Part 6

All vegetables, fruits, cereals, legumes, and nuts furnish both calcium salts and sodium, potassium, and magnesium, which are the salts used in the blood and lymph. Minerals are abundant in dried legumes, (beans and peas). A diet consisting largely of vegetables needs the addition of sodium chlorid (common table salt) to supply sufficient salts for foods; likewise more salt than is contained in grass and fodder is needed for animals, particularly for those producing milk. The scientific farmer salts his cattle regularly, while wild animals travel miles and form beaten paths to springs containing salt.

In rectal feeding, it is known that food absorbs more readily through the large intestine if salted. It is probable that salt, in normal proportions, also aids absorption in the stomach and small intestine.

Salt should not, however, be used immoderately.

The minerals of the food, or of the body, form the ashes in burning.

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Iron is an inorganic substance and is necessary in making red blood corpuscles.

If, by some disturbance in the digestion, absorption, or assimilation of food, more iron is excreted from the body than is made use of from the food, the blood making organs do not receive sufficient iron and the blood is lacking in red corpuscles. It becomes poor in hemoglobin and the individual becomes pale. This condition is known as Anaemia.

Where there are not sufficient red blood corpuscles, it is of vital importance that one keep up a good circulation; the stomach, intestines, liver, and spleen must be strengthened through exercise and one must breathe deeply of pure air, for the red blood corpuscles are oxygen carriers, and the insufficient supply must do double duty or the waste of the system will not be oxidized and eliminated.

A diet rich in iron must be supplied. It will most often be found that one whose blood is lacking in hemoglobin and in the proper proportion of red blood corpuscles, has had a dislike for the foods rich in iron, or, perhaps, has not been able to get the right kind of food.

The yolks of eggs, the red meats (such as steak, mutton or the breast of wild game), and the deep colored greens, (such as spinach, chard, dandelions, etc.) contain a goodly proportion of iron. The dark color of greens and of the dark meats is given to them by the iron which they contain. The dark leaves of lettuce, celery, and cabbage contain iron, but these vegetables are apt to be bleached before being put upon the market.

The yolks of two eggs are better than one whole egg, as the iron is in the yolk. A good way to take the yolk of eggs is in egg lemonade or in eggnog, with a little nutmeg for spice.

FOOTNOTES:

Winfield S. Hall, Ph. D., M. D., Prof. of Physiology, Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago.

Carbonaceous Foodstuffs

The carbonaceous foods are those used by the body for heat and energy and are so named because they contain a large proportion of carbon,—heat producing element. It is the carbon in wood, which, uniting with oxygen, produces heat and light.

The carbonaceous foods are all composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the difference being in the different proportions in which these elements are combined.

They are divided into two classes, Fats and Carbohydrates. The carbohydrates embrace the sugars and starches and include such substances as the starches of vegetables and grains (notably corn, rice, wheat, and the root vegetables), and the sugar of milk, of fruits, vegetables, and the sap of trees. Their chief office is to create energy. They are almost entirely absent from meat and eggs, the animal having converted them into fats.

Carbohydrates are easily digested.

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Fat is the most concentrated form of fuel and is readily oxidized. It is almost pure carbon, hence less chemical work is required to convert it into fuel, but more oxygen is needed. A pound of fat has about three times as much fuel value as a pound of wheat flour, which consists largely of starch.

Fat forms about fifteen per cent of the weight of the normal body, and it has about twice the fuel value of carbohydrates.

Carbohydrates and fats are each composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the difference being that there is less oxygen in fat, hence, more oxygen from the air is required for combustion of fat than for carbohydrates. One pound of starch requires one and one-fifth pounds of oxygen for perfect combustion, while one pound of suet requires three pounds of oxygen. For this reason the Eskimo, who depends largely upon the fats for body heat and energy, must have plenty of fresh air. One ounce of fat yields two and one-half times as much energy as an ounce of sugar or starch.

If sufficient fat is not consumed, or is not formed from the carbohydrates (starches and sugars), a certain portion of the protein of the body is converted into fat and used in energy. When the food supply is short, or much energy is called for, the surplus supply of carbohydrates is first used, and, if the carbohydrates are not sufficient, the proteins are used. Of the proteins, the gelatinoids are used first, and next the albuminoids, or tissue builders. If the demand, either in mental or physical energy, exceeds the daily supply for a length of time, the body becomes lean.

In warm weather little fat is needed for fuel and nature provides fresh, green vegetables to replace the root vegetables of the winter, which, consisting largely of starches and sugars, are readily converted into heat. In cold weather, especially in high altitudes or latitudes, more fuel foods are required to keep the body warm and more fat is eaten in winter.

Those who store up an abundance of fat suffer most from a rise in temperature, because combustion not only creates heat, but heat also aids combustion.

Fats are not digested in the stomach. The connective tissue about the fat is digested here, and the fat is passed on into the small intestine, where it is acted upon by the carbonates and by lipase, one of the enzymes of the intestinal juices. These first change the fat into an emulsion and then into a form of soap and glycerine. In this saponified form, it is in condition to be absorbed into the circulation and carried out to the tissues, where it is assimilated and used in energy; a similar chemical change is produced in the conversion of oil into soap.

Common examples of fats are butter, cream, the fat of meats and of nuts, and the oil of grains and seeds,—notably the cocoanut, olive, and, of the grains, oatmeal.

The fact that more oxygen is required for combustion of fat than of starches and sugars is an important item for those who wish to call upon the fats stored within the body for daily heat and energy and thus reduce in weight. If sufficient starches, sugars, and fats are not consumed in the food to supply the daily heat and energy released by exercise, the body calls upon the sugars and starches temporarily stored up and, when these have been consumed, upon the reserve of fat. If much fat is consumed in the daily food this fat in the blood will be oxidized before the fat stored about the muscular tissue. The scientific reduction of weight, therefore, lies in the regulation of the supply of starches, sugars, and fats consumed, and, the oxidation of more of these substances through an increase in the daily exercise. Deep breathing of pure air should accompany all exercises, to supply sufficient oxygen for combustion, or oxidation.