All during World War II, the importance nutrition was recognized as a major factor the war effort, not only in this nation, but all over the world: Food determines military strategy in several ways. Not only will the best-fed army win the most battles, other factors being equal, but it will hold out longer in adversity. In the defense program in the United States food was given consideration along with other defense necessities, and was recognized as among the most important of them.
If men in governmental responsibilities recognize the importance of diet in winning the war, how much more should we, who are now nearing the end of the work of the remnant church of Christ in this world, subscribe to a program of healthful living. These times demand that every member of the remnant church be prepared and alert.
The body is composed of certain elements which are supplied in the food eaten. All the body tissues, organs, glands, and fluids are made from the food material taken into the body. The quality of food we eat determines the quality of the building material entering the body. Whatever is lacking in the diet in essential body-building material will be wanting in the body, for it has no means of making up what is not supplied by food. Thus, if we want a strong body we must put into it a sufficient amount of good-quality material.
An engineer building a bridge is well aware of this fact. The ability of the bridge to withstand pressure is dependent upon the quality of material used. Likewise, if our bodies are to withstand the pressure they will have to bear in the last days, if they are to resist disease, they must be sturdily built.
Dr. Sherman, of Columbia University, has done a great deal of experimental work in the field of nutrition. He has families of rats which are thriving in the thirty-fifth generation on a uniform diet, which certainly would indicate that their diet was adequate. And yet he found that on enriching this already adequate diet in certain of its chemical factors, by increasing the proportion of milk, there was an improvement in the general well-being of these animals. The young grew . more rapidly, there was a lower death rate among the group, and a higher vitality in all ages, an increase of ten per cent in the life span, and an extension of the prime of life. This experiment, as well as the work of many others, would indicate that a good diet, other factors being equal, results in good, vigorous health.
There are some nineteen or twenty chemical substances which are combined to make up the body tissues. For normal body development, these elements must be present in the food in proper amounts and proportions. They are not taken into the body as elements, but are first built up into seven elemental food classes. These seven food classes are carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, minerals, cellulose, and water. These foods serve four general functions:
1. They furnish material from which the body tructure is built, and by which it is repaired.
2. They furnish material for the production of heat and energy.
3. They govern body processes.
4. They stimulate peristaltic activity of the alimentary tract.
Daily Requirements of Balanced Diet
In order to have a balanced dietary which will furnish all of the seven elements necessary, one should include the following foods daily in his diet:
1. Milk—one quart for each child; one pint for each adult. If men in governmental responsibilities recognize the importance of diet in winning the war, how much more should we, who are now nearing the end of the work of the remnant church of
2. Fruit—three or four servings—one should be citrus or tomato.
3. Vegetables—three servings besides potato. One should be green leafy or yellow ; use raw vegetables often.
4. Cereals—three slices of whole-grain bread. Whole grain cereal for breakfast.
5. One serving cottage cheese, dried legumes, or nuts.
6. Egg—one at least three to four times a week.
7. Four to eight glasses water.
8. Butter or fortified margarine, one to two tablespoons.
Whole grains should be used instead of the milled and refined grain products, as it is the outer layer which contains the largest percentage of minerals and vitamins. In an article in the American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, Dr. Agnes Fay Morgan gives the following figures : Six sevenths of the vitamins of grains is removed in the milling. Whole-wheat flour contains nineteen times as much vitamin B, as white flour. One third of the calcium, two thirds of the phosphorus, three fifths of the iron, and two thirds of vitamin B, are lost in the milling process.
It is not only important to choose the right kind of foods necessary for health, but they must also be cooked so as to retain their health-giving qualities, and stored properly in the home until they are ready to be used. In cooking vegetables, use the smallest amount of water that will cook the food without its sticking to the bottom of the pan. By avoiding excessive amounts of cooking liquid, you can hold to a minimum the loss of water-soluble vitamins and minerals. Vegetables should be placed in boiling water and cooked quickly until they are tender but not overcooked. This protects the vitamins by keeping to a minimum the time they are exposed to water, heat, and air. After the food comes to a boil, reduce the heat to the lowest temperature required to maintain boiling. Avoid violent boiling, to keep vegetables whole.
It is vitally important to store foods properly if we are to get the full benefit of the precious vitamins they contain. Vitamins are very unstable. Some in particular rapidly disappear if they are not treated just right.
For instance, some fresh vegetables lose from To to 47 per cent of their vitamin C if kept at room temperature for only forty-eight hours. In spinach, beans, and green peas, 30 to 50 per cent of vitamin C vanishes in two days (all, in a week) when kept at room temperature. But when the vegetables are properly refrigerated this fragile vitamin keeps very well. The only safe thing to do is to get vegetables into the refrigerator as quickly as possible. Wash them first, then put them in the hydrator or humidrawer (covered vegetable pan), or into a vegetable bag.
Before the food elements can be used by the body, they must be absorbed from the alimentary tract. Minerals, vitamins, and the simple sugars may be absorbed in the form in which they are present in the food. Others, including protein, fat, and the more complex sugars and starches, must be broken down into simpler forms before they can pass through the intestinal wall.
This process of breaking down and absorption is known as digestion. There are a number of factors which influence digestion: (1) The nature of the food, (2) amount of roughage, or fiber, present, (3) combinations, (4) the emotional state. Eating while worried or in too great haste, or when unduly excited or in a state of anger, retards digestion. So it is important to know not only what but also how and when to eat.
"We must all remember," says Dr. Thomas Parran, Surgeon General of United States Public Health Service, "that no one becomes well nourished by accident. Every citizen should have a down-to-earth working knowledge of modern nutrition. Each of us must learn how to choose every day the foods necessary for a balanced diet. We must eat to live, not live to eat."
