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SECOND BOOK. 
ate nothing but albumen or gluten or other flesh- 
formers,” said Miss Brooks. 
7. “Fortunately, most of the things we eat contain 
both flesh-formers and heat-givers, though not in 
the exact proportion that our bodies need them. 
This is the reason why we should not thrive if we 
kept entirely to yams or to fish, or to any other 
single article of diet. We arrange that what is 
short in one food shall be made up by another. So 
we take fish or meat with the yam, fat meat or 
butter with beans, milk with rice or tapioca, and 
so on. 
8. “ There are some people who think that we 
need not eat animal food at all, because the vege- 
tables and fruits contain all the food-stuffs that we 
require, many of them having as much flesh-forming 
matter as lean meat has.” 
“That plan suits me, as I do not like meat much,” 
said May. 
9. “ But you must learn that a food does not 
nourish us exactly according to the quantity of flesh- 
forming matter it holds, but according to how much 
of that is digested and made fit to pass into the 
blood. The great value of animal food is that from 
a small quantity of it our bodies get a good supply 
of flesh-forming material. It is true that vegetables 
give us what flesh -formers we need, but they are 
not always easy to digest. 
10 . “ In any case, if we feed entirely on vegetables, 
