Diet in an Automobile Factory
By David Paulson
Mr. Ford Inaugurates a Department of Dietetics — Finds We Waste Much Food — If We Desire Good Health, We Must Feed Ourselves Right Superintendent Hinsdale Sanitarium, Hinsdale, Illinois THINK of the master mind that could organize a factory so as to turn out two complete automobiles every minute. Yet that is what is actually accomplished in Ford’s factory. In this great enterprise, “efficiency” has become a word to conjure by. It is natural that a man who has brains enough to make two automobiles every minute should be able to discover that there is no close relationship between what his men eat at home and the kind of work they turn out in his factory. So he has recently established a department of dietetics. The thousands of his workmen will be taught how to eat more sensibly; and it is estimated that even from a financial standpoint, they will save a million dollars a year. For remember that the average man spends more for food than for any other one item; and in most instances, fifty per cent of this is worse than wasted. Thirty cents is often spent for a certain food, when five cents would have purchased the same amount of nourishment. Mr. Ford says: “We eat three times as much as we need. The other two thirds is not only unnecessary, but positively harmful to us. We wouldn’t feed an engine three times as much fuel as it needs; yet we pay out good money to gourmandize at the expense of both our income and our health.” The last few spoonfuls eaten at a meal are the cause of all the trouble for the man who overeats. That little additional amount day after day overtaxes the system, and frequently makes the difference between efficiency and inefficiency, clear-headedness and stupidity. On this point Mr. Ford says, “We cram dessert down our throats when we don’t need it, because it tastes good.” And Mr. Ford is right. Too often, after the demands of the system have been met, and the appetite has been fully satisfied, when the heavy dessert is served, we are assured that we will “just taste it” and discover “how good it is,” we will want to eat it. Mr. Ford has discovered a great temperance truth that was demonstrated abundantly to my own satisfaction years ago in my experience with drunkards in darkest Chicago. “I have the greatest sympathy for a man addicted to liquor,” says Ford. “His appetite is a disease, caused in many cases by unwise eating. That he craves strong drink is often not his fault.” Mustard, pepper, and all these condiments and fiery spices train and develop artificial tastes and appetites, which are no longer satisfied with plain, simple foods and drinks, but absolutely demand still more stimulating foods and drinks. In other words, they create a thirst that the town pump cannot satisfy, and nothing but the saloon will quench it. The food served as free lunches is always of the kind that develops a demand for the saloon keeper’s wet goods. But unfortunately, the same kind of stuff is served in too many Christian homes, and even to those who are heroically struggling against the awful liquor thirst. Too frequently, the cook is in partnership with both the saloon keeper and the undertaker, for unconsciously she makes business for both. Dr. A. S. Gray, a writer on health topics for the Chicago Daily News, has well said that if one eats and drinks correctly, breathes pure air, and has the right amount of mental and physical exercise, he will not fall a victim to the disease germs that surround him, or even to those slumbering within his own body; in other words, that sickness is not, as most people suppose, an accident or an incident, but the deliberate harvest from our own sowing. Ill health does not rain down ready-made from heaven, but is the natural result of violation of nature’s laws. Some one has said it is a greater disgrace to be sick than to be in prison, for the prisoner has broken a man-made law, while the invalid has violated a God-made law. However, it is only fair to admit that nature compels some of us to pay up our parents’ debts. WORSHIPS CUSTOM AND HABIT
Professor Mendel, of Yale University, says that in matters of diet, the average mortal “worships the dictates of custom and habit in matters pertaining to his nutritive welfare.” He eats what he likes, for the same reason that the pickpocket steals. Both may be fortunate enough, for a time, to escape punishment; but sooner or later, they generally come to grief. Then one goes to the hospital, the other to jail. Recent laboratory experiments have demonstrated that even if rats are fed all they can eat of a rich and abundant diet, if there is one necessary food element lacking, they will speedily develop sore eyes, lung disease, and other distressing symptoms; but as soon as the dietetic deficiency is corrected, the symptoms disappear. For exactly the same reason, frequently children in the slums, and sometimes those living on the boulevards, have sore eyes. But instead of having their diet corrected, the doctor is called; and he drops medicine in their eyes, instead of educating the cook.