A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

A woman, therefore, should provide dishes for her family, which are free from these stimulating condiments, and as much as possible prevent their use. It is also found, by experience, that animal food is more stimulating than vegetable. This is the reason why, in cases of fevers, or inflammations, medical men forbid the use of meat and butter. Animal food supplies chyle much more abundantly than vegetable food does; and this chyle is more stimulating in its nature. Of course, a person who lives chiefly on animal food, is under a higher degree of stimulus than if his food was chiefly composed of vegetable substances. His blood will flow faster, and all the functions of his body will be quickened. This makes it important to secure a proper proportion of animal and vegetable diet. Some medical men suppose, that an exclusively vegetable diet is proved, by the experience of many individuals, to be fully sufficient to nourish the body; and bring, as evidence, the fact, that some of the strongest and most robust men in the world, are those, who are trained, from infancy, exclusively on vegetable food. From this, they infer, that life will be shortened, just in proportion as the diet is changed to more stimulating articles; and that, all other things being equal, children will have a better chance of health and long life, if they are brought up solely on vegetable food. But, though this is not the common opinion of medical men, they all agree, that, in America, far too large a portion of the diet consists of animal food. As a nation, the Americans are proverbial for the gross and luxurious diet with which they load their tables; and there can be no doubt that the general health of the Nation would be increased, by a change in our customs in this respect. To take meat but once a day, and this in small quantities, compared with the common practice, is a rule, the observance of which would probably greatly reduce the amount of fevers, eruptions, headaches, bilious attacks, and the many other ailments