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Updated: June 3, 2025
It is possible to combine the fat and protein of animal foods so as to meet the requirements of the body with such materials only, and this is done in the Arctic regions, where vegetable food is lacking; but in general it is considered that diet is better and more wholesome when, in addition to animal foods, such as meat, which is rich in proteins and fats, it contains vegetable foods, which are richest in sugar, starch, and other carbohydrates.
Proteins and carbohydrates are more quickly digested than fats, but, in equal amounts, have less than half as much food value. Water and mineral salts do not yield heat, but are required to build tissue and to keep the body in a healthy condition.
If we take white bread as the foundation, we must add to it something containing lime, such as milk or cheese; something containing iron, such as spinach, egg yolk, meat, or other iron-rich food; something containing vitamines, such as greens or other vitamine-rich food; something to reënforce the proteins, as milk, eggs, meat, or nuts.
Thus you should see that by combining a limited number of amino acids there can be a virtually infinite number of proteins. But proteins are rarely water soluble. As I said a few paragraphs back, digestion consists of rendering insoluble foods into water-soluble substances so they can pass into the blood stream and be used by the body's chemistry.
Our starches, for instance, which furnish most of our fuel, though they give us comparatively little to build up, or repair, the body with, are found, as we have seen, in the vegetable kingdom, in grains and fruits; while most of our proteins and fats, which chiefly give us the materials with which to build up, or repair, the body, are found in the animal kingdom.
It also turns both sugars and proteins in the portal blood into fat, part of which it pours into the blood, and part of which it stores away also in its own cells.
The union of oxygen with fats, carbohydrates and proteins in the body results in slow combustion, which produces heat and energy. Our chief supply of oxygen comes directly from the air, but this is supplemented by the intake in food and water. Carbon is the chief producer of energy within the body, being the principal constituent of starches, sugars and fats.
Caffeine and theobromine, the narcotic principles of coffee and tea, are xanthines; and so is the nicotine contained in tobacco. Peas, beans, lentils, mushrooms and peanuts, besides being very rich in uric acid-producing proteins, carry also large percentages of xanthines, which are chemically almost identical with uric acid and have a similar effect upon the organism and its functions.
It has been recommended at times to limit a patient's diet for a week or so to a small amount of milk, not more than a quart in twenty-four hours. If such a patient is in bed and does not require carbohydrates, sugars or stronger proteins or more fat, such a restricted diet may aid in establishing circulatory equilibrium, although he will lose in nutrition.
The substances thus required, if the wants of the body are to be satisfied correctly, are called the food-stuffs; and they are the same during pregnancy as at other times. The foodstuffs are usually classified according to their chemical properties; on this basis they are placed in five groups: Water, Mineral Materials, Proteins, Carbohydrates, Fats.
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