The Daily News THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30. A NEW CULT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 276, 30 December 1909, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, DECEMBER 30. A NEW CULT.

It is .said that most of the ailments man is heir to are due to excessive eating, and it is held that if man would but diminish and regulate liis food supplies, taking only sufficient lor the , actual requirements of the body, he would be able to live without tile assistance of a doctor and enjoy the best of health even when he reached the allotted span. In America—the home of most new notions—a new gastronomical cult has arisen. Its founder is Mr. Horace Fletcher, ami (he system is called after him. lie believes in living on a little food, but in enjoying that little very thoroughly, lie regards himself as an apost.lc of happiness arising from that good health which is so essential to well-being. A dozen vears ago Mr. Horace Fletcher was a man of /many serious ailments, which the doctors were unable to cope with. His weight was abnormally large, and his life was a burden to him. At last he determined to cure himself by the simple process of cutting down the amount of food which he was wont to consume. To-day Air. Horace Fletcher is a blithe, medium-sized man of sixty, with a grip of iron, a clear blue eve, a head of white hair, and an ardent desire to teach the world how to cut wisely and yet well. He can work from morning until night without feeling fatigue, amd he does it on two meals a day. He brought himself back to health and strength by living on food which cost but fivepence halfpenny per day, and in America food is perhaps dearer than in New Zealand. After lie became (it he underwent tests with one of the highly-trained \ale teams in America, and managed to beat some of their records. 11c then expounded his philosophy of eating in a work entitled "ihe A.U.Z. of Our Own Nutrition." flt was then that Eletcherisiu became a cult in the United States, and the fame of the founder thereof l.egan to spread to other parts of the globe. Air. Horace Fletcher's general view is that the ills to which llesh is heir are mostly due to body-poisoning' from eating too much food. The clogged system brings about physical, mental, and moral illnesses. He refuses' very properly to diet any one, because he does not diet himself. He cannot say to-day what food lie will fancy to-morrow, much less what food any other persons will like; but lie lays down as his two golden rules: (1) Eat thoroughly; don't worry to count how often you chew your food, but chew everything until it "swallows itself." (2) Eat anything you fnncv; if you fancy oysters, cat oysters; if' you fancv •shells and can cli'eiv them,'eat the shell*. Eat anything your taste selects, so long as you eat thoroughly. Trust your instinctive taste. Never'eat until you are hungry. -Stop when vour taste says so.

The idea is that u smaller quantity of food, by the Fletcher process, yields a larger percentage of nutriment'than is derived from the customary gorge. With the smaller quantity the palate becomes dainty and choice, indicatin" the right kind of food which I lie bodv of tlie owner demands. Fles], j s j not forbidden, because the l;Mc f (tr j| disappears; alcohol is not pruhiliitcd. liecause the healthy palate linds alcohol more or less nasty. Mr. Horace Fletcher himself partakes of potatoes, rice, fruit si, bread anil butter, wheal cakes' and maple sugar, cream with powdered sugar, all sorts of pies (occasionally), eggs (rarely), salted nuts, caramels. He gets up early in the morning, and takes two meals—one at mid-day and the other in the evening—and declares that lie feels twenty years younger than he did twenty years a"o from the practice of dietetic righteousness. In liis own neighborhood lie teaches' the young to eat properly, liehave properly, and grow up pro'pci-lv. this teaching being given as a labor „f love. He is a wealthy man. and is perhaps the only American millionaire who can bo said to onjo.v life. ''Floteherism" has much to recommend it. and the lessons it teaches could with advantage be taken to heart by our people, especially at this, the festive, lime of tlie year.