ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
DIET

Copyright 1914
BY
EUGENE CHRISTIAN
Entered at
Stationers Hall, London
September, 1914
BY
EUGENE CHRISTIAN, F. S. D.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTENTS

Volume V

Lesson XVI

INFANT, OLD AGE, AND ATHLETIC FEEDING SEDENTARY OCCUPATIONS, CLIMATIC EXTREMES

Diet may be divided into three distinct classes—normal, preventive, and curative. In order to understand the application of diet to these several conditions, it is necessary to observe the following rules:

1. Foods must be selected which contain all the desired nutritive elements.
2. They must be so combined as to produce chemical harmony, or should at least produce no undesirable chemical action.
3. They must be proportioned so as to level or balance their nutritive elements; that is, to prevent overfeeding on some elements of nourishment, and underfeeding on others.

Many fine specimens of men and women have been produced without knowledge of these laws, but in nearly every case it may have been observed that the person was normal as to habits, and temperate in eating, therefore led aright by instinct.

If one lives an active life, spending from three to five hours a day in the open air, the body will cast off and burn with oxygen much excess nutrition, and will also convert or appropriate certain nutritive elements to one purpose, which, according to all known chemical laws, Nature intended for another. Much better results, however, will be obtained by giving Nature the right material with which to work, thus pursuing lines of least resistance.

What foods to select, how they should be combined and proportioned, is determined mainly by laws dependent upon the following conditions:

1. Age.
2. Temperature of environment—time of year or climate.
3. Work or activity.

(1) As to age:

If we wish the best results we must select and proportion our food according to age, because the growing child or youth needs much structural material—calcium phosphates—with which to build bone, teeth, and cartilage. This is found in cereals and in all grain foods. The middle-aged person needs but little of these—just enough for repair, and the aged person needs practically none.

While the growing child needs calcium phosphate, he also needs milk and natural sweets, which named in the order of their preference are honey, maple-sugar, dates, figs, and raisins. This does not mean that a generous quantity of vegetables and fruit cannot be taken, but that the articles first mentioned (cereals and starchy foods) should form a conspicuous part of the child's diet.

The adult needs a much less quantity of the heavier starchy foods, because the structural part of the body has been built up. The diet of the adult should consist of vegetables, nuts, and a normal quantity of sweets, a normal quantity of fruits, milk and eggs, with rather a limited amount of cereal or bread products, while the aged, or those having passed sixty, could subsist wholly upon a non-starch diet (non-cereal starch), such as vegetables, milk, nuts, eggs, salads, and fruits, including bananas, which is not a fruit, but a vegetable, and which contains a splendid form of readily soluble starch.

(2) As to time of year:

In selecting and proportioning our food we should observe the laws of temperature or time of the year. We should not eat foods of a high caloric or heating value at a time when the sun is giving us this heat direct, thus building a fire inside, while the sun is giving us the same heat outside. The violation of this simple law is the cause of all sunstroke and heat prostrations. On the contrary, if we are going to be exposed to zero weather, we should build a fire inside by eating foods of a high caloric value.

(3) As to work or activity:

We should select and proportion our food according to the work we do, because eating is a process of making energy, while work is a process of expending energy, and we should make these two accounts balance.

THE NORMAL DIET

While in some respects each body is a law unto itself, there are a few fundamental rules and laws that apply to all alike. For instance, overeating of starchy foods, in every case, will produce too much uric acid, and finally rheumatism. Also the overeating of sweets and starches will cause the stomach to secrete an over-supply of fermentative acids, the effects of which have been discussed in a previous lesson.

In laying out the diet, under all conditions, the practitioner must be governed by the above-named rules. He should exercise his judgment, however, in each case according to the prevailing conditions. In prescribing diet it is well to remember that Nature will not tolerate, without protest, any radical change. It often occurs, therefore, that the most correct and thoroughly balanced menu will cause violent physical disturbances which the inexperienced may consider as unfavorable symptoms, but in a majority of cases this is merely the adjusting process, similar to that which occurs when the body is suddenly deprived of narcotics and stimulants after their habitual use.

The practitioner should exercise much care in diagnosis. He should study all symptoms and lay out the diet so as to counteract prevailing conditions, and to produce normality.

The tendency of the body, that has been incorrectly fed for many years, to protest against the right kind and the right combinations of food, is often very deceptive. It is not always correct to say that the food did not agree with the stomach, but more correct to say that the different foods did not agree with themselves. The patient should be thoroughly acquainted with these facts, and mentally prepared for some temporary discomforts or physical protest against the new system.

INFANT FEEDING

The tremendous mortality among infants and children is due to incorrect feeding more than to all other causes. In the process of reproducing animal life, nearly all abnormal conditions are eliminated. The best that is in the mother is given to the child. The trend of Nature is upward toward higher intelligence and more perfect physical development. For this reason infants are usually healthier than their parents, though millions of babies are rapidly broken in health by improper feeding.

The economy of Nature is perfect, therefore all natural forces conspire to preserve the life of the young. This is the natural law governing the preservation and the development of human life, and that this condition does not obtain is the most striking evidence of our lack of knowledge in feeding the young.

Infant feeding must be considered from two points of view: (1) Dealing with the child or infant as we find it, where the mother has so violated Nature's laws of nutrition and hygiene as to afford no breast-milk for her child; (2) where this condition does not prevail, and the child receives ample nourishment from the breast of the mother.

We will first consider the diet and the conduct of the mother during pregnancy and prior to it.

Preparation for motherhood is one of woman's most sacred duties, because it involves not only the happiness and health of herself, but it shapes, in a large degree, the mental and the physical conditions of another being which will wield an influence over its whole life.

The common error of most women is that they do not desire children when they are first married, and in the pursuit of other pleasures they violate and disregard the laws of Nature; the baby is a mere accident—probably unwelcome. During the entire embryonic period the same old habits and diet are indulged in; the mental and the physical condition of the being-to-be has received no consideration, and, unwelcome in a strange world, the little eyes are opened. Then the instinctive love of the mother is kindled and lavished; the child's every want is law; it needs maternal nourishment and the mother desires to give it, but the natural fountain is insufficient, and probably dry. The mother's thoughts and inspirations can no longer become a part of the child, except through education in later years—they are two separate beings; the opportunity to endow it with a part of her life is forever gone.

Under the most favorable conditions we meet a constant resistance to life, and the higher we ascend in the scale of civilization the greater is the resistance encountered. It is therefore the duty of the mother, as also of the father, to remove every obstacle that would offer resistance to the physical and mental growth of the child. In order to do this it is necessary to carry out certain well-established laws concerning diet, exercise, fresh air, sunshine, and mental training.

GENERAL RULES FOR THE PROSPECTIVE MOTHER

From the time conception is recognized the following general rules should be observed:

1. The corset or all tight-fitting garments that would in any way interfere with freedom of exercise and thorough development of the abdominal muscles should be discarded.
2. As much time as possible—at least two hours each day—should be spent in the open air, and a system of moderate trunk exercises followed, together with deep breathing, calculated to expand the lungs to their fullest cell capacity, which is Nature's method of burning or oxidizing waste matter, and thereby keeping the blood pure.
3. The mental occupation should be an important factor in the daily regimen. Some congenial study should be chosen with the view of making it useful, while some remunerative employment should be sought and indulged in for a portion of each day. Avoid idleness by all means, or an idle roaming of the mind and spirit. Learn to think, to concentrate, to work, and to do something for others, as it is from these things that all happiness is gained.
4. The diet of the future mother should be governed somewhat by the laws laid out in the first part of this lesson; that is, age, temperature of environment, and occupation should be considered in its selection.

SPECIAL RULES FOR THE PROSPECTIVE MOTHER

There are some specific rules in regard to diet, however, which every mother should observe. The diet should be balanced so as to contain all the needed elements of nourishment in approximately the right proportions. The proportions, however, should differ in many cases from that which she would take if she were in a normal state, especially in regard to starchy foods or calcareous matter. An abundance of green salads, sweet ripe fruits, fresh vegetables in season, eggs, milk, nuts, and not more than two ounces of bread, potatoes, or dried beans should be taken daily. If flesh food or something salty is craved, tender chicken, or fish, may be allowed in small quantities.

It should be borne in mind that I do not advocate the use of flesh foods, but during pregnancy the appetite is varying and sometimes tyrannical, and it has been found better to compromise with this condition than to combat it. The use of a limited quantity of tender meat, or any other article of good food for which there should arise a craving, is therefore advisable.

In the selection of meats, the flesh of young animals is best, for the reason that young animals are more healthy and less liable to contamination by dis-ease. The meat of either fowl or fish is rather appetizing, and often satisfies the craving that many pregnant women have for the heavier meats such as pork or veal, which are, of course, very much more difficult to digest.

There is, notwithstanding the opinion foolishly held by many doctors, no difference in the nutritive qualities of white or dark meat, as either variety is nourished by identically the same blood supply, and contains the same sort of protoplasm.

So it is a mistaken idea to think that there is any appreciable difference in the digestibility of white meat as compared with dark, except as the effect of mental suggestion may be operative. Of course, we know that if you tell a person often enough that a certain thing is true, eventually he will act upon it automatically. And so it is with the white and dark meat fetich.

THE NURSING MOTHER

If the mother supplies enough milk, this is infinitely superior to any artificial combination of so-called infant foods. Unfortunately a large majority of children are not breast-fed, and must depend upon the various commercial infant-foods, or upon the judgment of the untrained nurse, or the mother.

The majority of mothers, if so disposed, could, by studying their own diet, supply the most robust child with ample breast-nourishment until it is ten or twelve months old, after which period the infantile crisis would be passed, and millions of little lives would thereby be saved. However, the confinement and the trouble to which the mother is subjected by the nursing baby causes the majority of infants to be weaned within a few weeks after birth, and turned over to the hazard of prepared food, soporific drugs, and nurses.

If mothers could realize the love that is daily kindled and strengthened; if they could be made to know how much more their children would love them, and they would love their children; if they could look into the years and see how the link of love between them and their children had been shaped, molded, and fashioned by the simple act of nurturing them from the breast (to say nothing of the lives that would be saved), the artificially-fed baby would be a rarity, and the mother would be queen in the hearts of the nation's children.

The most beautiful thing that ever graced the canvas of art, or shed its love into the cold realism of nature, is a nursing baby pushing from its satisfied lips the mother's breast, and smiling its sweet content into her face.

It is almost criminal to withdraw the breast from an infant, and to turn it over to the treachery of prepared foods, when, by devoting a little time each day to the study of the science of eating, it is possible for the mother to supply the child with her own milk.

CARE OF THE CHILD

The following are general rules for feeding the infant from birth to about one year of age.

These rules cannot be made inflexible because all children differ in temperament, vitality, and as to prenatal influences, but if the mother will observe these instructions with reasonable care, her child can be brought healthfully through the most critical period of its life, and will enter the solid food age with good digestion, a strong body, and an excellent chance to withstand all children's dis-eases.

Where artificial feeding becomes necessary, then the preparation of the baby-food is of primary importance. Cow's milk is, of course, the logical food, but taken whole, that is, the entire milk, it is too high in proteids, and deficient in sugar; therefore, in order to make a healthful infant-food, it must be modified according to the requirements of the infant body.

The nurse or the mother should prepare a quantity sufficient for only one day's supply at a time, after the following formula:

This should be thoroughly mixed, placed in the bottle, and set in warm water until it is brought to the temperature of breast-milk. The above formula may be used during the first month of the baby's life.

The quantity and the frequency of feedings should be according to the following table:

Formula for the second and the third months:

Quantity and frequency of feeding should be about as follows:

Formula for period from the fourth to the twelfth month:

Quantity and frequency of feedings should be about as follows:

The above formulas for infant-food are the best that can be made from ordinary cow's milk.

The milk-sugar and the lime-water herein named can be purchased at any first-class drug store.

These tables are not given as exact. The mother should exercise careful vigilance and judgment, especially in reference to the quantity of each feeding, and the frequency. The moment the child shows symptoms of overfeeding, which symptoms are usually evidenced by vomiting or discomfort, the quantity of cream and the amount at each feeding should be reduced. In fact, it is healthful, and often necessary for the child to allow it the opportunity to get hungry. The digestion of many a baby is totally ruined by continuous feeding, which is done out of motherly sympathy, or merely to keep it quiet.

The mother or the nurse should exercise great care in the cleanliness and the hygienic preparation of children's foods. Milk should be fresh, and of the very best. It should not be left uncovered or exposed. It should be kept continually on ice until ready for use. The cream should be taken from the top of the bottle, or from fresh milk. This insures better quality of butter-fat than is generally supplied in ordinary commercial daily cream.

As the child advances in age, whole milk, cereal gruel, and egg mixture (two whites to one yolk) may be administered according to the child's normal appetite and digestion. The egg may be prepared by whipping the whites and the yolks separately, adding to the yolk a teaspoonful of cream and one of sugar, then whipping the beaten whites into this, and serving.

CONSTIPATION

The stools of natural, healthy children should be bright yellow and perfectly smooth. If grainy and soft, food should be made richer. If in curds, it evidences too rapid coagulation; therefore an alkali should be added. If the stools are white and oily, it indicates an excess of cream. If hard and dry, it indicates an insufficient amount of cream. If green, reduce the quantity of milk, or omit it altogether, and increase the quantity of barley-water.

The majority of bottle-fed children suffer greatly from constipation, caused largely by the milk, or the failure to modify the milk properly, or to make it contain the constituent elements of breast-milk. This condition can be relieved by giving the child sweet orange juice every night and morning, or the juice from soaked prunes, if preferred. This should be administered in quantities ranging from a dozen drops to two or three teaspoonfuls, according to the age of the child and the severity of the condition. Intestinal congestion can often be relieved, however, by giving the abdomen gentle massage, preferably with a rotary or kneading motion.

In cases of diarrhea, infants from three to eight months old should be given first an enema, and then a diet entirely of boiled milk mixed with rice or barley-water.

EXERCISE

All infants need some exercise. They should be gently rubbed and rolled about after the morning bath, before they are dressed. There is nothing more healthful than exposure of the baby-skin to fresh air in a normal temperature.

CLOTHING

Next in importance to the food of the infant is its clothing. The usual style of dressing babies the first three months of their lives is positively barbaric; not that it imitates uncivilized people, but because it evidences the grossest ignorance and cruelest vanity. The mother seems to have no way of expressing her pride in her child except by bedecking it with elaborate garments. These usually consist of three long skirts, two of them attached to bands which are fastened around the body. The weight of this clothing prevents the free use of the baby's feet and legs, putting it into a kind of civilized strait-jacket, thus preventing it from exercising the only part of its anatomy that it can freely move.

It is nothing uncommon to see a beautiful baby sore, irritated, and broken out with heat all over its little body by being heavily enveloped in barbaric rags. The child, therefore, is made to suffer merely that it may please a proud mother, and conform to an ignorant custom a thousand years old.

The only purpose clothing should serve is that of bodily warmth. When it is made the instrument of painful adornment it is serving the same purpose as "rings in the ears and bells on the toes," and the mind of the mother who thus afflicts her child is in the same class as that of the ignorant barbarian whom she imitates.

TEMPERATURE OF BABY'S FOOD

It should be remembered that all liquid food for a child up to twelve or fifteen months old should be administered at a temperature no lower than blood-heat. The liquid mixtures named herein may be made in advance of the needs, and placed upon ice merely to preserve them, but should be warmed to a temperature of at least ninety-nine degrees Fahrenheit before administering to the child.

Pure water should be given to all children from the time they are two weeks old.

BANDAGE

The bandage should be removed about the close of the third month.

EMACIATION

In case of slight emaciation or lack of fat, the child should be given an olive-oil rub once or twice a week, rubbing gently into the skin about one teaspoonful of oil.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR CHILDREN AFTER ONE YEAR

All children, whether breast-fed or bottle-fed, are subject to practically the same health rules after they are about one year old. Therefore I will now consider all children in the same class, and lay out for them what may be termed general instructions in health and hygiene.

Care should be exercised to omit from the diet of children just beginning to take solid food, all articles that will not dissolve readily without mastication.

GENERAL DIET FROM AGES ONE TO TWO

The diet from the first to the second year should consist of:

• Baked apples
• Baked potatoes—sweet or white
• Cereal—limited quantity (thoroughly cooked)
• Cream soups—home-made, such as: