Read Ebook: The Diary of Philip Westerly by Compton Paul

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 265 lines and 31484 words, and 6 pages

Pine nuts 6.4 33.9 49.4 6.9 3.4 39.3 130.4 8.0 177.7

Walnuts, black 2.5 27.6 56.3 11.7 1.9 32.0 149.6 13.6 195.2

TABLE D--VEGETABLES

Beets, cooked 88.6 2.3 .1 7.4 1.6 2.7 .3 8.6 11.6

Cabbage 91.5 1.6 .3 5.6 1.0 1.9 .8 6.5 9.2

Carrots 88.2 1.1 .4 9.3 1.0 1.3 1.1 10.8 13.2

Lettuce 94.7 1.2 .3 2.9 .9 1.4 .8 7.7 9.9

Onions 87.6 1.6 .3 9.9 .6 1.9 .8 11.5 14.2

Potatoes, boiled 75.5 2.5 .1 20.9 1.0 2.9 .3 24.2 27.4

Spinach, cooked 89.8 2.1 4.1 2.6 1.4 2.4 4.8 3.0 10.2

Tomatoes 94.3 .9 .4 3.9 .5 1.0 1.1 4.5 6.6

TABLE E--MISCELLANEOUS FOODS

Cane sugar 100.0 116.0 116.0

Cream 74.0 2.5 18.5 4.5 .5 2.9 48.8 5.2 56.9

Cottage cheese 72.0 20.9 1.0 4.3 1.8 24.2 2.6 5.0 31.8

Eggs 73.7 13.4 10.5 1.0 15.5 27.7 43.2

Honey 18.2 .4 81.2 .2 .5 94.2 94.7

Milk 87.0 3.3 4.0 5.0 .7 3.8 10.6 5.8 20.2

Milk, condensed 68.2 9.6 9.3 11.2 1.7 11.1 24.6 13.0 48.7

Milk, skimmed 90.5 3.4 .3 5.1 .7 3.9 .8 5.9 10.6

Thoroughly toasted bread is quite well dextrinized. It is more easily digested, has a sweeter taste than ordinary bread, and in some cases, is more desirable.

Glucose can also be obtained in solid form by continuing the process of purification a few steps beyond the sirup stage. But let it not be forgotten that any of the sugars, taken in large amounts, may overload the digestive system and the liver, and hence they should be used in reasonable amounts.

The carbohydrates are our chief source of heat and energy, and as previously stated, furnish sixty to sixty-five per cent of the total fuel value of our food. Each ounce of pure carbohydrate yields one hundred sixteen calories of heat when burned. In caloric yield, they are equal to the proteins gram for gram, but yield less than one half that of the fats. If two thousand five hundred calories are again taken as our standard, then sixty per cent would make one thousand five hundred calories to be furnished by the carbohydrates. At one hundred sixteen calories an ounce, we find that it would require thirteen ounces of pure carbohydrate a day to balance this part of our diet.

The inorganic salts or ash of food are just as essential to the body as the other groups of food elements. These essential salts consist of the most common chemical elements, such as soda, potash, lime, magnesia, iron, phosphorus, sulphur, etc. One might expect to find some rare elements in a piece of mechanism as complicated as the human body, but such is not the case. The body salts are of the most common kinds. These salts are found in proper amounts in foods as produced by nature. We cannot take these salts as they are found in the chemical laboratory and use them to good advantage, but we should make sure that we are taking foods that will supply them in the proper amounts. Our best sources of supply are the grains, the fruits, and the vegetables. It is interesting to note that these mineral elements are generally found most abundantly, in the grains at least, in or near the outer coating, and that our high-grade flours are partially robbed of them when the bran and the middlings are removed. The same seems to be true of potatoes. In peeling, a large part of these salts is removed, and thus the real value of this splendid food product is lessened. This is one of the strong arguments for the use of whole wheat flours and other whole grain products. These inorganic salts are needed in the body to keep the various tissues up to their normal in composition. For example, the blood constantly needs some iron to build the red cells. Though the actual amount needed is very small, yet that small amount is exceedingly important to have at hand.

As some of these salts are constantly being eliminated from the body, there must be a constant supply to keep the tissues in equilibrium.

The importance of the vitamines in nutrition has been very clearly demonstrated in experiments upon animals, and these experiments have been repeated a sufficient number of times to be conclusive. Animals have been fed upon pure protein, fat, carbohydrate, and salts, but with vitamine removed or destroyed; and although receiving calories enough, they fail to keep up their nutrition. With a simple change of dietary to include a small amount of food containing the vitamine, without any change in the total calories eaten, their nutrition improves quickly, and they come back to a normal state.

Foods rich in vitamine are represented by milk, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grain products. Foods poor in these substances are represented by sterilized and preserved milks, dried fruits, dried vegetables, white flour, and polished rice.

Vitamines are reduced or lost by the following processes in the preparation of foods: taking off the coating of grain, overheating, washing out in cooking, and drying.

Water, although not a food in the sense of yielding fuel value to the body, is a most important agent in all the various chemical processes taking place in the tissues.

Water is the universal solvent; and because of this property, it carries both food and waste to and from the tissues. The average person needs from three to five quarts a day, a part of which is taken as a portion of the food eaten. This leaves from three to five pints to be taken as a drink. Good drinking water should be colorless, odorless, and of an agreeable taste; should be free from organic matter, poisonous metals, and the bacteria of disease; and should be low in nonpoisonous mineral salts--that is, should be reasonably soft.

There are three common classes of water that are used for drinking purposes; namely, rain water, surface water, and ground water. Rain water is the purest if properly collected. Surface water--water from lakes, streams, etc.--is most likely to be contaminated with organic matter and bacteria. Ground water--that is, water from springs and wells--is likely to be the hardest, but is usually free from bacteria of disease unless there is some contamination from the surface. To take a fairly good quantity of water between meals is better than to drink too freely at the meal hour.

Great care should be taken in selecting the supply of drinking water, as when contaminated, it is a very fruitful means for the transmission of diseases, particularly such diseases as typhoid fever. If not certain of the purity of a water supply, one can be sure to destroy all the disease-producing bacteria by boiling the water for a few minutes, then cooling, and drinking as usual.

Necessary Knowledge to Careful Planning

for years Medical Superintendent of Glendale Sanitarium, Glendale, California

The body is a machine, intricate, complicated, "fearfully and wonderfully" constructed. In one way, it is simple in its operations; but in another, so ultrascientific in the detail of its automatic control, and so deep in the mysteries of its chemical processes, that the investigation of ages has not been able to fathom its greater scientific depths, and bring to the surface a knowledge of its ultimate structure and its wonderful workings. The Master Designer of the living machine so adjusted its mechanism that in its original environment and relationship, its care would be easy, and the laws of its preservation few and exceedingly simple.

Like most machines, the human machine requires the impartation of energy. Similarly, also, this is supplied by the combustion of certain carbonaceous substances. It needs constant repair. These and its other needs are all furnished in the daily food supply.

The life of this machine can be greatly lengthened by intelligent care, or shortened by neglect and abuse. Its efficiency may be similarly affected. While one cannot hear the pounding of the engine or the rattling of the machinery, yet the machine is damaged if run under too high a pressure and at too great speed.

There are seven classes of the essential elemental food substances,--proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamines, salts, cellulose, and water. The ideal diet is one in which these seven elements are regularly supplied to the body in the amounts required to meet its daily needs. A person living close to nature, receiving his food first-handed, direct from nature's health food factory, and eating it with only the cooking and seasoning necessary, and with a reasonable variety, would probably find his diet sufficient, and the elements in about the proper proportions; and with an honest appetite, steadied by a little temperate-in-all-things ballast, he probably would not go far astray as to the proper amounts. But unfortunately, the average individual is not living close to nature. Much that is artificial has come in. Our appetites are capricious, deceitful, and unreasonable. Our foods come to us processed, cartonned, and tinned, often embalmed, devitalized, or adulterated. They are often served to us so disguised that we cannot tell whether their nutritive substance has been concentrated or diluted, or indeed whether or not the body will recognize it as having any nutritive value at all, despite its pleasing flavor. Therefore, in order that the ideal may be approximated to a reasonable and practical degree, we must have some knowledge not only of the needs of the body, but also of these food elements, and how their values may be estimated in the various food substances.

The foods that enter into the make-up of the body and supply its heat and energy are three,--protein, fat, and carbohydrate. While the salts to a certain extent enter into the body structure, they have but little to do with heat and energy production. The remaining food classes are adjuncts, their use being simply to make possible the utilization, by the body, of the tissue and fuel foods. The cellulose assists mechanically in digestion; the water furnishes the necessary fluid; and the vitamines provide the battery, as it were, which sets the whole apparatus in motion.

Of the many persons who, for economical or hygienic reasons, have tried to adjust their diet better, some have undertaken the task without a fundamental knowledge of the physiological and caloric value of foods, their composition, or the nutritional needs of the body, and have done themselves more harm than good. It is possible for us to measure the value of our foods, and to express it in terms of heat units; and with a knowledge of the bodily needs, we may supply ourselves with foods in approximately the amounts needed, and in the best combinations. Food oxidized in the body produces the same amount of heat as that burned outside the body, and the instrument by which the heat value of any substance is determined is called a calorimeter. The unit of measure of heat is called the calorie or heat unit.

The heat value of a gram of pure, water-free protein--for example, the casein of milk, egg albumen, or fiber of meat--is a trifle more than four calories. That of pure starch or sugar is also four calories. Fat is more than double this value, one gram yielding nine and three tenths calories. Since an ounce equals about thirty grams, the number of calories to an ounce is determined by multiplying the above figures by thirty. Different kinds of food vary greatly in the proportion of the food elements and also of the water and cellulose they contain. We therefore find a great variation as to their caloric values also. For example, one heaping tablespoonful of home-baked beans will weigh about fifty grams, thirty of which is water and cellulose. Its total caloric value is one hundred, divided among protein fifteen, fat forty , and carbohydrate forty-five. Contrast with this the same quantity of mashed turnips. One heaping tablespoonful will weigh about seventy grams, of which sixty-five is water and cellulose. Its total fuel value is three calories.

It is easy to remember that an ordinary slice of bread--about three and one half inches square--contains approximately one hundred calories; an average egg, sixty-five; a glass of milk, one hundred fifty; an average potato, one hundred twenty-five; a tablespoonful of gravity cream, fifty; the usual serving of cooked cereal, seventy-five to one hundred; vegetables, except potatoes, an ordinary serving, twenty-five to fifty, depending on the amount of fat or milk added as seasoning; legumes, average serving, one hundred to one hundred fifty. Desserts are usually high in value, ranging from one hundred twenty-five calories in the usual serving of simple custard or junket to three hundred fifty or more in the usual one sixth of some pies, or the ordinary piece of cake.

Housewives who wish to go into the question of foods thoroughly, and combine the science with the art of cookery, may arrange a table of the staples and raw food that ordinarily enter into their various recipes, somewhat after the following, the items of which have been taken at random from such a list or table already prepared and in use:

A B C D E F G

Flour 1 cup 5 oz. 80 25 419 524 Eggs, average each 1 1/2 oz. 23 40 0 63 Milk, whole 1 cup 8 oz. 30 88 46 164 Sugar, granulated 1 cup 7 1/2 oz. 0 0 840 840 Butter 1 cup 8 oz. 0 1,744 0 1,744 Butter 1 tablespoon 1/2 oz. 0 109 0 109

If the housewife desires to know the food value of a cake, for instance, that she is about to bake, whose recipe calls for two cups flour, one and one half cups sugar, one half cup butter, four eggs, she can very easily find out by consulting her table; as:

A B C D

If the cake is cut into twelve servings, the value of each may be determined by dividing each of these sums by twelve. Thus each piece will represent in value, protein, twenty-one calories; fat, ninety calories; carbohydrate, one hundred seventy-five calories; total, two hundred eighty-six calories.

The number of calories needed by the individual varies with height, age, sex, climate, and state of muscular activity; but for the average person, two thousand calories daily may be taken as a working basis. If one is engaged in active muscular labor, the requirement may be three thousand or more. Many persons of sedentary habits do better on less than two thousand. Other things being equal, men need about ten per cent more than women. Children need about ten per cent more than adults. An obese individual, or one suffering from the results of imperfect oxidation, as manifested in rheumatism, neuralgia, and myalgia, may do well for a time on as low an allowance as one thousand one hundred to one thousand two hundred food units daily, experiencing marked relief from symptoms, and if obese, a reduction in weight of from one to four pounds a week.

It should be kept in mind that the amount of protein needed is quite constant, and does not vary with one's state of activity, as does the demand for the fats and the carbohydrates. From two hundred to two hundred fifty calories of this element are needed daily, even though the total ration be low. If one does well on the low ration suggested above, the protein should not be lowered proportionately, as would be the tendency. This is the repair substance, which the body, not being able to store up, must have supplied to it in regular daily amounts.

Excess in eating is often due to the use of certain concentrated foods. A teaspoonful of olive oil contains forty calories; the ordinary pat of butter , fifty calories; a heaping teaspoonful of sugar, forty calories; one English walnut, thirty-three calories; a fair sized olive, twenty calories. While these are good foods, they should be eaten with due regard for their high energy value, that the proper food balance be not disturbed. After eating a good square meal, the average individual calls for the dessert, which, with its accompaniments, actually constitutes a second meal; as, for example, a serving of pie, three hundred fifty calories; its cheese accompaniment, another one hundred calories; a few stuffed dates, another one hundred calories; a few nuts and raisins and a cup of chocolate bringing the total value of this second meal forced upon the body up to seven hundred or eight hundred calories.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet