“This is For Your Health.”
By G.
A FEW weeks since we gave a valuable table from Dr. Coles, author of the “Philosophy of Health,” on the comparative nutrient value of animal and vegetable foods. Herewith we present another table with remarks from the same clear-minded writer. Those who are interested in the Health Question will appreciate such reading. Let the documents be circulated. “The following table, containing a few leading articles, shows the proportion, to each one hundred parts, of Azote, the flesh-forming principle, of Carbon, the heat-forming principle, and of Alkali for the formation of bone, contained in each article: | 100 PARTS. |
AZOTE. |
CARBON. |
ALKALI. |
|---|
| Wheat, about |
21 |
62 |
2 |
| Barley |
14 |
68 |
3 |
| Oats, |
11 |
68 |
3 |
| Beans, |
31 |
52 |
3 |
| Peas, |
29 |
52 |
3 |
| Potatoes, |
2 |
22 |
1 |
| Beef, Veal, Mutton, |
25 |
|
|
“The lean meats contain no considerable amount of carbon or alkali; they abound only in azote, the basis of fibrine. The fat of meats abounds in carbon. The breadstuffs and some other vegetables, abound in both principles, and contain them much more largely than the meats. “The objection to quadruped animal flesh consists mainly in its stimulating properties; which tend to inflame the blood, oppress mental activity, and enhance the grosser animal passions. This stimulus depends, probably, on the electricity which abides in the flesh after its vitality becomes extinct. It is electricity which keeps the constituent elements of the flesh in union; as electricity departs, these elements gradually lose their attraction for each other, and entire dissolution is the final result. “In taking the meats, we take into the system the electric properties of dead animal flesh. These electric properties are not pure, like those of pure atmosphere; but consist of electricity recently the agent of their animal nature and developments, which still retains its stimulating agencies; which, being received into the system, becomes incorporated with, and a part of our own nature. How much better, then, that we content ourselves with that bread which from the beginning has been correctly denominated the ‘Staff of Life.’”