“FAMILY ACIDITY”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1939, Page 10

“FAMILY ACIDITY”

HARD TO CURE. There is no doubt that “family acidity” is the hardest to cure, particularly in the case of rheumatism. It demands a systematically and rigidly controlled diet, and the absolute avoidance of provocative foods. Are you bolting your food and feeding at irregular intervals? Do try to keep to a definite meal-time and eat very little if you are in a hurry. Don’t bolt. Food that is not chewed forms acidity. Are you over-eating? Unless you are taking tremendous physical exercise, the following is ample for any man or woman a day: Five ounces meat (or Boz. fish—fresh fish, not salt), 3 pints milk, 21b. vegetables (not including potatoes), lib. fruit, half a loaf bread, 2oz. butter, 3oz. cream or other cheese, 1 egg and at least 3 pints of water. Over-eating leads to acidity. Breakfast should be light, and preferably of fruit. Lunch should be light, if you are the breadwinner and can only snatch a half-hour or so. Dinner, when work is behind you, should be the heaviest meal of the day. What is your ration of fresh air and exercise? It should be at least one hour a day. And that is not counting running for buses on the way to the office, but running on a tennis court, swimming, rowing or walking. Even gardening doesn’t count in exercise, unless you are mowing a lawn, for it is unrhythmic and too slow. Cultivate a healthy regard for draughts; and do air your sheets. Damp and draughts foster colds—in the joints, in a nerve, in the head or in the stomach. Colds engender acids. Lastly, worry and strain make more acid than all the rest put together, but no one can tell you how to settle that but yourself. Just remember that, however bad the situation, making yourself ill won’t do any good.