p. 17 | Native Foods in Tropical Climates

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 9, 1908

Native Foods in Tropical Climates

A SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST missionary of long experience in a tropical climate, who has been able to preserve good health while working hard, says: “We have never had the idea that the foods which are grown in the islands [tropical] were not so wholesome as those of temperate climes; but, on the contrary, we consider them to be just the food best adapted for this climate, with the addition of bread, which to those who have always had it, seems indispensable. Our diet is composed principally of yams, taro, breadfruit, sweet potatoes, bananas, mummy-apples, mangoes, oranges, the cocoanut, rice, and bread. When we have been compelled by circumstances to use much imported foods, we have not enjoyed as good health as when we were living mostly on the native foods. Our systems do not require so much food in a warm climate as where it is cold; for when it is cold, more food must be burned in the body to keep us warm; and when we come to a hot climate, if we do not cut down our rations, we are more liable to feel weak and feverish, and be troubled with colds and other unpleasant symptoms.”