The Relation of Food Economics to Social Welfare.—A virile nation is one whose citizens are of a good physical type, which means that they are well nourished. A well-fed people, other conditions being favorable, is a strong people. Food is the physical basis not only of the individual activity, but also of social energy. Any causes, therefore, which limit the food supply or increase the burden of securing adequate nourishment strike a blow at the nation’s vital power.

We must constantly keep in mind that the energy output is practically the energy requirement, under given conditions, of course; and the expenditure caused by the muscular activity of a particular individual cannot be reduced without affecting the work done or causing the loss of body substance.

Investigation has shown that there is a necessary daily protein minimum use. When insufficient protein is taken in the food, the necessary balance will be supplied by drawing on the tissues of the body. The food standards which are based on the observation of practice call for not less than 100 grams of protein daily for professional men and 175 grams for men at severe labor.

It is held to be significant that communities holding leading positions in the world consume a liberal amount of protein, or, conversely, that communities with an inferior physical and mental status use a low proportion of proteins in the diet. Again, if we argue from the analogies in feeding farm animals, generous protein feeding is desirable for the growth and maintenance of vigorous organisms and a satisfactory rate of production.

On the other hand, the well-known experience of the ages has shown that the poor who live on a low protein diet are the most liable to disease. It cannot be gainsaid that the meat eater has greater stamina and energy than the one whose diet is poor in protein.

The conclusion is, that while a minimum of protein is essential to the organism, a greater proportion is advantageous by acting as a stimulant to the metabolism and as a ready source of energy; that people are better for the consumption of proteins in quantities greater than in Chittenden’s standard, and possess greater resistance to disease, probably because the body is stimulated to manufacture antibodies.

Practical Facts for Guidance.—The housewife who keeps the following facts in mind may combine foods in an approximate way that will fully meet the demands of the human organism.

The proper ratio is 1 part of protein to 5 parts of non-protein; and the fat should equal one-half of the weight of the protein. This gives the following normal dietary:

Proportion of Proteins in Foods.—Foods Rich in Proteins.—Lean meat, dried peas, beans, and lentils, 18 to 25 per cent.; fat meat, 12 to 18 per cent.; eggs, 12 per cent.; oatmeal, 10 to 15 per cent.; cheese, 25 to 35 per cent.

Foods with Moderate Amounts of Proteins.—Milk averages 3½ per cent.; fresh peas, beans, and lentils, 3 to 8 per cent.; white bread, 6 to 7 per cent.; fine wheat flour and barley, 8 to 10 or 12 per cent.

Food with Usually Less than 3 Per Cent. of Proteins.—Green vegetables, potatoes, and roots, such as carrots, turnips, and onions, etc.

Legumes and certain nuts supply relatively more protein than other vegetable foods, so that when the cost of meat, fowl, fish, eggs, or milk is prohibitive, the freer use of beans, peas, lentils, and nuts is strongly recommended.

The unmodified foods, such as grain, vegetables, fruit, meat, eggs, and milk, may be depended upon to amply supply all the necessary elements to sustain growth, functions, and waste of the human body. On the other hand, foods which it is proper to designate as “artificial” are not only not essential to an adequate diet, but when they are used freely may render a diet very one-sided or deficient.

Foods may be so selected as to furnish an abundant supply of mineral ingredients. For instance, the dry substance of certain vegetables like asparagus, lettuce, spinach, and such animal foods as eggs, and beef extracts are relatively rich in iron compounds, and the dried substance of leguminous seeds, carrots and other vegetables, milk, and cheese are relatively rich in calcium compounds.

Variety of foods is necessary, for monotony of even the best kinds leads to satiety, loss of appetite, loathing of food, and subsequent ill-health. Vegetables and fruits are absolutely essential, but raw fruits are not so easily digested as cooked. Salads, lettuce, water-cress, green onions, celery, tomatoes, etc., are so valuable for the juices contained in them that they cannot be too strongly recommended to those who can digest them. Similar juices are contained in cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, etc., but these are lost to a very great measure in the cooking.

Oranges, lemons, grapes, strawberries, and bananas contain equally valuable juices, and may be eaten raw with advantage to the consumer; but apples, pears, plums, gooseberries, and many other fruits are better cooked before being eaten.

The simpler the meals, the less work will be expended in their preparation, and there is no advantage in an elaborate meal. The main thing is that the table should furnish a sufficient variety from day to day.

The following specimen dietary has been found to be most satisfactory for women with sedentary occupations. On it women have maintained good health and other women have regained their health:

Breakfast.—Fruit, bacon and eggs, breakfast hominy, rolls or toast and butter, a glass of milk, and one cup of coffee.

The fruit may be any raw fruit in season except apples or bananas; apples should always be cooked for breakfast because they are more easily digested; bananas are too heavy and indigestible to be served for breakfast. Stewed prunes are good and especially laxative.

Bacon is not a necessity, though it is an appetizer. Eggs may be served in any way, though they are most digestible when soft boiled or poached.

The hominy is boiled in water and served as a vegetable, with a little salt and butter, but no sugar.

For women with good digestion and taking more active exercise, oatmeal and cream may be substituted for the eggs, hominy, and glass of milk.

Luncheon may be served in a very appetizing way from the cold meat and vegetables which have been left from the previous day’s dinner in the form of stews, baked hash, etc. Stewed fruit should always be served, and oysters always make a nice dish for lunch.

The criticism of the ordinary lunch for women is that it is too light. The food served for lunch should furnish about 1000 calories; 90 per cent. of these should be in the form of starches and fats.

Dinner.—The following is a balanced ration given in the Educational Lunch Room of the New York Department of Health:

One glass of water is served with each meal; it should be taken when the meal is finished.

The mineral waters promote digestion by promoting an earlier and more abundant secretion of the gastric juice.

Lemon juice should be substituted for vinegar in all salad dressings. For a French dressing the correct proportions are 1 tablespoonful of lemon juice and water each to 2 of olive oil. Mix well, and pour over the salad just before serving.

Three meals a day has been found to be the best arrangement, and there should be an interval of five hours between the meals. If possible dinner, which is the principal meal, should be taken at the end of the day, after its work is over, so that comparative repose may be enjoyed after it. It is of extreme importance that the meals be served at the same hour every day. The perfectly healthy woman should never take anything to eat between meals.

A hearty meal should never be eaten when one is exhausted or greatly fatigued. Half an hour’s rest before dinner is a great aid to digestion. Sleep directly after a hearty meal is injurious and sometimes proves fatal because there is a depression of the circulation, and the digestive processes may stop absolutely during sleep.

Preparation of Food.—Fresh meats are highly nutritious, but in order that the nutritive properties may not be lost in the cooking, they must be eaten “rare,” that is, beef and mutton should be at least pink.

A roast should be done in a quick oven, so that the albumin shall rapidly coagulate on the surface and prevent the escape of the nutritive juices. Or if the meat is boiled, it should for the same reason be plunged into boiling water.

On the other hand, in treating meats in order to obtain “stock” for soup, the meat after having been cut up into small pieces should be allowed to stand in cold water for twenty minutes and then be put on to simmer for six hours or more.

Plenty of bones with gristle should be gotten with the soup meat; these do not add to the cost, and add materially to the value of the stock; for, while the gelatinoids are not flesh formers, they are admirable protein sparers. The same thing holds true of gelatin and its preparations.

Indigestible Combination of Foods.—The acid of vinegar being a fermentation acid renders the digestion of many foods with which it is taken more difficult, while vegetable acids, such as citric and tartaric, do not cause that objectionable effect. Vinegar also retards salivary and gastric digestion.

Strong tea taken with any meat meal converts the albumin of the meat into a dense precipitate that is absolutely indigestible. The tannin of tea inhibits the salivary and gastric secretions and so retards digestion. Indigestion, atony, or catarrh of the stomach is frequently due to excessive tea drinking, and the artificial stimulation of the nervous system may be carried so far as to produce insomnia, palpitation, muscular tremors, and other signs of nervous irritability.

Claret and coffee both delay digestion.

Water is the best beverage to be taken with meals; but the moderate use of tea and coffee is commendable because they have an invigorating effect arising from the caffein and the essential oils, but their use should not be abused.

The Proper Way of Making Tea.—The water should be freshly boiled; the tea-pot heated so that the water will be maintained at the boiling-point; one teaspoonful of tea is allowed to the cup. The tea is measured out, put into the tea-pot, and the requisite amount of boiling water poured over it. It is then allowed to stand on the kitchen table, not the range, for from two to three minutes; it should then be strained into the tea-pot for the table.

Unless the tea is strained off the leaves the infusion continues for some time; this extracts the tannic acid and bitter principles. In addition, the prolonged infusion dissipates the volatile oil, to which much of the fragrance of a good cup of tea is due.

As it is almost impossible to have the requisite amount of care exercised in the making of tea in the kitchen, it is much better that it should be made on the table. Sugar detracts from the healthfulness of the beverage.

Coffee.—Most that has been said about tea is true of coffee. It is aromatic and refreshing, stimulates the mental activity, invigorates the muscular system, and removes the sense of fatigue. The excessive use of coffee often leads to insomnia. Its use retards gastric digestion, but less so than tea; but strong coffee or café noir has a still greater inhibitory effect. It has a slightly aperient effect on the intestines by increasing the peristaltic action. It is also slightly diuretic.

The aromatic oils are dissipated by boiling, and the best temperature of the water is 210° F., or just below the boiling-point.

Defective Methods in the Preparation of Breads which Reduces the Vitamin Contents, Especially of Corn Bread.—By resorting to artificial methods for procuring the lightness of breads, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is used. In order to prepare bread in this way the cornmeal is mixed with milk or water to which baking soda has been added, and put in the oven to bake. The high temperature of the oven liberates the carbon dioxid (CO₂) from the baking soda, causing the bread to rise, and the sodium bicarbonate is transformed into sodium carbonate, a strong alkali. Recent experiments have clearly demonstrated the destructive action of the alkalies on the vitamins, this being especially true at high temperatures.

It should be strongly emphasized that the old-fashioned way of combining baking soda with sour milk in the preparation of bread is an entirely harmless procedure, provided that sufficient sour milk is added to perfectly neutralize the alkalinity of the soda. The label on some brands of baking soda clearly states that sour milk, or tartaric acid, should be added in order to obtain the best results.

Dietary in the Tropics.—Sir R. Havelock Charles says, “It is impossible to form exact rules for dietary in the tropics because there are differences in climate which require modifications.” He says nothing about limiting the amount of meat, but he does say, “no cold meat whatever should come on the table.” It is important that everything should come straight from the fire to the table. It cannot then cause bacillary mischief, and there should be no fear of cholera or dysentery.

Boiled water only should be drunk. No salads of any kind should be used except in the greatest moderation.

Fruit.—Every fruit which possesses a rind that can be removed may be eaten raw with impunity by a healthy man at any time of the year. Fruits which do not possess a rind are incapable of being thoroughly cleansed; such fruit may be contaminated and dangerous to the consumer, and, at any rate, ought only to be eaten after it is cooked. Therefore oranges, grape-fruit, pears, apples, bananas, mangoes, pineapples, custard-apples, mangosteen, tomatoes, etc., may be eaten raw after peeling them. But it would be unsafe to eat grapes, currants, strawberries, and other fruits which cannot be peeled until they are cooked.

As regards proteins, some fish, fowl, or meat may be taken for breakfast; animal food ought not to be taken in the middle of the day. It is better to take dinner in the evening. Beef, mutton, pork, kid (goat-flesh), venison (deer and antelope), poultry, many kinds of birds, eggs, and fish are obtainable in one place or another. Tinned meats and fish should be avoided; indeed, the importance of fresh meat is so great that hunting, shooting, and fishing should be strongly recommended as exercise.

Fat is obtained in the form of meat, dripping, butter, ghee, nuts, and various oils used in cooking. The pure oil from peanuts, palm-nuts, and cocoanuts is salutary; but many samples are adulterated with sesamé oil, poppy-seed oil, and colza oil, which are deleterious by causing dyspepsia or other gastro-intestinal troubles. These in turn render the subject susceptible to dysentery, sprue, and other tropical disorders.

Food Economics: Regulation of Diet with Reference to Minimum Expenditure.—The cost of a meal for an individual or a family is made up of two factors—the money cost of the raw materials, and the time, cost of labor, and other expenses required for the preparation and serving of the food.

The Cost of Raw Food Materials.—Meats of all kinds, poultry, and fish are the most expensive articles of diet. Then, too, the waste has to be considered—the bones and legs of a dressed fowl and the bones and skin of fish.

At the present time the dairy products supply the cheapest nutriment among animal foods, but the price of butter and eggs are apt to soar enormously during the winter months.

Leguminous Food.—The dried pea, bean, or lentil are especially rich in protein, and are thus fit to take the place of a part of meat in the dietary. Their price is low in comparison to their value, and must be considered next to bread in importance. They are less completely digested than cereals if eaten in any quantity; and, highly nutritious as these are, it cannot be denied that in large quantities they are very indigestible for any but persons with strong constitutions and leading an active outdoor life.

Great care is needed in their preparation. Dried legumes should be soaked in cold water for eight hours, and then boiled for one hour and a half. They are then sufficiently soft to be pressed through a sieve. The skin of peas and beans that have been dried should be removed, for they pass through the intestines unchanged. Soft water should be used in preference to hard, as insoluble lime compounds are formed by the latter with the protein “legumin.”

Outside Preparation Expensive.—From the standpoint of food value, white bread is more than twice as costly as the wheat flour from which it is made. A barrel of flour of 196 pounds will make on the average 315 5-cent loaves of bread. The bread costs the consumer $15.75, whereas the flour can be bought at the time of writing for $6.50.

Breakfast foods ready for the table, instead of the cheaper cornmeal, oatmeal, and hominy cooked at home, and bread, cake, and other pastry cost double the amount of the raw materials.

There are, however, other factors which complicate and increase the cost of living. At present the exorbitant cost of labor, cost of fuel, etc., and the amount of the housewife’s time consumed are all important factors to be taken into consideration.

The size of the family, the number of small children demanding the mother’s attention, the kind of labor in which they are engaged, whether hired help has to be depended on for all the work, etc., are all factors which must be taken into consideration as to whether the outside preparation is more expensive than when the labor is performed in the home. This is a matter for every housewife to work out in making her monthly and yearly budgets.

TABLE OF FOOD VALUES[4]

The Physiologic Action of Moderate Doses of Alcohol.—The result of a series of experiments by Dr. Parke were as follows: “By quickening the action of the heart, it shortens the interval of rest, and, therefore, interferes with the nutrition of the heart. It also produces palpitation and breathlessness. Even small doses of alcohol, by increasing unnecessarily the action of the heart, are injurious. It acts on the nervous system by lessening the rapidity and the delicacy of the impressions, as well as by lessening the power of control of a train of thought. Further, by this same blunting of the nervous system, voluntary muscular power is impaired, and the finer combined movements are less perfectly made. It causes a lowering of the temperature of the body, and, although it is taken to overcome the effects of exposure to cold, it has been learned that persons who take it are less able to resist the exposure to cold.”

As the result of modern scientific investigation and experimentation, alcohol with its compounds has been taken out of the list of beverages, where it has heretofore been classified with tea and coffee, and out of the list of foods, to which class it had been admitted because of the known oxidation of alcohol in the body, and has been placed in that list of drugs known as narcotics, alongside of ether, chloroform, opium, and cocain—all of them, the most deadly drugs in the Pharmacopeia, yet, when used by skilled hands, the most beneficent.

The first effect of this class of drugs is a short temporary stage of exhilaration, more or less rapidly followed, according to the amount taken, by a stage of sleepiness or actual insensibility, which lasts longer than the stage of excitement, and this in turn is followed by a long period of depression.

Like other members of its class, alcohol has a cumulative action, the residual quantities habitually taken accumulate and gradually affect the efficiency and well-being of the individual.

A point that must always be borne in mind in giving any medicine is that not a few drugs have a curious tendency to induce a craving for their repetition.

The amount of alcohol contained in some of the most commonly used of the alcoholic beverages is as follows: beer, 4 to 5 per cent.; hard cider, from 5 to 10 per cent.; claret, 8 to 11 per cent.; port, 9 to 22 per cent.; champagne, 10 to 15 per cent.; rum, gin, and strong liquors, 40 to 50 per cent.; whisky, 44 to 50 per cent.; brandy, 48 to 56 per cent.

These alcoholic beverages are often made still more harmful by adulterations by ingredients in themselves harmful.

A large percentage of alcohol is also found in bitters and patent medicines.

We will consider the subject of alcohol under the following aspects: First, the question of alcohol as a food; second, the effects of alcohol on the digestive system and the metabolism; third, the effects of alcohol on the heart and the muscular system; and fourth, the effects of alcohol on the nervous system.

First, Is Alcohol a Food?—The substances used as foods act in providing energy for muscular work, in maintaining the heat of the body, in building up of the tissues, and in saving the waste of the tissues. Moreover, a food which does harm to any organ, or to the system as a whole, when taken in moderate repeated quantities, becomes a poison for that individual.

A food may be defined as any substance which, when absorbed into the blood, will nourish, repair waste, and furnish force and heat to the body, without causing injury to any of its parts or loss of functional activity. From any one of these four standpoints alcohol cannot be regarded as a food.

The physiologic effects of alcohol and real food-stuffs are totally different. Fats, carbohydrates, and nitrogenous foods after mastication at once begin to be digested and assimilated, and to fulfil the true functions of a food by maintaining a natural temperature, pulse-rate, and tissue repair of the body, without any disturbance of its mental and physical functions and activities.

Alcohol, on the contrary, is absorbed from the stomach unaltered by the digestive processes; circulated in the blood in its original form, it at once interferes with the ordinary activity of the brain and other organs, and, by its anesthetic action, hampers the mental and physical activities and interferes with the processes of metabolism.

The Effects of Alcohol on the Digestive System and Metabolism.—The local action of alcoholic liquids is particularly destructive on an empty stomach; and when taken in strong solution, but it is also known that smaller doses, taken continuously, are liable to effect the digestive organs in a slower though similar way.

The injurious effects of alcohol are that it acts as a local irritant, producing dilatation of the blood-vessels of the stomach and subsequent gastritis; it leads to hyperacidity, by stimulating the secretion of hydrochloric acid; the tartrates and malates contained in wine are decomposed in the stomach, setting free organic acids, and thus producing acidity; the acetic acid and yeast in beer set up an acetic acid fermentation in the stomach-contents.

Whether taken alone or with food, the tendency of alcohol throughout is to lessen the churning movements of the stomach, and leads to atony of that organ, which in turn leads to dilatation of the stomach.

Alcohol appears to have a particularly deleterious effect on the digestion of women. This is explained by the fact that men lead a more active outdoor life, and consequently retain their appetite for food longer than women. For the same reason, they are able to work off the effects of drinking more easily and start afresh the assimilation of food. The indoor life led by women, their clothing, worn tight around the stomach, are added causes for lack of appetite. Catarrh of the stomach results; this is followed by insufficient food and an increased amount of stimulants. There follow nausea, irregular and insufficient nutrition, indigestion, and a faulty elaboration of the food.

By its action on the liver alcohol interferes with the amount and quantity of bile, and so inevitably leads to indigestion and constipation, and a similar interference with the action of the liver-cells and their chemical changes set up in many cases gouty conditions, accompanied by mental depression and irritability.

Diseases of the liver occur more frequently as the result of taking frequent small doses of alcohol, though never reaching the stage of intoxication, than as the result of indulging more freely, but at longer intervals.

The Effect of Alcohol on the Blood.—The blood is a mixture of corpuscles and a fluid known as the blood plasma. The corpuscles are of two kinds—red and white. The red blood-corpuscles are the oxygen carriers; they carry the oxygen to the tissues, where they readily give it up. They are constantly being destroyed by the liver and spleen, and are replaced by new ones, which come from the red marrow of bones. The white corpuscles are much fewer in number, but they play a most important part in protecting the body against disease. It is now about twenty years since Professor Metchnikoff, of the Pasteur Institute of Paris, announced to the world his discovery that the white corpuscles have the power of destroying the microbes to which so many diseases are due. These white blood-cells form the standing army or policemen of the body, and their duty is to attack, and, if possible, to destroy, any foreign matter, such as dust or disease germs.

The plasma of the blood contains various kinds of salts, and include sodium chlorid or common salt, the phosphates, and chlorids of calcium and potassium.

The way which the body fights disease is partly by means of the white blood-corpuscles, which totally destroy the germs, and partly by the increase in the blood of those chemical substances which are antidotes for the poisons given out by the germs.

Alcohol taken into the stomach is quickly absorbed and reaches the blood in two minutes. The maximum of alcohol is found in the blood in fifteen minutes after it is swallowed.

The blood is the medium by which food and oxygen are conveyed to the tissues, and by which the refuse material from the tissues is carried away; alcohol interferes with both these processes.

The red cells are liable to become damaged and anemia results. It has now been proved that even tiny doses of alcohol paralyze more or less the white cells, and thus interfere with their power of destroying microbes. Chemical substances tend to exert a delaying or inhibitory influence over the chemical processes of the body. These chemical processes are oxidation, the storing up of nutriment, the manufacture of secretion, the production of energy and muscular movement, and the excretion of waste materials.

The greatest possible difference exists as to the rate at which oxidation goes on. When there is nothing to hinder its occurrence, the poisonous toxins and waste matters are rapidly burned up and eliminated and health prevails. Alcohol, by its affinity for oxygen, robs the tissues of oxygen which they would otherwise use for combustion. Hence the tissues are kept starving for oxygen, metabolism is interfered with, and they cannot get rid of their waste material.

This delayed oxidation tends to increase the body weight. The cells in an intermediate stage of fatty degeneration clog the body, and, of course, add to its weight. The natural effect of taking alcohol is to make the body obese. On abstaining from alcohol, the superfluous tissue is often burned away, and the weight of the body reduced, and a look and feeling of youth is recovered.

The Effect of Alcohol on the Heart and Circulation.—By the circulation we understand the driving of the fluid blood around the body, through the blood-vessels, such driving being maintained by the pumping power of the heart, which is practically a hollow muscle.