35 



CARBOHYDRATES THINGS THAT WARM UP. 



Besides building" up food is required for another purpose 

 to warm up. The temperature of the human body is 98 de- 

 grees ; that of the hen's body, 103 degrees. To maintain the 

 temperature of the body food must be burned in the stomach 

 just as coal is burned in the furnace. You have noticed on a 

 cold day in winter how difficult it is to keep up the tempera- 

 ture of a room up to 70, and how much fuel is required to do 

 it. And yet the temperature of the body must be kept 28 de- 

 grees above this, or the result will be a chill, from which we 

 may never recover. 



There are certain elements in the food that go directly to 

 the production of heat, and these are called carbohydrates. 

 They include sugar, starch and gums (sometimes called "ni- 

 trogen-free extract"), and the cellulose or fibre (the coarse or 

 woody part of a plant) which, however, is indigestible. The 

 cereals are especially rich in carbohydrates. We sometimes 

 read that the farmers in Kansas and Nebraska, in years when 

 the corn crop is excessive, use corn for fuel; and -that is pre- 

 cisely what we do when we feed corn to our hens in the win- 

 ter. The corn is the fuel which the hen burns to maintain the 

 temperature of her body at 103. Such being the case, the im- 

 portance of a warm, snugly-built house to keep down fuel bills 

 becomes at once apparent. 



In a well conducted manufacturing establishment the fuel 

 that is burned serves a double purpose; it not only generates 

 the steam that warms the building, but it also generates the 

 steam that drives the machinery. Perfectly analogous to this 

 is the service rendered by the food elements that we denomi- 

 nate carbohydrates. They not only keep the body at a proper 

 temperature, but they also furnish the energy by which the 

 work is done. 



FATS THINGS THAT ARE STORED UP. 



The careful and prudent head of a household is not content 

 to "live from hand to mouth," as the saying is. He does not 

 buy his coal from day to day, his flour a few pounds at a 

 time, and his vegetables as he needs them to use. On the con- 

 trary he has a well-stocked cellar, in which are enough sup- 

 plies to last for some time. The thrifty wage-earner does not 

 spend quite all he earns, but saves a certain amount each week, 

 which he deposits in a savings bank or invests in life insur- 

 ance. Nature, our thrifty mother, is not content that her chil- 



