Personal hygiene / by Ada S. Ballin.

  • Ada Sarah Ballin
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Personal hygiene / by Ada S. Ballin. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    DIET FOR DIFFERENT TEMPERAMENTS AND DISEASES All the substances needed in food can be obtained either from the vegetable or animal kingdom. The albuminates, carbo-hydrates, fats, and mineral substances are all found both in animals and vegetables, but in varying proportions. The albuminates and fats which are derived from animal foods, as in meat, fish, eggs, and milk, are almost entirely absorbed in the stomach and intestines; but the albumen of vegetable substances is generally associated with large quantities of starch enclosed in a network of cellulose or woody tissue which resists the action of the digestive organs. Therefore, while only about 3 per cent of the albumen of animal food is undigested and lost, as much as 17 per cent of vegetable food is wasted and passes away with the excretions. Therefore, if only as much vegetable food were taken as would give the actual amount of albumen, salts, and starches required for the daily waste of the body, a large proportion would pass away undigested, and what is as- similated would not be sufficient to sustain the body. A larger quantity of vegetable than of animal food is requisite to give the amount of nourishment required ; a mixed diet is therefore necessary. The study of dietetics may be made sufficiently scientific to adapt the food to the individual case, although in health and disease the nutrition of the body is changed according to the proportion of the animal or ve etable food taken.
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