Health, or, How to Live

FOOD FOR MAN

WHAT is a proper diet for man? HHTL 335.1

One which contains, in a state of purity, the right elements of nutrition, in the right quantity, and the right proportions. HHTL 335.2

What substances best answer this description? HHTL 335.3

The farinacea — as wheat, corn, rice, oats, rye, barley, etc.; fruit — as apples, pears, peaches, plums, grapes, berries, etc.; and vegetables — as beans, peas, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, squashes, etc. HHTL 335.4

Why this food to be preferred to the flesh of animals? HHTL 335.5

Because it contains the elements or nutrition in greater quantity, on the average, in better proportions, and in greater purity; and because it is best adapted to the anatomical structure, physiological condition, and natural tastes of man. HHTL 335.6

What ultimate elements are required in human food? HHTL 335.7

Oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, chlorine, calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, sulphur, phosphorus, iron. HHTL 335.8

From whence are these derived? HHTL 335.9

From vegetables. HHTL 335.10

What are the proximate elements? HHTL 335.11

Protein, in the form of gluten, fibrin, casein, albumen or gelatin, starch, sugar, or oily matter, salt, and the phosphates, sulphates, etc. HHTL 335.12

Are these proximate elements also found in vegetables? HHTL 335.13

They are; the vegetable kingdom is a great laboratory, to supply food to the animal kingdom. HHTL 336.1

What objections are there to our eating these vegetable substances at second hand, in the flesh of animals? HHTL 336.2

Flesh does not contain sufficient of the carbonacous or heat-forming principle; it is always impure, from the presence of excrementitious matter; it is often diseased. HHTL 336.3

What is the best diet? HHTL 336.4

A proper admixture of farinaceous food, such as unbolted wheat bread, corn bread, cracked wheat hominy, oat meal, etc.; ripe fruits — melons, etc., in their season, and vegetables, with a moderate quantity of the milk and eggs of healthy animals, and a sparing use of sugar, butter, salt, and vinegar. — Catechism of Health. HHTL 336.5