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THE PILLARS OF HEALTH

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Mar 27, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 13.

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THE PILLARS OF HEALTH

By William S. Sadler, M.D.

By WILLIAM S. SADLER, M. D.

IV. HOW TO KEEP FROM OVEREATING.

ONE of the greatest and most practical of all problems connected with the diet question is how to keep from overeating. The great majority of people eat too much. Very few eat too little.
This point we have mentioned in the previous article, and have also before called attention to the amount of food needed for each day, and promised in this article to discuss nature's great regulator of metabolism,—the sense of taste.
How can we restore the sense of taste when it is partially lost? How can the taste be made more acute when it has been blunted by strong condiments, hot and cold foods, etc.?
The reader's attention is called to a few simple rules of diet which will assist in gradually restoring the sense of taste and making it a more reliable guide to the food needs of the body.
1. Eating Too Often.—For those who work regularly, it is best that they should eat regularly. Eating between meals has ruined the digestion of thousands of children, and to-day prevents the recovery of many suffering dyspeptics. Ordinary cases of stomach trouble are greatly aggravated by this incessant nibbling. And one is almost sure to eat too much when he eats irregularly or between meals. Whether you have two or three meals a day, you will fare best by eating at regular hours.
2. Eating Too Fast.—Hasty eating is the great mistake of the present generation. When the food is not thoroly masticated, only a portion of its flavor is extracted. And since the nervous system can only take cognizance of the food eaten by means of the flavor tasted, it is evident that it will be necessary to greatly overload the stomach in order to satisfy the appetite.
This tendency to overeat is all done away with when the food is properly masticated, or as we say in honor of the modern advocate of thoro chewing, Mr. Fletcher, thoroly "Fletcherized." We mention this matter here, promising to treat it more fully later.
3. Liquid Foods and Mushes.—These foods, because of their pasty and semi-liquid form, are easily swallowed, very little of their substance is tasted, and so the stomach finds itself full when the appetite is but half satisfied. If it had been thoroly masticated, or solid food had been eaten, when the stomach was full, the appetite would also have been "full"—satisfied.
Besides, mushes and pasty foods are not good for weak stomachs. If eaten, they should be baked in an oven first. Dried foods also produce a superior quality of digestive fluids.
4. Seasoned Foods.—Another great injury which is done the sense of taste is the use of highly spiced, irritating, as well as indigestible foods, such as old cheese, pickles, and fiery spices, but concerning these we will treat another time.