A Health Matter.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 18, 29 April 1908, Page 65

A Health Matter.

(. -FOODS AND THEIR VALUE. ' There is no subject which bears a closer or more intimate relationship to health and to the maintenance of our physical vigour ard powers than that itvhich deals with the question of the .value of the different foods we consume [(writes an English medical authority). I Use the word value in a double sense, for (we have first to consider the cost of foods we consume (writes an English medical authority). I use the word value in a double sense, for we have first to consider the cost of the foods in current coin ■pf the realm, whilst second, the consideration of the exact amount of physical good and power any food conveys to us (must represent the other side of this diet question. The broad rule which regulates all our food consumption is that we must find first of all in our diet the substances of which the body itself is built up. The first use of food, in fact, is when applied to the human engine to supply it with the living matter which constitutes its most important part, and furthermore to ensure that due repair of our tissues is effected, this repair counteracting the loss we sustain through the ordinary jvork and actions of life. Regarding our body as an engine we therefore see that the first great function of food is to afford material for the building and Construction of the engine, and for keeping all its parts in due repair against the Constant loss to which it is subjected. ’ FOOD AS FUEL. Continuing our comparison of the body with the engine, we see that it is not sufficient merely to construct our engine ; we have to supply it with the material out of which it can develop its energy or the power of doing its work. In plainer language, the engine requires to be furnished with stuff or material to make it go. Our body thus regarded requires to draw upon food in this second aspect of affairs. The material which composes the engine, let us suppose iron, is very different from the material we place in the furnace, namely coal, and through the consumption of which we raise the temperature of the water to steam point, and thus obtain the energy or power which makes the engine capable of performing its work. So is it also with the body. The foods which build the body are of an essentially different order from those from which the body derives its energy, and although there are certain features in which under the varying circumstances of life, one class of foods may to a certain extent replace the other, yet the distinction for all practical purposes must ever be kept clearly in mind, namely, that the foods which are given to build lip our frames are different in nature from those which are supplied us for working power. THE TWO CLASHES. The body building foods are termed by ecientific men nitrogenous articles of diet for the plain reason that they contain an element called nitrogen. This element is common enough in the world atound us, and forms by weight about two-thirds of the air we breathe. The presence or absence of nitrogen in a food makes all the difference in the World in respect of the function it discharges in our bodies. Every food of this description may on occasion develop energy or working power, but its true function is to build up the living tissues of the bodies.

Nitrogenous foods are represented by Buch substances as the white of egg and the juice of meat, these being otherwise Vailed egg albumen and meat albumen; by the gluten of flour by casein or the Vurd of milk, and by the legumin or nitrogenous part of peas, beans, and lentils. It may be added that the presence of the legumin in these vegetables constitutes .them the very nourishing food in contra-distinction to green vegvtsbh'h we know them to be. The second class of foods or those ■Which go to supply the body with energy

or the power of doing work, are called non-nitrogenous, because in them nitrogen is absent. They are represented by fats and oils, and by starches and sugars, foods which, despite their apparent unlikeness, are chemically very nearly related one to another. It is out of these latter foods that we develop the energy which enables us to discharge our muscular and other work. They therefore represent in the human engine what the coal or other fuel represents in the machinery which man employs. FOOD ECONOMY. Once accepting the principles laid down regarding the uses of the two classes of foods, we should keep in mind that food economy must be based on the idea that we demand every day much less of the first class of foods than we do of the second, on the principle that an engine does not require anything like the amount of repair of its parts as compared with the amount of coal it consumes in its furnace. Experience has taught us that about one-part of the first class of foods to four parts of the other class represents the fair proportion required for the sustenance of a human body doing a moderate amount of work. The foods which we therefore must have in greatest amount, and which, as a matter of fact, we do partake of most largely, are the fatty foods, and also the starches and sugars. Bread itself as the staff of life is half starch by weight, whilst we also obtain a large amount of starch daily from potatoes, rice, tapioca, and like foods. Oui’ fats are supplied to us not merely in butter, bacon, and the fat of meat, but also in milk and cream. The true economy of food is therefore seen to be the adjustment of the one class of foods in the matter of amount to the other. If the advice be added that recent experiments seem to show that we can do with even less of body-building foods (chiefly taken in the shape of meat) than is generally supposed, a certain saving of money with no diminution of our power or energy may thus be effected.