Breakfast
Approximate
Calories
Orange or grapefruit.................... 100
Two eggs................................ 166
Two Vienna rolls........................ 258
Butter.................................. 119
Coffee with milk and sugar.............. 100
Total................................... 743
Luncheon Approximate
Calories
Twelve soda crackers.................... 300
One pint milk........................... 325
—–
Total................................... 625
Dinner
Approximate
Calories
Soup (consomme)......................... 14
Roast beef.............................. 357
Potato.................................. 145
String beans or peas.................... 13
Bread................................... 100
Butter.................................. 119
Apple pie............................... 352
Glass of milk........................... 157
——
Total.................................. 1257
Many people have adopted a so-called vegetarian diet,
believing that it is better for the health than eating
meat. Undoubtedly food from the vegetable kingdom
is a great benefit to the human system, but strict
vegetarianism is not recommended by our medical men.
Nature apparently intended us to be omnivorous, and,
in addition, vegetarianism may run too close to the
dangers of carbohydrate excess. As man progresses
after middle life he can unquestionably diminish materially
the amount of meat in his diet.
In recent years there has been a revival of the theory
of prolonged mastication of a limited amount of food.
This theory is sound in so far as it tends to overcome
the bolting of food and over-eating, but there is
a belief among our practitioners that there is little
basis in science or experience for the extremes of
this character.
Among recent fads is the so-called buttermilk or sour
milk diet as advocated by Metchnikoff. The original
theory was interesting and was, in part, that the
bacteria derived from soured milk would drive out of
the intestinal canal all the harmful germs. Quite
possibly there may be something in the theory, especially
if large quantities of milk are taken with the lactic
acid bacilli, but the beneficial effect of this change
of bacteria is not convincingly of great consequence.
It is now generally known that an abundant supply
of moving, pure, fresh air is the proper and simple
solution of the problem of the hygiene of the air.
Oxygen is the element of the air which sustains life.
We inhale about seven pounds per day, two pounds of
which are absorbed by the body. The air becomes
dangerous, or infected, when the oxygen in the air
is decreased to only 11 or 12 per cent., and when
the oxygen reaches 7 per cent. death occurs from asphyxiation.
