How to Eat Wisely.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 199, 16 April 1887, Page 6

How to Eat Wisely.

As a universal rule in health, and with very rare exception in disease, that is best to be eaten which the appetite craves or the ta*te relishes. Persons rarely err in the quality of food eaten ; Nature's instincts are the wisest regulators in this respect. The great sources of mischief from eating are three— quantity, frequency, rapidity — and from theae 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 small as half a pea, it di gests almost as soon without being chewed at all, as if it had bean well masticated The best plan, therefore, is for all persons to tliua comminute their food ; for, even if it ie well chewed, the 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 mußt have repose, ao any other muscle or set of muscles, after such a length of effort Hence j personß should not eat within less than a five hours iuterval. The heart itself is at rest more th^n one third of its time. The brain perishes without repose. Never force food on the stomach. All are tired when night comes. Every muscle of the body is weary and looks to bed ; but just as we lie down to rest every other part of the body if we, by a hoarty meal, give the etomach 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 labour at the close of a hard day s work. Hence the unwiedom of eating heartily late in the day or evening ; and no wonder it has coat many a man hie life. Always breakfast before work or exercise, No labourers or active persons should eat an atom later than sundown and then it should not be over half the midday meal. Persons of sedentary habita or who are at all ailing should take absolutely nothing for supper beyond a single piece of cold stale bread and butter or a ship bLacuit, with a single cup of warm drink. Such a supper will always give better sleep and prepare for a heartierbreakfast, with the advantage of having the exercise of the whole day to grind it up and extraot- its nutriment. Never eat without 1 an inclination. — "Hall's Journal of Health."