oods which contain nitrogen are chiefly the
following: flesh of all animals, milk, eggs, leguminous fruits (peas,
beans, lentils); those which contain carbohydrates chiefly are bread,
starch, vegetables and especially potatoes, rice, etc.; foods supplying
fat are butter, lard, fat of meat, etc. Salts are furnished in almost
all other substances, but especially in green vegetables and fruits.
Liquid food is obtained by water, too often neglected, and tea, coffee,
beer, cider, etc.

Alcohol has no power to form tissue or to repair waste and cannot be
regarded as a true food. Tea and coffee are almost entirely stimulant,
not nutritious, and should be taken sparingly or not at all.

The common mistakes in diet are over-feeding or taking too much of one
kind of food, and of the latter class perhaps an excess of starchy food
is the most mischievous. If taken in excess, especially by the young,
the starchy foods are not digested and what does not digest must
putrefy: the result is a bowel distended with harmful gases. Many
people eat too much nitrogenous food, with resulting plethora or gout.
A great deal of vigorous exercise in the open air is required to use up
such a diet.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SELECTION AND PREPARATION OF FOOD.

The requirements for normal digestion, assimilation and elimination
are: (1) An intestinal canal clean and sound from mouth to anus; (2)
nutritious food properly prepared; (3) regularity and moderation in
eating; (4) free use of pure water, sufficient to forward the
emulsification and assimilation of the food and the elimination of
waste--whether that waste be of the residual portion of the food or of
detritus of tissue; (5) a seasonably clad body, free from fatigue or
loss of sleep; (6) a cheerful mind.

Every sensible person will grant that a good digestion of vegetable or
animal food furnishes sufficient steam and stimulus for the physical
man; that a good digestion of intellectual food (ideas) furnishes the
corresponding requisites for the mental man; and that exalted
sentiments are the pabulum of the spiritual.

Why over-stimulate the physical, and reflexively degrade the mental and
spiritual, by indulgence in tea, coffee, beer, wine, liquors, opium,
tobacco, etc.? Over-stimulation will bring on indigestion; and
prostration will follow that. Remember that Nature does not carry long
credit accounts.

A suggestion for the selection and preparation of physical foods is
here given;