DRINKS THAT ARE BENEFICIAL

Articles In This Section:

· PROPER DIET

· DIMINISHING THE APPETITE

· TAKING VITAMINS AND MINERALS

· NUTRITION FACTS

· SPECIAL MENTION OF CERTAIN FOODS

· AN OCCASIONAL CIGARETTE

· DRINKS THAT ARE BENEFICIAL

· YOGA PRACTICE OF FASTING

Other drinks that are highly beneficial are fresh fruit and vegetable juices, which we already mentioned in our discussion of vitamins. Frozen and canned juices are not as rich in vitamins, but still valuable. It is a good general rule not to let juice stand more than a day in the refrigerator once it has been squeezed or opened, for some of the vitamins will inevitably be lost.

Milk is the only liquid which may be taken with a meal, for although it is nine-tenths water, it is the most complete of foods and should be treated as such. A glass of whole milk provides all the protein you need at one meal. It should be sipped slowly, alternating with a few morsels of non-protein food. Modern dietician’s advice that a pint of milk be included in the diet of every adult, and double that amount in the diet of children and pregnant women; but this quantity includes milk derivatives, such as cheese and butter. For persons watching their calorie intake skim milk, buttermilk and yogurt are even better, since all of these have most of the butter at removed. Moreover, the culture added to yogurt and buttermilk to promote fermentation is extremely beneficial for the organism, destroying bacteria and seeming to prolong life. In the Near East, where fermented milk has been used for centuries (koumiss, an equivalent of yogurt but made with mare's milk, is a favorite food with Bulgarians and Tartars) people often live to a hale and hearty eighty, ninety or even a hundred, and the claim is that fermented milk is the secret. The East European peasant does equally well on clabber, a similar food.

Before we leave the subject of liquids, a word of warning about tea, coffee and drinks like soda-pop and cola. Americans are a nation of inveterate coffee and cola drinkers, and—this may be hard on some of you—but the fact is that numberless cups of coffee, or tea, in the course of a day are a stimulant which the body is better off without; that sweet drinks are mostly sugar and water which do nothing for you except leave a residue of sugar in your mouth to attack your teeth; and that cola drinks fill your system with harmful, habit-forming narcotics. Of course, there is no need to be rigid; a cup of coffee after dinner, or tea for a mid-afternoon pickup, can do little harm. But six or eight cups in the course of a day may leave you feeling sickish, cause gas, nausea and certainly insomnia. Also, unless you like your coffee unsweetened and black, you are likely to fill your stomach with a lot more sugar and cream than you realize, accumulating empty calories and spoiling your appetite for more useful foods.