American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian HomesStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Home economics
It is also a curious fact that, in all articles of food, the elements
that nourish diverse parts of the body are divided into separable
portions, and also that the proportions correspond in a great degree
to the wants of the body. For example, a kernel of wheat contains all
the articles demanded for every part of the body. Fig. 55 represents,
upon an enlarged scale, the position and proportions of the chief
elements required. The white central part is the largest in quantity,
and is chiefly carbon in the form of starch, which supplies fat and
fuel for the capillaries. The shaded outer portion is chiefly nitrogen,
which nourishes the muscles, and the dark spot at the bottom is
principally phosphorus, which nourishes the brain and nerves. And these
elements are in due proportion to the demands of the body. A portion
of the outer covering of a wheat-kernel holds lime, silica, and iron,
which are needed by the body, and which are found in no other part of
the grain. The woody fibre is not digested, but serves by its bulk and
stimulating action to facilitate digestion. It is therefore evident
that bread made of unbolted flour is more healthful than that made of
superfine flour. The process of bolting removes all the woody fibre;
the lime needed for the bones; the silica for hair, nails, and teeth;
the iron for the blood; and most of the nitrogen and phosphorus needed
for muscles, brain, and nerves.
Experiments on animals prove that fine flour alone, which is chiefly
carbon, will not sustain life more than a month, while unbolted flour
furnishes all that is needed for every part of the body. There are
cases where persons can not use such coarse bread, on account of its
irritating action on inflamed coats of the stomach. For such, a kind
of wheaten grit is provided, containing all the kernel of the wheat,
except the outside woody fibre.
When the body requires a given kind of diet, specially demanded by
brain, lungs, or muscles, the appetite will crave food for it until
the necessary amount of this article is secured. If, then, the food
in which the needed aliment abounds is not supplied, other food will
be taken in larger quantities than needed until that amount is gained.
For all kinds of food have supplies for every want of the body, though
in different proportions. Thus, for example, if the muscles are worked
a great deal, food in which nitrogen abounds is required, and the
appetite will continue until the requisite amount of nitrogen is
secured. If, then, food is taken which has not the requisite quantity,
the consequence is, that more is taken than the system can use, while
the vital powers are needlessly taxed to throw off the excess.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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