Practical dietetics : with special reference to diet in disease / by W. Gilman Thompson.

  • William Gilman Thompson
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical dietetics : with special reference to diet in disease / by W. Gilman Thompson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

    52/852 (page 24)
    This is no doubt true, but the training has become so strongly a matter of heredity through many centuries that those who possess it are certainly in better health for a reasonable allowance of meat in their dietary. Errors in diet are far more common on the side of excessive meat eating than the eating of too much vegetable food, especially among civilised communities. In the temperate zones an increase in prosperity, together with the improvements made in the methods of preparing and preserving meat as well as those in breed- ing cattle for market purposes, tend to increase the habit of meat eating. The estimate commonly given, in which meat should occupy one fourth and vegetable food three fourths of a mixed diet, is over- stepped by many persons with whom the proportion may be two to four. There is often too much eating of cold meats at luncheon for the interests of health. The proper association of different foods always keeps healthy men in better condition than too long continuance of any selected diet system. Sir H. Thompson, in speaking of the advantages of a well-pro- portioned diet, says: A preference for tne high flavours and stimu- lating scents peculiar to the flesh of vertebrate animals mostly subsides after a fair trial of milder foods when supplied in variety. . . . The desire for food is keener, the satisfaction in gratifying ap- petite is greater and more enjoyable on the part of the general light feeder, than with the almost exclusively flesh feeder. . . . Three fourths at least of the nutrient matters consumed are from the ani- mal kingdom. A reversal of the proportions indicated—that is, a fourth only from the latter source, with three fourths of vegetable produce—would furnish greater variety for the table, tend to main- tain a cleaner palate, increased zest for food, a lighter and more active brain, and a better state of health for most people not en- gaged in the most laborious employments of active life. This comment is more applicable to the upper classes in England than in this country, where more attention is given to the cultivation and cooking of fresh vegetables and the preparation of vegetable products. Letheby wrote : The best proportions for the common wants of the animal system are about nine of fat, twenty-two of flesh-forming substances, and sixty-nine of starch and sugar. Meats which are deficient in fat are usually eaten with added fat. Thus bacon is eaten with veal, liver, and chicken, and most fish are cooked with butter or oil. Similarly, butter, eggs, or cream are mixed with amylaceous foods, such as rice, sago, potatoes, etc., which are lacking in fat, and fat containing cheese is added to macaroni. Bacon is added to beans, and pork to greens. Whenever one kind of food is wanting in any particular constitu-