Copyiigtal^^- COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr EUGENE CHRISTIAN Suncooked Food A TREATISE ON HOW TO GET THE HIGHEST FORM OF HUMAN ENERGY FROM FOOD SIXTH EDITION Retitled and Rewritten to keep pace with progress BY EUGENE CHRISTIAN As the Building Material is, so the Structure must be CHRISTIAN'S school OF APPLIED FOOD CHEMISTRY 7 EAST 41ST STREET. NEW YORK 1909 A t "% ^'^ A"^^' COPYRIGHT 1909, BY EUGENE CHRISTIAN BALTIMORE, MD., U. S. A. ©GLA;^5K86 DEDICATION To the Women of America who shall Mother the Sons of Our Glorious Country^ I Most Affectionately Dedicate This Work TABLE OP CONTENTS PAGE Why This Book Was Written 9 Why This Book Was Reweitten 12 Instinct vs. Custom 21 Cooking 29 Chemical Changes that Occur in Cooking 35 Cooked Food for Animals 40 " Raw " Foods 41 Why Suncooked Foods 45 Selection and Peeparation of Foods 50 Preparation of Suncooked Foods 56 Food Combinations 58 The Treating Habit 61 The Emancipation of Woman 67 Applied Food Chemistey 73 Why is Disease 77 The Function of Food 80 The Stone the Builders Rejected 82 Mastication 87 Fletcherism 92 Decay of the Teeth 101 Caries 101 Pyorrhea Alveolaris 101 Prevention of Riggs' Disease 104 The Psychology of Nutbition 107 Some Revelations of the X-Ray 112 The Chemical Substances of Foods 116 Carbohydrates 116 Starch 119 Fats and Oils 125 Proteids 128 Food Salts 133 Water 135 b TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE The Chemistry of Digestion 138 Digestion in the Stomach 141 Intestinal Digestion 148 Bile , 148 Pancreatic Juice 149 Intestinal Juices 152 The Secretion of Digestive Juices 152 Abnormal Processes in Digestion 158 Mechanics of Digestion 166 Metabolism 172 Metabolism of Carbohydrates 176 Metabolism of Fat 181 Metabolism of Proteids 184 The Vieno System of Food Measurement 192 Explanation of the Vieno System 195 Vieno Tables 203 Old and New Dietary Standards 211 True Food Requirements 218 Nature's Food Scales 224 Flesh Foods 228 Animal Fats 239 Cold Storage of Meat 240 Contagious Diseases and Animal Food 242 Fish 244 Poultry 246 Non-Flesh Foods of Animal Origin 252 Eggs 254 Milk 257 The Adulteration of Milk 262 Cheese, Butter and Oleomargarine 265 Foods Derived from Plants 270 Cereals 270 Wheat 273 Rye 274 Barley 274 TABLE OF CONTENTS 7 PAGE Foods Derived from Plants — Cereals. — Continued Oats 275 Corn 276 Rice 276 Nuts 279 Pine Nuts 281 The Pecan ' 283 The Almond 284 White Walnuts 284 Filberts 285 Chestnuts 285 Cocoanut 285 Leaves, Roots and Tubers 287 Legumes 291 Fruits 292 Sugars 300 Beet Sugar 300 Glucose 303 Confections 305 Honey 306 Vegetable Oils 308 Drugs 312 Narcotics 316 Alcohols 328 Mineral Poisons 335 Purgatives and Cathartics 338 Condiments 342 Drugging Foods 346 Shall We Nationalize the Doctor? 350 WHY THIS BOOK WAS WEITTEN Some years ago I became so impaired in health as to almost totally disqualify me for the performance of my daily work. A study of my condition convinced me that it was caused mainly, if not wholly, by incorrect habits in eating. This caused me to enter into a very careful and studied series of per- sonal experiments with various forms of diet. At first these experiments were con- fined entirely to cooked foods, because at that time I accepted implicitly the common theory that foods could be predigested and improved by heat. Necessity had not re- quired me to think otherwise. Failing ut- terly to regain my health, or even improve my condition upon a diet of cooked foods, my attention was turned toward natural food, that is, food in its uncooked or elemen- tary state. Less than a year of study and experimenting with this system of feeding 10 SUNCOOKED FOOD resulted in complete recovery from all diges- tive disorders, and my restoration to perfect health. The results of my experiments led to an investigation of the subject from a purely scientific viewpoint. Many people, suffering from various stomach and intes- tinal disorders, submitted to a trial of my theory, concerning their habits of eating and drinking, with the result that in every in- stance health, strength and vitality came to those who followed my suggestions. In order to bring this theory more con- spicuously before the public, Mrs. Christian and myself gave, to a large number of in- vited guests, a seven-course dinner or ban- quet of uncooked foods. This banquet re- ceived much attention by the New York press, and was widely commented on throughout this country and abroad. The flood of inquiries concerning the use of un- cooked foods, which followed this publicity, gave me a substantial hint of the great inter- est the public is taking in the question of natural dietetics. WHY THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN 11 A second elementary food banquet spread a few months later was given still wider publicity, and brought forth inquiries in such volume that it became impossible to answer them. Therefore, as a labor-saving method of making reply, and in order to place intelligently before the public the re- sults of my work and experiments, I decided to incorporate them in pamphlet form. But it was soon discovered that this was in- adequate, and the first edition of '' Un- cooked Foods '' was the result. Eugene Christian. January, 1904. WHY THIS BOOK WAS REWRITTEN Five years have passed since the first edi- tion of '^ Uncooked Foods " appeared from the press. The work has passed through several editions and many thousand copies have been distributed throughout the Eng- lish-speaking world. The book has been severely criticised and generously praised. The London Mail declared it to be a hundred years ahead of its time, while some doctors said it was the vaporings of a diseased imagination. However, the demand for the book constantly increased. When I began my investigations in the field of food science, there was absolutely no information available for the searcher after dietetic truths, except some sentimental writings on vegetarianism and a few pedan- tic and uninterpretable government bulle- tins on calories and carbohydrates. The drug-doctor was supreme, and for anyone WHY THIS BOOK WAS REWRITTEN 13 else to presume to possess knowledge or give advice concerning matters of health was considered prima facie evidence of quackery and charlatanism. And yet, on the great question of human nutrition, the most im- portant factor in the realm of human health, the drug-doctor knew but little. He did not claim to be an authority. He studied drugs, not foods. rive years ago, the person who pro- claimed that foods could be made remedial or curative, or that they were a potent factor in the cause of disease, was branded as a ^* crank " and faddist. In defense of this theory at that time, I wrote the following lines: '^ If I mistake not, this decade will stand out in history as one of the most important since the world began. Its greatest achieve- ment will be that it has put into motion a current of thought on the subject of human food, that will do more for the human race in one generation than all the learning of the musty centuries that have gone into the past." 14 SIJNCOOKED FOOD Half of the decade has passed. Let us weigh this prophecy on the scale of what has since occurred. Within the last five years the people of the nation have demanded that adulterating and poisoning foods shall cease, and Con- gress has passed the Pure Food Law and created a commission for its enforcement. True it is, that the law merely insists that things be what they are labeled— pure whis- key and pure bologna are still bologna and whiskey, and still unfit for human food, but the Pure Food Law has shown that the people can be awakened to a recognition of the fact that food as the constructive mate- rial of human life needs some consideration. The Pure Food Law is the first step in the right direction. It is the crystallization of the thought that the nation's greatest asset is in the health of the people, and that pure food is the greatest factor in health. The last five years have witnessed a great popular uprising against patent medicines. People who now indulge in their use are WHY THIS BOOK WAS REWKITTEN" 15 pitied and looked upon as we look upon those who still believe in witchcraft, rabbits' feet or the horticultural influence of the phases of the moon. Five years ago vegetarianism was consid- ered only from its religious, moral or senti- mental aspects, and the average college pro- fessor would have flinched from being called a vegetarian as he would from being called an anarchist. To-day vegetarianism, or more properly, the question of the effects of flesh food, is being scientifically studied in many of the best colleges and universities in the land, with the result that flesh foods are now admitted by most up-to-date scientists to be not only unnecessary, but actually detrimental. A few years ago prohibition was looked upon as a proper thing for the employment of a few idle women and once-a-week preachers, but was considered unworthy of the support of the business interests of the country or the public press. The prohibi- tion territory of the United States was then 16 SUNCOOKED FOOD confined to two or three '' crank '' States and a few scattered rural counties. To-day the map is reversed, and '' wet " territory is in the minority— a great prohibition move- ment has swept over the country — not be- cause a few women and preachers have ap- proved it, but because the American people are learning that intoxicating liquors are detrimental to health and prosperity. The same general wave of reform that passed the Pure Food Law is passing prohibition laws. Until a few years ago consumption was treated with drugs, and the patient zealously guarded from exposure; to-day he is sent into the open air and instructed to sleep in tents in winter and under the canopy of blue in summer. All drugs are eliminated, and exposure to out-door air, moderate exercise and pure food is the universal remedy — ^the remedy that cures. Nearly every State in the Union now has a society for the study and prevention of tuberculosis; and these societies are not controlled by the medical profession, but are philanthropic organiza- WHY THIS BOOK WAS REWRITTEN 17 tions working to place this information within the grasp of everyone who will learn. Athletics and out-door life are becoming more popular each year, and in our more progressive cities the physical welfare of children is receiving much attention from municipal governments. A few years ago those who attempted to regain health by any means except medicine were considered ^' cranks," if not a little ** off " mentally. They are still considered ** cranks," but the word now means thought, progress and sometimes genius. Medical laws, to prevent the practice of drugless methods of healing, are still on the statute books, but they have been defeated in the Supreme Court of many States, and are exceedingly unpopular and rapidly tak- ing their place back with the blue laws of the days of sorcery and witchcraft. To-day natural methods of treating dis- ease, especially by diet, are being recognized by the more resourceful thinkers of the country. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, chief of 18 SUNCOOKED FOOD the Federal Bureau of Chemistry, a gradu- ate M. D., and the best-known chemist in this comitry, in a recent article, in the New York Medical Journal, said: '' There is an increasing belief in the medical profession, and this belief is founded on substantial evi- dence, that diet is an important factor in the production and cure of disease. ... A per- fectly healthy, well-nourished organ be- comes infected with any disease germ with great difficulty; in other words, it is self- protective. Granting this, therefore, it is self-evident that the food or diet must play a most important part in the prevention of disease.'' Dr. "Wiley closes this article with a most significant prophecy: '' I must also be al- lowed to say that the most preposterous dicta that I have ever heard concerning diet have come not from teachers of dietetics and cooking but from physicians themselves. In the progress of medical education, the near future, in my opinion, will see the professor- ship of dietetics in medical schools advanced WHY THIS BOOE: WAS KEWEITTEN 19 to the same rank as that of medicine, and I am even going further than this and say, that the practice of medicine in the future will be largely a practice of dietetics." Indeed, so wonderful has been the prog- ress in the last five years that my original work on uncooked foods seems sadly out of date. It is to keep pace with progress, and to give to humanity the results of five years' study and practice in the field of applied food chemistry, that this volume has been re- written. If it gives to men more strength, more vitality, more endurance; if it gives them more health and less disease, more sjnupathy, more affection and more love ; if it gives them higher senses of mercy and justice, which fiow more freely from a foun- tain of robust health; if it contributes one degree to the elevation and freedom of woman ; if it gives her one hour more of pure air and sunshine; if it gives her new thoughts, new dreams, new hopes, with which she may endow the race to be: if it 20 SUNCOOKED FOOD takes her from within four dark walls, hung with pots and strewn with bones, to gardens and fields where nature's bounteous store of purple and red is swung with prodigal hand in sunshine and autumn leaves ; if it brings her more youth and years, less sorrow and tears ; if this book, in the least, lightens the leaden load that has been laid upon woman by our civilization; if in all the world it changes one hour of suffering to an hour of joy, the writer will be abundantly repaid. Eugene Christian August, 1909. INSTINCT VS. CUSTOM Among all civilized people eating is con- trolled largely by custom, convention or race habit. Because of man's inventiveness, the hu- man species differ from other types of ani- mals in being governed less by instinct and more by custom or race habits. Some cus- toms are good — some are bad — some indif- ferent. All told, these customs and habits, which each child learns anew from its par- ents and playfellows, form what we call civilization. All wars, all political and religious dis- putes that have played over the map of the world have been but the clashing of various customs. The use of written language is a custom — a good custom, for it develops the human mind, enables us to learn more, to think more deeply, and to live and love more fully. Fashions in dress are customs — for 22 SUNCOOKED FOOD the most part senseless customs, good, so long as they please ourselves and our friends ; bad, when they injure our bodies or when we use them to display wealth or allow them to occupy time and thought that could be devoted to better things. In eating, drinking and drugging, the lia- bility of custom to become harmful is much greater than in other human habits. Be- tween the customs of dieting and of drug- ging, there is this sharp distinction: Food is necessary to human life ; appetite for food is an instinct, and conventional diet is natu- ral instinct gone wrong through acquired custom. But drugging is wholly unneces- sary — ^it meets no natural need and can only interfere with nature's fixed and unchange- able plan — it is an acquired habit fastened upon the human race by those who do not really believe in it, except as a means of livelihood. The fact that a vast majority of human ills are directly traceable to man's habit of feeding is evidence that custom furnishes him no safe guide. INSTINCT VS. CUSTOM 23 Human progress can be measured by the radical departures and the distance we have traveled from custom. The world's greatest souls which have led us toward the light have been martyred and ostracised because of our blind fear of departure from precedent, habit and custom. We are accustomed to look upon nature as perfect, and to accept whatever is as best; but this view is not strictly correct. Nature or evolution is, by natural selection, con- stantly approaching perfection, for the im- perfect and inharmonious are continually being eliminated by her laws. The perfection of nature is not so much in the perfection of the plan as in the adapta- tion of one thing in nature to fit into and work with another thing. A food chemist might plan a diet containing all the elements of which the human body is composed. His nitrogen he could get from the air, his car- bon from charcoal, his sulphur from crude brimstone, and his iron from the scrap heap. But such a diet would be useless because the 24 srisrcooKED food human body has not been adapted to digest and assimilate these elements in this form. Science, freed from all prejudice and dog- matism, first studies the adaptations in na- ture, the relation of natural food to the di- gestive and metabolic processes of the body, which for long ages has been fitting itself to subsist upon these foods. After learning from nature the needs of the body, science strives to select foods that shall most nearly conform to these processes of nutrition. For illustration: Nature presumed that man would thresh grain and hull nuts with his hands — science does it by machinery and leaves man's hands free to build aeroplanes or wireless telephones. But where science says that mills should be substituted for teeth and malt for saliva, it interferes with processes that cannot be so easily readjusted. We should learn from rather than follow nature. The plant to live needs water. Na- ture gives it water, sometimes too much, sometimes too little. Man regulates nature. He builds a dam and catches the water in seasons of plenty and feeds it to the plant in INSTINCT VS. CUSTOM 25 seasons of drought. He underdrains the soil so that the plant gets the proper amount of water at the proper depth; and he protects the surface of the soil from the excessive evaporating power of the summer sun by mulching the ground with a tilth of crumbly loam. The plant now produces thirty, sixty and a hundred fold more than it would under its natural conditions and environ- ment. Suppose, again, that man concluded that the temperature of this earth was too low, and by artificial means raised it to 120 de- grees. " How absurd," you say. '' It would be unbearable and kill off half the human race " — and so it would. But suppose man had been so constituted that such an abnor- mal temperature gave temporary pleasure or conformed to some foolish custom. In that case roasting would have become fash- ionable, even though it killed half the race, for such has been the case with intoxicants, stimulants, drugs, narcotics, tobacco, meats and mushy starch foods. 26 SUNCOOKED FOOD If men were able to adapt their bodily in- heritance to new conditions as readily as they do their clothes, houses or vehicles, ath- letics would have no other use than that of a sport. As it is, we are equipped with the same kind of breathing, running and fight- ing mechanisms as were used by our Neo- lithic ancestors. It is a proposition of ** vested interests." When we try to sub- stitute another method of locomotion or a new plan of digestion to the neglect of the one with which nature has fitted us, condi- tions develop which we call disease, and we name them gout, rheumatism, consumption, obesity or some Latin word ending in i-t-i-s. If it is a matter of flabby arms or legs, weak heart or lungs, athletics will build up the muscles and put the machine in good run- ning order. If the trouble is with the diges- tive, assimilative or excretory organs, a proper selection and combination of food mil decidedly lessen the dangers of conges- tion, which we are pleased to call disease. The man who follows custom in dietetic INSTINCT VS. CUSTOM 27 matters is almost sure to go wrong. If some scissors expert, who called himself a scien- tist, should put all the foolish dietetic cus- toms of man in a big book and label it '' Catholiconocea " or a '* Martha Washing- ton Cook Book,'' the man who read it, would differ from the man who received his educa- tion on his grandmother's knee, only in knowing more wrong ways of eating. He who learns of nature and her laws of adaptation cannot go very far wrong, for nature feels her way. She does not develop a set of teeth and a stomach to match them which can only assimilate predigested food ; nor an appetite and digestive organs adapted to an anthropoid diet, with the kid- neys of a vulture. He who goes first to na- ture and learns of her requirements and her harmonies, and then brings into play a con- structive scientific mind, seeking the best material out of which to build the human body, or the most natural method of combin- ing and proportioning food according to age, climate and work, can add the construe- 28 SUNCOOKED FOOD tive forces of reason to the constructive forces of nature, and make man, in things physical as he is in things psychical, the paragon of animals. COOKING All matter is composed of little electrical charges called ions. These ions are grouped in certain fashions to make the atoms of the chemical elements ; and these atoms, in turn, are arranged in various combinations which determine the chemical compounds or sub- stances of which the sea, earth and air, tad- poles, albatrosses and automobiles are com- posed. The manner in which these ions and atoms are combined determines which ele- ments or compounds are formed. Two ions chased by four abreast, followed by three more driving tandem, may be hydrogen, and six hydrogen atoms around two of carbon, with an oxygen atom circumnavigating the whole, form alcohol ; and three billion mole- cules of alcohol, four billion of water and one of common sense, make a ^' plain drunk." All these myriads of little eddies of electricity are in never-ending motion, 30 SUNCOOKED FOOD whirling, turning and revolving in their or- bits like an infinite swarm of tiny comets, moons and suns. Just as the difference in the way in which these minute particles of matter are com- bined constitute the substances they form, so does the rate at which they move consti- tute what we call temperature. The form of motion and the rate of motion are intimately related. Certain forms of motion, and hence certain forms of matter, can exist only at certain temperatures. In the hottest stars we find only hydrogen and helium and the lighter elements. As the stars cool, nickel, iron and other metals are formed; much later, when the cooling process has pro- gressed far enough so that the motion or temperature is slowed down to something near the temperature we have on this earth, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen, the elements of life, are formed. But these life elements cannot combine to form the life substances until a temperature below the boiling point of water is reached. cooKiisrG 31 At a temperature between 32° and 150° F., all the life on this globe was created. Were the temperature of the earth to pass again without that range, all life would perish, for this is the only range of temperature at which that most complex of chemical com- pounds, protoplasm, the essential substance of every living cell, can exist. In all that great range of temperature, from the hottest stars down to the absolute zero of interstellar space where the lightest of gases freeze as hard as steel, only in the one brief span of a hundred degrees, scarcely one-hundredth part of the whole, can life exist; while warm-blooded life, which is the highest form, can exist only within a range of ten degrees or twelve de- grees. We are even alarmed if the clinical thermometer shows a change in the tempera- ture of our blood of two degrees. Aided by the energy of sunlight, the vege- table or plant takes inorganic matter and converts it into organic or living matter, such as is found in leaves, fruits, nuts, ce- 32 SUNCOOKED FOOD reals — ^the natural foods of man. It is only througli this process that mineral elements can become a part of animal life. As the life substance can exist only within a limited range of temperature, when we apply artificial heat to our food in the proc- ess of cooking it results in such a change as destroys the elementary plant form, and the mineral elements return to their inorganic condition. A leaf of cabbage, if immersed in water that can easily be endured by the bare hand, will wilt, showing that part of its cellular life is destroyed at that temperature. The degree of heat necessary to change the chemical properties of a substance de- pends upon the substance. Gold may be heated in a furnace to the highest tempera- ture which human ingenuity can attain, and it will still come out gold; but let a young housewife get her biscuits a few degrees too hot and they will come out of the oven a radically different substance from what she had planned. Sugar may be heated 200° or 300° without COOKING 33 change. Starch begins to change at a much lower temperature. Proteid or protoplasm, the most essential substance in animal life, is the most susceptible of all, and coagulates at about 160° into a hard mass that cannot again be brought back into its original form. Living proteids undergo some change even at a lower temperature, for death, which is merely a chemical change, will ensue imme- diately if the temperature of the human brain be raised 10°. The heat can be increased until all plant life is destroyed. This becomes important when we remember that animal life is sup- ported and entirely constructed from plant life. The living plant possesses all the ele- ments from which animal life is made, yet millions of people insist on eating super- cooked foods. They insist on wheat being made into zwieback, which might be de- scribed as ashes held together by a little gluten, without ever spending one moment in thinking of the real difference in food value between this suff and the grain in its original state. 34 SUNCOOKED FOOD Of all the curious customs into wMch people have evolved, cooking seems to pos- sess the least excuse for existence. It has made of woman a slave. It has made of the stomach a potpourri for everj^hing living or dead. It is the chief cause of mixing un- harmonious foods, which is the principal cause of overeating, which, in turn, is the genesis of nearly all stomach and intestinal disorders. It has changed man into an om- nivorous, and in some cases into a carniv- orous animal. <^ Why destroy the plant life before feed- ing it to the animal ? In what possible way can the application of heat improve it? " Our education, our science and learning are of small value if they do not teach us how to build the highest form of animal life from the material used. In the evolution of mankind the applica- tion of heat to food is comparatively of re- cent origin. Man probably began his cook- ing experiments by warming cold foods at his camp fire. Ak heat volatilizes the odor- COOKING 35 ous substances in many foods, the custom of heating became popular owing to the pleas- ant odors or flavors produced by the process. The habit of cooking spread as many other novel and interesting customs have spread, regardless of whether the results were bene- ficial or harmful. Chemical Changes that Occur in Cooking The question of whether foods should be eaten cooked or uncooked can best be an- swered by studying the chemical and me- chanical changes produced in the process of cooking and their consequent physiological effects. Cooking may be grouped into two classes, designated as moist heat and dry heat. Sugars are not chemically affected by boiling with water. Starch, in the presence of boiling water or steam, absorbs from three to five times its bulk of moisture, and changes into a pasty or semi-dissolved mass. In the presence of dry heat, sugars are converted into a brown substance known as 36 STJNCOOKED FOOD caramel. Starch, when heated to a tempera- ture of 300° to 400° without the presence of water, is changed into dextrine, of which toast and zwieback are examples. Fats are not changed chemically by heat- ing at the temperature of boiling water, but the globules are melted and the hot fat spreads in a film over other material which may be present. By dry heat, fats are chem- ically decomposed, forming irritating va- pors. The odors of frying are due to the presence of small quantities of these vapors. In larger quantities and with greater heat, these substances are excessively irritating, as every housewife knows who has allowed grease to burn in a skillet. The chemical changes produced by heat- ing proteids are of much more importance than the changes in other food groups. Simple proteids are coagulated at a tem- perature of about 160°. This form of change is very familiar to all in coagulation, which occurs in the boiling of eggs. This change in proteid material continues with COOKING 37 the application of prolonged heat or higher temperatures until the proteid is converted into a dark, brittle mass, which is wholly in- soluble and indigestible. If the reader will take the white of an egg and bake it for some time in an oven, he can observe very readily the coagulation and hardening of the proteid. The chemical na- ture of these changes is one of great com- plexity. The molecules combine with each other, forming almost indestructible sub- stances. The combined or coagulated forms of proteid are represented in nature by horns, hoofs, finger nails, hair, and are in- digestible and non-nutritious. The statement is frequently made that starch of grain cannot be digested without cooking because the cells enclosing the starch grains have indigestible or insoluble cellulose walls. The old theory held that it is necessary to expand the starch and rup- ture or tear down these cell walls by cooking, thus freeing the contents so that the diges- tive juices may act upon the enclosed starch 38 SUNCOOKED FOOD granules. This is a beautiful theory, but, as a matter of fact, the conception is wholly erroneous. The cell walls on the interior of the grain kernel are very filmy, and in the mature grain scarcely exist at all. The anal- ysis of wheat flour shows only a trace of cel- lulose and fiber. Were these cellulose walls within the wheat grain, as this theory com- monly teaches, flour would show a liberal quantity of cellulose. This theory as to why starch should be cooked furnishes an excel- lent illustration of the ease with which a groundless statement or theory may spread, simply because it seems to explain some pop- ular prejudice. In the process of cooking, many of the salts, which are combined with the organic constituents of food, are freed or rendered inorganic, which makes them of little or no value in the nutrition of the human body. Inasmuch as the majority of people think cooking necessary to health, forgetting probably that about half of the food con- sumed in the world at the present time is COOKING 39 taken in its natural or imcooked state, it may- be well to mention other views advanced by those who, believing that the present diet of cooked grain is better for the modern man than an elementary diet, attempt to give a natural explanation. One theory is, that while cooked foods were originally detri- mental, yet, by continued evolution, man has become fitted for such a diet and unfitted for a natural diet. This is but another form of the old belief in the inheritance of ac- quired characteristics. This belief has been steadily losing ground among evolutionists ; for there is no more reason to expect that a modified function of the stomach would be inherited than there is to believe in the in- heritance of small feet among the Chinese ladies, or flat heads among certain tribes of Oregon Indians, just because these organs are mutilated by local custom. The best light of scientific knowledge now leads us to believe that the healthy child of to-day, in its capacity for nutrition, is prac- tically like the primitive child, and is well 40 SIJNCOOKED FOOD fitted to subsist upon a varied diet of natu- ral foods. Cooked Foods for Animals It is only natural that people should rea- son that if, as commonly held, man owed much of his superiority over other animals to the use of cooked food, animals other than man should be benefited by a change to a cooked bill of fare. So about twenty or thirty years ago many farmers put their hogs, chickens, cows, horses and sheep on a cooked bill of fare ; and the more enthusias- tic feeders claimed beneficial results. Later, various government experiment stations took up the subject and made numerous careful and complete tests of the effects of cooked and uncooked food upon animals. The results did not show the expected thing. On the contrary, the cooking of foods for animals proved detrimental, and the de- cision of the government investigators was that cooking food for stock was, at its best, a wasteful fad owing its origin to a wrong COOKING 41 theory. The custom has now become ahnost entirely obsolete. If cooking is good for man, who formerly subsisted on uncooked foods, and bad for other animals which also subsist upon such a diet, the only explanation is that the Crea- tor contemplated cook stoves when He made man, and planned his organs for the forth- coming change. For those whose analogy of creation is that of a child building a play house, this explanation may suffice, but to the mind which grasps the conception of creation by universal and unchanging laws such childish philosophy can only be a mat- ter of amusement. '* Eaw " Foods Foods that have ripened and been brought to a state of maturity by nature cannot con- sistently be called '' raw.'' The origin of this word was the effort to describe some- thing that was unfinished, crude and rough, or in some way objectionable. Think of applying this ugly word to a 42 SUNCOOKED FOOD luscious bunch of purple grapes swinging to and fro in bowers of green ; or to a bick- ory-nut that has ripened in the top of a mountain tree, and whose life-giving prop- erties have been filtered through a hundred feet of clean, white wood. Or to a delicious apple, or peach, reddened, ripened and fin- ished ; born from the fragrant blossom and nursed and nurtured to maturity by the soft beams of the life-giving sun. These things are finished, ready for use; they are perfect, they are not raw, they are done; and when they are changed by fire they are undone. In the true sense of the word, cooking that which nature has ripened really renders it raw — ^hopelessly raw. The Standard Dictionary says that '^ raw '' means ^^ uncooked " but dictionaries are made by men. They record as true what- ever becomes customary ; if custom makes an error, then the dictionary records that error and people swear it is true because it is in the dictionary. If custom were to make '* wise " mean ^^ foolish,'' the dictionary COOKING 43 would '*' back it "up/^ and wise men would be fools. Language is a thing of growth and development. It is a mechanical effort to express our emotions, our hopes, fears, joys, sorrows and sympathies. Language is con- tinually being born and continually being buried. An uncooked beefsteak could, with much consistency, be called raw. It looks raw and tastes raw. In the sense that the shoulder of a horse from which the skin has been worn by a rough collar is raw, so is an un- cooked beefsteak raw. We cannot accept the sweeping statement that all things are raw that are not cooked, though a thousand dictionaries were to say so. The word raw cannot be made to truthfully describe fruits, nuts, plants and grains in a perfect state of maturity. These were evolved by perfect laws or created by some supreme intelli- gence. They were sown with prodigal hand over the face of the earth; here they have blossomed and matured ; they have been fin- ished by nature, and no care-worn and mis- 44 SUNCOOKED FOOD guided housewife can, with a blackened skil- let filled with hot hog fat, possibly improve them. WHY SUNCOOKED FOODS If there was nothing else to recommend the use of suncooked foods except simplicity and economy, it would be quite enough. There is nothing more complicated, more laborious and more nerve-destroying, than the preparation of the alleged good dinner. There is nothing simpler, easier and more entertaining than the preparation of an un- cooked dinner. The largest eating place in New York could be operated from an ice box and a pantry, were the cooking habit abolished. This, in all probability, will be done some time within the lifetime of the present generation, when people learn the true relations between food, energy and health. In order to gain some conception of the number of articles used in the preparation of a Thanksgiving dinner, the author took a very careful inventory during its prepara- 46 SUNCOOKED FOOD tion, from the kitchen of a large New York hotel, to which he had entree. The total was 192, while dozens of articles, such as catsups, sauces, mayonnaise dressings and chow- chows were counted as one. Such things were composed of from two to half a dozen different ingredients, which, if they could have been ascertained, would have run the grand total up, in all probability, to 250 dif- ferent articles. Is this not a hint from which anyone at all gifted with the power of analysis might draw a few deductions that would explain why it is that nearly all diseases, common to civilized man, have their origin in the stomach and intestinal organs ? All these food materials must be carried in stock by somebody. They are first col- lected from the place of their growth and brought to storehouses, factories, packing houses, mills and cookeries. They are put into casks, hogsheads, barrels, kegs, jugs, bot- tles, tin cans, bags, intestines of animals, and every conceivable thing that will hold liquid, WHY SUNCOOKED FOODS 47 powder, grain and piece matter, and are carted to some place of storage, sold by com- mission men, resold to jobbers, again carried in stock for a time, sold to dealers, where they are again held up, and finally sold to the consumer, who has no conception of their age or source of production, and but little knowledge of their value as food. All this is extremely complicated and ex- pensive. It costs money every time these vast cargoes are stopped and stored, and more every time they are moved. Every day added to their age renders the majority of them more valueless as food and more expensive as commodities. Not content with this aged, unnatural, pickled and preserved condition, the housewife lays hold of them and proceeds to give them their finishing touch by fire. On the checkered highway of man's curious doings, there is indeed noth- ing more strange than this. We have in this country hundreds of dif- ferent articles of food which can be most ad- vantageously used without cooking; yet the 48 SUNCOOKED FOOD cook intrudes his art, bakes, boils, stews, broils and heats these things until their original elements are wholly changed, and many of them are rendered almost totally valueless as food. Thus robbed of their elementary and de- licious flavors, the cook endeavors to make them appeal to the sense of taste by mixing, jumbling together, spicing and using decoc- tions called extracts, of the properties of which he knows absolutely nothing, until the original substance is so disguised that it can- not be recognized in taste, color or flavor. Food partaken of in this condition cultivates and appeals to an artificial, perverted and depraved taste, and leads its possessor in exactly the opposite direction from that which he must travel to secure the best nu- trition and the highest degree of energy or health. Those who enjoy their eating most and who have reached the highest standard of health and physical development, have succeeded in reducing their diet to less than a dozen articles. WHY SUNCOOKED FOODS 49 It seems that everjrthing in connection with the affairs of civilized people conspires to recommend this simple method of living. In the selection and preparation of our food lies the controlling factor of health. Taste is the thing that controls selection. It should be studied and carefully encouraged towards nature's best and most nutritious things. If given a chance it will lead us into perfect obedience to nature's great dietetic laws. THE SELECTION AND PREPARA- TION OF POODS In the adoption of suncooked foods, more care in selection is required than when they are to be cooked, for, in the process of cook- ing, mixing and dressing, the real quality, taste and flavor of the articles becomes changed, lost and dissipated. The most in- ferior articles of food can be cooked and ar- tificially flavored, as they usually are, and still appeal to and satisfy the taste. A fa- mous French chef once served a pair of old kid gloves under a fanciful name, and the strange dish was very highly complimented and sought after. In all public eating places the special duty of the chef and steward is to use left-over foods. They are hashed, minced, flavored, spiced and peppered until the smell from the fermented or decayed portions is so con- cealed that they cannot signal the olfactory SELECTION AND PKEPAKATION OF FOODS 51 nerves. By such recourse the most inferior and unhealthy articles can be used — a thing impossible with foods in their natural or elementary state. When using suncooked foods the senses of sight, smell and taste demand the best, and it is only fair that these senses should be consulted and satisfied. It is as criminal to deceive our taste and sight in matters of food as it is to obtain money under false pre- tenses from our friends ; and the penalty for this wrongdoing is even more certain to be paid. We often escape justice in deceiving our friends, but never in deceiving our- selves. We cannot jump our bail with na- ture. We are always caught and punished, for two crimes instead of one. One may be thoroughly convinced that the theory of suncooked foods is correct, but if such articles are selected as do not conform or appeal to the taste, the effort will prove futile. Pood should be selected that has ripened on the parent stalk or tree, in the sunshine, as far as possible. Those who are 52 SFNCOOKED FOOD acquainted with the curative and life-giving properties of air and sunshine will readily perceive why the selection of thoroughly ripe and full-grown articles is so necessary. In selecting an apple of a red variety, get a deep, rich red. The deep red color indi- cates that the fruit has ripened on an outer twig of the tree, exposed to the sunlight, while the paler colors show that it has rip- ened under cover of foliage. This rule should be observed in the selection of all fruits, berries and melons of every kind, as far as possible, the rule being that whatever color is selected, it should be as pronounced as possible. In other words, get the best. Many good women have spent the best part of their lives, and volume after volume has been written in the endeavor to tell the world how to prepare foods. The very words, '^ prepare foods,'' suggest to the mind that they are not right; that nature has not fin- ished her work ; that something must be done to them before they are fit to be taken into the human body ; the words suggest that they SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF FOODS 53 must be fixed, mixed, pealed, hashed, mashed, smashed, bruised, ground, shred- ded, heated, steamed, baked, boiled, oiled, roasted, toasted, greased, sweetened, soured, fermented, raised, mushed up, wet up, dried out, or in some way changed from the way in which they were handed to us by the provident hand of nature. The securing of food is the chief business of every living thing on this globe. The necessity of doing this has shaped to a very large degree both the body and the mind. It made for man hands suitable for plucking fruit, nuts and things that grew above his head high up in the air and sunshine. It gave to the lion claws and tusks to catch and tear his food. It gave to the hog a snout with which to root in the ground. It gave the stork and the crane legs adapted to wad- ing. It gave to the giraffe a long neck with which to reach buds and leaves. It gave to the honey bee an organ to collect honey, a sack in her own body to carry it ; and intel- ligence enough to make her 6ell in which to deposit it for future use. 54 SUNCOOKED FOOD Food, taken as nature made it, will pro- duce a natural being. When it is changed, mixed, distilled and concentrated, it is un- natural and it will necessarily produce an unnatural being. For man is merely the net product of his food and, as is his food, so he must be. There is no problem in philosophy more obvious than this. It may be argued that our present meth- ods of feeding are the product of heredity, and with the long ages we have changed the artificial into the natural. This is not true, because the ultimate end of artificialism, that is, the violation of natural law, is ex- termination. There is no such thing as getting used to the wrong thing. A human being can never get used to whis- key and tobacco. They will stimulate the nervous system above par, only to drop it farther below each time they are touched. They leave their withering trail through the body and brain of the real man, and sink lower and lower each day the hopes, aspira- SELECTION AND PKEPAEATION OF FOODS 55 tions and emotions. They cover the facul- ties with a callous veneering that finally be- comes impervious to the sweetest senses of the human heart. !Foods should be changed as little as pos- sible from their elementary condition. The idea of preparing foods should be allowed to fade entirely from the human mind. It is well to remember that they have been pre- pared once by infallible laws and all animal life evolved to fit them, and now the funny little biped called man proposes to change all this. When the average mind first considers uncooked food, it is apt to think only of the conventional diet in an uncooked state, raw meat, wheat, corn, potatoes, beef, poultry, fish and the limitless number of things that are repulsive to the mind and taste until they are in some way changed. Instead, picture a dainty table in a quiet corner, covered with spotless linen and laden with milk, cream, pecan meats, walnuts, pro- teid nuts, almonds, grapes, grape fruit, 56 • SUNCOOKED FOOD bananas, pears, apples, peaches, cherries, dates, figs and raisins, luscious red melons and golden canteloupes, lettuce, cucumbers, ripe olives, celery, olive oil, and a dozen other delicious things, all of which, being natural, satisfy himger, furnish the highest form of nutrition, and quickly appeal to and excite the highest sense of taste and enjoy- ment. Many good people go through the world from the cradle to the coffin and, after leaving the maternal fount, never enjoy, never taste, one good, clean, pure, delicious, natural meal. Preparation of Suncooe:ed Poods The idea of preparing foods is so firmly fixed in the minds of women that the very suggestion of lessening their labors in this direction suggests the idea of limiting the family rations — depriving the table of its pleasure and luxury ; therefore, the idea of uncooked food meets with more or less oppo- sition. Experience has shown that men are more willing to accept the elementary food SELECTION AND PKEPAKATION OF FOODS 57 idea than women, particularly when it promises to lighten the labors of their wives, mothers and daughters. There has been for many thousand years a sort of competition among housewives, hotels and all public and private eating places, as to which could prepare the great- est variety of foods, with the result that the table is held responsible for over 90 per cent of all human ills. This result is not sufficiently creditable to cause thinking people to clamor for its con- tinuation. It reminds me of the consolation I received once from a gentleman with whom I was playing a game of billiards. It was my off-day. The balls would neither ** hit " nor *' hurdle '' for me, while his plays were all graceful and effective, and I was enjoying the supreme pleasure of see- ing him make all the points while I paid for the game. In answer to my complaint upon missing a simple shot, he said, '' Oh, that is nothing. I have seen luck run like that for three or four hours and, all of a sudden, get worse." 58 SrNCOOKED FOOD The best foods need the least preparation. Geographic and climatic conditions, under which most of us live, of course, make har- vesting and garnering necessary; and in order to store certain foods for winter use, certain preparations become necessary; but when we come to prepare them for the table the effort should be to bring them back as nearly as possible to their original condition. All fruits from which the moisture has been removed by dehydration, so that they will keep from season to season, only need to have the moisture again restored to them by being soaked in pure water at about the temperature of the blood. This is the most healthful way evaporated, dehydrated or dried fruits can be prepared. Food Combhstations Nearly every article of food known, as bad as some of them are, will agree with the stomach if eaten alone or with a few other articles in normal quantities, and in combi- nations that are chemically harmonious. SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF FOODS 59 When we say that certain things do not agree with us, we mean that we have eaten a combination of things that do not agree one with the other; and the stomach, being the receptacle of this chemical disturbance, is made the sufferer. The question of com- binations is extremely important in cooked foods, because the tendency of modern cook- ery is to mix and jumble together an innum- erable number of things, and pour over them condiments, sauces and dressings that are composed of dozens of other ingredients, until it becomes utterly impossible to ascer- tain by any method of calculation how many different articles compose one meal. It is always well to observe correct com- binations, though this is in reality of second- ary importance, for in subsisting on sun- cooked foods the natural tendency is to- ward simplicity. This is one of the great- est virtues following their adoption. In the beginning many are likely to desire each meal to be composed of a large number of articles. They like to see it spread around ; 60 SUNCOOKED FOOD they want to see the table covered ; they want to see it groaning beneath a load, simply be- cause they were raised that way. They have no standard to measure from, except a cooked standard; but this optical appetite soon wears off, and the taste and delicious flavors that are developed by combining two or three things, lead the elementary student to ignore numerical display and make a meal upon three or four articles. A very delicious taste will be developed by eating fruits and nuts together, care being taken to masticate the nuts thoroughly be- fore the fruits are put into the mouth. If this rule is observed in eating vegetables and nuts, the same delightful taste will be experi- enced. There is a popular opinion among the ma- jority of people that appetite, that is, a de- sire for food, is an evidence of good health. This is one of the serious mistakes into which people have gradually evolved. Irri- tation of the mucous membrane of the stom- ach is one of the most serious and unhealthy SELECTION AND PEEPARATION OF FOODS 61 conditions with which this much-abused or- gan is afflicted ; and while in this condition it calls with ferocity for food, the satisfying of which has killed suddenly hundreds of thousands of people whose death is attrib- uted nearly always by the learned doctors to heart failure. And I agree with them com- pletely. I know of no other way to die ex- cept for the heart to fail, and it matters but little whether the " heart failed '' on ac- count of being shot, beheaded by a Cuban machete, or on account of an over-loaded stomach — the doctor's ^* heart-failure " the- ory is safely correct. The difference be- tween the ^^ learned profession " and myself is, they seem content with the heart-failure theory, while I am trying to ascertain why hearts fail and, if possible, to remove the causes. The Treating Habit The treating habit, our prohibition friends say, is responsible for much of the evil of alcoholism. 62 SUNCOOKED FOOD In eating the treating habit is a little more genteel, but fundamentally the same as in drinking. Eating does and should give us pleasure, and pleasure we like to share; moreover, the accumulation of plenty to eat was the first or primitive form in which wealth was displayed, and the pleasure of possessing wealth is the privilege of showing others that you have as much or more than they. For these reasons, the habit of eating together was inevitable, and the custom of urging our guests to eat more is inherent in the love of display. Thus the *^ groaning table " came to be the sign of wealth and generosity, and the course dinner with the cooked, spiced and pickled foods is a natural step in the evolution of human vanity. Look for a moment at a conventional meal and ask yourself the reasons for and the re- sults of each step. Why is the dinner served in courses'? Why is one's plate loaded up by another? Why is more put upon his plate than he can or is supposed to eat, and why is it considered a breach of etiquette to SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF FOODS 63 refuse something you do not wish, or in any way to utilize your own good taste or judg- ment in the selection of your foods or the manner in which you eat them ? Or again, take the customary repast of a family in moderate circumstances — the Sun- day dinner of a well-to-do farmer, for illus- tration. How much of the food prepared is actually eaten ? How much of that actually eaten goes to the nourishment of the body and how much is decomposed and forms toxic or poisonous products? How much did the dinner cost ? How much would the actual nourishment needed by the diners cost? Why this waste of money, of effort, of health? If the farmer wanted to show off his wealth, why should he not buy an automobile? If his wife wanted to possess an accomplishment, why should she not learn to paint or make a flower garden ? Why do we rank woman according to the number and variety of concoctions which she laboriously prepares to tempt our loaded stomachs tiU we, like the table, groan ? Why 64 SUNCOOKED FOOD not rank our women by their knowledge of the laws of nutrition and health, by their ability to instruct us and our children in what to eat and how to eat it, instead of their insistence in surfeiting our over-burdened digestive tracts with the continual " do have some more '' ? Why not value our wives by the time they learn to spend out of the kitchen amid books, flowers and music, and with their children, instead of the length of time they stand over the scorching stove and steaming dishpan ? Any law of etiquette that is at variance with the laws of health and happiness, or that infers that your guest has not sense enough to know what he should and should not eat, and especially how much he should eat, is foolish and vulgar; and good taste will be best displayed by its disregard. The etiquette of the suncooked food table permits each guest to select what he will from the bill of fare provided, and to dic- tate as far as possible how large a portion SELECTION AND PREPAEATION OF FOODS 65 shall be served him. Natural foods may, for the most part, be prepared in such form that they are served in dainty portions, of which each may partake of the amount his appetite dictates without waste. Table etiquette based upon a respect for the intelligence and personal liberty of guests instead of upon ostentation and show, should provide foods, from which guests may be served and may eat if they wish, not with foods from which they must be served, and from which they must eat a portion, and leave a portion in order to avoid violating a foolish rule that no one really wishes to obey. Are you afraid of being thought queer *? Then tell your guests in plain language your philosophy of good taste. If you are afraid of being thought stingy, and wish to show off your little accumulation of this world's goods, set your table with a wholesome fruit, nut and salad menu and a bottle of fresh grape juice, and then buy a thousand dol- lars' worth of orchids to decorate the room 66 SrNCOOKED FOOD or hire Sousa's band to play in the balcony. The perfume of orchids and the divine har- mony of music never gave a man hyperchlor- hydria or parenchymatous nephritis. THE EMANCIPATION OF WOMAN If the study of the natural or elementary food question had for its object nothing more than giving to the human family their birthday of health and years, and aiding their mental faculties in reaching a higher development, it would justify the most pro- found attention of every thinking woman. When the house is provided, and the woman who has dreamed of a home is set- tled therein, it gradually dawns upon her that instead of being a queen she is an im- prisoned vassal. She finds that she must stand over a miniature furnace for an hour in the morning and breathe the poisonous odor of broiling flesh, and spend another hour among the grease and slime of pots and dishes, instead of occupying that time walk- ing in the morning sunlight and drinking in nature's purifying air. The fires of the morning are not out until 68 SUNCOOKED FOOD those for the noon are kindled. The labors from luncheon lap over into the evening, and those of evening far into the night. The throne over which she dreamed of wielding the queenly sceptre has been transformed into a fiery furnace, gilded with greasy pots and plates, blood and bones, over which, by common custom, the dishrag waves as an en- sign of her rank and profession. The home of which she dreamed has laid upon her a confinement and labor but little lighter than that which society puts upon the criminal who has violated its laws. The picture of a husband and wife grow- ing old together, walking hand in hand up to the noon of life, and turning over the hill toward the evening of old age, is only painted by poets and dreamers, most likely old bachelors and old maids. The average husband and wife do not grow old together. The wife spends six or seven hours of each day endeavoring to pre- pare food and create dishes that will appeal to the perverted taste and appetite of her EMANCIPATION OF WOMAN 69 husband, and probably the short-notice '' friend to dinner." The anxiety and men- tal tension that she undergoes from day to day and year to year wear upon her form and face, and like the long dripping of water upon the stone leave their mark of nervous exhaustion and premature old age. From this deplorable condition of woman- kind, the use of sujicooked or natural foods will bring relief and freedom. In hundreds of cases that have come to my knowledge where this experiment has been honestly tried, it has resulted in a revolution in the household culinary department, and in giv- ing the wife enough mental and physical freedom to permit her to preserve her youth- ful charms, and to cultivate those higher faculties upon which every woman must de- pend for attraction and happiness as age advances. It is utterly impossible for a woman to spend six hours out of twelve in the dense and smoky atmosphere of a kitchen over a roasting fire, breathing air laden with the 70 SUNCOOKED FOOD fumes of burning flesh and steaming foods, and give to lier progeny those beautiful fac- ulties which are their birthright, and which have been the dream of her dreams. It is also impossible for a woman to build her body, brain and heart out of such mate- rial as the flesh of dead animals, fermented fruit (wine), fermented bread, and the in- numerable narcotics and cooked or devital- ized foods with which the average table is laden, and think beautiful thoughts and keep her sympathies and sense of justice and mercy in that beautiful and highly civil- ized realm where the cultivated and ad- vanced woman, especially the mother, should dwell. I am convinced — convinced from experi- ence, that great school from which all true knowledge comes — ^that the first and most important step in nature toward making a perfect woman lies in the selection of the food material out of which the human body and all the restless flood of emotions that ceaselessly ebb and flow in its strange mech- anism are made. EMANCIPATION OF WOMAN 71 Nearly every step in civilization has been taken in the direction of lightening human labor, except in the art of preparing foods. This has been doubled and trebled a thou- sand times, and laid upon the delicate shoul- ders of woman. The railroad train would never have been invented had it not been that man objected to toting burdens on his back. The tele- phone and telegraph were the outgrowth of man's protest against the courier system. Inventions of all the marvelous machines to which we point as evidences and marks of our civilization, originated in the one thought, the saving of human labor. But the stomach is a veritable gehenna, and the appetite its grizzly gorgon that holds mil- lions of women in a worse bondage than the negro suffered in the South before the war. Such a bondage might be tolerated by the mothers of the race if, in return, mankind had made a few steps in his forward march. But when it is considered that this enslave- ment of woman has cost man half his natu- 72 SUNCOOKED FOOD ral period of longevity, and is responsible for 90 per cent of his ills, is it not time that he should make some effort to swing the pen- dulum of events in the other direction? APPLIED FOOD CHEMISTRY The bee, in some respects, is a very stupid animal. If a puncture is made in a cell that it is filling, it will go on all summer pouring honey in at the top while it runs out at the bottom. But when the queen bee is accident- ally destroyed, the worker bees will take the egg that ordinarily would produce a neu- ter or non-sexual worker, and by putting it into a special cell and feeding the young larva on royal bee bread, it will grow to be twice the size of the worker, and develop into a queen bee, endowed with the wonderful power of sex. The entire physiology of the bee is changed by a change in the system of feeding. Man considers himself the wisest of ani- mals; but he would not try to fill a barrel with an open bung hole at the bottom, unless he was in the condition into which he was 74 SUNCOOKED FOOD trying to get the barrel. But man, although he has worked out a science of food chemis- try that fills immense volumes, has not in the past been able to apply this knowledge so as to produce and maintain normal health, to say nothing of changing the very nature of his organism by the power of nutrition, as does the bee, guided only by blind instinct. Science has probed more deeply into every other department of human affairs than it has into human health — the basic factor from which all other human activities spring. Every large city maintains an ex- pensive health department, but its work is chiefly confined to sanitation. Many great colleges teach food chemistry, but have re- mained silent upon the important question of how it is to be applied or used so as to be of any practical benefit. To know the chemical constituency of the human body is certainly interesting. To know the chemistry of food is likewise in- teresting. But what profiteth a man to know the chemistry of his body or the chemistry APPLIED FOOD CHEMISTRY 75 of his food if he does not know how to apply this knowledge for his own good — for the prevention and cure of disease ? This knowl- edge is clearly within the realm of science, yet the Bureau of Chemistry, under our Fed- eral Department of Agriculture, whose bul- letins give the chemical analysis of all our food products, has nothing to say about how food should be selected, combined and pro- portioned under the varying conditions of age, temperature of environment and work, so as to give the best results in physical and mental health. The reason of this failure is that food chemistry in the past has been studied and pursued as a ^^ pure science," and not as an applied science. By pure science I mean a science the purpose of which is the mere finding out of things for the satisfaction of knowing, rather than for the purpose of us- ing that knowledge. The philosophy upon which pure science justifies its existence is that when a man is looking for a definite thing he is very liable not to find anything ; 76 SUNCOOKED FOOD but when he looks for truth for the sake of truth, he will find many things, some of which will be useful. All branches of learning have their pure scientists. The knowledge of electricity was developed in our universities as a pure science long before Edison applied it. Pro- fessors in laboratories had played with wire- less electricity many years before Marconi or De Forrest made it useful. Burbank is an applied scientist in plant breeding, but there are a half hundred professors in botany, whose names are unheard of outside of the particular college campus where they reside, who have more theoretical knowledge about plants than Burbank. College professors are satisfied with the finding of truth. It takes a different kind of man to give it to the world in usable form. Pure scientists discover facts. Edison, Mar- coni and Burbank use facts. These men do things. The man of pure science is the miner of knowledge ; he digs the crude metal which the man of applied science can work into a useful machine. APPLIED FOOD CHEMISTRY 77 Why have we long had an applied science of electricity and of botany and of animal breeding and no applied science of human nutrition? The answer is obvious. The application of food chemistry or human nu- trition is the work of building good bodies and keeping them in repair. That field of effort is occupied by the drug doctor, and so powerfully has he been intrenched in the public mind that it has taken many years for this branch of science to get recognition in a field where it finds its only application and use ; but when once fully applied, it will be recognized as the most useful branch of hu- man knowledge. Why is Disease Every century, since civilization dawned, has left upon the pages of history some great thing, something worthy of a place in litera- ture and memory. Empires and dynasties have risen and fallen like bubbles on the water ; bloody typhoons — called wars — ^have swept over the earth and exterminated races and changed the map of the world. 78 SUNCOOKED FOOD The mind of man was employed for thou- sands of years in trying to ascertain where he came from, for what purpose he was here, and where he was going. Stimulated and excited by invention and travel, only a few hundred years ago the faculties of gain and accumulation began their development. These have grown and evolved until they have reached such ugly and vulgar eminence that it is no longer respectable to be ex- tremely rich. It is only within the last few years that the intelligence of mankind has been di- rected towards finding out the really useful things in life. So long as men looked into the heavens and said, '^ The Lord will provide,'' they never took much interest in performing that very important task themselves. So long as they depended upon ignorant kings and rul- ers for guidance, the brain was a useless lump of clay; but in this decade people are thinking. The question mark is the sign of the times. APPLIED FOOD CHEMISTEY 79 The universal password is '^ Why? " Why is disease so common and perfect health so rare ? Why are the great majority of people afflicted'? Why has the word '^ ease '^ been changed to ^' disease ''? Why do we find so many specimens of perfect health and de- velopment in all other forms of life and so few among mankind — the king ? All forms of animal life on this globe, ex- cept man, live about eight times their pe- riods of maturity. Man matures at twenty- four. Measured, therefore, by all other forms of life, he should live nearly 200 years. But he drops into his grave at an average age of forty — while he is yet in his youth. There is a reason for this. And it has just occurred to the budding mind of the learned ones to ask, of what is man made? With what kind of material does he keep himself fed and repaired? Disease is merely the outward expression or penalty for violated laws. Health is na- ture's reward for conformity to her laws. If man's present condition is imperfect and unnatural, to what must it be attributed? 80 SUNCOOKED FOOD The question at last is being solved. It could not long remain unanswered. It is too great, too important, too stupendous, too se- rious, for the great throbbing heart of the world to go on and give it no thought. The best talent in America — ^that throne and home of genius, whose light and literature have encircled the world — is beginning to turn toward this question. Men are really beginning to think something about the ma- terial out of which they construct them- selves. The Function of Food The true function of food is to supply ma- terial for growth and for new tissue, to give to the body energy in the form of heat, mo- tion, chemical and nervous action. Things which do not serve these purposes cannot be consistently classed as food. On the con- trary, they are exactly the opposite, for when they are taken into the body, they must be excreted at the expense of energy. These facts should be observed in the selection of all materials used as food. APPLIED FOOD CHEMISTRY 81 Obedience to nature ^s laws will keep life in the line of evolution to higher and higher degrees of perfection till it reaches that ze- nith to which nature is ever striving to bring all she creates. But if these laws are violated, the process of evolution is interfered with, and the pen- alty is disease and death. In the support and maintenance of life the first and most important thing is the sub- stance upon which it feeds. Animals in their native state seem to put the proper appreci- ation upon foods. They instinctively reject that which is harmful — ^that which would interfere with nature's process of evolution — and accept as food that which is good for them. Man does not act with such wisdom. Civilization has created for him complex and artificial environments, in the chaos of which his instincts have been lost. Man seems to have appropriated for food everything he could lay his hands on. His chief study and delight seems to have been the mixing and stirring together of all sorts 82 SUNCOOKED FOOD of things, the combinations of which go to infinity. The most learned chemist in the world would not dare risk his reputation upon an attempt to analyze an ordinary Thanksgiving dinner. The only true function of food is the growth and support of life. The needs of the human body are very limited. All the nutritive elements it requires can be found in the purest form in less than half a dozen different articles, which, in a natural and healthy being, should be selected by the de- mands of the system expressed by hunger. The Stone the Buh^ders Rejected The digestive tract is a machine that makes blood out of food. Food is the raw material, the clay, and blood the building material, the tile — the body the finished structure. If you have poor building mate- rial, you will have a poor body. Natural (suncooked) food, in the right quantities and combinations, will make absolutely pure blood. Pure blood acts first on the APPLIED FOOD CHEMISTKY 83 brain, increasing thought activity; thought precedes all action. Pure blood builds up the body to its normal or natural condition, and fills it with strength, energy and vitality. It is the only thing that will make your skin fit your face. It will give you a bright, at- tractive and splendid personality — in short, it will give you ideal health. When you have perfect health you can brave anything ; you will be in love with the world and people will love you, because the world is only a big mirror that reflects back the same image you present before it. Abundant health will make you cheerful and contented, and when you present a cheerful and contented front to the world, it will reflect the same thing back to you ; then, and not till then, have you gained life's highest reward. Piling up money at the expense of your health is like a child piling up dust in the road only to be scattered to the winds by every vagrant breeze. Nature never intended you to be thin, emaciated, pale, weak, nervous, irritable and 84 SUNCOOKED FOOD sick. Health is your natural condition ; dis- ease has to be caught. Errors in eating and drinking are the causes of nearly all congestions and accumu- lations of unnatural matter in the human body. Nature's process of eliminating these we call disease. Disease, therefore, is not an enemy but a friend to the human race. It is an effort on the part of nature to save us from self-destruction. There never was, never will be, nor never can be a drug that will cure disease. It would be as much of a miracle to cure dis- ease without removing causes as the turning of water into wine or raising the dead. Causes can only be removed by obeying the natural and infallible laws governing life. Genius builds and furnishes our homes, constructs our ships and machinery, and clothes our bodies. Thought has trans- formed the modest daisy into the chrysan- themum, the wild rose into the American Beauty, the stage coach into the aeroplane, the courier into wireless telegraphy, and the APPLIED FOOD CHEMISTKY 85 tallow candle into the mercury vapor light, but ignorance still prepares and compounds our food. Ignorance is our steward and chef. It seems incredible now that such men as Edison, Morse and Marconi, Schubert, Chopin and Wagner, Longfellow, Browning and Whittier, Huxley, Haeckle and Hum- boldt, Emerson, IngersoU and Lincoln, men who have created miniature suns and stars, who have flashed civilization's ringing voice around the world; men who are twining around this globe a fabric woven from a woof and warp of wires and words, flashed over mountains and continents, over and under seas ; men who, with rh3^hmic words and music's weird charm have planted in the human heart the roses of sympathy and love; men who have held aloft the shining torch of truth in the maelstrom of supersti- tious, dismal night; men who, with silver tongues and prophetic deeds, have placed our flag in the heavens and fixed the star of hope above the cradle of the poor man's 86 SUNCOOKED FOOD child ; men who have left literary legacies to the world and swept with their immortal pens every string on the harpsichord of hu- man emotions — is it not strange, I say, that men like these have given no thought to the kind of material that would build the best blood, bone and brain ! MASTICATION The stomach has no teeth. Teeth were the product of necessity. They were placed in the moTith by nature for the specific purpose of emulsifying food. Food that is not thoroughly pulverized by mastication must be reduced to solution by the stomach and the other digestive organs. If it be such material as the various solvent juices will not dissolve, then it must be dis- posed of by disintegration, which starts with fermentation. This is the genesis of nearly all indigestion and intestinal disorders. Fermentation changes food from a life- giving to a life-destroying substance. It generates poisons which are absorbed by the system and which prey upon the red cor- puscles of the blood, lowering the vitality of every organ of the body. Nature refuses to create and keep health- ful any part of the anatomy which is not 88 SUNCOOKED FOOD used. Allow the arm to rest at the side for a few months and nature will cease to feed it, and it will become feeble, emaciated and almost useless. Nature is a perfect econo- mist. If the teeth are not used, she will re- fuse to keep them in repair; she will allow them to decay. She presumes that you do not need them because you have refused to put them to that use for which they were created. So long as people subsist upon soft, cooked, mushy foods, they cannot have good teeth. While preparing this work I dined with some friends whose knowledge of the culi- nary art was very highly developed; from memory, I made an inventory of the quan- tity of food consumed by one of the most advanced disciples of French cookery; and according to my calculations, if the same quantity of material had been eaten in its elementary state and thoroughly masticated, it would have sustained the body under ordi- nary labor for a period of five days, and, with proper mastication, it would have taken MASTICATION" 89 about thirteen hours continuous chewing to have eaten the meal. Thorough mastication will develop num- erous flavors in natural foods that are a revelation in enjoyment to those who live upon them. The majority of people cheat and dull the keenest sense of taste and de- feat the primary purposes of nature by yielding to their hurried environment. The most delicious flavors of foods are developed only by mastication, which gives the saliva time enough to act upon their chemical prop- erties, and begin the process of changing and digesting them. For instance : the changing of starch into grape sugar is the first process of digestion; if done by mastication it de- velops a most delicious taste. If this most important function is not performed in the mouth by the act of mastication, the taste- buds are not only robbed of their rights, but extra labor is put upon the other digestive organs, and the process of digestion is much retarded and made more difficult. Perfect mastication is the surest means of 90 SUNCOOKED FOOD avoiding the habit of over-eating, which is so disastrous to the health and so common among civilized people. Every penny- weight of food taken into the stomach that cannot be used, is converted into poisons and becomes at once a leaden load upon the body. It so overburdens the excretory organs that they become torpid and congested, and a long train of common ills follow. Food should be masticated until every atom is liquefied and is swallowed involun- tarily. This would quadruple the pleasure of eating and eliminate nearly all forms of indigestion, constipation and over-eating. In commencing the use of suncooked foods, the taste and appetite, so long fed upon fired and devitalized foods, must be reckoned with. If they accept the new diet, all is well ; but should they rebel, give them some cooked food now and then. Then give them plenty of live, vital foods again, and the taste will soon accept the natural article. Then will one begin to live in a new world. Until taste and hunger are sufl5cieritly MASTICATION" 91 well trained to demand such food as the svs- tern needs, we must employ science to aid them. We should avoid the continuous use of such things as contain similar nutritive elements, that is to say, we should not eat too much of any one thing. We should ac- quaint ourselves with the chemical constitu- ents of the leading articles of diet, which will enable us to select intelligently our daily menu until abnormal appetite is changed to natural hunger. No greater question can possibly com- mand the thoughts of people than the study of nature's infallible laws of feeding. When the proper energy and vitality are given to the body by correct food, a certain amount of motion becomes imperative. We would not need to take lessons in physical culture. We would be forced to obey the demands of the body, thus sending to the lungs an extra amount of blood, which would cause deep breathing or extra oxidation of waste matter. Therefore, if the great natui*al law of 92 STJNCOOKED FOOD feeding was obeyed, we would instinctively carry out the laws of motion and breathing, which would give us not only perpetual in- surance against disease, but emblazon the way to perfect health. Fletcherism So important is mastication in the proper nutrition of the body that Horace Fletcher has made an '' ism " of it. And a great and growing " ism " it is. When Fletcher's first book on the subject was published six years ago the doctors laughed — so did a good many other people. But Fletcher's words have run into many editions in many lan- guages, and Horace Fletcher, a man under medium size and past the supposed prime of life, and who subsists upon about one-third the quantity of food the medical authorities prescribe, continues to break strength and endurance records ; while universities, mag- azines and Chautauqua managers invite this retired merchant to come and tell people how to chew their food — and why. MASTICATION 93 Animals, in their natural state, masticate their food leisurely and thoroughly. Graz- ing, seed-gathering and fruit-eating animals are all great chewers ; in fact, they spend a large portion of their time eating, as their only purpose in life is to secure food and procreate their kind. With such animals there is no incentive to bolt food, and as such a process would result only in harm to the animal who practiced it, natural selection has eliminated the tendency. But when a pack of wolves captures and slays a buffalo eating becomes a matter of competition. The wolf who transfers the most buffalo meat to his interior in the least possible time has the best chance of living through the period of starvation that may ensue before the next buffalo is slain. Mastication to an animal with such feeding habits is a decided handicap; nature, therefore, puts the func- tion of flesh digestion in the stomach and turns the wolf's teeth into mere tearing or- gans. The carnivorous beast had to eat in this manner in order to live, and in the 94 SUNCOOKED FOOD scheme of adaptation nature has harmonized digestion with the method of eating. Man, roaming through the primeval forest, did not find great piles of mashed potatoes, fes- toons of bologna or plates heaped with corned beef and cabbage. As he began to be civilized, and these wolf-like methods of feeding were introduced, he learned to bolt his food in order to get his share, and to com- pete in the race for other things to satisfy his vanity. Were nature as speedy in her changes, as artificial habits are in their growth, man would long since have lost his teeth and salivary glands, and acquired a food paunch like that which the camel has developed to carry water in the desert. But evolution does not work so rapidly, and each generation of humans is born with teeth and salivary glands, and anthropoid tastes and appetites. Bach individual, under the laws of civilized custom, is taught the neglect and abuse of these functions, which bring along a train of human suffering, and the Creator is accused of sending an affliction. MASTICATION" 95 These same people are usually law-abid- ing citizens. Were thev to violate a code made by their fellows, they would expect to suffer the penalty, but it seems never to have occurred to them that every molecule in this sphere and every star in space moves in obedience to divine ordinance, and that everything in this universe, man included, is created and developed according to laws that stand inexorable, infallible, unchange- able. If anything is divine, the laws that control man's development are divine, and their penalties are just and certain. Man has been fitted into them by the long process of evolution, which preserves those who obey, and eliminates those who fail to con- form to the great cosmic scheme. Man is a result, not a cause. His health and disease are the direct results of his knowledge or ignorance of, his conformity to or disobedi- ence of, the divine edicts of nature. People, who should commune with each other to learn from the common experience of all the laws of nature, and the inevitable 96 SIJNCOOKED FOOD results that follow their obedience or viola- tion, meet instead, about once a week, and appoint one of their number, who is a good attorney, to talk to the Creator. This medi- ator instructs the Creator in His duty, re- minds Him of His promises, beseeches Him to change His mind, prays Him to reverse the laws of the universe — to cure Sister Sut- ton's rheumatism (which was caused by vio- lating the divine laws of diet) — and usually winds up by telling Him to do as He pleases, and they will all be satisfied. Instead of pleading man's cause before the courts of heaven, were the same energy and time devoted to studying his natural re- quirements imder the varying conditions of his civilization and environment — searching for causes, digging through the sham veneer of dietetic artificialism down to truth, and teaching it to the masses — an amazing revo- lution in the health and morals of the nation would result. Fortunately, the Creator works through natural laws, and the laws of inheritance are MASTICATION" 97 not affected by the perverted habits of a few generations of rebellious beings. Mr. Fletcher's observations upon children have proved emphatically that it is ^^ natural " to masticate our food. We learn to bolt it. We often see painful examples of this educa- tional process in the ordinary home when the child is not only given a continuous diet of artificially softened and moistened food, but is urged to hurry with his eating. The impatience shown and the ridicule thrust upon the child by other members of the fam- ily whose appetites and habits are already depraved, when the young creature is trjdng with all the instinct of his being to live aright, is one of the pathetic crimes of civil- ization. The only mistake of Fletcherism, as taught by the originator, is that he instructs the people to Fletcherize the conventional bill of fare. This is good so far as it goes, especiallv for those who have taken up the idea with sufficient m.ental enthusiasm, but the ordinary mortal who for years has been 98 suisrcooKED food subsisting upon biscuits that '' melt in your mouth," and gravy with mashed potatoes, finds the gulping habit too strong to be read- ily overcome, and after making a few half- hearted e:fforts and seeing no change in his bodily welfare, he gives it up. Yet this same individual would chew apples or nuts to ex- ceeding fineness. Foods, in their natural condition, are in such form as to command, at least to induce, about the proper amount of chewing, pro- viding one's mental state is at all normal. Starch foods especially need mouth diges- tion, while cellulose foods require to be thoroughly macerated so that the cell walls will be ruptured and permit the escape of the enclosed nutriment. Such foods in their natural state require thorough mastication before they can be swallowed. The process is instinctive. Sugar and proteids do not, in the economy of digestion, require much insalivation ; hence a raw egg or a ripe peach may be taken with less mastication than grains or green vegetables. MASTICATION 99 It takes a most depraved appetite, indeed, to bolt nut meats or a leafy salad. On the other hand, it takes a most heroic mind to chew soup and masticate a corn-starch cus- tard. It is too much like practicing boxing without an opponent or a punching bag. Horace Fletcher at the age of fifty was a health-broken business man. The life insur- ance doctor refused to grant him a policy. Mr. Fletcher, now approaching the three- score mark in years, is a record-breaking young athlete and the possessor of the rosy mental and physical health of the prime of youth. Is it any wonder that he should feel that in mastication he has found the key to the problem of an efficient human machine ? Mastication and Mr. Fletcher's willingness to be led by his natural appetite have caused him to adopt a diet consisting chiefly of nat- ural foods, but the emphasis of his teachings are devoted almost wholly to mastication, with but slight reference to the selection and combination of foods. To chew our food is natural — ^if we have something to chew on. 100 SUNCOOKED FOOD The conventional cooked diet does not sup- ply this. The uncooked or natural diet, in addition to its other virtues, does supply it and finishes and perfects the theory of Fletcherism. Had Mr. Fletcher, instead of saying, *' Chew your food, if it requires chewing, if not, chew it anyhow," changed his slogan and said, ^^ Nature made food for teeth and teeth for food ; eat natural food and chew it because you must," I am confident his most excellent work would have had a vastly greater influence. We grind something in a mill and bolt it, roast it, grind it again, predigest it with diastase and pepsin, boil it with water, run it through a fine sieve, mix it with milk and egg and cook it again, dress it with melted butter and serve with whipped cream — is it not *' rubbing it in " to ask us to pay for all this, and then go through a sham process of doing over again what isn't there to be done ? mastication 101 Decay of the Teeth The destruction of the teeth bears a very close relation to the development of the vari- ous forms of malnutrition. The two preva- lent causes for the loss of human teeth are, first, caries (commonly known as decay), and, second, pyorrhea alveolaris (commonly known as Riggs' disease). Caries. The initial cause of caries is de- composing food. This produces an acid which dissolves out the minute inorganic salts of which the tooth is largely formed. This exposes the organic portion which lies beneath the inorganic part. The exposed organic surface becomes de- composed, adding to the destructive acid which in turn dissolves out more of the in- organic salts. This double action may de- stroy the entire crown and even the roots. Pyorrhea Alveolaris (by which the tooth is lost through demolition of its socket) com- mences through irritation of the gum tissue and peridental membrane. This membrane 102 SrNCOOKED FOOD nourishes the socket and periphery of the root and attaches the root to its socket. Calcareous deposits from the saliva and from the serum of the blood (exuded from the inner surface of inflamed gum tissue, added to which is more or less organic mat- ter from the mouth) combine to form pyor- rhea deposits, which press against the ex- posed margin of the peridental membrane, inflaming and gradually destroying it. Thereupon, that portion of the socket breaks down to the point of destruction of the nour- ishing membrane. As the socket disappears it leaves a space or pocket between the gum and the root. The gum becomes inflamed and lax, and the root becomes covered with a tenacious deposit, most difficult to remove, and sometimes almost inaccessible. The dis- ease continues till none of the socket is left, when the loosened tooth can be picked out with the fingers. Riggs' disease is frequently not recog- nized until a tooth has commenced to be loose, as there is little or no pain attending MASTICATION 103 it during the early stages. Under all con- ditions this trouble can be prevented by more or less frequent instrumentation. It is, therefore, most important, under the present methods of living, that periodic visits be made to some dental practitioner, competent to successfully cope with such disorders. When the saliva of the civilized man is compared with that of the savage, the latter, like that of animals in their natural state, is found to be in reaction decidedly alkaline; while our saliva and that of pet animals in confinement, and fed on prepared food, is weak alkaline, occasionally reaching an acid reaction, while the mucous secretion of the mouth is often thick and of acid tendency. It is a fact that alkaline saliva unites with normal mucous secretions so as to retard de- composition and neutralize acid. This dif- ference has been found to be due to different conditions of saliva. Summing up thus far, we find that the condition of the fluids of the mouth has 104 SrNCOOKED FOOD rQuch to do with preserving teeth from decay. Peevention of Eiggs' Disease. Chemical analysis of saliva shows it to contain alka- line salts in solution. Alkaline salts are in- soluble in acid. Therefore, should the saliva by any means become acid in reaction, these salts would become insoluble and be precipi- tated or deposited. On rare occasions this occurs in a gland or duct, and then some- times causes serious trouble. A large percentage of cooked foods con- tain waste material, and in order to secure the required nourishment the digestive tract is overtaxed, producing unconscious and in- voluntary mental and physical effort which the individual does not realize. Added to this is a tendency toward decomposition in the alimentary canal, which, to a degree, con- taminates the entire system and influences the character of the various secretions, in- cluding the saliva. It also tends to debase the vital standard of all the tissues, particu- larly those about the dental organ — ^the teeth — ^rendering the peridental membrane MASTiCATio:Kr 105 and gum less resisting to irritation. Many- cooked foods, also, have an undue tendency to cling to the teeth. The quality, quantity and kinds of food place an individual at a decided mental advantage or disadvantage. Meat, which is usually under the process of decomposition when eaten, tends to induce uric acid in the system. Animal food is no longer consid- ered necessary for physical strength. Shreds of tissue from cooked meats often become wedged between the teeth, injure the gum, and produce gingivitis, which is a pre- cursor to pyorrhea alveolaris. We should partake of our food in a cheer- ful, meditative and tranquil mental condi- tion ; we will then masticate naturally. We should exercise the same rational care to protect our health that we employ to protect our business. The only excuse nature offers to man for creating him is that she gives him liberty and the means of securing his happiness and contentment. Yet nearly ever3rthing he does with reference to his physical structure 106 SrNCOOKED FOOD seems to be especially designed to defeat this purpose. There is a great deal of pleasure to be gained from eating, but when our highly civilized man comes to perform this very im- portant function, he shovels in the proven- der with one hand while he makes out a mortgage or figures interest with the other. The result is that he gets no happiness from the interest, but a great deal of unhappiness from the provender; and stands at the age of forty dejected and defeated. Half the amount of study bestowed upon himself and the inexorable laws of nature that he has given to the foibles of fashion or the fight for gold, would have given him health and abundant vitality up to and even beyond the century mark. In old age, that time of life when selfish ambition and strife is ended, we stand be- fore our fellows with accumulated knowl- edge and with no purpose to serve except the common good. This should be the happiest and most valuable period of life. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF NUTRITION The secretion of tlie digestive juices is not determined, as was formerly believed, by the presence of food in the stomach, but by im- pulses sent from the brain and other nerve centers. The presence of food in the digestive or- gans is one of the stimuli that cause these nerve centers to act, but not the only one. Scientists have proved that food introduced directly into the stomach without the senses of taste, sight or smell, in other words, with- out the mental associations that go with nat- ural eating, stimulates the secretion of just about half the quantity of gastric juice nec- essary to its digestion. That this is the case in the secretion of saliva any person may prove by personal experiment. The natural inference is that the other digestive juices are likewise controlled, and we readily see in this fact the reason why wrong or dis- 108 SUNCOOKED FOOD turbed mental conditions are so potent in producing digestive and other bodily dis- orders. The digestive juices are not only con- trolled by mental stimuli as to quantity but also as to chemical composition. The mind miconsciously takes recognition of the na- ture of food through the senses of sight, smell and taste, and sends messages all along the line ordering the secretion of certain quantities of digestive juices containing cer- tain proportions of pepsin and hydrochloric acid or amylopsin and intestinal alkali. There is no more marvelous provision in nature. We think it wonderful that a bee by instinct can build a mathematically ac- curate cell. But the bee always builds that cell hexagonal. Could she, at her conve- nience and according to surroundings, con- struct a triangular, oval, round, square or pentagonal cell, she would be an engineer rivaling the ability of the instinctive chem- ist that resides in the alimentary nerve centers. PSYCHOLOGY OF NUTRITION" 109 By this wonderful adaptation the man or animal living on natural food is abundantly protected against the ills of indigestion, but for civilized man the food manufacturer and the cook stove have spoiled all this. Man's instinct was evolved to tell peas from peaches and eggs from apricots, but, alas, for the digestive instinct when the owner sits at the Delmonico or Sherry board. Be- side him stands a bowing, smirking waiter, who hands him a cardboard. '' Ris-de-veau, Davoust-Jambon Porte, Maillot- Escargo, Bourguignonne '' meets his eye. The diges- tive instinct is a stranger in a foreign land. It does not read the language. The man is puzzled — the waiter suggests, '' Try some Lobster in Casserole Bourgeoise." *^ All right,'' replies the man, and the waiter goes to the manufacturing department. The man's gaze wanders over the room; his eye catches a bunch of celery on his neighbor's table. The digestive instinct can understand that language and it manufac- tures juices for celery. The waiter arrives, 110 SUNCOOKED FOOD tlie compound is served, its smell and taste are strange to the digestive instinct, but the man forces it down and orders Poires Mar- quise, Bombe Shah de Perse and Cafe Par- fait. Then he drinks a Parfe d 'amour, smokes a Manuel Garcia Came il Faut, and goes his way. Presently the captain of finance receives inside information that something is wrong. The celery juice is wrestling with the rustic lobster, and the crustacean is getting the best of it. That evening he goes to his physician, who prescribes nux vomica and sodium bi- carbonate. This is too much for the instinct of digestion, and she follows the way of the cave bear and the three-toed horse, leaving the field clear for the ^^ higher '' things of modern civilization. Not only is the digestive instinct a skilled chemist, but a master mechanic as well. The reader has no doubt noticed the '' lumps " pass down the throat of a horse or cow as the animal drank water or swallowed food. This wave-like motion is known as peristalsis, PSYCHOLOGY OF NUTRITION 111 and is active throughout the whole length of the alimentary canal. Upon this motion all digestive processes are dependent, for the food in process of digestion must be moved along to bring it at the proper interval into the region, when it will be supplied with new digestive ferments and the digestive products be normally absorbed. If the peristaltic action is deficient or delayed, the waste products of digestion will remain too long in the alimentary canal causing consti- pation and decomposition. On the other hand, if food passes through the body too rapidly, as in the case where, by the administration of purgatives, the peristaltic action is stimulated to an abnor- mal degree, food material may pass out of the body before digestion is anywhere near complete. This results in plain starvation, and accounts for the rapid loss of weight in the case of chronic dysentery and similar diseases. 112 suncooked food Some Revelations of the X-Ray Some interesting experiments have re- cently been made upon cats (this animal be- ing immune to the harmful influence of the X-rays) that have thrown much light upon the relation of the mind to the digestive processes. The cat is allowed to become very hungry, and is then given food charged with bismuth subnitrate. This is an insol- uble and harmless salt that has little effect upon digestion, but which is opaque to the X-ray. When the X-ray shadow of the '' bismuth cat " is thrown upon the fluores- cent screen, the motions of the alimentary canal are plainly visible. After the cat has become reconciled to the experimental environment, it becomes pos- sible to study the effects of the mental states upon the movements of digestion. Peris- taltic action is found to be almost wholly de- pendent upon the mental attitude ; when the cat is annoyed or frightened the movement becomes irregular, and if the condition is PSYCHOLOGY OF NUTRITION 113 prolonged it ceases entirely. Anger, fear and unpleasant emotions interfere with di- gestion, while quiet, rest, sleep and mental tranquillity are invariably accompanied by normal and regular digestive movements. The discovery of the adaptation of the digestive processes to the food, by means of mental impulses, throws more light upon the present prevalency of disease than any dis- covery of modern science. Knowing these facts, reason would at once tell us that we should partake of food only in its natural state, and in such combinations, and in such a manner that the senses can take full cog- nizance of what is offered as food, and dic- tate by appetite how much is to be eaten. Mr. Fletcher says, '' Taste your food." That is part of it — a big part. In addition, I would say, ^' See your food, smell your food, and think of your food as being for your body's best nourishment and good." In addition to this, eat only when you are hungry, when your mind is occupied with light and pleasant thoughts, and free from 114 SU:NrCOOKED FOOD worry of every kind. If you are worried or overworked, do not eat, or if tlie period of this condition is too long, select foods that are readily soluble, and partake of very lim- ited quantities. The writer has a friend who is an engi- neer. The nature of his work is such that he is occasionally kept at severe mental ac- tion for as much as thirt3^-six hours at a time. During such times the company is in the habit of serving regular meals to the men every six hours. My friend had been accus- tomed to eat these meals, and after each period of over-time w^ork had suffered a se- vere attack of indigestion. I recommended that he cease eating, or partake only of small quantities of certain readily soluble foods during such periods. He found under this system that he could work thirty-six hours without sleep, and feel none the worse for the experience. The food he had taken while under the mental strain of continuous work had undergone a process of fermenta- tion and premature decay, and had poisoned instead of nourishing him. PSYCHOLOGY OF NUTRITION 115 So great is the mental influence upon nu- trition that many who have had their atten- tion called to this subject have cured them- selves of various disorders by simply cor- recting the mental errors in their nutrition. The errors of wrong food selection and wrong mental processes during digestion are very closely related. Natural foods suggest a correct mental attitude, and give the in- stincts of digestion a chance to work. The psychology of nutrition is a new sub- ject of which we have much to learn. When we have learned, we shall accord both reason and instinct their proper spheres of action, and the inharmonies that now tend to de- stroy both body and mind can no longer be. THE CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OP FOODS Carbohydrates The word carbohydrate means carbon combined with water, i. e., the element car- bon-is combined with hydrogen and oxygen, which exist in the carbohydrate compound in the same proportion as they exist in water. Carbohydrates are closely related chemi- cally to alcohols, so far as their composition is concerned, but this does not imply that they have the same physiological effect in the animal body. Carbohydrates are divided by the chemist into three classes, known as Monosaccharids, Disaccharids and Polysaccharids. The principal carbohydrates found in foods are given in the table below: Monosaccharids. Disaccharids. Polysaccharids. Pentoses, Cane Sugar, starch. Glucose or Grape Lactose, Glycogin, Sugar, Maltose. Gums, Levulose, Cellulose. Galactose. CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OP FOODS 117 Pentoses have in the past been neglected by the food chemist. They exist in the coarse parts of plants, such as stalks and leaves; hence the carbohydrates of green plants contain a percentage of these pen- toses. Pentoses are never separated from the plant as are other sugars; therefore we may consider their physiological eifect in the particular plan rather than study them as separate food materials. Glucose, or " grape sugar," is the most important sugar known, from the stand- pomt of the physiological chemist. This sugar is normally found in considerable quantities in human blood, and is absolutely essential to the life process. The real use of glucose forms an amusing contrast with the popular conception of the term " glucose " as something injurious or poisonous. Glucose is found in nature in all fruits and also in honey. It may be taken into the human body directly from such fruits or it may be formed in the body by the digestion of other carbohydrates. It is the most wholesome of all sugars. 118 SUNCOOKED FOOD Levulose is the companion sugar of glu- cose, and exists in many fruits. Levulose is often called '' fruit sugar." The composi- tion of levulose is exactly the same as glu- cose ; the difference between these sugars is due to the different ways in which the atoms are combined. The elements exist in the same proportion, but the atoms are arranged differently. Levulose, for all practical pur- poses, may be considered as equal to glucose in the human body. It is sweeter than glu- cose, resembling cane sugar in point of taste. Galactose, which is of the same composi- tion as the above, is another companion sugar to the first mentioned, and is formed by the digestion of lactose or milk sugar. Just as there are three monosaccharid sugars with six carbon atoms each, there are three disaccharid sugars of interest to us, which have twelve carbon atoms each. The first of these is the ordinary commercial sugar made from cane or beets, the sugar from both sources being identical from a chemical standpoint. This sugar, when di- CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 119 gested in the human alimentary canal, or by artificial means, combines with water and forms glucose and levulose. The second is lactose, or milk sugar. Milk has about 5 per cent of this sugar, but would taste sweeter with as much cane sugar, for all sugars do not affect the sense of taste to the same degree. When lactose is digested, it, like cane sugar, combines with water, but instead of yielding glucose and levulose, yields glucose and galactose. Maltose is the third member of the di- saccharid group, and is of the same composi- tion as the other two. Maltose derives its name from malt. It is formed from the starch of grains by the process of malting. Maltose can be further decomposed into monosaccharid sugars just as may cane sugars, but instead of forming two separate simple sugars, it is wholly converted into glucose. Maltose does not exist in man's natural bill of fare. Starch. The proportion of the elements in starch is the same as in sugar, but the 120 SUNCOOKED FOOD numoer of atoms that are combined is many times greater and is not accurately known. This is purely a theoretical consideration and of no practical interest, except that it shows that the polysaccharid is capable of being digested or broken up into many simple carbohydrate compounds. Starch is the most abundant carbohydrate known. It is the chief constituent of all grains, and is found in large quantities in green fruits and tuberous plants. Common potatoes are composed chiefly of starch and water. Starch does not dissolve in water as do sugars. Starch occurs m small grains or granules. These starch grains may be seen under a magnifying glass ; in fact, the starch grains of potatoes can almost be distinguished with the naked eye. They are not atoms or mole- cules in the chemical sense, but are little masses in which starch has been deposited as it is formed in the growing plant. When boiled, these starch strains, which in the cold state are hard, solid particles, swell into a CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 121 mushy or gelatinous mass, which forms starch paste. When starch is heated dry until it begins to brown it is changed into a compound related to the gum group, known as dextrine. If starch is treated with digestive fluids, as saliva, or with certain acids, it goes through a complex process of digestion in which it is first turned into soluble starch, then into the various forms of dextrine or gums, and finally into maltose or the malt sugar which we have already studied. As we have noted that maltose may be changed by digestion into glucose, we see how the starch in foods may be converted into the glucose of the blood. Just as glu- cose may be formed from starch, so maltose may be made by treating starch with malt. The brewing of beer depends upon chemical changes induced in starch by malt. Barley is ordinarily used for this purpose. The barley is sprouted in a warm, damp room, and a process of starch disrestion begins, which is necessary in order that the young 122 SUNCOOKED FOOD barley sprouts may grow. This changes the starch into maltose. The digestive principle developed in the barley malt may be utilized to malt other grain by mixing them with the sprouted barley. If this process of malting is arrested at the proper time, and the sugar dissolved and extracted, a product is formed consisting chiefly of the sugar maltose. This is the basis of malt extract, malt honey, and many similar foods put on the market which are claimed by the manufacturers to have won- derful dietetic and curative values; but as there is no malt sugar in natural foods, and man's digestive apparatus has not been equipped to deal with it, the opposite conclu- sion would seem more rational, and in the light of the writer's experience is nearer the truth. Glycogin is commonly called animal starch. It exists in the liver in small quan- tities. All carbohydrates are digested in the alimentary canal and absorbed in the blood in the form of simple sugars of the glucose CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 123 group. When these sugars reach the liver they are again built up into a complex car- bohydrate very similar to starch in composi- tion. This glycogin or animal starch is stored in the liver until the body has need of it, when it is changed back into glucose. The gums include a group of rather com- plex carbohydrates which are intermediate between starches and sugars. There are many varieties of gums derived from plants and which have various commercial uses in the market, such as gum arable. The basis of ordinary chewing gum is not true gum, but is a petroleum product which is wholly indigestible. Dextrine, of which we have already spoken, is formed from starch. Dextrine has no dietetic qualities that do not exist in starch, and, as with maltose, it comes into the digestive apparatus in a form not found in nature, and hence one for which no diges- tive adaptation exists. Pectins are a group of gummy substances found in fruits, especially green fruits, and 124 SIJNCOOKED FOOD are in process of being formed into sugar. The pectins form the basis of fruit jellies. Green grapes, as every housewife knows, will make better jelly than ripe grapes. This is because the pectins in ripe grapes have been transformed into sugar. As fruits when eaten green are prone to cause digestive disorders, it would seem the better part of wisdom to allow nature to complete her digestive process and take all fruits in the ripened state. Cellulose is, from the standpoint of hu- man feeding, not a food product. Cellulose is practically indigestible by the juices of the human alimentary tract. An example of pure cellulose is cotton fiber. Wood is al- most pure cellulose. The bran of wheat or corn is chiefly cellulose. Cellulose can be digested by strong acids into simple carbo- hydrates. Sugar can be thus manufactured from wood or rags, but the process is now too expensive to be applied commercially. Some of us may live to see the time when the chief food of mankind will be manufactured from scrap lumber and waste paper. CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 125 All plant products in their natural state contain some cellulose, though the percent- age is very small in such articles as rice. Cellulose is valuable chiefly for its mechan- ical action in the digestive organs. Bacteria have the power of digesting cellulose. The bacterial action or fermentation in the hu- man intestine may cause a slight amount of cellulose to be digested, but this is of no con- sequence from the nutritive standpoint, and is rather to be avoided than desired. Graz- ing animals have considerable power to di- gest cellulose. Goats, especially, have this power well developed. The goat who break- fasts off of the clothes-line is no more per- verted in his appetite than the man who breakfasts on buttered toast. Fats and Oils The fats and oils in food products, whether of plant or animal origin, contain the elements — carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. These fats are formed by a combination of the fatty acids with the substance glycerin. 126 SUNCOOKED FOOD which belongs to the alcohol group. Stearin, palmitin, olein, butyrin, are the more com- mon food fats. Natural fat from any source will usually contain several of these chemical com- pounds. The ordinary animal fats, such as tallow or lard, are formed chiefly of the two fats, stearin and olein. The different pro- portions of these fats will determine the melting point or hardness of the mixed prod- uct. Olein is a liquid at ordinary tempera- ture, while stearin is solid. The reason that tallow is a firmer fat than lard or butter, is because it contains a larger per cent of stearin. Olive oil, cotton-seed oil and other vege- table oils contain large per cents of olein, which accounts for their being liquid at ordi- nary temperature. Butyrin is a fat found in small quantities in dairy butter, and does not exist in the cotton-seed oil and other fats from which oleomargarine is manufactured. This is the reason that artificial butter lacks the flavor CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 127 of the dairy product, though this is remedied to some extent by churning the fats of the cotton-seed oil and tallow with fresh cream, which imparts a small quantity of the buty- rin and similar compounds to the oleomar- garine and gives the characteristic flavor of butter. Besides the more conomon fats that we have mentioned, there are many fats that exist in certain vegetable oils in small pro- portions, and that give them properties which may render them unfit for food. When fats are heated to a high tempera- ture they decompose and form various prod- ucts, some of which are irritating and poi- sonous to the human system. In the manu- facture of packing-house and cotton-seed products the stearin is often separated from the olein. The granular appearance of pure leaf lard is due to crystals of stearin. In the packing-house stearin is separated from the tallow in large quantities. The stearin is used to make candles, etc., while the olein is used for food purposes, in this country, 128 SUNCOOKED FOOD in the form of oleomargarine, or some sucli cooking product as cottolene, while in Eu- rope it is used under its right name as a cooking product. It is as wholesome, if not more so, than lard. Fats may become rancid ; this is a natural decomposition of fat due to its uniting with the ox3^gen of the air. Nut kernels fre- quently become rancid from this cause. This can best be prevented by keeping them in air-tight packages. PROTEmS The food substances which contain nitro- gen are commonly called proteids, or, if these compounds are considered together, the name of protein may be given the group. This protein is not one single compound, but includes all substances which contain the element nitrogen in such combinations as are available for assimilation in the human body. Proteids are necessary to the existence of animal life. With the exception of fatty CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 129 tissue, all the organs and tissues of the body are composed chiefly of proteid substances. These proteid substances in the hiunan body can only be formed from proteid substances taken in the food, because no other food sub- stances contain the element nitrogen and the body cannot make elements or change one element into another. Neither do the cells of the animal body have the power of effect- ing a combination of elementary nitrogen with the other elements. This power is pos- sessed by bacteria that utilize the nitrogen of the air to form mineral salts or nitrates. Plants, in turn, have the power to unite the nitrogen derived from these nitrates with carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. In this way organic nitrogen or proteids are formed. The animal body may digest these plant pro- teids and transform them into other forms of proteids needed by the animal organism. All proteids contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, most of them sulphur, and a few phosphorus. Iron, copper and bromide are also occasionally foimd in pro- 9 130 STJNCOOKED FOOD teid compounds. The percentage by weight of the various elements which form the average proteid is as follows : Carbon 52% Hydrogen 7% Oxygen 22% Nitrogen 16% Sulphur 2% Phosphorus 1% Proteid substances are properly divided into three groups as follows : Simple Proteids. Compound Proteids. Albuminoids. Albumins, Respiratory Pig- Collagen, Globulins, ments, Gelatin, Nucleoalbumins, Glucoproteids, Elastin, Albuminates, Nucleins, Reticulin, Coagulated Pro- Nucleoproteids, Keratin, teids, Lecithin Albumins. Skeletins. Proteoses (Albu- moses), Peptones. Besides these real proteids, there are a few substances kno^Ti as amido compounds, which exist in small quantities in vegetables and a number of nitrogenous substances, which exist in meat and meat extracts, and which are not true proteids, as they have CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 131 little or no nutritive value, but act as stimu- lants or irritants in the body. Another class of nitrogenous substances which may be found in food products are ptomains. These are formed by the growth of bacteria and are in reality the nitrogenous waste products of bacterial life. Ptomains are apt to develop in meats and dairy prod- ucts held in cold storage, and are sometimes the cause of serious poisoning. Albumin is one of the commonest and simplest forms of proteid known ; it is found in the white of egg, in milk and in blood. It is coagulated by heat and by certain chemi- cals, such as acids, alcohol and strong alka- lies. Albumin is soluble in water and weak solutions of salt, but is not soluble in very strong salt solutions. Globulins are much like albumin in prop- erties, but are not soluble in water. They are, however, soluble in dilute salt solutions. Globulins exist in considerable quantities in the yolk of eggs and in the blood. The globulin in the body could not remain in 132 SUNCOOKED FOOD solution if there was not always present a small quantity of salt in the blood. There are several types of globulins. Pibrinogin of the blood, which coagulates when the blood is exposed to the air, forming clots, is a globulin. Hemoglobulin, which is the chief component of red blood corpuscles, and which unites with the oxygen in the lungs and carries this oxygen to the various tissues of the body, is another form of globu- lin, and one which contains a considerable amount of iron. Casein is the most important proteid sub- stance in milk and is familiar to all as the curd or white substance of clabbered milk. A related form of vegetable casein is found in leguminous seeds such as beans and peas. Proteoses and peptones are forms of pro- teids that are formed by the digestion of other proteids. They are not found in natu- ral food, and the same remarks made re- garding maltose and dextrine will apply to the use of these substances in the diet. The compound proteids which we mention CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 133 in the table do not need any particular dis- cussion, as they form a very small part of ordinary foods. The albuminoids are proteids formed in various portions of the body, and are of a more complex nature than are albumin and globulins. They are also insoluble and diffi- cult of digestion. Keratin is the chief pro- teid of the epidermis or outer skin. It is comparatively indigestible. Collagen is the proteid found in the connecting tissues of the body, ligaments, tendons, etc. Skeletin, elastin and reticulum are similar products which are found in the various tissues of animals. None of these products can be con- sidered as suitable food materials for man, although the stomach has the power of di- gesting them to a limited extent. Food Salts The subject of salt in food has received considerable discussion and attention by scientific investigators, and many theories have been advanced by those interested in 134 SUNCOOKED FOOD hygiene as to the effect of common salt used in food. The tissues and organs of the body contain certain salts, and without these salts life could not exist, but it does not follow, as some would interpret, that these salts need to be supplied separately from the forms of foods produced by nature. Food should not be of an artificial nature, such as would free it entirely from its mineral salts. A diet of sugar, pure oil and artificially prepared pro- teids would absolutely fail to nourish the body for any length of time, because of the lack of mineral salts. All natural food products, whether of vegetable or animal origin, contain a small but ever-present pro- portion of mineral salts. This is especially true of mill^, eggs and the seeds and green portion of plants. The amount of salts in the human body is considerable, especially the calcium phosphates of the bones, but the amount of such salts that need be supplied daily in food is small because they are not consumed as rapidly as are the other ele- ments of nutrition. CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 135 Several foods, especially rice and corn, are somewhat deficient in salts. At one of our experiment stations some pigs were fed exclusively on corn diet, and others on a diet of grain and green forage. At a certain age the pigs were killed and the bones were weighed and tested for strength. The bones of the pigs which had been on a corn diet, which is deficient in mineral salts, were about half as heavy and strong as the bones of the pigs fed in a more natural way. Watek The human body contains about 60 per cent water. The water in the body might be roughly grouped into three divisions. First, water in small quantities enters into the actual chemical composition of the body. As we noticed, in the discussion of carbohy- drates, water combines chemically with cane sugar when it is digested and transformed into glucose. The second use of water in the body is to form a portion of the tissues and to act as a 136 STJNCOOKED FOOD solvent in the bodily fluids. In this function the water is not changed chemically, but is only mixed with other substances ; thus the blood is in reality water with glucose, pep- tone, etc., in solution and carrying along red blood corpuscles, fatty globules and other particles. A third use of water in the body is in the control of the temperature by means of perspiration, the evaporation of which has a cooling tendency. Theories have been promulgated by hy- gienic teachers in the last few years, claim- ing that man should get his supply of water wholly from the juices of fruits and not drink ground waters, which are contami- nated with mineral substances. While it may be true that water in certain localities, such as the alkali deserts and limestone hills, is unfit for drinking, yet the writer is of the opinion that the promulgator of the theory that man is not a drinking animal has never done a hard day's work in a Western harvest field. In the drying winds of the Western plains water evaporates from the surface of CHEMICAL SUBSTANCES OF FOODS 137 a man's body at the rate of 12 to 15 pounds a day. The theory of deriving one's water wholly from fruits and salads would not stand the test of such facts. The best drinking water is rain water. Distilled and aerated waters, which are so abundantly manufactured by artificial proc- esses, are mere imitations of nature's meth- od of producing rain water. Science, how- ever, has never proved that the small quan- tities of salts contained in normal ground water are of any injury to the human organism. THE CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION The digestive juices of the human body are five in number, namely, saliva, gastric juice, bile, pancreatic juice and intestinal juiice. These five juices are secreted from the blood by special cells or glands. Each of these juices contains one or more enzymes or digestive principles. These enz}Tnes are highly organized chemical compounds which have the property of changing other chemi- cal compounds without being destroyed or used up themselves except in minute quantities. Malt, which is produced by the sprouting of barley, is a true digestive enzyme of the barley. Thus we see that plants, as well as animals, may have enzymes. The yeast cells that cause the fermentation of bread are minute plants which secrete an enzyme which causes the effect noted. It was for- merly thought that the fermentation of CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 139 yeast could not take place except in the pres- ence of a living ceU. This has now been dis- proved, as a German scientist has succeeded in grinding up yeast cells and filtering off the chemical compound or true enzyme which causes the fermentation of sugar. It is now recognized by scientists that all processes of fermentation and digestion that are found in plant and animal life are due to definite chemical compounds known as enzymes. The action of digestion is then a truly chemical one, and could take place without the body as well as within, if we could manufacture the proper enzyme and produce the exact conditions of temperature, moisture, etc., that are found in the human alimentary canal. The manufacture of predigested food de- pends upon various processes of fermenta- tion or digestion that may be carried on by inorganic chemical agents, such as acids, or by ferments of bacteria or other forms of life. The malting of starch for the produc- tion of malt sugar, or fermented liquors, or 140 SUNCOOKED FOOD the making of cheese by the action of the enzyme rennet, which has been extracted from the stomach of a calf, are examples of artificial digestion. A great amount of discussion has been raised over the subject of predigested food. To answer the question intelligently, we must consider the chemical process involved in each case and the final product, both as to its mechanical and chemical condition. If a product is formed which is the natural food of man, the process is good ; otherwise it is wrong. With this diversion, to illustrate the breadth and importance of the action of en- zymes, we will again consider the chemical action of the human digestive organs. The saliva is the digestive juice of the mouth. It is secreted by three pairs of salivary glands. The secretions from these three glands are slightly different in compo- sition, but for our purpose may be consid- ered as one. The saliva is an alkaline fluid, and the digestive principle that it contains CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 141 is a starch-digesting enzyme known as ptyalin. The further functions of the saliva are to moisten food and facilitate swallowing. Digestion in the Stomach The importance of the stomach as an organ of digestion has been over estimated in modern times. In fact, from the discus- sions in the average text-book on physiology one would be led to believe that the stomach was the only organ of digestion, when, as a matter of fact, the chief purpose of the stomach is that of a receptacle for the stor- age and preparation of food for digestion later. Pood passes through one process of digestion or preparation, but is not com- pleted in the stomach; and all foods which are acted upon by the gastric juice can also be digested in the intestines. This has been proved by the fact that surgeons have suc- cessfully removed the stomach from both animals and men without seriously interfer- ing with the nutrition of the body. 142 SUNCOOKED FOOD The stomach should be considered as a preliminary organ of digestion. The tables published in the physiologies giving the di- gestibility of various foods as requiring so many hours, refer to the length of time it takes for the food to pass out of the stomach. According to these tables boiled rice is given as one of the most digestible of foods. The reason why rice passes out of the stomach more quickly than other grains is because it contains practically nothing but starch ; and as starch is not digested in the stomach, rice is passed on to the intestine much more rapidly than other foods which contain a larger per cent of protein, which goes through a longer process of stomach diges- tion. In this connection it becomes necessary to refer to the interpretation of the experi- mental results obtained by investigators at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. In these ex- periments cereal products which had been put through various processes of prediges- tion were compared with uncooked whole CHtiJMISTRY OF DIGESTION 143 wheat, the contents being artificially re- moved from the stomach by lavage after a given period of time. The results of this experiment showed a greater amount of starch digestion in the case of dextrinized or supercooked foods. These results were pub- lished as proof that starchy foods should be put through a process of predigestion by heat. To those who are not familiar with food chemistry, such results would appear very convincing, but to a practical food scientist, they only show how misinterpreta- tion of scientific facts can be made to indi- cate just the opposite conclusions from the truth. Starchy foods are not intended by nature to be digested in the stomach, but in the in- testines, and the processes of partial diges- tion of these foods before entering the stom- ach only serve to interfere with nature's plan and deprive both the stomach and intes- tines of their natural functions. To charge that these theories might have emanated from such an institution through ignorance 144 SUNCOOKED FOOD would be no more severe than to say they might have been promulgated to sell zwie- back and crackers. The gastric juice contains three principal enzymes or digestive principles. These are hydrochloric acid, pepsin and rennet. The hydrochloric acid and the pepsin are se- creted by different cells, and could be con- sidered as separate digestive juices, but as the action of one is dependent upon the other, we will consider these actions as one. Pepsin in the presence of hydrochloric acid acts upon proteids and changes them into proteoses and peptone. Comparatively lit- tle food is completely peptonized in gastric digestion. Proteoses are intermediate prod- ucts between food proteids and peptone, be- ing the principal product of the action of the gastric juice. Thus it is seen that this stomach action is only preparatory for the digestive processes of the intestines. The gastric juice does not act upon fat, but in the case of animal food, in which the mem- branes that enclose the fat cells are formed CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 145 of proteid material, the gastric juice sets the fat globules free by dissolving these enclos- ing membranes. The chief action of hydro- chloric acid in the stomach is to aid the action of the pepsin. Pepsin alone has no digestive powers. There are no other acids produced by the secretive glands of the stomach wall. If other acids are found in the contents of the stomach, it is because they have been taken in the food or are pro- duced by abnormal fermentation. The hydrochloric acid of the stomach is formed from the sodium chloride or com- mon salt of the blood. The secreting cells of the stomach glands are thought to have the power to form hydrochloric acid by uniting the chlorine of salt with the hydrogen of water. This is a very unusual chemical process, and has not yet been successfully produced in a laboratory. One of the chief functions of hydrochloric acids in the stomach is that of an antiseptic or germicidal fluid. Not all bacteria are killed by this fluid, however, for some germs 10 146 STJNCOOKED FOOD can live in an acid medium while others may live best in an alkaline solution. The alter- nation of digestive juices from alkali to acid may be considered as a provision of nature to destroy bacteria and enzymes of plant and animal origin that are taken into the diges- tive tract with food. This adds another rea- son to those already mentioned why foods should be thoroughly masticated. By such provision nature attempts to provide for the digestion of food only by such enzymes and ferments as will produce a finished product wholly suited to the particular requirement of the body. When we attempt by artificial processes to digest our food with other en- zymes than those of our own digestive or- gans, or take into the stomach large quanti- ties of food without proper mastication, which allows foreign or abnormal fermenta- tion to take place, we may expect, as a natu- ral result, that the nutritive material sup- plied to our tissues will not be perfectly adapted to the needs of human cell growth, and consequent derangement of the bodily fimctions takes Dlace. CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION" 147 The rennet of the gastric juice is princi- pally concerned with the digestion of milk ; other than this, it has no particular function. The problem of why the stomach does not digest itself has puzzled scientists for many years. The investigations of the twentieth century have at last solved this fascinating question. The walls of the human stomach are composed of proteid material, and should be dissolved by the gastric juice ac- cording to all known chemical laws. The explanation formerly given was that the stomach did not digest itself because it was alive. This was begging the question. There has lately been discovered an en- zyme that is secreted by the cells in the stomach wall, which is known as antipepsin. This antipepsin destroys the action of the pepsin and prevents the action of the pepsin upon the stomach wall itself. Were anti- pepsin secreted in sufficiently large quanti- ties to mix with the food in the stomach cav- ity, no digestion could take place. The pres- ence of this antipepsin in the stomach walls 148 STJNCOOKED FOOD has been proved in the following manner: The arteries leading to a portion of the stom- ach wall in a dog were severed, so that this portion received no blood supply and could not form the usual amount of antipepsin. The secretion of pepsin went on in the re- mainder of the dog's stomach and digested the portion of the stomach wall which was receiving no blood supply, and hence secret- ing no antipepsin. Intestinal Digestion Bile. The bile is a juice secreted by the liver. It enters the small intestines a few inches below the stomach. One function of the bile is to facilitate the digestion of fat, for when the bile is partly excluded from the digestive tract, the fats are not so com- pletely absorbed. Bile is not an important digestive fluid. In fact, bile is chiefly a waste product, which is secreted into the ali- mentary canal, and thus passes from the body. CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 149 Pancreatic Juice. The secretion of the pancreas contains important enzymes; one acts upon starch, one upon proteids, and one is a fat-splitting enzyme. Pancreatic juice also has the power of coagulating milk, and is believed to contain some rennet. The pan- creas is a secretive gland located entirely outside the intestinal walls, and produces a juice, which is poured into the small intes- tines at the same point at which the bile enters. Pancreatic juice is strongly alka- line, and as soon as the food coming from the stomach comes in contact with the pan- creatic juice and bile, the acid is neutralized, and the material becomes strongly alkaline. The starch-digesting enzyme is called amylopsin. It appears to be very similar to ptyalin in its power to digest carbohydrates. This am^ylopsin completes the digestion of starch that was begun by the saliva. It acts upon starch with great activity. One part of amylopsin can change 40,000 times its bulk of starch to glucose. This can act only in alkaline solution, and if any abnormal 150 SUNCOOKED FOOD fermentation takes place in the digestive tract, producing a large quantity of acids, the digestion of starch is stopped. It is in- teresting to note that this enzyme is entirely absent from the pancreatic juice of infants. This explains why infants cannot digest starch. The second enzyme to be considered in the pancreatic juice is trypsin. This is a substance distinct from pepsin, but its action is the same. The chief distinction is that trypsin acts in an alkaline solution, while pepsin acts in an acid solution. Trypsin is much more energetic in its diges- tive power than the pepsin of gastric juice. It completes the digestion of proteids that is begun in the stomach and converts all pro- teids into soluble forms. A number of forms of proteid that are not acted upon at all by the gastric juice are readily digested by the trypsin of the pancreatic juice. The fat-digesting enzyme of the pancre- atic juice is steapsin. This is the principal fat-digesting enzyme of the body, fat not CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 151 being affected by the juices of the stomach. This substance has power to split fats, that is, to convert them into the fatty acids and glycerine of which they were originally com- posed. This fatty acid then combines with alkalies of the bile and pancreatic juice to form soap. Soap is soluble and passes through the walls of the small intestines in this form. Having passed through the walls of the intestines, this soap is again changed into fat. The reason that nature provided such a complex process for the absorption of fat is because fat is insoluble. If the intes- tinal walls were constructed so that fat globules could be taken directly through them, they would also be open for the en- trance of germs and other foreign particles. Frying foods in grease causes a thin film of melted fat to spread over the surface of the starch of proteid particles, with the result that these particles cannot be properly acted upon by the saliva and gastric juice, and as a result do not receive the preliminary changes necessary to normal digestion. Fat, 152 SUNCOOKED FOOD taken m its natural form, does not interfere with other digestive processes. Intestinal Juices. In addition to the digestive juices that are poured into the small intestines from the pancreas and the liver, there is a juice which is secreted from the walls of the intestinal cells. This is called intestinal juice or succus entericus. It is a light-yellow fluid with a strong alka- line reaction due to the presence of sodium carbonate. One action of intestinal juice is to change cane sugar and maltose into glucose, which is then absorbed directly into the blood. The Secretion of Digestive Juices. Within the last few years many remarkable discoveries have been made in regard to the secretion of the various digestive juices. Until some ten or fifteen years ago it was believed that the secretion of digestive juices depended simply upon the presence of food in the alimentary canal. Recent dis- coveries in this branch of physiology are to be accredited to a Russian scientist by the CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 153 name of Fallow, and his followers and asso- ciates. The facts now known regarding this part of nature's work are essentially as follows : The secretion of the various substances which make up the digestive fluids of the body depend upon two sorts of stimuli. First, direct nerve stimulus from the central nervous system. Second, the chemical stim- ulus upon the walls of the digestive organs. Depending upon either or both of these sources of stimulation, the digestive juices of the body are regulated in quantity, and what is much more worthy of note, in their actual chemical compositions. It will be readily seen how far reaching in its effect upon our dietetic treatment and practices is this knowledge of the influence of various factors upon the composition of the digestive fluid. An excellent illustration of the practical importance of Fallow's dis- coveries concerns the comparative digesti- bility of various foods. The former method of estimating the digestibility of food was to 154 SUNCOOKED FOOD analyze the foods and also the intestinal resi- due, and subtract the undigested remnant of each particular class of food element from the amount originally present in the food. By such means it was possible to show that certain foods were, say 80 or 90 per cent digestible, as the case might be. No estimate was made by this method of the amount of material that must be secreted by the body in order to digest the particular foods. According to the old investigation milk and meat are about equally digestible. It is now known that the digestion of milk re- quires only a small fraction of the energy and nitrogen that is necessary in order to digest meat or proteid from vegetable sources. Thus it will be seen that where it is desirable to get a large amount of avail- able nitrogen into the system with the least possible expenditure of energy, milk is a food par excellence. This is a very logical idea, and one which we can understand, be- cause milk is created for the sole purpose of serving as food for animal life. CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 155 The amount of acidity in gastric juice re- quired to digest meat is far in excess of that required for a meal of vegetable substance. The amount of acidity is greatest with milk, second with meat, and least with bread. The strength of the digestive influence of pepsin was greatest with bread, second with meat, and least with milk ; from this we learn that starchy foods are imsuitable for the use of those who suffer from supersecretion of hy- drochloric acid, for the excess of acid pre- vents their digestion by neutralizing the alkali of the intestines. Saliva secreted for nitrogenous food does not contain as much ptyalin as that secreted when starchy foods are consumed. For this reason the thorough insalivation of starchy foods is much more important than that of meat, milk, eggs, etc. Dr. Harvey W. Wiley has recently advised that meat be swallowed in chunks, as is done by carnivorous animals. This advice, however, is not altogether sound, for the reason that man is not a car- nivorous animal, and his gastric juice does 156 SUNCOOKED FOOD not act as rapidly upon flesh foods as does that of meat-eating animals. If meat be taken into the human stomach either in large amounts or in large pieces, decompo- sition may set in before digestion has pro- ceeded far enough to prevent the action of micro-organisms. The mental influence upon the secretion of digestive fluids may originate from the thoughts of the man or may be brought about reflexively by the sight or smell of food. All are familiar with the experience of having one's mouth water at the sight of a particularly appetizing dish. Many of us have undergone the same experience by thinking of some particular food of which we are fond, even though there is nothing in sight. Scientific investigation has shown that the secretion of saliva is only an exam- ple of what takes place in the other digestive organs. Experiments of the ingenious Rus- sian scientist prove that the act of tasting and swallowing food is the chief factor in determining the secretion of the juices from CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTI0:N' 157 the stomach walls. By skilled surgical op- erations the esophagi of dogs were severed and made to open externally so that the food swallowed by the dog did not pass into the stomach. The secretion of gastric juice was then determined in the case of different foods which were taken into the dog's mouth and swallowed, but which did not reach the stomach. Not only did this act of pretended feeding start a flow of gastric juice, but the gastric juice secreted in the case of different foods was adapted to the particular food, according to the general principle which we have already discussed. These facts emphasize several important considerations regarding our diet. First, we should eat slowly and get the whole taste out of food by thorough mastication. Sec- ond, we should not disguise our foods by high seasoning. Third, foods that do not require the same digestive principles should not be taken together at the same meal. Fermentation is the term generally ap- plied to changes that take place in such food 158 SUNCOOKED FOOD substances as carbohydrates, due to the growth of bacteria, while the term putrefac- tion is applied in a similar way to the changes taking place in nitrogenous or pro- teid materials. Abnormal Peocesses in Digestion There are changes which take place in the human alimentary canal, that are not bene- ficial or necessary to normal digestion. The cause of the most important abnormal changes in the contents of the stomach and intestines is the presence of living micro- organisms called bacteria. Because of the invariable presence of greater or less quantities of bacteria within the intestines of all ordinary animals, some scientists have insisted that their presence was in some way necessarily related to the life of the animal and was probably bene- ficial. New-born animals, however, are free from bacteria, hence these germs must make their way into the alimentary canal with food. CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 159 Ingenious scientists have taken new-born guinea pigs and kept them in sterile or germ-proof compartments, giving them fil- tered air to breathe, and absolutely sterile foods. These pigs lived and thrived through the experiment as their brothers would out- side the bacterial-proof dwelling, and this is considered as good evidence that bacteria accumulate in the digestive organs of all ani- mals, not for a purpose connected with ani- mal physiology, but in order to digest and assimilate foods. Conditions are established which are so near those required for bac- terial growth that the bacteria take advan- tage of the conditions just as weeds, if given a chance, thrive in a cultivated field. We have already referred to the antiseptic or germ-destroying properties of the gastric juice and other secretions of the digestive organs. This would suggest that the growth of bacteria is undesirable growing in the human intestines, and hence we cannot say with certainty that all this growth is harm- ful, as the resulting waste products of each 160 SUNCOOKED FOOD particular species of bacteria would need to be considered separately before we could say whether or not it acted as a poison. It is safe to make the general statement, however, that bacteria are abnormal or foreign to the human digestive canal, and that their pres- ence is detrimental to human welfare. Micro-organisms give off as waste prod- ucts of their growth various substances, de- pendent upon the species of bacteria and the material in which they are growing. Thus the waste products of the yeast plant are carbon dioxide and alcohol. In the alimentary canal there exists an abundance of carbohydrates and proteid material which form excellent food material for numerous species of bacteria. The sub- stances produced by the growth of these va- rious kinds of bacteria are numerous. They include the gases, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, hydrogen, marsh gas or methane and ammonia. Butyric, lactic and other acids are also produced as a product of bac- terial fermentation in the intestines, to- CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 161 gether with alcohol. Perhaps the most det- rimental of all are the substances produced by the bacterial putrefaction of proteids of which indol and skatol are the two most important. Under ordinary conditions the bacteria themselves do not penetrate the intestinal walls, and their evil influence would be con- fined to mechanical disturbance of gas in the digestive organs and to the destruction of a portion of the nutritive material of food, were it not for the fact that these harmful and poisonous products we have mentioned are soluble, and hence pass through the intestinal walls with the di- gested food material into the blood, and are thus distributed throughout the entire body. It has been observed in the presence of intestinal congestion, where the food re- mains in the intestines over nature's time limit, that the amount of these harmful nitrogenous decomposition products that are excreted by the kidneys is considerably in- creased, proving that these products have circulated throughout the body. 11 162 SUNCOOKED FOOD Arterial sclerosis, or the hardening of the walls of the arteries, which is one of the principal causes or the manifestations of old age, is caused by the continued presence in the blood of small quantities of poisonous material which gradually destroys the pro- toplasm of the arterial walls and causes it to be replaced by a degenerate form of tissue. It is known that alcohol and the poison of syphilis causes sclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. In the absence of these poisons, the presence of some similar acting toxic substance would naturally be suspected; otherwise the hardening of the arteries would not take place. The poisons produced in the intestines by bacterial decomposition are absorbed into the blood, and undoubtedly act in a similar way to the other poisons above mentioned, and this factor, as a cause of old age and premature death, is much greater than other sources, because it is practically universal. Numerous other disorders or diseases, too numerous to consider here, can be traced to this same general cause. CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 163 In the light of all modern experiments it is evident that anything which lessens the amount of bacterial growth in the intestines is desirable and beneficial, while changes that increase the amount of such growth are to be guarded against as seriously detri- mental to health. The thorough mastication of food has been shown to decidedly lessen the bacteria of the intestines. Overeating is perhaps the greatest factor of all in bringing about a condition which favors excessive intestinal fermentation. A person living on the conventional diet not only takes large quantities of food, thus filling the digestive organs with an excessive bulk, which weakens the relative strength of the digestive juices and injures their anti- septic properties, but he also eats hastily, swallowing the food in lumps, which cannot be penetrated by the digestive juice, and which ferment before they can be digested. The effect upon the bacterial growth of the intestines of cooked food has already 164 SUNCOOKED FOOD been referred to. Cooking, which is recom- mended to destroy germ life, acts ultimately in exactly the opposite manner. Cooked food is usually moist and warm; hence in excellent condition for bacterial growth. No cooked food, after sterilization by heat, must again be allowed to come to an ordi- nary temperature at which it becomes again contaminated with bacteria, as, indeed, it would in the digestive organs themselves. The result is that the cooked masses which form such excellent culture for bacteria, de- compose at a much more rapid rate than would similar foods uncooked. Cooking generally leads to overeating and less masti- cation, both of which, as before pointed out, favor bacterial growth. Thus it is seen that the efforts commonly recommended for the destruction of bacteria in foods greatly in- crease the amount of decomposition and fer- mentation that actually takes place in the alimentary canal. The putrefaction of proteids in the intes- tines is checked by a large percentage of CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTIOlSr 165 carbohydrates and by organic acids. The preserving qualities of sugar depend upon the fact that putrefying bacteria cannot live where sugar is abundant. The beneficial effect of fruits in lessening the amount of bacterial decomposition in the intestines is due to the presence of relatively large amounts of sugar and of organic acids. Milk is known to have a prohibitive influ- ence upon putrefaction in the alimentary canal, this being due to the presence of milk sugar, and especially lactic acid. This ex- plains why clabbered milk, which contains a considerable proportion of sugar changed into lactic acid by the action of souring bac- teria, is especially beneficial in preventing intestinal putrefaction. Prof. Metchnikoff, of the Pasteur Institute of Paris, became so enthusiastic with this discovery that he has proclaimed sour milk to be a remedy for old age. While Metchnikoff 's enthusiasm has perhaps led him too far, there can be no doubt but that his theory is good and worthy of consideration. 166 SUNCOOKED FOOD We should not, however, seek for any one specific remedy against intestinal decompo- sition, but should perfect the entire diet, thus limiting the opportunity for bacterial growth. Mechanics of Digestion Chemistry is not the only factor that is to be taken into the consideration of the diges- tive function. The mechanical condition of food, when it is taken into the digestive or- gans, very greatly influences the chemical process that takes place. Small particles of material will dissolve, of course, much more rapidly than will large ones. The greater the dissolving surface, the more rapidly will solution take place. If the substance that is being dissolved is a firm particle the digestion or solution will take place only on the exterior surface and the interior of the particle, however small, will remain practically unchanged. This is what occurs when food materials, such as grains or nuts, are taken in an imcooked CHEMISTEY OF DIGESTION 167 state, as mastication does not dissolve them but only divides them into small, distinct particles. If, however, the grain be subjected to pro- longed heating with water, a partial solution takes place. The entire mass becomes mushy and permeated with water. When such a mass is brought in contact with dis- solving or digesting fluids, it mixes too rap- idly with the fluid, just as molasses w^ould mix with water, subjecting the whole mass to the immediate action of the digestive fluids. In normal digestion, the enzymes are continuously secreted for a period of several hours. They begin work on the out- side of the minute but distinct food particles, dissolving them little at a time. This dis- solved portion is absorbed as rapidly as formed, and active and complete digestion is constantly taking place. When the food material has been changed into a mushy mass as above referred to, the whole bulk is immediately subjected to the action of the digestive fluids. The result is 168 SUNCOOKED FOOD that the digestive principles at first secreted cannot complete the digestion of the entire mass, but the entire bulk is partly digested, and various abnormal fermentations and decompositions then set in. The predigestion fad has been one of the greatest fallacies that has ever been forced upon the public mind. That the sugars of the juices of some fruits that are already in the form of glucose can be immediately ab- sorbed without any digestive process does not prove that mushy cooking, malting and other forms of so-called predigestion are beneficial. The so-called *^ predigested breakfast foods " are not changed into the final product of digestion, but are in an in- termediate stage between starch and glucose. They are composed of semi-soluble starch, gummy dextrine and maltose. These sub- stances only interfere with and disturb the normal process of digestion. Ninety-nine physiologies and dietetic books out of every one hundred make the statement point blank that raw starch is in- CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 169 digestible. This fallacy has been established by the experiment of putting samples of raw and cooked starch into two test tubes and treating them with some digestive enzyme. The cooked starch being soluble is all at- tacked by the digestive enzyme at one time, and started on its way through the numer- ous changes in the complex chemical process of changing starch to glucose. In the sam- ple of raw starch the digestive enzyme at- tacks the particles from the outside, and slowly digests or eats off the exterior of the starch grains. After a given length of time, our chemist adds iodine to the two test tubes. Iodine gives a blue color with starch. In the test tube with the cooked starch, all of which has undergone a certain amount of digestion, no blue color is discerned, for no pure starch is left. In the other tube, in which a portion of the starch has been more completely digested, but in which some of the particles remain wholly unchanged, a blue reaction is, of course, obtained, and the chemist proclaims that uncooked starch is indigestible. 170 SUNCOOKED FOOD Mr. Milton Hastings, while at the Kansas Experiment Station, made a comparison of two diets containing several varieties of grains. The diets were alike in every re- spect, with the exception that in one in- stance all the grains were boiled for two hours, while in the other case they were taken in an uncooked state. In the case of the uncooked grains, no starch whatever passed through the body in an undigested form. In the case of the cooked grains, the material remaining undigested was much in excess of that in the uncooked diet, although no actual starch was present. There is only one interpretation to such results, and that is, that while in the case of cooked grains the digestive processes may start with more rapidity than in the case of uncooked grains, they are not thoroughly completed, and various decomposition prod- ucts occur, as well as undigested proteid, which would not happen in the case of the foods taken in their natural state. Moreover, if uncooked starch was taken CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 171 in excess of the digestive capacity and passed throngh the body wholly unchanged, no harm would result. The starch grain in its unchanged state is a fine, white, glisten- ing granule, wholly insoluble, and its pres- ence in the digestive tract would have no effect whatever upon the bodily functions, for without solution no material can have any possible effect upon the physiological processes except by irritating the mucous surfaces of the digestive organs ; in the lat- ter respect, starch granules are harmless. With the exception of foods that are al- ready soluble in water, and which are rap- idly digested and absorbed, the condition in which foods should enter the digestive tract is in finely divided, yet distinct, particles, and not in solutions or gummy masses. If the mastication of uncooked food is not thoroughly performed, it may result in their being passed through the body without all being dissolved, but it is much better for food to be swallowed in this condition than to be taken in a form that would turn to poison in the intestines. METABOLISM Metabolism is the term applied to all proc- esses that take place within the body from the time food is absorbed from the digestive tract until it is passed out of the body through some of the excretory organs. We may study metabolism best by consid- ering the two chief classes of physiological processes with which foods are concerned. First, the building of actual bodily tissue. Second, the generation of heat and energy. The chemist could analyze an adult man and a new-born infant and know that the infant, in order to reach manhood, would need to add to its body so many pounds of carbon, sulphur or iron. But the problem of nutrition is much more complex ; not only must we consider the formation of new tissue, but we must allow for the rebuilding of the old, and for all those processes of vital activity that involve the destruction of food METABOLISM 173 material or bodily tissues. Nor can this al- lowance be proportioned from the analysis of the body because the various elements composing the body do not change with equal rapidity. Thus a man in a harvest field might pass through his blood in one day 10 or 15 pounds of oxygen, in the form of water and carbon dioxide, which would amount to 10 per cent of the oxygen con- tained in his body, but if he daily took cal- cium or fluorine to the extent of 10 per cent of that contained in the body, death from poisoning would speedily ensue. We can best comprehend the use of foods for building the body by considering sep- arately the changes each class undergoes from the time it is absorbed from the ali- mentary canal until it is excreted from the lungs or kidneys, or deposited in the body as bone or muscles. The second function, or rather we may say a group of functions, to be considered in the study of metabolism is the generation of energy and bodily heat ; for heat is only one form or expression of energy. 174 SUNCOOKED FOOD The production of heat and energy in the body occurs ahnost entirely through the oxidation of food materiaL The three prin- cipal classes of food material, proteids, car- bohydrates and fat, can all be oxidized to produce heat. Energy may be mechanical, chemical, elec- trical or thermal (heat). The conservation of energy, which is one of the fundamental laws of science, shows that no energy can be lost, but can only be changed into other forms. This being true, and it being possi- ble to change all energy into heat, we use heat as a measure of energy. The unit of heat, and consequently of energy, that is used by scientists is a calory, which is the amount of heat required to raise one thousand grams of water one degree of tem.perature on the centigrade thermometer scale. The energy of food is measured in calories or vienos, one vieno being equal to one hundred calories. These terms are convenient for measuring the energy in food, but in order that this METABOLISM 175 energy may be liberated in the body it is necessary that the food be absorbed and ox- idized within the body in a normal manner. Because of the law of the conservation of energy, which states that no energy in the universe can be lost, it is possible to study with great accuracy the energy taken in and given off by the human body. The method by which energy is measured in accurate scientific experiments is by means of a device called the respiratory calorimeter. This device consists of a small room, the walls of which are impervious to the transmission of both heat and air. In this room a man or animal may be kept for a period of several days. The air breathed, food eaten, bodily heat given off, waste products excreted, and mechanical work done, are all measured with the greatest scientific accuracy. Many inter- esting results have been obtained in the investigations conducted with this won- derful scientific device. Calorimeter ex- periments have confirmed the results of 176 SUNCOOKED FOOD the oxidation of various foods in the laboratory, and have given us data from which to compute the stored energy in va- rious food substances. We have thus ascer- tained that the amount of energy yielded to the body by 1 gram of proteid is 4.1 calories ; from 1 gram of carbohydrates 4.1 calories, being equivalent to that of proteid. One gram of fat oxidized in the body yields 9.3 calories, which is more than twice that yielded by proteids or carbohydrates. Metabolism of Carbohydrates The products of the digestion of carbo- hydrates are absorbed from the alimentary canal in the form of glucose and smaller amounts of levulose, acetic, butyric and lactic acids. These substances pass into the blood vessels of the intestines, which unite to form the portal vein which supplies blood to the liver. The chief function of the liver is to act as a reservoir for the sugar of the body. The blood, in order to properly nourish the body METABOLISM 177 and supply energy to the muscle cells, must contain about .15 of 1 per cent of glucose or blood sugar. If, after a full meal of carbo- hydrates, the entire amount of digested glu- cose passed into the circulation, this percent- age would be increased many times. Here the function of the liver comes into play, for all blood from the intestines must pass through the liver before going over the body. The liver " senses " the increased content of sugar and the liver cells extract and store in the form of glycogen or animal starch a sufficient amount of glucose to reduce the percentage in the blood to the proper proportion. After digestion has been completed and the blood begins to run low in glucose, the liver cells again " sense " the difficulty and the glycogen is reconverted into glucose and again passes into the blood. This action of the liver in keeping the body fuel at constant or even pressure is one of the most impor- tant and wonderful processes in physiologi- cal chemistry. 12 178 SUNCOOKED FOOD The chief use of glucose and other forms of digested carbohydrates is the formation of heat and energy. Glucose is oxidized principally in the muscles, producing carbon dioxide, water and some lactic acid. The lactic acid which is simply a partly decom- posed form of glucose is further oxidized, forming the same final products. Glucose in the blood has still another function, as it is used to build up or form fat. Pat is a form of stored-food material which is not as readily available for use as is glycogen and glucose. We might use a homely figure of compar- ing the energy-producing substances of the human body with the movement of merchan- dise in ordinary commerce. We could say that the glucose of the blood was as mer- chandise in the hands of the people ready to be consumed; that glycogen of the liver would represent goods in the hands of the retailer ; while fat, which is stored in large quantities, would be represented by mer- chandise in warehouses. METABOLISM 179 Many interesting experiments have been conducted to prove tliat fat in the animal body can be produced from the carbohy- drates of food. For illustration, a pig for a given period was given food containing only half a pound of fat, and yet gained dur- ing the period 9 pounds of fat. Such facts prove beyond all possibility of doubt that carbohydrates are converted into fat in the animal body. Diabetes is a disease in which the control of the sugar in the blood becomes deranged and the sugar is excreted by the kidneys. It is caused by long-continued eating of starch and other glucose-forming foods in excess of the needs of the body. The reason every one who eats an excessive amount of starchy foods does not become afflicted with diabetes is because the body mechanism does not al- ways break down in the same place. When the amount of carbohydrates con- sumed is just the amount necessary to keep up the fires of bodily warmth and muscular energy (and this will be regulated by the 180 SUIsTCOOKED FOOD appetite when one subsists entirely on natu- ral suncooked foods), all will go well. But if an excess of such food be taken — and it almost invariably is by those living on a cooked diet — one of three things must hap- pen. (1) The intestines will refuse to ab- sorb the excess, and it will pass through the digestive tract a decomposing mass. (2) The excessive glucose may be deposited as bodily fat. This, however, is only an active factor, while the body is actually gaining weight, for the obese body whose weight is constant utilizes no more food than the nor- mal body. (3) An excess of sugar absorbed from the intestines and not converted into fat, forces the sugar content of the blood to an abnormal percentage, and the kidneys, whose normal function it is to excrete ni- trogenous waste products and retain the sugar, ^' spring a leak," which allows the sugar to pass out with the urine. In severe cases not only the excess but the normal sugar is strained out of the blood by the ** leaky " kidneys, and the patient literally METABOLISM 181 starves to death, though he may eat and digest an abundance of food. The remedy, if taken in the early stages, is to reduce the amount of sugar in the blood to normal through natural diet, or replace it by fat as far as possible. Of these three ways in which the body dis- poses of an abnormal amount of carbohy- drate food, the last is fortunately the most rare and the first most common. Were the reverse true, mankind would speedily be ex- terminated if he persisted in his present methods of living. Metabolism of Fat Fat, as absorbed from the digestive tract, is in the form of fatty acids and glycerine, but immediately recombines in passing through the intestinal walls into its original form. This fat then enters the lacteals which unite to form the thoracic duct. This duct or tube empties its contents into one of the large veins near the heart, whence it is distributed throughout the body. The fat of 182 SUNCOOKED FOOD the blood is not regulated to a definite amount like the content of sugar. After a meal at which much fat has been taken, the blood for a time is whitish in appearance, due to the numerous minute globules of fat. Fat of the body may be deposited directly from food fat. This can be proved by feeding an animal that has been starved until its own bodily fat has been greatly reduced upon some particular form of fat. The fat immediately deposited will then have the peculiar characteristics of fat taken with the food. Thus a dog that has been given a heavy diet of tallow will deposit fat which will contain a large quantity of stearin and palmitin, and consequently have a higher melting point than normal dog fat. The distinction between tallow, lard, olive oil, human fat, etc., is chiefly due to the va- rious portions of stearin, olein, etc., which compose the mixed fat. The reason human fat is not identical with the food fat is be- cause the body has selective power in depos- iting these fats. Thus, if the sole source of METABOLISM 183 fat which a man takes in his food is tallow, the fat-depositing cells in the human body would refuse a portion of the stearin and deposit a larger percentage of olein, thus giving a softer or more liquid fat than sup- plied in the food. When the consumption of glucose in the muscles becomes greater than the supply- available in the blood and the glycogen of the liver, bodily fat must be consumed. This explains why exercise reduces obesity. The proper method of preventing or curing obesity is a double process: First, the diet should be so selected and combined as to lessen the amount of fat that can be depos- ited from the blood; and, second, means should be employed to use or consume the fat that has accumulated. The whole story of the use of fat in the body is quite simple. Fat is least changed by digestion of all food materials. It has no particular function in the life processes, save that of storing energy. More bodily energy can be derived from a pound of fat 184 SUNCOOKED FOOD than any other source. Carbohydrates and fat perform very similar functions within the body, and can, in a large measure, re- place each other as a source of heat and mus- cular power. Metabolism of PROTEms The chief materials of which the human body, in normal health, are constructed be- ing proteid substances, it is evident that only foods containing nitrogen can be util- ized to construct the tissues. For this rea- son the metabolism of proteid or nitroge- nous foods is of very great importance. When we realize the fact that muscle, blood, brain, nerves, cartilage, tendons, the various internal bodily organs and the tougher ma- terial of the skeleton are only various forms of proteid material, and must contain their proper proportions of available or organic nitrogen, we can readily understand why nitrogenous foods form a distinct class that must be considered by themselves. Only the mineral deposits of the bones and teeth and METABOLISM 185 the globules of fat that are deposited as a source of stored energy can be constructed without nitrogen. The first use of proteids in the body is the actual adding to or increasing of bodily tis- sues. When a flabby-muscled young man from the city goes to work on a farm and gains 20 pounds, the cells of his muscles have actually increased in size and number. This requires proteids which can only be obtained from the nitrogenous material in food. The growth during early life is due to an actual increase of the size of all bodily organs, and is merely an accumulation of proteid matter. The second use of proteids, one which in mature life is of more importance than those already referred to, consists of the forma- tion of the various nitrogenous products which are produced in connection with the different processes of the body, and which are destroyed by the functions of life. For illustration, pepsin of the gastric juice is a nitrogenous substance. This can only be formed from proteids. All digestive en- 186 SUNCOOKED FOOD zymes and various other substances formed in muscles, nerves and various organs throughout the entire body, are of a nitroge- nous nature, and in their formation and use a certain amount of proteid material is de- stroyed. When the digestive enzymes and similar products are formed from proteid, they consume considerably larger quantities of actual proteid material than from their own weight, for these peculiar compounds can only be constructed from certain por- tions of the ordinary food proteids. The third form in which proteids may be consumed in the body is in the actual re- placement of worn-out cells : the skin, hair and mucous or lining membranes of the bodily cavities are constantly being cast off on the external surface, new cells being formed underneath. Cells within the inte- rior of the body when they become injured or have passed their usefulness are removed by the phagocytes or white blood corpuscles and must be replaced by other cells. In the case of bacterial infections, as METABOLISM 187 tmnors, boils or contagious diseases, the bac- teria feed upon the proteids of the blood. The white blood corpuscles are then de- stroyed in the effort to remove the intruders, and all these substances must be replaced by proteids from food. A rapid loss of weight in severe fevers is due to this kind of loss, and also the increased oxidation due to the higher temperature. The gain or loss of bodily proteids is in- dicated by the gain or loss of the nitrogen. The income of nitrogen can be ascertained by analyzing the food. The outgo of nitro- gen is computed by analyzing the excretory products of the body. If the body at the be- ginning or the end of an experimental pe- riod is carefully watched, and the income and outgo of nitrogen determined as has been stated, we can compute the amount of gain in the body that is nitrogenous tissue. The other gain or loss of bodily weight must be fat. These calculations cannot be made exact owing to the amount of food and water that is residual in the digestive organs at the time the various weighings are made. 188 SUNCOOKED FOOD We have learned, however, that in the digestive tract products of food are all con- verted into a soluble form of proteid known as peptone. The purpose of converting these products into a soluble form is that they may pass through the walls of the ali- mentary canal. This is all that was known about proteid metabolism until the soluble peptone stage was reached, at which point all track was lost of the chemical processes until the nitro- gen was again secreted by the kidneys in the form of urea. No one explained how the radically differ- ent proteids, such as egg albumin, milk cas- ein and wheat giutin could appear in the body as blood globulin, brain lecithin, or the myosin of the muscles. We cannot fully explain here the history of all investigations that have shown the true state of affairs regarding proteid met- abolism, but must be content to recite what actually happens to the nitrogenous mate- rial of food. Proteids contain carbon, hy- METABOLISM 189 drogen, oxygen and nitrogen, and sometimes small quantities of sulphur, phosphorus or iron. These proteids are now known to be chemically changed by the digestive enzymes of the intestines into simpler compounds containing these same elements. These simple nitrogenous substances pass into the liver, and just as the liver regulates the supply of sugar, so it regulates the sup- ply of nitrogenous compounds in the blood. A certain amount of proteid-forming mate- rial is passed through the liver and goes on to perform the various fimctions for which proteid is utilized in the body. All nitroge- nous material in excess of the amount re- quired by the body is challenged by the liver, and the nitrogen, together with a portion of the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, is split off, forming urea, which is excreted by the kid- neys. The remainder of the proteid sub- stance having been robbed of its nitrogen is now essentially the same as carbohydrates, and goes to form glucose or blood sugar, which may in turn form bodily fats. 190 SUNCOOKED FOOD This explanation throws light upon sev- eral interesting points. It has been stated that proteid is the most essential food ma- terial of the body, because it alone contained the nitrogenous compounds from which the bodily tissues and the chemical enzymes, which control all living processes, could be constructed. But we now see that as impor- tant as is a supply of proteid materials, any excess above the bodily needs is immediately turned into glucose and urea; the first of which, while useful to the body, could be taken in a simpler and less expensive form, and the latter of which is waste product harmful to life, and must be immediately ex- creted from the kidneys. The nitrogen that is actually used in the body has a different history from that of the excessive proteid taken as food. The food proteid is simpl}^ split by the chemical addi- tion of water, much as starch is changed into glucose. The proteid that is really used by the body is oxidized and is excreted by the kidneys chiefly in the form of creatinin METABOLISM 191 and uric acid, and the proportions of these compounds compared with the urea in the urine show whether a man's diet contains an excess of proteid or is lacking in that group of food substances. THE VIENO SYSTEM OF FOOD MEASUREMENT Five years ago, when I published the first edition of " Uncooked Foods," I gave the tables of food analysis taken from Bulletin 28 of the Chemistry Bureau of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. These tables were useful as reference for the chemist, but I had never found them to be of any par- ticular value in practical dietetics. They were published at the time as being the best thing available. Two years ago, assisted by Mr. Milton Hastings, the physiological chemist in Christian's School of Applied Food Chem- istry, I designed a new system of food meas- urement, which I have called the ^^ Vieno System,'' and which places the essential facts of food analysis in a practical form. This system has been taught for two years to the students of my School of Applied YEENO SYSTEM OF MEASUREMENT 193 Food Chemistry, and this test in actual work has been proven the most practical system of food measurement yet devised. It is here given for the first time to the gen- eral public. It is much simpler than the older food tables, and yet is complete and accurate enough for the purpose for which it is intended — that is, the calculation of the energy and available nitrogen in individual dietaries. The vieno tables tell the amount of energy that may be derived from food in the chemi- cal laboratory, but nothing of the amount of energy that the body must expend in the process of assimilation. This cannot be given in a table, because it varies with the individual and the condition of his digestive organs. Neither does the energy or nitrogen factor constitute all that is known about the chem- ical properties of food. But they represent two of the most important facts, and the two which are first to be considered in determin- ing how much of a particular food we should eat. 13 194 STJNCOOKED FOOD To the vieno table, as first planned, I have added a column, giving the constipating or laxative effects of food. This action, how- ever, depends, to a great extent, upon the amount taken, the way in which the food has been prepared, and the other foods with which it is combined. As the laxative factor cannot be numerically represented, I have grouped foods into the following classes: (C) constipative, (L) laxative, (N") neutral. This classification applies only when foods are taken in their natural state, and in nor- mal quantities, and combined with no other foods that would materially change their effect. The table assumes that meats will be cooked; other foods are assumed to be un- cooked. In the case of acid fruits, I have appended a fourth column, giving the comparative acidity. The amount of energy and nitro- gen contained in such foods is small, and their use in the diet is determined chiefly by the acid content. vieno system of measurement 195 Explanation of the Vieno System Things are commonly measured by vol- ume or by weight. That volume would not be an accurate form of measurement of food values is evident to all. A bushel of lettuce leaves would clearly contain less food value than a bushel of wheat. Weight would seem to be a more accurate way to compare foods, but all foods contain water, which may vary from 5 to 95 per cent. A pound of turnips, which is nine-tenths water, would not be comparable with sugar, which has scarcely any water at all. Even if it were not for this water content, weight would not be a fair method of com- parison, because some foods are of more value per pound than others, owing to their difference in chemical composition. Thus a pound of butter gives 2% times as much heat to the body as the same weight in sugar. As before mentioned, the two chief food factors which we desire to measure are energy-producing and tissue-building power. 196 SUNCOOKED FOOD All true foods, when assimilated in the body, produce some energy. In fact, only such substances as produce energy, when combined with the oxygen taken in through the lungs, can be strictly classed as food. We have taken this energy-producing power of food as the best basis for measure- ment and comparison. Nitrogen would have been taken as a unit and energy figured by a table, but it is simpler to use energy as a unit and figure the nitrogen in various foods by giving in a table the amount of nitrogen per unit of energy. Multiplication of the imits of energy by the nitrogen factor is necessary because the ratio of nitrogen to energy is different in each food. Energy is the power to do work. The form of energy with which we are most familiar is mechanical energy, as raising a stone or propelling a bicycle. Heat is another form of energy. Heat and work can be converted into each other. The steam engine converts heat into work, while a *' hot box '' turns work back into heat. YEENO SYSTEM OF MEASUEEMENT 197 Experiments show that a definite amount of heat always yields a definite amount of work, so that the amount of heat formed by a food material when combined with oxygen is taken as a measure of its energy. This is ordinarily expressed in calories, which, as stated in the last chapter, is the amount of heat required to raise 1000 grams of water 1° centigrade. The definition of the term calory need not concern the reader greatly for we will have no use for it other than a mere explanatory term. Instead we will use the vieno : a unit which is equal to 100 calories. This unit is selected because it gives such quantities of food as are easily measured and remem- bered. The word ^' vieno " is derived from the words '^ vital " and '' energy," and is pronounced vi-en'o. Nitrogen is the chemical element that is most concerned with the function of life. All animal tissue contains nitrogen, and it forms about one-sixth part by weight of the nitrogenous or proteid substances. Muscle 198 SUNCOOKED FOOD is composed of proteid and water. If we were to take 100 pounds of lean meat or mus- cle and dehydrate it completely, we would have about 18 pounds of dry material left. If we should analyze this dry substance or proteid, we would find that about one-sixth or 3 pounds would be the element nitrogen. Thus we say that muscle contains 18 per cent of protein or 3 per cent of nitrogen. In ordinary practice protein is mixed with fats and salts and cannot be measured by simply drying out the water. So the chemist finds the amount of nitrogen present and multi- plies by 6.25, which gives about the per cent of proteid. This method is not accurate be- cause the per cent of nitrogen in various pro- teids is not the same. In this system we dis- card the use of the terms protein or proteids and refer to the amount of nitrogen directly. All compounds of the element nitrogen are not available as food. For illustration, the nitrogen of the air or of ammonia gas or gunpowder cannot be utilized in the animal body. The nitrogen in foods only refers to VTENO SYSTEM OF MEASIJREMENT 199 available nitrogen. Compounds containing other forms of nitrogen are not foods, and are frequently poisons. In the following table I have attempted to give the amount of each particular food that one vieno equals, in as simple manner as pos- sible. In the first column I have told in the plainest language possible what one vieno of food equals; as one vieno equals two- thirds of an ounce, or one vieno of protoid nuts equals one rounded tablespoonful. This method is, of course, only approximate, as in some foods it is impossible to find a simple term to express the amount of one vieno. This is especially true of cooked foods, because of the varied amounts of water absorbed or lost in the cooking proc- ess. No food table which would attempt to give the positive value of cooked food would be worth anything from a scientific stand- point. In such cases the only way for the student to become familiar with a vieno is to weigh one pound of the uncooked or natural 200 SrNCOOKED FOOD material and ascertain how much it makes after it is cooked. The definition given in the first column, in the case of milk, butter, eggs and cheese, is fairly accurate. In the case of cereals and bread the definition is also approximately correct. With fresh vegetables we have not attempted to define the vieno by volume, as vegetables are loose and bulky, and it is only practical to measure them by weight. In fresh fruits we have defined one vieno as " one large orange, or six plums," etc. In this case we have made allowance for the non-edible portion ; all weights given in the table consider only the edible portion. The defining of one vieno of nuts in spoon- fuls is sufficiently correct for practical use. With pecans we have given the actual num- ber of nuts of average size that equal one vieno. This is done only as an illustration, and not continued throughout the table. This first column of our table is for rough work, and is designed to aid the reader in approximating the amount of one vieno. VIENO SYSTEM OF MEASUREMENT 201 The third column of the table, which gives the number of vienos in one pound, is the column which should be used in more accu- rate work. A pound of food here referred to invariably means one pound of the edible portion only. The way to compute the amount of food in one vieno is to take one pound of the food to be used and divide it equally into as many portions as the number in this column. For illustration, if one pound of wheat is given as equal to 16 vienos, one should take a poimd of wheat and divide it into 16 portions ; each of these portions will represent one vieno. As soon as a pound of food has been divided in this m^anner, and the amount of one vieno of such food fixed in the mind, it is easy enough to estimate the number of vienos and it will not be necessary to repeat the weighings in the future. The fourth column of our table gives the nitrogen factor. This column is to be used for computing the amount of nitrogen in the diet. The way to do this is to take the total 202 SUNCOOKED FOOD number of vienos of each food eaten and multiply this number by the nitrogen factor. The product will be the actual amount of nitrogen consumed (expressed in deci- grams). As a decigram is one-tenth of a gram, it is only necessary to divide by ten to change the nitrogen, when given in deci- grams, to grams. For illustration, 30 vienos of almonds with a nitrogen factor of 5 would give 30 X 5 = 150 ; this means 150 decigrams or 15 grams of nitrogen. We express the nitrogen in decigrams be- cause it does away with the use of decimals. If in reading other works one finds the amount of nitrogen given in grams he only needs to add a cipher to reduce it to our system.* *As for comparing the Vieno System with the old- fashioned food tables, giving the percentage of protein, carbohydrates and fat, and the energy in calories, the compu- tation involved is too complex for a popular work. The reader may secure a further explanation of this relation from the Vieno Booklet of Christian's School of Applied Food Chemistry. VIENO SYSTEM OF MEASUREMENT 203 ^l Z o z >^ z z z u Z Z Z >A U5 2 M tH y-i •Sb i If g O 00 UO iH to CO la a 05 a CO iH iH tH iH rH iH S^ s o , I) • . 0) . . , U ' k3 • • 1 i § ;^ CO o C s 5 1 g5 ^ Oh d ' ^ a a A. w W t« «M a .2 ^ -S 0) a> S Asi Q B ^ ^-^ ,^ rt ^.^ ^^ ^_^ -M a ■^ a +-> .1^ Q -a 'O o a C ^ ° OI ra (D s ^ u f^ o fe ^ ^ 204 SUNCOOKED FOOD <6 » ;z: ^ ;z; iz: o iz; Z ^ DO o O CO Tj< O N T-l CO III U5 O (M t- t- "er .2 § (2 ;^ ^ s CO ,H tH CO w to W) a> o S i^ o rH CO CO 2 5 S OJ ^ ^ m m oi Wl biD bo bO bO bo O O H W H J^ '5 cu J3 O O pq O O o 5~ o tH 00 l^i 1 = 1 o (M eo ^J h5 ^ y^ Z ^ O Z Z ^0 50 Tt< O «0 00 50 t, 05 ;£, C<1 ij O "^ cu . QJ ^ M o a B rt 73 9^ (U a ^ a bD O tn O c3 t: tri 02 CO l=! o a a o o fl a .5-5 ee -l-> (P Xj 02 ^: 02 *t^ ?. (-1 ^ " ,£3 o o fl CU •^ OS 02 CIIh O eco«£>"^'«»«w<0"«j<«>ijO ^ M cq CO lO CO t^ W ^ o 2 bo WD — :3 (=1 O O O o o 03 a o o p. CO O M o 2 rn ^w '-' 1 "^ 1 C 03 g ^ S PQ S3 --! P 11 ■t-l 1 PI 5 d Pi .5 (D w 03 B 2 'S "S ^ :3 03 2 rn CD a o 8 'c3 ,s=i Q o ITh O o Q U |i| (i! rt g o o 1 1 03 Q> ^^^ eo CO CO po (M tH tH (M cq CO O ®5oCO CO U5 CO >^ 0) r5 r^ ^ VIENO SYSTEM OF MEASUREMENT 209 jl jJh3h:1h:Ih^hJJ2; )^ ^ ^ a ^ •2 C 5. r-l tH "3 00 ITS 0> i-i C<1 rH C o 5 o (M S S ^ I § Pi rt od p 210 SUNCOOKED FOOD ll Hqh^O^JQH^HqOvJH:!^^;*^^ Il ^ s oooiHifluj-^uiiooocqtoia Cq (M ;D r^ Cq •rt 'C w t: 1- Ti t: 1/ r- -d 6iD = 2 d 1 P S £ CO P d d a c ->- rt »- c d JZ" M c d c c c c c o ^ Pi 3 o a § p. ^ P< g P. P. 5 E A T- ^ ^. T-l r-i ^ ^ ;:j^ < ;^ ;:^ cc < ^ ? 4-> rt o 'd .2 CQ g 'a zr o P3 ^^ v-^ a fa ^ to OT cc c u< H PJ 3 d d d c o > P t -4-1 5 re C o 1 d o d O) -1 o e 3 ^J B * '3 t-, u Sh a rt p d o o 4 C c d ^ ^ ^ O Ph Ph w w W 03 h B OLD AND NEW DIETARY STAND- ARDS The term '' dietary standard," as it has been applied in the past, means the amount of various classes of nutrients that should be taken by the human body under the vary- ing conditions of age, work, etc. Many investigations have been made dur- ing the last twenty-five years in this country, Europe and Japan regarding the amount of foods consumed by various groups of people. The facts gathered, which include more or less accurate records of the foods eaten by many thousands of individuals under widely different circinnstances and conditions of life, is invaluable scientific data, but the in- terpretation that has been placed upon these observations, forms one of the most con- spicuous blunders made by the scientific world. Whether this criticism should fall wholly upon the men of science, who made 212 SUNCOOKED FOOD the investigations, or more upon the people who misinterpreted their meaning, is an open question; but the fact remains that from the general teachings in physiologies and popular bulletins piiblished by the gov- ernment there has been widely spread many very incorrect ideas respecting the amount and character of nutrients required to main- tain a high standard of life and health. The following table gives, in the Vieno System, the results of a number of the inves- tigations as made. These figures represent the actual daily average amount of food eaten by the people under observation when they were following their customary diet : Yienos. ^N-S'Sf California Football Team 66 375 New England Rowing Club 40 255 Wealthy class in American cities... 30 250 U. S. Army rations 37 200 Farmers, Eastern U. S 34 160 Skilled laborers, U. S. cities 40 220 Alabama negroes 34 145 Japanese peasants 20 100 From such records the government stand- ards have been roughly approximated. The OLD AND NEW STANDARDS 213 standards published by the United States Government, computed by Prof. Atwater, and commonly known as the Atwater Stand- ards, are as follows: Vienos. Decigrams ,, , Nitrog-en. Man at hard muscular work 55 280 Man at hard work 41i^ 240 Man at moderate work 34 2OO Man at light muscular work 30% igO Man of sedentary habits 27 160 The Atwater Standards for women are computed as four-fifths of the amount of food required for a man under similar con- ditions. Of course it has been recognized through- out that no correct standard could be pre- scribed for individuals without knowing the details of their environment and personal habits, yet these dietary standards have been put forth to guide the public in the selection of their food. Although the great majority of people eat what is set before them and ask no questions about nitrogen and energy, the influence of a prescription so imiversally published as the Government Dietary Stand- 214 SUNCOOKED FOOD ards seriously sways and affects the habits of the people. Obviously the correctness of Government standards is of vital impor- tance to the health and welfare of the nation. A dietary standard to be of value should tell the amount and proportion of food mate- rials required to keep the human body in its highest working capacity. The error com- mitted by the men who planned the fore- going standards, is that they have assumed that the amount of food a man does eat is a criterion of the amount he should eat. Man is a creature of habits, and civilized man is a creature of a good many bad habits. The argument that the average amount of food eaten is the amount that should be eaten falls under suspicion at once when we consider the fact that by a similar line of reasoning we could prove that the use of tobacco is necessary because the majority of men use it, or that deformed feet are neces- sary for good social standing because a few million Chinese women consider this to be the eminently correct thing. OLD AND NEW STANDARDS 215 The idea has been spread far and wide that the diet of the American working man, which is the richest in proteid of any race in the world, is responsible for the great econo- mic thrift of the American people. As a matter of fact rich diets are associated with prosperity, but the prosperity is the cause of the diet, not the diet the cause of the pros- perity. Meat and rich foods pervert the taste and gain a hold upon the bodies of men, as alcohol and narcotics do. When a man or nation becomes wealthy, gluttony is the usual result, but there is no proof that a heavy consumption of food is the cause of a nation's greatness. On the contrary, his- tory shows many illustrations of the rise and growth of a people in power and prosperity, the consequent adoption of excessive and luxurious habits of eating and drinking, fol- lowed by physical deterioration and the de- cline of the race. Diet was the mercury in the national thermometer that marked the first mental decline of the Eoman empire. The power to live from the work of others, 216 SUNCOOKED FOOD which is miscalled wealth, gives leisure and luxury, and the demands of sensuality are apt to assume control while mentality de- clines at a corresponding ratio. The criterion that we should depend upon to determine dietary standards is not the amount of food eaten, but the amount of food that is found to give the greatest vitality and capacity to do things. It is reasonable to assume that this amount would be the least quantity of food that would maintain activity without using up the food material stored in the body. All food taken in excess of the amount actually required is a poisonous embargo laid upon the vitality of the body. To do a given amount of work or to add a pound of tissue to the body requires a defi- nite quantity of energy-yielding or tissue- building material ; but if more food is eaten than is needed for these purposes, the excess must be thrown off at a tremendous expense of vital force. If it is not digested, it fer- ments in the alimentary canal, giving rise to OLD AND NEW STANDARDS 217 poisonous products, which enter the blood and cause all manner of ills. If it is ab- sorbed by the blood, it must be decomposed into simple products before being secreted, for the complex substances of food cannot be directly excreted from the body. All this means that food taken in excess of the actual requirements is not only useless, but very detrimental, consuming energy, poisoning and interfering with the normal action of the body, and overtaxing the organs of ex- cretion. The assumption that the amount of food that will give the best result is the least quantity that will maintain normal bodily functions is now known to be correct. It has been positively proven by recent scien- tific experiments that we would be greatly benefited in health if the above dietary standards were cut in half. The obstinate manner in which the old school of scientists have tried to avoid the acceptance of the modern investigations is almost amusing. They seem to be much afraid that the world 218 SUNCOOKED FOOD will starve to death, and have searched in vain throughout the field of science for facts to sustain the old standards of diet. True Food Requieements The amount of energy required by the body depends very greatly upon the amount of work done, and hence cannot be pre- scribed when this is unknown. However, there is a certain amount of energy con- sumed by the beating of the heart and in the maintenance of bodily heat which can be fairly well estimated. The daily quantity of energy-yielding food required for the maintenance of the life functions is about one vieno for every 10 pounds of bodily weight. For a man at steady muscular work, such as a carpenter or farmer, this quantity should be about doubled. The amount best suited to a man of sedentary habits, but who takes regular exercise for an hour or two each day, is about half way be- tween these two quantities. Thus a man weighing 140 pounds would require 1^/^ OLD AND NEW STANDARDS 219 vienos for each 10 pounds or 21 vienos of food per day. These weights apply only to people in normal flesh, who neither desire to gain or lose weight. The fact that either fats or carbohydrates can be used as a source of muscular energy can be taken advantage of in prescribing dietaries for persons whose digestive organs are so deranged that they cannot partake of a normal amoimt of either of these nutri- ments. This does not mean, however, that the proportion of fat and carbohydrates in the food can be entirely disregarded. The digestive processes involved are radically different, and a suitable ratio of carbohy- drates and fats should be maintained if we expect to keep all functions of the digestive and assimilative organs in their best work- ing order. With a view to guiding in a general way those who wish a standard of diet for ordi- nary use, and who consult tables in which fats and carbohydrates are listed separately, I might state that the fat should form about 220 siJisrcooKED food one-fourth the total source of energy of the food or one-eighth the weight of water-free substance. Consideration of the amount of proteid food required by the body is of special in- terest. An idea that was held by scientists until forty years ago, and which is still a matter of popular belief, is that nitrogenous foods are the source of muscular energy. This is a natural assumption. Lean meat is muscle. If a man eats muscle he would surely grow muscle and be a strong man. The apparent logic of this is so evident that its belief among people, who are not ac- quainted with physiological chemistry, is almost universal. As a matter of fact, the man who eats the muscle of an ox for the purpose of adding strength to his own biceps goes as wide of the mark as the college boy who takes calf's brains for breakfast the day before examination. The fact that nitrogenous foods are not a source of muscular energy has been repeat- OLD AND NEW STANDARDS 221 edly proved by experiments on man and animals. The glucose or grape sugar in the blood, taken into the muscle cells, and there uniting with oxygen brought from the lungs, is the true source of muscular energy. When the body is fed upon proteids and lacks sufficient quantities of other food, a portion of this can be converted into glucose or blood sugar, which maintains bodily heat and energy. This (together with fat) is the source of energy of carnivorous animals, but they have excretory organs especially adapted to handle the useless products that are left when proteid food is used to pro- duce glucose for muscular energy. Prof. Chittenden, of Tale, has proved that dogs are capable of living for an indefinite period, maintaining health and increasing bodily weight upon a diet with only a small proportion of proteid. Thus we see that even carnivorous animals require for the maintenance of the bodily functions a com- paratively small amount of nitrogenous ma- terial, and can get their strength- and heat- 222 SUNCOOKED FOOD forming elements from carbohydrates and fats. During active life a given quantity of mtrogen is required to maintain health. Under certain conditions the amount of nitrogen required for the maintenance of health would be increased ; for illustration, a rapidly growing youth would consume nitrogen to actually increase the tissues of his body. An emaciated person, who wishes to increase weight; a person recovering from a severe case of illness, or one who is just beginning to take up strenuous work and whose weight shows a daily increase due to actual growth of muscles, all these would require nitrogenous food in addition to that required for the normal vital processes. The amount of nitrogen actually con- sumed in the physiological processes has been determined by various methods, and for the adult is from 40 to 60 decigrams per day. This amoimt, however, makes no al- lowance for the waste necessary in the re- fusal by the digestive or other organs of OLD AND NEW STANDARDS 223 parts of the proteid not suited to actual bodily uses. From the results of numerous experi- ments the quantity of food nitrogen, which is found to maintain the best bodily condi- tion, is about three-fourths of a decigram per poimd of bodily weight. Less than one- half a decigram per pound bodily weight would cause nitrogen starvation, while more than one decigram per pound, except in the case of a person rapidly gaining flesh, would fill the blood with those nitrogenous decom- position products that are known to be the cause of fatigue, muscular soreness and that feeling of listlessness experienced by the consumer of an excessive proteid diet. As explained in the chapter on flesh foods, the proteid of flesh is worse in this respect than milk, eggs or vegetable proteids, be- cause flesh is laden with the unexcreted nitrogenous decomposition products of the animal. The reason that the flesh-eating athlete is more healthy than the sedentary flesh eater 224: SUNCOOKED FOOD is because Ms mucli more rapid circulation passes the blood more frequently through the excretory organs, removing a larger pro- portion of the poison. Those abstaining from meat proteids need much less training to keep in physical trim than the steak-fed athlete. Compared with the number of contestants, an overwhelming proportion of the endurance tests in ath- letics are won by non-meat-eating athletes. The best record for the arm-holding endur- ance test made in this country by a meat eater is 22 minutes; the non-meat-eater's record is 176 minutes. Nature's Food Scales But must I weigh all my food and count every apple and ice-cream soda I eat during the day ^ I would answer by saying that if you have been eating as blindly as the aver- age American nothing could more forcefully impress upon your mind the importance and interest in the subject of food than to pro- vide a note book and compute for a few days OLD AND NEW STANDARDS 225 the energy and nitrogen contents of your diet. This, with the Vieno System, will be easy enough, if you dine in your own home. With the aid of the popular approximations of the '' one-vieno-equals '' column you can even get a line on how near you are meeting the real needs of you body, though you live at boarding house or hotel. It is interesting, right and helpful that we should study, know and profit by the findings of science, but nature gave man a means of determining the food requirements of his body a hundred thousand years before the invention of the Vieno System or the multi- plication table. There are several thousand taste-buds called '^ papillae " on the top and root of the tongue. When the mouth receives food that is approved by the taste-buds each motion of the jaw in mastication pumps out saliva which is thoroughly mixed with the food, which brings out new and still more deli- cious tastes. The mouth is the laboratory in which everything that goes into the 15 226 SIJNCOOKED FOOD stomacli should be tested and prepared. The taste-buds are the police of the stomach. If they have not been perverted and abused, they will stand ever on guard and protest when either the quantity or quality of the body's building material goes wrong. They will perform this service for us per- fectly if we train and treat them decently; but if we abuse and pervert these delicate organs by heaping upon them and forcing them to accept stimulating, irritating and unnatural things, they cease to perform their functions, and sullenly accept almost anything and any quantity with which we choose to load them. Luigi Cornaro was a Venetian nobleman and philosopher. He became a physical T\T:'eck at forty. He ceased philosophizing about ethics and such things and decided to ascertain why. He very soon solved the problem. It was over-eating. He began by restricting him- self to 12 ounces of solid food per day. As he advanced in age he still further reduced his daily ration until he partook of only one OLD AND NEW STANDARDS 227 egg a day, in addition to a very little wine and water. After adhering to this custom for many years and enjoying perfect health, he one day partook of 2 ounces of solid food, an ex- periment which nearly cost him his life. Some of his best works were written between the ages of eighty-six and ninety-five. He lived to be 103 years old, though the best doctors of his day had told him at forty that he could never reach the age of fifty. In subsisting wholly upon uncooked food, the natural tendency is for all the organs that are employed in converting food into energy to become normal, and make no de- mands except those required by nature. Natural foods require more mastication, which is nature's greatest guard against over-eating; but until the system adopts the new regime and the taste-buds are given opportunity to adjust themselves to the change, it is best to partake of about half the quantity one would eat were the foods cooked, and masticate them twice or three times as long. FLESH FOODS Many thousands of people attain fine physical development and seem to maintain good health when subsisting upon a mixed diet, including meat. It is true that meat will sustain life, and it is equally true that human life can be sustained without it. The question of whether man should eat the flesh of animals seems to be especially fascinating for those who give much atten- tion to the subject of human nutrition. There are many viewpoints from which the question of vegetarianism may be discussed. Religious teachings have been very conspic- uous in the history of flesh eating. Some sects require man to refrain from all animal products, while others condemn only the flesh of certain animals. The discussion of these various teachings is of no importance to the scientific student ; hence I will not con- sider them here. FLESH FOODS 229 Flesh eating has been widely discussed during the past few years — chiefly from the animars standpoint, that is, the cruelty and destruction of life involved in the slaughter of innocent creatures who are in many ways physiologically related to us. That prac- tices and customs that train humanity in cruelty toward animal life are to be dis- couraged cannot well be disputed; but this phase of the subject of vegetarianism is also one somewhat without the realm of food chemistry, and upon which ample stress has been laid by other writers. I wish to discuss vegetarianism here from the standpoint of scientific human nutrition. One of the first and most important phases of the question is man's natural adaptation to such a diet. By natural adaptation I mean the fitting of the physiological organ- ism to the food primitive man was able to procure. The digestive and metabolic proc- ess of man, has, in his comparatively brief period of civilization, doubtless undergone some changes, but it was in the long ages of 230 SUNCOOKED FOOD evolution that the digestive organs of man received their chief characteristics. For this reason it is of especial importance for us to know the diet of primitive men at a time before his increasing resourcefulness enabled him to gather his bill of fare from the four corners of the earth. The food of the man-like or anthropoid apes, of very primitive savage tribes, and that of our own ancestors, as indicated from remains found as fossils and in caves, all throw light upon the subject. The con- sensus of these various studies indicates that the original or natural diet of man was one drawn chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, but not entirely so. Fruits, nuts, green vegetables, edible foliage, tubers and roots, were all included in man's primitive bill of fare. The foods of animal origin were varied, and consisted of such articles as birds' eggs, shell fish, and, though it may not please some of our twentieth-century read- ers to be reminded of it, primitive man un- doubtedly devoured many insects and other FLESH FOODS 231 low forms of animal life. Our modern cus- tom of eating lobsters, clams and frogs' legs might well be considered an inheritance of this habit. Primitive man ate all of the foregoing articles uncooked. From the above facts it will be clear to the mind of the unbiased reader that man does not need to ingest large quantities of beef- steak in order to survive. Neither do the facts of man's primitive diet prove that he is by nature an absolute vegetarian as is the cow, and wholly unsuited to digest any mate- rial of animal origin. The anatomy of man's teeth and digestive organs, when com- pared with that of other animals, bears out the conclusion that he is by nature chiefly a vegetarian, but not absolutely so, and that his digestive organs can assimilate a diet that is somewhat more bulky than that of carnivorous animals, but, on the other hand, less bulky than the diet of animals which subsist wholly on succulent plants as do the herbivorous species. 232 suisrcooKED food A diet composed exclusively of flesh con- tains fat and nitrogenous compounds only. These two classes of foods can maintain life. For that matter proteid alone will maintain life, for proteid is capable of forming both blood sugar and bodily fat. The fact that the proteid or fat of meat can be made to fill, in the physiological economy, the place naturally filled by the carbohydrate mate- rials of vegetable food, does not prove that such a diet is without its harmful infiuences. The living body has many wonderful pro- visions whereby life is maintained under favorable influences. Just as a blind person develops a sense of touch which in a way acts as a substitute for sight, so the ability of the body to convert proteids or fats into sugar may be utilized in case of emergency ; but the using of this emergency or substitute function cannot develop as perfectly an ad- justed bodily machine as will a naturally balanced diet. The fact that some people exist on an excessive meat diet no more proves that it is without its handicapping FLESH FOODS 233 and evil influences than does the almost uni- versal use of alcohol indicate that man is benefited by indulging in intoxicants. Fat and proteids are the elements sup- plied by flesh foods, and in considering the use of meat we may well ask, " Is meat the best source from which we may secure these elements?'' The proportion of fat required by man is not large, and where this proportion is greatly increased it results in the unbalanc- ing of both digestion and metabolism. The proteid substance of meat includes all of the edible portion of a carcass, except the fat. The proteid of meat is more com- pletely and more rapidly digested than is the proteid of vegetables. Notwithstanding this fact, there are serious objections to the use of meat as a source of nitrogen in our food. One objection is that flesh food con- tains the unexcreted waste matter of the slaughtered animal. When the process of metabolism is suddenly arrested by death, the effete and decomposing cells and partly 234 SUNCOOKED FOOD oxidized waste products, which are normally in the blood and muscle tissue, are left in the flesh. Moreover, while excretion and circu- lation are stopped immediately upon the death of the animal, the muscle cells live for some hours — at least until the animal warmth has left the flesh. These cells living after the death of the animal continue to produce animal poisons, and as there is no circulation to carry them off they accumu- late in much larger percentage than in the normal live muscle cell. When an animal dies in a warm environment, the actual death of the muscle cells is due to this very ac- cumulation of waste product, which would normally be carried away by the circulation and thrown off through the lungs and kid- neys. Plants can thrive upon the carbon dioxide or other excrement of the animal. One form of life may thus utilize what is excreted by another form of life, but the living thing that cannot get away from the excreted mat- ter of its own activity is poisoned thereby. When bacteria growing in a solution of FLESH FOODS 235 sugar have excreted alcohol until it forms a certain percentage of the contents of the liquid, their activity is stopped. They die from the poisons they have produced. This is the reason why liquids containing a high percentage of alcohol must be distilled and cannot be brewed. The same principle applies to the cells of the human body. The flesh of animals whose physiological proc- esses are almost identical with our own, containing as it does waste products that have not yet been excreted, must, when taken into the human body, add extra burdens to our excretory organs, which are usually overburdened in their effort to remove the effete matter of our own cells. Carnivorous animals are especially provided with an ex- cretory system capable of taking care of such matter; but it is unreasonable to expect the excretory organs of man, which are not adapted to such a purpose, to throw off, in addition to its own waste matter, similar de- composing products of other animals. Meat in the sense the word is used here in- 236 SUNCOOKED FOOD eludes beef, mutton, pork and an occasional allowance of wild game. From the stand- point of its chemical consideration, meat may well be divided into flesh or lean meat and animal fats ; the former of which we will consider first. Lean meat is composed of the muscle of the animal. Stated roughly, lean meat is three-fourths water and one-fourth protein. The protein is composed first of connective tissue, which is a tough, fibrous substance that forms tendons and holds the muscle cells in place. Chemically, connective tissue is formed of albuminoids, which are some- what difficult to digest, and do not perform any important service in the nutrition of the body, as they cannot take the place of true proteid in tissue formation. The percentage of connective tissue de- pends upon the cut of the meat. As every housewife knows, the cheaper cuts of meat contain a larger amount of this material. The gelatine of commerce is a manufactured product derived from the connective tissue of animals. FLESH FOODS 237 A second portion of the protein is in the form of globulin, myosin and other true pro- teids, which form the actual muscle sub- stance. These proteids form perhaps three- quarters of the entire proteid of meat, and are the most valuable food substance it con- tains. A very small portion of meat pro- teids is formed by the free albumins of the blood, which are mechanically retained in the muscle cells, the purpose of which is the nourishment of the animal, and, therefore, are not unwholesome as food. The fourth class of nitrogenous substances found in flesh foods is called meat extractives. Though they exist only in quantities of from 1 to 2 per cent of the weight of the flesh, they are the most interesting from the standpoint of our discussion, because they are not pres- ent in any but flesh foods, and are products of cell life, hence not wholesome as food. They are composed of urea, uric acid, creatinin, etc., and are similar or identical to the waste products of human-cell metabol- ism. The amount of these substances con- 238 SUNCOOKED FOOD tained in flesh depends upon the condition of the animal at the time of slaughter; being greater in animals in which the normal functions have been seriously disturbed by fatigue or fright. Meat extractives, which are physiological poisons, are the principal substances in meat extracts and beef tea. Their stimulating effect upon the body, like that of alcohol, is due to these poisonous properties. The use of beef tea for nourishing the sick is about as wise as the use of alcohol to keep one from freezing. Beef tea is but little more nour- ishing than urine, which it very closely re- sembles in chemical composition. The chemical composition of the various kinds of meat need not be elaborated upon in this work. The variation is not great ex- cept that due to the per cent of fat. The distinction between beef and mutton from the nutritive standpoint is of no con- sequence. Scientific facts do not show that one of these articles is particularly better or worse than the other. The use of pork has FLESH FOODS 239 been generally condemned the world over. The reason for this is probably explained by the prejudice of tradition and religion, rather than by any scientific facts. The chief distinction between pork and other meats is that the former contains a much larger percentage of fat. Pork is usually prepared by frying, while pork fat is largely used in the preparation of other foods — a process of preparation that is ex- ceedingly harmful, and which no doubt has reflected much upon pork as an article of food. The prejudice against swine because of the jSlthy habits of the animal is more a matter of sentiment than of science. The hog is not an unclean animal if given a chance. Corn and alfalfa fed pork is, so far as science knows, fully as wholesome as beef or mutton, if prepared in similar fashion. Animal Fats The use of animal fats outside of those consumed as fat meat is confined chiefly to 240 SUNCOOKED FOOD their use as shortening in bread and pastry, and for the purpose of cooking other foods by the process of frying. These uses of fats are not to be commended regardless of the nature of the fat. As the fats from animal carcasses in any form are not palatable, there can be very little use for them in an approved dietary. The chief distinction be- tween animal and vegetable fats is in the proportion of olein compared with stearin and palmitin. The proportion of the two latter elements is much greater in the fats of pork and beef than in those of the human body. This is especially true of tallow. For this reason vegetable fats, which are of a more liquid nature, are more desirable, where we wish to add fatty tissue to the body, than those of animal origin. Cold Storage of Meat Only a very small amount of the meat pro- duced in America is consumed near the place of slaughter. Refrigerator cars have been constructed for the purpose of preserving FLESH FOODS 241 meats until they can reach their destination, and large cold-storage plants erected to hold it, awaiting market advances for the benefit of packers and tradesmen. Meat in cold storage slowly undergoes decomposition, and, as is well known, storage meat will decay much more rapidly after its removal than will fresh meats. The process of ripen- ing meat in rooms of varying temperature depends upon this decomposition. The nat- ural enzymes of the meat, and the bacteria contained, digest a portion of the proteids, forming nitrogenous decomposition prod- ucts, similar to the meat extractives above referred to. Ripened or storage meats con- tain a larger per cent of this group of com- pounds than does fresh meat. The high flavor of ripened meats depends upon the odor produced by this decomposi- tion process. There are certain species of bacteria that produce more poisonous waste products than others, and this occasionally causes the development of ptomains in cold- storage meat. 16 242 SUNCOOKED FOOD The use of cold-storage or ripened-animal products is to be condemned. Nevertheless, if people insist upon using flesh food, and economic conditions make it profitable to produce meats far from the place of con- sum.ption, the use of cold-storage meats seems inevitable. Contagious Diseases and Animal Food Much has been said regarding the con- traction of contagious diseases from eating the flesh of diseased animals. This risk has been much magnified in the public mind. Flesh is seldom taken in an uncooked form, and disease germs are destroyed in most flesh foods by cooking. The cooking proc- ess, however, must be thorough. The heat must be sufficient to coagulate the proteids. The interior of a slice of rare beefsteak has not reached this temperature. The most dangerous form of disease con- tamination from fresh flesh food is that of trichinosis. Trichina are worm-like crea- tures, the first stage of whose growth is in FLESH FOODS 243 the flesh of swine. When taken into the human digestive organs they are revived and bore their way through the walls of the digestive organs to complete their growth in the human muscle tissue. Trichinosis is one of the most fatal of diseases. Tape-worms have a similar origin. There are several species, some being derived from pork and some from beef. The tape-worm cyst or larva is embedded in the muscle of the diseased animal, and when not killed by heat will hatch out and live in the human intestine. Tuberculosis is the most prevalent disease among animals, especially cattle. The flesh of the diseased animal is contaminated with the tubercle bacillus, and there is now but little doubt of the transmission of the disease from the bovine to the human by means of this infected meat. In spite of the fact that a surprisingly large proportion of all cattle are infected with tuberculosis, only a com- paratively small number are thrown out by the government inspectors as being tuber- 244 STJNCOOKED FOOD culous. That a great amount of such in- fected meat is sold to innocent consumers is certain. On the other hand, a natural diet and life in the open air will cure tuberculo- sis, whereas living in close, dark rooms and eating meat and drinking alcohol are among the chief predisposing causes in the develop- ment of this disease. Fish Under this heading we will consider both true fish and other water creatures, such as shellfish, frogs, lobsters, etc. The flesh of most fish is quite free from fat, and consists almost entirely of water and proteids. Fish is less concentrated than the flesh of warm-blooded animals, averag- ing about 18 to 20 per cent of proteids. The percentage of ash in fish is also somewhat greater than in other flesh foods. The pre- vailing idea that fish is good food for the brain was founded upon the fact that analy- sis of some fish show a considerable percent- age of phosphorus, which substance is also FLESH FOODS 245 found in the brain. There is no reason to believe, however, that the use of fish affects in any manner the brain tissue. Any well- balanced diet contains ample phosphorus to nourish the brain. The argument against the use of meat be- cause of the presence of nitrogenous decom- position products holds true with fish, though in a modified degree. The decom- position products of cold-blooded animals are not identical with those of mammals, and hence their presence in the human body does not add to the percentage of human waste products in the same manner as other meats do. Because of the fact that oysters and clams are frequently eaten uncooked, they are often commended as a valuable source of proteid. The serious objection to the use of these things, especially uncooked, is that they are grown in the sea, often around our harbor entrances which are usually flooded with sewage, and hence they are liable to be contaminated with typhoid or other disease 246 SUNCOOKED FOOD germs. The amount of actual food value in shellfish is quite small. They contain only about 10 per cent of proteids, and as the re- mainder is water they are scarcely worth considering as a source of nutriment. Poultry In the use of domestic and wild fowl as food the same general conditions obtain as in the case of the flesh of animals. There are a few special points, however, concern- ing poultry that are worth considering. The production of chickens and other do- mestic poultry is one of the most widespread American industries, and is capable of being carried on in communities too thickly set- tled for the economic production of beef and other meats. Another point to be observed in the use of poultry as food is, that because of the ease with which every farmer and villager can keep a flock of chickens, it is possible for him to have fresh meat of his own produc- tion; otherwise, if he used flesh foods, he FLESH FOODS 247 would be compelled to depend upon the va- rious meat products of unknown age and origin which the general markets afford. Another reason why the use of poultry from the hygienic standpoint is less objec- tionable than the flesh of the mammal is that the amount actually consumed is usually much smaller than other forms of meat. According to the old idea of economy and diet, this would be a serious argument against the use of poultry products, but as has been clearly pointed out, the most serious criticism that can be urged against the modern bill of fare is the use of large quantities of meat. The chief reasons that keep meat upon the bill of fare are matters of custom and taste, and not of hygiene. From this viewpoint we see why that form of meat food which is pleasing to the taste, without adding any great quantity of actual flesh food to the diet, is a step in the right direction. The methods of feeding poultry or other animals by shutting them up in small quar- 248 SUNCOOKED FOOD ters and feeding upon soft mush foods is condemned by many upon the ground that it is unnatural and harmful to the health of the fowls, and, therefore, the meat could not be wholesome. The facts are, this process, if not carried too far, will produce a quality of meat less harmful than the meat of thin, ill-fed animals. For the reason that the greatest objection to the use of animal foods is the presence of the unexcreted waste prod- ucts, and these are present in small quanti- ties when little muscular exercise is taken. For similar reasons, the flesh of young ani- mals is preferable to old ones. The white meat is in all cases preferable to dark, as its properties are more like eggs and milk — are stored animal food substances rather than flesh with its metabolic poison. Of all meats eaten, liver and kidneys are the most abun- dantly filled with decomposition poison products. The same general statements re- garding domestic poultry apply to the use of wild game. The amount of actual food value contributed to the world by the slaugh- FLESH FOODS 249 ter of game is comparatively small. A simi- lar amount of vegetable food could be pro- duced at one-tenth of cost of time and ex- pense without slaughtering the wild crea- tures of our forests. The present popularity of hunting as a sport, and the regard of all wild animals as rare and dainty articles of diet, is but the expression of the vainer and less worthy sentiments of man's nature. It is a step backward toward savagery instead of forward toward a higher civilization. The custom of flesh eating would entirely disappear from the catalogue of civilized habits in less than twelve months vf ere it not for the fact that flesh foods are made edible by the process of cooking. People might eat shellfish, dried and smoked meat a short while, but it would not long endure. This would also solve several other great ques- tions with which misguided individuals, so- cieties, churches, political parties and State legislatures are vainly struggling, for the habit of flesh eating is largely responsible for the universal desire among civilized peo- 250 SUNCOOKED FOOD pie for some form of stimulant. This crav- ing supports and perpetuates the habit of taking distilled and ardent liquors, tobacco, tea and coffee, and the numerous drugs which, all together, have done the human race more harm, dethroned more intelli- gence, sapped from the human economy more vitality, ruined more homes, made more widows and orphans, and changed more natural virtue into artificial vice, caused more sorrow and tears, more failures and fears, than all other agencies of destruc- tion put together. That the habit of flesh eating is respon- sible for the almost universal desire for stimulants and narcotics has ceased to be questioned by those who have been placed in position to make experiments, from which all real knowledge is obtained. These con- clusions were first forced upon the writer by noticing the gradual disappearance of the appetite for coffee and tobacco in his own case when he began to experiment upon him- self with natural foods. With this hint to FLESH FOODS 251 work with, no opportunity was lost among the thousands of patients he has treated to observe the effects, and get at the truth, along these lines. If one or two people had completely lost their appetites for all forms of stimulants, after going upon a natural food regime, it might have revealed only an idiosyncrasy. When a half dozen or a dozen undergo the same treatment with the same results it suggests that it might be true. But when hundreds give the same evidence, with no apparent deviation from this gen- eral rule, it forms one of those cases where a new truth is revealed from the chaos of our alleged civilization. Such has been the ex- perience of the writer in the responsibility of cooking and meat eating for the perpetua- tion of alcoholism and kindred evils. NON-FLESH FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN Eggs and milk occupy an unique place among foods ; they are animal, yet they are not flesh foods. The purpose which milk and eggs serve in nature throws much light, even to the unscientific mind, upon their nu- tritive value. Living creatures do not exist for the benefit of other forms of life, but for them- selves only. The lumber in our homes owes its existence to the plant's struggle for sun- light, which made it necessary for the trees to possess a strong storm-withstanding stem to hold aloft its leaves above the shade of other foliage. The leaves and stems of grass are essential to the life of the plant, and were not created as food for cattle. The majority of human foods of plant origin represent the nutrient material sup- plied by the parent plant for the early life FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN 253 of the seedling. All grain, nuts, fruits and tubers are merely modified forms of food material adapted to the rapid nourishment of the young plant. For this reason the starch and oil of seeds, the sugar of fruits and the lesser quantities of nitrogen con- tained in all seeds are in a more available form for cell nourishment than would be the mature portions of the plant. Milk and eggs in the animal world occupy a position identical to that of seeds and fruits in the plant kingdom ; that is, they are created for the first nourishment of the off- spring. In the process of evolution a fun- damental distinction between birds and mammals is in the manner in which the young are nourished. The egg of the bird supplies sufficient nourishment to develop the young to a point where they can exist upon the ordinary food of the adult, while in the mammal this nourishment is supplied by milk. 254 suncooked food Eggs The lien's egg must contain all food mate- rial necessary to form all portions of the body of the young chick, and to supply it for a time with heat and energy. An average egg weigh 2 ounces ; of this weight about 10 per cent is shell, 30 per cent yolk, and the re- mainder white. The white of the egg is composed of albumen and water. The yolk consists of globulin, egg fat and lecithin; this latter substance contains a considerable proportion of phosphorus, and is one of the essential constituents of brain and nerves. The egg, as a whole, without shell contains 13 per cent of protein, 10 per cent of fat, and 1 per cent of ash, and about 77 per cent of water. The growth of the animal body compared with the amount of energy expended is more rapid, the younger the animal. For this reason the percentage of nitrogen in milk and eggs is much too great to form a bal- anced adult diet, and should be supple- mented by articles containing larger propor- FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGII^ 255 tions of heat-producing materials, prefer- ably carbohydrates. The proteid material of eggs is in a form especially adapted to the construction of new cells. For this reason it is one of the best foods known for use in cases of emacia- tion, where new tissue is to be added rapidly to the body. Under the personal observation of the writer, patients have been known to gain at the rate of a pound a day on a diet composed almost entirely of eggs and milk, with just enough of other articles to meet their chemi- cal requirements. In case of malnutrition and emaciation of the body, there is no food known superior to eggs for rebuilding and revitalizing the body and overcoming pre- vious errors of diet. Fresh eggs contain no "extractives " or other harmful substances. Stale eggs are open to the same criticism as ripened or stored meat, but, fortunately, owing to the sulphur contained, eggs always become re- pulsive to the sense of smell before decom- 256 SUNCOOKED FOOD position has proceeded far enough to render them unwholesome. Spoiled eggs are frequently deodorized by criminal dealers and sold to bakers and used in bakery products. Many cases of poison- ing have been traced to this cause. Eggs, considered as a food product, are much superior to flesh foods. The white of the egg is almost pure albumen, and is readily digestible and assimilable; there- fore, it can often be digested by those who are suffering from disorders of the digestive and assimilative organs when no other form of nourishment can be taken. Eggs are especially the food for growing children and those who are between the ages of twenty and thirty years. The best way they can be used or prepared, is to whip to a very fine froth, taken alone or with a very limited quantity of fruit juices, cream and sugar. Eggs will combine readily with nearly every other article of food. The quantity of eggs that can be used in a normal diet depends upon the amount of FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN 257 nitrogen desired. An egg contains about 14 decigrams of nitrogen. Thus it is seen that from eight to ten eggs will supply an ample amount of nitrogen for the daily needs of the body were none taken from any other source. The consumption of five eggs per day, when we rely wholly upon this article for animal proteids, is sufficient for one taking a normal amount of exercise, while from two to three per day are sufficient for one pur- suing sedentary occupations. Milk Milk and the various forms of manufac- tured products made therefrom constitute one of the most important groups of food in the modern bill of fare. Milk and eggs have been excluded by some vegetarians, but out- side of the sentimental feeling against foods of animal origin, there are no good reasons for these interdictions. Dairy products are free from the particular objections urged against the use of flesh foods and form a 17 258 SUNCOOKED FOOD source of easily assimilable nutriment that excels, at least for certain purposes, any foods from the vegetable kingdom. It is true that the use of milk by man can- not strictly be called a natural food, as it is clearly evident that before man became civilized enough to keep domestic animals dairy products were unknown. The constituent elements of cow's milk vary greatly. Dairy cows, by long and careful domestication, scientific breeding and feeding, have been brought to a high state of specialization. Some classes of cat- tle have been bred for large quantities of milk, Holstein cows having been known to produce 100 pounds of milk per day, which, of course, is many times the quantity re- quired for the nourishment of a calf. The Jersey breed has been selected for the quan- tity of butter fat contained in the milk. This often runs to abnormal percentages, being in some cases as high as 8 to 10 per cent, whereas the normal or average butter contents would not be more than 3% or 4 per cent. FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIlSr 259 The average composition of mixed milk from many cows which forms the commer- cial product, runs about as follows : Water, 87 per cent; lactose or milk sugar, 4.5 per cent; butter fat, 3.5 per cent; ash, .7 per cent ; proteids, 3.3 per cent, of which about 2.5 per cent is casein and .8 per cent albumin. Commercially, the value of milk has been measured almost entirely by its content of butter fat. This idea is not altogether cor- rect, for the chief value of milk as a food lies in its nitrogenous elements. Fat can be secured equally well from many other sources. Milk proteids are especially valu- able, and cannot easily be supplanted in the diet. Milk, like eggs, forms an unbalanced article of diet for adults, though the distinc- tion is not so great, as milk contains some carbohydrates. Milk is intended for the nourishment of the young animal at a later stage of development than is the egg, and hence contains a slightly larger proportion of the energy-making substance. A calf 260 SUNCOOKED FOOD romping in the pasture would require more energy-producing materials than a chick in the shell. The milk of various animals va- ries much in composition, depending upon the natural requirements of the young of their respective species. Milk is as nearly a perfect food as any ar- ticle now known, but, as I have before pointed out, the diet for an adult should con- tain more carbohydrates in proportion than is found in milk. The large amount of casein in cow's milk tends to cause coagula- tion in lumps that are difficult of digestion in the human stomach. This tendency can be counteracted in several ways. If milk is allowed to sour or clabber, the casein coagulates, and it can then be taken into the stomach without danger of being formed into curds by the gastric juice. Sipping and thoroughly insalivating the milk instead of drinking it, as one would water, also reduces the curdling in the stomach and insures bet- ter digestion and less liability to the forma- tion of gas. FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN 261 Milk harmonizes in the stomach with all non-acid fruits, cereals, nuts and all vege- tables containing starch. Milk should not be combined with acid fruits, especially the highly acid kinds, such as lemons, limes, grape-fruit, pineapples, etc. Neither should it be taken at the same meal with meat, ex- cept in very limited quantities, nor should it be used with green salads. When the stomach has been over-bur- dened with a quantity of inharmonious com- binations of food until the mucous mem- brane has become irritated and probably ulcerated, there is no food so acceptable as milk. For the common disorder of hyper- chlorhydria, which is a term used to describe a condition of chronic sour stomach, milk is one of the best counteractive foods known. When adults have long violated the dietetic laws of over-feeding — consuming large quantities of food and drink that have been devitalized by fire and fermentation — milk is, in many cases, the one food that will restore a normal condition. Especially is 262 SUNCOOKED FOOD this true in advancing age, when the body has little use for energy producing foods. When milk is taken for the purpose of counteracting a congested condition of the bowels or an irritated condition of the mucous membranes of the stomach, it should be combined with the fewest possible things. Adulteration or Milk The practice of adulterating milk with water has very largely ceased, owing to the surveillance of city authorities and the pass- ing of laws that fix legal standards requir- ing milk to contain a certain percentage of fats and total solids. The chief form of criminal tampering with milk has been the use of preservatives to prevent souring. Formaldehyde has been used very extensively as a milk preser- vative. This substance is a poison, destruc- tive to all cell life, and has been the cause of great prejudice against the use of milk as food for children whose delicate organisms are very susceptible to poisons. FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN" 263 The pasteurization of milk is a process of heating for the purpose of destroying possi- ble disease germs and the lactic acid bac- teria. In pasteurization the milk is heated to about 170° F. ; it is not boiled for the reason that boiled milk is distasteful, and would readily be detected by the public. It is evident that the practice of pasteuriza- tion, which would cause coagulation of the protoplasm sufficient to kill the bacteria, would also coagulate the albumin, rendering it difficult of both digestion and assimilation. Cooking milk is recommended by certain alleged dietetic authorities on the ground that it kills bacteria. They probably forget, maybe do not know, that all the five digestive fluids are strongly germicidal. The bacteria that may exist in milk, of which so much fear is entertained, could not live an instant after coming in contact with the gastric juice, which is strongly acidulous, to say nothing of contact with the saliva, bile and pancreatic and intestinal juices. Milk, however, should be taken with some 264 suJsrcooKED food intelligence. A valuable lesson in its proper use can be learned from the calf or nursing infant, which draws and swallows it in small quantities, and which keeps up a continuous motion of the jaws, as if in chewing, thus pumping into the mouth enough saliva to aid nature in the first process of digestion, and at the same time increases the flow of diges- tive juices in the stomach and intestines. The too free use of boiled or sterilized milk mil produce scurvy in children, and when scurvy exists both sterilized and raw milk must be discontinued. It is, therefore, much better to commence at once the use of milk in its natural condition than to risk the development of scurvy, and then be com- pelled to eliminate from the diet such a valuable food. Sterilized milk lacks freshness. It tastes dead, and to a very great extent is dead. The coagulation of the proteid molecules that takes place in boiling sets free the inor- ganic portion of the molecules, thus render- ing them, as to iron and flourine, unabsorb- FOODS OF ANIMAL OKIGIN 265 able, and as to tlie phosphates, imassimilable. The use of sterilized milk becomes especially serious when it is remembered that children require both phosphatic and ferric proteids in a living form, which are contained only in the natural or uncooked milk. The proteids of cow's milk are not wholly suited to the human infant, being too high in casein and too low in albumin. Neither is there enough milk sugar in cow's milk for the human infant. By the humanizing of milk for infants is meant its alteration to de- crease the casein and increase the milk sugar. This is accomplished by taking the top half of a bottle of milk and adding an equal volume of water and 3 to 5 per cent of milk sugar. The exact proportions and concentration should depend upon the age, weight and general condition of the child. Cheese, Butter and Oleomaegaeine Cheese consists of the coagulated casein of milk, together with the fat globules that may be mechanically retained. Cheese is made 266 SUNCOOKED FOOD by coagulating the mill^ with rennet, which has been extracted from the stomach of a calf, the sugar of milk being passed off in the whey and lost. Smear-case, or cottage cheese, is formed by allowing the milk to sour or coagulate by gradual warming. This form of cheese is usually made from skimmed milk, and hence contains practically no fat. The cheeses of commerce are ripened in various ways. The process of ripening cheese is due to the action of enzymes pres- ent in the milk or formed by bacterial growth. Eipened cheese is considered to be more easily digested than the unripened product. About the best that can be said of this process is that the ripening of cheese is perhaps the least objectionable of all proc- esses of decomposition taking place in food proteids. The only benefit that can be claimed is one of flavor, and in matters of flavor the appetite for limburger and other such cheeses is at least a cultivated or per- verted taste that furnishes no evidence of merit or nutrition. FOODS OF ANIMAL OKIGIN 267 In the manufacture of cheese, the milk sugar and a part of the albumin and fat are wasted, and, as there is no advantage in tak- ing milk in this changed form, there seems to be little excuse for the use of cheese in a diet when fresh milk can be obtained. The fat, when removed from the other contents of milk, constitutes butter. Butter is very wholesome when not subjected to high degrees of heat, with other cooked foods. The custom of salting butter is wrong, and inexcusable from a hygienic standpoint. It had its origin, no doubt, in the fact that it became commercially neces- sary in order to preserve it during the time consumed in shipping, transporting and marketing. During the last few years fresh or sweet butter has come into general use in all large cities and well-appointed hotels and cafes. In Paris, where the culinary art is studied and kept at a higher standard than in any other city in the world, it is consid- ered an offense to serve salted butter. It is taken for granted that the article is aged and 268 SUNCOOKED FOOD would have spoiled had it not been preserved with salt. Oleomargarine is a general term that in- cludes all manufactured preparations of fats which imitate dairy butter. At the present time there is an internal revenue tax of ten cents per pound upon the manufac- ture of oleomargarine that is artificially col- ored yellow to resemble butter. There is no good reason why oleomargarine should not be sold on the market when put out under its own name. The object of the govern- mental regulations is to prevent its being sold as butter. Oleomargarine is manufactured by com- bining beef fat with cotton-seed oil until a product is formed which has a melting point similar to that of butter. Lard is also used in some oleomargarine products. This com- bination of fats is then churned with cream or milk, and sometimes dairy butter is added to the artificial product in the process of working. The object of this latter opera- tion is to give the flavor or odor of dairy butter. FOODS OF ANIMAL OEIGIN" 269 There is much popular prejudice against the use of oleomargarine, but it is practically as digestible and quite as wholesome as dairy butter. FOODS DERIVED FEOM PLANTS Cereals The literary fabric of the ancient world has been woven from warp of fiction and a woof of fact. When we turn to it we find the beautiful, the poetic, the absurd and the true so mixed together that scholars of every nation regard their separation as worthy of their most profound thought. It was from this confusion that the word '* cereal '' came. Ceres was a goddess wor- shipped by the ancient Romans. She occu- pies a most conspicuous place in the beauti- ful myths that adorn the classic literature of those ancient peoples. She was considered the head of the agricultural department. Her special duty was to sit on fleecy clouds and pour from the hollow of her mythical hand floods of sunshine and showers of rain over the grain fields of the Caesars. There- FOODS DERIVED FEOM PLANTS 271 fore, all grains grouped together were called cereals. Cereals were first used as food by man only when in a green or soft state, that is, from the time the grains began to form in a milky condition until they ripened and be- came so hard as to hazard the integrity of the teeth. Later they were soaked in water to soften them, and then in warm water, which saved time and facilitated the work of preparation. This custom evolved into the use of hot water, then hotter water, until boiling or the present method of cooking was the result. In order to facilitate and lighten the labor in the preparation of cereals, they were pounded, crushed and broken, which custom very naturally evolved into the modern rol- ler mill. The present methods of grinding and cooking cereals render mastication un- necessary, so far as pulverizing them is con- cerned. Therefore, they pass the taste-buds under false pretences and the salivary glands do not have to perform their duties, 272 SUNCOOKED FOOD hence they do not pour into the mouth the amount of saliva necesary to perform the first step in digestion. Soft, mushy foods are also responsible for the woeful decay of teeth, which is such a conspicuous mark of civilized man. Na- ture will not keep alive or produce, genera- tion after generation, any part of the anatomy that is not used. Her system of economy is perfect. When cereals are taken in their natural state, or not too completely pulverized, so that the teeth may be employed in their final and complete grinding, they constitute a valuable food for a normal, healthy person. This would also be better for the teeth, and make cereal substances much easier to digest and more thoroughly convertible into energy. Under the present dietetic regime, in which cereals are regarded as the staff of life, it is safe to say that more than 50 per cent of all stomach disorders are caused by mushy or unmasticated cereal starch. The variety of grain used depends upon FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 273 the climate and habits of the people. The predominant use of rice by the Asiatics, wheat by the Europeans, and maize by the American Indian, is so well known as to need no comment. Wheat is often stated to be a complete food. This, however, is not strictly true. Wheat contains only a very small percent- age of fat ; and while fat can be made in the body from carbohydrates, it is more natural and entails less work upon the digestive or- gans and liver if the diet is balanced so as to contain all the nutritive substances the body needs in the right or natural proportions. All of the digestible carbohydrates of wheat are in the form of starch. A diet composed of wheat alone would contain 70 per cent of this food, which, while perfectly wholesome, is digested with difficulty. The proteids of wheat exist in larger quantities and in greater variety than that of most any other grain, but the wheat proteids are more difficult of digestion than the proteids of milk, eggs or nuts. 18 274 SUNCOOKED FOOD Wheat varies greatly in composition, ac- cording to the variety and locality in which it is produced. This fact is not known by the average writer upon dietetics, who spends a great deal of time eulogizing wheat as the wonderful staff of life, because his food table tells him that wheat contains 13 per cent of proteid, while corn only contains 10 per cent. As a matter of fact, much of the Pacific Coast wheat, largely used in the manufacture of cereal foods, contains less protein than corn. On the other hand, the macaroni wheats, produced in South Da- kota, contain as high as 18 per cent of pro- tein. Rye, as a whole, may be considered in a class with wheat. Botanically, the plants are similar, and so far as known the effects upon the body are not very different. Rye contains a larger per cent of cellulose and somewhat less gluten, and for this reason it is more laxative than wheat. Baeley is very similar to wheat and rye. It is, perhaps, somewhat less laxative than FOODS DERIVED FEOM PLANTS 275 either, because it contains less cellulose. It cannot be used alone as a bread-making grain because the nitrogenous or glutinous substances are not tenacious enough to hold the loaf when it raises. For this reason it has been greatly neglected as a food product. Barley deserves a decidedly more important place in our dietaries than it has hitherto been accorded. The most palatable form in which to eat barley is as an uncooked flake. Oats. The composition of oats varies somewhat from the above-mentioned grains. Oats contain a larger proportion of both fat and proteids, and form a desirable food if eaten in the proper manner. The objection to oats as an article of diet is the manner in which they are commonly used as food. Rolled oats and oatmeal are prepared for the table by cooking hastily, which forms a doughy mass consisting of gelatinized starch entangled with the peculiar gummy proteid of the oat grain. This mass is a most prolific source of disturbed digestion, for mechanical as well as chemical reasons. 276 SUNCOOKED FOOD Rolled oats, wheat and barley are delicious when served uncooked with cream, grated nuts and, if something sweet is desired, dates, figs or raisins. CoEN is the cheapest material capable of nourishing the human body that is produced in the temperate zone. It is less digestible and more deficient in mineral salts than the grains thus far mentioned. It is not an un- wholesome food material, but there is noth- ing to be gained except cheapness in sub- stituting it for other grain products. The mature corn grain is very dry and hard, and somewhat unpalatable. Corn in the future will probably play an increasing part in the problem of feeding the world as a cheap raw material from which to manufacture glu- cose. Rice is lower in proteids than any of the food grains, and is also low in fat. The starch of rice is quite easily digested, more so, perhaps, than any other form of grain starch. Rice is ahnost entirely devoid of mineral constituents, and for this reason it FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 277 is productive of serious nutritive derange- ments. Proteids and salts from other sources are largely cut off. Before science pointed out this difficulty the rice diet was productive of serious physical disorders in the ranks of the Japanese navy. The use of grains in the diet may be con- sidered from three factors: First, as a source of energy; second, as a source of nitrogen ; third, as a means of regulating in- testinal peristalsis. All grains contain from 70 to 80 per cent of starch, and, therefore, the question of energy is one rather of as- similating the energy contained than of the amount present in the original material. The use of grains in the diet deserves the most careful consideration, and the study should not be confined so much to the par- ticular grains as to the quantity and the energy which can safely be derived from these sources. The conventional American diet is composed of such an abnormal amount of grain starch, and is prepared in such an imscientific manner, that it has be- 278 SUNCOOKED FOOD come one of the most prolific sources of stomach and intestinal disorders with which I have had to deal. In a great munber of cases it becomes necessary to prohibit cereal starch entirely, except in specially prepared forms, and then in very limited quantities. Grain, as a source of proteids, has re- ceived undue consideration in hygienic writ- ings. The actual differences in the percent- ages of proteids or nitrogen in the various kinds of grains, or in flours or breakfast foods, is hardly worth consideration. Grain is not the natural source of proteid for the human body, and grain proteids are not so easily digested as those of eggs, milk and nuts. The nitrogen content of grains is not nearly so important an item to consider in deciding the kind of grain food as the ques- tion of fermentation and intestinal conges- tion or constipation. The primary objection to cooked grain is that it induces over-consumption of cereal starch, which is the chief cause of in- testinal congestion, and the long train of ills FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 279 that follow tMs condition. The greatest virtue of taking grains in their natural state is that it first limits the consumption, and, second, it relieves and often cures intestinal congestion and many sympathetic disorders. Nuts Nuts, one of the best articles of food known to science, the thing which helped to lift primitive man from a gibbering anthro- poid to the Greek Apollo, are by many peo- ple, the most misunderstood and maligned articles in all the dietetic catalogue. The nut is commonly used now, and for many decades has been used, as a confection, or to finish off the alleged good dinner ; and while in all probability it was the only decent article of diet eaten during the feast, yet, owing to its geographical position in the ** potpourri," it was charged up with a lot of mischief for which it was in no wise re- sponsible. There are many intelligent people who sincerely believe the nut to be an indigestible 280 SUNCOOKED FOOD and harmful article of food, and we quite agree with them when it is eaten as course thirteen at a prize dinner. But when given an opportunity, and eaten as a decent nut should be, it is one of the most delicious, harmless, healthful and hygienic articles that ever graced the table. It is encouraging, however, to know that the nut is rapidly gaining in appreciation and popularity. The great food reform movement that is now sweeping over nearly all the civilized world has caused thousands of people to abandon the use of flesh foods, and the natural substitute therefor is nuts. In any large market can be found to-day from fifteen to eighteen different kinds of nuts, all of which possess very superior life- giving properties. Nuts are especially to be recommended as an article of food, owing to the fact that they have not been contami- nated by the cook stove. Nuts should be thoroughly masticated. They should be reduced by the teeth to per- fect emulsion before entering the stomach, FOODS DERIVED FEOM PLANTS 281 and not more than two ounces eaten at a meal. Two vienos of pure fat is enough to supply the demands of a normal body for twenty-four hours. By consulting our table on nuts, a correct idea can be gained as to the quantity of each variety that should be consumed per day. Almonds, peanuts and Brazil nuts should be blanched before eat- ing, that is, the inner covering should be re- moved by soaking in tepid water. Botanically speaking, nuts are the seeds of trees and shrubs which store the greater proportion of the food material for the seed- ling in the form of vegetable oil. There are few miscellaneous articles of food that are known by the name of nuts which do not primarily belong in this group. In the fol- lowing discussion, we will take up the va- rious nuts in order of their general worth as food products. Pine Nuts include several species of nut from as many different kinds of pine tr^es, and many different countries. The Italian pine seed or nut, which is sometimes known 282 SUNCOOKED FOOD as the pignolia, or in its refined form as the protoid nut — a name given to it by the author owing to the large per cent of pro- teids it contains — possesses the highest per cent of proteid material of any article of food known. Its chemical properties are as follows : 34 per cent proteid, 47 per cent oil, 9 per cent carbohydrate, 4 per cent ash, and 6 per cent water. The protoid nut, while containing pound for pound the most nitro- gen of any known food, has a lower nitro- gen factor than the foods in which the fat is replaced by water, as in eggs and skim milk. This same point should be noted in consult- ing the analysis of all nuts which contain a large amount of fat that supplies energy in the most condensed form. Hence the nitro- gen factor, which is the relation between nitrogen and energy, is often lower in nuts than in grain. Another advantage of pro- toid nuts over all other species is in their softness, which renders them more easily masticated, and hence more readily soluble and digestible. The protoid nut is grown FOODS DEEIVED FEOM PLANTS 283 on the crown lands of Italy, in a very nar- rowed area of country, along the north coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The forms of pine nuts found in the south- western United States are not so rich in pro- tein as the protoid nuts, but in other respects are excellent food. The American pine nuts are not marketed extensively, as the crops are irregular and expensive to gather. The Pecan, which is one species of hick- ory-nut, contains 13 per cent of protein and 70 per cent of fat. It is a very delicious and desirable food, though somewhat inferior to pine nuts and almonds in digestibility and as a source of nitrogen. The pecan nut, which has been considered in the South for many decades as a wild, prodigal growth of no great importance, is now being cultivated, harvested and hus- banded as one of the most profitable, as well as one of the most important, articles of food grown in that balmy clime. The Agricultural Department of our na- tional government has published bulletins 284 SUNCOOKED FOOD on the subject of budding and growing the pecan, and pecan orchards are being planted in various localities in the South, and several States have adopted measures to encourage the industry. During the next few years this movement will undoubtedly receive the attention it has so long merited. It looks as though within the next few years we might see the boundless plains of Texas con- verted into pecan orchards instead of cattle ranches, and great pecan-shelling mills take the place of slaughter houses. The Almond is a most desirable food. It contains 17 per cent of nitrogen and 54 per cent of fat. The flavor is very agreeable and the nuts, in digestibility, rank next to protoid nuts. They can be substituted for each other in dietaries. Soft-Shelled or White Walnuts are commonly known as ^' English walnuts," though they are chiefly grown in France and California. These nuts contain 24 per cent protein and 63 per cent fat, and form one of the staple nut foods of both Europe and FOODS DERIVED FEOM PLANTS 285 America. Hickory-nuts, Brazil nuts and butternuts are of similar food value to wal- nuts. Filberts or Hazel ISTuts are quite differ- ent from the previous variety of nuts, and are less digestible. They should be masti- cated exceedingly fine, and should not be taken by those whose digestion is particu- larly weak. Filberts contain 15 per cent of protein and 65 per cent of fat. Chestnuts are distinct from the other nuts because of the fact that their chief food value consists of starch rather than oil. This makes them of less value as a food. The small quantity commonly used, how- ever, does not overburden the system with starch as would a full meal of potatoes or bread. I, therefore, consider them a proper adjunct to the diet. Cocoanut is a product of the palm tree and, while quite distinct from our nuts of the temperate climate, is a very valuable and abundant food which deserves a more uni- versal use. Cocoanut is about one-half fat 286 SUNCOOKED FOOD and contains 6 per cent of protein and 28 per cent of carbohydrates. Cocoanut should be well masticated, as the substance is ex- ceedingly fibrous. It is amazing to think of the kind of food that alleged civilized people subsist upon, when nature spreads before them its vast fields and stores of fruits and nuts that have waved to and fro in the pure air and sun- shine, that have drawn their substance from old Mother Earth and filtered it through a hundred feet of pure white wood — life-giv- ing substance that has responded to the warm embraces of summer and spring — substance that has fed the swelling bud, burst it into bloom, and filled it with fra- grance and honey, sweet as Araby's fabled rose — foods born from the fecund womb of Mother Earth, fed on the fragrance and wrapped in the many-hued swaddling clothes of odorous blossoms, rocked by every pure and passing breeze in the life-giving cradle of summer and spring, nursed to ma- turity at the breast of maternal nature, and cooked by the fires of the eternal sun. foods derived from plants 287 Leaves, Eoots and Tubers Experience has led me to the conclusion that leaves of vegetables containing chloro- phyll, such as lettuce, cabbage, spinach, parsley, etc., are very necessary and valu- able articles of food. Such vegetables can be taken in an uncooked or salad form and are very rich in the organic salts so essential to the maintenance of health. In the selection of foods, one of the safest rules to be governed by is that all articles that can be used as they are handed to us by Mother Nature, without offending the sense of taste and smell, are good food, and, on the contrary, all articles that have to be ground, mixed, fixed, cooked, greased, mushed and mussed up, are not only unnecessary, but could be eliminated from the diet to advan- tage. The essential value of the vegetable group of food materials is not one of the great food value per pound. Succulent vegetables con- tain anj^where from 75 to 95 per cent of water. It is rather the great variety of 288 SUNCOOKED FOOD substances wMch are incorporated in fresh vegetables that gives them their chief value as food. The ordinary leaf of lettuce con- tains cellulose and proteids, active chloro- phyll, pentoses, sugars and starches, repre- senting carbohydrates in various processes of transformation, small quantities of fat and a relatively large per cent of mineral salt, besides numerous flavoring materials. Vegetables, as they grow in our gardens, may be conveniently grouped according to that portion of the growing plant which we consume. These groups are the leaf or salad vegetables, the roots and tubers, the fruit-like vegetables, and a fourth class might be made of the immature grains and legumes. The salad vegetables are very es- sential in a well-rounded bill of fare, and the neglect of their use is perhaps one of the greatest errors in dietetics. My preference of these salads is according to the following list : Spinach, lettuce, romaine, water cress, parsley, cabbage, turnip tops, beet tops, rad- ish tops, dandelion and kale. FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 289 The Irish or white potato is the only true tuber that is used extensively as human food. It is formed chiefly of starch and water. It is not palatable when taken in the uncooked form. Cooked potatoes are generally in- sufficiently masticated and combined with other food products with which starch does not harmonize. For this reason I deem the use of potatoes undesirable. The sweet potato is a root and differs chiefly from the Irish potato in containing more sugar and less starch. The sweet potato is more wholesome than the Irish va- riety, and I consider it one of the best of cooked foods. The root vegetables, given in the order of my preference, are : Carrots, turnips, beets and parsnips. Carrots are exceedingly pal- atable in an uncooked state, especially with nuts, and I highly recommend them when one is living entirely upon an uncooked bill of fare. Tomatoes may be considered upon the bor- der line between vegetables and fruits, and 19 290 SUNCOOKED FOOD I have found them exceedingly useful in cases of intestinal congestion and torpidity of the liver. Watermelons are wholesome, and can be used in the diet in a manner somewhat similar to the juices of berries and oranges. Ripe muskmelons and canteloupes are readily acceptable to the stomach, and can be eaten as freely as bananas. I have invariably found that the use of un- cooked vegetable substances has an exceed- ingly beneficial effect upon the digestive action and the general toning up of the system. This is not because of any large amount of nutritive imits, but because of the presence of a variety of appetizing, mildly stimulating and vitalizing substances which are not to be found in the conventional bread and meat diet of artificialized man. These elements are craved by the normal appetite, and must be supplied if we are to have the highest degree of health and physical vitality. foods derived feom plants 291 Legumes Legumes are the product of a certain group of plants characterized by the pro- duction of seeds in pods. Beans and peas are the most familiar representatives of this group. Peanuts, though from the name er- roneously classed as nuts, are legumes, and very much resemble the other members of this group in chemical composition. Legumes are rich in nitrogen, and some varieties have a large percentage of oil, though decidedly inferior to true nuts in this respect. Legumes are not equal to nuts in food value. In their natural state they are hard, somewhat indigestible and impala- table. These qualities are due to the fact that the nitrogenous properties of legumes are radically different from those of nuts, and belong to a class not so desirable as food substances. For this reason legumes in the uncooked state have a flavor which is uni- versally objectionable, and when taken in liberal quantities they cause many digestive disturbances. Many vegetarians, upon dis- 292 SUNCOOKED FOOD carding a meat diet, have substituted leg- umes as the chief source of nitrogen. By this change they have made little improve- ment, and in the case of weak digestion may actually suffer from the inability to derive suitable nitrogenous nourishment from this source. Fresh peas and garden beans are desirable products when eaten for variety, as are most other garden products, but they should not be made the chief source of nitro- gen in the diet. There are two legumes that are used very widely as foods and which, because of the oil contained, are better balanced and more nu- tritious than common beans and peas. The first of these is the peanut ; the second is the soy bean, which is used largely in Japan and China. These products are similar in com- position and contain about 30 per cent each of protein and fat. Fktjits Fruits occupy a most conspicuous place in the needs of the human body, and in subsist- FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 293 ing upon elementary foods, they constitute one of nature's most important articles of diet. It would astonish the average omnivorous Englishman or American to know what magnificent specimens of manhood are built almost entirely from fruits in some of the South Sea Islands. According to the most authentic history of man, fruits undoubtedly composed the principal part of his primitive diet. Primitive man was active, nimble and agile. Fruits left no deposits in his veins and arteries to age and stiffen them. Fruits made for him pure blood, and breathing the open air kept it pure. His surplus energy demanded activity which kept the pure blood surging through his veins. Long life, supe- rior power and endurance were the results. It is a hopeful sign for the future health and longevity of our race that the demand for and consumption of fruit is rapidly in- creasing. The banana will supply the body with all the elements of nourishment that is obtained 294 SUIS'COOKED FOOD from cereals. Many cases of chronic stom- ach disorder have been permanently cured under the direction of the author by elimina- ting wholly all cooked cereals and breads of every description and substituting therefor the simple diet of very ripe bananas. The banana is at its best when the skin is cov- ered with small black spots, or when it as- sumes a pied appearance. Where the con- sumption of bananas is large enough, they should be purchased by the bunch, and where it is not, they should always be pur- chased by the hand, not detaching them from the stem until they are needed for use. They should also be kept in the sunshine as much as possible. It is believed by many people that bananas do not agree with them. Close observation will show in almost every instance that this condition is the result of other things with which the fruit is mixed in the stomach, and the seeming difficulty can be overcome by making an entire meal occasionally on fruits, or fruits and nuts alone. FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 295 The succulent class, such as apples, oranges, grapes, peaches, plums, pineapples, and all the juicy berries, possess great cor- rective properties, in addition to their value as food. They seem to be designed by na- ture to overcome the evil tendencies of many other foods, while giving to the body their own nutrition. Each distinct genera of fruit has a specific effect or office to perform in the human body. Oranges are the best '' liver pills '' ever in- vented, while apples are the best known remedy for that " dark brown " taste so often experienced next morning after the ten-course dinner. The juices of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and dewberries are delicious and healthful. When it is pressed out and the refuse discarded, there is no better food in the fruit family. But the large amount of seeds these berries contain, which are very hard and entirely insoluble, produces in many people irritation of the mucous mem- brane of the intestinal tract, which mani- fests itself in many harmful ways. 296 SUNCOOKED FOOD Grape-fruit contains many very pro- nounced and valuable nutritive and healing properties. It is a natural antidote for biliousness when taken without sugar. Like nuts, the most desirable feature about fruits is that they are not an arti- cle commonly considered necessary to be cooked. The cook has undertaken in many ways to improve them by the application of his art, but has been unsuccessful, as is evidenced by the fact that nearly all fruits are used in their natural or elementary state, even by those who advocate cooking even their drinking water. In subsisting upon uncooked foods we must necessarily depend very largely upon fruits and nuts, but we should exercise judg- ment, patience and toleration. We must re- member that we often suffered for our wrong eating, and accommodating nature may have partially adjusted our bodies to these incorrect habits. Therefore, when correct m^ethods of eating are employed, the wrong must be undone and overcome by the FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 297 same law of evolution, and the stomach sometimes rebels against a change even to- ward the right. However, the body will ad- just itself much quicker to the right than to the wrong, and when the adjustment is once made and the natural dietetic law obeyed perfect health, strength, endurance and vitality are the inevitable results. The chemical composition of fruits con- sists of about 80 or 85 per cent water, 5 to 15 per cent of sugar, 1 to 5 per cent of or- ganic or fruit acids, and small quantities of protein, cellulose and numerous salts, a por- tion of which may be combined mth the fruit acids. Some unripe fruits contain starch and various other carbohydrate sub- stances, some of which are distasteful and unwholesome. On the other hand when fruits become over-ripe and decay has set in, the sugar is changed into carbon dioxide, alcohol and acetic acid, and the fruit rapidly deteriorates in wholesomeness and palata- bility. These changes, together with the loss of water, account for the sponginess and 298 SUNCOOKED FOOD tastelessness of cold-storage and other long- kept fruits. Fruit is best when it has been allowed to ripen naturally on the trees, but modern commercial conditions demand that it be picked slightly immature and allowed to ripen on the way to or while being held for market. Fruit acids are composed of carbon, hy- drogen and oxygen, and are burned in the body the same as sugars or fats. The actual energy-producing contents of fruit is not large, and depends almost entirely upon the sugar contained. The dietetic value of fruits consists chiefly in combinations of salts, sugars, organic acids and various fla- voring or aromatic substances. These same salts, acids, etc., in their commercial form, and administered separately, would be of no value and might produce harmful results, but in combinations of ripe fruits they oc- cupy very important places in the diet. Dates, figs and raisins constitute a group of the best foods known to the dietary. They contain about 75 per cent sugar, which FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 299 is chiefly glucose or grape sugar, the prin- cipal source of power for the human system. Fruits should never be cooked. The folly of cookery and artificial methods of prepa- ration is more apparent in fruit than in any other article of food. The process of taking the water from fruits to prepare them from season to season is of great importance. It has added one of the greatest luxuries known to the uncooked bill of fare. Evaporated, dried or dehy- drated fruits, when soaked in pure water, may be restored to almost their original con- dition. Aside from the fresh or natural condition, this is perhaps the most palatable and wholesome form in which they can be taken. The methods of canning fruits, as practiced by the farmer's wife, are to be given next consideration. The ordinary commercial preparations of canned fruits, jams, marmalades, jellies, etc., are generally of a very inferior and doubtful character, and commercial compe- tition has reduced the standard until it is 300 SIJNCOOKED FOOD almost impossible to ascertain the quality of these articles. The Pure Food Law has ac- complished much to establish honesty in the preserving and labeling of foods, but these products are still far from ideal, and should not be considered where fresh or evaporated fruits are obtainable. Sugars Sugar in its various forms is an universal food product. Sugars are the principal sub- stances contained in fruits, but we shall here confine our discussion to the various sugars and syrups as they appear in commerce. Beet Sugar. Contrary to common be- lief, the greatest proportion of the world's supply of sugar comes from the sugar beet. Sugar, which had been previously manufac- tured entirely from the maple sap and sugar cane, was discovered about 100 years ago to be present in beets. A very interesting his- torical fact is that the sugar beet industry owes its origin to the efforts of Napoleon to supply Prance with home-produced sugar FOODS DEKIVED FROM PLANTS 301 because of the tariff or embargo laid upon foreign commerce. At the present time all of Central Europe is a heavy sugar-produc- ing region. The method of production and the amount of sugar contained in beets has been greatly improved, so that the present industry is quite able to compete with the production of cane sugar of the tropical re- gions. Crude sugar from sugar beets is un- palatable, and must be refined before it is fit for use. The refined or crystallized form of beet sugar is chemically identical with cane sugar. Sugar cane, though not as important as formerly, is still grown very extensively in Louisiana, Cuba, Mexico and other semi- tropical countries. The chief distinction be- tween cane sugar and beet sugar is that the crude cane sugar, before it is refined, is very palatable and a wholesome product. The brown sugar of commerce is uncrystallized or unrefined cane sugar, and is fully as wholesome, and to most tastes more pala- table than the granulated product. It is to 302 SUNCOOKED FOOD be regretted that fashion has decreed that we should all use granulated sugar. Refined sugar, whether produced from beets or cane, is sometimes slightly contami- nated with sulphurous acid which is used for bleaching purposes. Indigo is also used for the same purpose, and while ordinarily not present in large quantities, is at least useless, and if present in any considerable amount is very objectionable. Powdered sugar is iden- tical with granulated sugar, with the excep- tion that it is ground. Maple sugar, which is made by concentrat- ing (boiling down) the sap of the soft maple, is a product decidedly superior in natural flavor to any sugar of the foregoing sources. Maple sugar contains a small proportion of glucose and levulose, but its chief distinction from other sugars is a matter of flavor. The hickory tree contains flavors somewhat simi- lar to the maple. A cheap substitute for maple sugar has been manufactured by fla- voring common sugar with the extract of hickory bark. FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 303 The other forms of dry sugar, which are obtainable in the market, are milk sugar and crystallized glucose. The chief use of milk sugar as an article of diet is in humanizing cow's milk for infant feeding. The dry glucose, or, as it is sometimes called, grape sugar, is not commonly seen in the market for the reason that it is difficult to crystal- lize, and hence it is much cheaper to market glucose in the form of sjrrups. Glucose Commercial glucose is made from starch. Its wholesomeness depends wholly upon the care exercised in its manufacture. Pure glucose is a good food. The manufacture of glucose is an excellent illustration of the substitution of science for nature in food manufacture. When we eat grapes we know that we are partaking of one of the most important substances required in the processes of life. Science has taught man to manufacture exactly the same substance that is found in the grape from the much 304 SUNCOOKED FOOD cheaper product, corn. Were it not for the use of cheap materials and careless work- manship by unscrupulous manufacturers, this article would come into general favor as a food commodity. The best form in which sugar can be taken is in natural sweet fruits, honey, maple sugar and unrefined cane sugar. Maple, sorghum, cane and glucose sjrrups are per- fectly wholesome when free from foreign materials. The total amount of sugar that can be taken in the diet may rim to very consider- able amounts, but it should not be combined with starch products, especially cooked starch. The general condemnation of sugar, as an article of diet, is due to the fact that it is usually eaten with porridges, puddings, etc. This mixture is very apt to ferment in the stomach or digestive tract. Sugar can be taken with nuts forming an excellent combination. Sugar can also be taken with milk and eggs, helping to balance those articles and make them more suitable FOODS DEEIVED FROM PLANTS 305 to human and especially to adult human re- quirements. The amount of sugar that can be taken each day depends somewhat upon the individual, but in the case of a strong, healthy adult, taking much exercise and hav- ing no particular desire to increase weight, sugar, chiefly in fruits, should furnish from one-fourth to one-half the total energy of the body. Experiment has proved that glucose can be taken in larger quantities than cane sugar; the latter product, however, should never exceed one-fourth pound daily. Confections. Under the general term of confections are included all products manu- factured for the purpose of appealing chiefly to the sense of taste, rather than to serve any special food requirements. The chief products that enter into confections are the various forms of sugars, nut kernels, flavoring extracts and coloring materials. Many of the substances used in the manufac- ture of confections are the most wholesom^e of food material, and yet the eating of con- fections as a general practice is to be con- 20 306 SUNCOOKED FOOD demned for several reasons ; first, the sub- stances that candy manufacturers use are unknown to the consumer, and hence the temptation to use cheap or adulterated mate- rial or to flavor and color the article is apt to govern the merit or quality ; second, can- dies are usually eaten without regard to ap- petite or the need of food ; third, the combi- nation of materials used in manufacturing confections is designed wholly for the pur- pose of appealing to an artificial sense of taste rather than natural hunger. Honey occupies a most unique place in the realm of food products, as it is practically the only food substance which man utilizes from the insect world. Honey is some- times compared with milk and eggs as a nu- trient. These former substances differ in being complete foods for the nourishment of young and growing animals, and hence must contain all food material necessary to con- struct the animal body. Honey, which is a carbohydrate, is slathered and used as a food for the adult bee. Pollen or bee-bread, FOODS DERIVED FEOM PLANTS 307 which is a nitrogenous substance, is the food of the larva or young bee. This illustrates a very interesting fact in physiological chemistry. The insect differs radically from higher animals in that its life is divided into three complete stages. When the adult in- sect with its wings emerges from the cocoon or pupa, its growth is complete. Some in- sects never take any food in the adult stage. But the adult bee takes food, which is prac- tically pure corbohydrates, and which would not maintain the life of a growing animal. Honey is composed chiefly of glucose and levulose, with perhaps 10 per cent of cane sugar, depending upon the flowers from which it is gathered. Honey is one of the most wholesome forms of sugar laiown, and its delightful flavor makes it a very desir- able food product. A '^ land flowing with milk and honey " was the scriptural poet's idea of an ideal country. These are the only two things used by man which serve no pur- pose in nature except food. No better com- bination of foods was ever suggested by either poet or scientist. 308 su:n"cooked food Vegetable Oils Vegetable oils form entirely too small a portion of the modern bill of fare. Fats are the best source of heat and energy of any class of food substances. Vegetable oils contain a large per cent of olein, which is considered the most palatable and the most valuable fat known. Vegetable oils are more valuable than animal oils as hmnan food, because they are more adapted to the fat metabolism processes of the body and less liable to contain harmful substances. For those who cannot thoroughly masticate nuts — because of defective teeth — vegetable oils afford one of the most necessary articles of diet. Nuts, unless mastication is perfect, do not contribute to the body all the fats they contain, while oils overcome completely this difficulty. The olive is an unique plant ranking as far as the nature of the food material goes between fruits and nuts. Eipe olives con- tain 40 to 60 per cent of oil ; the best quality of olive oil is extracted by cold pressure, the FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 309 cheaper grades being pressed out at higher temperatures. The superiority of olive oil is due to the fact that it is composed almost v^hoUy of olein, containing very little fatty acids and other impurities, and has a mild, sweet and agreeable flavor. Green olives have become a standard on the American table as pickles, but I do not recommend their liberal use. Ripe olives may occupy a conspicuous place on the sun- cooked bill of fare. Cotton-seed oil is a by-product of the cot- ton fiber industry. For this reason it is the cheapest of vegetable oils. Cotton-seed it- self is not an edible product, for the cotton- seed proteid contains an alkaloid substance which is unwholesome, and in large quan- tities poisonous. The methods of cotton-seed oil manufac- ture are more complex than those of olive oil. The oil must be heated and bleached with certain chemical agents, and if in- tended for salad or table use, a portion of 310 SUNCOOKED FOOD the stearin must be removed to render it more liquid. Peanut oil is an excellent food substance, which is almost entirely neglected in this country. This oil contains the best portion of the nut. Other vegetable oils, that are valuable as foods, and the use of which is to be commended, are sesame and sunflower oil. These products are not produced extensively in this country. Cocoa butter is pressed from the beans from which cocoa and chocolate are made. The butter has a flavor similar to these prod- ucts. Cocoanut butter is not extensively used in America as a food product, for the reason that it becomes rancid too rapidly. The product is popular in Germany, and with the introduction of better methods of pres- ervation we expect to see it more exten- sively used in this country as a food product, as the sources from which it is derived are almost unlimited. Palm oil comes from a different species of FOODS DERIVED FROM PLANTS 311 the palm plant than that which produces the cocoanut. Palm oil is a very inexpensive product, and one which is chiefly used in the production of soap and candles, although it is perfectly wholesome as a food. Such products have not been extensively utilized in this country as food, because people have, in the past, been content with the fat of the hog, commonly termed lard. It does not follow that all vegetable oils are edible or wholesome. Many vegetable oils contain, in addition to olein, stearin and palmitin, and other fats quite undesirable for food. Castor oil, for illustration, con- tains ricinolein, which is a poison, and to which its purgative action is due, nature abhorring a poison. Croton oil is very poi- sonous and the most powerful purgative known to science. Linseed oil contains large quantities of linolein, which is the substance that oxidizes, forming the stiff rubbery coat on the surface when exposed to the air. This makes lin- seed oil valuable as a painting oil, but ob- jectionable as a food. DRUGS By the selective processes of millions of years of evolution, chemical substances and chemical changes, which work together in harmony, have become associated to form the series of chemical transformations we call life. True food furnishes the founda- tion or constructive material on which these life processes depend. All other conditions that affect the human body are merely methods of disturbing these natural chem- ical changes. To illustrate, we will take the chemical changes that may take place in the hemo- globin of the blood. Hemoglobin is a pro- teid containing iron. It is a complex chemi- cal compound, and combines with other sub- stances very readily. In the lungs it com- bines with oxygen. In the muscles it parts with the oxygen, which in turn combines with the glucose to produce heat and energy. DRUGS 313 This process is one of the thousands of life forming changes, selected by evolution from the millions of chemical possibilities in the universe. If carbon monoxide, which is present in illuminating gas, be breathed into the lungs it also combines with the hemo- globin, but produces a permanent compound which prevents the normal combination with oxygen and thus causes death. It is to this latter class of chemical changes, entirely foreign to the normal processes of life, that the effect of drugs be- longs. The stimulants, medicines, narcotics and drugs used by humanity owe their use to superficial reasoning, false guidance or misinterpretation of nature's language as expressed in symptoms. The principal argument against the use of patent medicines has been that they are evil because the user took opium, cocaine or whiskey without a doctor's prescription. Why taking a poison without a doctor's pre- scription should be dangerous, and its sale a heinous crime, whereas the sale and use of 314 strisrcooKED food the same drug over a doctor's prescription should be tolerated, even highly commended, is something difficult to comprehend. It is not in line with human evolution to find a way to legally administer poisons, but rather to point out the folly of interfering with nature's work by dosing the human body with poisons of any kind. In order to give the reader who is not versed in chemistry a clear conception of the nature and effects of drugs, I shall dis- cuss briefly a few of the more important ones. For this purpose it will be helpful to group them into the following classes : (a) Alkaloids or narcotics, (b) alcohols and re- lated compounds, and (c) poisonous min- eral salts and acids. Alkaloids affect primarily the nervous system and may cause freedom from pain or that state of unnatural exhilaration of which the dreams of the opium fiend are a typical symptom. Alkaloids are all of veg- etable origin, and are composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. DKUGS 315 The second or alcohol group of drugs in- cludes the ethers, chloroform and coal-tar products. This group is also wholly of plant origin, alcohol being distilled from plant products and coal-tar being formed from petrified plants. These drugs always con- tain the three elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen ; some contain an additional ele- ment which gives them their peculiar prop- erty, as the chlorine of chloroform. Coal- tar is the most wonderful source of drugs known. The distillation of this substance produces coloring matters, preservatives, poisons and *^ pain killers," ad infinitum. The mineral acids and salts of certain metals, especially mercury, lead and copper, are powerful physiologic poisons. Patent medicines are frequently labeled ^' Pure Vegetable Compounds." This label has de- scended from the old days when the most potent drugs were taken from this mineral group. At the present time the label is amusing, for, while the mineral poisons in this group are still widely used in medicine, 316 SUNCOOKED FOOD alkaloids and the acetanilide group of chem- icals, purely organic or vegetable com- pounds are a source of far more human mis- ery than all mineral drugs put together. Naecotics Opium is the sap of the seed capsule of a certain Asiatic species of poppy. It con- tains a large number of chemical compounds which belong to a group known as alkaloids. All substances of the alkaloid group in the animal body are disturbing fa^ctors. The most active alkaloid in opiima "or morphine and the general effects and uses of the crude opium, and the refined morphine, may be considered together. The effect of opimn or morphine upon the body is that of producing unconsciousness by benumbing the nerves. Opium addicts are pathetic examples of the progressive stages by which the body and mind may be- come enslaved to the influence of a narcotic. Opium is eaten or smoked by the Chinese and other Asiatic races to a fearful extent. DKUGS 317 This habit is the worst form of drug slavery known. In this country the morphine habit is the more common form. Morphine is taken internally or injected beneath the skin with a hypodermic syringe. Nearly all of the morphine slaves in this country begin the use of this drug under their physicians' prescriptions. The use of opium as prescribed by medi- cal men is chiefly for the relief of insomnia or pain. The use of opium in cases of great agony produced by injury, etc., is an act where we can reasonably say that the end justifies the means. Unfortunately, this is only one of the uses to which opium is put by the medical profession. Prescriptions containing opimn or morphine are fre- quently given to relieve pain or to produce sleep, when the primary trouble is chronic and should be cured by removing the causes and not temporarily alleviated by stupefy- ing the nerves. The lengthy death lists due to the use of opium or any other narcotic include both those killed, sooner or later by 318 SUNCOOKED FOOD the drug, and those who die from the disease, which is in this manner merely concealed but not cured. The dangers of the use of opium are so well known and the habit so universally con- demned that tricks are resorted to by manu- facturers of medicines to deceive the people into believing that they are using some ** harmless " substance, while it is the influ- ence of the opium that gives the medicine its deceptive effect. Patent medicines, which claim to kill pain or soothe coughs and pro- duce sleep, usually contain opium. Millions of babies in this country have been given opium in the form of Mrs. Winslow's Sooth- ing Syrup, and the opium fiends produced and the graveyards filled by this fiendish compound can be imagined, but will never be accurately known. Cocaine is an alkaloid, the use and influ- ence of which are almost as noteworthy as those of opium. Cocaine is derived from the leaves of the cocoa plant, which grows in the Andes of Peru. DRUGS 319 The effects of cocaine differ somewhat from those of opium. It produces absolute freedom from pain, and is used more par- ticularly to produce insensibility in local parts of the body, as in the case of extract- ing teeth, etc. The cocaine slaves, which are alarmingly on the increase in this country, commonly depend upon the hypodermic in- jection of the drug. The habit is usually ac- quired, as in the case of morphine, by the prescription of a physician. The patient learning from experience of the freedom from pain and the sense of exhilaration that can be produced by the drug, and believing it harmless because his doctor has prescribed it, continues the habit on his own responsi- bility after he has been dismissed by his phy- sician. The cocaine fiend, like the opium slave, develops an insatiable desire for the drug, and is in extreme physical torture when deprived of it. The development of untruthfulness and trickery in victims when they desire their allowance of the forbidden drug is one of the marked traits of the nar- cotic slave. 320 SUNCOOKED FOOD There are a number of medicines in com- mon use which depend for their action upon the cocaine they contain. A large number of catarrhal powders in the market are di- luted forms of cocaine, and are used exten- sively both by those who do not realize the nature of the drug they are using, and by those who know that they are cocaine slaves, but prefer to disguise the fact in this manner. Nux Vomica is derived from the seeds of a plant that grows in India. Strychnine is the alkaloid which exists therein. Strych- nine is quite different in its effects from the above-mentioned alkaloids, and instead of benumbing the nerves, causing sleep or a pleasing sensation, the effect of strychnine produces nerve stimulus, which causes con- vulsions of the muscles. Death from strych- nine is caused by the muscles of the chest be- coming so rigid that breathing ceases. The medical use of strychnine is more for a stimulant than a narcotic. It is given only in desperate cases, where there is some hope DRUGS 321 that the convulsive effect of stryclinine may cause the patient to revive. Quinine is derived from Peruvian or Cinchona bark. This bark contains a num- ber of alkaloids, as does the juice of the poppy plant. These alkaloids, in turn, may react with acids, forming salts. Sulphate of quinine is the most common form. Bromide of quinine is also extensively used. Quinine has one distinct and remarkable property that is worthy of note. I have repeatedly made the statement in my writings that drugs strong enough to kill disease germs will also kill the patient. This particular drug, in one particular case, is an exception to this rule. Quinine will kill the germs of malaria, which, however, are not bacteria (microscopic plants), but a minute form of animal life. Aside from this one particular use, quinine is a typical alkaloid, and its dis- turbing effect upon the nervous system is well known. Its extremely bitter taste is, perhaps, the reason we do not have quinine fiends. The extensive use of quinine is prob- 21 322 SUNCOOKED FOOD ably due to the fact that people observing its effects in malaria, infer that it will cure other fevers, which is not the case. Tobacco belongs strictly to the narcotic class. With the possible exception of opium, tobacco is by far the most detrimen- tal narcotic used by man. The active prin- ciple of tobacco is nicotine, which is an alka- loid. Nicotine is one of the most deadly poisons known. In distilled form, nicotine even in minute quantities, produces death almost instantaneously. The nicotine con- tained in a pound of tobacco is sufficient to kill several hundred men if administered in the form of pure nicotine, but in smoking and chewing tobacco only a small amount of this poison is actually absorbed into the body. The sickness caused by the first cigar is evidence of the poisonous effects of the nicotine upon a body not accustomed to its use. The quantity of nicotine that can be taken by the habitual tobacco user would be sufficient to kill a person in which the nico- tine habit had not been formed. DRUGS 323 Tobacco as a narcotic is not so drastic in its hold upon the body as are opium and co- caine. For this reason the use of tobacco is not so generally condemned. Popular opin- ion, however, is now rapidly recognizing the fact that all these substances belong in the same general class, and are deteriorating factors in human development. The rapid spread of the cigarette habit among young boys has done much to arouse popular agita- tion against the tobacco evil. From the standpoint of health, nothing can be said in favor of the use of tobacco in any form. Pulmonary and stomach dis- orders with tobacco users are common exam- ples of its destructive tendencies. Tobacco is particularly detrimental to the optic nerves and sexual vitality. The use of tobacco gradually deadens the sensitiveness and control of the nervous sys- tem. The tobacco heart is an extreme effect upon the nervous system of this narcotic. The craving for tobacco is frequently asso- ciated with the craving for intoxicating 324 SUNCOOKED FOOD liquors and highly seasoned food. These three factors go hand in hand in perverting the true sense of taste and arousing abnor- mal cravings which destroy natural appe- tite. Neither tobacco nor nicotine are now used extensively by medical practitioners. Tobacco was formerly used as a purgative, while nicotine was given in cases of strych- nine poisoning, the idea being that one poi- son would neutralize another. This theory, however, is becoming obsolete. Coffee belongs to the group of narcotic substances. The alkaloid which gives coffee its characteristic properties is caffeine. Coffee also contains 3 or 4 per cent of tannic acid. Other substances in coffee, to which the pleasant odors and tastes are due, are various forms of fats and carbohydrates, but these in the real coffee berry exist in small quantities, and their beneficial effects are more than counteracted by the harmful ef- fect of caffeine. The physiologic effect of caffeine is that of a nervous stimulant, in- DRUGS 325 creasing the general nervous and mental activity. It is given as an antidote for opium poisoning because it produces an op- posite eiSfect in regard to sleep. Coffee, when used habitually, causes many nervous disorders. Many forms of indigestion, dys- pepsia, and especially hypersecretion of hy- drochloric acid, are caused by the coffee habit, the tannic acid being the chief provok- ing factor. The effect of coffee upon the nervous system is that of continued stimula- tion or excitation. When used regularly, coffee overworks and wears out the nervous system, thus causing a deterioration of both body and mind. If caffeine was taken in a highly concentrated form, it would result in a narcotic habit quite as enslaving as the use of opium or cocaine. Tea is very similar in its chemical compo- sition to coffee, containing even a greater percentage of the alkaloid caffeine, and also a larger per cent of tannic acid. Tannic acid is present in green tea in greater quantities than in the black variety. In addition to the 326 SUNCOOKED FOOD evil effects caused by the caffeine which it contains, tea is more destructive of the nor- mal activities of the stomach because of this tannic acid. The reader may get some idea of what the stomach of the tea user has to contend with when it is stated that tannic acid gets its name from the essential action that this substance has in the process of tan- ning leather. Cocoa and Chocolate. The cocoa bean, which was mentioned as a source of choco- late and cocoa butter, is also the source of the beverage known as breakfast cocoa. The cocoa bean contains caffeine, though the per cent is considerably less than in the case of either coffee or tea. Cocoa is practically free from tannic acid. For these reasons, and because of the food value, cocoa is de- cidedly the least harmful of the narcotic beverages. This, perhaps, explains why cocoa, though being in reality more tasteful and nutritious than either coffee or tea, is less used; it lacks the stimulating or exhil- arating effect which is sought by a great ma- jority of people. DRUGS 327 Coca Cola is a soda fountain drink that has recently come into extensive use. It contains an alkaloid similar to those of cof- fee, tea, cocoa, but in much larger quanti- ties. Coca Cola has an enslaving effect sim- ilar to that of opium and cocaine, although f ortimately not so severe. The alkaloids thus far discussed will serve to illustrate the general use and properties of this class of substances. We will men- tion briefly the other more commonly used articles in this list of enslaving drugs. Laudanum is another name for opium. Paregoric is a tincture of opium with cam- phor and other drugs. Codeine is an alka- loid manufactured from morphine. Lyos- cine is the alkaloid or henbane. Atropine is an alkaloid extensively used by oculists. It is contained with other alkaloids in bella- donna which, in turn, is prepared from the plant popularly known as the ** Deadly Mght Shade." Hellebore is one of the old standard drugs and contains several severe and poisonous alkaloids. 328 suncooked food Alcohols The uses and effects of alcohol will not be discussed at length in this volume for the reason that this subject is constantly brought before the public, and the evil ef- fects of alcohol are known to all. I will mention only a few points which are not generally understood. The question of whether or not alcohol is a food has recently received much discussion. The answer of science is that alcohol is a food in the sense that it can produce heat in the body. Star- vation is not the danger that threatens man- kind, but over-feeding and wrong feeding. To a man in danger of starvation, whiskey at $1.00 a quart will not save the day. In practice alcohol is invariably taken in addi- tion to, and in connection with, other food material, and, therefore, its production of surplus heat within the body and the over- stimulating of metabolism is harmful, and adds one more to the long list of detrimen- tal effects traceable to intoxicating liquor. Alcohol is a food in the sense that dynamite DRUGS 329 is a fuel. Dynamite produces heat, but it would be an unwise fireman who would use it under his boiler. Another point regarding the use of alco- hol that is worthy of serious consideration, is the fact that improper nutrition, over in- gestion of stimulating and heating foods, such as meat, condiments, etc., invariably in- creases the appetite for intoxicants. The appetite for alcohol seldom, if ever, devel- ops in a perfectly nourished body, and the best cure known for the drink habit is a course of scientific feeding and hygienic methods of living. Alcohol is a typical stimulant. Its influ- ence is to increase the heart action, the cir- culation, the production of heat and the general vital activities. When the influence of alcohol has run its course there is a re- lapse or stupor, which can only be relieved by restimulating the vital functions by con- tinued use of the intoxicant. This demand for increasing quantities of the drug that causes the stimulating or other 330 SUNCOOKED FOOD abnormal effects upon the body is a law whicli holds in the case of all drug habits, and explains the so-called ^' appetite " for drugs. The abnormal effect produced leaves the body in a state of exhaustion, which causes the deluded victim to return to the drug day after day until the craving is beyond his control. At each repetition more of the drug is required to produce the same effect. This leads to a larger and larger use of the stimulant, and a greater and greater relapse or exhaustion after its influence has passed away. Thus the stimulation of the nervous ac- tivities, which in its milder stages produces the good-natured loquacity of the ^' jolly drunk," ends in the wild ravings of delirium tremens. The temperance people would do well to go into their laboratories and study causes instead of spending so much nervo- mental force in dealing with effects. They would be entitled to the prof oundest respect of the thinking world if they would solve the question of why people desire intoxi- DKTJGS 331 cants, instead of trying to close a few rum- shops by calling on the police. No man or woman who will live for six months on pure, clean, suncooked foods can possibly keep alive an appetite for stimu- lants or narcotics. From this rule there is absolutely no variance. There can be no room in the human body, a body made of nature's unchanged foods, for such foreign elements as tobacco and rum. The prescription of alcohol by physicians is chiefly descended from the old idea that alcohol was strengthening and beneficial to the body. The practice is now discontinued by the majority of reputable physicians. The regular use of alcohol in small doses gives the patient the feeling of physical ex- hilaration, and is an excellent means of mak- ing him believe that he is being cured. For this reason, and because of its cheapness, low-grade alcohol is the chief component of patent medicines. The following table gives the percentage of alcohol contained in a few patent medi- 332 SUNCOOKED FOOD cines previous to the enactment of the Pure Food Law: Peruna 28% Hostetter's Bitters 44% Lydia Pinkham's Compound 20% Hood's Sarsaparilla 18% Ayer's Sarsaparilla 26% Paine's Celery Compound 21% Within the last few years these facts have been heralded before the public, resulting in a heavy falling off of the sales of these nos- trums. The number of good temperance people who have been innocently under the influence of alcohol for a good portion of their days can only be estimated by counting the Peruna bottles in back yards. Chloroform, Ether and Chloral are three drugs chemically related to alcohol. They are typical anesthetics, and produce temporary relief from pain when the vapors are inhaled. They find their chief use in surgical operations, a use which is justified, providing the operation is justified. One death in 3000 occurs from the administra- tion of chloroform, and one in 13,000 from DEUGS 333 the administration of ether. These prod- ucts have been used to some extent in patent medicines, particularly consumption cures. AcETANiLiDE is an article made from coal- tar, and is chemically related to aniline dyes. This drug is one of the most remarkable in its physiologic effects of all the narcotic group. It has only come into use mthin the last few years. Its effect is to produce at first a deadening of the nervous system, which puts it in the " pain-killer '^ class. Its continued use destroys the hemoglobin of the blood, and produces marked cell-destroy- ing effects throughout the body. Its medical use is for rheumatism, headache, severe coughs, etc., etc. Some doctors say it will cure epilepsy ; others say not. Many of our readers are familiar with the placard, '' Orangeine Headache Powders," which flourished before the public the glar- ing statement, ** We print our formula," and so they do, and acetanilide is one of the ingredients so announced. The Orangeine people were safe in printing this formula, 334 SUNCOOKED FOOD because the public does not know what acet- anilide is. If they achieved the same results by cocaine or morphine they would not dare to print their formula. The use of acetani- lide in headache powders is one of the most glaring crimes of the patent medicine busi- ness. A non-medical writer recently compiled an authoritative death list of something like twenty cases in which death was positively known to be due to the use of headache pow- ders. The headache powder habitue experi- ences a craving for the drug similar to other narcotic drug fiends. A person who has long used acetanilide powders shows a blu- ish-white complexion, caused by the destruc- tion of red blood corpuscles. I have selected acetanilide as an example to show that a knowledge of the composition of patent medicines does not protect the people imless the people know more about the destructive drugs they contain. Acetanilide is also ex- tensively sold in the form of the popular ^' Bromo-seltzer." DRUGS 335 other coal-tar products which have prop- erties related to those of acetanilide are anti- pyrin, phenacetin and various derivatives of benzol and phenol. The general uses of drugs of this class are to reduce fevers, allay pains, etc. They accomplish this by inter- fering with the natural action of the ner- vous system. Mineral Poisons Mercury or quicksilver is used very ex- tensively in medicine, chiefly in compounds of mercurial salts. All salts of mercury are very poisonous. Calomel (mercuric chlo- ride) is used widely as an internal medicine. Mercuric bichloride or corrosive sublimate is more destructive to protoplasm, and is used chiefly as an external germicide or dis- infectant. The poisonous action of mercu- rial salts is due to the combination of the mercury with the protoplasm of the bodily cells. When mercurial compounds are taken in poisonous doses, the antidote is the white of egg, with which the mercury com- 336 SUNCOOKED FOOD bines in the stomach, thus sparing the hu- man protoplasm. The mercurial salts, when given in small doses, produce very remark- able physiological disturbances, notably in- salivation (loosening of the teeth). Mercu- rial compounds are used by doctors as a sort of last resort. Because of the profound physiological changes produced, these prod- ucts have been generally administered in cases of incurable disease ; probably because the new symptoms of mercurial poisoning masked and disguised the original disorder. Potassium iodide has a similar remarka- ble destructive effect upon the natural func- tions of the body, and for this reason it has been associated with mercury. The medi- cinal treatment for syphilis, a disease recog- nized as incurable, is to alternate between potassium iodide and mercurial salts. The salts of lead and of copper, like those of mercury, are poisonous. These salts have not found so extensive use in medicine, how- ever. The mineral acids, such as sulphuric, are recognized poisons, as well as are the DRUGS 337 strong alkalies, but their destructive effects upon the living tissue are so apparent and so painful that they have never gained much reputation as medicine. There is one excep- tion to this statement, however; it is ** liquo- zone," which is the basis of the most remark- able patent medicine fraud ever floated. This stuff was heralded as a cure for all ail- ments in the calendar of disease, and has been especially proclaimed as the twentieth century cure for consumption. Liquozone is made by passing the fumes of burning sulphur into water. This forms an impure mixture of sulphurous and sulphuric acids — ^two of the cheapest and most common drugs known. Sulphuric acid is an excellent germicide, and is extensively used to disin- fect stables and chicken houses. Liquozone, however, is a little too weak for this pur- pose; if made sufficiently strong to kill germs, it would blister the human tongue. Liquozone costs about one-half cent a bottle; it sells for $1.00. 22 338 SUNCOOKED FOOD PUEGATIVES AND CaTHAKTICS The popular term '' salts '' includes sodi- um sulphate (Glauber's Salt) and magne- slum sulphate (Epsom Salts). These salts cause to be excreted from the mucous mem- brane of the intestines a large amount of watery mucus, the physiological purpose of which is to wash the offending substances from the body. This produces a purgative effect. Were the large doses of these salts commonly taken absorbed into the blood, death would result at once. The number of drugs that are prescribed for the purpose of relieving constipation is almost unlimited. Any poison which reacts directly upon the mucous membrane of the alimentary canal has a laxative effect. In reality, laxative drugs do not act upon the body — ^the body acts upon them. In throwing out the drug, the food residues of the digestive tract are also thrown out, whether digestion is complete or not. The loss of weight when taking physic is due to this loss of food. DKUGS 339 The reason alkaloids and other more subtle poisons are not laxative is because they do not produce their effect until they reach the nerve centers. Laxative drugs may occur in almost any group of chemical compounds. Two are oils — croton oil and castor oil. The pills, candy cascarets, etc., on the market are usually made by mixing several drugs of a purgative nature, the idea being if one does not do the v^ork desired the other will. In this chapter I have enumerated only a score or so of the many thousand drugs used by the medical profession. To discuss the entire list would require a volume many times larger than this. I have omitted many drugs whose properties and uses would be interesting and instructive, but the writer's work is to impart a knowledge of foods, not drugs. If the reader would secure at a public li- brary a copy of the *' National Standard Dispensatory," the text-book used by pre- scription druggists, and scan through its 340 SUNCOOKED FOOD 2000 pages, lie would realize how unscientific and hazardous is the method of combating human ailments with drugs. In the thera- peutic index of the above volume are listed the more common disorders which affect mankind, and for each disorder is given a list of from a dozen to a hundred drugs which are used by the medical profession to drive from its habitat the " evil spirit of dis- ease." For everything, from corns to con- sumption, the drug-doctor prescribes every- thing from catnip tea to strychnine. Verily the inconsistencies of the mind of man are marvelous and inexplicable. There is one means of combating disease, which in the popular mind is sometimes con- fused with the unnatural drug system here discussed. I refer to the methods of pre- venting and combating contagious diseases by modern sanitation and disinfection, or the wholesale slaughtering of disease germs outside the body. These results depend, not upon the ignorant and harmful theories upon which drug medication was founded, but upon the latest scientific knowledge. DEUGS 341 I am heartily in favor of combating dis- ease by cleaning our streets, foul cellars, tenements and filthy packing houses ; and if carbolic acid, quicklime and bichloride of mercury can help along in the process, then we can thank modern science that drugs, which man originally sought out with which to poison himself, have at last f oimd a place of real usefulness. But dosing the human body with drugs is another matter. Doctors who invented drugs to fit the " devil theory " of disease now use the germ theory to frighten people into submitting to drug treatment. But, in reality, no one knows better than do the doc- tors that destroying a disease germ in the human body would also destroy the human cells; for both disease germs and bodily cells are formed of protoplasm, and can only be killed by a protoplasm-destroying drug. What usually happens in drug medication is that poisons are given in doses too small to kill either patient or disease germ. The process weakens both, but the patient being 342 SUNCOOKED FOOD the slower-growing organism generally suf- fers the more. As disease germs in the blood cannot be killed by drugs without killing the man, the doctor who prescribes drugs to cure disease is either ignorant or is wilfully practicing a fraud. Perfectly healthy people do not con- tract contagious diseases for the reason that disease germs cannot live in pure blood. Pure blood is the only means known to science whereby disease germs in the body can be conquered. Natural foods make pure blood, which is the most potent factor known in the cure of contagious diseases. The wisest and safest plan to prevent contagion and infection is to keep the blood pure. It is then highly germicidal, as nature intended it to be. Condiments The use of condiments originated in the desire to supply something that was missing in the taste of cooked food. This is not to be wondered at, for in the process of cooking DRUGS 343 the nature of many food products becomes so changed that they taste flat and insipid. A sweet turnip or carrot, if well masticated, is delicious in its natural state, but when cooked it seems to need salt or something to give it flavor and life. In boiling or cooking in heated water the mineral elements are dissolved and lost in the water, which is usually discarded, so we endeavor to restore to them that which we have destroyed. In the use of suncooked or natural foods the taste readily accepts them, and the appetite becomes a perfect guide as to the quantity of food necessary under the varying conditions of man's civilized en- vironment. Many people go through the world and eat three meals a day until they have marked off their threescore years and ten, and never know the real taste of the commonest article of food. The use of condiments, the pouring of some mixed-up mess of something over foods, in the vain hope of making them bet- ter, seems to have become a kind of unac- countable insanity. 344 SUNCOOKED FOOD Of all the errors and stupid blunders that people have made in their foolish e:^ort to fix up foods, the condiment habit, next to cooking, has the least excuse for existence. Think of taking a pure article of food and pouring over it a muddy-colored liquid con- cerning which we know not when, where or of what it is made. The imagination fails to answer why. Most individuals in polite society are ex- tremely careful about their persons. Their dress must fit just so, it must be made of cer- tain choice material, the linen must be spot- less, the colors with which they bedeck them- selves must harmonize. They are extremely careful about their companionship. Their house must face a certain way, and the fur- nishings must be just right. They are very cautious about what they say. They are very jealous of their opinions. They select with much care their language. They will not venture out in threatening weather. They restrict themselves in every conceiv- able thing. They put the chain upon nearly DRUGS 345 all their liberties, and try hard sometimes to manacle the liberty of others. But these same wise people will sit in a fashionable cafe and dine upon an undrawn, cold-stor- age turkey that has been a year dead, and pour over its ancient flesh a tar-colored fluid that was made somewhere in Europe, and that has been upon the shelf of a grocer until it has reached that limit of delicious decay suggested by the green, slimy mildew in Roquefort cheese. All condiments, especially stock sauces and dressings, vinegar, mustards and such things, possess absolutely no constructive property, but all of them possess to a very large degree the elements of decay and de- struction. The great increase in stomach and intestinal diseases among the American people is largely due to the habit of using condiments. The use of condiments is followed by two other very pronounced evils: First, they cause an irritation of the mucous mem- branes of the stomach, which excites false 346 SUNCOOKED FOOD appetite and causes over-eating — ^the origin of a majority of human ills. Second, they deprive the taste-buds of their rights, thus lessening the desire for perfect mastication. One of the first steps in adopting a reform or hygienic dietary is to eliminate from the bill of fare all condiments, hot sauces and such stuff. Remember their origin is not very respectable. They seem to have been created for the purpose of covering up some- thing which we instinctively regard as un- clean. Drugging Foods Foods may be adulterated and not seri- ously injured. There are isolated cases where by adulteration they may be made even less harmful, as in the case of pepper, coffee and other stimulants, irritants and narcotics, but these exceptions are rare. Adulteration, artificial coloring, the use of preservatives and the limitless number of drugs and chemical compounds used in cor- DRUGS 347 rupting the natural article so as to make it appear that it is not, or to make it conform to some virtue falsely advertised to deceive trusting people into purchasing it, all origi- nate in greed for gain. This may well be called *' The Crowning Crime of the Age." It marks the most depraved branch of American commercialism. It is a well-known fact that the best-paid chemists in this country are hired to adul- terate, to preserve, to color and poison food rather than to purify, protect and lift the standard of its life-giving value. Think of a human being spending days, months and years in his laboratory or over the experimental crucible, employing his brain and genius, not in trying to better the condition and promote the happiness of his fellow creatures, but in compounding some concoction that will swindle, deceive and poison the helpless babe, the innocent youth, the hopeful maiden and man, and those weighted with the burden of years; and yet the scientist or chemist who has worked out 348 SUNCOOKED FOOD this nefarious scheme is a shining star of virtue compared with his criminal master who feeds out this perverted provender to the American people — ^the most tolerant race beneath the sun. For his corrupted wares he gets a price — gets money, with part of which he can buy- food and shelter, and with the balance of which he can flaunt himself in conspicuous array before the eyes of his fellows. For this he gains their envy rather than their love and respect. Scientific study of food diseases, and the effort to relieve them, has brought these crimes to my attention with an emphasis that is appalling. The poisonous coloring, preservatives and baser matter used in all kinds of canned, preserved and pickled fruits, vegetables, meats and bread materials is a matter of common knowledge. In a few years from now, when the American people have given to the food question the place it deserves — made it the most important of all the sci- DKUGS 349 ences — ^the disgrace we are now tolerating will be overthrown, and the names of the greedy charlatans who poison us will be a national insignia of dishonor. The chemical laboratory has exposed these commercial harpies, and the hope of their continuing these crimes now depends upon the power of the lobby they can throw into our national and various State legisla- tures. In other words, it depends upon their power to purchase the votes of dishon- est law-makers, which is another crime, and for which the common law says they shall be deprived of their liberty as common crimi- nals. It is in this foul atmosphere and en- vironment that these practices are born, live, thrive and have their being. If there was nothing else to recommend the use of suncooked foods, the fact that they offer the public protection against the most dangerous and soulless class of crimi- nals that ever disgraced the flag of any coun- try would be quite enough. SHALL WE NATIONALIZE THE DOCTOR? The American Association for the Ad- vancement of Science has appointed a com- mittee of one hundred prominent men to work for the establishment of a National Department of Health in the Federal Grov- ernment. On this committee are twenty-five doctors and seventy-five eminent men from other walks of life. It includes among its members many of the best-known leaders of thought and action in the country. This movement will probably be held up for awhile by the immobility of politics. Statesmen cannot be expected to concern themselves about the health of the people so long as the tariff on tooth picks and tripe needs their valuable consideration. The mere appointment, however, of such a com- mittee by the most learned body of men in America points to two very portentous SHALL WE NATION" ALIZE THE DOCTOR? 351 things : First, that the most thoughtful men in our country deem it necessary that a Fed- eral Department of Health be established. Second, that such a movement is not to be controlled by the medical profession. It is eminently proper that our greatest scien- tists should participate in this movement, for there is no question within the realm of government more important, and no ques- tion more definitely within the realm of science, than that of the health of a nation. A Federal Department of Health, prop- erly conducted, would frame and pass pure food laws that would give protection to the public against criminal food manufacturers, and see that these laws were enforced ; and, having the strength of the nation to draw upon, it would cast from our national legis- latures the disgraceful lobbyists who were so conspicuous in defeating the real protect- ing clauses in our present Pure Food Law. The administration of the Pure Food Law, Meat Inspection and other measures appertaining to health, which are now dis- 352 SUNCOOKED FOOD tributed throughout the various bureaus and departments of government, would come directly under the control of this depart- ment. A National Department of Health, controlled by scientists and freed from poli- tics and the tyranny of medical sects and so- cieties, such as now dominate our local health boards, would result in branching out into every field of investigation and educa- tion that promise the promotion of public health. While I write this, from twenty to thirty people are dying suddenly in New York every day from excessive heat, while several hundred more are being overcome and made prostrate. The temperature of the body is controlled almost wholly by diet. Foods of a certain class well known to the food scien- tist, serve only as heat makers in the body, while another class equally as well known forms tissue. When the sun is giving us our heat directly, we are guilty of almost crimi- nal ignorance if we take heat-making foods into the body in quantities sufficient to en- SHALL WE NATIONALIZE THE DOCTOR? 353 danger our lives. In the face of these obvi- ous facts, physicians give much advice, in the great daily newspapers, how to avoid heat prostrations and sunstrokes with scarcely any reference to food. From a National Department of Health the simple rules of diet controlling bodily temperature could be laid out by scientists in the form of government bulletins, and a copy put into the hands of every person who could read at an exceedingly small cost. Emanating from such a source of authority, this and similar advice would be proudly adopted by the people, and would be the means of saving thousands of lives and rais- ing immeasurably the American standard of health and longevity. A National Department of Health would stimulate national interest in the science of human nutrition ; it would show that Ameri- can scientists were at least as much inter- ested in building people as they are in build- ing aeroplanes ; it would eliminate from the records of American history the indictment 23 354 SUNCOOKED FOOD that a great department of government is devoted to teaching farmers how to fertilize their fallow fields and breed pigs and poul- try, while nearly one-third of all American babies are doomed to die before they reach the age of five. Governmental supervision of the public health would place at the service of the peo- ple a large and well-organized body of the world's best scientists, whose sole purpose would be to make people more healthy. The public health is now under the control of private individuals whose prosperity de- pends upon exactly the opposite condition. Stomach and intestinal disorders are al- most universal because no effort has been made to teach people the laws of nutrition. We approach and solve all of these questions by the slow and steady tread of evolution. Man must be shocked or knocked into think- ing. It is through our instinctive rebellion against needless suffering that any progress has been made in the science of healing. Make the physician a government official SHALL WE NATIONALIZE THE DOCTOR? 355 with no purpose to serve except the common cause of the people, and he will ridicule the pill box in his public life as every intelligent doctor now does behind the scenes, among his intimate friends and professional col- leagues. A man may lie for profit, but rarely for pleasure. That a revolution in the teachings and practice of things that tend healthward will come when the government assumes control of the problem is indicated by what hap- pened in the field of American agriculture. Forty years ago, before the establishment of the Department of Agriculture, a man either reared his domestic animals and tilled the soil in profound ignorance, or, if something did go wrong, rushed to the horse doctor, who came with a pill case and a drenching bottle and put the sick animal through an ordeal not unlike that to which we still sub- ject human beings. This custom still pre- vails in the backwoods communities, but the intelligent farmer now reads scientific books and government publications that teach him 356 SUNCOOKED FOOD how to breed, feed and shelter his animals so as to raise and keep them up to the highest standard of development. Doctoring do- mestic animals in our best agricultural col- leges and among educated farmers is a prac- tice comparatively obsolete. The veterina- rian of to-day is chiefly an inspector or ex- aminer of the soundness of animals, not a pill vender, as is the human medicine man. The history of old methods of treating dis- ease with drugs forms the most interesting and eventful chapter in the evolution of civ- ilization. The drug theory was handed up to us by the skeleton hands of an ancient superstition. About 2000 years before Christ, disease or any abnormal condition of the body was conceived to be the workings or manifestations of an evil spirit or devil. The principal work of the ancient doctor, therefore, was to drive this devil from the human domicile. Ancient history and the sacred literature of all countries testify to this fact. The first means he employed, of which there is any record, was ceremony, a SHALL WE NATIONALIZE THE DOCTOR'? 357 weird sort of incantation or coaxing process. It took many centuries for the ancient mind to discover that this plan was worthless. The next method employed by the ancient doctor was the noise scheme. This system consisted in an effort to oust the evil one with hideous and ear-splitting noises. The most learned and accomplished physician of that day was the one who could invent the most infernal combinations of sound. What happened to the patient, history does not tell, but we suppose their spirits departed along with the devil, and the treatment, like many great surgical operations of the pres- ent day, was pronounced successful. A thousand years or so and the noise rem- edy was abandoned, not by the noise doctor, but by the people who lost faith and forced a change. Then came the new theory of dislodging the devil by putting into the body something so filthy, bitter and poisonous that His High- ness would have to vacate the premises. Both the vegetable and mineral worlds were 358 SUNCOOKED FOOD diligently searched for things that would ac- complish this end. The most poisonous things that could be conceived were consid- ered the best medicines — the best remedies for the sick. The collector of these poisons was the apotheke and the modern druggist is his lin- eal descendant, just as the allopathic phy- sician of to-day, with his phenacetin and acetanilide is the successor of the ancient medicine man with his lizards' tongues, snakes' brains and polecat's blood. To-day the medical profession deny the devil theory of disease, but the methods in- vented 2000 years ago with which to destroy His Satanic Majesty they still practice. Those who study history, who go back to the beginning of things, will understand how an idea, a mere superstition, that has been commercialized, could take possession of the primitive mind and be handed down through generations in almost its primeval crudity. This is the true origin and history of the practice of medicine. Separated from the SHALL WE NATIONALIZE THE DOCTOR *? 359 homage we are inclined to pay to the one who watches at the bedside of our dear ones, and the tragedy that sometimes follows, it would be a matter of laughter. The modern doctor knows something of fresh air, exercise, food chemistry and sani- tation, but he clings to the ancient drug the- ory. Because people have been trained to *' take something " for every ill, and the doctor lacks the courage to tell them the truth, preferring to pursue lines of least resistance. The wisest, most courageous, and most successful doctors to-day are those who pre- scribe fresh air, sunshine, exercise, pure food, tinted water and bread pills, and charge the biggest fees. Hippocrates, 400 years B. C, undertook to make medicine a science, but failed; yet he is called the father of medicine. His true greatness consisted in diagnosis rather than in treatment. The two greatest books he left to the world were ^' Diet in Acute Dis- ease,'' and ''Air, Water and Place." It 360 STJNCOOKED FOOD looks, therefore, very mucli as if Dr. Hip- pocrates thought much more of diet than he did of drugs, and he surely thought more of air, water and sunshine (place) than he did of the poisons his predecessors had discov- ered with which to defeat and dislodge the devil. In the history of medicine you hear noth- ing about Hippocrates' works on diet, air, water and sunshine, because there is neither mystery nor money in such a theory. That the government has established as- tronomical observatories and bureaus of re- search in cranberry culture and sheep breed- ing, and has never before considered a de- partment of human health, is due to the fact that the idea has prevailed that the health of the people was being well cared for by doc- tors, and that a National Department of Health would be governmental interference with private business interest — and so it would be. To educate people how to main- tain their own health would seriously inter- fere with the doctor's business; but why SHALL WE NATIONALIZE THE DOCTOK? 361 should the people not interfere with a busi- ness that thrives upon disease instead of health — a business that is most prosperous when the most people suffer — a business con- ducted by private individuals who, if they were to keep the people healthy, would im- poverish themselves — a business that is sup- ported by exactly the opposite conditions that all good people desire ? Doctors are but human, no better or worse than any other large class of American citizens and they can no more be expected to spend their lives seeking ways to put themselves out of busi- ness than stage drivers could be expected to '^ whoop it up " for a new line of railroad, or cab drivers hurrah for automobiles. The present practice of medicine contem- plates disease. It waits until disease ap- pears — ^waits for the crisis, and then under- takes to combat it with drugs. Under the wise administration of a National Health Department, the object would be to prevent disease by removing its causes. Doubtless the medical profession will remind the pub- 362 SUNCOOKED FOOD lie of the dangers that lurk in governmental control of what is now a private industry. Why should the government not control that which determines its strength or weakness ? Surely all of the people (represented by their government) should have a voice in a matter that concerns every one's happiness. Health and education, physical and mental upliftment, go hand in hand; they are the things that can be controlled by the people, for they appeal to and interest all alike, and are too vital to every citizen to permit of in- efficiency or graft. Progress in the educa- tional world is now measured by the distance we have traveled from the fee system — ^the system on which the medical profession still operates. Should we have a National Department of Health, the bureau of pure foods should be its chief subdivision. This bureau would not only forbid the manufacturer from put- ting sulphites in his deviled ham, but would teach the people by popular publication and by co-operation with the public school sys- SHALL WE NATIONALIZE THE DOCTOR? 363 tern, that deviled ham is at best a poor sub- stitute for natural food. A National De- partment of Health, working in conjunction with our public schools, would indeed go to the bottom of the health question. There is no reward so great, no fame so towering, and no chord in human emotions so responsive as gratitude for those who lead us to the priceless goal of health. Under a National Department of Health the doctor, as an educator, would have life's greatest re- ward and highest inspiration to move him to duty. When public attention is once turned to- ward the possibilities of a National Depart- ment of Health, it will become the most pop- ular political propaganda of its day. Such a movement would meet with no resistance except from those who thrive upon the im- paired health of the nation. Such a depart- ment would promise that which every sin- cere citizen most desires. It would become the crowning glory of America's public in- stitutions. 364 SUNCOOKED FOOD The theory of curing disease with drugs is wrong. It is wrong because it is opposite to and in violation of every natural law gov- erning animal life. The drug theory con- sists in giving sick people the things which will produce disease in well people. Sick- ness is merely an expression or symptom given off by the body of some form of con- gestion or poisoning. It is utterly absurd to think that this condition can be removed or cured by introducing into the body any kind of drugs, and especially another poison. Sickness can only be cured by removing its causes — by employing as remedies for sick persons those things which preserve health in well persons. These are not theories but laws — fundamental, infallible, unanswer- able. The thought forces now arrayed against the drugging system are from the thinking classes of all nations. The drug cure will go — it will perish — it will pass away. Just as the incantation cure and the noise cure passed, so also the drugging habit will go, SHALL WE NATIONALIZE THE DOCTOR? 365 and the future mind will place them all in the same group — ^weigh them all on the same scale; and as the shuttle of history moves back and forth it will weave all these superstitions into the fabric of civilization as the darkest shades upon her endless roll. 3 19G9 innpy npi to cat. oiv. NOV 26 1909