The cooking of animal food (3): Stewing

Stewing. 

Stewing is by far the most economical cooking process, because by this method there is absolutely no waste. Unfortunately it is a process that is but little practised in England. Any kind of meat may be used. the meat should be cut up into slices, seasoned, placed in the stew-pan, and just covered with cold water or stock. It should never boil during any part of the process. Vegetables or four are often mised with the water to make it thicker and richer. By cooking in this way the meat is softened and made digestible The best possible results are obtained by using a water-bath for stewing. this simply consists of an inner and an outer vessel. The stew is made in the inner vessel, and the outer vessel is filled with water which is kept boiling. The water in the inner vessel remains just below boiling point all the while. If the stew is boiled, the meat becomes hard, tough, curled up, and indigestible. For hashing, the same methods should be adopted as for stewing, but in this case the meat has been previously cooked, and so extra care should be taken to prevent the liquid boiling.

Comment: Indeed, I've rarely seen anyone stew anything in England. Most recipes seem to be roasts or bakes or fry-ups. The last time i remember I saw something stewed was when I was in Singapore and had chicken rice (Or hainanese chicken rice)... that was so tasty (no wonder it is one of the top 10 dishes to try in Singapore!) and I still remember the chef putting the pieces of chicken in this rice cooker that contained another vessel in which the chicken was going to get stewed (with chicken stock and green vegetables). He left the chicken there for about 5-6 minutes, took it out, chopped it up with his massive knife which cut through the bones seamlessly, dropped the pieces on a plate and added a brown gravy... hmm that was so nice (I ate this practically every day I was there!).

The cooking of animal food (2): Broiling, Baking, Frying

Broiling or grilling, is roasting on a small scale on top of the fire. The scorching is greater than in roasting owing to the greater surface exposed to the heat. The chop or steak should be placed on a clean hot gridiron over a clear fire and turned every two minutes. The surface must not be pierced by any fork or skewer during the cooking.

Baking. In a well-ventialted oven the process of baking corresponds exactly to roadsting, but meat baked in the old-fashioned non-ventilated oven has a flavour quite different from that of roasted meat. The joint should be placed on a small wire table in the baking dish so as to prevent the meat soaking in the grease. The oven should be very hot at first in order to form the crust of coagulated albumin on the outside of the joint.

Frying is boiling a food in fat. The meat cooked in this way is usually soaked with fat and is very indigestible. This penetration of the fat is prevented somewhat by having the fat very hot to begin with. This method is often used for fish, but boiled fish is much more indigestible.


Comment: I really believed less fat meant the food was going to be more digestible... but now I might get a fryer. Also note the old way of using 'fat' to fry. We are so used to using oil these days that I don't think we would think of using fat to fry anything. It seems to have turned into a luxury to get food fried in fat e.g., when you get your 'goose-fat fried french fries' at your local michelin-star restaurant...

The cooking of animal food (1) : Roasting

There are six methods commonly employed, viz. roasting, broiling, baking, frying, boiling, and stewing.

[I'll do a post on one at a time]

Roasting

The joint should be first exposed to a great heat by placing it close to the fire. The effect of the heat is to form a crust of coagulated albumin on the outside fo the joint. This impermeable crust prevents the escape of the juices from the inside of the meat. In about ten minutes the joint should be drawn about twelve inches from the fire and the cooking completed at that distance.   To prevent it from scorching the joint must be kept constantly in motion, and the surface "basted" with fat. The general rule as to the time required to cook a joint is to allow a quarter of an hour for every pound, and a quarter of an hour over. This should be the minimum.

The roasting coagulates the albumin and myosin, and converts the connective tissue into gelatin, thereby loosening the muscular fibres. There are also the characteristic odorous compounds produced. The loss of weight during roasting varies from one quarter to one third, and is due mainly to loss of water.

Comment: as one can see, the concept of roasting on hight then low heat was well established a long time ago - instead of lowering the temperature, the meat was simply pulled away from the fire... trying to set the temperature to 180 degrees (as you would do with your oven) like this was probably a challenge but surely, that was a better way of fine-tuning the roast to your taste I think. Also note the rule on timing the cooking... that'll help me remember easily!

Unexpected Grandma Remedies!

I'll diverge a bit now and share with you these Grandma remedies from India:

1. To get relief from gas and stomach ache: 1-2 teaspoons of brandy with warm water..
2. To control vomiting: suck a piece of ice or a slice of ginger, or eat half a tea spoon of cumin
3. To control vomiting due to indigestion: drink lime juice frequently

Not tried them myself... but I don't feel I'll really feel better after eating a teaspoon of cumin!!!

What (not) to eat when you are sick

Diet for Invalids

During and after illness the digestive powers are weak and great care should be taken in the judicious selection and preparation of the food. As a rule it is advisable to supply the food frequently and in small quantities. In fevers, liquid foods should be given, the most valuable being milk, beaten-up eggs, soups, and beef tea. Cooling drinks are also necessary, such as lemon water, soda water etc.. For diarrhoea, milk, and well-cooked rice or corn-flour are the best. For constipation, oatmeal porridge, fruits, vegetables and brown bread are useful. In rheumatism, avoid beer and animal foods. In cases of dyspepsia or indigestion, vegetables are not as a rule well taken, and salty and greasy foods should be avoided.

Comment: I've often found that people with indigestion or dyspepsia drink vegetable soups to recover from it.. I would not say it's completely wrong, but it does make sense that the high fibre content of vegetables will make it harder to digest food. The most intriguing food to me is 'beef-tea' - i'd never heard of it.  It's made as follows: beef should be cut up into small pieces and put into a jar. A little salt is added, and cold water in the proportion of one pint to one pound of beef. The jar is covered with a lid and allowed to stand for two hours. It is the surrounded with boiling water by placing it in a pan for one or two hours... The nutritive properties are greatly increased by adding oatmeal or cream.....  I can't imagine how that could taste!!!

Effects of too much Food!

If more food is taken than can be properly digested, the digestive organs are overworked, and
undigested food is passed along the intestines to be got rid of. This material sets up irritation, which gives rise to diarrhoea, and this may be followed by constipation. A certain amount of decomposition of the undigested matter may take place, gaseous products being formed which give rise to a large amount of discomfort. Continued effects of this kind impair the digestive powers, and indigestion, dyspepsia, and other similar troubles are caused.

In some cases gout is a result of overfeeding.

Comment: we are all too familiar with the after-effects of over eating (gas, chest pain, indigestion etc...) ... whether it could lead to gout ( acute inflammatory arthritis - manifested usually with a swollen joint), that's new to me! but there is more... According to this site, over eating in the long and short term, respectively, can cause any of the following: diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, cancer, acne, hair loss due to vitamin deficiency, and other cosmetic problems, nausea, feelings of heaviness and fatigue, headaches, insomnia, moodiness, shortness of breath, chest pains. I'll try to remember that next time I face a large plate of Mauritian biriani....

The (Improper) Feeding of Infants

This is a subject on which the greatest ignorance prevails, and the enormous infantile mortality is undoubtedly due to this fact. The following are some rules which should be strictly observed by every mother or nurse.

An infant should be fed upon human milk until it is eight or nine months old, and during this time it should have no other food whatever. If for some reason or other the mother cannot suckle the child, then the child must be fed from the bottle with cow's milk that has been made as nearly as possible like human milk; but it should be distinctly understood that the child will thrive most on the mother's milk, and that rearing a child by the bottle means that additional risks are run.

Comment: Not that this is my speciality, but the suggestion that nothing but milk will do for up to 9 month-olds will work led me to do some reading on the topic. The NHS, for example, has a whole load of advice+videos to explain how to go about doing this. I've also read that up to four months, a baby should only be fed milk or formula (and nothing else). Beyond 4 months, the baby can start assimilating solid foods.

If fed by the breast, the child should be put to the breast every two hours, from about six in the morning till twelve at night, during the first two months. During the third month, it should be fed every three hours, and from the third to eighth month every four hours. About the ninth month the child may be weaned, and for several years from this age the main food should be cow's milk.

Comment: No wonder such a heavy schedule leads many working mothers to shift to formula-based feeding or to the use of breast pumps!  Respect!

If there is no human milk forthcoming, an artificial human milk is most easily prepared as follows:-- Measure twelve tablespoons of cow's milk, having previously boiled it and allowed it to cool. A convenient measure is the ordinary medicine bottle which contains sixteen tablespoonfuls and is usually graduated at the back. It must be kept scrupulously clean. Add to this one tablespoonful of cream, nine tablespoonfuls of boiled water, six tablespoonfuls of lime water, and two teaspoonfuls of sugar. If the cream cannot be afforded it must be dispensed with.  This mixture shouldb e given for the first month. It must be kept in air-tight bottles. For the second month and up to the fourth, reduce the boild water to five table-spoonfuls and after that age add only the lime water to the milk. For the sake of variety, barley water may be occasionally substituted for lime water. The best form of sugar to use is lactose or milk-sugar, which can be easily obtained. The child will probably consume more than half a pint of the mixture per day for the first few days and then the amount will increase to about two pints per day at three months of age.

Comment: to quote wikipedia: "Whole cow's milk contains too little iron, retinol, vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin D, unsaturated fats or essential fatty acids for human babies." What's more surprising is the recommendation to add lime water! That's calcium hydroxide.... which, according to this site, will clearly irritate the child's digestive system... 

Improper Feeding of Infants
As the salivary glands are not fully developed during the first few months of an infant's life, the food of the infant should not contain starchy matter, as there are no salivary juices to digest this. Milk is the best food for infants. If starchy or other unsuitable food is given to infants, they are liable to attacks of vomiting, convulsions, and diarrhoea -- the latter being a particularly fatal disorder. Rickets, also, may occur in children who are fed too early on starchy foods, especially if at the same time their surroundings are not hygenic.

Comment: now I won't be sharing my biscuits with my baby nieces and nephews!

Condensed milk should never be used where it is possible to obtain fresh milk. It is greatly inferior to fresh milk. If it has to be used, the unsweetened brands are the set. It should also be mixed with sixteen parts of water for children under one month, and then the amount of water gradually decreased until only seven parts are added when the child is eight months old.

Two or three feeding bottles should be kept, and scrupulous cleanliness is absolutely essential. After the child has finished its meal, the bottle and tubes should be thoroughly cleaned with hot water, and a new teat put on frequently. The best kind of bottle is the "lamb feeder," which is easily cleaned and dispenses with the objectionable tubing.

After nine months of age, small amounts of other foods may be given with the milk, such as milk pudding, custard pudding, sop, broth, bread crumbs soaked in gravy, etc... but the stable food for several years should be boiled cow's milk.

Granpa didn't eat mushrooms...

Green Vegetables  contain very little nutritive material, but are valuable chiefly on account of their salts. We include in this group cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuces, vegetable marrows, tomatoes, etc. They give variety and relish to the food, and also act as anti-scorbutics in preventing scurvy -- a disease that used to be common among sailors  and those classes who were unable to obtain fresh vegetables or fruits. Another rather important use of these foods is due to the cellulose they contain. This is a substance resembling starch, but it is indigestible: it is useful, however, in forming a bulk in the intestines, thereby stimulating their movements and preventing constipation. The onion, leek, shallot, etc., possess essential oils which are useful in flavouring food.

The edible fungi, as mushrooms, contain about 91 per cent. of water and a little nitrogen. They are usually very indigestible and are of practically no value as foods.

Comment: while everyone recognises that green veg are useful because of their fibre, it is interesting to note that the higher value here is placed mainly on their salts (vitamin) content, which have later been found to have anti-cancer effects (as for tomatoes) while mushrooms, which seem to be seen as the most useless thing you could eat, are actually very nutritious (see this article for more details). 

Diseases caused by meat

If decomposed or putrid meat is eaten, it usually gives rise to vomiting, diarrhoea, collapse, and sometimes death. In some cases very severe symptoms of poisoning have been set up by eating food in which the decomposition is extremely slight. This is especially the case with sausages, canned meats, and fish. These effects are probably not produced by the slight decomposition, but by poisonous alkaloids which have been formed by certain bacteria, and the most thorough cooking fails to remove entirely the danger from these poisons. Shellfish taken from beds which may have been contaminated with sewage in many cases produced fatal results.

Parasitic diseases are sometimes conveyed by imperfectly cooked meat. There are certain organisms which appear to have more than one stage in their life-history, e.g., some organisms live during one period of their existence in the body of some animal, and the second period in the body of a human being. There is one called the Cysticercus bovid, which is sometimes found in beef (especially in N. W. India); this, if not killed by thorough cooking, gives rise to a kind of tapeworm in human beings.

Another organism of this class, which is more common in England, is the Trhichina spiralis, so called because, when seen under the microscope, it is coiled up in a kind of spiral. This organism is, as a rule, only found in the flesh of the pig. When meat containing these is eaten, the small organisms begin to bore their way through the walls of the alimentary canal, causing severe pain, great prostration, and weakness, and frequently producing death. This disease is called trichiniasis. If the general health of the patient is good, if he has a strong constitution which has not been weakened by alcoholic stimulants, and is able to retain vitality until the trichinae have found their way into the muscular tissue and settled down there, the patient may recover. Trichianiasis is most prevalent where pork is eaten in the form of sausages, ham, etc., either uncooked or very imperfectly cooked. 

Comment: I don't feel like eating anymore....

Fish was, and is still, "Brain Food" while Mutton is better than Lamb!

All these are examples of nitrogenous foods, containing variable quantities of fats and salts, but practically no carbohydrates. As a general rule these foods are more easily digested than those of vegetable origin. 

Beef is more nutritious than mutton or pork, and at the same time it contains a less proportion of fat. The best beef is that which is obtained from a young ox. Veal is far less digestible than beef, and is also less nutritious.

Mutton has a shorter fibre and is usually more easily digested than beef. The mutton from a three-year old sheep is the best. Lamb is more watery and less digestible than mutton.

Pork is often difficult to digest owing to the large quantity of fat that is present. The muscle fibres are hard and are surrounded with fat. It should be more thoroughly  cooked than the other meats, owing to the frequency with which the pig suffers from parasitic worms. Bacon is much more digestible than pork, and is one of the best of these foods containing an excess of fats.

In choosing meat see that the muscle is firm and elastic, with a bright colour, and the fat firm, with a clear yellowish-white appearance. The odour should be faint but pleasant. There must be no smell of decomposition or physic.

Comment: while I always thought that lamb was going to be more digestible (being more tender), and was therefore wrong, from the above, it is somewhat clear that pork should be treated with care. It should be noted that from the above, it seems a high fat content was a good thing - something completely unbelievable nowadays... but made sense at the time when food was not as readily available at every street corner and not as cheap.


Fish must always be eaten fresh, unless they are specially cured. A fresh fish is firm and stiff, the eyes and the scales are bright. The surface should be unbruised and unbroken.

The flesh of fish contains more water and less nitrogen than butcher's meat, but it forms usually an easily digestible and cheap food. The protein constituents are albumin, gelatin and fibrin.It contains a larger percentage of phosphates than meat, and on this account it is popularly regarded as "brain food"; but it is very probable that it possesses no superiority whatever over meat in this respect.



Fish are conveniently divided into the white and the red varieties. The commonest example of the red fish is the salmon, which contains rather a large proportion of of fat, and is not easily digested. The white fish are divided into those which contain fat and those which contain no fat at all. The cod contains no fat, and its fibres are hard and difficult to digest. Of the fish which contain fat, those which contain the least are the most digestible. Thus whiting and sole contain less than one-half per cent. of fat and are very light and digestible; mackerel contain 6 per cent. fat and are less digestible; eels contain 24 per cent. of fat and are very indigestible.

Comment: Now this is fascinating as, it seems at the time, that there was an unexplained health benefit to eating fish. Only a few years after this edition of the book (and much later in the 1990s and till now!), was the usefulness of Omega-3 oils determined in terms of their effect on growth and health. The term 'brain food' may be even more appropriate given the results of latest research on these fatty acids, that they have a dramatic effect on brain activity in children. 

Among the shell-fish, crabs and lobsters are notoriously indigestible; oysters are nutritious and easily digested, but if eaten raw are liable to convey typhoid germs; mussels and cockles are also good, although they occasionally produce poisonous symptoms.

Poultry and Game are rich in proteins and phosphates. They contain very little fat as a rule, and are easily digested unless too highly flavoured. Ducks and geese have more fat than the others, and are less digestible. Hares and rabbits have much the same value as poultry.

Comment:  From the above analysis, it would look as if poultry could be the 'healthiest' thing to eat on the list.  I wish I had read the part on 'highly flavoured' poultry not being easily digestible...... before I ate three portions of Mauritian biriani earlier tonight to celebrate with my muslim friends, the festival of Eid!

Why we should not eat hard-boiled eggs for dinner...

Eggs.

As the chick is developed from the egg it is obvious that the egg must contain everything that is required for the construction of the body; but it is not such a perfect food as milk, because an egg is deficient in salts. A hen's egg consists of 70 per cent of water and 30 per cent solid matter. Of the solids, the white is mainly albumin; the yolk contains fat, albumin and phosphates. Eggs form a very valuable article of diet, being rich in proteins and fat. They should never be over-cooked, because a hard-boiled egg is particularly indigestible. To preserve eggs they should be coated over completely with oil, wax, lard or such like while they are fresh, or they may be immersed in a solution of "water glass." A stale egg is easily detected by testing whether it will float or not in a solution of two ounces of common salt in a pint of water. A fresh egg sinks in this liquid.

Comment: Interesting fact about hard-boiled eggs.. when so many diet programs (like this one) tell you to have more than one of these for dinner! It's also interesting to note that there are other ways you could preserve eggs apart from your standard fridge.... not sure everyone stocks enough lard or wax to preserve a box of 12 eggs though...

Cheese.

Cheese is a food rich in nitrogenous matter. It consists of coagulated casein, with varying quantities of fat and salts. If fat and ripe it is easily digested and forms an excellent food. Those cheeses which are prepared from skim milk -- Dutch cheese for example -- are more indigestible and less nutritious. In the preparation of the cheese, the casein is usually coagulated by means of rennet, which may be obtained from the stomach of the calf.

Butter.

Butter is almost pure fat. It is obtained by churning the cream that has been skimmed from the milk, or the pure milk itself. The liquid left behind is called butter-milk, and still contains enough of the original constituents of the milk to make it a good food, especially if eaten with some starchy substance such as potatoes.

Margarine.

Margarine was originally prepared mainly from beef-fat, flavoured and coloured to resemble butter. It is now commonly made from vegetable oils. It is an excellent food, and usually cheaper than butter.

Comment: I never really liked Dutch cheese, and now i have yet another reason not to like it even more. With respect to Buttermilk, I believe this is what we call 'Chaash' in India...but i'm not sure. 

Diseases connected with Milk.

It is a well-known fact that if milk is allowed to stand for some time it turns sour and coagulates. Sour milk is liable to cause sickness and diarrhoea in children, and under some conditions the parasitic disease of the mouth known as "thrush" has been caused by this.

It is possible that certain diseases from which the cow suffers may be transmitted through the milk; instances of scarlet fever, diphtheria, and foot and mouth disease have been recorded.  Milk containing the germs of tubercule or consumption may give rise to tuberculosis in children.

Comment: Nowadays, most of us take it for granted that the milk we drink is safe for consumption. Back in the old days, people had to boil milk, freshly collected from cows, before consuming it to reduce the possibility of diseases. Indeed, we leave it to a long or short supply chain depending on where we live. Along this chain so many things can go so wrong and we have to thank the standards setting agencies that ensure that our milk is safe. However, should a major disaster happen, it would be good to understand (as I show below) how important it is to transport, store, process milk in very clean and hygienic ways.

Milk, however, more frequently acts as a carrier of infection from other human beings, and owing to the presence of lax system of dairy inspection it is advisable to avoid risk by actually boiling the milk for three to four minutes. In addition to the danger mentioned above of disease being transmitted from the cow through the mil, there is always the possibility of:

1. Accidental contamination from an outside source, such as may happen when scarlet fever or diphtheria occurs at the dairy or farm, or at the house of one of the workpeople.
2. The washing of the milk cans or other vessels with water which has become contaminated in some way (as from sewage percolating into a well), and germs of cholera or typhoid fever thereby entering the milk.
3. Or in some cases milk may be adulterated with such water.

In those epidemics of scarlet fever which have been traced to milk, it is usually found that the milk has been infected through human agency by a previous case of the disease at the farm or dairy.

A milk epidemic is characterised by the suddenness with which it makes its appearance, the sufferers being usually attacked about the same time, and the houses affected being as a rule those which have received milk from the same source. Owing to the ease with which milk transmits diseases, the greatest possible cleanliness should be observed in collecting, storing, and distributing milk. Milk should be thoroughly cooled after being obtained from the cow before being sent out. Special attention should be paid to dairy inspection.

It has also been proved that the milk from cows suffering from tuberculosis can convey that disease to animals and also to human beings.

Comments: At the time this book was written, about 65,000 people died from tuberculosis in England and Wales! The main cause was the transmission of the disease through contaminated milk, hence the emphasis on such a disease in the text above. Only after did Pasteurization come into play. Penicilin had not yet been invented (or commercialised - depending on the edition of the book you read) and hence Scarlet Fever could be a deadly disease (it was not easy to kill bacteria....with no antibiotics).  

Meals.

The method of taking food is of very great importance. All food should be chewed thoroughly and slowly before it is swallowed. The habit of reading and studying during meals should be discouraged in favour of bright conversation, but the reading of light literature during a solitary meal is probably beneficial. Large quantities of fluids should be avoided at meals, as they dilute the gastric juice, and prevent or retard its action on the food. A short rest after meals, before resuming work, undoubtedly aids digestion.

Comment: The bit that I find really interesting here is the recommendation to talk during meals. I recently read this article on the BBC about how it is beneficial to talk at meal times for children! I therefore wonder if these are really new research results or proofs of previously tested/hypothesised principles of good eating habits.

With regard to the times for meals,  the chief points that deserve attention are regularity and the observance of a proper interval between successive meals. Very long intervals are undoubtedly injurious, but the other extreme is harmful and is far more common, especially among women. It is found that an ordinary meal remains in the stomach for about four hours, and is then passed on. This interval should therefore be the minimum one between two successive meals. Three meals are often sufficient, and more than four per day should never be taken. The best times for most people are breakfast at eight o'clock, dinner at one or two o'clock, and tea at five or six o'clock. If supper is taken, tea should be rather a light meal, but if tea is the last meal of the day it should be substantial. With regard to supper, it is difficult to make a hard and fast rule. Some people sleep well after a good supper, while others would be certain to be kept awake by indigestion if they retired to rest soon after a meal. Personal peculiarity has to be respected in these matters. Many people find that supper about 10 o'clock and bed about eleven is a convenient rule to follow.

Comment:   this paragraph sounds so much like the many diet programs you read about. For example, an eating plan like this one from weightwatchers talks about four (or more) possible meals! The principle nowadays is that we should keep fueling our body at regular intervals (more than three times) to keep our metabolic rate up and to avoid it storing fats in order long periods of fast. One key point mentioned, however, in the paragraph is that of personalisation  of diets. One should not take a generically formulated diet plan for granted! Everyone's body is different and therefore should be fed differently. You should really vary the quantities suggested in such plans according to what you 'feel' is right... until technology becomes cheap enough and sophisticated enough for everyone to just scan their finger on a pad or breathe in a tube and get a personalised meal plan tailored to one's physical needs, allergies, illnesses, and weight goals! I believe this is not too far away...
 Also, note the British system of meals i.e., dinner = lunch and tea  = dinner! It's so confusing!

Diets. Examples of Foods

A diet consisting of carbohydrates, water, and salts would support life for a short time only. Practically no advantage would be gained by substituting fats for carbohydrates. On the other hand, a diet of proteins, salts, and water would support life for a much longer period, but even in this case the actual duration of life on such a diet would be short. If we take a protein and a non-nitrogenous principle together in the diet, an enormous advantage is gained, especially if the two are present in the necessary proportions. For the very best forms of diet, the three great classes of foods must all be represented, namely proteins, carbohydrates and fats, and even then a variety in the form of protein chosen is beneficial.

Comment: the idea of a balanced diet is certainly engrained in concepts like 'five-fruits/veg-a-day' or the way meals are prepared for proper exercise programmes (certainly with more protein). However, it's not clear whether young adults and teenagers of this age have been properly taught about the concept of a balanced diet and how this is necessary for a healthy lifestyle.

Obviously, the actual quantity of food that is necessary will vary greatly according to the climate, the age, the sex, and the amount and nature of the work that has to be done. For example, a large amount of all kinds of food, but more especially heat-producing food, is required in cold climates and for laborious occupations. Also, women are said to generally need one-tenth less food than men; but if such is really the case, it is probably only due to the fact that their work is of a much lighter character than men's work. The proper food for children will be discussed at the end of this chapter.

Comment: there is some truth to the fact that the right quantity of food depends on several external/natural factors - and many tend to ignore this nowadays. The lack of medical evidence behind the claim that women should eat less is very clear and, as we know today, is clearly supported by measures of metabolic rates for men and women. What was merely 'probable' is now certain thanks to advances in human physiology research.

It is found that the average individual loses by the lungs, kidneys, skins and bowels about 300 grains of nitrogen and 4800 grains of carbon in twenty-four hours. This loss must be made good by means of the food supplied. If too much nitrogen or too much carbon is supplied we say that the diet is wasteful or unbalanced. The above quantities of carbon and nitrogen are supplied in a diet of the following composition:-

	Ounces	Grains of Nitrogen	Grains of Carbon.
Proteins	4.5	310	1040
Fats	3	0	1040
Carbohydrates	14	0	2720
Salts	1	0	0
Total	22.4	310	4800

Comment: I find this table fascinating - the first time I've seen a balanced broken down into 'grains' of carbon or nitrogen. A grain is about 6.479891 × 10^-5 kilograms. Whether we think in terms of mass of Nitrogen or Carbon when we organise our dinner menu is another question but there is clearly a push to use the scientific method to explain how to balance a diet. Would be great to see Nigella Lawson explain to us the content of her dishes in this way ;-)

If a man attempted to live on meat alone he would have to eat 75 ounces of meat to get 4800 grains of carbon, while 29 ounces would be sufficient to supply 300 grains of nitrogen. This is an example of an unbalanced diet. Similarly if we had to live on bread alone we would require 54 ounces to supply the necessary  nitrogen, but only 40 ounces would supply the 4800 grains of carbon. There would obviously be a great waste in a diet of this kind, but by having mixed foods it is possible to have an economical diet, without any waste at all. For instance, 11 ounces of meat and 34 ounces of bread would supply the required carbon and nitrogen without any excess or deficiency.

Comment: According to this, 300 grams of meat (11 ounces roughly) would be enough for us on a daily basis.... compare this with what you get in an original recipe meal at KFC. Surely, eating a steak is well over the above requirements. I'm sure there are new studies that have been done to determine precisely how much we really need to eat of each food type. One thing is for sure: you can't just copy another person's diet. Everyone has different lifestyles and metabolic rates. Therefore, diet programmes cannot be right unless you get supervised by a proper dietician or doctor. The next post will be on meals  (a short one!).

Intro to "A First Course in Hygiene"

This blog will be about excerpts from the book by Robert Lyster  M.D. in 1923 on "A first course in hygiene" which was previously entitled "First Stage in Hygiene". I found this book in our atic at home in Mauritius among a number of books my dad had collected as a small treasure of knowledge. I think this book has gone past copyright and therefore available to copy freely (as evidenced by a copy on archive.org).

I'll be commenting but mainly replicating some parts of the book I find  the most interesting. I believe medicine has advanced quite significantly since 1923 but many of the ideas proposed in the book remind us of the basics of hygiene, which, I think, have been forgotten in recent years as we become auto-piloted by informercials, adverts for health products, kitchen detergents, and miracle diets etc... that are driven by profit maximisation rather than well-being improvement for one and all...

Lyster wrote this book at a time when there was a growing belief that hygiene and public health were  to be taken seriously if we were to eradicate diseases and prosper as a modern society (UK in this case).  The articles vary widely from discussions on foods to discussions on water supply and impurities in water. I will not be following the same logical sequence Lyster used in the book. Rather, I'll offer the excerpts that I think are most relevant and useful and ignore the basics that are now taught at secondary school level.

 Let's see how far we get and whether we think these articles are sorely outdated or really still make a lot of sense!