Quantity Of Food

The proper quantity of food to be taken at a meal is best regulated by a person's own feelings. If we find that we dined too freely to-day, to-morrow we should reduce the quantity one-third; and if that is not sufficient, a further reduction of a third should be made - and so on until a proper standard is arrived at. To satisfy the appetite it is not necessary to eat to repletion, but at the conclusion of the meal a person should always feel as though he could eat more.

Intervals Between Meals

As a general rule, an interval of five or six hours should elapse between each meal, but this of course varies according to circumstances. Persons engaged in business frequently do themselves much mischief by disregarding these monitions amidst the bustle and excitement of business. It is no unusual thing for a merchant to breakfast at eight o'clock in the morning, ride several miles, and return to dine at six or seven o'clock in the evening, without having eaten any thing all day. This is very injurious, and although it may not be immediately felt, it lays the train for subsequent dyspepsia and all its attendant horrors.

Comparative Nutritive Properties Of Food

Every hundred weight of bread contains eighty pounds of nutritious matter; butcher's meat, averaging the various sorts, thirty-five; French beans (in the grain), ninety-two; broad beans, eighty-nine; peas, ninety-three; greens, eight; turnips, eight; carrots, fourteen; and potatoes, twenty-five. One pound of good bread is equal to nearly three pounds of potatoes; and seventy-five pounds of bread and thirty pounds of meat, are equal to three hundred pounds of potatoes. Or, to go more into detail, three quarters of a pound of bread, and five ounces of meat, are equal to three pounds of potatoes; one pound of potatoes is equal to four pounds of cabbage and three of turnips; but one pound of rice, broad beans, or French beans, is equal to three pounds of potatoes.

Consumption Of Agricultural Produce

A human being (English) is supposed to consume annually the produce of rather more than three and one eighth acres of land - half an acre of bread; one eighth for beer, cider, etc.; one fiftieth for vegetables; two and a half for animal food.