Body needs

Body needs

When planning meals and menus there are four main things to remember:

1. Every element the body needs must be included.
2. Incompatible foods should not be eaten together at the same meal
3. As many foods as possible should be eaten in their natural (raw) state
4. Worries and unpleasantnesses should not be carried to the table, because they decrease and inhibit the flow of digestive juices, and then the food, however excellent, and however deliciously prepared and cooked, stays partly undigested, its valuable nutrients are not absorbed and never reach the blood, and it simply passes through the body and is excreted.

Every day the body needs :
Protein
Natural carbohydrates
Fats (animal and vegetable)
Minerals, vitamins, and ‘trace elements’
11/2-2 pints water (amounts vary according to the weather and one’s work).

Protein
Opinions vary as to the relative value of animal and vegetable protein. Let us not consider flesh foods as either necessary or healthful. On the contrary, consider them harmful. Our daily protein intake should be derived from nuts, seeds, pulses, whole-grains and brewer’s yeast. About 25 per cent of our daily food total should be protein.

Natural Carbohydrates
Under this heading can be included all fruits and vegetables, although usually only starch and sugar foods are spoken of as carbohydrates. If fruits and vegetables are included under this heading, then 50 per cent of our daily food should be carbohydrate

Fats
Butter, cream, dripping, and lard are animal fat. Milk is high in animal fat. Nut-butter, corn-oil margarine, soy-bean oil, wheatgerm oil, sunflower seed oil, olive oil, linseed oil, and almond oil are all vegetable fats. In cold weather one quarter of our total daily food-intake should be vegetable fats. We should avoid animal fat. In warm weather we need rather less.

Minerals and Vitamins
Some of the minerals an vitamins required by the body are provided by the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates we eat.

For example, butter, eggs, and milk contain vitamin A and several minerals; wholewheat flour, wheatgerm, yeast, liver, and kidney, contain vitamin B; nuts, seeds and soy beans contain vitamin E; fish-liver oils contain vitamins A and D. However, most vitamins and minerals are provided by fresh fruits and vegetables, and the richest source of all-important ‘trace elements’ is kelp (dried seaweed).

Vegetables supply more alkaline minerals than do fruits; they are therefore better alkalinizers of the blood than fruits – especially citrus fruits, which contain a certain amount of free acid in addition to alkalis. Vegetables contain no acids. Another point in their favor is the fact that they contain more potassium, magnesium, and iron that fruits.

Of course, unless your fruits and vegetables are grown on rich organic soil, are ripe when picked, used as soon as picked, and eaten either raw or prepared without great loss of vitamins through improper cooking – you are probably not getting all the vitamins and minerals you need to keep you in good health.

It is a good idea, therefore, to grow all your own vegetables and fruits, as far as possible, so that you always eat fresh picked garden produce, not stuff that is picked hours – sometimes days – before you get it. Fruit and vegetables quickly lose their vitamins after they are picked, so they should be eaten as soon as picked.