This section is from the book "The Arizona Cook Book", by Williams Public Library Association. Also available from Amazon: Arizona Cook Book.
The percentage of individuals who give thought to their physical and mental requirements in diet, is small indeed. • Although the human system can be sustained through long periods of physical, and mental labor, upon a few articles of food; in order to thoroughly satisfy the needs "of the body, the diet must be varied.
Occupation should govern to a great extent, the kind and quantity of food taken, as well as the time of consumption.
Diet should vary somewhat with climatic, or season changes.
Individuals of sedentary occupation should confine their diet largely to the vegetable kingdom, namely: Cereals, Legumes. Roots and Tubers. Green Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts, Fungi and Litchens. Under the different heads we have the following:
Barley, buckwheat, corn, rye, oats, rice and wheat.
Peas, beans, peanuts.
Irish Potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, artichokes, beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips and radishes.
Cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, lettuce, sorrel, celery, tomatoes, egg plant, cucumbers, asparagus, rhubarb, pumpkins, squash, onions and garlic.
A great variety.
Mushrooms, truffle, morel, Iceland moss.
Animal food should also be included in the daily diet, sparingly during the warm summer months, and increased slightly during the cold winter months.
Physical laborers require a liberal diet of animal food, and should also partake freely of vegetable products.
All food taken should be thoroughly masticated to insure saturation with saliva, as otherwise, perfect digestion is an impossibility.
Animal food digests more rapidly than vegetable food, and where necessary may be taken at intervals of two or three hours, in small quantity.
Vegetable food requires five or six hours for thorough digestion, and should not be taken at shorter intervals.
The temperature of food is of considerable importance The ideal temperature is that of the body 98 degrees Fahrenheit, the limits of safety being 45 degrees and 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
A short period of rest after meals is conducive to good digestion.
P. A. Melick M. D.
 
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