HUMAN DIET.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 46, 21 January 1843, Page 184

HUMAN DIET.

[From Cunningham's Australia.] It aeems the natural order of things throughout the world that, for the sake of health, an increase of animal food should generally be required in a progressive ratio from the temperate latitudes to the poles, and a decrease thereof from the above latitudes to the equator; a progressive increase of stimulating food appearing necessary, in the former case, to guard the body from the progressive cold, and a similar decrease of it in the latter to guard against progressive heat. Sir John Ross, indeed, states, as the result of his own convictions, relative to the arctic living, the nearer others conformed to the fateating habits of the Esquimaux the better health they enjoyed. All Europeans incline to diminish the amount of animal diet on emigrating to warm climates, except the English, who continue the solid roasts and boileds they were accustomed to at home, where a cooler climate gave a keener digestion, and thus enabled them to'eat" with impunity what, in a warmer climate, would conduce to disease. Dr. Gregory, in his lectures on the Indian liver complaint, well known to be brought on more by overindulgence at table and neglect of exercise than any fault of the climate, used to illustrate this by an anecdote of the Mysore war, where our sick fell into the hands of the enemy, among whom were a goodly number of officers labouring under the above disease. These gentlemen, so long accustomed to luxuries, were naturally horror-struck at having nothing but rice for subsistence, and that in such diminutive quantity as to lead to the unanimous conclusion that his Sultanship meant to get rid of them by slow starvation. Day after day, therefore, were they anxiously questioning each other about observable fallings away; but, instead of this, their healthy aspects, plumpness, and strength gradually returned, and ere long every complaint had disappeared, except, as the doctor facetiously observed, the complaint of the rice allowance. Exercise in the open air tends to keep the body healthy in all climates, but seems even more necessary in the warm than in the cold; and hence a great improvement has taken place in the health-of Indian officers since indulging more in horseback exercise, and in the stirring, though often dangerous, " field sports of the East. 3' Some thirteen years back an Indian civilian arrived in New South Wales to recover a constitution impaired by climatorial disease; and, with the view of accelerating this, was advised to take a grant of land, for giving employment to his mind in the superintendence of its cultivation—the result of which was a return to India, at the end of his leave, in perfect health, declaring that no out-of-door exercise should be wanting in future to secure that which exercise, under the hottest sun and winds, had obtained for him in New South Wales. But even an Englishman's descendants go beyond him in animal food consumption, as is well known to be the case in America; which, however, Australia promises completely to eclipse, as in no part of the world is there, I believe, such an amount of animal food made use of, in comparison to the population, as in that country. Over all the Mediterranean shores animal food is seldom tasted by the peasantry, and nowhere will you see men more athletic, or capable of undergoing more fatigue, or less subject to those diseases which a too stimulating diet has a tendency to produce in such a climate. But everything depends, in this respect, upon our diet education in childhood. In England, a schoolboy who had not three substantial meals a-day would be looked upon, as starved; and hence, such is his education, that he never entertains a thought of diminishing the number of food doses when he grows up. But what is the case in other countries ? On visiting the schools at Athens, I found the whole of the children perfectly contented with a single noon-meal daily, consisting (on examining their little bags) of a piece of brown bread, in the majority of cases, a few only having the luxury of a handful of green bean-pods, a lettuce, or a couple of small cucumbers, in addition; yet the children had all healthy looks; and, viewing the powerful frames of the Athenian men, their fathers and relations, who adhere to the same simple fare, I could not help reflecting to myself, when perambulating the plains of Troy, " Here an army of ancient Greeks lay encamped some three thousand and odd years ago, who, judging by the living of the modern Greeks, would not consume more in a twelvemonth than an English army of the same number could do in a week." It is with a view of drawing the attention of Australians to the conforming more in diet to the natives of similar climes to their own, that I have penned the above, by which a more uniform state of health would be enjoyed. Bread generally constitutes the chief part of the Mediterranean meal, the remainder consisting of oranges, grapes, melons, raisins, lettuces, cucumbers, carouba pods, or whatever else eatable in the vegetable or fruit line is to be had, which keep their bodies cool, and thus prevent the accession of those violent dysenteries, and other similar inflammatory complaints, that a heating animal diet so much subjects Englishmen -and their descendants to in similar warm latitudes.