Hygiene: a manual of personal and public health.

  • Newsholme, Arthur, Sir, 1857-1943.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Hygiene: a manual of personal and public health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    of any other food before a year old the better. Atwater has calculated that— A child under 2 of 3 to 5 of 6 to 9 ,, of 10 to 13 A girl of 14 to 16 A boy of 14 to i5 Vital processes are more active in early life, and food is required not only to carry on the functions of the body, but also to furnish the materials for growth. Hence, while the proportion of proteids to carbohydrates and fats should be— As I : 5 3 in adults, it should be about as i : 4 3 in children. After the age of thirty-five or forty, the tendency is to take too much food. All the tissues of the body are established, and excess of food (especially nitrogenous food) is liable to produce tissue degeneration by loading the system with partially metabolised matter, and may lead to gouty diseases. It is much safer to take what may be regarded as too little than too much food after this period. Times for Eating.—The best arrangement seems to be to have three meals, each fairly nutritious, and containing all the constituents required. The Romans only had two meals daily, prandium and coena. This is common ^mong the French at present, but it tends to overloading the digestive organs at these meals. An ordinary full meal has usually passed from the stomach in four hours. Fresh food ought never to be introduced before this period ; it is advisable to allow an interval of five hours between meals for the healthy, so as to give time for the digestive organs to rest, and for the absorption of food. The practice of taking tea with the chief meal, or a meat tea, is bad. Tea is better taken an hour or two after food. Regularity in the time of taking meals is important, as the digestive organs acquire habits like other parts of the body. Work ought not, if possible, to be resumed immediately after meals, nor active exercise of any kind. These tend to abstract blood from the digestive organs, and so diminish the efficiency of digestion. Vegetable and Animal Foods.—The fact that the food we require can be obtained from the vegetable world has led to the proposition that vegetable food should be taken alone. It is urged in favour of this plan, that a large amount of suffering to animals would be prevented. Also that animal food is not so economical as vegetable, land being more economically employed in producing corn than in feeding cattle. Thirdly, there is the indubitable fact that health can be maintained for prolonged periods on vegetable food (including nuts, cereals, fruits, etc.) On the other hand, the chief objections to a purely vegetable diet are that the undigested refuse is greater than with an equal requires j\ the food of a man doing moderate work. To