Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1895 — Meat Consumption in Summer. [ARTICLE]

Meat Consumption in Summer.

A greater amount of sunshine tends to lessen the consumption of meat. It was found that in England in 1893 less meat by 161,000 tons was consumed than in 1892, and the reason given for this is that in 1893 200 days of hot weather with bright sunshine took away one ounce per day of the normal appetite of 38,000,000 of a flesh eating people. This one ounce diminution of the meat ration would fully account for minimizing the butcher’s bill to the extent of 161,000 tons. Caloric from the eating of meat was not wanted, the sun being the universal provider of all the caloric needed. It is a well known fact that less food is required in the heat of summer than in colder portions of the year. In winter, with the temperature of the external air at zero, the temperature of the blood in healthy persons is 98.3 degrees,and when the sunshine of summer drives the mercury of the thermometer near to or above that mark, still the blood registers 98.3 degrees. It is evident that the force needed to raise the temperature of the whole body to nearly 100 degrees in winter is no longer required in the hot sunshine of summer.