Part 32

Deep breathing habits are imperative and he must be careful not to overtax lungs or heart.

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The man engaged in muscular work requires plenty of food; he can digest foods which the professional or business man, or the man of sedentary habits, cannot. He will probably be able to drink coffee and tea without any disturbance to nerves or to digestion. In his muscular work he liberates the waste freely and needs fats, starches and sugars to supply the heat and energy. This is especially true of men who work in the fresh air; the muscular action liberates waste and heat and the full breathing freely oxidizes the waste, putting it in condition to be excreted through lungs, skin, kidneys and intestines.

He should have more meat, eggs and nitrogenous foods, and he also needs more carbonaceous foods to supply heat and energy. Three hearty meals a day are necessary.

His muscular movements of the trunk keeps the circulation forceful and the vital organs strong so that his diet may be almost as heavy as that of the football player. Meat or eggs, two or even three times a day, with tea or coffee, and even pie may be eaten with impunity. He needs a good nourishing breakfast of bacon and eggs or meat, also potatoes, or a liberal allowance of bread and butter, corn bread, muffins, etc.

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The term aged is not governed entirely by years. If one stops physical and mental activity, the vital forces recede, muscles and vital organs become weak and inactive, the waste of the system is not fully relieved and such a man at fifty-five is physically and mentally older than the man who is in active business or is taking daily vigorous exercise, at seventy or eighty. The latter may follow the same diet which he follows at fifty, while the former should follow the diet of the old man who has stopped active work. It should be simple, easily digested and nutritious, and should be reduced in quantity.

BREAKFAST

Cereal, well cooked, with cream or sugar. Oatmeal is preferred because it is laxative. One egg, boiled, poached or baked (soft). One slice of toast. Cereal coffee.

DINNER

Bouillon or soup. Meat—small portion. Potato (preferably baked). Vegetable. Cup custard, or bread, rice or cornmeal pudding with lemon cream sauce.

SUPPER

Soup. Bread and butter. Stewed fruit. Tea.

An old person needs little meat. The food should be masticated to a pulp. Tea and coffee are best omitted, but if used to tea, one small cup, prepared by turning boiling water on the leaves and served immediately, may be included. The tea should not be strong and, for reasons given on page 183, should never be allowed to steep.

If inclined to constipation, or if the kidneys are inactive, grapes or an apple, or some fruit may be eaten just before retiring.

MENUS FOR ABNORMAL CONDITIONS.

Where the body is not in normal condition, because elements are lacking in the blood, these elements must be supplied in larger proportions with the food, and the case is one for a food chemist, or for one who has made food conditions a study. When medical colleges broaden their curriculum, or physicians employ methods other than medicine and the knife, for correction of physical ailments, the relief will be with this profession. If they do not, professional schools for the education of the physical culturist and food specialists, for the correction of deranged conditions of the system, due to poor circulation and abnormal blood conditions, which have so long been controlled entirely through medicine, will spring up and replace much of the correction previously left entirely to the medical fraternity.

In case of an abnormal condition, the food must be regulated according to the case. This also applies to a diet where one carries an abnormal amount of fat.

In the early stage of various diseases, where toxins are hoarded in the system, it is often advisable to abstain from food for from one to three days, according to conditions. As previously stated, where the system is not properly eliminating the waste, it is wise to abstain from food, to take brisk exercise, breathe deeply and drink freely of water, until the waste is eliminated. A laxative is also desirable.

The above suggestions are for abnormal conditions. To keep the body in health, eat at regular periods.

It is the purpose here to give diets for chronic cases, which the average person attempts to regulate without a physician in regular attendance.

The foundation education in regard to foods, belongs in the public schools. How many lives are lost on account of the lack of knowledge of food values will never be known.

The system readily excretes an excess of vegetable products, and, as a rule, no acute difficulties result; however, such chronic difficulties, as Constipation, Torpid Liver and Indigestion, frequently result from an excess of starch, over that consumed in energy. On account of the readiness to putrefaction of protein products, care should be taken not to consume these in too great proportion.

Broadly speaking, a diet largely of protein, which is digested in the stomach, rests the intestines, and a diet largely of carbohydrates, rests the stomach, because the gastric juice is not active in starch digestion. In case sufficient saliva is not swallowed with the food to digest the starches and sugars in the stomach they are passed into the intestines for digestion. In the absence of sufficient saliva, water with the food is desirable to dissolve the starches, that they may more readily pass the pylorus.

A study of the habitual taste for foods, in connection with the physical ailments of eighteen thousand women, shows that by the constituents in the blood, and the condition of the different organs of the digestive system, one can usually determine which food the individual has formed a habit of eating, because the blood will show a lack of the elements which that patient has denied himself on account of his likes and dislikes.

It is necessary to change the mental attitude toward certain foods before the system will assimilate them; thus a taste for the foods which the body requires should be cultivated.

Every mother, with growing children, should be a thorough student of the chemistry of food. If the child’s bones do not grow to sufficient size and strength, care in the selection of foods, rich in proteins, lime, magnesium and phosphates, may correct it. Such a child should have meat, whole wheat bread and eggs.

Where the child stores up too much fat, care in the amount of exercise, and of oxygen consumed, as well as the regulation of diet, are of vital importance. If one is thin and undernourished, chemical analysis of the contents of stomach, intestines and kidneys should be made, the nerves be rested and proper food, exercise and breathing should accompany medical treatment, if medicine is needed.