758 Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives. 



The vegetable foods as a whole, are rich in mineral matter and the 

 diet should therefore contain an abundance of vegetable material. 

 It is because of the desirability of adding the elements of this foodstuff 

 to the diet that we may say that better health would result should we 

 make this dietary rule, not necessarily to use less sugar but more fruit 

 and vegetables, more milk and eggs, in place of so much meat; thus we 

 would supply not only protein, fat and carbohydrate, but insure also 

 a plentiful amount of the necessary mineral matter. 



JVater. — One more foodstuff remains to be touched upon which is by 

 no means least in importance. We are not accustomed to regard our- 

 selves as aquatic animals, yet the only part of the body which does not 

 depend upon a surrounding of liquid to keep it alive is the outside skin. 

 All the other cells, except those of this protective membrane, the skin, 

 will perish if they become dry. The body deprived of the foods so far 

 mentioned would starve, but it would not perish so quickly as if deprived 

 altogether of water. The proper functioning of each cell and of the body 

 as a whole is dependent upon w^ater. It furnishes in the blood the liquid 

 which holds foods in solution and carries them to the tissues. In the 

 cell, water holds the body substance in solution. It dissolves out the 

 waste products of the body and carries them to those organs which are 

 concerned in getting rid of them. If the body receives too little water 

 the blood stream becomes sluggish, the cells are not flushed as the}^ 

 should be, the waste products accumulate and as these are poisonous 

 the body suffers with lassitude, weariness, headache, and a number of 

 attendant evils. Many persons of the present time are constantly taking 

 patent medicines for ills that are but too evidently the result of insuf- 

 ficient water in the daily diet. Fruits and vegetables are excellent 

 sources of water as well as the water which we drink. 



Bulk i>i Diet. — The question of keeping the inside of the body clean 

 is a part of the food problem. Nature has given man a very long intestine 

 to allow a large surface for the absorption of the extracted foodstuffs. 

 It is necessary for man's health that the intestine should be kept in good 

 wholesome working order, and in the healthy individual this is accom- 

 plished by the foods eaten. After the nourishing foodstuffs have been 

 extracted through the action of the digestive juices, the waste products 

 together with those brought back by the blood stream from the cells 

 to the intestine should be gotten rid of. Any continued accumulation 

 of waste matter in the intestine may lead to the production of poisonous 

 substances which are reabsorbed into the blood stream and poison the 

 whole body, giving rise to various ailments. The food consumed should 

 furnish some substances which aid in getting rid of the waste material. 



