Healthy Food : Part 2

American Woman's Home
by Catharine Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe

(Page 11 of 45)

"Man walks, then, not only in a vain show, but wrapped in an not celestial aureole of his own material exhalations. A great mist of gases and of vapor rises day and night from the whole realm of living nature. The water and the carbonic acid which animals exhale become the food of plants, whose leaves are at once lungs and mouths. The vegetable world reverses the breathing process of the animal creation, restoring the elements which that has combined and rendered effete for its own purposes, to their original condition. The salt-water ocean is a great aquarium. The air ocean in which we live is a 'Wardian case,' of larger dimensions."

It is found that the simple elements will not nourish the body in their natural state, but only when organized, either as vegetable or animal food; and, to the dismay of the Grahamite or vegetarian school, it is now established by chemists that animal and vegetable food contain the same elements and in nearly the same proportions.

Thus, in animal food, carbon predominates in fats, while in vegetable food it shows itself in sugar, starch and vegetable oils. Nitrogen is found in animal food in the albumen, fibrin and caseine; while in vegetables it is in gluten, albumen and caseine.

It is also a curious fact that, in all articles of food, the elements that nourish diverse parts of the body are divided into separable portions and also that the proportions correspond in a great degree to the wants of the body. For example, a kernel of wheat contains all the articles demanded for every part of the body. Fig. 55 represents, upon an enlarged scale, the position and proportions of the chief elements required. The white central part is the largest in quantity and is chiefly carbon in the form of starch, which supplies fat and fuel for the capillaries. The shaded outer portion is chiefly nitrogen, which nourishes the muscles and the dark spot at the bottom is principally phosphorus, which nourishes the brain and nerves.

And these elements are in due proportion to the demands of the body. A portion of the outer covering of a wheat-kernel holds lime, silica and iron, which are needed by the body and which are found in no other part of the grain. The woody fiber is not digested, but serves by its bulk and stimulating action to facilitate digestion. It is therefore evident that bread made of unbolted flour is more Healthy than that made of superfine flour. The process of bolting removes all the woody fiber; the lime needed for the bones; the silica for hair, nails and teeth; the iron for the blood; and most of the nitrogen and phosphorus needed for muscles, brain and nerves.

Experiments on animals prove that fine flour alone, which is chiefly carbon, will not sustain life more than a month, while unbolted flour furnishes all that is needed for every part of the body. There are cases where persons can not use such coarse bread, on account of its irritating action on inflamed coats of the stomach. For such, a kind of wheaten grit is provided, containing all the kernel of the wheat, except the outside woody fiber.

When the body requires a given kind of diet, specially demanded by brain, lungs, or muscles, the appetite will crave food for it until the necessary amount of this article is secured. If, then, the food in which the needed aliment abounds is not supplied, other food will be taken in larger quantities than needed until that amount is gained. For all kinds of food have supplies for every want of the body, though in different proportions. therefore, for example, if the muscles are worked a great deal, food in which nitrogen abounds is required and the appetite will continue until the requisite amount of nitrogen is secured. If, then, food is taken which has not the requisite quantity, the consequence is, that more is taken than the system can use, while the vital powers are needlessly taxed to throw off the excess.

These facts were ascertained by Liebig, a celebrated German chemist and physicist, who, assisted by his government, conducted experiments on a large scale in prisons, in armies and in hospitals. Among other results, he states that those who use potatoes for their principal food eat them in very much larger quantities than their bodies would demand if they used also other food. The reason is, that the potato has a very large proportion of starch that supplies only fuel for the capillaries and very little nitrogen to feed the muscles. For this reason lean meat is needed with potatoes.

In comparing wheat and potatoes we find that in one hundred parts wheat there are fourteen parts nitrogen for muscle and two parts phosphorus for brain and nerves. But in the potato there is only one part in one hundred for muscle and nine tenths of one part of phosphorus for brain and nerves.

The articles containing most of the three articles needed generally in the body are as follows: for fat and heat-making - butter, lard, sugar and molasses; for muscle-making - lean meat, cheese, peas, beans and lean fishes; for brain and nerves - shell-fish, lean meats, peas, beans and very active birds and fishes who live chiefly on food in which phosphorus abounds. In a meat diet, the fat supplies carbon for the capillaries and the lean furnishes nutriment for muscle, brain and nerves. Green vegetables, fruits and berries furnish the acid and water needed.

In grains used for food, the proportions of useful elements are varied; there is in some more of carbon and in others more of nitrogen and phosphorus. For example, in oats there is more of nitrogen for the muscles and less carbon for the lungs, than can be found in wheat. In the corn of the North, where cold weather demands fuel for lungs and capillaries, there is much more carbon to supply it than is found in the Southern corn.

From these statements it may be seen that one of the chief mistakes in providing food for families has been in changing the proportions of the elements nature has fitted for our food. therefore, fine wheat is deprived by bolting of some of the most important of its nourishing elements, leaving carbon chiefly, which, after supplying fuel fur the capillaries, must, if in excess, be sent out of the body; therefore needlessly taxing all the excreting organs. So milk, which contains all the elements needed by the body, has the cream taken out and used for butter, which again is chiefly carbon. Then, sugar and molasses, cakes and candies, are chiefly carbon and supply but very little of other nourishing elements, while to make them safe much exercise in cold and pure air is necessary.

About the Author

Catharine Esther Beecher (1800 - 1878) was a noted educator, renowned for her forthright opinions on women's education as well as her vehement support of the many benefits of the incorporation of a kindergarten into children's education.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896) was a white American abolitionist and novelist, whose Uncle Tom's Cabin attacked the cruelty of slavery; it reached millions as a novel and play, and became influential, even in Britain.