Food, Part 2. Fright

Papers on Health
by John Kirk

(Page 11 of 21)

In the first place, we would guard against a very common error - viz., that a smaller quantity of food, chemically of a less nutritive kind, means less nourishment to the body. On this head we refer to the articles on Digestion and Assimilation. It may only be remarked here that what the body actually uses, and what is taken into the stomach, are two very different things. It is often the case that food containing less actual nourishment will give greater nourishment to the body than chemically richer food, because the former fits the state of the digestive system better. What each one must consider is, not what food has most of the chemical elements needed by the body, but what food will give up to his own body the most of these elements.

Another error is that the use of medicine can for long assist the body to use heavier food. In a case of disease, medicine often is of the greatest value as a temporary aid to digestion, but its continual use is the parent of great evils, and at last defeats the very end for which it was given. If a person needs continually to use medicine, there is probably either some organic disease present, or, more commonly, great errors in the diet taken. Avoiding medicine, then, except as a very temporary resource, and remembering that food is to be judged more by the way it agrees with us than by its chemical constitution, what rules can we give for diet in certain common cases?

First, diet should vary in summer and winter as the season varies. Foods rich in fat, such as ham and bacon, should be for winter use only, and should even then be more or less used as the weather is cold or mild. For summer diet, milk foods, such as milk puddings, etc., ripe fruits, and green vegetables should predominate, being varied also with the heat or coolness of the weather. In very hot summer weather, animal food should be very sparingly partaken of. It must also be borne in mind that warm clothing or heated rooms may convert a winter climate into a summer one.

Second, diet should vary according to the occupation of the eater. The writer and brain-worker will do best, as a rule, on little butcher meat, taking chiefly fish, eggs, and light milk foods, with vegetables and fruits. Alcohol in any form is especially fatal to brain-workers, and must be avoided, if there is to be really good health.

Third, food must vary according to temperament, age, etc. To give rules under this head is almost impossible. The growing boy will need proportionately more food than the adult, the man more than the woman. It is indeed true here that what is one man's food is another man's poison, and that every man must find out for himself what he needs. It may be generally said that the food which digests without the eater being aware in any way of the process is the best for him.

It may safely be affirmed in relation to this question of food in health, that the middle and upper classes eat quite too much. Hence the stomach trouble and goutiness (often in a disguised form) that they suffer from. Too much carbonaceous food will produce fat and too much animal food uric acid. On the other hand, the poor, for want of knowledge of really economical nourishing foods, suffer from want of nutrition.

An opportunity is always present, in case of sickness among the poor, by philanthropic persons to inculcate the value of good food. Instead of bringing a basket of beef tea, tea, and jelly, take oatmeal, fruit, milk, and vegetables.

What we have said should be sufficient as a hint to those who wish to regulate their diet on common-sense principles. A little careful thought should enable any one to work out a satisfactory scheme of diet for his own particular case. Regularity in meals is of great importance. There should be fixed hours for meals, with which nothing should be allowed to interfere, no matter how pressing the business may be. Do not assume, however, that it is necessary to eat at meal times, no matter whether appetite for food be present or not. To eat without appetite is an infringement of natural law, and it is far better to go without the meal if nature does not demand it than to yield to custom, or to imagine it necessary to eat because the dinner bell has rung. If not hungry do not eat at all, wait till the next meal time; do not take a "snack" in an hour or two. Three meals are, as a rule, better than more, and many have found two suit them best. Probably one-half the human race live on two meals a day.

Food in Illness - Light, easily digested food is of the first importance in many illnesses. To know easily procured and simple foods, which are really light, is a great matter. Saltcoats biscuits (see Biscuits and Water) form one of the best and most nourishing foods. So does oatmeal jelly, prepared by steeping oatmeal in water for a night, or for some hours, straining out the coarse part, and boiling the liquor until it will become jelly-like when cold. Oatmeal steeped in buttermilk for a time, and then moderately boiled, makes an excellent diet. Wheaten meal or barley meal may be used for these dishes instead of oatmeal, according to taste. Many other dishes, with rice, arrowroot, sago, etc., will suggest themselves to good cooks; but for sustaining the invalid and producing healthy blood, none surpass those described.

Fright - Some most distressing troubles come as the result of frights. In many cases much may be done to relieve such troubles, which arise from severe shock to the brain and nervous system. The results may be very various - from mere stomach troubles to paralysis - but the cure in all cases lies mainly in giving fresh energy to the nervous system.

If a blanket fomentation is placed all up and down the back, over a rubbing of warm olive oil, and the excited person is laid on that, one good step will have been taken in the way of restoration. Then this may be aided by cool cloths very cautiously laid over the stomach and bowels, so as to cool in front, while heat is given at the back. This will be specially desirable if the heat at the back is rather high. When the blanket loses its heat it need not be taken off, but a poultice of bran, highly heated, may be placed under it, so that the heat from the bran may come gradually and comfortably through, and pass into the body in that gradual way. So soon as a sense of genial comfort spreads over the back, it will be found that a right state is stealing over the organs that were threatened by paralysis through the alarm. The defect very soon disappears.

Printed by Hurst Bros., Shaw Heath, Stockport. 1904.