THE CHEWING CURE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 50, 28 February 1913, Page 2

THE CHEWING CURE.

This is the day of food fads', diet systems) digestive "cures.” Naturally wo are all keenly interested in anything to-do with our health. So many of us suffer from indigestion, dyspepsia and similar complaints that we are ready, to listen to any "system” that claims to cure them. Certainly one of the most widely followed of these diet systems is "Fletcherism,” which has had a tremendous vogue in America. And not only is it supposed to cure many of the ills that flesh is heir to, but it is claimed that it saves tfio housewives of America about 73,000,000 dollars a year (roughly, £14,600,000). It is a simple business, started by a Mr Horace Fletcher, ( qf New York, who has laid down three rules:—

1. Have only two meals a day instead of three, or four instead of five, as most 'people have. 2. Don’t 1 • bat' until ton have a

vigorous appetite. 3. Taste'every morsel df food until there is no taste left in'it. This last means' that ’every mouthful must be 1 6 lie wed until' it is in the most perfect l mash : or pulj) before it is swallowed. In this way, of course, you extract from it all the taste there is in it, and also all the nutriment.

• ...But. Jkhv,h you) miayi ■ a«k,' can tliis creed save the housewives of America all these millions of dollars in a year? Simply because of the saving in food that is effected, by eathSg hut twice a day, instead)of .oftenerpaml when we get all that is to he got out of what we eat, instead of losing a dot of the nutriment that is in it by bolting it.

Horace Fletcher maintains that a little simple food chewed long and slowly gives more sustenance than a far larger quantity of the richest material swallowed in a hurry. Incidentally his creed inculcates the simplest kinds of food, chiefly bread, nuts, fruits, cereals, either very plainly cooked or not cooked at all. Meat is to be used only about once a week, fish and eggs in great moderation, tea and coffee not at all.

Not only do they say that money is saved on food by “Metcherism,” but a vast economy in fuel, and the labour of kitchen work is reduced by half.—“ Home Chat” for January.