WHAT TO EAT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 2 October 1913, Page 2

WHAT TO EAT.

A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING. 1 Under the title, "Eating to Live," Edwin F. Bowers, M.D., writes an entertaining and informative article in the Mew York Tribune, from which we make the following extracts: — \ f The normal, appetite is a trust worthy guide. In general, what one craves is usually what he ought to have ; not perhaps in the form he craves it, but at any rate in its chemical constituents. If, for instance, a young girl strongly''desires chalk and slate pencils, give them, to her —in the form of foods rich in lime. If a child—and all normal growing children share in this—demands can- ■ dy, see that he is supplied with plenty of sugar in wholesome form. The chemistry of the body requires these things, and nothing but good can come from supplying them in treasonable amount. The generally accepted idea as to the amount of food required is that "a little top much is' just enough.". It ascends from here to "stuff in all, you can hold." We lose sight of the fact that the system only needs sufficient food to repair wasted tissue, furnish energy and heat., and store reserve material, in the form of fat, for a rainy day; also that it is the amount digested and assimilated, not the total quantity ingested, that should govern the size of the meal that we inflict upon oxtr over-distend-ed stomachs. No hard and fast rule can be laid down that will regulate this matter. Therein the patient must minister himself, and he his.own judge, or executor, as the case may be. However, the general rule might profitably be adopted of always rising from the table with a feeling that, if the worst came to the worst, one could be capable of stowing away another portion of pie or a dish of j desert. This allows a wide latitude for variation. Eel appetite tell. BE MODERATE. Everyone who can-, afford it—or, let us say, everyone who is willing to render society service in return—should be well nourished. This does not mean to the point of plethora. Nor does it mean "getting up hungry from the table," which our extremist promulgate as the be-all and, end-all of dietetic philosophy; for chronic under-eating is almost as pernicious as perpetual gorging; al- ' most—but not quite—for the Gorge Route leads to the undertaker's by the most 'direct road. But, other things being equal, the moderate eater who gets up from Ffie table feeling that the last word has not yet been said €6 his stomach, will get up for a good many years longer than the appreciative man who has packed, his food receptacle against the wall of his abdominal cavity and made it cry, "Hold—enough I" By carrying out this principle, the clerk or business man of sedentary habits can accurately gauge just about how much more liberal he ought to be to his hunger when the results of deep breathing, hard tramping, / and the out of doors vacation time call across the waste of famished cells. In approaching these mosques of prejudice—vegetarianism, animalism, . fruit, nut, and breakfast foodarianism, we advance with trepidation, hat under one arm, shoes under the oth- - er ,for here we tread on dangerous ground. There is nothing the dyed- . in the wool faddist so firmly believes as in the accuracy of his diet judg- ■ ment—unless it be the fallacy of yours. A WELL-ROUNDED DIETARY. It us almost impossible to get one who lives on nuts and other squirrel food, fruit, cereals, or vegitages exclusively, to understand that a well-rounded dietary is the only sensible one. And right here it may be profit- ' able to remember that vegetarianism is the diet of enslaved, unprogressive I ami conquered races; and a diet rich I

in meat is that of the progressive, the dominant, and the conquering stocks. Nature knew what she was doing when she so constructed man that he would eat anything that didn't eat him first. If food satisfies the two great but neglected senses of smell and taste, it is usually good to eat. Perhaps the best system of diet is to take a little of everything—not too little, nor yet too much—omitting all those foods which experience has shown us to be harmful. And almost everything has its use. Sometimes it may be indispensable, as with frui?, acids, or the alkalisjt of vegetables. Scurvy and grave constitutional disorders result from lack of them. Even our milk eyed and modest potato may possess virtues for which we have given it little credit. If the recent announcement that cancer is due to a deficiency of potash salts is true, our reprehensible practice of undressing this succulent vegetable before plunging it .into the pot has been severely punished. For, if there is any basis, for. the theory, we have been boiling out the very elements that rendered us immune to the dread disease. Af anyrate, cancer is markedly on the increase—and so is the practice of boiling undressed potatoes.