Temperance and Dietetics
157
Many a puny child, incapable of vigorous effort of mind or body, is
the victim of an impoverished diet. Grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables,
in proper combination, contain all the elements of nutrition; and when
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properly prepared, they constitute the diet that best promotes both
physical and mental strength.
There is need to consider not only the properties of the food but
its adaptation to the eater. Often food that can be eaten freely by
persons engaged in physical labor must be avoided by those whose
work is chiefly mental. Attention should be given also to the proper
combination of foods. By brain workers and others of sedentary
pursuits, but few kinds should be taken at a meal.
And overeating, even of the most wholesome food, is to be guarded
against. Nature can use no more than is required for building up the
various organs of the body, and excess clogs the system. Many a
student is supposed to have broken down from overstudy, when the
real cause was overeating. While proper attention is given to the laws
of health, there is little danger from mental taxation; but in many cases
of so-called mental failure it is the overcrowding of the stomach that
wearies the body and weakens the mind.
In most cases two meals a day are preferable to three. Supper, when
taken at an early hour, interferes with the digestion of the previous
meal. When taken later, it is not itself digested before bedtime. Thus
the stomach fails of securing proper rest. The sleep is disturbed, the
brain and nerves are wearied, the appetite for breakfast is impaired,
the whole system is unrefreshed and is unready for the day’s duties.
The importance of regularity in the time for eating and sleeping
should not be overlooked. Since the work of building up the body
takes place during the hours of rest, it is essential, especially in youth,
that sleep should be regular and abundant.
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So far as possible we should avoid hurried eating. The shorter the
time for a meal, the less should be eaten. It is better to omit a meal
than to eat without proper mastication.
Mealtime should be a season for social intercourse and refreshment.
Everything that can burden or irritate should be banished. Let trust
and kindliness and gratitude to the Giver of all good be cherished, and
the conversation will be cheerful, a pleasant flow of thought that will
uplift without wearying.