DRINKING WITH MEALS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 1064, 15 February 1913, Page 4

DRINKING WITH MEALS.

The free drinking of any form of fluid with the food not only interferes with mastication by washing down the food into the stomach too rapidly, but has also the effect of diluting the digestive juices, and thus retarding digestion, An occasional sip of fluid is not particularly harmful, but free drinking is, and this is particularly true of certain unfortunately common drugs, such as tea and coffee. If we were to make the statement, says “Good Health,” that nine out of every ten persons in the United Kingdom are to-day enslaved by the use of a poisonous habit-forming drug, many persons might be surprised into asking: “Whatis it?” The answer is— Tea. According to Dr Robert Hutchison, tea is “in no sense a food,” but it is, on the other hand, a poisonous, narcotic beverage. Ds daily use soon sets up a craving for it, which is oftentimes exceedingly difficult to overcome. Tea, like tobacco, has a pleasant, soothing influence,, which arises, however, from the benumbing, paralysing effect of the drug upon the sensory nerves. When this temporary effect passes off there is a demand for another cup oi tea, so that many people are kept under its influence more or less constantly, except while asleep at night. Many people find it necessary to have a cup of tea in bed in the morning, and by its frequent use keep themselves iu a state qf semi-narcosis.