bodily functions. In this sense even bread is a stimulant. But the more common idea attached to the word stimulant is, that it is a principle which imparts a speed and energy to the organs of the system above the ordinary point secured by perfect and appropriate nourishment. The first class, then, are those articles that serve to nourish and develop perfectly every animal function, but do not increase the strength and speed of organic action above the point of full nourishment. The bread-stuffs, vegetables, fruits, sugar, salt, acid drinks, and water are of this class.
Secondly, those articles, which serve to nourish perfectly all the animal system, and at the same time increase the strength and speed of all functional action. All animal food is of this class. All physiologists and medical men agree in the fact, that the pulse and all the organs of the body, are not only nourished, but are quickened in action by animal food, while speed and force are reduced by confining the diet to farinaceous, vegetable, and fruit diet.
Thirdly, those articles which impart no nourishment at all to the body, but act solely to stimulate all the organs to preternatural action. Alcoholic drinks, condiments, and aromatic oils are of this description.
Fourthly, articles that are neither nourishing nor stimulating, but pass out of the system entirely undigested and unassimilated. The bran of coarse bread is an example.
Fifthly, articles that, either from their nature or modes of combination and cooking, are difficult of digestion, unhealthful, and, of course, tend to weaken the organic powers by excessive or unnatural action. Animal oils, either cooked or rancid, and many articles badly cooked, are of this kind.
NOURISHING AND UNSTIMULATING FOOD.
The following presents a list of the articles which are found to be healthful and nourishing, and not stimulating, except as they supply the nourishment needed by the various bodily functions.
The first and most important of these are called the farinaceous substances. Of these, wheat stands at the head, as the most nutritive, safe, and acceptable diet to all classes and in all circumstances. This can be used in the form of bread, every day, through a whole life, without cloying the appetite, and to an extent which can be said of no other food.
Wheat is prepared in several forms, the principal of which are the common Fine Wheat Flour, the Unbolted, or Graham Flour, and Macaroni, Vermicelli, and Cagliari Pastes. The last are flour paste prepared, or cut into various shapes and dried.
Wheat flour is made into bread of two kinds, the fermented, or spongy breads, and the unfermented, or hard breads.
The spongy breads are made by using either yeast, or the combination of an acid and alkali. In yeast bread, the fermentation of the particles of diffused yeast evolve carbonic acid. This expands the flour in a spongy form, in which it is retained by the tenacity of the gluten of the flour, until baking hardens it. Corn meal and some other bread-stuffs cannot be raised thus, because they do not contain gluten sufficient to hold the carbonic acid as it evolves.
When an alkali and acid are used to raise bread, their combination evolves carbonic acid by a more sudden process than the yeast fermentation. The lightness produced by eggs is owing to their adhesive porosity when beaten and mixed with flour and baked.
Bread is also made of rice, rye, Indian meal, and barley. These varieties of bread-stuffs are useful in various ways. In cases when persons are troubled with looseness of bowels, rice bread, rice gruel, and rice water for drink, prevent the necessity of resorting to medicine. In cases where the opposite difficulty exists, a diet of unbolted wheat, or rye mush with salt and molasses will remedy the evil. These articles also can, all of them, be formed into a great variety of combinations that are at once healthful, and acceptable to the palate.
The next class of healthful and unstimulating articles are the amylaceous, or starchy articles of diet. Of these Sago, Tapioca, Arrow Root, and the Lichens, are those in most frequent use. These are nourishing and remarkably easy of digestion. They are very much used for invalids, and for young children when first weaned.
The next most valuable articles of food are the vegetables. Of these the Potato is at once the most healthful, and most universally relished. In the form of Starch, it makes, when cooked, a light and agreeable article for the sick, and is convenient to housekeepers as forming a fine minute pudding to meet an emergency.
Of the great variety of vegetables that are furnished at market, or from our gardens, almost all are palatable and healthful to a stomach that is strong. Peas, Beans, Onions, and cooked Cabbage and Turnips, usually are not good for persons whose powers of digestion have been weakened.
The next most valuable articles of food are the Fruits. Almost all kinds of fruit, when fully ripe, are healthful to those who are not suffering from weakness of digestion. Grapes, Apples, Peaches, Strawberries, Raspberries, and Currants, are least likely to prove injurious. The skins and seeds of all fruits consist of woody matter, that is perfectly undigestible, and should never be taken in large quantities. It is the skins and seeds of the grape that make raisins so often injurious to young children. If the skins and stones can be removed, nothing can be found that is more safe and healthful, in moderate quantities, than raisins and grapes.
The next articles of healthful unstimulating food are the Saccharine substances, Sugar, Molasses, and Honey. On this point, Dr. Pereira remarks, “The injurious effects which have been ascribed to sugar are more imaginary than real. The fondness of children for saccharine substances may be regarded as a natural instinct; since nature, by placing it in the mother’s milk, evidently intended it to form a part of their nourishment. Instead, therefore, of repressing this appetite for sugar, it ought rather to be gratified in moderation. The popular notion, of its having a tendency to injure the teeth, is totally unfounded. During the sugar season of the West Indies, every negro on the plantations, every animal, and even the dogs, grow fat. And no people on earth have finer teeth than the negroes of Jamaica. It is probable that this erroneous notion has been propagated by frugal housewives, in order to deter children from indulging in an expensive luxury. Sugar is readily digested by a healthy stomach. In dyspeptics, it is apt to give rise to flatulence and acidity of stomach.”
These remarks, without other considerations, may lead to erroneous conclusions. There is no doubt that both children and adults are often injured by the use of sugar, but it is not because it is unhealthful in its nature, but because it is used in excess or in an improper manner. In the “Domestic Economy,” pg. 105, it is shown that highly concentrated food is not favorable to digestion, because it cannot be properly acted on by the muscular contractions of the stomach, and is not so minutely divided as to enable the gastric juice to act properly. Now Sugar, Candy, and the like, are highly concentrated nourishment, and should not be used except when mixed with other food. The reason, then, why children are injured by sugar is, that they eat it too frequently, in too large quantities, and unmixed with other food. A stick or two of pure candy, eaten with crackers or bread, never would injure any healthy child. It is too often the case, that candies are mixed with unhealthful coloring matter, or with nuts and other oily substances, that make them injurious.
The next article of healthful, unstimulating food, is jellies and preserved fruits. As it has been shown that uncooked fruits and sugar are both healthful, it may not seem surprising that jellies and fruits cooked in sugar, when eaten moderately, with bread or crackers, are regarded as among the most nourishing and healthful of all aliments. When they prove injurious, it is owing either to the fact that they are taken alone, or with rich cream, or else are taken in too great quantities. Eaten moderately, as a part of a meal, they are safe and nourishing to all, except persons of poor
