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FOOD DRUNKENNESS

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Sep 28, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 38.

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FOOD DRUNKENNESS.

THOMAS A. EDISON is not only a wizard in matters scientific, but he has a keen instinct into dietetics.
He said the other day that he ate anything he wanted, but in small quantity, adding that most people eat too much. “I know men and women who are food drunk all the time,” he declared.
“Food drunk” is a happy invention to describe a notorious condition. Mr. Edison is not the only one who knows people who are continually gorged with food, with the result that their intellects are beclouded as truly as if the excess had been liquid instead of solid. Everyone has experienced the mental disturbance produced by occasional overeating. It is easy to see that the man who is continually gorged is continually off his mental balance. He is “food drunk,” as the sage of Menlo Park puts it—non compos mentis—rendered unstable in his head by the overwork which he forces upon his stomach.
It is a common-enough saying that if you want a favor from a man you should approach him just after he has had a good meal. The philosophy of the advice is apparent enough. The man who has his stomach full of food is more or less stupefied. He is in the primary stage of the condition which is fully exemplified by the gorged snake. His faculties are blunted. Hence, he is likely to accede to requests which he would promptly refuse were he in full possession of his judgment. He is “food drunk.”
Mr. Edison is right, and his theory is shared by a good many shrewd physicians nowadays. A man can fuddle himself with the contents of a beef platter as well as by emptying a wine bottle.—Chicago Chronicle.