Object of Eating.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 108, 11 April 1885, Page 4

Object of Eating.

We eat for warmth and strength ; hence almost all articles of food have both these ele.nentj: have carbon to warm, and nitroge.l to strengthen ; to give power to work- Butter, sugar and oils are almost all carbon. Meats, flesh of all kinds, abonnd m nitrogen. Food which has most nitrogen is most nutritious' Butter has 83 per cent of carbon and no nitrogen ; an egg has ho carbon and 20 per cent of nitrogen. Milk contains two parts of warmth and one of strength. Bread contains one part of nitrogen and eight of carbon. It is thus seen that m reference to eating, carbon — which is charcoal fuel— and warmth are one and the same thing ; while nitrogenr-^which is m effect saltpetre -ogives flesh and muscle, which are one and the sam c thing m substance with strength. It is also seen that most articles of food have more carbon or warmth than nitrogen or strength, showing that it takes more to keep us warm than to keep us strong. A sedentary person requires, m round numbers, about one pound of food a day , while a hard -working man requires two pounds; this two pounds of food gives out power enough— as steam man engine gives out power — to raise a man of average weight eleven mile high. But calling the two pounds 5,000 grains; only 300 , grains of it are nitrogen, the remainder carbon ; that is, sixteen times more of warmth is required than of strength-pro-ducing food. One practical result is, that as the worid becomes more thickly populated, the necessity increases of economizing fribd ; of adapting it to the various needs of the system as modified by age, sex, occupation and season. Persons living indoors should not eat more than half as much as those who work hard. Less warming food should be eaten m hot weather than m cold. If we eat an excess of warming food m hot weather we have to work it out of the system at a great expenditure of strength ; and until it is worked off we feel full and feverish and oppressed ; on the other hand, m winter we require an additional quantity of warming food, hence our instincts lead to eat heartily of pork, and buckwheat cakes, and butter, and molasses, which are almost purely carbon. In warm weather we need cooling food, and Providence sends us m profusion the fruits, and the berries and the green things, which have no carbon at all; and while our appetite for them is ravenous, the very idea of fatty food is nauseating. — Hall's Journal of Health.