Overeating. — "The feast is worse than the fast" if it tempts
the appetite beyond the legitimate needs of the body, or if it brings
together elements that the digestive organs are unable to cope with.
Overtaxation of the digestive organs is a bad form of dissipation,
and is said to be the cause of more disease, either directly or
indirectly, than is caused by all alcoholic dissipation combined.
Mr. W. Earl Flinn, well-known lecturer, says on this point:
"It is probable that in most civilized countries more people die
because of the failure of the body to eliminate the waste than
because of an inability to procure food necessary to sustain life.
Most of our ailments, as well as our constant failure to attain our
highest physical efficiency, are due to the accumulation of un-
healthy waste products which cannot be cleared away by the body
machinery." — Elmira "Star Gazette," November 8, 1911.
The United States Public Health Service says of the evils of
overeating :
"Gluttony, always at fault, is all the more glaring in a land
where a plentiful food supply permits it to be more general. The
sallow, fat cheeks, the aching joints and irascible temper of the
prosperous overfed are far too common." — "Health News," Janu-
ary 31, 1917.
Drinking at Meals. — The practice of washing the food down
with drink at mealtime is detrimental to health, for well established
scientific reasons. It hinders the flow of saliva ; it dilutes the gas-
tric juice; encourages poor chewing; causes hasty eating; induces
overeating; and when drink is taken cold or iced, stops digestion.
Artificial Stimulants. — Stimulants are great deceivers, because
of the immediate effect they have upon the body. By their use,
a weak person is temporarily made to feel strong; not because
82
SCIENCE of FOOD a*f COOKERY
they impart strength to the body, for this they are unable to do,
but because they whip up the flagged energies to increased action.
They draw upon the reserve strength, and are but a short cut to
physical bankruptcy. As to the deceptive nature of popular
stimulants, Dr. Alexander Haig says:
"Stimulation is not strength, but force rendered a little more
quickly available, and is invariably followed by an exactly corre-
sponding amount of depression, when the force is used up and
must be replaced."
"It has been truly said that the man who relies upon stimulants
for strength is lost, for he is drawing upon a reserve fund which
is not completely replaced, and physiological bankruptcy must
inevitably ensue. This is what stimulants, such as tea, coffee,
alcohol, tobacco, opium, and cocaine, do for those who trust in
them ; they none of them introduce albumen, available for con-
version into force and urea, they merely aid in the calling out
of the reserves." — "Diet and Food," pages 40, 123.
Meat is stimulating, on account of the presence of certain waste
and poisonous substances always found in animal flesh. One can
get the same exhilaration from a cup of beef tea as from brandy.
Wash the excretory products out of meat and it is tasteless and
insipid. These artificial stimulants create abnormal appetite, usu-
ally mistaken for hunger, with the result that the digestive organs
are burdened with a quantity of food -which the system will be
taxed to dispose of.
Page 45
Presented as published in 1921. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Overeating. — "The feast is worse than the fast" if it tempts the appetite beyond the legitimate needs of the body, or if it brings together elements that the digestive organs are unable to cope with. Overtaxation of the digestive organs is a bad form of dissipation, and is said to be the cause of more disease, either directly or indirectly, than is caused by all alcoholic dissipation combined. Mr. W. Earl Flinn, well-known lecturer, says on this point:
"It is probable that in most civilized countries more people die because of the failure of the body to eliminate the waste than because of an inability to procure food necessary to sustain life. Most of our ailments, as well as our constant failure to attain our highest physical efficiency, are due to the accumulation of unhealthy waste products which cannot be cleared away by the body machinery." — Elmira "Star Gazette," November 8, 1911.
The United States Public Health Service says of the evils of overeating :
"Gluttony, always at fault, is all the more glaring in a land where a plentiful food supply permits it to be more general. The sallow, fat cheeks, the aching joints and irascible temper of the prosperous overfed are far too common." — "Health News," January 31, 1917.
Drinking at Meals. — The practice of washing the food down with drink at mealtime is detrimental to health, for well established scientific reasons. It hinders the flow of saliva ; it dilutes the gastric juice; encourages poor chewing; causes hasty eating; induces overeating; and when drink is taken cold or iced, stops digestion.
Artificial Stimulants. — Stimulants are great deceivers, because of the immediate effect they have upon the body. By their use, a weak person is temporarily made to feel strong; not because
they impart strength to the body, for this they are unable to do, but because they whip up the flagged energies to increased action. They draw upon the reserve strength, and are but a short cut to physical bankruptcy. As to the deceptive nature of popular stimulants, Dr. Alexander Haig says:
"Stimulation is not strength, but force rendered a little more quickly available, and is invariably followed by an exactly corresponding amount of depression, when the force is used up and must be replaced."
"It has been truly said that the man who relies upon stimulants for strength is lost, for he is drawing upon a reserve fund which is not completely replaced, and physiological bankruptcy must inevitably ensue. This is what stimulants, such as tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, opium, and cocaine, do for those who trust in them ; they none of them introduce albumen, available for conversion into force and urea, they merely aid in the calling out of the reserves." — "Diet and Food," pages 40, 123.
Meat is stimulating, on account of the presence of certain waste and poisonous substances always found in animal flesh. One can get the same exhilaration from a cup of beef tea as from brandy. Wash the excretory products out of meat and it is tasteless and insipid. These artificial stimulants create abnormal appetite, usually mistaken for hunger, with the result that the digestive organs are burdened with a quantity of food -which the system will be taxed to dispose of.