Great variety leads to overeating.
A healthy human body is composed of the following compounds, in about
the proportions given:
Water, 60 to 65 per cent.
Mineral matter, 5 to 6 per cent.
Protein, 18 to 20 per cent.
Carbohydrates, 1 per cent.
Fat, 10 per cent. This is perhaps excessive.
These substances are very complex and well distributed throughout the
body. They are composed of about sixteen or seventeen elements, but a
pure element is very rarely found in the body, unless it be a foreign
substance, such as mercury or lead. About 70 per cent of the body is
oxygen, which is also the most abundant element of the earth. Then in
order of their weight come carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium,
phosphorus, sulphur, sodium, chlorine, fluorine, potassium, iron,
magnesium and silicon.
Because it will be helpful in giving a better idea of the necessity for
proper feeding, I shall devote a few words to each of these elements.
_Oxygen_ is a colorless, tasteless, odorless gas, forming a large part
of the atmospheric air, of water, of the earth's crust and of our foods.
It is absolutely essential to life, for without oxygen there can be no
combustion in the animal tissues, and without combustion there can be no
life.
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