a profit thereby. As a matter of fact few manu- 
 
 134 
 
Food Production 
 
 factured foods are in any way superior to the 
 natural food ingredients out of which they are 
 made; and in many instances are decidedly in- 
 ferior. Complicated manufacture of foods per- 
 mits of disguising the original nature of the 
 ingredients and hence encourages the use of 
 inferior material. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest of all evils of food manu- 
 facturing is the refining and denaturing of cereal 
 products, an evil which I have already had occa- 
 sion to mention several times in this book. The 
 absurd part of the situation is that all such re- 
 fining is expensive both because of the cost of 
 the process and because of the discarding of part 
 of the ingredients. The public has itself to blame 
 for all this because it has demanded the uneco- 
 nomical and inferior products. Today one is 
 often charged more for whole wheat flour than 
 for white flour, for the simple reason that there 
 is not enough demand for the former to induce 
 the miller to make it and the grocer to sell it at 
 a reasonable price. The situation is still worse 
 in the case of unground whole wheat which, 
 though worth but two or three cents a pound, 
 can either not be purchased at all in the cities, 
 or if purchased, is sold for from two to ten times 
 its value. 
 
 135 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 T? NTIRELY too much time and entirely too 
 -*-^ little intelligence is ordinarily expended on 
 the home preparation of food, or to use the more 
 ordinary word "cooking." 
 
 Cooking, as a matter of fact, is a wholly arti- 
 ficial process for which no argument can be found 
 in nature. Cooking was originally adopted by 
 man as a means of rendering grain and meat 
 more palatable. Raw dry grains are too hard 
 and too dry for any creature to eat unless pro- 
 vided with heavy molars, or a gizzard full of 
 sharp rocks, for grinding purposes. 
 
 It is commonly taught in cook books that raw 
 starch is indigestible. This is a fallacy. Farm 
 animals fed experimentally on cooked grain do 
 not digest it as well as the raw grain. This 
 evidence may be rebutted by stating that man 
 has been a cooking animal so long that his di- 
 gestive system is no longer adapted to raw foods. 
 This argument, however, is not correct, as has 
 been proven by experimental tests. A man can 
 digest practically all kinds of food raw, including 
 
 136 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 cereal starch. Cooking, therefore, is not to be 
 defended on hygienic grounds, except in so far 
 as the cooking of food may render it more 
 palatable. 
 
 Meats might be cited as an exception to this* 
 or for that matter so might any dirty or con- 
 taminated food, on the ground that cooking is 
 needed as a sterilizing process. I certainly do 
 not advocate the eating of raw meat, chiefly 
 because the idea is repulsive to me, as it is to 
 most civilized people. Moreover, animal para- 
 sites may find entrance to the body through the 
 consumption of raw meat. Even the consump- 
 tion of raw oysters may lead to typhoid fever„ 
 if the oysters are from sewage-polluted water. 
 
 Just as the heating of food is necessary to kill 
 germs of decay when preserved by canning, sa 
 cooking is recommended to kill disease germs. 
 The fear of disease germs is nine-tenths non- 
 sense; even those who painstakingly sterilize 
 much of their food eat freely of lettuce and 
 similar raw vegetables that have been exposed 
 to the germ-laden air of the city streets. The 
 germ-hunting doctors may some time get so tied 
 up what with laws and fears that everything 
 we eat will come in sterilized capsules. Until 
 that time arrives I propose to continue to eat my 
 fruit and vegetables and dairy products without 
 
 137 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 sterilization, provided that I can get them in a 
 reasonably fresh and cleanly state. 
 
 Every diet should contain at least some por- 
 tion of uncooked foods. Although scientists have 
 not fully settled the matter, the evidence at pres- 
 ent indicates that the vitamines and perhaps 
 some of the mineral salts and proteins are ren- 
 dered less digestible, or their nutritive attributes 
 destroyed by cooking. At least we know, as a 
 practical proposition, that the addition to the 
 diet of raw milk or milk and eggs and un- 
 cooked fruits and vegetables frequently results in 
 marked benefits. 
 
 Grain products can be eaten raw, in fact, raw 
 rolled wheat, rye and barley eaten with milk and 
 raisins form excellent cereal dishes. Raw rolled 
 oats is also edible, when one learns to like the 
 flavor, and is certainly as digestible as the pasty, 
 mushy mass usually made by cooking the same 
 material. Perhaps the best forms in which to 
 prepare grains — all things considered — is a form 
 of cooking that leaves the grains whole so that 
 they still require some mastication, as boiled 
 wheat, whole corn hominy and rice cooked 
 Chinese fashion. 
 
 Ground grains may be used as porridges, but 
 in the case of the resulting ' mush" there is al- 
 ways the temptation to bolt the food, whereas, 
 
 138 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 being a starchy food, there is, particularly, need 
 of mastication. For that reason it is much better 
 to use cereals in the whole grain forms or to make 
 them into bread. The effort to get bread that 
 is so soft and delicate and that "melts in the 
 mouth" without chewing is a mistake. This 
 lightness and softness of white flour bread is a 
 fault almost as grave as its chemical deficiencies. 
 Many people object to genuine whole wheat 
 bread on the ground that it is too coarse and 
 hard; they are too lazy to chew it; such people 
 would also object to taking exercise. If they 
 carried their objection to the labor of living to a 
 logical end, they should be put on a feather bed 
 and fed gruel with a hose. Doubtless on this 
 system of living they would become nice and 
 plump like a goose stuffed with noodles — the 
 goose gets fat and also develops an enormous 
 liver which is used for the making of pate de foie 
 gras. 
 
 It is possible in many of the large cities and 
 in a few of the small ones to buy an honest whole 
 wheat bread. But in the majority of American 
 cities and towns it is difficult to secure the genuine 
 article. Almost anything is called Graham 
 bread — any cheap mixture of poor white flour, 
 bran and by-products. In many millions of 
 homes, therefore, the only practical solution to 
 
 139 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 the problem of securing whole wheat bread is to 
 "bake your own." 
 
 The trouble begins with the flour. Whole 
 wheat flour should be the most uniformly good 
 of all flours, since the process of its making is the 
 simplest; but it is often the worst. The correct 
 recipe for making whole wheat flour is "Grind 
 the wheat." The commercial practice is to 
 assemble in one sack various proportions of the 
 low priced offal of the white flour milling process 
 and sell it for more than the price of the white 
 flour. 
 
 These wheat offal compounds will not make 
 good bread, not because there is anything wrong 
 with the food qualities of the various portions of 
 the wheat rejected in the process of white flour 
 milling, but because the proportions are wrong 
 and the mechanical condition is wrong. The 
 usual commercial mixture sold as whole wheat 
 flour has too little of both the bran and of the 
 interior of the wheat kernel and has too much 
 of the middlings and shorts and wheat germs. 
 Such a flour is sticky, without possessing suffi- 
 cient true gluten, and makes a soggy loaf and 
 sometimes a bitter loaf because of the rancidity 
 of the oil of the wheat germ that has stood too 
 long exposed to the air. 
 
 I have never yet seen a miller's formula for 
 140 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 making whole wheat flour out of fine flour offals 
 that can equal the pure ground whole wheat. 
 Part of this fault is mechanical; the fine flour 
 milling process rubs the bran to thin, papery 
 flakes and grinds the rest of the kernel to impal- 
 pable powder. On the contrary, the simple grind- 
 ing of wheat in a mill not too finely set results in 
 breaking up the kernel into particles of varying 
 sizes. The interior portion easily reduces to a 
 fine powder, but the outer part breaks up into 
 flakes of bran to which adhere the inner bran 
 coats and portions of the white meat of the 
 kernel; such natural ground wheat with its par- 
 ticles of various sizes makes a loaf that is superior 
 to that composed of papery bran flakes and other 
 ingredients finely powdered. 
 
 The surest way to get good whole wheat 
 flour is to get good whole wheat and grind it 
 yourself or have it ground. A coffee mill will 
 do it — laboriously; the little home mills now hap- 
 pily on sale for the purpose will do it faster; an 
 ordinary stock food mill such as exists on many 
 farms will do it splendidly, and an old water 
 mill with its stone burrs will do it to the queen's 
 taste. However obtained, the flour should be as 
 fresh as possible, that freshly ground from wheat 
 of the year's harvesting being the ideal — a thing 
 equally true of corn meal. 
 
 141 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 Whole-wheat bread without leaven is possible, 
 but it is heavy, damp and soggy. White flour 
 bread without leaven is "impossible" unless it be 
 the completely dried out cracker form. Made 
 with soda and sour milk or with the various forms 
 of quick chemical leavening, the whole wheat is 
 superior to the fine flour. But these various 
 forms of gems, cakes and muffins are not bread 
 in the strict sense which limits the term to the 
 yeast raised loaf that is palatable cold and im- 
 proves with a few days' age. 
 
 True yeast breads are frequently judged by 
 the degree of their lightness. It is an erroneous 
 standard of judgment, for the really best bread, 
 even when made of white flour, is not the most 
 extremely light and airy loaf. But certain light- 
 ness bread must have, or it will be soggy, tough, 
 hard and generally unpalatable. Whole-wheat 
 bread can be made light enough for palatability 
 though the process is difficult and the difficulty 
 is increased by the breadmaker having learned 
 her art on white flour breads, and attempting 
 to apply its procedure to whole-wheat doughs. 
 
 Whole-wheat flour dough will not raise to the 
 same degree as white-flour dough, hence, in try- 
 ing to attain this end the thing is overdone, the 
 dough falls, or, what is worse, bacteria get their 
 work in and the dough sours. 
 
 142 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 The simplest method of all — I do not say the 
 best — is the direct method. Take the usual in- 
 gredients, i.e., two cups of milk, scalded and 
 cooled, a teaspoonful of salt, a fourth cup of 
 sugar or molasses, and a cake of yeast dissolved 
 in one-fourth cup of warm water, and mix with 
 enough whole-wheat flour to form a dough as 
 thick as can be stirred with a strong arm and a 
 stiff wooden spoon. And keep on stirring for 
 some time, as there is not going to be any knead- 
 ing. Then pour into greased pans, filling them 
 half full. Set them to rise in a temperature 
 between 75 and 80 degrees. When the dough 
 has risen to twice its bulk and so fills the pans, 
 put them into an oven hot enough to bake them 
 done in one hour. 
 
 This is the simplest method of making yeast 
 bread that has been or can be devised. If you 
 have failed with more complicated methods, try it. 
 
 Here is a more complex method: Take the 
 same ingredients other than flour and set a 
 "sponge." For this sponge whole-wheat flour 
 may be used, but as the sponge forms only a 
 portion of the finished loaf, white flour may be 
 used for it and it has the advantage of being 
 more glutinous and better holding the gas bub- 
 bles. This sponge is a thick batter but not a 
 dough. Set the sponge at the same temperature 
 
 143 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 above recommended till it rises to twice its bulk. 
 Then stir in whole-wheat flour until the dough 
 is stiff for kneading. Knead for ten or fifteen 
 minutes. Again return to a large vessel and 
 permit the dough to raise till it doubles its bulk. 
 Then knead a second time, form into loaves and 
 put into baking-pans. For the third time set 
 the dough now in the pans at the yeast-growing 
 temperature. If this were white-flour bread to 
 be made as light as possible, the rule would again 
 be to let the dough again double its volume. But 
 with the whole-wheat this is unattainable and 
 our maximum of safety for this last raising is 
 fifty per cent increase in bulk, i.e., the pan two- 
 thirds full of dough should raise to fullness. 
 Then we bake as before. 
 
 This process, if each step is conducted exactly 
 right, securing the maximum raising without 
 going beyond that point, will give a loaf of 
 maximum lightness. But there are three chances 
 to go wrong and have sour or soggy bread. 
 
 Hence between these two extremes the ex- 
 perienced teacher in bread-making usually rec- 
 ommends the following compromise, and I will 
 give the recipe in fuller detail: 
 
 Two cups of milk (water may be used). If 
 milk is used, scald it and cool to lukewarm. 
 
 A teaspoonful of salt. 
 
 144 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 A fourth of a cup of sugar or as much or a 
 little more of molasses. ( This sweetening is not 
 essential. ) 
 
 A cake of yeast dissolved in one-fourth cup 
 of warm water. 
 
 (A little oil, butter or other fat may be used.) 
 
 Whole-wheat flour, about five cupfuls — but on 
 this point of exact flour quantities hang many 
 tales of failure. Whole-wheat flour absorbs more 
 water when cold than white flour; hence the 
 danger of soggy bread. Moreover, the flours 
 differ; better learn to judge flour quantities by 
 the stiffness of the dough and make the dough 
 rather drier than white flour dough. 
 
 Add salt and sugar to the milk. When the 
 milk is cool, add the dissolved yeast and then 
 the flour, stirring thoroughly. The temperature 
 of the whole should be between seventy-five and 
 eighty. This requires that the flour should be 
 warmed in winter, and there are plenty of places 
 where it needs to be cooled in summer. Yeast 
 grows most rapidly at a temperature of 86 de- 
 grees, but it is best that the temperature be under 
 rather than over this and the higher temperature 
 increases the danger of bacterial growth and sour 
 bread. Where the bread in a sponge or dough 
 is to be set over night the temperature should 
 be between sixty-five and seventy. 
 
 145 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 Now for the stirring or kneading. The pur- 
 pose is to get an intimate mixture of flour and 
 yeast; otherwise some spots will be heavy and 
 others get light too quickly and "fall" or sour. 
 Stir the dough till it becomes too stiff and then 
 take out and knead for a few minutes. Now set 
 aside at the proper temperature to raise. If 
 things are right it should raise to twice its bulk. 
 Then shape into loaves without much kneading 
 and put into the pans. Let it raise again one- 
 half its bulk — and then to the oven. 
 
 Whole-wheat bread requires a little slower 
 oven than white bread. If you have an oven 
 thermometer start the bread in a temperature of 
 425, let it fall during the baking to about 380 
 at the end. The cooking time should be from 
 one hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. Natu- 
 rally this will depend on the size of the loaf. 
 Whole-wheat bread crust is liable to bake harder 
 than white. Hard top crusts can usually be 
 avoided by shielding the top of the loaf with 
 paper or tin covers during the first part of the 
 baking process. 
 
 The above process is about as near as one can 
 get it from printed recipes. Here is a slight 
 modification of it: Instead of adding all the 
 flour the first time use only enough to make a 
 batter thick enough to drop slowly from a spoon. 
 
 146 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 Then let this batter raise to twice its bulk before 
 adding the rest of the flour and kneading. Then 
 put into pans and proceed as before. It is only 
 a difference of when the last part of the flour is 
 added and when kneading is done. Try both 
 ways and stick to the one which produces better 
 bread. 
 
 Whole-wheat bread is about the solidest staff 
 of life on which frail man has yet learned to lean. 
 Sometimes the staff is too solid. If you, or the 
 others who dine at your table find it so you can 
 compromise by using part white flour. 
 
 After you once acquire the fine art of judging 
 when the yeast has bubbled just enough, then 
 there is infinite variety of possible alterations in 
 the ingredients. Add ground nuts and it is a 
 nut bread; add chopped figs, dates and raisins, 
 and it is a fruit bread. 
 
 Those who have not the facilities or time to 
 make whole-wheat bread from yeast and who 
 cannot buy it in the market will do well to use 
 the rather plentiful supply of warm breads made 
 either from whole-wheat flour or from corn meal. 
 Warm whole-wheat or corn bread, that is — gems, 
 muffins and even pancakes, are much more whole- 
 some and digestible than similar preparations 
 made of white flour. The Graham flour and the 
 corn meal are coarser and more granular and do 
 
 147 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 not make the sticky, doughy mass that is so objec- 
 tionable in warm white-flour breads. . 
 
 The following recipes for making various corn 
 breads will serve as a guide to those inexperi- 
 enced in such cookery. The making of these 
 forms of bread from either corn meal or whole- 
 wheat flour is much simpler than making yeast 
 bread, and the recipes may be varied, or one 
 who has the general principle in mind can make 
 a wide variety of such breads off-hand without 
 following a definite recipe. 
 
 SOUR MILK CORN BREAD 
 
 Corn-meal, 3 cups 
 Sour Milk, 2 cups 
 Salt 
 Soda 
 
 Stir to a thin batter, and bake in shallow tin. 
 
 CORN PONE OR ASH CAKE 
 
 Corn-meal, 3 cups Salt Water 
 
 Mix corn-meal with salt and scald with boiling water. 
 Shape into cakes and bake in quick oven. The classic 
 product of log cabin days was baked wrapped in green 
 leaves and placed in the ashes, or on boards set before an 
 open fire. 
 
 ONE-EGG CORN BREAD 
 
 Corn-meal, 2 cups Cooking fat, 2 tablespoons 
 
 White flour, 1 cup Sugar, 1 tablespoon 
 
 Eggs, one Baking powder, 3 teaspoons 
 
 Milk (skim), 2 cups Salt to taste 
 
 148 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 Scald corn-meal with one cup boiling water. Add egg 
 well beaten, fat, sugar and milk. Sift flour with baking 
 powder, stir to soft batter, and pour into pan in sheet 
 three-quarters of an inch thick. 
 
 CORN MUFFINS 
 
 Butter, % cup Baking powder, 5 teaspoons 
 
 Sugar, % cup Milk, 1^ cups 
 
 Eggs, one Flour, 1 cup 
 Corn-meal, 2 cups 
 
 Mix cream, butter and sugar; add well-beaten eggs 
 gradually, and milk. Then add dry ingredients mixed and 
 sifted. Bake in individual tins. 
 
 The root vegetables are for the most part un- 
 palatable unless cooked. There are some excep- 
 tions to this : raw grated carrots, tender turnips, 
 or beets make an excellent ingredient for salads. 
 
 The greatest mistake made in cooking vege- 
 tables is that of boiling them in too much water 
 and then discarding the water; both the flavor 
 and valuable mineral salts are lost in this way. 
 All vegetables that are boiled should be cooked 
 in as little water as possible — many of them may 
 be steamed in a closed pot without being covered 
 with water. The juice that remains from the 
 boiling of vegetables should not be discarded; 
 it should either be used for the making of soups 
 or should be boiled down until the quantity of 
 juice remaining is not too great to serve with the 
 vegetables. Such vegetable juice may be made 
 
 149 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 exceedingly palatable by the addition of either 
 milk or butter. Almost all vegetables make de- 
 lightful soups, either alone or in various com- 
 binations; for this purpose the vegetables should 
 be cut fine, as the object is to get the flavor into 
 the soup and not to retain it in the vegetables 
 as when they are served as such. The mere addi- 
 tion to finely chopped vegetables cooked in 
 water or milk, condensed milk or cream and a 
 little butter makes the least expensive and the 
 most wholesome form of soup that may be served. 
 Do not add flour or other thickening. Potato 
 soup, celery soup and onion soup made in this 
 fashion are especially fine. 
 
 One of the best methods for cooking practi- 
 cally all vegetables is to bake them in a covered 
 dish with a little water or milk. This method is 
 known as "cooking en casserole." The process 
 retains the full flavor and all the soluble mineral 
 salts. Either milk or butter, or both are the 
 best dressings or sauces for vegetables cooked in 
 this fashion. 
 
 Potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips may be 
 baked. In the baking of these vegetables the 
 skin should not be removed. Wash thoroughly 
 with a stiff brush, or wash and scrape. This will 
 remove the dirt and the skin may be retained. 
 Buttering or oiling of potatoes before baking will 
 
 150 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 keep the skins from drying out and make them 
 more palatable. To pare off the skin of pota- 
 toes wastes a large portion of the substances and, 
 as in the case of removing the bran from wheat, 
 the most valuable ingredients are lost. When 
 boiled, the thin outer skin is not so palatable and 
 becomes detached in papery layers; in such case 
 the best method is to bring the potatoes to a boil, 
 which will loosen the outer skin, which may then 
 be removed; after this the cooking process may 
 be finished in any way desired. But the baking 
 process is preferable, as no substance at all is lost ; 
 even the outer skin is delicious, and valuable in 
 the diet for the reason that it supplies indigesti- 
 ble fibre similar to the fibrous element in the 
 wheat bran. 
 
 Although there are some exceptions, as in the 
 case of old turnips or beets in which the outer 
 skin of the vegetable is not palatable, yet as a 
 general rule one should retain the outer skin of 
 vegetables and not pare it off in thick layers and 
 discard it. 
 
 The leafy vegetables should for the most part 
 be served as salads uncooked. Cabbage is com- 
 monly served both raw and cooked; but the un- 
 cooked cabbage used as salads or slaw is the more 
 wholesome and digestible. Practically all green 
 vegetables may be used in raw salads, when one 
 
 151 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 becomes accustomed to the flavor of them. For 
 use in this form they will naturally be more ap- 
 petizing if young and tender. 
 
 The purpose of leafy vegetables in the diet is 
 to supply vitamines, minerals and cellulose or 
 fibre. The cooking process may destroy or re- 
 duce the available quantity of vitamines and if 
 all juice is not retained will waste the mineral 
 salts. Hence the importance of using leafy 
 vegetables in uncooked form. Some of the 
 tougher and older varieties of leafy vegetables 
 may be cooked as greens. Greens are most ap- 
 petizing when served with a dressing of oil and 
 lemon juice; those who prefer meat flavors in the 
 diet may cook greens with a little bacon, ham 
 or chipped beef. The chipped dried beef in 
 small quantities is also an excellent ingredient 
 to add flavor to uncooked salads. 
 
 The salads may be made in almost an endless 
 number of forms, but the leafy vegetables, 
 usually lettuce, celery or raw cabbage, should 
 always be the chief ingredients. The salad dress- 
 ing should have a vegetable oil as the main in- 
 gredient. Some sort of acid is necessary to give 
 piquancy and flavor; vinegar is commonly used 
 for the purpose, though I recommend lemon 
 juice, as being the more wholesome and natural 
 form of food acid. Mayonnaise dressing is made 
 
 152 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 of oil, vinegar or lemon juice and egg yolk. In 
 order to make a good Mayonnaise dressing one 
 should first beat the egg yolks until they are per- 
 fectly smooth, then drop in the necessary quan- 
 tity of oil drop by drop, stirring the mass the 
 whole time; when all the oil has been incorpor j 
 ated, add vinegar or lemon juice and salt to taste. 
 Some prefer also to add some small portion of 
 mustard. In order to get a perfect emulsion 
 all the ingredients should be as cold as possible. 
 
 Salad dressings may also be made with the 
 use of evaporated milk or cream to replace all 
 or part of the egg yolks and oil. Peanut but- 
 ter thinned with a little milk or water may be 
 used in a similar fashion. Sugar may be used 
 or omitted from salad dressing according to 
 taste. Dressings for salads for use in the reduc- 
 ing in cases of obesity should omit the oil ; and in 
 this case a little mustard or ketchup to give flavor 
 to the dressing is quite excusable. 
 
 Legumes, which include beans, peas, lentils 
 and peanuts, all require cooking to make them 
 palatable. Peanuts are occasionally eaten raw, 
 but most people do not care for the flavor. This 
 group of foods is more benefited by cooking than 
 foods of almost any other sort; not only is this 
 true because of the improvement of flavor, but 
 raw legumes are not readily digestible. The in- 
 
 153 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 creased proportion of vegetable protein mixed 
 with the starch seems to be one of the most diffi- 
 cult to digest of all food substances; hence thor- 
 ough cooking, which softens and disintegrates the 
 substance, is really necessary. Peanut butter is 
 made from roasted nuts — only they are not nuts 
 at all, but belong to the legume family. The 
 roasting and grinding renders the peanut much 
 more digestible. 
 
 Nuts, like legumes, are somewhat difficult of 
 digestion because of the insoluble nature of their 
 vegetable proteins, but in the case of nuts the 
 additional ingredient is fat rather than starch 
 and, therefore, they are not benefited by cooking. 
 The important thing in using nuts is their 
 thorough mastication. When nuts are desired to 
 flavor other foods, they may be ground finely in 
 a chopper. Such chopped nut meat is an excel- 
 lent ingredient of salads and may also be used 
 with cereals; or they may be added to give the 
 nutty or meaty flavor to baked vegetable com- 
 binations, which are frequently used in vegetari- 
 an cookery to replace the meat dish of the meal. 
 
 Fruits are rarely benefited by cooking and, as 
 in the case of leafy vegetables, I advise the use 
 of fruit uncooked wherever possible. The ex- 
 ception might be taken in the case of green fruit, 
 but the better plan is to use thoroughly ripened 
 
 154 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 fruits only, rather than to attempt to substitute 
 cooking for the natural ripening process. 
 
 Evaporated fruits such as prunes, peaches and 
 apricots are usually cooked, but a more natural 
 flavor may be obtained by soaking such dried 
 fruits over-night. If one likes a little cooked 
 flavor they may be brought to a boil the next 
 morning, but the prolonged cooking of evapo- 
 rated fruits is wholly unnecessary. 
 
 The banana more nearly resembles the starchy 
 vegetables than it does the true fruits. In order 
 to get it to our markets the banana is picked 
 green; it should not be used until thoroughly 
 ripened. The thoroughly ripened banana has a 
 speckled black and yellow skin; because of the 
 bruising of the fruit, bananas often spoil before 
 this stage of ripening is reached. Because of 
 the starchy nature of the unripened banana its 
 flavor may be improved by cooking. The best 
 method of doing this is to bake the banana in its 
 skin. Bananas may either be used in this form 
 or used raw, if well ripened. It is an inexpen- 
 sive and wholesome food, deserving wide use. 
 
 The habit of preparing fruit with too much 
 sugar is a dietary error; the making of thick, 
 syrupy fruits and of jellies, jams and marma- 
 lades is excusable if the appetite calls for sweets, 
 for such dishes are certainly preferable to the 
 
 155 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 wholly denatured cane and glucose syrups. But 
 the better method is to use the fruits uncooked, 
 and if well ripened most fruits may be so used 
 with little or no sugar. The better forms of 
 sweets are the natural sweet fruits, such as raisins, 
 dates and figs. To this list of natural sweets we 
 may add honey. These splendid foods deserve 
 more extensive use. They may be eaten alone or 
 with nuts, or used to sweeten cereal dishes. 
 
 Fruit juices, or drinks made therefrom, are 
 most palatable and wholesome. Fruit juice 
 drinks together with milk are the true health 
 drinks or beverages. Alcoholic drinks have been 
 abolished by law, and the health of the nation 
 would be improved if the narcotic tea and coffee 
 were also abolished. Cocoa contains a small per- 
 centage of an alkaloid narcotic, but the nutritious 
 ingredients of the cocoa, and particularly the milk 
 with which it is combined, so overbalance this 
 narcotic effect that we may place the cocoa on 
 the permissible list for those who insist upon 
 some form of warm drink. Cereal coffees are 
 not particularly nutritious except for the milk 
 and sugar they contain; but they are, of course, 
 harmless. Their great utility has been as a sub- 
 stitute for the harmful coffee. 
 
 The methods of cooking, which I do not advise, 
 either from the standpoint of health or economy, 
 
 156 
 
The Home Preparation of Food 
 
 are those in which starches and fats and often 
 sugar are mixed together. This includes all 
 manner of pastries, as well as many of the com- 
 plicated hashes, gravies and dumplings, etc. 
 Such methods of cookery add unreasonably to the 
 housewife's labor and the products, while tasty, 
 are neither digestible nor wholesome, and usually 
 lead to over-eating. Such dishes as mince pies 
 and plum pudding are notorious offenders. But 
 the general list of foods made from white flour, 
 fats and sugars with or without meat combina- 
 tions are all worthless, except for their fuel or 
 caloric value, and our conventional diet is already 
 overburdened with food material of this sort. 
 
 Frying is the least wholesome method of 
 cookery, especially when applied to foods contain- 
 ing starch. Purely protein foods such as eggs, 
 fish and lean meats, may be fried without much 
 injury to their nutritive or digestible qualities. 
 If one must fry potatoes the best method is the 
 French fried, in which the potatoes in compara- 
 tively large pieces are dropped into hot grease, 
 so that at least the entire substance does not be- 
 come saturated. 
 
 The amount of time, worry and labor expended 
 on preparing foods in the average American 
 household is an utterly inexcusable waste of 
 human energy. Whenever possible foods should 
 
 157 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 be used in their natural forms, or the dishes made 
 therefrom should be simple. Complicated and 
 elaborate cookery serves no purpose whatever, 
 except to waste a woman's time and lead her 
 family to over-eating and gluttony. 
 
 As ordinarily practiced this system of elaborate 
 cooking runs in a vicious circle. The foods are 
 too highly flavored, and too readily swallowed 
 without mastication. This results in over-eat- 
 ing. Over-eating results in loss of appetite, and 
 with a poor appetite, and the belief that one must 
 forever eat to keep up one's strength, comes the 
 demand for more complicated dishes and more 
 highly seasoned food. 
 
 The cure for this vicious system is to go back 
 to a natural diet of simple foods, and to wait for 
 the return of natural appetite, before eating. 
 This will often result in the eating of less food, 
 with the resultant loss in weight ; but such loss of 
 weight is usually beneficial. Unless a man has 
 been educated away from the erroneous view that 
 an enormous appetite, the consumption of huge 
 quantities of food, and the resultant over-weight 
 are all desirable, he will, of course, be frightened, 
 imagine that he is starving to death, and return 
 to his flesh-pots, and continue his health-destroy- 
 ing habits. 
 
 158 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Practical Food Economy 
 
 'THE general plan of diet advocated through- 
 out this book is neither the cheapest nor the 
 most expensive. But it is cheaper than the con- 
 ventional diet usually eaten in the American 
 home, because it eliminates the almost universal 
 habit of over-eating, and because it eliminates 
 the bulk of the expenditure for meat, which is 
 usually the most expensive item in the American 
 bill-of-fare. 
 
 I do not, however, advocate extreme measures 
 in food economy; outside of the emergencies of 
 war and famine, the attempt to cut the cost of 
 food down to the very minimum is both unneces- 
 sary and unwise. The cheapest foods used by 
 man are the grains, and the cheapest grain in this 
 country is corn, but a diet in which grain products 
 and especially commercial corn-meal and white 
 flour predominate is decidedly deficient and will 
 not maintain life and health. Some of the poorer 
 families in the South live largely on commercial 
 corn-meal, white flour, fat pork and molasses. 
 The result is a weak and badly nourished race on 
 which the terrible pellagra inflicts such havoc. 
 
 159 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 If the cereal foods be used in the form of entire 
 grains, particularly in the case of wheat, their 
 dietetic deficiencies are partly (not wholly) over- 
 come. Even in the most wholesome and appe- 
 tizing form cereals neither supply all elements 
 of nutrition, nor are they sufficiently palatable 
 to recommend their use to the exclusion of other 
 food. 
 
 The least expensive and most effective way to 
 overcome the deficiencies of cereal foods is by the 
 addition of milk and leafy vegetables. 
 
 This combination, therefore, makes the cheap- 
 est safe diet known. In country districts where 
 whole-wheat, milk and green vegetables may all 
 be had at comparatively low prices, a man can 
 live on such a diet and be adequately nourished 
 at the cost of a few cents a day. All diets at- 
 tempting to cut the cost of food to a minimum 
 should include these three ingredients. The 
 Whole Wheat, of course, may be used in both 
 the cereal and the bread form ; corn products may 
 be substituted for the wheat in part or in whole, 
 if the diet is sufficiently fortified with the milk 
 and greens. 
 
 In addition to the above three groups of food 
 the appetite will crave some form of fat, and also 
 sweet. The most economical way to secure these 
 would be in the form of vegetable oil and sugar ; 
 
 160 
 
Practical Food Economy 
 
 here again we may say that if plenty of whole 
 milk and leafy vegetables are used the deficien- 
 cies of such oil and sugar may be overcome. 
 The safer plan, however, and certainly a more 
 desirable one from the standpoint of palatability 
 and variety would be to use a portion of natural 
 sweet fruits, and some genuine dairy butter. 
 
 For the purposes of illustrating how these 
 principles of food economy work out, I will give 
 below three menus, figuring these three degrees 
 of simplicity and showing the comparative cost 
 of each. Of course, all prices of foods are sub- 
 ject to change without notice, and the reader in- 
 terested in the subject will have to re-figure the 
 cost according to the price list he would have to 
 pay. 
 
 THE LOWEST COST MENUS 
 
 Three-quarters of a pound of Whole Wheat $ .02 
 
 Half a pound of Corn-meal or Hominy 02 
 
 One quart of Whole Milk 10 
 
 Half a pound of Leafy Vegetables 05 
 
 (Lettuce, Raw Cabbage or Greens) 
 
 Cost per man per day, $ .19 
 
 Three-quarters of a pound of Wheat :•. . .$ .02 
 
 One-quarter pound of Corn-meal or Hominy 01 
 
 One quart of Milk 10 
 
 Two ounces of Sugar 01 
 
 One ounce of Vegetable Oil 02 
 
 Half a pound of Leafy Vegetables 05 
 
 Cost per man per day, $ .19 
 161 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 Of course, the preceding menus are doubtless 
 too monotonous and unpalatable to the average 
 individual for practical, or at least permanent 
 use. The following menu, with ingenuity of 
 cooking and serving of ingredients, would about 
 be at the bed-rock of practical economy for uni- 
 versal use. 
 
 Six ounces of Whole Wheat $ .02 
 
 Two ounces of Corn-meal or Hominy 01 
 
 Two ounces of Oatmeal 01 
 
 One quart of Whole Milk 10 
 
 One ounce of Sugar 005 
 
 One ounce of Butter 03 
 
 One ounce of Vegetable Oil 02 
 
 Two ounces of Dates or Raisins 02 
 
 Four ounces of Potatoes or other Roots 01 
 
 Quarter pound of Leafy Vegetables 025 
 
 Cost per man per day, $ .25 
 
 The above menus are given to illustrate the 
 basic principle by which food economy must be 
 achieved rather than as practical menus of real 
 use. The food quantities given in each case ap- 
 proximate 2,500 calories and hence furnish 
 enough fuel food for the average man. But 
 there will be very few readers of this book who 
 will see fit to attempt such extreme economies in 
 the diet. 
 
 The addition of greater variety to the diet will 
 naturally enhance the cost. A moderate amount 
 
 162 
 
Practical Food Economy 
 
 of such variety and such increased cost is usually 
 worth while to all who can afford it. Palata- 
 bility, the pleasure of eating, is worth paying 
 for to a moderate degree. It is only when this 
 catering to the appetite results in excessive ex- 
 pense, and particularly when the extra expense 
 adds no true improvement to the diet, that it is 
 to be condemned. 
 
 All readers who read the previous chapters of 
 this book will be fully impressed with the fact 
 that the quantity of fuel value, which the scien- 
 tists measure in calories, does not tell all we need 
 to know about food. Yet since the fuel value is 
 one element that must be considered, and because 
 it is the only element that can be easily reduced 
 to a numerical figure, this quantity of fuel or 
 caloric value is usually taken as the basis in figur- 
 ing food economy. 
 
 Such figures are interesting and instructive, 
 and are of some practical value to those who 
 comprehend that the fuel value of food is only 
 one element of food quality and that other fac- 
 tors must also be considered. I do not expect 
 any reader to compute the number of calories in 
 his daily diet — such a mathematical calculation 
 is too troublesome — but there are practical daily 
 questions that every one interested in daily food 
 economy must answer. For illustration: Are 
 
 163 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 eggs at fifty cents a dozen more economical than 
 milk at sixteen cents a quart? Are potatoes at 
 four cents a pound cheaper than bread at ten 
 cents a pound? Are raisins at fifteen cents a 
 pound more expensive than grapes at five cents 
 a pound? 
 
 In order to enable the reader to answer such 
 questions I have devised a table which will show 
 the comparative worth of various foods at various 
 prices. At the left hand side of this table you 
 will find the more important foods listed. These 
 foods are grouped according to their caloric 
 value, which, of course, has nothing to do with the 
 natural food groups that we have elsewhere dis- 
 cussed as the basis of planning a complete or bal- 
 anced menu. Across the top of this table you 
 will find, given in bold type, figures which in- 
 dicate various prices of these foods per pound. 
 In the case of eggs, only, these prices apply per 
 dozen. In the case of milk, the price should be 
 considered per pint, which, of course, is approxi- 
 mately a pound. 
 
 The figures in the body of this table represent 
 the cost of 2,500 calories, providing the price per 
 pound be that given at the head of the column. I 
 chose the unit of 2,500 calories as that approxi- 
 mates the fuel value required by the average man 
 for one day. This enables you to think of these 
 
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Practical Food Economy 
 
 figures as meaning what it would cost a man to 
 live per day if he ate only the food under con- 
 sideration. Certainly I am not advising any one 
 to live on a single food even for a single day, but 
 the idea of the cost of food per day is a term 
 that has some practical significance, while the 
 phrase 2,500 calories sounds purely scientific and 
 theoretical. 
 
 Now to apply our table. Suppose we wish to 
 answer the question suggested above; eggs are 
 fifty cents a dozen, milk is sixteen cents a quart ; 
 we want to know whether we can afford to sub- 
 stitute eggs for a portion of our milk. We look 
 at the word "eggs" and trace the horizontal until 
 we come to a column headed "50"; here we find 
 the figure "1.25," which is the cost of 2,500 cal- 
 ories of eggs at fifty cents, or what it would cost 
 a man to live a day on an exclusive egg diet. 
 We now find "fresh whole milk;" sixteen cents a 
 quart will be eight cents a pint or pound; we 
 therefore look in the column headed "8" and find 
 the cost of 2,500 calories of milk will be sixty 
 cents, which would be the daily cost of living for 
 a man on milk diet. 
 
 Now take the example of bread versus pota- 
 toes; by consulting our table we will find that 
 for bread at ten cents a pound loaf, the cost will 
 be 21 cents a day, whereas potatoes at four cents 
 
 165 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 a pound will cost 24 cents a day. Potatoes at 
 four cents a pound are not, therefore, an econ- 
 omy, compared with bread at ten cents ; but sup- 
 pose potatoes came down to two cents a pound 
 and bread to eight cents; we now find the com- 
 parative cost to be 17 cents for bread and 12 
 cents for potatoes. 
 
 This table of comparative food values will, I 
 believe, be very helpful in showing you the com- 
 parative worth of different foods at different 
 prices. You will probably find, by running 
 through the table with a number of foods you 
 use, that you have entertained some false ideas 
 as to what foods are most economical. The fig- 
 ures of the table are only approximate, being 
 computed to the nearest whole number, but it is 
 amply accurate for all practical purposes. 
 
 I can not caution you too strongly against con- 
 sidering this matter of food economy as the entire 
 or even the principal fact about foods that needs 
 your attention. Much harm has been wrought 
 by the over-emphasizing of the caloric value of 
 foods. For illustration: To substitute cereals 
 for milk in the feeding of children because cere- 
 als furnish calories at a cheap rate, is a crime 
 too obvious to need explanation. Again the 
 white flour millers have repeatedly defended their 
 product because of its high caloric value and ap- 
 
 166 
 
Pkactical Food Economy 
 
 parent economy. It is just as sensible to tell a 
 man to run his automobile on kerosene because 
 he can buy more calories per gallon in kerosene 
 than he can in gasoline. But even this illustra- 
 tion is not forcible enough, for engineers may 
 yet devise an automobile engine that will run bet- 
 ter on kerosene than it will on gasoline, but the 
 chemist of the white flour millers will never be 
 able to devise a man who will run better on de- 
 natured white bread than he will on the whole 
 wheat product. 
 
 Among the most common errors in food econ- 
 omy made by the American housewife are the 
 over-use of meats, the over-use of canned goods, 
 and the attempt to use fresh fruits and vegetables 
 out of their natural seasons. 
 
 Fat meats are cheap when considered on a basis 
 of calories, and they are utterly worthless on 
 any other basis — but cheap as they are, fat meats 
 and animal fats are never as cheap as the more 
 wholesome vegetable oils. The various oils and 
 cooking fats made from either cotton-seed oil or 
 cocoanuts are the most economical of all fats. 
 The use of such fats is to be recommended for 
 economy, provided they do not crowd out all true 
 milk or butter fat from the diet. 
 
 Lean meats are never a cheap source of food 
 from any standpoint whatever. Lean beef, even 
 
 167 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 at thirty cents a pound, considered for its fuel 
 value, is fifty per cent more expensive than milk 
 at sixteen cents a quart ; but fuel value is the least 
 important thing to consider in the comparison of 
 meat with milk; and from every other standpoint 
 the meat is inferior for most people. 
 
 The use of canned goods is extravagant merely 
 because of the expense of this method of preser- 
 vation. The cans often cost more than the food 
 that is put into them. The canned goods habit 
 is one that the housewife falls into because it saves 
 her time and labor, but the canned food diet is 
 inferior to one of fresh fruits and vegetables, or 
 in many cases to dried fruits and vegetables. I 
 certainly hope to see an increased development of 
 scientific drying or desiccating as a means of pre- 
 serving food to replace the present over-develop- 
 ment of our canned industry. The extravagance 
 of canned goods is seen at its worst in the case 
 of pickles, preserves and tit-bits of various sorts, 
 which are put up in fancy small tins or bottles and 
 sold at perfectly ridiculous prices. 
 
 While I dislike to say anything that will dis- 
 courage the use of fresh fruits and vegetables, 
 yet it certainly is not economical to attempt to 
 use these products when nature does not produce 
 them except under hot-house cultivation. There 
 are too many wholesome foods of these groups 
 
 168 
 
Practical Food Economy 
 
 that can be had, either fresh or cheaply preserved, 
 at any season of the year, to excuse the use of 
 December strawberries or similar extravagances, 
 merely to out-do one's neighbor, or because they 
 have been given in some menu one is trying to 
 follow. This argument also applies with consid- 
 erable force to the use of eggs ; this excellent food 
 is usually reasonable in cost in the spring and 
 summer, but unreasonable in cost, except for the 
 inferior storage grade, in fall and winter. 
 
 169 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 Eating for Strength and Muscular 
 Efficiency 
 
 HHHE earliest food chemists believed that pro- 
 tein foods, and especially lean meats were 
 the best foods for giving one strength and 
 energy; such a conclusion was only natural with 
 their limited knowledge. Muscles were com- 
 posed of protein, hence it seemed to follow that 
 to gain muscular strength, one should eat simi- 
 lar substance, i.e., the muscles of animals. 
 
 The error in this reasoning was in assuming 
 that the muscle in being exercised, or creating 
 energy, consumes itself and, therefore, would 
 need food substance of similar nature to replace 
 the waste. This view we now know to be wrong, 
 and that the muscle acts merely as an engine in 
 which is oxidized or burned food fuel in the form 
 of blood sugar. This blood sugar may be de- 
 rived from protein, but that is not the best source 
 from which to get it. 
 
 The protein theory of muscular strength was 
 first shown to be an error by two European 
 scientists who climbed Mont Blanc on a diet con- 
 
 170 
 
Eating for Strength and Efficiency 
 
 taining no protein. They showed that the loss 
 of body weight during this arduous task was not 
 sufficient to explain the origin of the energy ac- 
 quired from the destruction of their own muscu- 
 lar tissue. As they ate no protein food they con- 
 cluded that the source of muscular energy must 
 come from the fat and carbohydrate foods which 
 they consumed. 
 
 This belief that protein foods were the source 
 of muscular energy died very hard in the scien- 
 tific world. It is by no means dead yet in the 
 mind of the man in the street, who believes that 
 he must eat meat to keep up his strength. There 
 is perhaps just a slight bit of truth in this still 
 popular belief in the strength-giving qualities of 
 meat. That effect is probably due to a slight 
 immediate stimulating effect. 
 
 In my own experience as a wrestler, many 
 years ago, I tried out various kinds of diet and 
 observed their effects upon myself very carefully. 
 I found that meat would increase my actual 
 strength, but would lessen my endurance. I 
 could lift a heavier weight under the influence of 
 the diet in which meat was liberally supplied, but 
 I could not lift a lighter weight so many times. 
 I also discovered through those early experiments 
 that eggs did not have this unfavorable effect on 
 my endurance, though they seemed nearly, if not 
 
 171 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 quite equal to meat as a means of supplying im- 
 mediate strength. Both strength and endurance 
 were essential to my work as a wrestler, and in 
 my efforts to attain my greatest possible strength 
 without loss of endurance, I adopted, after many 
 long experiments, a diet containing a limited 
 quantity of meat. I ate eggs frequently, but did 
 not use meats oftener than once in two to four 
 days ; the bulk of my diet consisted of eggs, whole 
 wheat bread, vegetables and fruit. Upon this 
 diet I maintained such a fitness that no competi- 
 tor ever gained a single fall from me in my favor- 
 ite style of wrestling, though many of my op- 
 ponents weighed from fifteen to fifty pounds 
 more than I. 
 
 The evidence that a heavy meat diet is bene- 
 ficial in increasing immediate strength is not as 
 overwhelming or convincing as the evidence 
 against meat in matters of endurance. For il- 
 lustration: in a long distance race of 125 miles, 
 which was run some years ago between Dresden 
 and Berlin, there were thirty-two entries, twelve 
 of whom were meat eaters and twenty vegetari- 
 ans; the race was won by a vegetarian who was 
 eight hours in advance of his best meat-eating 
 competitor. Only three of the meat-eaters out 
 of twelve finished the race within the prescribed 
 time of forty-five hours, but ten of the vegeta- 
 
 172 
 
Eating for Strength and Efficiency 
 
 rians finished. The winner of the race had been 
 a vegetarian for nine years and ate but two meals 
 a day; his diet consisted chiefly of whole wheat 
 bread and uncooked fruits and nuts ; he had dis- 
 carded legumes (beans, peas, etc.) from the diet, 
 maintaining that they required too much vital 
 force for digestion — a conclusion well borne out 
 by present scientific knowledge. 
 
 More recent scientific investigation has thrown 
 much light upon this question of the diets best 
 adapted for the production of the greatest 
 strength and efficiency. This investigation of 
 Horace Fletcher and his associates, to which ref- 
 erence has been made, indicated very clearly that 
 a low protein diet resulted in superior physical 
 efficiency. Mr. Fletcher himself broke several 
 records at the Yale Gymnasium that had been 
 made by the best of the college athletes. This 
 achievement astonished the world because Mr. 
 Fletcher, at the time was over fifty years of age 
 and had not trained particularly for these tests, 
 as had his youthful and over-nourished competi- 
 tors. Fletcher's diet contained very little meat, 
 the small quantity of protein being derived from 
 milk and eggs. The systematic and carefully 
 supervised experiments which were conducted at 
 Yale following these demonstrations all gave 
 convincing evidence that a minimum diet with 
 
 173 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 very little protein, and "Fletcherized," that is, 
 eaten slowly and exceedingly well masticated, 
 would materially increase the endurance and 
 efficiency. 
 
 When these experiments were made Mr. 
 Fletcher gave the chief credit to mastication, 
 while the scientists of Yale gave the chief credit 
 to the low protein — both of these factors un- 
 doubtedly contributed toward the results. But 
 in the light of very recent experiments we should 
 also give credit to the reduction of the total quan- 
 tity of food. 
 
 The limit of a man's physical endurance 
 (which means his practical strength in all muscu- 
 lar operations, enduring for more than a few 
 seconds ) is due to the following causes : the limit 
 of the breathing capacity ; the limit of the capac- 
 ity of the heart to carry fresh blood to the 
 muscles; the accumulation of fatigue poisons. 
 
 As to the matter of breathing, there is no way 
 to improve one's power in this respect, except by 
 developing chest expansion and lung capacity. 
 In the matter of circulation, as influenced by the 
 rate of the heart-beat, some interesting facts were 
 discovered during this test at the Y. M. C. A. 
 College on the restricted diet. The pulse rate of 
 the men on the restricted diet decreased; this 
 would indicate that a less rapid flow of blood was 
 
 174 
 
Eating for Strength and Efficiency 
 
 necessary to furnish the required fuel and remove 
 fatigue poisons from the muscles. Now, when 
 these men were put through a tread-mill test, it 
 was found that though their pulse rate was in- 
 creased by the exercise it did not go nearly so high 
 as the pulse rate of full-fed men; it would seem 
 from this that the men on this minimum diet 
 would have latent powers of endurance, because 
 of this capacity to keep up a given amount of 
 energy production with a lower pulse rate. The 
 seeming truth of this reasoning is borne out by 
 the practical observations of the increased en- 
 durance upon an abstemious diet. 
 
 Fatigue is caused by the accumulation in the 
 muscle cells of the waste products of their activi- 
 ties. These are constantly being removed by the 
 blood stream, but the continued activity results 
 in a certain accumulation in excess of the capac- 
 ity of the blood to remove the waste. Some of 
 these waste products are similar to those found 
 in meat and the proportion of such products in 
 meat would depend somewhat upon the degree 
 of fatigue of the animal at the time of its death. 
 It is thus argued against a meat diet that it adds 
 to the fatigue poisons of our own activities, and 
 others derived from the animals of which we eat. 
 
 The use of excessive protein, either of animal 
 or vegetable origin seems to have a somewhat 
 
 175 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 similar effect, for the protein which is not used 
 by the body must be broken down into similar 
 waste products before it can be eliminated from 
 the body. The general sense of physical fitness 
 derived from the use of a light diet and prefer- 
 ably a light protein and meat-free diet is prob- 
 ably to be explained by this greater freedom from 
 fatigue poisons. 
 
 The weight of the body and the amount of fat 
 has an obvious effect upon muscular strength and 
 efficiency. Any one knows that a fat man is 
 weak and clumsy and that an athlete should train 
 down to hard muscle before he can hope to win 
 against his competitors. 
 
 In the past, however, athletes have often at- 
 tempted to take off their fat by exercise, while 
 still living upon a diet, the tendency of which was 
 to put fat back on them. The exercise is cer- 
 tainly essential, but the task of training is made 
 much more difficult where exercise and diet are 
 thus at war with each other. 
 
 Probably the most efficient condition of the 
 body is one in which the fat is reduced almost 
 to the vanishing point. Just where this point is, 
 is not easy to determine, for the reason that there 
 is much fat deposited throughout the body, the 
 presence of which does not show upon the sur- 
 face of the body. In the experiments on re- 
 
 176 
 
Eating for Strength and Efficiency 
 
 stricted diets quoted in our chapter on "How 
 Much to Eat," the young men, though athletic 
 to start with, all lost ten per cent of their weight, 
 and yet were able to keep up their strength. 
 In fact, the comparison of the strength of these 
 before and after losing this ten per cent of weight, 
 was so close that, for the group as a whole, the 
 averages showed that they had gained a little 
 strength in one hand and lost it in the other. In 
 the chinning tests several of the men on the re- 
 stricted diet broke their previous records made 
 on a full diet; eight out of twelve of these men 
 held their arms extended for one hour. 
 
 I do not believe that these men could have 
 shown such muscular efficiency if their loss in 
 weight had been chiefly in muscular tissue, for 
 such a loss from a 150-pound man v/ould mean 
 fifteen pounds, about one-fifth of his total mus- 
 cular substance. The weights and photographs 
 of these men showed them to be, at the begin- 
 ning of the experiment, in about the condition 
 of the average athletic individual who is eating 
 rather heavily and training moderately. Such 
 men evidently carry some surplus fat which they 
 can afford to lose without any loss of strength. 
 
 The actual fuel burned in the muscle is physi- 
 ological glucose or blood-sugar; it, therefore, 
 follows that such sugar is the most easily avail- 
 
 177 
 

 Eating fok Health and Strength 
 
 able for the production of muscular energy. 
 When the free supply of this blood sugar is 
 consumed, the fat, either direct from the food 
 or from the body, is next drawn upon, being 
 converted into sugar before it can be utilized in 
 the muscles. After all fat is exhausted, as in 
 the case of a starving man, then and only then 
 do the muscles consume themselves or burn 
 protein. When this point is reached, strength 
 deteriorates rapidly and weakness and ulti- 
 mately death occur. As long as there is a 
 supply of sugar in the blood, or stored in a 
 slightly altered form of glycogen in the liver, 
 body fat will not be drawn upon; on the other 
 hand as long as there is fat in the body the 
 muscles or other active tissues will not be con- 
 sumed. 
 
 From these statements we can draw the fol- 
 lowing conclusions: First, the best form of 
 nutritive energy is that of blood-sugar; and as 
 long as the supply of this is not exhausted 
 nothing else will be consumed. (The loss of 
 weight that occurs in ordinary athletic contests 
 is chiefly due to the loss of weight of water.) 
 Second: so long as man has any appreciable 
 amount of fat in his body neither exercise nor the 
 reduction of the diet can cause the destruction 
 of his vital tissues or cells by muscular work. 
 
 178 
 
Eating for Strength and Efficiency 
 
 As a practical application of these principles, 
 in recommending a diet for muscular strength 
 and endurance, we must place first in the list 
 the foods that will produce blood-sugar. These 
 foods . in order of their ease of digestion and 
 quickness of assimilation are as follows: — First: 
 The natural food sugars, such as dates, raisins, 
 grapes and honey. Second: Artificial sugars, 
 granulated sugar and syrups. Third: Starches. 
 Fourth: Fats. Fifth: Protein. This rating of 
 foods in order of their readiness for blood sugar 
 production does not, of course, mean that the 
 athlete should disturb the fundamental basis of 
 a complete diet. The salts, vitamines and high 
 efficiency proteins are required for the athlete 
 as for any one else, but for the additional food 
 that his extra exertions require, or for the imme- 
 diate food to be used just prior to or while 
 undergoing such exertion, the list as given shows 
 the order of preference. The use of chocolate 
 for soldiers on the march is well founded, as the 
 sweetened chocolate so used is chiefly sugar with 
 a smaller proportion of fat. Except for the 
 matter of flavor plain sugar would do as well. 
 But I believe the very best foods that can be 
 found for this especial purpose are dried sweet 
 fruits. 
 
 Part of the argument in favor of the use of 
 179 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 such special foods during, or immediately pre- 
 ceding strenuous exertion rests on the fact that 
 these foods require the least consumption of 
 energy for their digestion and are least likely 
 to make trouble with indigestion when the blood 
 is drawn away from the alimentary tract, be- 
 cause of the vigorous use of the muscles. Do 
 not overlook the fact that the digestion of food 
 consumes considerable energy — particularly is 
 this true of protein food. This energy spent on 
 digestion adds nothing to the energy available 
 for muscular exertion, but only puts an addi- 
 tional burden on the heart and lungs. In exert- 
 ing the muscles for a few seconds the limit of 
 strength is one of actual muscular power, but in 
 endurance the limit is the ability of the heart 
 to circulate the blood and the lungs to purify 
 it. Here perhaps we see the reason why the 
 meat diet does not effect strength but does effect 
 endurance. 
 
 Where food must be taken during severe 
 physical labor the foods requiring the least en- 
 ergy in digestion are obviously indicated. But 
 it does not follow that one should be eating all 
 the time during strenuous labor. Such use of 
 sugar foods is necessary only during long 
 marches, long cycling, swimming and walking 
 contests, where the activity must be kept up 
 
 180 
 
Eating for Strength and Efficiency 
 
 constantly for hours or perhaps days. For ordi- 
 nary athletic events it is much better to enter 
 the contest with an empty stomach; the last 
 meal should be taken several hours before such 
 competition, and nothing can be superior for 
 such a meal than sweet fruits with perhaps a 
 glass or two of milk. 
 
 The eating of ordinary meals containing 
 starches, fats and protein difficult to digest dur- 
 ing periods of specially strenuous labor is a 
 imiatake — complete fasting would be better. 
 This fact is well illustrated by the experience of 
 as engineer who was working a twelve-hour shift 
 alternating with a man who had the habit of not 
 showing up, the result being that the reliable 
 man sometimes had to work thirty-six hours at 
 a stretch. The company very kindly provided 
 a full meal, sent from a restaurant, every six 
 hours. The result of a couple of such expe- 
 riences was a serious case of illness. The next 
 time it happened the engineer refused the food 
 and went through the thirty-six hour shift on a 
 fast; he then went home and had his sleep out, 
 and came through the experience as fit as a 
 fiddle. 
 
 Just as it is inadvisable to eat heavily imme- 
 diately before or during an athletic contest, so 
 one should not eat heavily immediately after. 
 
 181 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 It is highly important for the man who in- 
 dulges in heavy exercise or labor for limited 
 periods and has long periods of rest or light 
 labor in between, to adapt his diet to the 
 changed condition. Otherwise the habits of eat- 
 ing necessarily adopted during the periods of 
 strenuous labor will be continued, the result is 
 that he will be over-fed, even if he does not 
 actually get fat. Such over-feeding will result 
 in a stuffed and inefficient condition. He is 
 particularly likely not to notice this, as the 
 shrinkage of the muscles due to the discontinu- 
 ance of exercise will permit of a considerable 
 accumulation of fat before it becomes noticeable. 
 
 A great deal of time and physical efficiency 
 is lost by boxers and other seasonal athletes 
 in getting into and out of training. If their 
 diet was more carefully adapted to their actual 
 needs from time to time, getting back into shape 
 would be much easier accomplished. But the 
 worst mistake of this sort is that made by the 
 average business man who spends his youth as 
 a boy on a farm, or athlete in a college and ac- 
 quires a hearty appetite, and then tries to keep 
 up his eating capacity after he settles down into 
 a swivel chair and indulges in nothing more 
 strenuous than getting into and out of an 
 automobile. 
 
 382 
 
Eating for Strength and Efficiency 
 
 To attempt to prescribe the exact amount of 
 food that should be eaten by the man doing heavy 
 physical labor, and particularly by the athlete, 
 is even more difficult and impracticable than to 
 prescribe the amount of food for those of seden- 
 tary occupation. This difficulty will be readily 
 seen by a glance at the following figures, which 
 show the consumption of food energy under dif- 
 ferent conditions of physical activity. 
 
 Calories 
 per hour 
 
 Sleeping 65 
 
 Sitting 100 
 
 Walking slowly 170 
 
 Walking rapidly 300 
 
 Running, six miles per hour 500 
 
 From such figures it is seen how very great are 
 the differences of energy consumption with dif- 
 ferent forms of exercise. Hence to calculate 
 how many calories per day an athlete would need, 
 we would have to know the exact number of min- 
 utes engaged in sleeping, standing, sitting, walk- 
 ing and running, and so forth. Even this exact 
 degree of exertion in all these conditions could 
 not be known, to say nothing of the factors of 
 the size of the man and his individual physical 
 efficiency in converting food into energy — hence 
 the absurdity of all such efforts to prescribe the 
 exact amount of food that any man should eat. 
 
 183 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 We can also note from the above figures that 
 the rate of consumption in such exercise as run- 
 ning would amount to 5,000 calories for a ten- 
 hour day; a man who ran twenty-four hours — 
 and it has been done — would consume 12,000 
 calories. All such figures are away above the 
 capacity of a man to digest and assimilate food, 
 hence these especially strenuous endurance tests 
 are only possible from the temporary consump- 
 tion of food stored in the body with the result 
 that such special exertion causes a temporary loss 
 in weight. 
 
 As a practical problem the athlete should 
 gauge the amount of food eaten, not by calcula- 
 tion of calories, but by the weight of the body 
 and the sense of physical fitness. The more mus- 
 cular energy expended the greater will be the 
 amount of food needed; but it does not follow 
 that excessive eating will increase the muscular 
 powers; quite the contrary is true. The ideal, 
 in any case, is to eat just enough to sustain the 
 general average expenditure of food energy. The 
 muscles work more efficiently and endurance is 
 greater when the body is not clogged with an ex- 
 cess of nutritive elements, and the vitality wasted 
 first in digesting and then eliminating the use- 
 less surplus. Therefore, it is much better to keep 
 the average food consumption down near the 
 
 184 
 
Eating for Strength and Efficiency 
 
 minimum, even if it results in loss of body weight 
 during the times of severe exertion, than it is to 
 attempt at all times to eat enough for those 
 periods of special energy expenditure, with the 
 result of over-eating at other times and a gen- 
 eral lowering of efficiency. 
 
 185 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Food and Mental Efficiency 
 
 OAVAGES are reputed to have eaten the 
 hearts of their enemies in order to acquire 
 their courage. Civilized men, even scientists 
 until very recently, believed that we should eat 
 the muscles of the ox in order to acquire the 
 strength of the ox. But I am not aware that 
 anybody has ever advocated or practised eating 
 of brains in order to benefit mentally. 
 
 Another superstition that seems even less 
 plausible did arise, and is still believed in by some 
 people; it is that fish is a brain food. This un- 
 warranted belief was founded upon the somewhat 
 accidental discovery that both the human brains 
 and the meat of fish contain phosphorus. As a 
 matter of fact many other foods are now known 
 to be richer in phosphorus than fish, whereas 
 phosphorus is a very minor element in the com- 
 position of brain substance. None the less the 
 incomplete knowledge of the early chemists gave 
 rise to the belief in fish as brain food, and also to 
 a slogan of the early German materialists who 
 said "Keine Phosphor, heine Gedenken" — "No 
 phosphorus, no thought." 
 
 186 
 
Food and Mental Efficiency 
 
 The Physiology of the brain and he function 
 of thinking are much more complex . atters and 
 less comprehended by science than are the 
 physiology of the muscles and the function of 
 muscular exercise. 
 
 The brain is composed chiefly of protein, but 
 there is also a little highly specialized fatty sub- 
 stance known as lecithin, which is also present 
 in egg yolks. As the action of the muscles 
 does not consume its substance, so the action of 
 the brain does not consume its substance, but, 
 whereas muscular action consumes a very sub- 
 stantial quantity of food fuel, brain action does 
 not consume any substance in quantities that 
 science has been able to measure. 
 
 Yet brain action does require, perhaps we 
 should say, results in an increased flow of blood 
 to the brain. This blood is arterial as it flows 
 to the brain and venous blood when it leaves the 
 brain, showing that chemical changes — oxidation 
 at least — do take place. That the effect of men- 
 tal work in increasing oxidation cannot be meas- 
 ured, as can the effects of physical work, may 
 merely be due to the fact that the brain forms 
 only two per cent of the weight of the body, hence 
 the effect of its labors would be too small to notice 
 in comparison with the total metabolism going on 
 in the body. Thus a man thinking with relaxed 
 
 187 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 muscles would seem to show less metabolism than 
 another who sat apparently still but with tensed 
 muscles. For these reasons the amount and 
 nature of food required to produce thought can- 
 not be measured and hence the belief has arisen 
 that mental work does not consume food at all. 
 This conclusion can at present be neither proven 
 nor disproven, and we cannot state what is the 
 exact purpose or effect of this extra flow of blood 
 during brain activity, but that it has a purpose, 
 we cannot doubt. Moreover, we do know that 
 anything that interferes with the flow of blood 
 to the brain, or any impairment of any such qual- 
 ity of that blood will interfere with brain action 
 and reduce mental efficiency. 
 
 Some inference might be made as to the nature 
 of essential "brain food" from the fact that a lack 
 of one of the vitamines causes the dull sleepiness 
 which ends in paralysis, as observed in pigeons 
 and other experimental animals. It is probable 
 that there are essential substances, minute in 
 quantity, which are consumed in brain activity 
 and the lack of which may cause mental ineffi- 
 ciency, insanity, and probably death. This prob- 
 lem science in the future may yet unravel. 
 
 No appreciable amount of bulkier food sub- 
 stances such as ordinary proteins, carbohydrates 
 and fats are concerned in brain activity. The 
 
 188 
 
Food and Mental Efficiency 
 
 brain wastes the slowest of any organ or tissues 
 (with the exception of the bones) during fasting 
 or starvation. Nor is the brain substance ma- 
 terially impaired by fasting. Barring the dis- 
 turbing elements of the sensation of hunger which 
 in fasting largely disappears after the first few 
 days, the brains seem to work very well without 
 the usual food supply. Upton Sinclair wrote a 
 play during a two weeks' fast. Dr. Benedict re- 
 ports that a professional faster was in first-class 
 mental condition at the end of a thirty days' fast 
 and made a speech in which he gave evidence of 
 a keen and wide-awake mind. 
 
 To take up more practical considerations, we 
 find that many of the world's greatest thinkers 
 are light eaters and attribute their superior 
 mental efficiency, in part at least, to their ab- 
 stemious diet. Thomas Edison, whose record 
 for long hours of high grade mental work has 
 never been surpassed, insists that his capacity 
 for a twenty-hour working day is due to his 
 light eating habits, and his abstinence from alco- 
 hol and stimulants. 
 
 The heavy eater is unquestionably less efficient 
 mentally than the man who eats just enough to 
 maintain a minimum body weight and supply the 
 energy for his physical activities. More particu- 
 larly the effect of over-eating upon brain effi- 
 
 189 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 ciency can be observed immediately after the eat- 
 ing of a heavy meal. In addition to the more 
 general effects of over-eating we have here the 
 specific effect of the withdrawal of the blood sup- 
 ply from the brain to the digestive organs; the 
 result is a lazy or sleepy f eeling. 
 
 So important is this effect of the heavy meal 
 upon the mental efficiency that it is generally 
 recognized by efficiency experts who deal with 
 high grade mental workers. One such efficiency 
 engineer, in handling a large force of buyers for 
 a firm in New York, laid down as a first rule that 
 they should not have lunch before one o'clock; a 
 second rule was that they should not consummate 
 any important deal after lunch. In other words 
 they should not do important business at all on 
 a full stomach. In this manner he circumvented 
 the practice of salesmen who were in the habit of 
 taking his buyers out to lunch, giving them a 
 good feed and then, over coffee and cigars, while 
 they were in good humor — in other words, robbed 
 of their mental alertness — putting across a good 
 deal for the salesman, but a poor deal for the 
 buyer's house. 
 
 The digestion of food itself consumes energy, 
 as I have elsewhere pointed out; it increases the 
 total activities of the body as measured by the 
 amount of oxygen consumed, but these increased 
 
 190 
 
Food and Mental Efficiency 
 
 activities, unlike those of exercise, seem to deaden 
 rather than to stimulate mental activity. 
 
 The effects of a continuous light diet upon 
 the mental power were observed in the case of 
 the Y. M. C. A. College men whose physical tests 
 on reduced portions we have already recorded. 
 These men while on half their former food sup- 
 ply maintained a ranking in their college grades 
 that averaged about two per cent better than their 
 previous college records, with the unlimited heavy 
 diet, or the records of fellow classmen not on a re- 
 duced diet. Some detailed psychological tests 
 seemed to show a decrease of certain mental 
 powers, but there was no change sufficient to be 
 observed by the men or their associates or that 
 seriously interfered with their intellectual pow- 
 ers. 
 
 In their diaries many of the men remarked 
 they felt freer from logginess and dullness, and 
 more mentally fit; others complained that their 
 increased hunger made them restless and dis- 
 turbed in their studies. 
 
 Remember that these men were living on an 
 extremely restricted diet, considering the amount 
 of physical exercise they were taking. The 
 probable best results in mental as well as physical 
 efficiency would be a happy medium of nutrition 
 between the over-eating habits of the average 
 
 191 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 man, and these half rations of wartime experi- 
 menters. 
 
 While there is probably no need, in ordinary 
 life, of the extreme dietetic restrictions of these 
 experimental subjects, yet unquestionably light 
 eating habits are essential for those who wish to 
 prolong their lives and do superior mental work. 
 It is equally important for the mental worker to 
 arrange the proportioning of his meals so that his 
 chief labors of the day will not come during those 
 hours when he is digesting his chief food supply 
 for the day. 
 
 Either of the following plans will be suited to 
 the worker whose mental labors are performed 
 during ordinary office hours : 
 
 PLAN I. 
 No Breakfast — or at most nothing more than a cup 
 
 of hot water, flavored, if desired, with a little 
 
 milk or fruit juice. 
 Or very light Breakfast of fruits. 
 
 Moderate Lunch, such as light sandwiches, Whole 
 Wheat Bread if possible. 
 Milk 
 Salad 
 
 Full Dinner at 6 p.m. 
 
 PLAN II. 
 
 Moderate Breakfast — such as Fruit, fresh or evap- 
 orated. 
 
 Light Cereals 
 Milk or Eggs 
 
 Whole Wheat Bread and Butter 
 192 
 
Food and Mental Efficiency 
 
 At Noon — take a recreational walk 
 
 Or at most take nothing more than a 
 
 Glass of Milk 
 
 An Egg-nog, or 
 
 Fruit Juice at a Soda Fountain. 
 
 Full Dinner at 6 p.m. 
 
 PLAN III. 
 
 Begin the day with some fairly active exercises, end- 
 ing in a brief walk, if convenient. After a brief 
 rest take a hearty breakfast. 
 
 Breakfast: This meal should be the heartiest 
 meal of the day. You can be assured of an 
 appetite for it, if you follow the entire regime — 
 that is, go to bed at least moderately hungry. 
 This meal can consist of: 
 Eggs or meat, as desired. 
 Potatoes prepared to suit the taste or whatever 
 
 other vegetable may appeal to you. 
 Salad, if desired. 
 Whole Wheat or hot Corn Bread and Butter. 
 
 At one o'clock, or five or six hours after you break- 
 fast, take a moderately hearty meal, depending 
 entirely upon your appetite. It should not be 
 as hearty as the morning meal. 
 Eggs, if desired. 
 Vegetables or Salad. 
 Whole Wheat Bread and Butter. 
 Sweet Fruits as dessert. 
 
 No evening meal. 
 
 If you make milk a part of your diet, take a pint or 
 whatever quantity of milk you may desire at this 
 time. When taking milk it is better to take a 
 glass at a time and allow a few minutes to inter- 
 vene between glasses. Remember, don't drink 
 milk; "eat" it, as previously described. 
 193 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 Mental workers whose work need not be con- 
 fined to the usual office hours, very frequently do 
 their best work when other people are sleeping, 
 either by sitting up at night, or preferably, by 
 forming a habit of early rising. For such work- 
 ers I suggest either of the following daily food 
 regimes, though I strongly recommend the early 
 rising habit. 
 
 PLAN I. 
 
 Rise very early, say from 4 to 6 A.M. 
 
 Take a glass of hot water or a little fruit. 
 
 Work steadily without further food until the important 
 creative work of the day is done, then partake of a 
 moderate meal. 
 
 Eat supper early and spend the evening in mental recrea- 
 tion, or light mental work. 
 
 Devote the afternoon to physical recreation, or lighter work. 
 
 Eat supper early 
 tion, or ligh 
 
 Go to bed early. 
 
 PLAN II. 
 
 Rise late, 8 to 10 A.M. Take vigorous morning exercise, 
 followed by a bath and eat moderate late breakfast, 
 or early lunch. 
 
 Work at creative work or other occupation during the day 
 without further eating. 
 
 Have full dinner rather early in the evening. Then spend 
 at least two hours in mental recreation. 
 
 After the meal has been digested, settle down for the crea- 
 tive work of the night and work as late as the mind 
 will function vigorously. Sleep the next morning till 
 you are fully rested. 
 
 194 
 
Food and Mental Efficiency 
 
 Let me say in conclusion that while science has 
 not discovered any particular brain foods, both 
 Science and practical experience teach us the 
 great importance of maintaining a high degree 
 of bodily efficiency as the basis of mental effi- 
 ciency. The rules for mental efficiency are 
 merely the rules for correct living generally; 
 physical efficiency, health and long life can all 
 be attained on a program of living that develops 
 the best brain power. Most people are dull 
 mentally because they are stuffed up from over- 
 eating and under-exercise. Either proper eating 
 or proper exercise will benefit mental efficiency, 
 but a proper balance of both will attain the best 
 results of all. 
 
 195 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Eating to Gain Weight 
 
 F N this and the following chapter we will con- 
 sider the question of eating from the stand- 
 point of changing the weight of the body, but 
 before one sets about to change the weight of 
 the body, with the view of attaining an ideal 
 weight, he, or she, should know what the ideal 
 weight is. 
 
 This question of the ideal weight must ever 
 remain an individual one; no two people, even 
 of the same sex are born with the same inherited 
 capacities for bodily growth and development. 
 Not only is there a difference in stature which 
 once attained cannot be materially altered, but 
 there are fundamental differences in build or 
 type which should be considered. Some frames 
 are heavier than others, the bones are actually 
 larger; also there are differences in relative 
 breadth of frame in relation to height. 
 
 The muscular development is far more within 
 the control of the individual than the skeleton, 
 or the size of the vital organs. Most people 
 under civilized conditions are sadly lacking in 
 
 396 
 
Eatixg to Gain Weight 
 
 muscular development ; only a very few attain the 
 full, maximum muscular development of which 
 they are inherently capable. Almost all men, 
 and more certainly all women, could materially 
 improve the muscular development by muscular 
 exercise. But even with the most thorough 
 regime of physical exercise there will still be 
 distinct differences in the degree or heaviness of 
 muscular development. Some will develop large 
 and exceedingly strong muscles; others, even 
 with the same exercise, will develop muscles of 
 a lighter type, perhaps adapted to dexterity and 
 speed or wiry endurance. When all these facts 
 are considered it is seen that any table of ideal 
 weights, even properly arranged for heights and 
 sex, will still fail as a guide for a particular 
 individual. The far better source of knowledge 
 from which to determine the ideal weight is a 
 well trained conception of the ideal — or more 
 properly ideals — for their distinct types — of 
 physical beauty. This sense for bodily beauty 
 is instinctive in us all, but may be cultivated by 
 the observation of such beauty, as expressed by 
 painters and sculptors, or even better, as ob- 
 served from the development of living individ- 
 uals or their photographs. 
 
 One point of caution only is needed — the 
 ideals of physical beauty have not always been 
 
 197 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 
 maintained upon the basis of the admiration of 
 physical efficiency or muscular development. 
 The ancient Greeks did maintain such ideals 
 and the imitation of their art has done much to 
 preserve these ideals even in ages when the 
 original ideals of physical development were lost 
 to a world struggling between the puritanical 
 conception that everything connected with the 
 body was indecent and unclean, and the licen- 
 tious conception that the only physical beauty 
 was that which would stimulate passion and lust. 
 
 The practice of the puritanical world has 
 usually been to hide the body, particularly the 
 female body, or to distort it with mutilations 
 achieved by insane fashions in dress. Happily 
 these absurdities have largely disappeared from 
 the mind of the present generation and the 
 styles in clothing of the present day, though by 
 no means perfect, are more sensible and more 
 artistic than anything that has prevailed since 
 classic periods. 
 
 The absurd fashions, now happily disappear- 
 ing, seem to have had a dual purpose. On the 
 one hand was the puritanical element insisting 
 upon the complete hiding of the form with a 
 superabundance of clothing, and on the other 
 hand the licentious element which attempted to 
 exaggerate the distinctive features of the female 
 
 198 
 
Eating to Gain Weight 
 
 form by restricting the waist and giving undue 
 prominence to the bust and hips. 
 
 Some of the models used by artists, in this 
 age of absurdity, were of the type that unduly 
 accentuated this "femininity." Though artists 
 rarely consented to paint or chisel the extreme 
 hour-glass waists, many artists did take their 
 models from feminine types entirely too exag- 
 gerated to be considered as ideals of physical 
 fitness or to be considered beautiful to any other 
 than the voluptuous mind. Other former paint- 
 ings, especially of the Dutch artists, appear very 
 ludicrous to us now, as their models were dis- 
 tinctly fat. 
 
 I dwell upon this point because I have found 
 many women who think themselves under- 
 weight and are always stuffing themselves in 
 efforts to overcome their thinness, when as a 
 matter of fact they arc eating plenty of food 
 and are fat enough, though they would be im- 
 proved by a better muscular development. 
 
 In the case of men there is rarely any excuse 
 for them to try to fatten themselves. With 
 women we may be somewhat more lenient; al- 
 though muscular development is always to be 
 preferred to the acquisition of fat, yet some 
 women are so built that they cannot maintain 
 an attractive form wholly from the development 
 
 199 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 of muscles. For such, at least, during the pe- 
 riod of youth, the carrying of a moderate pro- 
 portion of fatty tissue may be worth in personal 
 satisfaction any injurious effects that might be 
 caused by eating the additional food required to 
 maintain such development. To argue that a 
 woman should be so thin as to be unattractive 
 to all men, in order that she might live longer, 
 is a waste of words — she wouldn't want to live 
 longer. 
 
 The most frequent cause of undue thinness 
 or underweight is the lack of sufficient muscles; 
 exercise and not diet must always remain the 
 true remedy for such a lack. But there are 
 cases in both sexes in which there is a lack of 
 both fat and muscle tissue that may have a 
 dietetic origin. In these instances of true under- 
 nutrition, the trouble is usually not a question 
 of insufficient eating, but of an impairment of 
 digestion and assimilation through past dietetic 
 errors. The mere effort to increase the food 
 eaten may, indeed, in such cases have quite the 
 opposite effect than that which is desired. 
 
 Before giving practical dietetic instructions 
 for those who wish to gain weight, I want to 
 call attention to one marked distinction between 
 the problem of weight-gaining and the problem 
 of weight reduction. In the case of weight 
 
 200 
 
Eating to Gain Weight 
 
 reduction, dieting is a positive and infallible 
 method; if one eats less of the fuel or fat form- 
 ing foods than the daily functions of the body 
 require, loss of weight must result. But in the 
 contrary case the eating of more food will not 
 always result in an increase of weight. More- 
 over, while the loss of weight, for those who are 
 too heavy, almost invariably results in physical 
 benefit, the increase of weight on the part of 
 those who are undeveloped will not be of benefit 
 unless the increase is largely in the form of 
 useful active tissue rather than mere fat. 
 
 True under-nutrition may be caused either 
 by lack of sufficient food, a lack of properly 
 proportioned and balanced food, or, a lack of 
 ability properly to assimilate food eaten. In 
 any case the first thing to do is to see that the 
 diet contains all the necessary food ingredients 
 and contains them in approximately the correct 
 proportions. A diet so selected will usually 
 remedy the trouble without any particular effort 
 to eat a larger quantity than natural hunger 
 calls for. Such a diet combined with the general 
 program of hygienic living will remedy all 
 ordinary cases of under-weight. 
 
 In particular instances where the digestion 
 has been impaired, special diets will be needed 
 to overcome such impairment. For this purpose 
 
 201 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 there is no diet more worthy of a trial than the 
 milk diet. Milk is one of the most digestible 
 of our foods and unquestionably supplies nour- 
 ishment in a very efficient form for the produc- 
 tion of either muscular or fatty tissue. The 
 milk diet has given splendid results in thousands 
 of cases of under-weight and malnutrition. 
 Such gains, however, may prove to be of a 
 temporary nature, if the temporary milk diet 
 is not followed by a permanent regime that 
 includes both proper food and sufficient exer- 
 cise. 
 
 One should not attempt to gain weight too 
 rapidly, as the human being cannot be fattened 
 like a pig, without producing an utterly worth- 
 less form of tissue. If too great an amount of 
 food is eaten the results will be quite opposite 
 from weight gaining. Such deliberate over-eat- 
 ing was tested by English scientists; they pre- 
 scribed for several subjects a diet of about 4,500 
 calories, and the subjects agreed to eat it and 
 see what happened. They were healthy men, 
 taking moderate exercise. For a few days they 
 laid on fat rapidly. Then, in every case, the 
 appetite failed and they had to force themselves 
 to eat at all. They continued, however, until 
 serious indigestion followed by diarrhea put 
 them on the sick list. As a result they lost more 
 
 202 
 
Eating to Gain Weight 
 
 ice water. Hot drinks are usually preferable, 
 though strong tea or coffee should be tabooed. 
 Though not fattening, buttermilk can be used at 
 each meal as a drink for a stomach tonic if it 
 is appetizing. 
 
 205 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Eating to Reduce Weight 
 
 rpHROUGHOUT this book I have given 
 A numerous arguments against over-eating 
 and the condition of obesity which usually fol- 
 lows. 
 
 But perhaps the most convincing argument 
 of all is that the fat man or woman is unsightly 
 of appearance and very obviously handicapped 
 in social life as well as in the more serious business 
 of muscular or mental activity. Fat is no longer 
 in fashion, and even a degree of fatness for- 
 merly thought to be a sign of good health is 
 now known to be a sign of ill health and a 
 prognostication of an untimely death. 
 
 Most convincing of these very real handicaps 
 of the fat man in the race of life are the in- 
 vestigations made a few years ago by the 
 insurance companies of America. Hundreds of 
 thousands of cases were tabulated in which the 
 weights and heights of the policy holders were 
 known. From the records of all policy holders 
 the average weights for the various heights and 
 ages were determined. All records were then 
 
 206 
 
Eating to Reduce Weight 
 
 assorted according to the percentage of individ- 
 ual departure above or below these standard 
 or average weight figures. The number of 
 deaths in each such group were known and by 
 comparing the number of deaths that actually 
 did occur with the death rate to be expected 
 from all individuals of similar ages, it was pos- 
 sible to derive figures that show the practical 
 effect of various degrees of over and under 
 weight upon the death rate. 
 
 The description of this method of investiga- 
 tion may seem a little confusing to the reader, 
 but he can rest assured that the life insurance 
 statisticians knew what they were about. Their 
 companies pay out millions of dollars on policies 
 and if they make a mistake of insuring the 
 wrong kind of men, or of insuring them at too 
 low a rate the companies will suffer a heavy 
 financial loss. There was money back of this 
 effort to find the truth concerning the effect 
 of the weight upon the proper length of life; 
 and the truth, when found, surprised even the 
 insurance experts. 
 
 They found that over-weight, even in a mild 
 degree very materially increased the death rate; 
 they also found that the greater the over-weight 
 the greater the increase in death rate. No sta- 
 tistics were gathered for extreme cases, as these 
 
 207 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 would be too few in number to draw a general 
 conclusion, but they found that men ranging 
 from sixty-five to eighty-five pounds over- 
 weight (which in a man of average height would 
 be about 225 pounds) had, at some age periods, 
 a death rate practically twice as great as men 
 of normal weight. 
 
 The increase in death rate or the danger from 
 obesity was discovered to vary in degree accord- 
 ing to age ; obesity is not nearly so dangerous in 
 youth, and not quite so dangerous in old age, 
 as it is in middle life. But at all ages extreme 
 obesity increased the death rate. 
 
 On the other hand it was found that under- 
 weight is most dangerous in youth; as men 
 grow older being under the average weight is 
 found to be an actual advantage and results in 
 a decreased death rate. Obviously the reason 
 for this is that the average figures for the 
 weights of all men which were taken as a stand- 
 ard in this investigation do not constitute a true 
 or an ideal standard. By a study of these figures 
 (too complicated to give here in detail) we learn 
 that young men, on the average, weigh less than 
 they should, and that older men, on the average, 
 weigh more than they should. The logical ex- 
 planation is that young men are not so often 
 too fat but have frequently undeveloped muscles, 
 
 208 
 
Eating to Reduce Weight 
 
 whereas the great majority of old men, what- 
 ever be their muscular development, are too 
 fat. 
 
 Youth is a period of activity, the period in 
 which growth and muscular development should 
 occur. As men grow older they are naturally 
 less active and some shrinkage in muscular de- 
 velopment is not incompatible with health and 
 efficiency. Usually what happens is that the 
 muscles are allowed to shrink too much and the 
 diet is not decreased in proportion as it should 
 be. And again obesity invariably results. 
 
 Tables of average weight, erroneously called 
 "standard weights" show for both sexes an in- 
 crease of weight with age. True standard 
 weight tables should show exactly the opposite. 
 The lithe and athletic form of youth is and 
 always will be our ideal of physical form and 
 beauty. To retain it with the passing of years 
 is rather difficult, quite impossible unless youth- 
 ful activities are kept up. But to camouflage 
 the loss of the muscles of youth by an accumu- 
 lation of fat is a trick by which we may cheat 
 ourselves and our ignorant neighbors, but we 
 cannot cheat Nature, and she will exact her 
 recompense in the form of inefficiency, ill-health 
 and premature death. 
 
 Why then, some may ask, did "Nature" make 
 
 209 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 it so easy for us to accumulate this burden of 
 fat, only to punish us for sins with which she 
 tempted us? The answer is that primitive man, 
 like other animals, had an uncertain and irregu- 
 lar food supply, it was therefore frequently 
 advantageous to him to eat more than he needed 
 one day in order to carry him over the several 
 days when there might be nothing at all to eat. 
 Civilization has made this crude and inefficient 
 method of food storage unnecessary. On the 
 other hand, civilization has decreased man's need 
 of physical labor which would consume, in a 
 beneficial manner, a larger quantity of food 
 material. Still worse, civilization has com- 
 pounded thousands of dishes made of over-sea- 
 soned and appetite-tempting foods, and so milled 
 and cooked that they may be eaten more quickly 
 and hence in larger quantities than natural food 
 would be. 
 
 As a total result of the blunders of man, we 
 find ourselves with a natural temptation to eat 
 more than we immediately need, with the re- 
 sulting evils greatly increased by our decreased 
 activities and the artificial stimulation of our 
 appetites by unnatural foods. 
 
 The remedy is the exercise of both intelli- 
 gence and will-power. People who are too fat 
 and know that they are too fat — who may even 
 
 210 
 
Eating to Reduce Weight 
 
 protest that they do not over-eat — do over-eat 
 and continue to over-eat simply because they 
 like to eat. Such people are always searching 
 for some easy, lazy way to "reduce," without 
 either taking exercise or restricting the diet. 
 They will take any kind of a reducing pill that 
 any charlatan offers them, whether it be made 
 of "bread" or poison. They will go to Turkish 
 baths and sweat out a little water and so tip 
 the scale a pound or two less and go home very 
 happy — only to get their fat back as soon as 
 they have satisfied their thirst. Fat cannot be 
 sweated out nor can it be rubbed off or van- 
 quished by electricity, magnetism, X-rays, or 
 any other form of hocus-pocus. 
 
 Fat once deposited in the body can only be 
 got rid of by burning it up, that is, by oxidizing 
 it and breathing it out in the form of carbon- 
 dioxide. There are two ways to achieve this 
 end: one is by increased exercise, and the other 
 is by the decreased consumption of fat-making 
 foods which will cause the body to burn some 
 of its stored fat in lieu of a shortage of fuel 
 material coming directly from the food supply. 
 Either of the above methods of reducing will 
 work alone, but tbe two of them will work 
 better together. The difficulty with attempts 
 to reduce by exercise without considering the 
 
 211 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 diet is that the exercise frequently stimulates 
 the appetite ; and if that is unrestrained, the 
 results may be merely that the additional food 
 ingredients required by the exercise are sup- 
 plied by the additional food eaten. 
 
 I advise the combination of dieting and exer- 
 cises in reduction, not because it is the easier 
 method, but because it is the better method. 
 Obese individuals usually accumulate" their 
 fat because ,of lack of exercise and the fatter 
 they become the more unpleasant exercise be- 
 comes and the more ungainly they look in the 
 gymnasium or on the tennis court. As a result 
 the fat man, and even to a greater degree the 
 fat woman, is usually under-developed mus- 
 cularly. 
 
 Since additional exercise tends to stimulate 
 the appetite, it might be well to begin your pro- 
 gram of exercise first and continue for a few 
 days, before attempting to begin a restricted 
 diet program. In such case you should be care- 
 ful not to change your eating habits for the 
 worse. As soon as the body has begun to draw 
 upon its stored fat for a fuel supply, and you 
 have become accustomed to resisting the tempta- 
 tion to eat all you want, you may then begin a 
 systematic dietetic program for reduction. 
 
 Exercise alone will reduce you, if you do not 
 
 212 
 
Eating to Reduce Weight 
 
 increase the food supply, but for those who are 
 very fat, the method is too slow and the amount 
 of exercise required is too great; on the other 
 hand, dieting alone will reduce you very posi- 
 tively and very rapidly, but it will not build 
 up muscular tissue to take the place of the fat 
 that is lost. 
 
 The rate of reduction that may be achieved 
 under dieting is not as great as some mislead- 
 ing advertisements would lead us to believe; 
 even under complete fasting, the loss of weight 
 usually ranges from but three-quarters of a 
 pound to one pound a day, although the first three 
 or four days very strenuous exercise will increase 
 this somewhat, but ordinarily the higher figures 
 of reduction are impossible though they may 
 apparently be attained for a few days when one 
 first begins the restricted diet. Such temporary 
 losses of weight are not due to a loss of fat, but 
 only to the decrease of the weight of the food in 
 progress of digestion and perhaps to some loss 
 of water from the body. 
 
 The most rapidly effective method of reduc- 
 tion is, of course, a complete fast. Its chief ad- 
 vantage is that it works; whereas many dietetic 
 programs fail to work, merely because one fails, 
 unconsciously perhaps, to adhere to them. When 
 a man goes on a fast he knows positively 
 
 213 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 whether he is keeping faith with himself or not. 
 Short intervals of fasting, either at the begin- 
 ning of a course of reduction, or at some later 
 stage, are always effective and often very bene- 
 ficial, and I do not hesitate to advise them. 
 
 The difficulties with the fasting method of 
 reduction are that, from its very nature, it is 
 a temporary makeshift; when one breaks the 
 fast the temptation to eat all one can is very 
 great, and fat can be put back almost as rapidly 
 as it can be taken off. Moreover, in the case 
 of those who are very much over-weight, the 
 body can be starved for non-fat elements before 
 the fat can be taken off by fasting. The dan- 
 ger of this would, of course, be increased if the 
 previous diet had been deficient in non-fat 
 food essentials; which is very frequently the 
 case. Long fasts as scientific experiments are 
 very interesting and instructive. Under skilled 
 guidance long fasts also have very great value 
 as a curative agency. 
 
 The quickest safe way to reduce is to limit 
 the diet to those foods needed to supply the 
 vitamines, the minerals and a sufficient though 
 not excessive quantity of the high efficiency pro- 
 teins. Such a diet, if selected from natural 
 foods, will not be wholly lacking in food ele- 
 ments from which fat can be made; hence any 
 
 214 
 
Eating to Reduce Weight 
 
 diet, if eaten in excessive quantities, will fail as 
 a reducing diet. 
 
 The ideal method of weight reduction is to 
 select a diet in which fat forming elements are 
 less than the usual proportions for maintain- 
 ing a normal weight — and to eat of such foods 
 in quantities strictly limited to the amount neces- 
 sary to supply the non-fat elements. Upon 
 such regimes, a number of which will be given 
 in this chapter, it is possible to lose from one- 
 fourth to one-half pound a day; and no matter 
 what the weight to begin with, one can keep up 
 such a diet until a truly ideal weight has been 
 established. Then with a moderate addition of 
 the fuel foods the essential diet may be continued 
 without any radical break or change which would 
 tempt one to go back to his former eating 
 habits. 
 
 In planning the diet for reduction there are 
 a few other points that should be noted. It is 
 desirable that the restrictions be made in a form 
 that will cause the least privation from hunger 
 and offer the least temptation to over-eating. 
 The use of foods of a bulky nature will aid 
 in this matter both because the mind will not 
 note the seeming scarcity of food so readily, nor 
 will the digestive tract feel so empty; hence 
 bulky vegetables and pulpy or juicy fruits 
 
 215 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 should constitute a large proportion of the re- 
 ducing diet. Their use in such case is also quite 
 in harmony with our desire to supply ample 
 quantities of vitamines and minerals, and to 
 promote a vigorous intestinal action, thus pre- 
 venting constipation, which might otherwise oc- 
 cur from a decrease in the accustomed quantity 
 of food. 
 
 A second consideration is that foods should 
 be used that require mastication, and that pains 
 should be taken to eat slowly and masticate all 
 foods. A given quantity of food which requires 
 thirty minutes to eat will be much more satisfy- 
 ing and more thoroughly appease hunger than 
 if the same quantity of food were disposed of 
 in five or ten minutes. 
 
 A third consideration is that one should not 
 eat too often — or at least one should not sit 
 down to a full spread meal too often. This 
 may be purely a matter of habit, but it is rather 
 difficult for most of us to "quit in the middle 
 of a meal. ,, It is much easier to skip the meal 
 entirely. As a general thing I should advise 
 the adoption of the two-meal a day plan for 
 all those who are over-weight. A still better 
 plan during active reduction would be to have 
 only one regular meal, by which I mean a meal 
 with a variety of courses. The other "meal" or 
 
 216 
 
Eating to Reduce Weight 
 
 meals as it may be in this case should consist 
 of one or two definite items, such as, a glass 
 of milk, an orange or a salad, when it is no 
 temptation at all to over-eat because no gen- 
 eral meal is set before one. 
 
 You will frequently meet with so-called re- 
 ducing diets, in which the essential advice given 
 is to refrain from certain particular foods. The 
 publication of such half scientific matter has 
 been to convey the notion that certain foods 
 are "fattening." Among those that have fallen 
 under the taboo are potatoes, sugar and, of 
 course, fat meat, pastries and confections. 
 These foods are no more fattening than scores 
 of others that might be mentioned. Eliminat- 
 ing them from the diet will be effective only 
 in case they have been eaten to excess in the 
 past, and one eliminates then without putting 
 other equally fattening foods in their places. 
 There is no necessity for strictly avoiding any 
 one food in a reducing program. Particularly 
 in the case of potatoes, a comparatively inno- 
 cent food has suffered a most unfair reputa- 
 tion, and merely because so many people eat po- 
 tatoes in wholly uncalled-for quantities. Most 
 of these so-called fattening foods are eaten in ex- 
 cess, and the quantity should be reduced or the 
 food entirely eliminated. Where the practical 
 
 217 
 
Eating foe Health and Strength 
 
 joke comes from such notions is that the fat 
 man most religiously abstains from the tabooed 
 food and then wonders why he does not get 
 thin, and perhaps concludes that all dietetic 
 writers are fakers. I have seen men whose 
 waists were bigger than their chests very care- 
 fully put a saccharine pill into their coffee, to 
 avoid a teaspoonful of sugar, or perhaps refuse 
 a potato in the manner of a Methodist preacher 
 from Kansas rejecting a Scotch highball — and 
 then consume a meal that would have foundered 
 a champion pugilist. 
 
 Some typical weight-reducing menus: 
 
 REDUCING MENUS 
 
 Breakfast Breakfast 
 
 Cereal Coffee Shredded Wheat with berries 
 
 Soft Boiled Egg Glass of Buttermilk or a hot 
 
 A slice of Whole Wheat drink 
 Toast 
 
 Lunch Lunch 
 
 Glass of Buttermilk Baked Potatoes without But- 
 
 A Green Salad ter 
 
 Stewed Carrots or Onions A piece of Broiled Fish or 
 
 Young Chicken 
 A Green Salad 
 
 Dinner Dinner 
 
 Chipped Creamed Beef Clear Vegetable Soup 
 
 Bran or Corn Muffins A large dish of Greens fla- 
 
 Tomatoes, sliced or stewed vored with Lemon Juice 
 
 Dessert or a salad dressing 
 
 Ham or Dried Beef 
 A Fruit Juice drink 
 218 
 
Eating to Reduce Weight 
 
 Breakfast 
 An Orange 
 
 Lunch 
 
 Glass of Buttermilk 
 Lettuce, Tomato Salad with 
 
 Cottage Cheese Dressing 
 
 without Oil 
 A few hard Crackers 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Vegetable Soup 
 
 Bran Muffins 
 
 Asparagus or String Beans 
 
 A few Nut Meats eaten with 
 
 Celery; 
 Fruit Sherbet or Punch 
 (not sweet) 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 A few soaked Prunes or 
 A glass of Buttermilk 
 
 Lunch 
 Plenty of Spinach with one 
 
 Egg 
 Glass of Milk 
 Apple Sauce with slice of 
 
 Whole Wheat Bread 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Oyster Soup without Butter 
 
 Celery or 
 
 Graham Muffins 
 
 A Baked Potato with Salt 
 
 A few Nuts eaten with two 
 
 or three Figs 
 Grape Juice 
 
 219 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 Food and the Sexual Life 
 
 THITHER considered as a social problem, or 
 '^ as an individual and personal problem, the 
 sexual life is vitally important in its relation to 
 health, happiness, morality, and racial welfare. 
 Any light that can be shed on this subject by 
 science or practical human observation should 
 be welcomed as ranking with the most important 
 knowledge that man can acquire. 
 
 My own attitude favors the open and frank 
 discussion of sexual problems, and my opposi- 
 tion to all prudery that would shield vice and 
 disease by a veil of ignorance is too well known 
 to require any apology here for the discussion 
 of the effect of food upon the sexual life. 
 
 Many years ago I learned that over-eating 
 and the use of stimulating foods led to an un- 
 natural increase of the sexual passion of man, 
 and hence were instrumental in the increase of 
 vice and disease. I further learned that the use 
 of a natural vegetarian diet and the elimination 
 of meat, together with a general reduction of the 
 quantity of food eaten, were very valuable aids 
 
 220 
 
Food and the Sexual Life 
 
 in controlling the sexual passions, and enabling 
 men to lead clean, moral lives. 
 
 Although this knowledge has long been a part 
 of the general program of clean and healthful 
 living, which I have advocated and taught, no 
 account of investigation of this problem by sys- 
 tematic scientific experiment had been reported 
 until the result of the war-time investigations of 
 a restricted diet were published. 
 
 The problem of the effect of food on the 
 sexual life was not one of those Dr. Benedict 
 and his associates started out to investigate, 
 but the facts in this connection that came to 
 light as a result of their experiments are exceed- 
 ingly interesting and important. 
 
 The men in this experiment were taking 
 courses of training for work as Y. M. C. A. 
 Secretaries or Physical Directors. Both groups 
 were well educated in sexual matters and were 
 mature men living clean, normal lives and with 
 a wholesome and intelligent attitude toward 
 sex matters. Therefore, the evidence given by 
 them is much more valuable than that which 
 could be secured from an ordinary group of 
 men, who would have been prudish and ashamed 
 to reveal any evidence in regard to their sexual 
 desires. 
 
 On the other hand, it should be noted that the 
 221 
 
Eating fob Health and Strength 
 
 scientists having this experiment in charge had 
 not thought of this phase of the problem and, 
 therefore, nothing had been said regarding it to 
 the men, which might have prejudiced their 
 observations. The matter came to their atten- 
 tion quite by chance from one of the subjects 
 who volunteered a statement that the effect of 
 the restricted diet had been to eliminate all sex- 
 ual desire. Therefore, the scientists in charge, 
 without previously discussing the matter with 
 the men, secured by private and individual in- 
 terviews statements regarding the effect of the 
 low diet upon their sexual natures. 
 
 The agreement of the reports of these men 
 was astonishingly uniform upon this subject. 
 All of the twelve men reported a general de- 
 crease of sex interests. 
 
 Upon the reports regarding the more specific 
 physical expressions, the majority gave quite 
 definite proof of less tendency to uncontrolled 
 expression of the sexual nature, as in seminal 
 losses, sexual dreams, etc., as commonly expe- 
 rienced by unmarried men. 
 
 Here are a few extracts from the interviews 
 that reveal the general experience of the men: 
 
 "I think there is a relation between the low diet 
 and the sex instinct. . . . This winter I made 
 on an average two visits a week to my fiancee, 
 
 222 
 
Food and the Sexual Life 
 
 Before the experiment when with her I noticed (I 
 hope she did not) much sex stimulation. 
 When visiting my fiancee during the low diet period 
 nothing of a sex nature came to my mind. . . . 
 It has been so long since I had a sex dream that 
 I have no recollection of any." 
 
 "I would swear that a low diet greatly reduces 
 sexual feeling. I noticed this myself before talk- 
 ing to any one about it. . . . Jokes and stories 
 which might commonly have a sex appeal were 
 devoid of interest." 
 
 "I am very definite in the conviction that there 
 is a reduction in sexual desire during a low diet. 
 . I think the kind of food also affects the 
 sex appetite — meat causing a stimulation of it. I 
 do not recall any nocturnal emissions during the 
 diet. Before the diet these were rather frequent. 
 I have usually to put up a stiff fight against the 
 sex instinct, and noticed that it was not nearly so 
 difficult to control during the experiment. I slept 
 better — love scenes had less effect upon me." 
 
 "The most definite change in sexual matters 
 noticed during the experimental period was that 
 stories and suggestive jokes where the sexual ele- 
 ment might have been prominent were repulsive. 
 I was surprised at this." 
 
 "I am sure that during the diet period sex de- 
 sires, particularly as associated with dances .... 
 were decidedly less. At a dance attended during 
 the diet I noticed no sex desire or irritation, which 
 was quite unusual for me and impressed on me 
 that there was a change of some sort." 
 
 All of these data back up in a most con- 
 vincing manner the principle that I have long 
 
 223 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 believed and taught. The sexual life of man 
 is unquestionably directly influenced by his eat- 
 ing habits. Let us consider for a moment why 
 this should be so. 
 
 Both the physical and mental processes of 
 life and the laws that govern them we believe 
 to be the result of long ages of evolution. The 
 basic laws apply to all living species, but the 
 detailed laws vary somewhat with each species. 
 Primitive man was more closely akin in his 
 habits to other animal species than is civilized 
 man; but even in the case of the human race as 
 it exists under civilization, the general physio- 
 logical laws and fundamental instincts are un- 
 questionably very similar to those that apply to 
 animal species. 
 
 Consider now the probable effect of food 
 scarcity or food abundance upon the existence 
 and welfare of any species. If food were scarce 
 and the species continued to breed and multiply 
 excessively, it would result in a still greater 
 food scarcity for each individual, and hence 
 endanger the life of the whole race. But if 
 reproduction was restricted and food was scarce 
 then the result would be a greater abundance 
 of food for each member of the species, race or 
 tribe, and a better chance of survival. 
 
 On the other hand, were food abundant, then 
 224 
 
Food and the Sexual Life 
 
 excessive reproduction would be an advantage 
 to the species as it would favor its growth and 
 spread and dominance over other species, races 
 or tribes. But if in ages of food abundance, 
 reproduction was not stimulated then the species 
 or tribe would fail to make use of this favorable 
 factor for its increase and its conquest of the 
 earth. 
 
 From these considerations we may compre- 
 hend why in the long periods of evolution an 
 increase in the sexual instinct and its expres- 
 sion became associated with food abundance, and 
 why excessive eating stimulates the sexual pas- 
 sions. 
 
 Man, because of the possession of a dexterous 
 hand combined with a superior intelligence 
 found out many ways to increase his natural 
 food supplies, and to conquer and overcome the 
 inferior animal species. Because of this, man 
 became dominant in the world and developed 
 what we call civilization, one of the essential 
 and necessary facts of which is the production 
 of comparative abundance of food for the race. 
 Many generations with food abundance has 
 developed the sexual instinct of man to a degree, 
 that, as compared with other species, may be 
 considered somewhat abnormal. Wild animals 
 rarely breed except in the natural "mating sea- 
 
 225 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 son" which usually coincides with their period 
 of greatest food abundance. Man, living under 
 the artificial conditions of civilization, has lost 
 the instinct of such a mating season, and doubt- 
 less one of the factors in this change has 
 been the abundant year-round food supply. As 
 further evidence of this explanation of man's 
 change of sexual habit, we find that domestic 
 animals, artificially supplied with food by man, 
 also lose their natural mating season, and breed 
 freely at all times. 
 
 These interesting explanations of the rela- 
 tion of food on reproduction are, of course, 
 rather far removed from the problem of the 
 individual, but the fact remains as an inheritance 
 from this past experience of the race, that 
 the eating habits of the individual do directly 
 influence the nature of sexual instincts. It is 
 not to be expected that the sexual habits of 
 civilized man can be brought back to the sea- 
 sonal mating instincts of the wild animals, but 
 as an individual and personal problem the ques- 
 tion of the degree of sex passion is vital in the 
 lives of all. 
 
 Those who continue to over-eat and indulge 
 in an abundance of meat and other stimulating 
 food will find their sexual passions artificially 
 stimulated. This will lead either to a greater 
 
 226 
 
Food axd the Sexual Life 
 
 struggle in the suppression of the sexual in- 
 stinct, or to a greater indulgence, which too 
 often is destructive not only of morality, but 
 may become a drain on the general health and 
 vitality, or a seriously disturbing factor in the 
 intellectual life. 
 
 Those who desire to restrain this excess of 
 sexual passions will find an abstemious diet 
 most helpful. The reverse principle that an 
 increase in the amount of food or an increase 
 of meat or other stimulating foods, will increase 
 sexual passions is also obviously true. The 
 application of this knowledge must of course 
 remain a problem for the individual to work 
 out according to his own moral standards and 
 personal relations. I would point out, how- 
 ever, to any who might see fit consciously to 
 indulge in over-eating as a means of stimulating 
 a sexual life for the purposes of indulgent pleas- 
 ures, that there may be other facts to reckon 
 with. As will be clearly shown in the last 
 chapter, the effect of over-eating is to cause 
 man to live his life at a higher pressure and 
 hence shorten his years. We have good cause to 
 believe, both from the standpoint of scientific 
 reasoning and practical observation, that what 
 is true of the general life, is also true of sexual 
 life; it is a case of "a fast life and a merry 
 
 227 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 one," or *'eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow 
 we die." 
 
 As in the entire matter of living so in the 
 sexual life, the individual problem becomes one 
 of indulgence versus temperance ; enduring vital- 
 ity and a prolonged happiness versus a greedy 
 effort to grasp all the pleasures of living at once, 
 and an indifference to the future that recks not 
 of the days of disease, decay and death. 
 
 228 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 Feeding the Baby 
 
 fT^HE best food for the baby is mother's milk. 
 A There may be a few exceptions. There are 
 occasionally instances where the mother does 
 not furnish sufficient milk and then there are 
 some instances when the milk does not properly 
 nourish the baby. But the breast-fed baby usu- 
 ally has more vitality than those fed with the 
 bottle. 
 
 The protein of the mother's milk as well as its 
 other food ingredients is superior for the nour- 
 ishment of the child to any foods derived from 
 other sources. In spite of all the development of 
 the science of infant feeding by the modification 
 of cow's milk the fact remains that breast-nour- 
 ished babies always are and probably always will 
 be the best nourished. 
 
 Civilized woman's failure to nourish her child, 
 whether this be a matter of her own decision, 
 or necessitated by the artificial condition of her 
 life, is one of the crimes of civilization. Pages 
 of statistics might be quoted as to the greater 
 
 229 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 death rates and inferior health and growth of the 
 artificially nourished baby. Happily, however, 
 for the mother who cannot nourish her child, it 
 should be stated that the chief loss of child life 
 through artificial feeding is due to carelessness 
 and ignorance. And while natural nursing is 
 always preferable, artificial feeding can be made 
 fairly safe and efficient. 
 
 If the Mother cannot nourish the baby, the 
 next best food is cow's milk or goat's milk. 
 
 The high mortality record which prevails 
 among infants is due largely to the mistakes 
 made by mothers who are unable to feed their 
 children by natural methods, that is, from the 
 breast. There are all sorts of formulas advo- 
 cated for feeding bottle babies. Although many 
 of them may be of value, in the end, one usually 
 learns, as the result of experience, that the sim- 
 ple combination of cow's milk, sugar of milk and 
 the juice of an orange will form a basis for a 
 baby's diet which cannot be improved upon. 
 There may be occasional instances where lime 
 water may be essential, though as a rule when 
 the proper quantity of orange juice is furnished 
 the lime water is not needed. 
 
 The use of cow's milk, as stated, can be con- 
 tinued without any other additions than those 
 mentioned, until a baby's mouth is literally full 
 
Feeding the Baby 
 
 of teeth. Then, of course, it is ready for solid 
 food. 
 
 Very hard bread, like zwieback or food of this 
 nature can be used occasionally to encourage 
 the inclination of the infant to chew and also 
 may help in the teeth-cutting process. As out- 
 lined in the table which will follow, when an 
 infant is very young the quantity of cream must 
 be greatly increased. In fact when it is a few 
 days old the food should consist largely of 
 cream, diluted with water and with sugar of 
 milk as stated. As it grows older the quan- 
 tity of cream can be gradually decreased until 
 the full cow's milk is being used. The exact 
 time when this change should be made will de- 
 pend largely upon the vitality of the infant. 
 Usually the sooner it can be made the more 
 advantageous it will be to the baby. 
 
 It is quite frequent in infant feeding to neg- 
 lect to give a sufficient quantity of water of the 
 proper sort. Pure water is absolutely essential. 
 Distilled water is usually best, though boiled 
 water which has been aerated is satisfactory. 
 
 And please remember that the best distilla- 
 tion process is furnished by nature in the rain 
 that falls from the clouds. Naturally in the 
 city, this rain is usually quite dirty, but rain 
 which has been taken from a clean roof and 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 stored away in a clean vault not only makes a 
 perfect drinking water but is the most satisfac- 
 tory water for a baby. If your roof in the 
 country is allowed first of all thoroughly to 
 cleanse itself with the beginning of a rain, the 
 rain that falls thereafter can be enclosed in a 
 clean vault and this sort of water for human 
 use cannot be improved upon. 
 
 When water is first given to a baby (use a 
 bottle) it is usually desirable to sweeten it with 
 sugar of milk. This encourages the child to 
 begin taking the water, and the sugar of milk 
 can be gradually lessened, unless you are feed- 
 ing the child with cow's milk, and in that case 
 a certain amount of sugar of milk is essential 
 thoroughly to nourish the child. 
 
 As soon as an infant secures sufficient diges- 
 tive power to be thoroughly nourished, it is 
 usually better gradually to change its feeding 
 to full cow's milk, one feeding to be given every 
 three or four hours, though water should be 
 given half way in between feedings, sweetened 
 with sugar of milk. 
 
 As showing the tremendous importance of 
 water for an infant, I remember prescribing on 
 one occasion for a baby that was little more than 
 a skeleton. It was about eight months old and 
 weighed a little over seven pounds. After mak- 
 
 232 
 
Feeding the Baby 
 
 ing careful inquiries as to the methods which 
 had been used in feeding the infant I concluded 
 that they were not giving it sufficient water. It 
 was actually "drying up" for the need of water. 
 I prescribed from six to eight ounces of cow's 
 milk every three or four hours and the same 
 quantity of water sweetened with sugar of milk, 
 half way between each feeding. 
 
 As a result of this change in its feeding habits, 
 the infant almost immediately began to gain 
 a pound a week and continued gaining until it 
 had acquired normal weight. 
 
 Perhaps the greatest of all mistakes that are 
 made in the feeding of infants is the inclination 
 of the average mother to over-feed. Whenever 
 a child fails to gain proper vitality, every in- 
 ducement is made to increase the amount of 
 food taken. This tendency, itself, in many 
 cases is the actual cause of serious diseases. 
 Over-feeding tends to bring about digestive 
 defects and interferes materially with proper 
 assimilation. What the child really needs is a 
 digestive rest and while it is taking this rest it 
 can be given water freely, but milk should be 
 avoided altogether. This can be continued from 
 one to three days with perfect safety. In 
 fact, where necessary, this fasting regime can 
 safely be continued even beyond this period. 
 
 233 
 
Eating fok Health and Strength 
 
 The average mother is, of course, afraid to 
 fast her infant even for a day, but in many cases 
 this is really the only means to bring about a 
 change for the better. I have often fasted my 
 own infants from one to three days when but 
 a few months old. Such a fast can be made 
 entirely comfortable by giving the infant water 
 sweetened with sugar of milk or with a small 
 amount of strained honey. 
 
 When giving water to a baby it should always 
 be given in a bottle the same as the milk. If 
 the baby is given sweetened water, as stated 
 above, it will not notice the fast. It will be 
 about as comfortable as when feeding; in fact, 
 in many instances more comfortable when it 
 needs a fasting regime of this sort. 
 
 In the case of bottle-fed babies, mothers often 
 make the mistake of using nipples that allow 
 the baby to secure the milk too quickly. 
 Usually the slower the milk is taken the more 
 readily it is digested, and the more benefit the 
 infant secures from it. It is possible to use an 
 opening in a nipple that is too small, but if the 
 child takes about ten minutes for each feed- 
 ing it is far better than if the milk is gulped 
 down. 
 
 Be sure to avoid feeding too soon after a 
 physical disorder of any kind. Wait for the 
 
 234 
 
Feeding the Baby 
 
 child's appetite to assert itself. It is usually 
 safer to begin with water, sweetened as stated, 
 than it is with milk or other foods. As already 
 stated, orange juice or the juice of some other 
 fresh fruits should always be used if the baby 
 is not breast-fed and in fact, even breast-fed 
 babies can sometimes be benefited by its use. 
 Don't use bottled juices or juices from canned 
 fruits. In fact, orange juice is usually much safer 
 than other fruit juices. From half to a whole 
 orange is usually sufficient. If it is given to 
 the baby in spoonfuls at different times of the 
 day, it is usually more advantageous than if given 
 at one feeding. As a rule a child craves this acid 
 fruit juice, indicating the need in the system for 
 the elements that it contains. 
 
 The tables which follow herewith should be 
 taken merely as a suggestion. The quantity 
 of the food depends largely upon the size of the 
 infant, its vitality, etc. As a rule the safest 
 way is to feed an infant as long as it takes 
 the milk hungrily, that is, is eager for it. You 
 can then usually be assured that it is not taking 
 too much. But when it begins to play with its 
 food or turns away from it the meal should 
 end there. Furthermore, food that is taken 
 eagerly is digested far better. The stomach is 
 then ready to take care of it and all the organs 
 
 235 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 are in a condition properly to perform their 
 functions. 
 
 In fact, this is an excellent guide for a mother 
 as to when a child will need a fast: when it 
 begins to "go off" its appetite. Then, as a rule, 
 it is a good plan to drop one or two feedings 
 and give it a chance to get its appetite back. 
 If you fail to do this and continue to force food 
 upon it and encourage it in other ways to take 
 food, you are treading on dangerous ground. 
 It is under circumstances of this nature that a 
 baby contracts illnesses of various kinds. In 
 nearly every serious illness, you will first of all 
 notice the baby begins to turn aside from its 
 food. This increases until it refuses nourish- 
 ment altogether. If you will refuse nourish- 
 ment when it first begins to turn aside from 
 food, you will, in a great many cases, divert 
 dangerous illnesses. 
 
 You will note in the table on page 238 that we 
 suggest that whole milk be given from three to 
 four months and thereafter. It can, in some 
 cases, be given before this and in some instances 
 this is too soon to use whole milk but, as pre- 
 viously stated, the sooner you can begin to 
 use whole milk with water in between milk 
 feeding, the faster the child will gain in health 
 and strength. Begin the water feedings very 
 
 236 
 
Feeding the Baby 
 
 early in the child's life. Always feed water 
 from a bottle, though when an infant is very 
 young and is breast-fed a spoonful of water 
 now and then is often of great value. 
 
 When a child is crying, in many instances a 
 little warm water given with a spoon will bring 
 about a feeling of comfort that will quickly 
 induce sleep. Crying of an infant in every 
 case indicates discomfort of some sort, and moth- 
 ers who have frequent trouble with their infants 
 during the night have only themselves to blame. 
 A child that is properly fed and properly cared 
 for in every way rarely cries, especially at 
 night. 
 
 As soon as possible, the habit of feeding the 
 infant all through the night should be discon- 
 tinued. The last feeding should be about nine 
 or ten o'clock when the mother retires, and the 
 next feeding very early in the morning. One 
 can break an infant into habits of this nature 
 as early as two months and in some cases 
 earlier. Naturally as long as you continue 
 feeding during the night, the stomach will de- 
 mand it and the baby will cry for it. 
 
 When you come to the time that you want 
 to discontinue night feedings, if, instead of milk, 
 you simply give water, the stomach will soon 
 cease its nocturnal demands. 
 
 237 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 In making this change, it is often necessary to 
 allow the child to cry itself to sleep one or two 
 nights when it wakes for its regular feeding, 
 though, as a rule, this is all the inconvenience 
 associated therewith. 
 
 TABLE FOR BOTTLE FEEDING OF AVERAGE 
 INFANT 
 
 TOP- MILK LIME BOILED 
 
 AGE MILK SUGAB WATER OB DIS- AMOUNT 
 
 IF TILLED OF EACH 
 
 NEEDED WATEB FEEDING 
 
 OZ. OZ. OZ. OZ. OZ. • 
 
 Up to 1 month 5 1 1 15 1% to 2 
 
 1 to 2 months 7 1 1 15 2 to 3 
 
 2 to 3 months 10 1 1 15 3 to 4 
 
 (WHOLE 
 MILK) 
 
 3 to 4 months 15 1 1 15 4 to 5 
 
 4 to 6 months 20 1 1 15 5 to 6l/ 2 
 
 7 to 10 months 25 1 1 10 7 to 8 
 
 10 months and upward 32 1 1 8 8 to 10 
 
 (1 Quart) 
 
 Water can be aerated by pouring from one 
 pitcher to another or from one vessel to another. 
 Water is more perfectly aereated by nature 
 when it falls as rain. Boiled water should 
 especially be aereated before it is fed to the 
 infant. Otherwise it will taste dead and flat. 
 
 You will note our reference to the top milk. 
 We mean that from a quart bottle on which 
 the cream has been allowed to rise you should 
 
 238 
 
Feeding the Baby 
 
 pour the quantity stated. You will note that 
 when the infant is from three to four months 
 old we have indicated the use of whole milk. 
 This, however, should be only tried as an experi- 
 ment at this age. If the child thrives with the 
 change then continue it, or if the diet is not 
 satisfactory, increase the amount of cream 
 slightly. I have seen whole milk taken by an 
 infant as early as two months of age with satis- 
 factory results. 
 
 When orange juice is used and it is of satis- 
 factory quality, in many instances lime water 
 is not needed. If the child does not seem 
 to digest the milk, that is, it "throws it back" 
 then the value of lime water should be tested. 
 If the child seems to thrive better with the 
 lime water even when orange juice is used, it 
 is desirable of course that you continue its use. 
 
 239 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 The Feeding of Children 
 
 rpHE principles of the correct feeding of chil- 
 dren are in some ways quite different from 
 the laws of feeding the adult. These distinc- 
 tions are based chiefly on the fact that the 
 children grow while adults do not. 
 
 This fact of growth is exceedingly important 
 and must in no wise be overlooked. It is a 
 general law of life that the primary business of 
 the young creature is to grow. In some species 
 the growing period is distinctly marked off 
 from the period of maturity. In bees, for in- 
 stance, the young larvse is fed on "bee-bread" 
 made from the pollen of the flowers, and rich 
 in protein. When the larvse of the bee goes 
 through the transformation stage and comes 
 out as an adult insect, it ceases entirely to eat its 
 former food; in fact, it is incapable of doing so. 
 The adult bee lives on honey, which is almost 
 wholly a fuel food. In the case of some insects 
 whose adult life is briefer, no food whatever 
 is taken in the adult period. 
 
 In the higher animals no such sharp distinc- 
 240 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 tion marks off the period of growth from that 
 of maturity, but to a certain extent the nutri- 
 tional laws which more sharply divide these 
 periods in insect life apply to the higher species. 
 
 In addition to the growth factor there are 
 certain other differences between childhood and 
 maturity; the body of a child, being smaller, the 
 heat lost by radiation of the surface is greater 
 in proportion to the weight of the body. The 
 pulse in childhood is more rapid and the speed 
 of the general physiological activities is greater. 
 These facts, together with the fact of growth, 
 necessitate that the child consume more food 
 in proportion to its weight than the adult — in 
 fact — this rate of food consumption according 
 to weight is for a young child three times as 
 great as the adult's. 
 
 A further distinction between childhood and 
 maturity, and a distinction that is exaggerated 
 by civilized conditions, is that the child is physi- 
 cally more active — in fact, the normal, healthy 
 child, given proper facilities for play, prefers to 
 be physically active during all its waking hours. 
 But the civilized adult, because of the develop- 
 ment in his mental life, the routine of his busi- 
 ness, and the restrictions of clothing, housing 
 and customs, ceases this varied activity, and per- 
 forms his physical toil and even his artificial 
 
 241 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 play at stated hours and set times. Often he 
 ceases to play altogether, and muscular activity 
 ceases to be essential to his labors. Under these 
 conditions the civilized adult is usually over-fed 
 and under-exercised — hence the main burden of 
 this book, as far as the eating habits of the 
 adult are concerned, is to caution against over- 
 eating and find ways to prevent obesity. 
 
 With the child, when normal physical activity 
 is permitted and encouraged, obesity is more 
 rare. Because of the child's activity and its 
 greater food needs, over-eating, while it does 
 occur among children, is not so prevalent as 
 among adults. On the other hand under-eat- 
 ing, which is rare among adults, at least those 
 who are prosperous and have food available, 
 is much more likely to occur among growing 
 children. 
 
 Because of their smaller bodies, more physi- 
 ological activities and greater food needs, chil- 
 dren require food more frequently than adults. 
 The conventional three meals a day often rep- 
 resent too frequent eating for the adult, though 
 it is usually ideal for the child. A child should 
 never be allowed to piece between meals, though 
 moderate quantity of acid fruit can with benefit 
 usually be given at any time desired, and his 
 meal program intelligently adapted to his needs. 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 Children are frequently under-nourished. 
 Among the poorer classes this may be caused 
 by an insufficient quantity of food. But among 
 both poor and prosperous children are fre- 
 quently under-nourished because of an improper 
 quality of food. As with adults so with chil- 
 dren : they may eat plenty and still be under-fed. 
 Moreover, they may be fat and still be under- 
 fed with those elements essential to health, vital- 
 ity and proper growth. 
 
 Most alarming facts have recently been 
 brought to light in regard to this question of the 
 proper nourishment of children. Malnutrition 
 and under-nourishment are the most serious con- 
 ditions that can affect a growing child, and this 
 crime against childhood is one of the most 
 serious things that can affect human society. 
 For the child it means the stunting of growth, 
 impairment of health and lessened resistance to 
 disease and particularly encourages a predisposi- 
 tion to tuberculosis. In America to-day every 
 seventh child dies before the end of the first 
 year, and two of the remaining six die before 
 reaching maturity — and America is the best fed 
 nation is the world. In some of the poorer 
 districts in our large cities as high as seventy 
 per cent of children are found to be suffering 
 from malnutrition. Not so many were actually 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 underfed as improperly fed. Even in the most 
 fashionable schools in well-to-do neighborhoods 
 forty per cent of the children have been found 
 suffering from malnutrition, yet all these chil- 
 dren had more than enough food placed before 
 them three times a day, but the food was not 
 of the proper quality, or the children did not eat 
 enough because they were pampered, under-ex- 
 ercised or their appetites ruined by improper 
 food indulgence. 
 
 Discussing the food problem of the adult we 
 showed that to prescribe the exact amount of 
 food was foolish, and that the proper way to 
 judge how much one should eat was by observa- 
 tion of the weight, or, more accurately, the condi- 
 tion of the body. It is equally foolish to pre- 
 scribe the exact amount of food for children. 
 With the child as with the adult, the condi- 
 tion of the body is a necessary criterion in 
 determining whether the child is properly nour- 
 ished or not, but with the child there is one 
 additional factor that should be considered, and 
 that is the rate of growth. 
 
 In the case of adults I refrain from giving 
 tables of ideal heights and weights, because I 
 believe that the careful study of the physique 
 is a better method from which to arrive at a 
 proper conception of the weight of the body. 
 
 244 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 In the case of children I believe that tables will 
 be valuable. Once maturity is reached there 
 should be little change in body weight, but the 
 child constantly growing should be ever chang- 
 ing the body weight; hence the need of knowing 
 what this rate of change should be. 
 
 I will first give a table showing the average 
 rate of growth or normal increase of weight 
 in pounds during each year of growth — of 
 course, the figures can be computed for shorter 
 time periods. 
 
 NORMAL RATE OF GROWTH FOR CHILDREN 
 
 BOYS GIRLS 
 
 POUNDS POUNDS 
 
 First year 13 13 
 
 Second year 5 5 
 
 Third year 4l/ 2 4% 
 
 Fourth year 4 4 
 
 Fifth year 4 4 
 
 Sixth year 4 4 
 
 Seventh year 4 4 
 
 Eighth year 4<y 2 4>y 2 
 
 Ninth year 5 4% 
 
 Tenth year 5% 5 
 
 Eleventh year 5% 6 
 
 Twelfth year 6 8 
 
 Thirteenth year 7 11 
 
 Fourteenth year 9 11 
 
 Fifteenth year 12 9 
 
 Sixteenth year 15 6 
 
 Seventeenth year 11 4 
 
 Eighteenth year 6 3 
 
 Nineteenth year ........ 4 2 
 
 245 
 
Eating eor Health and Strength 
 
 The rate of growth is the most important of all 
 factors in determining the nutrition of children. 
 If this increase of weight was always that of 
 vital active tissue no further figures would be 
 needed, but children can get fat and during 
 such fatting periods they would appear to be 
 properly nourished when they were really not 
 growing; likewise, if past accumulations of fat 
 were being lost, children might seem to be ceas- 
 ing to grow when in reality they were growing 
 all right. Because of these facts it is desirable 
 also to have at hand a table giving both heights 
 and weights in relation to age. For this pur- 
 pose I am using tables published in the Physical 
 Culture Magazine and furnished by the New 
 York City Department of Health. 
 
 All the above figures are average figures de- 
 termined from the weighing and measuring 
 large groups of children. Some children may, 
 of course, grow more rapidly. The average is 
 rarely the ideal. However, rapidity in the 
 physical growth of a child is not necessarily an 
 advantage. The most highly developed races 
 reach their maturity more slowly than do the 
 inferior races; in fact, one of the greatest dis- 
 tinctions between man and other kindred species 
 is his slower rate of growth. This has come 
 about during the period of man's evolution due 
 
 246 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 to the development of his greater brain power. 
 The brain grows slowly and the process of 
 acquiring the vast amount of knowledge and 
 experience needed by a civilized man requires 
 time. The reaching of physical maturity before 
 the period of mental maturity is not an ad- 
 vantage, but may prove a serious disadvantage 
 in life. Hence the standard of average rates 
 of growth may be considered as approximately 
 ideal rates; any falling below this standard 
 is a serious matter that should be at once cor- 
 rected, but there is no occasion for attempting 
 to stimulate growth at an excessive rate as one 
 might do in the feeding of young farm stock. 
 
 You have already learned from the discus- 
 sion of the chemical nature of foods that pro- 
 tein is the material of growth, and that protein 
 foods vary in quality, those from milk and eggs 
 being the best proteins for human nutrition. 
 
 Returning to the subject of the nature of 
 growth foods and the importance of protein in 
 the child's diet, I will call your attention to the 
 fact that it is the quality of protein which 
 needs attention rather than the quantity. 
 Mother's milk is not as rich in protein as the 
 milk of the cow because the young human does 
 not grow as rapidly as the calf. There is no 
 more protein in proportion to other elements 
 
 247 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 HEIGHT AND WEIGHT TABLE FOR BOYS 
 
 The standard or normal weight for a boy is found where the horizontal column 
 opposite his height crosses the vertical column under his age.* Illustration — The 
 standard weight for a boy 57 inches high and 13 years old is 83 pounds. 
 
 Height 
 Inches 
 
 
 CO 
 
 E 
 
 00 
 
 i 
 
 © 
 
 B 
 
 r-t 
 
 CO 
 
 CM 
 
 CO 
 
 GO 
 
 to 
 
 E 
 
 CO 
 
 
 CO 
 
 39 
 
 35 
 37 
 39 
 41 
 43 
 45 
 
 38 
 40 
 42 
 44 
 45 
 47 
 49 
 
 44 
 46 
 47 
 50 
 51 
 53 
 
 48 
 50 
 52 
 54 
 55 
 58 
 60 
 
 52 
 55 
 56 
 59 
 61 
 64 
 67 
 70 
 
 57 
 59 
 62 
 65 
 68 
 71 
 74 
 77 
 
 62 
 65 
 68 
 71 
 75 
 79 
 81 
 84 
 
 68 
 72 
 76 
 79 
 82 
 85 
 88 
 90 
 
 76 
 80 
 83 
 87 
 89 
 92 
 97 
 100 
 104 
 
 84 
 
 88 
 
 91 
 
 94 
 
 99 
 
 102 
 
 106 
 
 112 
 
 118 
 
 92 
 95 
 
 100 
 104 
 108 
 113 
 119 
 123 
 125 
 130 
 
 101 
 105 
 109 
 115 
 121 
 124 
 126 
 131 
 134 
 136 
 
 110 
 117 
 122 
 125 
 127 
 133 
 136 
 140 
 142 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 41 
 
 42 
 
 
 43 
 
 44 
 
 45 
 
 
 46 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 
 
 53 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 57 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 59 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1?0 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ra 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 127 
 
 67 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 131 
 
 68 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 136 
 
 69 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 139 
 
 70 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 71 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 145 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * Note — The age is taken at the nearest birthday. 
 
 Only scales with bar and weights should be used. Spring scales with dial 
 face are not very durable and are likely to get out of order soon. 
 
 Measurements for height should be taken with the child standing with feet 
 close together and close against the measuring rod, or a measuring tape may be 
 tacked against a wall and a book placed on the child's head, edgewise, to mark his 
 height. 
 
 248 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 HEIGHT AND WEIGHT TABLE FOR GIRLS 
 
 The standard or normal weight for a girl is found where the horizontal column 
 opposite her height crosses the vertical column under her age. Illustration — The 
 standard weight for a girl 50 inches high and 9 years old is 59 pounds. 
 
 Height 
 Inches 
 
 05 
 >< 
 
 03 
 S-c 
 
 2 
 
 1> 
 
 03 
 (h 
 
 00 
 
 «3 
 
 C5 
 
 CO 
 
 Fh 
 
 o 
 
 oj 
 
 (h 
 
 K- 1 
 
 
 03 
 
 CO 
 
 o5 
 
 Fh 
 
 TJ4 
 
 u 
 
 03 
 
 03 
 
 3 
 
 CO 
 
 39 
 
 34 
 35 
 39 
 41 
 43 
 45 
 
 37 
 
 39 
 
 42 
 44 
 46 
 
 47 
 48 
 
 42 
 44 
 46 
 47 
 49 
 50 
 52 
 
 47 
 50 
 51 
 53 
 55 
 57 
 
 53 
 54 
 56 
 59 
 61 
 65 
 
 57 
 
 60 
 62 
 66 
 68 
 70 
 
 63 
 67 
 
 68 
 71 
 
 72 
 76 
 
 69 
 71 
 
 73 
 
 77 
 79 
 85 
 
 74 
 77 
 82 
 88 
 92 
 97 
 99 
 104 
 
 79 
 
 85 
 
 93 
 
 95 
 
 99 
 
 102 
 
 105 
 
 107 
 
 96 
 100 
 103 
 105 
 107 
 110 
 114 
 
 105 
 107 
 109 
 111 
 113 
 117 
 121 
 
 109 
 111 
 
 113 
 115 
 119 
 123 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 41 
 
 42 
 
 
 43 
 
 
 44 
 
 45 
 
 
 46 
 
 
 
 47 
 
 
 
 48 
 
 
 
 
 49 
 
 
 
 
 50 
 
 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 
 
 
 
 52 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 53 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 54 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 55 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 57 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 59 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 62 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 116 
 
 63 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 117 
 
 64 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1?1 
 
 65 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Iftfi 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 STANDARDS OF NUTRITION AND GROWTH 
 
 The chief standards by which nutrition and growth are estimated are three: 
 1. The relation of weight to height. 2. The annual gain in weight and 
 height. 3. The general appearance of the child. All school children should be 
 weighed at least every three months — September, December, March and June 
 are the best months. Those who are much below the normal should be weighed 
 at least once every month; better, every week. The height should be taken 
 twice a year, at six months' interval; September and March are the best months, 
 each being the beginning of the periods of most rapid growth. The relation of 
 weight to height is the one which is of most value in determining condition. This 
 relation is but little affected by race or country. These tables were prepared by 
 Dr. Thomas D. Wood, of the Child Health Organization. 
 
 249 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 in the mother's milk than there is in the usual 
 adult human diet, in fact, the proportion is much 
 less than it is in the conventional meat diet. 
 
 The most common blunder to be found in 
 writings upon the nutrition of children is this 
 over-emphasis upon the quantity of protein ; this 
 frequently leads to the introduction of meat in 
 the child's diet, from which it should either be 
 omitted entirely or used most sparingly. The 
 proper quality and quantity of protein is vital, 
 otherwise no growth can occur, but the un- 
 natural efforts to build the whole diet around 
 protein foods is a grievous mistake. 
 
 This blunder of the excessive use of proteins 
 in the child's diet is due to a little knowledge but 
 an incomplete understanding of food science. 
 Much more frequent are the blunders due to 
 utter ignorance; they include not only the over- 
 use of meat, but the over-use of denatured cereal 
 foods, sugar, pastries and, above all, candies and 
 confections. Such dietetic errors result in the 
 food deficiency which I have already discussed 
 at length in other chapters of this book. But 
 in the case of children an insufficient diet is more 
 dangerous because of the necessity of growth, 
 and also because the smaller body and more 
 rapid vital processes of the child render it less 
 capable of storing up the essential food ele- 
 
 250 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 merits for periods when they are absent from 
 the diet. 
 
 The child needs a variety of natural foods; it 
 tires quickly of monotonous and prescribed diets. 
 A child is usually told to eat what is set before 
 him — hence if the child does not like the food 
 set before him he does not eat enough, or makes 
 up the deficiency in quantity by a raid on the 
 jam pots or a trip to the candy store. A child 
 has the right to say something regarding the 
 selection and preparation of his food; many 
 parents will resent this statement, on the ground 
 that the child's ignorance renders him incapable 
 of deciding such a matter. But a parent should 
 remember that a child's appetite is guided 
 largely by instinct which is controlled entirely, 
 if the child be normal, by the needs of its body. 
 Therefore, the child's own appetite should guide 
 the parent as to its needs. The parent should 
 by all means select the child's food and try to 
 train him in his dislikes and likes if his appetite 
 seems abnormal, but the child's instinctive desire 
 should guide in the matter — it should not be 
 forced to eat food that is distasteful. Too 
 often he will go hungry if you insist on his 
 eating food he does not like. One can err either 
 by acceding to the child's acquired taste for a 
 few deficient foods, or by attempting to force 
 
 251 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 the child to eat foods for which he has no 
 appetite. The problem is one that requires tact 
 and patience as well as intelligence. The solu- 
 tion may usually be found in the use of menus 
 that offer a goodly number of natural and 
 wholesome foods, a sufficient proportion of which 
 the child has learned to eat with relish. 
 
 There are a few foods, of course, which are 
 so basically important that they cannot be 
 omitted from the diet. First among these is 
 milk and the simple rule is that every child 
 should have as much as it desires of whole milk; 
 it is his chief dependence for the growth protein, 
 the calcium for bone formation and the pro- 
 tective vitamines, though be sure to remember 
 that milk is not needed with full hearty meals in 
 which a large variety of wholesome food has 
 been furnished. Use milk only with "light* ' 
 meals, composed preferably of sweet fruit?. 
 
 The leafy vegetables are not so important to 
 the child as they are to the adult; they should 
 not however be neglected in the child's diet. 
 The practice of giving children well cooked spin- 
 ach as soon as they are able to masticate it well 
 has been widely adopted and with excellent 
 results in the case of such children being below 
 their normal nutritive condition. The spinach 
 should be steamed rather than cooked since it 
 
 252 . 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 loses less mineral salts in steaming. Feeding 
 spinach juice may be begun at the age of one 
 year if the child is not thriving. A tablespoon - 
 f ul a day may be given at this age and the amount 
 may be gradually increased if the child learns to 
 like it. Oranges or other acid fruit should be 
 given daily. 
 
 Tender salads with simple dressings should 
 be added to the diet. Cooked greens, especially 
 cooked cabbage, are not so digestible and should 
 come later, though raw cabbage can be especially 
 commended. 
 
 Fruit, as well as vegetables should be plenti- 
 fully used in the child's diet. Prune pulp and 
 apple sauce may be added at quite an early age. 
 As soon as the child has learned to chew his food 
 carefully the sweet fruits, preferably raisins, may 
 be freely given him and should be used to replace 
 the store candies. Nuts which require very thor- 
 ough mastication, and are not so easy of diges- 
 tion, should be added to the diet gradually, from 
 the fifth to the tenth year. 
 
 The chief reliance for much of the fuel foods 
 for the child must necessarily be the natural 
 cereals, but they should not be used to the 
 exclusion of fruits and vegetables. 
 
 In the feeding of children the first thought 
 to keep in mind is the necessity of confining the 
 
 253 
 
Eating fox Health and Strength 
 
 meals to three per day. By all means avoid the 
 baneful practice of "piecing" between meals. 
 That is one of the principal causes of children's 
 ailments. The stomach is supposed to have its 
 regular rest and when it starts to digest it 
 should be allowed to continue the process with- 
 out having additional food introduced in the 
 "middle" of the digestive process. 
 
 There is only one exception to this rule, 
 and that refers to acid fruits. Acid fruits 
 like oranges, apples, pears, pineapples, peaches, 
 etc., can be taken at most any time when the 
 child desires them, in moderate quantities. The 
 desire for these fruits, shortly after a meal, fre- 
 quently indicates the need of additional acid to 
 help digest the meal. Therefore you can safely 
 follow the instincts of a child in its desire for 
 acid fruits, though I cannot emphasize too 
 strongly the necessity of avoiding all other food 
 between meals. 
 
 The habit of giving children candies, cakes 
 and delicacies of various kinds between meals 
 should be most strongly condemned. A child 
 cannot possibly maintain health where the "piec- 
 ing" habit is adhered to unless he possesses 
 extraordinary vital vigor. If parents would 
 definitely understand that by feeding children 
 between meals they are more liable to contract 
 
 254 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever and many other 
 serious diseases, they will perhaps best realize 
 the danger of eating between meals. 
 
 As soon as a child arrives at an age when he 
 depends upon solid food, three meals a day 
 should be sufficient for him and at such meals 
 a child's appetite can usually be depended upon 
 as far as quantity is concerned. A child can be 
 allowed to satisfy its appetite at each of these 
 meals with plain, wholesome food only. 
 
 The appetite should not be "tickled" and a 
 child should not be encouraged to eat beyond 
 its appetite. Many parents are inclined to 
 worry if a child seems to lose its appetite. This 
 should cause no concern whatsoever, for if the 
 dictates of the stomach are adhered to, it will 
 come back to its "feed" within a reasonable 
 time. 
 
 One of my usual practices, when a child loses 
 its appetite for a few days, is to feed nothing 
 but acid fruit for a day or two. After this, as 
 a rule, a child will keenly enjoy solid foods. 
 
 A still better plan in many cases, after a 
 child has seemed to have lost its appetite for a 
 few days, is to put the child on an exclusive 
 milk diet, giving it nothing but whole, sweet 
 milk. In this case, a child should be given milk 
 about every hour during the day and allowed 
 
 255 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 to take whatever it may desire at this time. 
 If occasionally the period is stretched to one 
 and a half or two hours, this will be satisfactory. 
 In fact, there is no necessity of adhering rigidly 
 to the every hour idea throughout the entire 
 day. The child can be allowed to take as much 
 milk as it may desire under these circumstances, 
 though it should be allowed nothing else except 
 acid fruit in connection therewith. No other 
 food of any kind should be given with this diet. 
 
 Many parents are impressed with the idea 
 that a child cannot be thoroughly nourished on 
 milk. This is a serious mistake as milk with no 
 other food will nourish a child indefinitely. In 
 fact, a rest now and then for the stomach from 
 solid food, with a milk diet, is usually valuable 
 to a child, and adults can also be benefited by a 
 similar regime. 
 
 I have known many instances where children 
 have been able to gain weight and strength 
 from a milk diet. In fact, in many instances 
 in which a child does not seem to grow satisfac- 
 torily, if a milk diet is given for three or four 
 days, about twice a month, there will usually 
 be a very material gain resulting therefrom. 
 
 The diets presented herewith are merely sug- 
 gestions. They can be varied in accordance 
 with the needs. 
 
 256 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 MENUS 
 
 DIET FROM THE TIME THE CHILD IS WEANED UP TO ABOUT 
 TWO YEARS OF AGE 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 Half or whole orange or some other acid fruit that is 
 enjoyed. 
 
 Whenever the bowels are very loose this acid fruit should 
 not be used. When constipated part of the white pulp 
 of an orange, prunes or raisins are advised. 
 
 Choice of the following cereals: crumbles, hominy, rice, 
 oatmeal, corn-meal. 
 
 The cereal can be served as a drink by making it into 
 a very thin gruel, though it should be made with milk and 
 eaten with a spoon like soup. It can be sweetened with 
 brown sugar, if desired, though honey or raisins make a 
 much more satisfactory sweetening. 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Choice of any one of the following foods: 
 
 Vegetable soup. One egg prepared in any manner, 
 frying excepted. Chopped beef, as in a Salisbury steak, 
 if meat is desired. 
 
 With any one of the above foods you can add graham 
 bread, zwieback or whole wheat crackers and baked, boiled 
 or mashed potatoes, with rice. 
 
 A dessert can be made of rice, farina, tapioca, custard, 
 etc. 
 
 Supper 
 
 Corn-meal and milk or some other cereal that might be 
 palatable. If a child is very active and is hungry, one 
 egg can be added. 
 
 Whole wheat bread, corn bread or zwieback. 
 
 If a child does not seem to be thoroughly nourished on 
 a diet of this kind, a glass of milk could be given before 
 retiring and one hour before each meal, if there is a desire 
 for it. 
 
 257 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 DIET TWO TO SIX YEARS 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 Acid fruit as may be desired. 
 
 Choice of cereals. Crumbles, shredded wheat, cornflakes, 
 oatmeal, corn-meal, etc. 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Rich cream soup of some sort, made of vegetables. 
 Beans, peas, barley, etc. 
 
 Eggs cooked as desired. Meat, fish or chicken if meat 
 is desired. Chopped beef (top of round steak) is usually 
 the most wholesome and most nourishing kind of meat. 
 
 Choice of any vegetable that is especially palatable. 
 Potatoes, carrots, onions, spinach, asparagus, etc. 
 
 A dessert can be made of any plain pudding like un- 
 polished rice; custard, blanc-mange or pies can be used 
 made with whole wheat crust. 
 
 Candy can be allowed for dessert occasionally or raisins, 
 prunes, dates or any sweet fruit will be more satisfactory. 
 
 Supper 
 Soup if desired. 
 
 Eggs prepared in any way that may be appetizing. 
 Cereal pudding of some sort, — rice, farina, corn-meal, 
 etc., or stewed fruit. 
 
 DIET FOR SIX YEARS AND OVER 
 
 Breakfast 
 
 Raw acid fruits as desired or stewed fruits. Choice of 
 cereals, shredded wheat, crumbles, oatmeal, corn-meal, etc. 
 Served with raisins, dates, figs or other sweet fruit instead 
 of sugar. 
 
 Dinner 
 
 Any kind of nourishing, appetizing soup. 
 Eggs prepared in any appetizing manner. 
 Fish or chicken or meat, if meat is desired. 
 All vegetables in season. 
 
 258 
 
The Feeding of Children 
 
 Salads are especially important in a child's diet as it 
 becomes less active muscularly. Lettuce, tomatoes, cab- 
 bage and all sorts of green "stuff" can be made into 
 palatable salads. 
 
 Desserts can consist of puddings or pies which can be 
 made with whole wheat crust, or cakes containing a small 
 amount of whole wheat flour or bran. 
 
 Stewed fruit or custard. 
 
 Supper 
 
 Baked apples or other stewed fruit. 
 
 Eggs in any form desired. 
 
 Vegetables with whole wheat bread and butter. 
 
 Milk or cocoa and some light dessert, if desired. 
 
 259 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Eating to Prevent or Cure Disease 
 
 I^R. WILEY wrote some years ago that the 
 ^ J ^ medicine of the future would be foods, not 
 drugs. This prediction has already been partly 
 realized. Many works have been published of 
 recent years on the subject of preventing and 
 curing diseases by dietetic means. The medical 
 profession is slow to give up the use — or per- 
 haps I should say the over -use — of drugs, be- 
 cause their reputed knowledge of the potency 
 of pills is their chief hold on the mind of the 
 fee-paying public. None the less, be it said to 
 their credit, the medical fraternity is rapidly 
 turning its attention to more rational and more 
 natural means of healing, among which the 
 proper diet ranks very high. Particularly is this 
 true of publicly paid physicians employed in 
 various health departments. These men, not 
 dependent on fees and not required to give medi- 
 cine to people not requiring it, are being rapidly 
 weaned from the medical superstitions of the 
 past, and are becoming advocates of rational 
 health measures and disease prevention. The 
 
 260 
 
Eating to Prevent or Cure Disease 
 
 World War undoubtedly had an important in- 
 fluence in turning scientific and medical men 
 toward food problems. 
 
 To speak of some of the particular cases, 
 we have the investigations of deficiency diseases, 
 which were discussed in Chapter IV. We find 
 also tuberculosis is now considered to be very 
 largely caused by improper nutrition. Dia- 
 betes, long known to be a nutritional disease, 
 has recently been brought under more rational 
 treatment. Formerly doctors were content 
 merely to exclude sugar and starch from the 
 diet of the diabetic, permitting him to eat freely 
 of other foods. Since diabetes is caused by a 
 leakage from the kidneys of sugar from the 
 blood, and since the blood must always contain 
 sugar, or life could not exist, it did little good 
 to exclude sugar from the diet. The method 
 now adopted is that of a fast, followed by a 
 diet carefully restricted as to quantity as well 
 as to quality. 
 
 Other illustrations could be cited of the adop- 
 tion of dietetic methods in the treatment of 
 specific diseases. The subject, however, is too 
 large a one to be gone into in this chapter. I 
 will, therefore, confine my further discussion 
 here to the general relation of food to disease, 
 and to the consideration of a few common ills 
 
 261 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 or roots of ills, in the prevention and curing of 
 which the general reader may apply the prin- 
 ciples of food science, without specific and indi- 
 vidual prescriptions. 
 
 First , let me say that while food and the con- 
 dition of the body's nutrition can be shown to 
 be the direct and sole cause of only a few 
 diseases, yet any rational mind must realize that 
 it is an indirect and contributing cause of all 
 diseases. There are very few diseases that are 
 truly epidemic and sweep through a popula- 
 tion, afflicting all alike. Those who have the 
 highest vitality and whose bodies are the best 
 nourished, and free from either nutritional de- 
 ficiencies or excesses, are the least likely to suc- 
 cumb to disease, whatever be its immediate 
 cause. This question of the resistance to disease 
 which varies so widely in individual cases must 
 rest upon the matter of individual physical effi- 
 ciency. As the general laws of health, includ- 
 ing those of nutrition, become fully understood 
 and universally applied, diseases will disappear 
 and disease germs will die a natural death. 
 Those who follow the general dietetic laws 
 taught in this book will decrease their suscepti- 
 bility to disease to well nigh the vanishing point. 
 
 The diseases which are both common and 
 which are most directly connected with food 
 
 262 
 
Eating to Prevent or Cure Disease 
 
 problems, and are most certainly prevented or 
 cured by correct eating, are as follows: First: 
 Digestive disorders. Second: Diseases asso- 
 ciated with under-weight and under-nutrition — 
 tuberculosis comes in this class as do many nerv- 
 ous afflictions. Third: Diseases associated with 
 over-eating and obesity. This group includes 
 diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver — and for that 
 matter practically all diseases connected with the 
 kidneys and liver. Apoplexy, gout and many 
 forms of heart disease are also associated with 
 obesity, and are presumably caused by the over- 
 eating which causes the obesity. 
 
 Obviously the way to prevent diseases, or to 
 cure them if they already exist, when the dis- 
 eases are caused by or associated with malnutri- 
 tion or obesity, is to avoid or cure the malnutri- 
 tion or obesity. In other words if the body 
 weight is made right and kept right, the disease 
 cannot appear, or if the correction is not made 
 too late, will disappear. 
 
 In the more immediate matter of digestive 
 disorders, the correction of the diet as the means 
 of relief is too obvious to need argument. There 
 are thousands of tons of drugs taken to cure 
 stomach troubles, while the cause which is the use 
 of indigestible foods or excessive food quanti- 
 ties, fails to be corrected. The one sure cure 
 
 263 
 
Eating tor Health and Strength 
 
 for indigestion is to quit eating. This may 
 sound like a humorous statement; nevertheless 
 it should be taken seriously. When a man 
 breaks down from over-work, he obviously needs 
 a rest. The same is true of the over-worked 
 stomach. If a man is dependent on his liveli- 
 hood, he cannot rest too long without being in 
 danger of starvation, and so also, the stomach 
 cannot take an indefinite rest without the same 
 effect upon its owner. But the overworked 
 stomach can be given a brief rest (from one to 
 seven days) and this is frequently all that is 
 needed to effect a cure. 
 
 All stomachs do not get out of order from 
 the same causes; the excessive use of certain 
 foods, or certain badly prepared foods or bad 
 food combinations may be the cause of the par- 
 ticular trouble. It is up to the intelligence of 
 the individual, with or without professional 
 advice, to find the trouble and eliminate the 
 cause. No general rules can be given here that 
 will apply in all cases, other than the general 
 rules for proper eating as are given elsewhere 
 in this book. These general rules, however, 
 will eliminate nine-tenths of digestive disorders, 
 because nine-tenths, yes, ninety-nine per cent are 
 caused by dietetic errors. These errors are as- 
 sociated with over-eating and the use of over- 
 
 264 
 
Eating to Prevent or Cure Disease 
 
 seasoned, over-complicated and over-cooked 
 foods. Hence the general remedy is to return 
 to a natural diet. In case of digestive dis- 
 order such a natural diet is rarely more impera- 
 tive than for those whose digestive apparatus 
 has stood up under the strain and can handle 
 anything offered, passing the trouble on to the 
 liver, kidneys, heart and nerves. 
 
 The use of very simple diets often work won- 
 ders with chronic cases of indigestion. The 
 milk diet is one such simple procedure, and it is 
 well worth trying for those who suffer from 
 stomach trouble, especially when this trouble is 
 associated with under-weight, loss of sleep and 
 a general case of "nerves." Another form of 
 diet, often of high curative value, is one consist- 
 ing almost wholly of uncooked foods. This 
 does not mean that one should eat raw meat, or 
 raw pie-dough, but that one should omit all 
 such foods as seem to need cooking, and con- 
 fine the diet to the milk group, nuts, fruits and 
 tender vegetables, that may be and should be 
 eaten uncooked. 
 
 Another disease, and one that has been called 
 the mother of diseases, is constipation. This 
 disorder, with which the majority of civilized 
 people are afflicted, is usually caused by wrong 
 eating. Taking drugs for this, while continu- 
 
 265 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 ing the eating habits that cause it, is a stupid 
 and a dangerous procedure which offers no 
 permanent relief. The proper regulation of the 
 bowel action is a matter which every individual 
 should attend to as he does to the matter of 
 external bodily cleanliness, and of these two 
 affairs of personal hygiene the former is of the 
 greater importance. Dirt upon the skin is un- 
 sightly but it is rarely poisonous; a congested 
 intestine is a constant source of body poisoning. 
 The rate of the passage of the food and food 
 residues through the alimentary canal depends 
 on the bulk or quantity of indigestible fibre. 
 Each species of animal has a digestive tract of a 
 size fitted to deal with the natural food of the 
 species. The herbivorous animals have volumi- 
 nous digestive organs; the carnivorous animals 
 have relatively small intestines. Man ranks 
 midway between these two groups, as his natural 
 diet is of less bulk and contains less fibre than 
 does that of the cow, but more than that of the 
 lion. When the food quantity is restricted, 
 because of man's lessened activity through civili- 
 zation, and all fibre is eliminated from the diet, 
 the result is that the intestines have not a suffi- 
 cient bulk of material to deal with, and the food 
 waste does not pass from the body with suffi- 
 cient promptness. The result is that the waste, 
 
 266 
 
Eating to Prevent or Cure Disease 
 
 together with poisonous products of decay and 
 fermentation, is reabsorbed. 
 
 Various artificial means have been resorted to 
 to overcome this difficulty. The worst and the 
 most commonly used is the purgative or laxa- 
 tive drug. Such drugs, no matter how much 
 they are camouflaged with "candy" or adver- 
 tised as harmless, are poisons which irritate the 
 intestines, thus bringing about an artificial 
 diarrhea in a natural effort to eliminate them. 
 The remedy may be quite as bad as the disease, 
 and never effects a real cure. 
 
 The natural laxative is, of course, the cellu- 
 lose fibre of natural foods; two other substances 
 are now used as substitutes which depend upon 
 their mechanical and not their chemical action. 
 One of these is Agar, which is a gelatinous form 
 of cellulose made from seaweed; the other is 
 mineral oil which is wholly insoluble and has no 
 chemical action but merely acts as a mechanical 
 lubricant. These materials, though bought in 
 drug stores, are not "drugs," but merely artificial 
 substitutes for the natural cellulose of food and 
 therefore do little or no harm, and often much 
 good may come from their use, though one 
 should strive at all times to follow a diet that 
 will insure regular bowel activity. 
 
 Another remedy for constipation is the in- 
 267 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 ternal bath or injection of water into the colon; 
 this is an immediately effective remedy and 
 should be used when there is need of immediate 
 relief. It should not be necessary, however, 
 as a permanent habit, but may be used in emer- 
 gencies and while one is bringing about a per- 
 manent relief and restoring normal intestinal 
 action by the proper diet. 
 
 A sufficient quantity of bulky fibre in the 
 food is the ideal and only permanent method of 
 establishing and maintaining proper intestinal 
 action; the proportion of such fibre needed will 
 vary somewhat with the individual, and his past 
 eating habits, as well as with his general muscu- 
 lar vigor and physical activity. The substitu- 
 tion of "live" vital food, such as whole wheat 
 bread instead of white-flour bread is frequently 
 all that is needed to obtain permanent relief. The 
 use of leafy or fibrous vegetable and pulpy or fi- 
 brous fruits is equally valuable if they are used in 
 sufficient quantities; prunes and raisins are both 
 excellent. ( Oranges with the yellow covering 
 rubbed or peeled off, leaving the white substances, 
 can often be used to great advantage. Eat white 
 part of peeling with the pulp of the oranges be- 
 fore breakfast in the morning. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 The Diet in Old Age 
 
 HP HE average man does not concern himself 
 with the question of how long he is to live 
 until he begins to grow old. I, therefore, have 
 entitled this chapter "The Diet in Old Age"; 
 but it might better be called "the diet to pre- 
 vent old age," or "the diet to increase the length 
 of life." 
 
 There is really little distinction between the 
 ideal diet for old age and the ideal diet for any 
 other period of life. The ideal diet will increase 
 the length of life, and the earlier in life it is 
 adopted, and the more consistently it is fol- 
 lowed, the greater will be the increase in the 
 count of years. Too often it is only when most 
 of life is past that we begin to value it, and 
 hence are the more concerned with its extension, 
 and the more keen in search of methods of eat- 
 ing that will prolong the years that remain. 
 
 If you will read a considerable number of 
 accounts of the habits of living of men who have 
 achieved the distinction of unusual years and a 
 vigorous and hearty old age, you will find 
 
 269 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 numerous reasons set down in explanation of 
 the unusual longevity. In some instances the 
 chief credit will be given to systems of physical 
 exercise; in some cases, to habits of thought; 
 in others to hours of sleep or an out-door en- 
 vironment; while, on the other hand, you will 
 find the abstinence from some particular vice — 
 or even the addiction to some vice, or the use 
 of some drug (witness the advertisement of 
 Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey) set down as 
 the cause of longevity. But in all creditable 
 accounts of longevity you will find running 
 through them one element of uniformity: in- 
 variably those who live to unusual years have 
 practised abstemious habits of eating. Cornaro, 
 the -Italian philosopher, who lived several cen- 
 turies ago, attained the age of 101; when in his 
 nineties he wrote a book on longevity, in which 
 he ascribed his unusual age and vigor to his 
 spare diet. He has been misquoted as saying 
 that "he lived upon one egg a day"; this, of 
 course, referred only to the use of the single 
 egg in place of meat, but his diet was very 
 simple in quality and very spare in quantity. 
 
 In 1635 a certain very old man named 
 Thomas Parr visited King Charles. Mr. Parr 
 informed the king that he (Parr, not the king) 
 lived on cheese, milk, a little coarse bread and 
 
 270 
 
The Diet in Old Age 
 
 sour whey. Mr. Parr laid claim to 153 years. 
 He may have falsified about his age, though he 
 may have told the truth about his diet. 
 
 These stories of those who lived a century 
 or more are always interesting, but they are not 
 so convincing, at least to the scientific mind, as 
 are the statistics of the insurance companies to 
 which reference has been made in our chapter 
 on obesity. The insurance people have no data 
 of the diet of the policy-holders, but they do 
 have records of their weights, and the relation 
 of the weight to the quantity of food eaten is 
 an absolute and positive one. Fat men cannot 
 be light eaters and thin men cannot be heavy 
 eaters, except in abnormal cases. Insurance 
 statistics show that over-weight, and hence over- 
 eating increases the death rate, and this increase 
 is specially marked around the age of forty. 
 Such increase in the death rate diminishes some- 
 what with further advancing age, but at the 
 age of sixty, the death rate for the fattest group 
 of men was about seventy per cent greater than 
 for the group of the slenderest men of the same 
 age period. 
 
 We have no insurance data for men beyond 
 this age group, as too few men are insured after 
 that age to secure reliable statistics. But the 
 facts we have certainly offer very convincing 
 
 271 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 proof that fat men do not live as long as those 
 of spare frame. Practical observation among 
 the old people you know will convince you of 
 the same fact. Fat old men are very rare, and 
 those who are fat will usually be found to have 
 acquired the condition late in life. Men who 
 have been fat all their lives rarely live beyond 
 the fifties or sixties. It is those with spare 
 frames, and hence abstemious eaters, whom you 
 will find still living in the eighties and nineties. 
 
 It did not seem difficult to explain these facts. 
 We simply knew that a light eater who main- 
 tained a spare and wiry figure outlived the 
 heavy eater whose form was burdened with fat. 
 Obesity burdens the body and prevents proper 
 activity; over-eating fills the body with surplus 
 food wastes which generate poisons and overtax 
 the excretory organs; moreover, over-eating and 
 obesity cause, or at least, render one more sus- 
 ceptible to various diseases. These facts alone 
 might seem sufficient to explain the greater 
 longevity of the abstemious eater. 
 
 However, I believe that we have found an 
 additional explanation in the discoveries that 
 have recently been made concerning the general 
 physiological effects of a light versus the heavy 
 diet. The light eater does not live so fast, hence 
 he lives longer. This statement is literally true, 
 
 272 
 
The Diet in Old Age 
 
 and the word "fast" is not necessarily used as 
 a synonym for immorality. The restricted diet 
 of Dr. Benedict's experiments resulted in an 
 actual slowing down of the rate of the heart 
 beat; this decrease was in fact about thirty per 
 cent. If we assume that a man comes into this 
 world like a wound-up clock, capable of so many 
 ticks, it seems quite logical that if he ticked fast 
 he would not tick as long — this is an unusual 
 viewpoint, but it may be a great truth that we 
 are only just discovering. 
 
 We are accustomed to measuring life in years, 
 that is, the number of times the earth goes round 
 the sun, which has nothing in particular to do 
 with the life processes. Measuring life in the 
 number of heart beats would certainly be more 
 logical. The over-eater who is fat, who pants, 
 is short of breath, who has a high pulse rate and 
 a high blood pressure, is physiologically running 
 too fast, and hence will run down too quickly. 
 The light eater who is spare of frame, who has 
 a slow pulse rate and a low blood pressure, is 
 living more slowly and will hence live longer. 
 Incidentally he has more reserve power for 
 emergencies. Sudden exertion increases the rate 
 of the heart beat, but if it is already beating 
 rapidly due to the burden of digesting and 
 eliminating surplus food, then it has not as 
 
 273 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 much opportunity left for increase from the 
 legitimate stimulation of exercise. Hence the 
 fat man, when he becomes excited and runs a 
 block, tumbles down with heart disease or breaks 
 a blood vessel and dies from apoplexy. 
 
 The doctor's certificate rarely sets down "old 
 age" as the cause of death. The majority of 
 those deaths which occur in late middle life are 
 from diseases plainly related to incorrect living 
 and chiefly to over-eating. It is such deaths 
 that take off a man before his time and shorten 
 life. The way to prevent this is to avoid the 
 cause. 
 
 In old age the general activities of the body 
 are decreased. Old people move more slowly 
 and work less vigorously than the young, and, 
 unless special pains have been made to main- 
 tain them, the bulk of the muscles materially 
 decrease. All these facts contribute to the 
 reduction of the amount of food needed to main- 
 tain life; hence even though the diet has been 
 correctly proportioned in youth, as age ad- 
 vances it should be decreased. If over-eating 
 has been practised in youth and middle life the 
 need of such decrease is much greater. 
 
 The nature of the food and the quality of 
 the diet need not be changed. There is less 
 need of energy-producing foods, but there is 
 
 274 
 
The Diet in Old Age 
 
 also less need of other food elements as all the 
 life processes have been checked in speed and 
 the volume of muscles has usually been de- 
 creased. The mineral salts, vitamines and avail- 
 able proteins are still essential; the fat, sugars, 
 and starches which furnish the fuel energy are 
 also required, but in reduced quantities. 
 
 In some cases the loss of natural teeth will 
 render mastication a little more difficult, and 
 hence require the adoption of foods more easily 
 masticated. Resort should not be had, however, 
 to excess of starchy porridges, as there are plenty 
 of natural foods that may be eaten without 
 laborious chewing. The adoption of the method 
 previously described in "eating" milk or that used 
 in Horace Fletcher's habit of holding foods, even 
 liquids like milk and soup, in the mouth and 
 working them about until they are mixed with 
 saliva and swallowed instinctively is to be recom- 
 mended for those who are not able to chew hard 
 foods. 
 
 With the wear of years, especially if wrong 
 eating habits have been followed, the digestive 
 powers may become somewhat weakened. The 
 exact nature of the impairment of digestion 
 varies with the, individual, and hence cannot be 
 met by any general rules or remedies. There 
 are some foods, however, that are so readily 
 
 275 
 
Eating for Health and Strength 
 
 digested that they may be used by almost any 
 one, no matter how enfeebled the digestion may 
 be. Milk and eggs rank very high in this re- 
 spect; hence find a large place in the diet of 
 those of weakened digestive powers. Very ripe 
 pulpy fruits may be added to such a list. 
 
 I will not, however, prolong these suggestions, 
 for normally there is no occasion for the man 
 or woman of advanced years to be on the invalid 
 list. The pampering and coddling of people 
 merely because they have reached a certain num- 
 ber of years is a fault too often committed by 
 the children or others with whom they may have 
 the ill fortune to live. It is often said that a 
 man is as old as he feels, and the younger gen- 
 eration is prone to make him feel as old as he 
 is, and then some. 
 
 On the whole I may say that there are no 
 special dietetic laws for old age that do not 
 apply to adult life in general. It is a question 
 always of eating foods that supply all the ele- 
 ments of nourishment that the body requires 
 and of eating them in sufficient quantity to main- 
 tain the body in a wiry, muscular condition. Eat 
 to keep thin as the years advance, and your days 
 upon this earth will be many. 
 
 the end 
 
 276 
 
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