Let us compare fish with meats and see the result. The average fish diet is surely not the light diet we unthinkingly are apt to take it to be; nevertheless fish is a safer and lighter diet than red meats and such, even if we take the stronger fish, like cod. Fish diet does not load the blood with as much waste as the heavy meats do, requiring the getting of more oxygen by exercise to eliminate it from the system. Thus, fish diet does not render the overfed man dull, like heavy meats, nor is there any truth in the common belief that fish diet is the best brain food from the excess of phosphorus it contains; nor has it been proved, as suggested, that a more or less exclusive fish diet breeds leprosy and kindred troubles. Look at the analyses:

Fresh-water black bass, 20.4 of proteids and 1.7 of fats. Sea bass, 18.8 of proteids and 5 of fats.

Fresh shad, 9.4 of proteids and 4.8 of fats. Some analyses give to shad a higher proteids average.

Much fat here. Shad roe, 20.9 of proteids and 3.8 of fats. Rock, 18.3 of proteids and 2.8 of fats.

Fresh cod, 15.8 of proteids and .4 of fats. Flounder, 13.9 of proteids and .6 of fats. Halibut, 18.3 of proteids and 5.2 of fats. Smoked herring and smoked white fish are high in nitrogen, and the herring especially in fats. Salmon, 19.9 of proteids and 7.4 of fats. Terrapin is high in proteids, and the dressing makes it higher. Lobster, 5.9 of proteids and .7 of fats. Oysters, 6.2 of proteids and 1.2 of fats. Scallops, 14.8 of proteids and .1 of fats. Clams, 10.6 of proteids and 1.1 of fats. Crabs, 7.9 of proteids and .9 of fats. Shrimps are high in nitrogen. Caviare is very high in proteids.

These analyses show clearly that many of the fishes are very high in proteids and fats and are not the light diet they are generally thought to be. If we want the lowest, we must pick the oyster, the clam, the crab, the lobster, and the flounder. Shad, salmon, bass, perch, and others are well up to beefsteak, and the salmon, the shad, the mackerel, and the herring are well up in fats, too.

Vegetable foods vary greatly. As before stated, the beans, peas, and such, are very high in nitrogen, and are often cooked with much grease, making them high up in fats. Some have a good deal of sugar, as the sweet potato, the yam, the pea, and corn. Cabbage is not strong food, containing so much water. Such foods give healthy distention to the stomach and bowels. Cauliflower is another, celery another, and lettuce another. Mushrooms are rich in water and comparatively low, contrary to the usual idea, in proteids. In carbohydrates they hold 6.8. Onions are high in water, low in proteids, and fairly well up in sugar. So are parsnips. White potatoes are 62.6 of water, 1.8 of proteids, .1 of fats, and 14.7 of starch. Sweet potatoes are 55.2 of water, 1.4 of proteids, .6 of fats, and away up in sugar, 21.9. Beets are high in water, 70.0, 1.3 of proteids, .1 of fats, and 7.7 of sugar. Green corn, 75.4 of water, 3.1 of proteids, 1.1 of fats, and 19.7 of sugar. Here are green peas - see how strong they are in tissue-building, etc. - 74.6 of water, 7.0 of proteids, 0.5 of fats, and 16.9 of starch and sugar. Dried peas are 9.5 of water only, 24.6 of proteids, 1.0 of fats, and 62.0 of carbohydrates. No wonder they form much of the army and navy ration.

Beans are about as strong as peas, green or dry. Spinach, tomatoes, turnips, and squash are weak foods, but help along in diet by their flavor and bulk, and with the helps they contain are sui generis. The sugars are an important article of diet, and are especially useful in hot weather and in the tropics. Candy is often now served in the armies and navies, in the tropics especially. In carbohydrates, granulated sugar is 100, molasses is 70.0, candies are 96.0, honey is 81.0, and maple syrup is 71.4.

As to the cereals, let us look at them as to their strength and food value. Flour made from entire wheat (called Graham flour) is a little higher in proteids than roller-process flour, though not much, and also a little higher in fats, with more ash as loss, and in carbohydrates is lower, especially than the high grade roller-process flour. Macaroni and vermicelli in this country run about as wheat flour. Rye flour is not so strong a flour as wheat flour. Corn meal has less proteids than wheat flour and really not much more fats and about as much carbohydrates. Oat meal has much more proteids than the others, much more fat, and less carbohydrates, and is a stronger food. Rice as we get it in our markets has less proteids, very little fats, and more carbohydrates than flour and meal, and therefore is not so strong a food. Tapioca is almost all carbohydrates. Breads will be more particularly noted further on. Canned vegetables run about the same as those not canned, but lack freshness, which is an important matter. Never eat anything canned if you can get the fresh products. Fruits will be spoken of further on.

Nuts have high food value. Almonds have 11.5 of proteids, 30.2 of fats, and 9.5 of carbohydrates. Brazilnuts are higher in fats and lower in proteids and carbohydrates. Butternuts are low in proteids, high in fats, and low in carbohydrates. Chestnuts are fairly high in proteids, low in fats, high in carbohydrates, and are fairly strong food. Cocoanut is low in proteids, high in fats, and low in carbohydrates. Filberts are fairly high in proteids, high in fats, and low in carbohydrates. Hickorynuts and shellbarks, probably the best flavored of our nuts, are fairly high in proteids and in fats and low in carbohydrates. Pecans are fairly high in proteids, high in fats, and low in carbohydrates. Peanuts are very high in proteids and fairly high in fats and carbohydrates, and are strong food. Black walnuts are fairly high in proteids, only fairly high in fats, and very low in carbohydrates. English walnuts are a little lower in proteids, much higher in fats, and about double in carbohydrates. It will thus be seen that nuts altogether have good food values.

Cereal coffees, as they are called in the trade, have little food value beyond the water and sugar added to them. The highest in food values of the breakfast foods is oats, and if we want foods less strong we can go to those made of wheat and corn and such. Those made of oats are the best and cheapest in the long run.

Good rules as to dietetics have been laid down by the Mosaic dispensation. The rules given there and the hygienic principles urged are in many ways most proper and correct. Kosher, as used, denotes foods that nourish and are digestible. Treife, on the other hand, denotes material which does not supply nourishment and which may produce bad effects in the system. The Jewish inspection begins with the slaughtering of animals, poultry, etc. Their butchers kill by severing the pneumogastric nerve, the carotid artery, and the jugular vein, and death is supposed to be instantaneous. Blood does not collect in the tissues, and thus early decomposition is avoided. The religious official, always present, inspects rigidly the lungs, the heart, and the digestive organs, and if any defect is found the carcass is immediately stamped "treife," which signifies that it is unfit for food. This is a divine command, and surely the results are good. The divine command recognizes as unfit for food the camel, the mole, the weasel, the lizard, the groundhog, and the pig. The Gentile probably eats more pork than any other meat. Yet the hog is a dirty animal and the host for many pathogenic germs and parasites. Some even go so far as to say that the promiscuous eating of pork is a cause for cancer and other horrible afflictions. This has not been proved, yet we know the Jews as a race are proverbially healthy. All aquatic animals not having fins and scales are prohibited as food. Insects and reptiles are barred, and these we know hold a very low order in life. Snails and crabs are debarred, and so are turtles and such. In fact, if we look closely into these ordinary foods much used by the Gentile we will see that modern progress in the study of bacteriology has shown that many of them are unclean as to the frequent presence in them of the various bacteria known to be harmful to man, and thus the Mosaic food laws laid down thousands of years ago are at the present day both sound and in accordance with the development of modern science.

Man is a gregarious animal, and therefore it is right to infer that he should have company in his eating. For proper digestion man should not eat alone. It is probably not well to read your morning newspaper at breakfast. This habit leads to bolting of food with all of its attendant bad results. Cheerful conversation at table is right and proper. We thus eat more slowly, drink more slowly, masticate our food better, and thus avoid the pitfalls of dyspepsia and malnutrition. Many, very many of our people, dwellers in our cities, eat all of their meals in restaurants and at quick-lunch counters. They eat rapidly and hustle off to business or pleasure, and thus lay the foundation for the digestive and nervous troubles now running rampant throughout the civilized world, but especially among the people of our own country. Again I say, it is not well for man to eat alone.