PERSONAL HEALTH.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 8, 10 June 1913, Page 6

PERSONAL HEALTH.

CONSIDERATION OF DIET.

AN INSTRUCTIVE LECTURE. At the meeting of the Brotherhood on Sunday, Dr. Home continued a series of talks on matters relating to personal health. He reminded his, hearers of his last address on the subject of fresh air and the advisability of maintaining a constant supply for their bodies by keeping their nostrils clear, and for their bedrooms and living rooms by keeping windows open. He then went on to a consideration of diet, or more particularly of feeding, mentioning that this had been the occasion of perhaps more fads and fancies than any other subject of vital interest to humanity. Such varieties were mentioned, for example, as the*"Haig diet," which excluded all meats, broths, soups, tea, coffee, cocoa, peas, beans, asparagus, etc.; "the Salisbury diet," which consisted mainly of mincemeat, toast and hot water; "the vegetarian diet," nuts, cereals, fruit and vegetables"; "Dr. tlaig's diet," which excluded starchy and sugary foods. If one believed all these equally and simultaneously, the only conclusion possible was that all kinds of food were dangerous to life. The common factor pervading all these various systems was the idea of restriction or avoidance of excess. Civilised man was always INCLINED TO EAT TOO MUCH, and a mixed diet of all sorts gave wider chances of surfeit. In the healthy individual this did not matter very much if lie had youth also on his side. Youth had a wonderfully elastic interior. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes' test for youth was mentioned, viz., "To offer the suspected individual a bulky boggy bun about ten minutes before a regular meal. If this were eagerly accepted and devoured the fact of youth was certain. A young person could eat anything at any hour of the day or night. An older person observed regular stated intervals, and one might as well try to alter the time of high-water to suit a fishing party as try to change these intervals." Mark Twain apparently continued his dietetic youth until late in life. At the dinner given him by the literary elite of America on his 7Oth birthday he, described | the methods of life by which he had . attained his three score years and ten: "Not that I mean anyone to copy them," he said, "for I have attained the age of 70 by methods of life that would simply assassinate anybody else. As regards diet, I ate anything and everything, and if it disagreed with me, I wrestled with it, till one or other-of us got the best of it. It was only last spring that I gave up frolicking with mince-pie aftet midnight. Up till then I didn't know it was loaded."

CHARACTERISTIC OF YOUTH!. "Within certain limits," continued Dr. Home, "there is a good principle underlying this remark of Mark Twain's. It is sometimes a great mistake to allow yourselves to be dominated by your interiors. A stomach gets out of training if kept for any length of time on an easily assimilated diet, and gradually loses its power of undertaking more solid fare," just as muscles, which are used only for such forms of athletics as drawing corks and bowling at akittles would find it painfully hard to tackle tennis."

ADAPTABLE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS

Fortunately the human digestive apparatus was very adaptable, and could put up with a good deal of persistent misuse and abuse. The human teeth and alimentary canal were arranged for dealing with a mixed diet, being intermediate in proportional length between the flesh-eating animals and the planteaters. The flesh-eating animals haa a very short intestine, because animal foods were rapidly digested and absorbed, and it was also necessary to get quickly rid of any residue, for it decomposed rapidly and harmfully. Vegetable foods, on the other hand, were of very slow digestion, postulating a great length of intestine, and, besides, they did not decompose nearly so quickly, so there was not the same necessity to get quit of undigested residue. Man's digestive apparatus was not designed for such complete digestion of vegetables as that of plant-eating animals, and vegetarianism could not be regarded as necessarily the right diet for human beings. "A lady friend of mine," said the doctor, "who was being persuaded by plausible arguments to restrict herself to a vegetable diet, replied, 'All right; I shall look upon a bullock as a kind of condensed vegetable representing so many acres of grass and so many loads of turnips.' On a similar principle a weevil might be regarded, in the language of' the chemist, as an allotropic form of biscuit, that is, the same substance, only built up in a different way. Columbus might have used this plea in arguing with his mutinous sailors, but they st'll found it necessary to wait for darkness to come 011 before they could eat their biscuits."

THE PUBLIC AND ITS THEORIES. Products of the vegetable kingdom form the main bulk of the Haig diet, already mentioned, which was founded on the uric acid theory. The general public liked to get hold of a theory like this and to talk about it and write to the magazines with an air of professional assurance. It is very satisfying to the general public, but perhaps hardly fair to uric acid, which had never been proved as the cause of all the illnesses ascribed to it. Uric acid is one of many v/aste products arising out of the chemical processes and cell charigec in tho body. It and its compounds happened to be most in evidence and most easily detected, and this had let it in for most of the blame. The chemical conditions which produced the uric acid and its allies might be at fault, but to blame this : ii, iit-id tt--, perhaps like blaming the ashes from the boiler of the factory engine for an impairment in the action of the machinery. The quality or quantity of the ash might' indicate faulty combustion, but that was all.

We might take it that primeval man was largely carnivorous. He had to hunt forhis living and by doing so worked off any excess of diet, distributed his nutrition, and kept his secretions moving. Civilised man was in the main muscularly inactive; he moved round in motor cars and railway trains, and any large pro-

portion of flesh in his diet was not only unnecessary but harmful. Besides, there were many-artificial aids to over-eating, great variety, good cooking, sweets and sauces, which induced one to go on- eating for the sake of the taste, after bodily requirements are fulfilled. To remain healthy man must therefore either have more exercise or diminish his intake. INDIVIDUAL BY-LAWS.

There was an almost inexplicable-va-riety in individual capacity for disposing of food. Every human interior had a set of by-laws of its own, and it was for every human being to find these out largely for himself. Hence the saying, "A man is either a fool or a physician at 40." If he hadn't found out by then what agreed and what disagreed with him he was a fool. But this selfconstituted physician should not make the mistake of insisting broadcast that what was correct for him was correct for everybody else. Therefore, if the members of the audience were well the speaker would not dictate to tliem what tliey should eat or drink. As they were grown up he could tell them the best means of keeping well—moderation, mastication, and regularity, with avoidance of nerve strain and worry. Thorough mastication of necessity entailed moderation. Benefit of food was not derived from the amount swallowed—in that case the more they ate the stronger they would get—but from the amount assimilated or converted into use after being swallowed. WORK FOR THE TEETH. „

The way to ensure assimilation was to get into the way of making the teeth •do all they could. This was really the only part of the process that we had! control over. ' Once food was swallowed j it was dealt with automatically, and, we hope, unobtrusively. This led up to the question of teeth, and of tooth decay, which, the speaker pointed out, was a most serious and generally much neglected factor in the ill-health of individuals. The teetlTof the savage were a great reproach to the teeth of the civilised nations. The causes of tooth decay were mentioned, the chief being non-use of the chewing faculties of the gums and jaws in childhood, owing to the widespread and continuous use of soft and especially of starchy and sugary foods.' The remedy was to give children hard biscuits, crusts, fibrous vegetables and fruits. It was pointed out that in adults the chief effect of decayed teeth was not toothache, but a long-continued daily contamination of all the fool swallowed and a continuous absorption of poisonous materials into the blood. The bad results were not always immediate, but usually of slow development, leading on the one hand to indigestion and flatulence, and on the other hand to slow destruction and deterioration of the blood, causing a very serious form of anaemia, or more usually painful conditions of the joints and tendons, miscalled rheumatism. It might seem rather farfetched to connect stiff knees and painful shoulders with teeth, but it was one of the incontestible facts of medicine. Teeth might be regarded as trivial things. A loose nut in the steering-gear of a motor car was also a trivial thing—if it were discovered in time. Therefore, if they wished to remain fit and springy up to old age, they must have their teeth kept in proper order and hopeless ones removed. No one was too old to have unhealthy teeth taken out.

WORRY AND NERVE STRAIN were also important factors of modern life which interfere with digestion and health. It was pointed out that digestion depended on the efficiency of the digestive juices, and the efficiency of these was dependent on the integrity of the nervous system, 'which governed' the secretion of • them. Emotion,' fear. >vorrv. and nerve upsets in general would often prevent or pervert the proper formation and action of the digesting fluids-. The philosophical treatment of worry was advocated. "When you are feeling worried," said the doctor, "take worry itself on one side and consider it on its merits, or, rather, demerits, apart from the circumstance you are worrying about. Sav to yourielves, 'Worry, what is the use of it? It does not do anything to remedy the condition causing it. Therefore it is useless; it is worse than useless, for it upsets one's digestion, makes one ill, and less physically fit to remedy its cause.' Therefore dismiss it. Not easy, you will say. No; not at first, but it becomes easier if vou know the right way to practise it." In conclusion, the speaker remarked that he would, if thev desired it, at seme future meeting talk to them of a few further items bearing on personal health.