Food as Related to Health.
ALL living beings use food in order to supply the waste constantly occasioned by disintegration; and, generally speaking, the higher the grade of animal life, the finer and better the character of the foods required to sustain that life. As man is the highest of all, he, according to nature, requires the best and purest productions of the earth to supply the waste constantly occurring in his ever-changing body. The question then arises, What is food for man? Understanding the fact that a constant change is taking place, the question naturally suggests the answer. As a matter of course, it would follow that the proper food for man consists in those things which the functions of the body, in a normal state, can transform into the tissues of the same. Here may be discerned the first law of nature, "self-preservation." Our other relations to the external world being in a normal state, what would be the effect discernible to our senses, of any departure from nature in relation to food? A sense of uneasiness among the functions or machinery of the body—if the body may be called a machine—and a return to nature's laws would remove the uneasiness. What then, among the many productions of the earth, can be used as food when taken in proper quantities and homogeneous combinations? My reply would be, The grains, fruits, and vegetables, as these are the best in a normal state to supply the waste tissue. One of the best evidences of the truth of this statement, to my mind, is the fact that they are readily recognized by the senses as something pleasing to them when they approximate anywhere near perfection, and "vice verse." Another fact is, that the non-appropriable portion of them does not counteract the substantial benefit to the system of those portions that are appropriated; but, on the other hand, they aid in preparing and placing that which is required. Therefore, anything containing non-appropriable matter which, when taken into the system, commences, so to speak, a warfare against the vital functions, can safely be counted out as not the best for the human structure; for, to preserve the body in the best possible health, there must be perfect harmony in the working machinery. Food has much to do with health, and should not be looked upon as a secondary item; it is the substance convertible into power to build up the waste places, and to tear down that which is not needed, thus keeping the body in repair.—Sel.