GOING WITHOUT BREAKFAST.
By George F. Pentecost
[George F. Pentecost, in Science of Health.] BELOVED, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 3 John 2. Spiritual prosperity and health is the highest earthly blessing; but John, writing to his well-beloved Gaius, prays that it may be matched by the prosperity and health of the body. Bodily health is desired by the worldly for the sake of earthly gain and prosperity. The Christian ought to desire health for the higher reason that so he can serve God more efficiently. The body is “the temple of the Holy Ghost.” 1 Cor. 6:19. To defile the body with sin, to neglect it, to cause it to suffer in health or strength, is an offense against our salvation and the honor of God. To deliberately undermine health and strength by persisting in a false way of living, is a sin of great enormity. Drunkenness or gluttony are offenses against soul and body, which no self-respecting person ought for a moment to allow. Yet thousands of good men and women are guilty of excess and bad methods in eating and drinking that border upon these two disgusting and harmful sins. “The life of the flesh is in the blood.” Lev. 17:11. If pure, rich blood not only preserves the health of the body and prolongs life, but contributes to moral, intellectual, and spiritual health, we should hail with gladness any discovery that will enable us to purify and enrich our blood. Dr. E. H. Dewey declares that digestion is best promoted, and food so assimilated as to afford the largest amount of nourishment and the greatest quantity of rich blood, by giving the stomach a long rest, during each twenty-four hours, from evening until the noon of the next day, by going without breakfast, and so doing improve health, if well; prevent the incoming of disease; assist nature to recover from any unavoidable attack of sickness; strengthen the whole body, and build up the soul and spirit. I have tried this way of living, and it works well. For forty years I had been the victim of sick headaches. I tried every remedy and expedient recommended by physicians and friends; dieting, not eating heartily, going without coffee, various kinds of exercise, sodas, bromides, Turkish baths, massage, and not eating certain foods, but these only gave me temporary relief. The bilious sick headache, with its excruciating pain, would return, and collapse my power of work for from one to four days. At last I learned that a friend and every member of his family, an invalid wife, a delicate daughter, two splendid young collegians, and a boy of twelve, had all given up their breakfast, and were all greatly improved mentally and physically. Afterward, meeting others who had not been ill but were a hundred per cent better for going without breakfast, I resolved to go without mine. For a day or two I suffered from slight headaches from what seemed the want of food, but I soon found that they were the dying pains of a bad habit. After a week I never thought of wanting breakfast, and though in the breakfast rooms of friends where every tempting luxury was spread before me, I did not desire food at all. The results are:— 1. I have not had the slightest suggestion of a sick headache since I gave up my breakfast. 2. I have lost a large portion of surplus fat. 3. My skin is improving in texture. My complexion has cleared. The tendency to flushness in the head has disappeared. 4. I experience no more tendency to fullness and unpleasantness after eating. 5. I do not eat as much as I used, but have better digestion. My food does not lie so long in my stomach, and that useful organ has gone out of the gas-producing business. 6. I am conscious of a lighter and more elastic spring. I can walk with quickness and for longer distances without any tired feeling. 7. I go to my study and my pulpit without any sense of loss of strength, mentally or physically, but with a freshness and vigor which is delightful. One by one, of their own accord, every member of my family has given up breakfast, and all are better for it. I could fill pages of interesting detail resulting from the adopting of this rule, growing out of my simple expositions. Restful sleep is not hunger producing. The breakfast does not furnish strength for the same morning’s work. In no case does food give strength until converted into blood. We all do our work on the blood extracted from the food of other days. “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” It will not do any one any harm to go without breakfast for three months, and it is almost certain that any one so doing will need no further argument.