The Young Woman's Book of Health (1850)

AUTHOR: Alcott, William Andrus

KEYWORDS: diet, disease, dress reform, health, nutrition

SUMMARY (Ridvan Askin, edited Deborah Madsen):

As William Alcott remarks in the “Preface,” the book is dedicated to “that sex through whose instrumentality sin and disease came upon the world, and through whose obedience to the divine law, as an efficient instrument, they are, in the end, to be removed” (4). For Alcott, women's health is thus a far-reaching moral issue. His advice has to be read within the framework of this Christian morality. Much of the book treats illnesses and ailments, from cancer to sterility, from menstruation to hemorrhoids, from hysteria to nymphomania, and their prevention or treatment. Some sections touch on the question of diet (particularly 77-100). Here, Alcott repeats what he has been saying throughout his writings, namely that:

• food “should be simple” and “not be very difficult of digestion” (86);
• “salted pork, beef, fish, butter, &c., as well as [...] pickles, sauces, preserves, jams, jellies, sweetmeats, and gravies” (90) should be avoided;
• “flesh or fish, to young women,” are not “at all necessary,” and they should relish “bread, rice, and milk” instead (92);
• “animal food is more frequently diseased than vegetable” foods (94);
• with the exception of “salt, and, perhaps, ginger and cinnamon, all condiments, properly so called, should be considered as medicine”; accordingly, “pepper, spice, mustard, saleratus, vinegar, saltpetre, ketchup, and the like” should be avoided (97);
• “beer, tea, coffee, chocolate, &c.” are likewise detrimental to health (97);
• food must be prepared carefully and “should not be injured by cookery” (97).

For Alcott, “[f]arinaceous food, — bread of various kinds, arrowroot, sage, tapioca, rice, and potatoes, — with mild sub-acid fruits, and milk, is the best. Animal food, especially salted animal food, and old salted butter, should be avoided as carefully as if they were rank poison” (217). With respect to dress, Alcott repeats his advice, that it should be as loose as possible and made of materials favorable to ventilation: “that dress is best which is at once the lightest, loosest, and of the most porous material” (70).

Last updated on May 2nd, 2024

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