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PROPER COMBINATIONS OF FOODS.

While it is important that our food
should contain some of all the various food elements, experiments upon
both animals and human beings show it is necessary that these elements,
especially the nitrogenous and carbonaceous, be used in certain definite
proportions, as the system is only able to appropriate a certain amount
of each; and all excess, especially of nitrogenous elements, is not only
useless, but even injurious, since to rid the system of the surplus
imposes an additional task upon the digestive and excretory organs. The
relative proportion of these elements necessary to constitute a food
which perfectly meets the requirements of the system, is six of
carbonaceous to one of nitrogenous. Scientists have devoted much careful
study and experimentation to the determination of the quantities of each
of the food elements required for the daily nourishment of individuals
under the varying conditions of life, and it has come to be commonly
accepted that of the nitrogenous material which should constitute one
sixth of the nutrients taken, about three ounces is all that can be
made use of in twenty-four hours, by a healthy adult of average weight,
doing a moderate amount of work. Many articles of food are, however,
deficient in one or the other of these elements, and need to be
supplemented by other articles containing the deficient element in
superabundance, since to employ a dietary in which any one of the
nutritive elements is lacking, although in bulk it may be all the
digestive organs can manage, is really starvation, and will in time
occasion serious results.

It is thus apparent that much care should be exercised in the selection
and combination of food materials. The table on page 484, showing the
nutritive values of various foods, should be carefully studied. Such
knowledge is of first importance in the education of cooks and
housekeepers, since to them falls the selection of the food for the
daily needs of the household; and they should not only understand what
foods are best suited to supply these needs, but how to combine them in
accordance with physiological laws.