Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1910 Book 06

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference

Page 6

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Jain Conference Herald.
[January
A machine works fast or slow according as the energy received by it is greater or less; similarly man is active or inactive, religious or irreligious, kind or cruel according as his surroundings and food are virtuous and pure or vicious and impure. Our movements, our deeds nay our very thoughts are influenced by the food we eat. We should therefore find out the food-stuffs, which, while satisfying the needs of the body, will also help us to be in tune with the infinite. It often happens that man remains ignorant of the most essential things, while he stuffs his brain with trifles. He pays much more attention to things ornamental than to things useful. Instead of cultivaing good physique which is of great importance to him in self defence, he wastes away his time and energy in ephemeral pleasures. So also it is with diet.
It is universally acknowledged that the question of diet is the most important and that it ought to be carefully studied, yet how many are there who have given even a moment's reflec. tion to this all important subject. We are every day extremely anxious to know about anarchy in Persia, the wiles of Russia, the Pros and cons of the American tariff and take the first opportunity to enlighten ourselves on these points, but we display the most astonishing aversion to spend even a second of our thus most properly utilized time in reading books on hygeine or diet. It is not only to common men that this blissful ignorance about diet is confined, but it encircles within its folds a majority of the learned professors of the healing art also.
How this deprecable neglect of the most useful branch of science has led to pernicious results I shall later on try to show. For the present, I shall consider the ingredients required for making up the wear and tear of the body and the up-keep of the human frame. Dr. Lyons in his excellent treatise on Medical Jurisprudence shows that an adult at work, requires on the average per day 30 to 45 grains of pitrogen per 1 lb. of body-weight; 1 to 3 ounces of fat, I to } an ounce of salt, 3 to 6 pints of water and one grain of carbon to 5 grains of Nitrogen. Nitrogen is required for forming flesh, building