Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1904 — Popular Food Fallacies. [ARTICLE]

Popular Food Fallacies.

It is doubtful whether any given food in common use contains constituent* which have a selective action, so to speak, or tlie property of ministering to one part of the body more than another. As u rule, when a food is assumed to have specific reparative properties—as, for example, a so-call-ed brain or nerve food—tin- fact really is that sut-li food is easily and quickly assimilated to the body’s general advantage; in a word, in such a ease repair quickly overtakes waste and a real purposeful nutrition and restoration are accomplished. A high 'medical authority feels called upon to once more correct tlie erroneous popular Impression that fish food ministers particularly to the brain, because it contains phosphorus. As a matter of fact, fish does not contain more phosphorus than do the ordinary meat foods, nnd it certainly does not contain it in a free state. Tlie notion that fish phosphorus had 110 doubt its origin in tlie glowing phosphorescence of fish in the dark. 'This is wholly due to micro-organisms. Tlie belief, therefore, that fish is a brain food is just about as reasonable as the Idea that because a soup is thick and gelatinous “it will stick to the libs.” Fish, of course, is excellent food, partly because of the nourishing nature of Its constituents and partly because of its digestibility.