Diet and Health by Lulu Hunt Peters (free ebooks romance novels .txt) π
2
Key to the Calories
Some one page the thin? They come back here.
[Sidenote: Don't Skip This]
Definition to learn:
CALORIE; symbol C.; a heat unit and food value unit; is that amount of heat necessary to raise one pound of water 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
[Sidenote: Pronounced Kal'-o-ri]
There is a good deal of effort expended by many semi-educated individuals to discredit the knowledge of calories, saying that it is a foolish food science, a fallacy, a fetish, and so forth.
They reason, or rather say, that because there are no calories in some of the very vital elements of foods--the vitamines and the mineral salts--therefore it is not necessary to know about them. They further argue that their grandfathers never heard of calories and they got along all right. That grandfather argument
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PROTEIN: Builds tissue, repairs waste, yields energy, and may help store fat. One-half, at least, of your protein should be from the vegetable kingdom.
A large percentage of protein is contained in
Eggs Meat Fowl Fish Nuts
Milk Cheese Gluten of Wheat
Legumes (beans, peas, lentils, peanuts, etc.)
There is about one-fourth ounce protein in
1 egg
1 glass milk (skim, butter, or whole)
1-1/2 oz. lean meat, or fish or fowl
1 oz. (1-1/5 cu. in.) whole milk cheese
2 slices of bread, 3-1/2 x 3-1/2 x 1/2
(white, whole wheat, corn, etc.)
3 heaping tablespoonfuls canned baked beans or lima beans
17 peanuts
FATS: Yield energy and are stored as fat.
Animal Fat: Cream, Butter, Lard
Oils: Cottonseed, Olive Almonds, Peanuts, Walnuts Chocolate, etc.
CARBOHYDRATES: Yield energy and are stored as fat.
Sugars (candy, honey, syrup, sweet fruits)
Starches (breads, cereals, potatoes, corn, legumes, nuts)
Vegetable fibre, or cellulose
MINERAL MATTER: Shares in forming bones and teeth, and is necessary for proper functioning.
Carbon Lime Sodium Potassium,
Sulphur Iron Phosphorus Etc.
These elements are contained largely in the outer coatings of grains, fruits, and vegetables, and in animal foods and their products. Do not pare potatoes before cooking. Cook vegetables in a small amount of water, saving the water for soups and sauces.
WATER: The universal solvent, absolutely necessary for life.
Contained in purest form in all vegetables and fruits. The average person needs, in addition, from three to five pints taken as a drink. If not sure of the purity, boil. Do not drink while food is in the mouth.
VITAMINES: Health preservers. Vital substances necessary for growth. The chemistry of these products is at present not thoroughly understood, but their importance has been demonstrated by experiments (not torture) on animals. By this work we know that diseases like beri-beri, scurvy, rickets, and probably pellagra, are due to a lack of these vital elements in the food, and from that fact these are called "deficiency" diseases.
Of course I realize that nations can be saved from horrible diseases, and hundreds and thousands of babies saved from death, through this experimentation on a few guinea pigs and other animals; but what is the life of a baby compared with the happiness of a guinea pig? Down with animal experimentation! Let us do everything in our power to hamper scientific work of this kind. We are giving up our husbands, fathers, sons, perhaps to die, for the cause of humanity, but a guinea pig! Horrors!
It has been found that the vitamines, like the minerals, are most abundant in the outer coverings and the germ of grains, and in fruits and vegetables. They are also present in fresh milk, butter, meat and eggs. Babies fed pasteurized or boiled milk should have fruit juices and vegetable purees early. Begin with one-half teaspoonful, well diluted, and gradually increase the feeding to an ounce or more between meals once or twice daily.
Most animal fats have the vitamines, but vegetable fats are deficient in them. That is the reason cod liver oil is better for some therapeutic uses than olive oil.
BALANCED DIET: Should contain
10-15% Protein
(children may need more)
25-30% Fat
60-65% Carbohydrates
For example, suppose you are a fairly active woman and need 2500 calories per day. Then for a balanced diet you would need:
10% Protein, or 250 C. 25% Fat, or 625 C. 65% Carbohydrates 1625 C. βββ 2500 C.
Two and one-fifth ounces dry protein equals the approximate amount of protein in 10 ounces lean meat, fish, or fowl, or 9 ounces cheese, or 9 eggs. (You should not take all of your proteins in any of these single forms.) Two and one-half ounces fat equals approximately 5 pats of butter.
But listen! You don't have to bother with all this fussy stuff. Be careful not to over-or under-eat of the proteins, and your tastes will be a fair standard for the rest. You should remember that a balanced diet contains some of all these foods, in about the proportions given, and that, while watery vegetables and fruits contain very few calories, they contain very important mineral salts, vitamines, and cellulose. The latter is good for the daily scrub of the intestinal tract.
CONSTIPATION is many times caused by a too concentrated diet, or one containing too little roughage. It has also been discovered that some individuals who are troubled with faulty elimination digest this cellulose, and only the more resistant, like bran, is not absorbed. For those, the Japanese seaweed called agaragar in the laboratory, but more familiarly known as agar by the layman, is excellent. The most industrious digestive tract apparently can not digest that. It has the further property of absorbing a large amount of water, thus increasing its bulk.
Mineral oils (refined paraffine) also are not absorbable, and they act with benefit in some cases. About the worst thing to do, in general, is to take physics constantly. These are not physics, however; they act mechanically. Even the C.S. (common-sense?) individual can take these. The agar may be taken two or three heaping teaspoonfuls in a large glass of water before retiring, or in the morning before breakfast, or in lieu of 4 o'clock tea. Drink it down rapidlyβfor goodness' sake, don't try to chew it.
Mineral oil will make fine mayonnaise dressing. It has little or no food value, so the constipated overweight individual may indulge freely. For faulty elimination, thenβ
1. Correct diet.
2. Exerciseβespecially brisk walking.
3. Regularity of habit.
4. Possibly the addition of bran, agar, or mineral oils.
5. Sweet disposition. Mean people are always constipated.
Review1. Give classes of food, with examples of each.
2. What are vitamines? How importance discovered?
3. Where most abundant?
4. What is a balanced diet?
5. What should be done for faulty elimination?
4 More Keys and More CaloriesThe following list probably does not contain all of the foods you might like and want to know about, but from those named you can judge of the food value of others. In general, the caloric value, and therefore the fattening value, depends upon the amount of fat and the degree of concentration.
But remember this point: Any food eaten beyond what your system requires for its energy, growth, and repair, is fattening, or is an irritant, or both.
If a food contains much fat, you will know that it is high in food value, for fat has two and one-quarter times the caloric value that proteins and carbohydrates have. Dry foods are high in value, for they are concentrated and contain little water. Compare the quantity of two heaping teaspoonfuls of sugar, a concentrated food, and one and one-half pounds of lettuce, a watery vegetable, each having the same caloric value. A moderate sized chocolate cream is not only concentrated but has considerable fat in the chocolate.
It is not necessary to know accurately the caloric values. In fact, authorities differ in some of their computations. The list is not mathematically correct, but it will give you a good idea of the relative values, and is accurate enough for our purposes. I have purposely given round numbers, where possible, in order to make them more easily remembered.
In reckoning made dishes, such as puddings and sauces, you must compute the different ingredients approximately. About how much sugar it has, how much fat to the dish, and so on. In reckoning any food, if you are reducing, give it the benefit of the doubt on the high count; and if trying to gain, count it low.
It is well, if you are much overweight or underweight, to have some of these foods that are given weighed, so that you can judge approximately what your servings will total.
A mixture of foods should be used, in order to get the different elements which are necessary for the human machine. It is not wholesome to have many foods at a meal; but the menu should be varied from day to day.
Any regimen which does not allow some carbohydrates and fats for the fuel foods is injurious if persisted in for a length of time.
As to harmful combinations; there are not many, and if your food is thoroughly masticated you need not concern yourself very much about them. However, if you find a food disagrees with you, or that certain combinations disagree, do not try to use them. Underweight individuals sometimes have to train their digestive tracts for some of the foods they need.
Coffee, tea and other mild stimulants are not harmful to the majority; but, like everything else, in excess they will cause ill health. Alcoholic drinks make the fat fatter and the thin thinner, and both more feeble mentally.
I hope I have stimulated you to an interest in dietetics. There are many books which go into the subject much more deeply. I recommend, especially, "The Home Dietitian," written by my beloved colleague and classmate, Dr. Belle Wood-Comstock.
Others I have read that are especially suitable for the home are "Feeding the Family," by Mary Schwartz Rose, and "Dietary Computer," by Pope. There are doubtless many other good ones. The Department of Agriculture publishes free bulletins on the subject. Farmers' Bulletin No. 142, by Atwater, is very comprehensive.
Other authorities I have consulted are Lusk, Friedenwald and RuhrΓ€h, Gautier, Sherman, Buttner, Locke and Von Noorden.
Measuring TableOne Hundred Calorie Portions and Average Helpings
(ATWATER, LOCKE, ROSE) MEATS
FISH
SOUPS
DAIRY PRODUCTS AND EGGS
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