FOOD PHOSPHATES | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 8, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 26.

FOOD PHOSPHATES.

THIS is a question which interests many, for phosphates are used more largely as a medicine than anything else, unless it is whisky, because the idea prevails that they are good to build up nerves. Chemical phosphates can be absorbed only in very small quantities—only one grain in twenty-four hours. Out of a dose of twenty grains, only one grain would be of service. An extra spoonful of grits, or of graham mush, or an additional whole-wheat wafer, will do more good as to supplying needed phosphates than to take them in the form of medicine. There is no such thing as a specifically medicinal food. Food that is nourishing has its due proportion of phosphates. The trouble usually is in their assimilation; they require a specific action of the digestive fluids. If they cannot be absorbed into the system and used, they will be carried off as waste matter. What is wanted, then, is not more phosphates, but more ability to digest phosphates. The stomach may lack physical exercise. The Bible says that he that will not work shall not eat; and nature says the same thing; he that will not work, shall not digest. So the remedy often lies in taking an extra dose of exercise. Yet certain foods contain a larger amount of phosphates than others, such as all the whole grain preparations—wheat, barley, grits, and graham. Peas and beans, and all the legumes, contain more than the grains, because they contain more of the nitrogenous elements. Milk contains phosphates in large quantities.—Good Health.