Varied Diet

Food:
The human body is a much more varied and complex machine than any ever devised by man; personal peculiarities, as well as fuel values, influence very largely the diet of an individual. Strawberries are excluded from some diets because of a rash which is produced on the skin, pork is excluded from other diets for a like reason; cauliflower is absolutely indigestible to some and is readily digested by others. From practically every diet some foods must be excluded, no matter what the fuel value of the substance may be.

Then, too, there are more uses for food than the production of heat. Teeth and bones and nails need a constant supply of mineral matter, and mineral matter is frequently found in greatest abundance in foods of low fuel value, such as lettuce, watercress, etc., though practically all foods yield at least a small mineral constituent. When fuel values alone are considered, fruits have a low value, but because of the flavor they impart to other foods, and because of the healthful influence they exercise in digestion, they cannot be excluded from the diet.

Care should be constantly exercised to provide substantial foods of high fuel value. But the nutritive foods should be wisely supplemented by such foods as fruits, whose real value is one of indirect rather then direct service.