ABOUT HEALTH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10527, 15 January 1912, Page 7

ABOUT HEALTH.

LTo The Editor.'] (Sir, — About this everlasting problem of diet and its relationsnap to health, vide your issue of Friday, the sth iiis-t., there is aio doubt the article us ably written; but iam sorry to note the vein ot satire perinea ting its lines. Why descend to sarcasm. when dealing with a worid-wide weakness, through which, the writer admits finally, that many good and strong dives are wrecked? 'xllue point is this: How many lives are wrecked, or, at least, shortened, by over-eat-ing? i do wish co be moderate in any estimate, so J. venture to say, after due consideration, that the number would be somewhere over ?u peacent, of the eit'cuo [population, 'i'nis will doubtless seem, at first sight, to be an outrageous estimate; but, pick up almost any paper, and you wih read that ">Mir bo-iana-sSo, a respected (resident, died suddenly last night, of Iheart failure, at tue age of 66 years," or something to that effect, is do years old!? Certainly- not. It is* young, or, at least, it should be but the middle of the useful period of a man's life. Then wiry do "so many people die at foo, or thereabouts;'' it ! is not work—work prolongs life. I lit is not drmk, in the majority of I icases,. for excessive drinkers ponstiItute but a. small portion of the p«oI pie. ' You say that worry may play j a strong part m the (breaking down of a pe-rsonis health. Granted. Worry it'is, undoubtedly, in mauy._ cases, ihrough/t on by,over-eating, which upeets the diver and a lot more things tbemtpev included; and if a man is din ■ a bad' temper, 'he will worry. Wei, then, it looks as if the whole trouble I is largely. due to tinis almost uariver;sal weakness—over-eating. There is | mo doubt that the doctrines preached by Mr Llloyd Jones are excessive,' whale the amount of food consumed by the average person is also excessive. As in all controversies,. the middle course is doubtless fairly nw" the. mark, But af Mr Lloyd Jon«B oan, byi or precep/fc,. on©. - mankind, then, I say, let ham come forward, and all ihail to Ihim. I know ' practically nothing of medical science, but I do think over these matters sometimes. Of course, manv of +.li« aaedical fraternity will' ridicule , what I say j but this is not;going to deter me from saying things that may benefit my f(Movf men a little. Why do people get colds, for in stance ? I say, because ithey partake of a little more umirishment, than, the system requires. Why are colds, more prevalent during the winter ? Because people eat more at that season. .What is likely to be the ultimate result of a ; long, series of . successive colds ? Is I it not consumption-, least, serious lung trouble? Why is the Maori race more subject to lung .trouble than the European? Many will say, .Because they live in 'badly ventilated houses. I say, Because they habitually eat a little more .than the European. Wiiy. 'were .they not addicted to lung troubles whiie in. their savage istate? Not because, their huts were better ventilated,, certainly, but because "their food supply was often so precarious that they,, perforce, were compelled to undergo .prolonged fasts. Then,, does not faulty respiratory apparatus mean bad blood? And does not bad ibiood mean comparative inability on the part of the sysitem' to throw off any excess nutriment or .poison that' may' be clogging the [system? ." What'does the clogging • of. the system wttthlthose waste pro- J ducts mean? Does"it not mean grad- I uol ossification- of the/carthilagenous I tissues of the system? And what' does ossification of the carthikge I mean? Does it noti.mean. rheumat-' ism, the hardening 7 of the structures of the vascular system ? What does, the ossification of the vascuilar.'system mean? Does it not mean vari-. i cose veins, and worse than that—it means heart trouible. And wihat does heart trouble mean? It means generally, the cutting short of a useful/, ' career at a time of life altogether at variance with man's natural allotted ■ span. These reasonings would seem , to fdiow n-v unbroken' line of evidence , to prove the damning effect of what i term- our national curse, over-eat-ing. But, as further- proof of ili.r* ' soundness of the doctrines of wouldbe reformers such as Mr Lloyd Jones, there is another line of argument that anay be coupled with the above, viz.: unsuitable food. I have heard numbers :of the medical, fraternity state hi;inly and, conclusively that man is a ; carnivorous animal., I dispute this, I-largely. Where ■ are lv.s carnivorous ■ ; teeth? J£ .there are any, they certainly take a'minor position to his herbivorous ones; yet, fully half the 1 food .partaken of by a large n-umb&r j of the people is meat, in some form tor other. If iman is a carnivora, why has lie little or no power of eliminatj mg from the system the deadly,poisons contained in meat foods? Nature j ' is gcatftrailly tfairOy near the mark v.i these matters; but here, either man is mainly herbivorous, or Nature has i /made a blunder, and a terrible blunder it is "too, judging by results. I ami nob a vegetarian, nor do I eat meat the customary throe times a day. I eat a little meat, for I believe that the stimulating properties contained therein are conducive toward that' aggressive animal spirit that has'helped so largely to build up the British.race; but at the same time I am inclined to think that every pound of meat consumed quicken's, but -shortens my Oife by an ■unknown but certain period. (Now, if (the medical fraternity oan prove these 1 theories to be wrong, I bow to their'superior knowledge; but in doing so they'' must propound a better theory as to why men. die, .somewhere about* mid-way in their natural allotted span. If they wiW do this, I wil bow to their superior- knowledge -again, but at the same time will reserve the right to hold my head hixrher among my fellow men, in that I have (been instrumental in at last awakening that fraternity to a sense of their duty to mankind,, by virtue of their superior knowledge; for'is not the- silence from that quarter alWOfitfi jp'overbial? Of course, I am - quite aware of the fact that it is very ; difficult ito ilay down hard and fast • J rules in these matters, for constitu--1 tions vary about as inimcb, as charac- {' ters, and with regard to suitable and <l unißuitahle foods ,the question must jj be left largely to .people's own disI oretion, but in the matter of quani frity, rtbere can be out one conclusion.. ¥ The pernile use their owtn discretion, [' and a pretty, bash a large number of us make of it. Thanking you for your valuable space, and cordially inviting i- le-v'ery possible adverse criticism. — I ;* «,m. etc., > ' N.E.J.