To secure a proper and complete nutrition of the body it is desirable that all these elements should be so adjusted as to provide for complete nourishment without having any one of them in great excess. It is evident that an excess of any one or more of these nutrient materials must necessarily impose on the organs of the body an additional work in securing their proper elimination. This tends to overburden the excretory organs and to cause a premature breakdown thereof. This giving away of the organs may not come for many years, not, perhaps, until advanced life, but when it comes it necessarily shortens the period of human existence.
The term "balanced ration" means the adjustment of nutrients in the food in such a way as to secure complete and perfect nutrition without loading the body with an excess of any one element. This is also an important point on the score of economy. A large percentage of all the earnings of man is expended for food products, and hence these products should be used in a manner to secure the best results possible. If, by a practice of scientific nutrition, 10 percent of the value of foods could be saved it would create a fund which, could it be utilized, would minister in the highest degree to the comfort and welfare of the human family and form an abundant pension for old age.
SOCIAL FUNCTIONS OF FOOD.
In the above paragraphs attention has been directed particularly to the nutritive and economic properties of food. It must not be considered that mere nutrition is the sole object of foods, especially for man. It is the first object to be conserved in the feeding of domesticated animals, but is only one of the objects to be kept in view in the feeding of man. Man is a social animal and, from the earliest period of his history, food has exercised a most important function in his social life. Hence in the study of food and of its uses a failure to consider this factor would be regrettable. For this reason it is justifiable in the feeding of man to expend upon the mere social features of the meal a sum which often is equal to or greater than that expended for the mere purpose of nutrition. This part of the subject, however, belongs especially to the kitchen and dining room, and, therefore, will not be discussed at greater length at the present time.
It is believed that a more careful study of the food he consumes will benefit man in many ways. It will lead to a wider public interest in the problem of the purity of food and the magnitude of the crime committed against man-*kind in the debasement, adulteration, and sophistication of food articles.
This study will impart to the social function of food an additional charm, in that the origin and character of the material consumed will be known and the properties which they possess for nourishing the body understood. This will enable man, as a social animal, to so conduct himself at table as
