ttle Creek, April 20, 1892._

Foods

The purposes of food are to promote growth, to supply force and heat,
and to furnish material to repair the waste which is constantly taking
place in the body. Every breath, every thought, every motion, wears out
some portion of the delicate and wonderful house in which we live.
Various vital processes remove these worn and useless particles; and to
keep the body in health, their loss must be made good by constantly
renewed supplies of material properly adapted to replenish the worn and
impaired tissues. This renovating material must be supplied through the
medium of food and drink, and the best food is that by which the desired
end may be most readily and perfectly attained. The great diversity in
character of the several tissues of the body, makes it necessary that
food should contain a variety of elements, in order that each part may
be properly nourished and replenished.

THE FOOD ELEMENTS.--The various elements found in food are the
following: Starch, sugar, fats, albumen, mineral substances,
indigestible substances.

The digestible food elements are often grouped, according to their
chemical composition, into three classes; _vis._, carbonaceous,
nitrogenous, and inorganic. The carbonaceous class includes starch,
sugar, and fats; the nitrogenous, all albuminous elements; and the
inorganic comprises the mineral elements.

_Starch_ is only found in vegetable foods; all grains, most vegetables,
and some fruits, contain starch in abundance. Several kinds of _sugar_
are made in nature's laboratory; _cane_, _grape_, _fruit_, and _milk_
sugar. The first is obtained from the sugar-cane, the sap of maple
trees, and from the beet root. Grape and fruit sugars are found in most
fruits and in honey. Milk sugar is one of the constituents of milk.
Glucose, an artificial sugar resembling grape sugar, is now largely
manufactured by subjecting the starch of corn or potatoes to a chemical
process; but it lacks the sweetness of natural sugars, and is by no
means a proper substitute for them. _Albumen_ is found in its purest,
uncombined state in the white of an egg, which is almost wholly composed
of albumen. It exists, combined with other food elements, in many other
foods, both animal and vegetable. It is found abundant in oatmeal, and
to some extent in the other grains, and in the juices of vegetables. All
natural foods contain elements which in many respects resemble
_albumen_, and a