HOW TO EAT WISELY

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 31, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 13.

HOW TO EAT WISELY.

THE great sources of mischief from eating are three—quantity, frequency, rapidity—and from these come the horrible dyspepsias, which make of human life a burden, a torture, a living death. By eating fast, the stomach, like a bottle being filled through a funnel, is full and overflowing before we know it. But the most important reason is, the food is swallowed before time has been allowed to divide it in sufficiently small pieces with the teeth; for, like ice in a tumbler of water, the smaller the bits are, the sooner are they dissolved. It has been seen with the naked eye that if solid food is cut up in pieces as small as half a pea, it digests almost as soon without being chewed at all as if it had been well masticated. The best plan, therefore, is for all persons to thus comminute their food; for, even if it is well chewed, comminution is no injury, while it is of great importance in case of hurry, forgetfulness, or bad teeth.

Cheerful conversation prevents rapid eating. It requires about five hours for a common meal to dissolve and pass out of the stomach, during which time this organ is incessantly at work, when it must have repose, as any other muscle or set of muscles, after such a length of effort. Hence persons should not eat within less than a five hours' interval. The heart itself is at rest more than one-third of its time. The brain perishes without repose. Never force food upon the stomach. All are tired when night comes. Every muscle of the body is weary and looks to the bed; but just as we lie down to rest every other part of the body, if we, by a hearty meal, give the stomach five hours' work, which in its weak state requires a much longer time to perform than at an earlier hour of the day, it is like imposing upon a servant a full day's labor just at the close of a hard day's work. Hence the unwisdom of eating heartily late in the day or evening; and no wonder it has cost many a man his life.

Always breakfast before work or exercise. No laborers or active persons should eat an atom later than sundown, and then it should not be over half the midday meal. Persons of sedentary habits or who are at all ailing, should take absolutely nothing for supper beyond a single piece of cold stale bread or a ship-biscuit, with a single cup of warm drink. Such a supper will always give better sleep and prepare for a heartier breakfast, with the advantage of having the exercise of the whole day to grind it up and extract its nutriment. Never eat without an inclination.—Hall's Journal of Health.