Science. Meat.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1830, 29 March 1884, Page 2 (Supplement)

Science. Meat.

The \iilue of meat as a food is due in a degree to its heat-producing properties, though in this lespect it is surpassed by fatty and amyloid substances. It is as a tissue building nmleiial, and as an excitant of assimilative change- in the tissues, both with regard to itself and to non-nitrogenous foods, that it is most useful. It is stimulant as well as nutritive, and therefore holds a deservedly high place in the daily dietary. Experiment has shown that thiee-quaiters of a pound of lean meat faiily iepie°ents the quantity per diem which, taken with other less nitrogenous matter, suffices to maintain a person of average size and weight in a normal state of health. Some there are who largely exceed this standard, eating freely of meat at every meal, and living all the time quiet, sedentary lives. Such carnivorous feeders sooner or later pay a penalty by suffering attacks of gout or other disordeis of indulgence. But it is equally important to note that many others, especially women, healthy in all points but foi|their innutrition, are|apt to err as far on the other side. Thus one meets with people who consume about a pou&d of butcher's meat in a week, or not even that. This iact has been fully biought out by Dr. Graily Hewitt, in his address to the Obstetrical Section at the lecent meeting of the British Medical Association. He has likewise with much probability assigned this defect of diet as the chief cause of that general " weakness " which is so common among the antecedents of uterine displacement. The experience of many practitioners will confhrn his observation. Different causes are at work to produce this kind of underfeeding — too rigid domestic ecomony, theoretical prejudices, the fastidious isinclination f.>r food which comes of a languid indoor life without sufficient bodily exercise, tight lacing perhaps, and many more. These difficulties are all more or less removable, unless, indeed, where absolute poverty foims the impediment. No effort should be spared to remove them. The advantages derived from a diet containing a fair amount of solid animal food couldnot be obtained from a purely vegetable or milk regimen without f ither unnecessarily burdening the digestive system with much surplus material, or, on the other hand, requiring such revolutionary changes as to quantity and quality of food and times of eating as would probably altogether prevent its general adoption, even were that desirable, into household management. In our opinion, such changes are not desirable, as being inadequate to secure their purpose.— Lancet.