Chapter I: Part 1

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
DIET

_A Treatise on the Food Question_

IN FIVE VOLUMES

EXPLAINING, IN PLAIN LANGUAGE, THE
CHEMISTRY OF FOOD AND THE CHEMISTRY OF
THE HUMAN BODY, TOGETHER WITH THE ART OF
UNITING THESE TWO BRANCHES OF SCIENCE IN THE
PROCESS OF EATING SO AS TO ESTABLISH NORMAL
DIGESTION AND ASSIMILATION OF FOOD AND
NORMAL ELIMINATION OF WASTE, THEREBY
REMOVING THE CAUSES OF STOMACH,
INTESTINAL, AND ALL OTHER
DIGESTIVE DISORDERS

BY

EUGENE CHRISTIAN, F. S. D.

VOLUME I

NEW YORK CITY
CORRECTIVE EATING SOCIETY, INC.
1917

COPYRIGHT 1914
BY
EUGENE CHRISTIAN

ENTERED AT
STATIONERS HALL, LONDON
SEPTEMBER, 1914

BY
EUGENE CHRISTIAN, F. S. D.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PUBLISHED AUGUST, 1914

TO THE
MOTHERS
AND TO THE NOBLE WORKERS
IN THE GREAT CAUSE OF HUMAN HEALTH
AND OF HUMAN SUFFERING
THESE VOLUMES ARE
Dedicated
BY
THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

Countless centuries have come and gone and have left on the earth myriad forms of life; but just what life is, from whence it came, whether or not there is purpose or design behind it, whether or not all the sacred books are mere conceptions of the infant mind, of the whence and whither, we do not know; but when we put life beneath the searchlight of science, we do know that it is a mere assembling of ionic matter into organic forms, and that this strange work is done in accordance with certain well-defined laws.

We know that these laws are a part of the great cosmic scheme. In harmony with them works evolution, which tends to lift to higher and higher degrees of perfection all forms of both animate and inanimate life. We believe that if all the natural laws governing life could be ascertained and obeyed, the number of disorders or interferences with Nature's scheme would be very greatly decreased.

Man's system of co-operating with his fellow-creatures, which we call civilization, has imposed certain restrictions, duties and limitations upon him, which make it impossible for him to live in strict accordance with these laws; therefore if he would have his birthright, which is health, he must employ science to fit him into his artificial environment.

Man has been brought to his present state of physical development on the rural, outdoor, close-to-nature plan, and since he must live in houses and pursue occupations foreign to those through which he was developed, he must make corresponding changes in the material from which his body is constantly being repaired and made; therefore, as the selections, combinations, and proportions of the various things he needs for nourishment are determined by his age, activity, and exposure to the open air, if he accurately or even approximately ascertains and observes these things, life will continually ascend in the scale of power and grandeur, and his endurance and period of longevity will be increased.

Nearly all forms of life on this globe, except man, live approximately eight times their period of maturity. Man matures at twenty-four; measured by this scale he should live about two hundred years. But the average life of civilized man, reckoning from the age of six, is only about forty years, while if we include the infant class, and reckon the average age from his birth, he scarcely gets his growth before his hair and teeth are disappearing, and his eyesight is being propped up by the lens of the oculist, and he quietly drops into his grave. One hundred and sixty years of life, then, is about what civilization has cost him up to date. This is very expensive, but of course he has something to show for it. He has aeroplanes, wireless communication, the mile-a-minute train, politics, several kinds of religion, rum and cocain, the tramp, the billionaire, and the bread line.

We cannot consistently leap over ten thousand years of heredity and habit, but we can recover some part of the one hundred and sixty years of life civilization has cost us. This can be done by feeding our bodies according to their requirements determined by age, temperature of environment, and work or activity; by cultivating mental tranquillity; by loving some one besides ourselves, and proving it; by breathing an abundance of fresh air, and by doing useful work. Of all these things food is the most important because it is the raw material that builds the temple wherein all other things dwell.

Civilization and science are doing but little real good for man if they cannot select for him the material necessary to develop his body and all its faculties to their highest degree, or at least free him from much of his disease and materially increase his "ease"; they have brought him but little, I say, if they cannot show him a way to live more than forty years. Science would have nothing of which to boast if it only pointed out a way by which man could exist for two hundred years, as this is his birthright. It can only boast when it has given him more than his natural heritage.

That man's general health and period of longevity have decreased, while all other branches of science have so vastly increased, is evidence sufficient to justify the assertion that he has not employed scientific methods to the art of living, or at least to those fundamental principles, such as nutrition, motion, and oxidation, which really govern his health and his life.

The difference between youth and age, between virility and senility, is in reality a chemical difference only. The difference between the flexible cartilage of youth, and the stiff cartilage of age is one of chemistry.

If, by the process of metabolism, the muscles, bones, tissues, and brain-cells can be made to multiply and to reproduce themselves at eighteen, it seems only logical that science should give us the secret by which this same thing could be done at eighty, and if at eighty, why not at a hundred and eighty? It is by no means extravagant to say that if science can teach us the actual demands of the body under the varied conditions of age, climate, and activity, and the means of supplying these demands with only such food elements as are needed, life can be prolonged to what seems to be our natural period of years.

Consider the human body as a machine that possesses the power of converting fuel or food into energy, using or expending that energy at will, reproducing itself piece by piece from the same fuel, and casting out the debris and ashes--if all this is done by the body automatically, and its power to act or to do these things depends so completely upon the fuel or the material with which the body has to work, then the question of the _kind_ of fuel, the quantity, how to select it, how to combine it, how to proportion it, becomes at once the most important problem within the scope of human learning.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS WORK

When we compare man's longevity with other forms of life, and consider that he breathes the same air, drinks the same water, lives under the same sunshine, and that he differs from them chiefly in his habits of eating, the conviction is forced upon us that in his food is found the secret, or the causes of most of his physical ills and his shortened life. All elements composing the human body are well known. Its daily needs are matters of common knowledge. Science has separated the human body into all its various chemical elements or parts, and weighed and named them; it has also analyzed and separated his food or fuel into its various chemical elements or parts, and named these. It would seem, therefore, a most logical step to unite these two branches of science, and to give to the world the dual science of Physio-food Chemistry, or, what I have named Applied Food Chemistry.

The sciences of physiological chemistry and of food chemistry can be made useful only by uniting them--putting them together--fitting one into the other for the betterment of the human species. These two branches of science can be of use in no other possible way except by ascertaining the demands of the human body through physiological chemistry, and by learning how to supply these demands through the science of food chemistry. In the union of these hitherto separate branches of science I can see the most useful, the most important, and the most powerful department of human knowledge. It is this union that these volumes are designed to make.

THE AUTHOR.

NEW YORK, _August, 1914_.

CONTENTS

VOLUME I

_Page_

PREFACE vii

_Lesson I_

THE INTERRELATION OF FOOD CHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL
CHEMISTRY 1
Food Chemistry and Physiological Chemistry United 3
Relation of Superacidity to Other Dis-eases 6
Chart Showing the Number of So-called Dis-eases Caused by
Superacidity 9
Natural Laws Demand Obedience 11
How to Make Nutrition a Science 14
Our Food Must Fit into Our Civilization 17
Why the Science of Human Nutrition is in Its Infancy 18

_Lesson II_

SIMPLE PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL CHEMISTRY 23
Chemical Elements 27
Air and Oxygen 32
Manufacture of Oxygen 33
Chemical Action of Oxygen:
(_a_) Upon Substances 36
(_b_) In Living Bodies 38
Hydrogen and Water 42
Uses of Water in Chemistry 48
Importance of Solution to the Food Scientist 50
Importance of Water in the Human Body 52
Uses of Water in the Body 53
Nitrogen and Nitrogen Compounds 58
Chlorin 63
Hydrochloric Acid 64
Acids, Bases, Neutralization, Salts 68
Principles of Neutralizing Alkalies 71
Fluorin, Bromin, Iodin 73
Mineral Sulfur 73
Vegetable Sulfur in the Human Body 75
Metals 76

_Lesson III_

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY 79
Carbon 81
Inorganic Carbon Compounds 83
Carbon Dioxid 83
Relation of Carbon Dioxid to Life 85
Carbon Monoxid 86
Organic Carbon Compounds 87
Classification of Organic Carbon
Compounds:
_a_ Hydrocarbons 89
_b_ Alcohols 91
_c_ Glycerin 92
_d_ Aldehydes and Ethers 93
_e_ Organic Acids 94
Organic Nitrogenous Compounds 99

_Lesson IV_

CHEMISTRY OF FOODS 103
Carbohydrates 107
Classification of Carbohydrates 108
_a_ Monosaccharids 109
_b_ Disaccharids 112
_c_ Polysaccharids 114
Fats and Oils 122
Proteids or Nitrogenous Food Substances 125
Mineral Salts in Food 131

_Lesson V_

CHEMISTRY OF DIGESTION 135
Digestive Organs and Digestive Juices 137
Saliva 142
Gastric Juice 144
Composition of the Gastric Juice 147
Bile 153
Pancreatic Juice 153
Intestinal Juices 157
The Secretion of Digestive Juices 158
Abnormal Chemical Changes in the Digestive Organs 165
The Decomposition of Food 173
Digestive Experiments 175
Mechanics of Digestion 180
The Muscular Movement of Digestive Organs 187

_Lesson VI_

CHEMISTRY OF METABOLISM 191
The Building of Actual Body-tissue 195
The Generation of Heat and Energy 197
The Measure of Human Energy 199
Metabolism of Carbohydrates 202
Metabolism of Fat 205
Metabolism of Proteids 209
The Use of Proteids in the Body 210
The Action and the Composition of Proteids 213
Food Standards 217
True Food Requirements 226

_Lesson VII_

FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN 233
Meat 250
1 Flesh or Lean Meat 250
2 Animal Fats 254
Cold Storage of Meat 256
Contagious Dis-eases and Animal Food 258
Fish 260
Poultry as an Article of Food 262
Effects of Feeding Poultry 265
Eggs 269
Milk 273
The Adulteration of Milk 279
Milk Pasteurization 280
Cheese 282
Butter 283
Oleomargarin 285

VOLUME II

_Lesson VIII_

FOODS OF VEGETABLE ORIGIN 287
Grains 289
Uses of Grains:
(1) Grain as a Source of Energy 295
(2) Grain as a Source of Nitrogen 297
(3) Grain as a Remedial Food 298
Nuts 300
Peanuts 306
Legumes 307
Fruits 308
Classification of Fruits according to acidity 313
Vegetables 317
Classification of Vegetables 319
Sugars and Sirups 324
Beet-Sugar 325
Honey 330
Confections 332
Vegetable Oils 335

_Lesson IX_ _Page_

DRUGS, STIMULANTS, AND NARCOTICS 341
Alkaloids and Narcotics 349
Opium 350
Cocain 353
Nux Vomica and Strychnin 356
Quinin 356
Acetanilid 357
Tobacco 361
Coffee 363
Tea 365
Cocoa and Chocolate 366
Alcohols and Related Compounds 367
Alcohol 367
Chloroform, Ether, and Chloral 372
Poisonous Mineral Salts and Acids 373
Mercury 373
Potassium Iodid 374
Lead and Copper 375
Purgatives and Cathartics 375

_Lesson X_

IMPORTANCE OF CORRECT DIAGNOSIS AND
CORRECT TREATMENT 379

_Lesson XI_

COMMON DISORDERS--THEIR CAUSE AND
CORRECTION 403
Health and Dis-ease Defined 405
Overeating 413
Superacidity 418
The Cause 420
The Symptoms 421
The Remedy 423
Fermentation (Superacidity) 424
The Cause 425
The Symptoms 426
The Remedy 428
Gas Dilatation 431
The Symptoms 432
Importance of Water-drinking 434
Constipation 434
The Cause 434
The Remedy 436
Foods that May Be Substituted for One
Another 439
Constipating and Laxative Foods 446
Constipating and Laxative Beverages 446
Gastritis 447
The Cause 449
The Symptoms 449
The Remedy 450
Nervous Indigestion 453
The Cause 454
The Symptoms 455
The Remedy 458
Subacidity 460
The Cause 461
The Symptoms 462
The Remedy 463
Biliousness 465
The Cause 466
The Symptoms 466
The Remedy 466
Cirrhosis of the Liver 467
The Cause 467
The Symptoms 468
The Treatment 469
Piles or Hemorrhoids 471
The Cause 471
The Symptoms 472
The Treatment 472
Diarrhea 474
The Cause 474
The Treatment 476
Emaciation or Underweight 477
The Cause 478
The Symptoms 481
The Remedy 482
Obesity or Overweight 491
The Cause 493
The Remedy 495
Neurasthenia 503
The Cause 505
The Symptoms 506
The Remedy 506
Malnutrition 511
Cause and Remedy 511
Locomotor Ataxia 511
The Cause 511
The Symptoms 514
The Remedy 515
Colds, Catarrh, Hay Fever, Asthma, Influenza 519
Colds--The Cause 520
The Symptoms 521
The Remedy 523
Catarrh--The Cause 527
The Symptoms 528
The Remedy 528
Hay Fever--The Cause 530
The Symptoms 531
The Remedy 531
Asthma--The Cause 533
The Symptoms 533
The Remedy 534
Influenza--The Cause 536
The Symptoms 537
The Remedy 537
Insomnia 538
The Cause 538
The Remedy 539
Rheumatism--Gout 543
Rheumatism--The Cause 544
The Symptoms 545
Gout--The Cause 546
The Symptoms 547
Rheumatism, Gout--The Remedy 547
Bright's Dis-ease 550
The Cause 551
The Symptoms 551
The Remedy 552
Diabetes 556
The Cause 556
The Symptoms 557
The Remedy 557
Consumption 560
The Treatment 564
Heart Trouble 569
The Cause 571
The Remedy 573
Dis-eases of the Skin 574
The Cause 575
The Treatment 578
Appendicitis 580
The Symptoms 582
The Treatment 583

Chronic or Severe Cases of Appendicitis 586

VOLUME III

_Lesson XII_ _Page_

HARMONIOUS COMBINATIONS OF FOOD AND RECENT
DISCOVERIES IN FOOD SCIENCE 591
Chemical Changes Produced by Cooking 593
Starch Digestion--Cooked and Uncooked 597
Excuses for Cooking Our Food 599
Experiment upon Animals 601
Recent Discoveries in Food Science 603
Animal Experimentation 605
The Vitamines 607
General Conclusions 610
Protein 612
Mineral Salts 616

_Lesson XIII_

CLASSIFICATION OF FOODS AND FOOD TABLES 619
Simple Classification of Foods Based on
Principal Nutritive Substances 621
Purposes which the Different Classes of
Food Serve in the Human Body 625
Purpose of Carbohydrates 625
Purpose of Fats 626
Purpose of Proteids 626
Purpose of Mineral Salts 629
Difference between Digestibility and Assimilability 630
Table showing Comparative Assimilability and Carbohydrate
and Water Content of Cereals, Legumes, and Vegetables 632

_Lesson XIV_

VIENO SYSTEM OF FOOD MEASUREMENT 637
Energy 639
Nitrogen 641
Systems of Food Measurements Compared 642
The "Old" System 642
The New or "Vieno" System 645
Necessity for a Simple System 646
Explanation of Table 648
Table of Food Measurements 655

_Lesson XV_

CURATIVE AND REMEDIAL MENUS 665
Introduction 667
Cooking 669
Grains 669
Vegetables 670
Cooking en casserole 671
Rice and Macaroni 672
Fruits 672
Canned Goods 673
Buttermilk 674
Home-made Butter 674
The Banana 675
How to Select and Ripen Bananas 676
Baked Bananas 677
Recipes:
For Coddled Egg 677
For Uncooked Eggs 678
For Baked Omelet 678
For Fish and Fowl 678
For Green Peas in the Pod 679
For Pumpkin 680
For Vegetable Juice 680
For Sassafras Tea 681
Wheat Bran 681
Bran Meal 683
Choice of Menus 683
Normal Menus 685
Introduction to Normal Menus 685
For Normal Child, 2 to 5 years 687
For Normal Youth, 5 to 10 years 692
For Normal Youth, 10 to 15 years 696
For Normal Person, 15 to 20 years 700
For Normal Person, 20 to 33 years 704
For Normal Person, 33 to 50 years 708
For Normal Person, 50 to 65 years 712
For Normal Person, 65 to 80 years 716
For Normal Person, 85 to 100 years 720
Introduction to Curative Menus 724
Curative Menus:
Superacidity 726
Fermentation 753
Constipation 761
Gastritis 763
Nervous Indigestion 784
Nervousness 789
Subacidity 801
Biliousness 809
Cirrhosis of the Liver 822
Diarrhea 832
Emaciation 845

VOLUME IV

Obesity 870
Neurasthenia 897
Malnutrition 901
Anemia 905
Locomotor Ataxia 911
Colds 917
Nasal Catarrh 925
Hay Fever 931
Asthma 935
Influenza 939
Insomnia 940
Rheumatism and Gout 947
Bright's Dis-ease 979
Diabetes 983
Consumption 989
Dis-eases of the Skin 1013
Appendicitis 1029
Menus for the Pregnant Woman 1033
Importance of Food during Pregnancy 1033
The Nursing Mother 1040
Menus for the Nursing Mother 1042
Miscellaneous Menus:
Weak Digestion 1046
Building up Nervous System 1053
For Aged Person 1061
Strength and Endurance 1069
Malassimilation and Autointoxication 1074
No appetite 1081
Athletic Diet 1088
For Invalid Child 1098
For Mental Worker 1106
For School Teacher 1115
For Laboring Man 1122
For Cold Weather 1133
For Hot Weather 1134
To Build Up Sexual Vitality 1138

VOLUME V

_Lesson XVI_

ADAPTING FOOD TO SPECIAL CONDITIONS 1145
Infant, Old Age, and Athletic Feeding;
Sedentary Occupations, Climatic Extremes 1147
Normal Diet 1152
Infant Feeding 1154
General Rules for the Prospective Mother 1157
Special Rules for the Prospective Mother 1159
The Nursing Mother 1162
Care of the Child 1164
Constipation 1169
Exercise 1171
Clothing 1171
Temperature of Baby's Food 1173
Bandage 1173
Emaciation 1173
General Instructions for Children after One Year 1174
General Diet from Ages One to Two 1174
Simplicity in Feeding 1175
Old Age 1178
Three Periods of Old Age 1181
Athletics 1188
Sedentary Occupations 1194
General Directions for Sedentary Worker 1198
Climatic Extremes............ 1199

_Lesson XVII_

NERVOUSNESS--ITS CAUSE AND CURE 1209
Causes 1213
The Remedy 1217
Suggestions for Spring 1220
Suggestions for Summer 1222
Suggestions for Fall 1223
Suggestions for Winter 1224

_Lesson XVIII_

POINTS ON PRACTISE 1231
Introduction to Points on Practise 1233
Suggestions for the Practitioner 1236
Value of Experience 1239
Value of Diagnosis 1241
Educate Your Patient 1242
Effect of Mental Conditions 1245
Publicity 1247
Be Courteous and Tolerant 1250

_Lesson XIX_

EVOLUTION OF MAN 1253
What is Evolution? 1255
The Three Great Proofs of the Evolution of
Animal Life 1261
Man's Animal Kinship 1265

_Lesson XX_

SEX AND HEREDITY 1277
The Origin of Sex 1279
A Rational View of Sexual Health 1285
Embryological Growth--Prenatal Culture 1289
Heredity 1293
What Heredity Is 1295
Summary of Facts regarding Sex and Heredity 1297

_Lesson XXI_

REST AND SLEEP 1299
Rest 1301
The Old Physiology 1305
Rest and Re-creation 1306
Sleep 1308
Some Reasons 1310
Oxidation and Air 1312

_Lesson XXII_

A LESSON FOR BUSINESS MEN 1315
A Good Business Man 1320
The Routine Life of the Average Business Man 1322
Some Suggestions for a Good Business Man 1324

_Lesson XXIII_

EXERCISE AND RE-CREATION 1327
Exercise 1329
Constructive Exercises 1330
Exercise for Repair 1331
Physiology of Exercise 1333
Systems of Physical Culture 1338
Program for Daily Exercise 1343
Re-creation 1346

_A chest of miracles,
Close-packed and all secure, the unstable mass
Supported from a ruinous collapse
Or helpless flexion, by a spinous pile
Rigid as oak, yet flexile as the stem of the nodding flower.
Within, a nest of wonders, separate tasks
Each organ faithfully performing, still
From day to day harmoniously smooth
And uncomplaining, but for hindrances
Or ruinous urgence. Thou hast wisely said,
Melodious singer of old Israel,
"I am fearfully and wonderfully made."_

E. C.

LESSON I

THE INTERRELATION
OF
FOOD CHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL
CHEMISTRY

FOOD CHEMISTRY AND PHYSIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY UNITED

The human body is composed of fifteen well-defined chemical elements. A normal body weighing 150 pounds contains these elements in about the following proportions:

POUNDS OUNCES GRAINS

Oxygen 97 12 --
Carbon 30 -- --
Hydrogen 14 10 --
Nitrogen 2 14 --
Calcium 2 -- --
Phosphorus 1 12 190
Sulfur -- 3 270
Sodium -- 2 196
Chlorin -- 2 250
Fluorin -- 2 215
Potassium -- -- 290
Magnesium -- -- 340
Iron -- -- 180
Silicon -- -- 116
Manganese -- -- 90

There are a number of other body-elements, but they are so remote that they have not been clearly defined by physiological chemists. All these body-elements are nourished separately, or, as it were, individually. They must be replenished in the body as rapidly as they are consumed by the vital processes, and this can be accomplished only through the action of the elements, in the forms of food, air, and water, received into the body and assimilated by it.

[Sidenote: Where 91 per cent of human ills originate]

From my professional experience I have estimated that about 91 per cent of all human ills have their origin in the stomach and the intestines, and are caused directly by incorrect habits in eating and drinking. If this is true, or even approximately true, it shows that, in its relation to health and the pursuit of happiness, food is the most important matter with which we have to deal; yet the average person devotes far less consideration to it than he does to the gossip of the neighborhood, or to the accumulating of a few surplus dollars.

[Sidenote: Eminent writers agree as to importance of diet]

Profs. Pavloff, Metchnikoff and Chittenden; Hon. R. Russell; Drs. Rabagliati, and Wiley, Ex-Chief of our Federal Bureau of Chemistry, and many other profound thinkers and writers have given in their various books an array of facts which prove beyond doubt that food is the controlling factor in life, strength, and health; yet they have given us but few practical suggestions as to how it should be selected, combined, and proportioned, so as to produce normal health, and especially how to make it remedial and curative, or to make it counteract the appalling increase in disease.

I have endeavored to begin where the great theorists left off--

1 By becoming familiar with the chemistry of food

2 By becoming familiar with the chemistry of the body

[Sidenote: Food chemistry useless without body chemistry]

Until my work began these two great sciences had been taught as distinct and separate branches of learning, while in reality _physiological chemistry_ is but half of a science, and _food chemistry_ is, in fact, the other half of the same science. The energy in food cannot be developed without the body--the body cannot develop energy without food. Each branch is worthless, therefore, without the other. In this work I have endeavored to unite them and to make of the two one practical, provable, and usable science.

RELATION OF SUPERACIDITY TO OTHER DISEASES

[Sidenote: Superacidity a primary cause]

Nearly all stomach and intestinal troubles begin with superacidity. This is caused by the wrong combinations of food, or overeating. Food passing from the stomach, thus supercharged with acid, causes irritation of the mucous lining of the alimentary tract. This results in nervousness, insomnia, intestinal congestion (constipation), fermentation, and intestinal gas, while the excess of acid in the stomach causes irritation of the mucous surface of that much-abused organ, which develops first into catarrh, then ulceration, and sometimes into cancer. The accumulation of gas from the fermenting mass in the intestines causes irregular heart action, and sometimes heart failure. The great number of sudden deaths from this cause is pronounced by physicians "heart failure." In this the doctors and the writer agree--I know of no other way to die except for the heart to fail. The primary purpose of this work, however, is to ascertain _why_ the heart fails, and, if possible, to remove the causes. From the fermenting food toxic (poisonous) substances, such as carbon dioxid, are generated, which, when taken into the circulation, become a most prolific source of autointoxication (self-poisoning).

From long experience gained by scientific feeding, in treating stomach and intestinal trouble, it became apparent that a great many disorders, very remote from the stomach, completely disappear when perfect digestion and assimilation of food, and thorough elimination of waste are effected. This has led to a very searching investigation of causes, and to the preparation of the following chart, which is designed to show how a great many so-called diseases can be traced back to one original cause--superacidity.

[Sidenote: Power to resist disease depends upon correct feeding]

Aside from emotional storms, great nervous shocks, inoculation (vaccination), and violent exposure, nearly all diseases can be traced back to the stomach, or errors in eating. Even in cases of exposure, vaccination, or contagion, if the digestion and the assimilation of food, and the elimination of waste are perfect, the body will have the power to resist nearly all these causes of disease. Curing disease, therefore, by scientific feeding, is merely a method of removing causes and _giving Nature a chance_ to restore normality.

[Sidenote: Foods that ferment make inferior flesh]

Food that sours, ferments, or that does not digest within Nature's time-limit, cannot make good bone and brain. A defective digestion that converts food into poisonous gases in the intestinal canal will make inferior flesh and blood, just as any other defective machine will turn out inferior work. This is the natural law governing all animal life.

[Sidenote: Nature's protest against unsuitable building material]

Millions of learned people admit that good specimens of men and women can be constructed only out of good building material. They admit that the quality of a man, like that of a house, or a machine, depends upon the kind of material used in his construction; and yet they allow this important material to be selected and prepared by the most ignorant and unlearned, and they take it into their bodies with a childish thoughtlessness that is amazing; and when Nature imposes her penalty for violating her laws, they seek a remedy in drugs and medicines, and these are applied only to the symptoms which are merely the protest Nature is uttering. Thus a powerful drug silences or kills the friendly messenger who brought the timely warning, but the cause still remains. Suppose houses, ships, and machinery were constructed and repaired after this plan!

NATURAL LAWS DEMAND OBEDIENCE

Recompense for obedience to natural law, and punishment for its violation, are the invariable order of the universe, and are nowhere so effectively and emphatically demonstrated as in the cause and cure of the condition called disease.

There are certain laws which, if obeyed, will build the human body to its highest efficiency of energy, vitality and strength; but in order to obey these laws, one must know them, and in order to know them one must pass through the long and arduous mill of experience, or else learn from one who has done so.

Pain is a warning that something is wrong with the human mechanism, and he who tries to silence this signal with medicine will be punished for two wrongs instead of one. Nature tolerates no trifling, no deception; her laws are inexorable, her penalties inevitable.

[Sidenote: Treating symptoms instead of causes]

Multitudes of people are convinced that there is _something wrong_ with their eating. Instead of food giving them the highest degree of mental and physical strength, which it should do, it actually produces ills and bodily disorders; moreover, not knowing the cause, people have no conception of a remedy other than drugs. It is amazing when one thinks how man, for two thousand years, has treated disease. Instead of studying causes and endeavoring to remove them, he has treated symptoms and symptoms only. It is generally known that the practise of medicine consists in treating symptoms rather than causes. For example, nearly all headaches--one of our common afflictions--are caused indirectly by impaired digestion, faulty secretion and excretion, yet the drug stores and Materia Medica (the Bible of the profession), are laden with "headache cures," all of which act only upon the symptoms. The whole system of drugging people when they are sick is merely a method of quieting the signals--of killing or paralyzing the messengers. Most drugs, taken into the human body, are merely diminutive explosives, the effect of which is destructive. They are like a lash cruelly applied to a willing servant who lags from sheer exhaustion.

[Sidenote: "Ease" and "Dis-ease"]

Since symptoms are really the language of Nature, if we learn to interpret them, we need never err in diagnosis, and consequently never err in getting directly at the causes, as we must do in order to "cure." A drug that could _cure_ a disorder caused by wrong feeding would perform a miracle. _It would reverse one of the fixed laws of the universe. It would produce an effect without a cause._ Nature works along the lines of least resistance, and points out with unerring certainty the best, the cheapest, and the easiest way to live. Health was originally called "ease." People who did not have health were in disgrace or "dis-eased."

HOW TO MAKE HUMAN NUTRITION A SCIENCE

Human nutrition cannot be made a science under the conventional methods of omnivorous eating--eating anything and everything without thought or reason. Nutrition can only be made a science by limiting the articles of food to such things as will reproduce all the chemical elements of the human body, mentioned at the beginning of this lesson.

The further we remove foods from their natural state, the more difficult becomes their analysis, their reliability, and a knowledge of their chemistry, therefore the menus that appear in this work include only the foods that will give to the body the best elements of nutrition.

[Sidenote: Prepared foods unscientific]

There is but little difficulty in ascertaining the chemistry of natural foods, but when they have been preserved, pickled, canned, smoked, evaporated, milled, roasted, toasted, oiled, boiled, baked, mixed, flavored, sweetened, salted, soured and put into the popular commercial forms, it becomes very difficult, if not impossible, to know what we are eating, or to estimate the results.

Man is the net product of what he eats and drinks. Food bears very much the same relation to him that soil does to vegetation. The following questions, therefore, should be solved by every one who believes that success and happiness depend upon health and vitality:

1 How to select and how to combine foods which will give to
the body a natural result, which is _health_

2 How to select and how to combine foods so that they will
counteract and remove the causes of dis-ease

3 How to select foods which contain all the chemical elements
of the body, and how to combine and proportion them at each meal so
that they will chemically harmonize

4 How to determine the quantity of food to be taken each day,
or at each meal, that will give to the body all the nourishment it
is capable of assimilating

_Note_: Too much food, even of the right kind, defeats this purpose and produces just the opposite result.

* * * * *

Upon this knowledge hinges the building of a natural body, the cure of a vast majority of dis-eases, our ability to reach the highest state of physical and mental vitality, the prolongation of youth and longevity.

OUR FOOD MUST FIT INTO OUR CIVILIZATION

_We must make our diet fit into our civilized requirements._ Civilization has imposed many customs, habits, and duties upon us that have not been properly met by nutrition or diet. This is why nearly 91 per cent of our ills are caused by errors in eating.

[Sidenote: Effect of sedative occupations upon nutrition]

Under continued physical exertion, the body will thrive for a time on an unbalanced diet. It will cast off surplus nutrition, and convert one element into another, a problem unknown to modern science, but under sedative or modern business habits and occupations, it will not continue to cast off a surplus, or to reconvert nutritive elements. As a result of an unbalanced bill of fare, the nutrients taken in excess of the daily needs undergo a form of decomposition, producing what is called autointoxication, and become a most prolific source of dis-ease.

WHY THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN NUTRITION IS IN ITS INFANCY

The reader may inquire why it is that all other branches of science have advanced so rapidly, and the science of human nutrition has just begun. The reasons are:

1 Our ancestors, for many thousand years, were taught that
dis-ease was a visitation of Divine Providence, therefore to combat
it was to tempt the Almighty.

2 Doctors of medicine who have been custodians of the people's
health for many centuries have seldom been food scientists. Most of
them attempt to combat disease with drugs.

Now we are beginning to learn the truth about the origin of disease and in considering the body as a human engine, to take into consideration the all-important question of fuel.

[Sidenote: Tendency of the modern physician toward food science]

That the most learned physicians are drifting more and more toward scientific feeding and natural remedies is a matter of common knowledge. This splendid army of laborers in the great field of human suffering is made up largely of what is termed the _Modern Doctor_--the man who is brave enough to think and to act according to his better judgment.

Just to the extent that we understand the origin of drugs, and the drugging system of treating dis-ease, we turn instinctively _from them_, and instinctively _toward_ food, for in drugs we find an ancient system of guesswork, while in food we find fundamental principles and primary causes. The majority of causes are removed when the diet is made to fit our physical condition and environment, and we then become normal by the process of animal evolution, Nature merely bestowing upon us our birthright because we have obeyed her laws.

3 The true science of human nutrition can be evolved only from
an accurate knowledge of both food chemistry and of physiological
chemistry.

[Sidenote: Why food chemistry and physiological chemistry have not been united]

The science of physiological chemistry has been known and taught for more than one hundred years, while the science of food chemistry is of recent origin. These two branches have been kept separate because they grew up at different periods of time. United they constitute the greatest science known to mankind, because they affect his health, his happiness, his life, and above all they measure the period of time he will live.

Physiological chemistry tells what the body is and its needs--food chemistry tells how to supply these needs. Recognizing these facts, I have merely united these hitherto unapplied branches of science, and have made of the union the science of Applied Food Chemistry, which makes practical that which has heretofore been confined mainly to theory.

LESSON II

SIMPLE PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL CHEMISTRY

[Sidenote: Relation of chemistry to food science]

If the student is versed in chemistry, this lesson will serve merely as a review; if not, somewhat close attention must be given to facts which at first may seem uninteresting. Patience should be exercised, for, while all the information herein given does not, taken as a whole, bear directly upon the subjects of health and dis-ease, yet with this knowledge it will be much less difficult to understand the principles which are applied later when we take up the chemistry of the body and the chemistry of food.

Chemistry is not, as popularly supposed, a science far removed from everyday life. Everyone has some knowledge of chemistry, but the chemist has observed things more minutely and therefore more accurately understands the composition of substances and the changes that are everywhere taking place. For illustration:

A cook starts a fire in a stove. She knows that the fire
must have "air" or it will not burn; that when the fire is first
lighted, it "smokes" heavily, but as it burns more, it smokes less;
further, that if the damper in the pipe is closed the "gas" will
escape in to the room.

[Sidenote: Fire, gas, and smoke the result of chemical changes]

The chemist also knows this, but because he has compared his observations with similar events elsewhere, he is enabled to express his knowledge in the language of science. To the chemist, fire is the process of combustion--the union of the oxygen of the air with the carbon and hydrogen compounds of the wood or of the coal. The heat of the fire is generated by this chemical union. To the chemist, the smoke is a natural phenomenon occasioned by particles of carbon which fail to unite with the oxygen gas. The gas, which to the woman suggests suffocation if enough of it escapes into the room, to the chemist suggests a compound resulting from combination of the oxygen with the carbon.

CHEMICAL ELEMENTS

To the chemist, all forms of matter are mere combinations of elements. Chemical analysis is a process of separating, dividing, and subdividing matter. When the chemist separates or analyzes compounds, until he can no longer simplify or subdivide them, he calls these simple products "chemical elements."

[Sidenote: Common elements]

Many of the chemical elements are well known, such as copper, iron, and gold. Other elements that are still more common are unknown in their elementary form, because they combine with other elements so readily that they exist in nature only as compounds. For example: Hydrogen, united with oxygen, forms water; the elements chlorin and sodium, combined or united, form common salt.

[Sidenote: Number of elements]

Altogether chemists have discovered about eighty-four elements, many of which are rare, and do not occur in common substances.

All substances of the earth, whether dead or living, are formed of chemical elements. These elements may be found in the pure or elementary state, or they may be mixed with other substances, or they may be combined chemically. Copper, iron, and gold are elements in the pure state. If we should take iron and copper filings and mix them together, we would still have copper and iron. Were we to take copper and gold and melt them together, we would have a metal that would be neither copper nor gold. It would be harder than one and softer than the other. But this substance would still be a mixture, and its properties half way between copper and gold.

[Sidenote: Examples of chemical changes]

If a piece of iron be exposed to dampness it will soon become covered with a reddish powder called "rust." The rusting of iron is a process of chemical changes in which the original substance was wholly changed by chemically uniting with the oxygen and the moisture of the atmosphere, which is really a process of combustion. The burning of wood, the rusting of iron, the souring of milk, and the digestion of food are, in a way, all mere examples of chemical changes.

[Sidenote: Difference between chemical compounds and simple mixtures]

Care should be exercised to distinguish chemical compounds from simple mixtures. Air is not a compound, but a mixture of oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen gases. Water, however, is a compound of oxygen and hydrogen. Both salt and sugar are compounds, but if we grind them together, we do not have a new compound, but a mixture of two compounds. Most of the common things around us are mixtures of different compounds or substances. Rocks are mixtures of many different compounds. Wood is, likewise, formed of many different substances. Wheat contains water, starch, cellulose, and many other compounds. Grinding the wheat into flour does not change it chemically, but if we heat the flour in an oven, some of the starch is changed into dextrin. The starch has disappeared, and dextrin, a new substance, appears in its place. Whenever elements are combined into compounds, or compounds broken up into elements, or changed into other compounds, we have true chemical action.

[Sidenote: Names of elements--how derived]

The names of the elements are formed in many different ways. The name chlorin is derived from a Greek word meaning _greenish-yellow_, as this is the color of chlorin. Bromin comes from a Greek word meaning _a stench_, a prominent characteristic of bromin being its bad odor. Hydrogen is formed from two Greek words, one of which means _water_ and the other to _produce_, signifying that it enters into the composition of water. Potassium is an element found in potash, and sodium in soda, etc.

[Sidenote: Symbols of elements--how derived]

For convenience, abbreviations are used for the names of elements and compounds. Thus, instead of oxygen, we may write simply "O"; for hydrogen, "H"; for nitrogen, "N," etc. Very frequently the first letter of the name of the element is used as the symbol. If the names of two or more elements begin with the same letter, some other letter of the name is added. In some cases the symbols are derived from the Latin names of the elements. Thus, the symbol of iron is Fe, from _ferrum_; of copper, Cu, from _cuprum_.

The following table gives the names of the elements which it will be necessary to understand in pursuing this work.

Aluminum Al
Arsenic As
Boron B
Bromin Br
Calcium Ca
Carbon C
Chlorin Cl
Chromium Cr
Copper Cu
Fluorin F
Gold Au
Hydrogen H
Iodin I
Iron Fe
Lead Pb
Magnesium Mg
Mercury Hg
Nickel Ni
Nitrogen N
Oxygen O
Phosphorus P
Platinum Pt
Potassium K
Silicon Si
Silver Ag
Sodium Na
Sulfur S
Tin Sn
Zinc Zn

AIR AND OXYGEN

[Sidenote: Composition of air]

AIR--The air consists chiefly of two substances, only one of which can keep up the process of burning. This substance is known as oxygen. The other, in which nothing can burn, is known as nitrogen. Besides these the air contains smaller quantities of other substances, particularly water vapor, carbonic acid (carbon dioxid), ammonia, and carburetted hydrogen.

[Sidenote: Distribution of oxygen]

OXYGEN--Oxygen is the most common element in nature. It forms between forty and fifty per cent of the solid crust of the earth, eight-ninths of all the water on the globe, and one-fifth of all the air around the globe.

We have oxygen around us in great abundance, but it is mixed with nitrogen, and it is difficult to separate the two so as to secure the oxygen for any practical or commercial use.

MANUFACTURE OF OXYGEN

There are three methods of obtaining oxygen:

1 From _potassium chlorate_, or, as it is commonly called,
chlorate of potash.

When potassium chlorate (KCLO₃) is heated in a closed vessel
(closed vessel means "closed at one end"), it breaks up into
potassium chlorid and oxygen; that is, KCLO₃ + heat = KCL + O₃.

Potassium chlorate is used in fireworks because it gives up
its oxygen readily. Potassium nitrate serves the same purpose in
gunpowder, which is a mixture of sulfur (S), charcoal (C), and
salt-peter or potassium nitrate (KNO₃). The explosion of gunpowder,
after a certain temperature has been reached, is due to the
formation of oxygen, which, combined with the potassium nitrate, is
set free by the very rapid burning of the charcoal and the sulfur.
Other gases formed by the explosion are nitrogen, and probably
sulfur dioxid (SO₂), and oxids of nitrogen, N₂O, NO₂, etc. Carbon
monoxid and carbon dioxid are sometimes formed. Potassium nitrate,
however, is the most active agent in gunpowder.

2 By the _electrolysis of water_.

By this method the oxygen and the hydrogen are separated by
electricity.

3 By the _liquefaction of air_, which is a very recent and a
very scientific method.

By this method the air is cooled down until it liquefies.
At normal atmospheric pressure it liquefies at a temperature of
--312.6°F., but under pressure of about 585 pounds it liquefies
at a temperature of --220°F. After the air has been liquefied, it
is allowed to go back to vapor by exposing it to the surrounding
heat of the atmosphere, and this vaporization separates the
nitrogen from the oxygen, as the nitrogen boils at a temperature of
--318°F., while the oxygen boils at a temperature of --294°F. There
is a difference of about 24° in the boiling points of these two
gases, which at this low point amounts to more than the difference
between the boiling points of alcohol and water, and this
difference is sufficient to separate the oxygen from the nitrogen.

Production of oxygen by the liquefaction of air is the latest,
cheapest, and most approved method, and is now becoming extensively
used in obtaining both oxygen and nitrogen for commercial use.

[Sidenote: Properties of oxygen]

Oxygen is tasteless and odorless. It is slightly heavier than air. When subjected to an extremely high pressure and low temperature it becomes liquid.

CHEMICAL ACTION OF OXYGEN

(a) _Upon Substances_

[Sidenote: Effect of air upon iron and wood]

Upon some substances oxygen acts at ordinary temperature. Iron becomes covered with rust when exposed to air and moisture. Wood and other vegetable and animal substances undergo slow decomposition when exposed to the air. This is partly due to the action of oxygen at ordinary temperature.

[Sidenote: Pure oxygen aids combustion]

A splinter of wood will burn brilliantly in a jar of pure oxygen, and much more rapidly than in common air. Pure oxygen gas will cause many substances to burn which will not burn in air. Iron can be burned in pure oxygen, leaving only a reddish powder.

[Sidenote: Formation of iron-rust]

When iron rusts the carbon dioxid and water vapor combine chemically with the iron, and form what is known as a basic hydroxid or carbonate of iron. The process is somewhat complex. When iron burns in oxygen a red powder is formed--ferric oxid, Fe₂O₃. Iron dissolves in water, or moisture from the air containing carbonic acid, forming acid ferrous carbonate--

Fe + 2H₂CO₃ = FeH₂(CO₃)₂ + H₂
Iron + Carbonic acid = Acid ferrous carbonate + Hydrogen

This acid ferrous carbonate, on drying or further oxidation, is converted into _iron-rust_. If we represent _iron-rust_ by the formula Fe₂O₃. 2Fe(OH)₃, the equation is as follows:

4FeH₂(CO₃)₂ + O₂ = Fe₂O₃. 2Fe(OH)₃ + H₂O + 8CO₂
Acid ferrous carbonate + Oxygen = Iron-rust + Water + Carbon dioxid

(b) _In Living Bodies_

The most interesting action of oxygen at ordinary temperature, however, is that which takes place in our bodies and the bodies of all other animals.

[Sidenote: Rate of blood circulation]

[Sidenote: Oxidation of waste matter]

By the constant action or beating of the heart all the blood in the body is brought to the lungs every two or three minutes. The actual time has not been determined in man. In large arteries the blood flows ten times as fast as in very small ones. The usual time through a capillary is one second. The time has been determined, however, in lower animals. In a horse the blood travels one foot a second in the largest artery. At present the accepted theory is that in the circuit the blood makes throughout the body, it picks up the waste matter from tissue that has been torn down by work or effort, and brings it to the lungs, where it meets with the oxygen we breathe and is oxidized or burned.

If the body undergoes excessive effort or exercise, it tears down an excessive amount of tissue, and there is created, therefore, an excessive amount of waste or carbon dioxid. Nature very wisely provides for this contingency by increasing the heart action, thereby sending the blood through the body at greater velocity, forcing more blood to the lungs, thus increasing the demand for oxygen, which is expressed by deep and rapid breathing.

[Sidenote: Generation of heat and light]

When a substance burns it gives off heat, and generally light. The heat is the result of chemical change or combination, and the light is the result of heat. Whenever oxidation takes place, no matter in what form, heat is produced.

[Sidenote: Amount of heat determined by amount of oxygen]

The amount of heat given off by the combination of a given amount of oxygen with some other substance is always the same. If it takes place at a very high temperature, as in explosives, the heat is all given off at once, but if it takes place more slowly, the heat passes away, and we may not observe it, but careful experiments prove that heat is always present in oxidation, and the amount of heat is always measured by the amount of oxygen.

[Sidenote: Law governing oxidation of given quantity of food]

That the combination of oxygen with other substances always produces a certain amount of heat is a very important fact to the food scientist, as this law enables him to determine in the laboratory the exact amount of heat that is produced in the oxidation of a pound, or of any given quantity of food; this food will also produce exactly the same amount of heat if oxidized in the human body.

[Sidenote: Heat and motion]

We know that by means of heat we can produce motion. The steam-engine is the best example of this law. We build a fire under the boiler; the oxygen of the air unites with the carbon in the coal; the combustion converts the water into steam; the steam is conveyed to a cylinder; the pressure pushes a piston; the motion of the piston causes motion in the engine, and the train or ship moves.

[Sidenote: Determination of body-heat and energy]

From such facts we know that not only the amount of heat, but the amount of work or energy that food or fuel will yield can be determined with reasonable accuracy. Many conditions obtain in the body, however, that do not occur in the laboratory, hence we must study these conditions before we can fully understand the natural laws that govern the production of heat, and energy or work, by oxidation in the living body.

HYDROGEN AND WATER

[Sidenote: Distribution and production of hydrogen]

HYDROGEN--Hydrogen is found in nature very widely distributed and in large quantities. It forms one-ninth of the weight of water, and is contained in all the principal substances which enter into the composition of plants and animals. It may be obtained by decomposition of water by means of the electric current, or by the action of substances known as acids on metals. The latter method is more commonly used in the laboratory. Acids contain hydrogen, give it off easily, and take up other elements in its place. Among the common acids found in every laboratory are hydrochloric, sulfuric, and nitric.

[Sidenote: Physical properties of hydrogen]

Pure hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas. It is not poisonous, and may therefore be inhaled without harm. It is the lightest known substance, being about 14.4 times lighter than air, 16 times lighter than oxygen, and 11,000 times lighter than water.

[Sidenote: Chemical properties of hydrogen]

Hydrogen does not unite with oxygen at ordinary temperatures, but, like wood and most other fuel substances, needs to be heated up to the kindling temperature before it will burn. Hydrogen burns if a lighted match be applied to it. The flame is colorless, or very slightly blue.

[Sidenote: Decomposition of water]

WATER--Water is a compound and not an element, as can be shown by passing an electric current through it. If the ends of two wires, each connected with an electric battery, be put a short distance apart, in acidulated water, it will be noticed that bubbles of gas rise from each wire. As these gases cannot come from, or through the wires, they must be formed from the water. If they be analyzed, we will find that oxygen gas comes from one wire and hydrogen from the other.

[Sidenote: Proportion of hydrogen and oxygen in water]

This experiment shows that when an electric current is passed through water, hydrogen and oxygen are obtained, and also that there is obtained twice as much hydrogen as oxygen by volume. This proves that water is not an element, but a compound of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen. The chemist therefore writes the symbol for water H₂O.

We have just learned that with electricity we could decompose the compound water into its elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Now we can prove by another experiment that water contains these two elements. If we burn hydrogen gas, or any substance containing hydrogen, water is formed. This can be illustrated by inverting a cool, dry tumbler over a gas flame, which is composed chiefly of hydrogen, and water vapor will collect on the inside.

[Sidenote: Properties of water]

Though water is widely distributed over the earth, we never find it absolutely pure in nature. All natural waters contain foreign substances in solution. These substances are taken up from the air, or from the earth. Pure water is colorless, tasteless, and odorless.

[Sidenote: Why ice floats]

On cooling, water contracts until it reaches the temperature of 4° Centigrade (39° Fahrenheit). When cooled from 4° to 0° C. it expands, and the specific gravity, or weight compared with the space occupied by ice, is somewhat less than that of water; hence ice floats.

[Sidenote: Rain-water]

[Sidenote: Hard water]

[Sidenote: Mineral water]

The purest water found in nature is rain-water, particularly that which falls after it has rained for some time; that which first falls always contains impurities from the air. As soon as rain-water comes in contact with the earth and begins its course toward the sea, it also begins to take up various substances according to the character of the soil with which it comes in contact. Mountain streams which flow over rocky beds, particularly beds of sandstone, contain very pure water. Streams which flow over limestone dissolve some of the stone, and the water becomes "hard." The many varieties of mineral water from the various springs throughout the country, take their properties from soluble substances with which they come in contact.

[Sidenote: Salt water]