THE DANCER OF OVER-EATING.

Shannon News, 1 August 1922, Page 2

THE DANCER OF OVER-EATING.

MEDICAL MAN’S VIEWS.

Dr. Cecil Webb-Johnson, of Harley Street, maintains that it is as impossible to lay doy’n any fixed rules to regulate diet as it is to pretend, to predic-

tate tho exact quantum of sleep or the proper weights of individuals at various stages of their existence. As in the case of a motor car, the lower the consumption of fuel per uiilp—other things

being equal—the more perfect the engine; so is the rule true, speaking generally, of the human body’s needs for food and sleep.

Writing from experience culled as well from his own personal habits as from those of his patients,' he suggests obedience to the following general rules: —(1) Rise from a meal feeling that you could eat a little more; (2) never eat merely from a sense of duty,

or to please someone else; y (3) never eat unless you have a good appetite; (4) do not eat if feeling ill; wait for the return of a healthy appetite. Na-

ture will remind you when you require more food; (5) vary the amount of food you eat eaeh day according to what you have earned.” A hard day’s work will entitle you toy more food than a day of comparative idleness; (6) If you feel or know that you have

over-eaten at any one meal, either miss the next altogether or lessen the amount of food you take at subsequent meals; (7) hover let a day pass without eating some natural food in the form, of fresh fruit, green vegetables, nuts, or eggs; (8) never drink milk.

It is an unnatural food save for the young; (9) never eat between meals; (10) do not ‘‘bolt” your food. Eat slowly and masticate thoroughly all you eat.

RULES FOR HEALTH. The main considerations which should determine and regulate the amount of food needed to keep a person in health include; in Dr. Johnson’s opinion, the following:—Tho amount of physical and mental energy that a person expends; the climate in which he lives; the quality and kind of food he affects; bis moral fibre —the greedy eat for the sake of eating as others, and unfortunately many, drink for tho sake of drinking; his mental attitude to life—the person who is worried or unhappy needs less food, for his distress diminishes his capacity for digestion and assimilation; his age—the growing boy of 14 needs more than the man of 30, for in addition to renewing waste tissues, he has to build up new bone and muscle; his surroundings—ordinarily one eats, digests, and assimilates more food, and more easily, amid pleasant company and appealing environments than in solitude or amid sordid surroundings; cooking—the more perfect

the cooking, provided it is plain, the more food one can eat with impunity; his idiosyncrasy—one man’s meat as another man’s poison;

“Never eat breakfast,” he says. “There is absolutely no necessity for it. We are taking that meal only as a habit. The 'hearty English breakfast;’ is an abomination. French people substitute for it coffee and a roll, or dispense with the meal altogether, an d they certainly do not suffer from the abstention. The great trouble is that we eat far too much and too often. Nothing but harm results from our immoderations. Ordinarily, in eold weather, two meal* a day are sufficient for anybody, but in hot weather one meal alone is enough. Don’t eat between meals. Snaeks gre injurious, and chocolate eaters have no justification for their habit. The less you eat (up to a pertain minimum) the healthier you are; the more active is your brain. ,

DEMPSEY’S CHOICE. “Did you not find any moral in an incident that occurred in London a few day a ago? Dempsey, the boxer, who, I suppose, is one of the fittest men in the world, gave a luncheon. There was an abundance of rich food and of wine. But what did he do? He ate an apple and drank a glass of water. He did that because he realises how detrimental are the effects of over-eating’. Had he eaten a great meal he would have been in the position of people, who after a heavy Christmas dinner, have a feeling of lethargy. It is the commonest \ experience iri the world to find people intoxicated by food. Very many more people are killed every year through over-eating than through over-drinking, and it would be beneficial if opponents of alcoholic excess were to remember this. Easting is not a fad, but an extremely useful practice. I have fasted for eight or nine years, drinking only water, and carried on daily work without any difficulty. “It is a mistake to suppose that a fast over a period that is not too lengthy is responsible for physical weakness. A man who is fasting need not bb weak if he takes exercise. He becomes stronger and less liable to contract disease. 1 ”

“W« are slaves to the exploded doe-

trine of regular meals. I do not believe that nature ever intended us to have fixed hours for food and drink. You should not eat by the clock at all, but as nature dictates —there is no good in eating if you arc not hungry. We should be more thoughtful in the choice of food that wo eat.”