During hot seasons most persons prefer food that contains an abundance of water; therefore cereals, vegetables, and fruits, are eaten with but small amounts of meats. In cold weather hot soups, hot beverages, and fat meats are enjoyed. These changes most persons make when they can. The poor, who always live upon a diet restricted in character, do not make extensive seasonal changes and yet retain health and strength, The variations serve, therefore, to gratify appetite and taste, and arise for these reasons rather than because they must be made to preserve health.

Relation Of Diet To Climate

The number of calories needed for the production of energy is the same in all climates but at times more may be needed in very cold climates to maintain bodily temperature as well as energy. However, clothing usually preserves bodily temperature and therefore equalizes the dietetic requirements in all lands. Fats are better digested as a rule in cold countries than in the tropics. In the latter regions if fats are eaten in large amounts they are apt to provoke indigestion and ultimately diarrhea. Moreover, one becomes more easily satiated by them than in cold climates. A larger variety of food, particularly of fruits and vegetables, are craved in the tropics. The protein of beans and peas can be easily substituted for most of the meat eaten in temperate climates and this is often done by natives of the tropics. Where cooling drinks are craved as in cold regions hot beverages and hot soups are. The food used in regions climatically so diverse as the tropics and poles or high altitudes depend in part also on the ability of different kinds to keep. Many vegetables and fruits freeze and are thereby spoiled. Meats spoil with equal readiness in the tropics if they are not kept cool or otherwise preserved. These facts govern the dietaries of nations uncivilized and largely even of civilized peoples who have not sufficient wealth to provide luxuries.