Temperance by Athena

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 5, 1885

Temperance.

By Athena

Foods and Their Nutritive Values.

My title is comprehensive. Not wishing to occupy too much space, I will condense my information. I will try to be brief, and to the point.

If we carefully consider, we shall find that nearly all we eat is really produced, in the first place, from the earth. We know it is so regarding fruits, grains, and vegetables, and it is none the less true as regards flesh meat. Of what is the flesh of the ox, sheep, etc., composed? Is it not of the grains, roots, and grasses the animals eat? Seeing that a good diet can be obtained without eating these animals, or taking it second-hand, why are we not satisfied with it? Is the grain or vegetable enhanced in value by being first partaken of by the cow or sheep? It does not appear so, for we learn that in 100 lbs. of lean beef there are 72 lbs. of water and only 28 lbs. of solid matter, while in the same proportion of peas, lentils, oatmeal, wheat meal, and barley meal, there are 85 lbs. of solid matter and only 15 lbs. of water. Rice contains 87 lbs. of solid matter out of 100 lbs.; maize meal, 86 lbs., and beans, 82 lbs.

From this it is seen that many vegetables and grains contain far more nutriment than meat. One might live upon fruits and nuts, for the former, when ripe, are rich in saccharine matter, and the latter have a large percentage of nitrogen. Add to this whole-meal bread and good milk, and the fare is "fit to be set before a king." And what a reduction of kitchen work! Think of the time and labor spent in trying to please and satisfy the perverted appetite! What a curtailing of aches and pains, for many of the diseases humanity seems heir to are brought about by an injudicious choice of food. A fruit and grain diet, too, is less stimulating, hence the bodily functions perform their work more as intended, and life is lengthened thereby.

I cannot, just now, go into the chemistry of foods and show how much of the solid part is nitrogen, sugar, fat, etc., but will try to at some future date.

"Can a people really exist and be strong without meat?" some may ask. Yes. Take the Scotch. Can a race more efficient bodily, morally, or mentally, be found? And yet their chief food is oatmeal. Take the majority of the laboring classes in England and Ireland; their wages will not allow of meat, save perhaps once a week. Are they unable to undergo their daily toil? Nay. They are far stronger and healthier than the rich man's sons, fed upon the choicest of meats. Examples might be given of the Chinese, Japanese, and others, where flesh meats, if not excluded, form a very small part of their diet.

In loading our tables with meats and highly seasoned foods we are imposing a work upon the system that is breaking it down, and then we wonder why we are ill.

Let us go back to the race at its beginning. How did the ancients live? "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for meat."—Athena, in Pacific.