HOW TO KEEP FIT.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 October 1922, Page 10

HOW TO KEEP FIT.

TOO AIUCH EATING. REGULATION OF DIET. MEDICAL MEN’S VIEWS. London, May 18. Dr. Cecil Webb-Johnson, of Harley Street, maintains that it is as impossible to lay down any fixed rules to regulate diet as it is to pretend to predicate the 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 mile —other things being equal—the more perfect the engine; so is the rule true, speaking generally, of the human body’s need for food and sleep. Writing from experience culiad as well from his own personal habits as from those of his patient, 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; (3) never eat unless you have a good appetite; (4) do not eat if feeling ill; wait for the return of a healthy appetite. Nature will remind you when you require more food; (5) vary the amount of food you eat each day according to what you have “earned.” A hard day’s work will entitle you to 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) never 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:—The amount of physical and mental energy that person expends; the climate in which he lives; the quality and kind of food he affects; his moral fibre—the greedy eat for the sake of eating as others, and unfortunately many, drink for the 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 nseds 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 is 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, and 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 immoderation. Ordinarily,. in Cold weather, two meals a day are sufficient for anybody, but in hot weather one meal alone is enough. Don’t eat between meals. Snacks are injurious. and chocolate eaters have no jurisdiction for their habit. The less you eat (up to a certain 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 days ago. Dempsey, the boxer, who. I suppose, is one o-f 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 in 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. Fasting is not a fad, but an extremely useful practice. I have fasted for eight or nine days, 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. x A man who is fasting need not be weak if he takes exercise. He becomes stronger and less liable to contract disease.

“We are slaves to the exploded doctrine 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 are not hungry. We should be more thoughtful in the choice of the food that we eat.” FALLACY OF A “DRY” DIET. Dr. W. Yorke-Davies, also of Harley Street, is an advocate of plenty of fluid, which is such an important factor in health. He holds that the majority of people drink far too little fluid and it is not surprising that there are so many sufferers from rheumatism, gout, indigestion, etc. Plenty of harmless fluid is most desirable, so as to help eliminate waste products from the system. So many people avoid drinking at meals, as they imagine it leads to or increases corpulency. This is a fallacy. It is certainly a great hardship. To himself a dinner without drink would be an impossibility. “I could not get it down,” he says. “T certainly could not enjoy it. Good wine increases the flow of the gastric juices and aids digestion. Claret and other red wines are digestive agents of a high order.