DIET.

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 432, 10 April 1875, Page 2

DIET.

Many persons eat far too much flesh, and would be 1 the better for a more copious admixture of vegetables. Others ba\e too much vegetables, ami especially farinaceous food, and not enough fiVsh, regard being had in either case to the work which the individual has to do, and to the power of digestion. Too exclusive a fissh diet is the ruin of many rich people, who even allow their children at school to indulge in game vies and other articles of the highest class, such as unfit boys for plain fare, asnd deprive them of the l\elp which a higher diet might afford them hereafter in oase of illness. Too much animal food is unduly stimulant, render children restless and quarrelsome, young men sensual and Philistine, and old infen gouty and dyspeptic. Too exclusive vegetable or farinaceous a dief, especially if tried too suddenly by persons unused to it, has for its first effect to constipate the bowels, which become loaded with masses of undigested rice, bread or potato. We believe it may be laid down as an axiom that, other things being equal, tLe more the brain is worked the gi eater need is there for animal food. Town people must have more meat, as a rule, than country folks ; the children of professional men more than the children of agricultural laborers. Still, rich townspeople on- the whole should use less flesh, and the poor ones more. There aie plenty of vegetable stimulants, some combined with nourishment, as in mushrooms and onions ; others uncombined, as peppers au d spices. And the way to insure the greater use of nutrient vegetables is to confer on them Some of the flavor and stimulating properties of animtfrfood. By this means the people who eat too much fleshy and the people who cannot get flesh enough, would each have the best substituie. Rich people, who can afford what they like, may lessen the consumption of meat by introducing various accessories — as stewed fruit with roast meat — and by substituting the most rechc>chc vegetable dishes for entues of meat. Poor jjeople, who wish to reduce the quantity of flesh for economical leasons, must f«ll back upon the farinacea and on vegetables generally, and endeavour, by appropriate admixture of vegetable condiments, to imitate the stimulating and satisfying qualities of animal food. In fact puddings and other dishes which are too commonly eaten with sugar should be made savoury by the addition of the condiments that generally accompany meat.*—" Medical Times and Gazette."