33 



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 degrees; 

 that of the hen's body, 103 degrees. To maintain the tempera- 

 ture of the body food must be burned in the stomach just as coal 

 is burned in the furnace. You have all noticed on a cold day in 

 winter how difficult it is to keep the temperature of a room up to 

 70, and how much fuel is required to do it. And yet the temper- 

 ature of the body must be kept 28 degrees 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 "nitrogen-free 

 extract"), and the cellulose or fibre (the coarse or woody part 

 of a plant) which, however, is indigestible. The cereals are espe- 

 cially rich in carbohydrates. We sometimes read that the farm- 

 ers in Kansas and Nebraska, in years when the corn crop is exces- 

 sive, use corn for fuel ; and that is precisely what we do when we 

 feed corn to our hens in the winter. The corn is the fuel which 

 the hen burns to maintain the temperature of her body at 103. 

 Such being the case, the importance 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 denominate 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 contrary he has a 

 well-stocked cellar, in which are enough supplies 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 sav- 

 ings bank or invests in life insurance. Nature, our thrifty mother, 

 is not content that her children shall live from day by day; 

 so she lays by a reserve from which they can draw in time of need. 



