Special Fuels for Certain Furnaces—Scientific Connection Between What We Eat and What We Are
By D. H. Kress, M. D.
The human body may be fitly compared to a furnace and an engine combined. Engines are constructed for work, but they are valueless without steam and energy. In order to have steam and energy, there must be fuel. But fuel is of no value without air. Oxygen is needed to create combustion and keep the fires burning. Food is to the body what fuel is to the engine.
Fuel Must Suit the Furnace
Certain engines and boilers have large furnaces built expressly for wood. Others are built for coal; still others, for gas. It is possible, in an emergency, to burn coal in the furnace built for wood, or wood in the furnace built for oil. But it is not satisfactory. The furnace soon becomes clogged, and the fires will burn low.
In the animal creation, there are creatures so constructed that they can utilize, as body fuel, coarse substances, as grass, leaves, and herbs; and in the absence of these, they are able even to derive a certain amount of energy from the bark of trees and from tender twigs, which are suitable for furnace fuel only. Many of these creatures possess tortuous sacculated alimentary canals thirty times the length of their bodies. A tiger or a cat could not subsist on such foods, for the alimentary canal of the flesh-eating animal is too short, being only three times the length of the body.
Too Long or Too Short
In man, the alimentary canal is about ten times the length of the body. It is too short to get the maximum of nutriment out of the food provided for the herbivorous animals, and too long to make it safe to subsist on the food of the carnivora.
Man could not possibly subsist upon bark and twigs. He is capable, however, in the absence of better food, by cooking, to derive a certain amount of energy from many of the coarse roots and herbs that evidently were designed for animals with longer alimentary tracts.
The Creator understood what foods were best for each creature. Accordingly He gave to each his food. To man He said: “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, . . . and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat”; and, “Of every tree . . . thou mayest freely eat.” Gen. 1: 29; 2: 16. Of the lower creatures it is said, “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.” “It was so” at the beginning and until the fall. Man subsisted upon the food created for him, and the lower creatures upon the foods created for them.
There never was a time when there was more of a demand for doctors.
There are many foods now used by man, and also by the lower creatures, which were not included in the original list of foods for either. While it is lawful to use these, it is not expedient or wise to do so, only in the absence of the foods specially created for each.
There is a certain plant which captures and digests insects. It has been found that this is due to the fact that these plants are frequently found on rocky soil, which lacks that much needed element nitrogen. Rather than starve, it captures insects, and thus obtains this necessary food element. If this plant is transplanted into soil rich in nitrogen, it is content with the original plan, and instinctively gives up its carnivorous habits, and ceases to devour flesh.
When Meat Diet Was Permitted
After the Flood, when all vegetation was destroyed, to Noah the command was given, in the absence of better food, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.” Gen. 9: 3. For him to refuse to subsist upon meat under those conditions would have been suicidal. It would have been sin, for “life is more than meat.”
The commands given in the past regarding food apply with equal force to similar conditions to-day. In the absence of fruits, grains, and nuts, the command still is, “Thou shalt eat the herb of the field.” And in the absence or scarcity of the herbs as well as fruits, etc., the command is still, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.” These commands to eat herbs and flesh are, however, conditional, or rather provisional.
The Two Purposes of Food
Food serves two purposes. It supplies material for building and repairing bones, muscles, nerves, and brain, and fuel for the production of heat and energy.
It is estimated that one part of the tissue-building material is required to every nine parts producing heat and energy. If a boiler were able to make its own repairs, and should require heat-producing elements and repair elements in the same proportion, then to every nine shovelfuls of coal put into the furnace there should be added one shovelful of iron filings or scraps. The human body is capable of making all its own repairs. Therefore to every nine parts of the heat-producing elements must be added one part of tissue-building material.
Fuel and the Tissue Builders
Starch, sugar, and fat form the natural fuel for the body, while protein and salts supply the tissue-building material. These various elements are arranged in wheat, oats, rice, barley, and other cereals, in about the right proportion to meet the body's needs. By subsisting upon these foods, very little anxiety need be felt in regard to getting an excess or deficiency of any one element.
Should an excess of starch, sugar, or fat be eaten, it would not be a serious matter, as this material would be stored up as body fuel in the form of fat. There is constant danger, however, of getting an excess of tissue-building material, since no provision is made within the body for an excess. If we should put into the furnace two shovelfuls of iron filings to every nine shovelfuls of coal, the extra shovelful would erelong clog the furnace, and would ultimately extinguish the fire. This is what actually occurs within the human body when daily an excess of334the tissue-forming element is eaten. Even though it be burned up, it leaves behind a residue, popularly known as uric acid, which acts injuriously to the organism.
Should we add to the grains and the legumes a liberal supply of meat, which is composed wholly of muscle, we could not avoid getting an excess of that tissue-building material; and this, in time, would clog the living furnace and machinery. That is practically the condition which exists in gout, rheumatism, arteriosclerosis, and premature old age.
Bread Formerly — Meat Now
One hundred years ago, bread formed the principal article of diet in the United States. To-day we consume over two hundred twenty pounds of meat per capita annually, or about three fifths of a pound a day for each person. There is probably more meat than bread consumed.
Food may be harmful by having concealed within it products that are poisonous or injurious to the system; or it may be of a nature to undergo putrefaction readily within the alimentary canal, and thus become a poison.
Meat belongs to both classes. It has impurities concealed within it, which are injurious to the body; and it readily undergoes putrefactive changes within the alimentary tract. Meats are therefore not the most suitable foods for man.
Good Shoes from Poor Leather!
The idea prevails that it matters very little what man eats—that the digestive organs are capable in some way of transforming poor food into good tissue. It would be but little more absurd to expect a shoemaker to make a good pair of shoes out of poor leather, than to expect to build bones, muscles, nerves, and brain out of inferior food. Yet the majority are attempting to do this.
Then we wonder why there are so many nervous breakdowns, and so many premature and sudden deaths. These breakdowns and premature deaths are seldom due to the great amount of work accomplished.
A robust appearance is not necessarily an indication of health or efficiency. Frequently it is an evidence of degeneracy. The beer drinker, with flushed face and well filled vest, is considered a poor risk by insurance companies and by surgeons. The one who subsists largely on meats may have an abundance of tissue, but it too is of an inferior quality.
Why Not Disease-Proof Bodies?
One hundred years ago, we exercised less care in the erection of our city dwellings than we do at present. The destruction of a few of our large cities by fire has not merely led us to provide better fire protection, but in addition, we are now erecting fireproof buildings. The former inflammable building material will no longer answer the purpose.
We should also select better body-building material, and erect germ-proof bodies. Unless this is done, degenerous diseases will cause death to come early.
There probably never was a time when there were a greater number of chronic invalids in the United States than at present. There never was a time when there was more of a demand for doctors, nurses, hospitals, sanitariums, and asylums. It is estimated that three millions of people in the United States are constantly disabled on account of sickness. Many more are ailing, and unable to do justice to their work, neither do they have much enjoyment of life.
The greater number of nervous wrecks, and the rapid increase in the mortality rate, after the age of forty-five years, from heart failure, apoplexy, Bright's disease, diabetes, and other degenerative diseases, during the past half century, should teach us the need of constructing better and more enduring bodies.
The Body a Temple
In the Scriptures, the body is termed a “temple,” in which God desires His habitation. When Solomon erected at Jerusalem a temple as a “dwelling place for the Most High,” he was careful in the selection of suitable building material. He passed by the material used in the erection of ordinary buildings. Nothing but the very best would answer the purpose. Cedars were brought from Lebanon, and stones from afar. When the building was finished, a part of the interior was overlaid with pure gold. We should exercise the wisdom of a Solomon, and select the very best and cleanest food it is possible to get, out of which to build healthy and enduring bodies.
Daniel, the Hebrew captive in Babylon, when commanded to eat at the royal table spread with delicacies and impure foods, “purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank.” He requested, instead, that he might have “pulse to eat, and water to drink.” God honored Solomon by filling that temple with His presence. The same God honored Daniel by revealing in and through him His presence.
Still a Power at Ninety
Not only did the face of Daniel appear fairer and better than did those who ate at the royal table, but in all matters of wisdom he was ten times better. At the age of ninety, instead of being a dependent or an object of charity, Daniel was at his best intellectually. At this advanced period of life, he held the position of prime minister of the Medo-Persian empire; and so accurately and well was his work done, that his enemies had to admit that there could be no fault found with him except “concerning the law of his God.”
There are certain drinks and foods which destroy self-control, and tend to develop the animal within man. Among these may be mentioned beer, wine, and meats. Granted that good men use these; yet man can never, while subsisting largely upon such foods, become morally what otherwise he might.
Much of the misery and crime that exists in the world is traceable to intestinal poisoning. Unpleasantness in homes, which frequently ends in divorce, is often due to errors in eating and drinking. The impatience of the mother, the irritability of the children, and the unreasonable disposition of the husband and father, frequently find an explanation at the dinner table. What we eat and what we drink has to do with what we are, physically, intellectually, and morally; hence the importance of knowing how to eat and drink for health and efficiency.
