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Diet and Health
209
uses little salt, avoids the use of pickles and spiced foods, and eats
an abundance of fruit.
Food should be eaten slowly and thoroughly chewed. This is
necessary in order that the saliva may mix properly with the food
and the digestive fluids be called into action. Another serious evil is
eating at improper times, as after violent or excessive exercise, when
one is exhausted or overheated. Immediately after eating there is a
strong demand upon the nervous energies, and when mind or body
is heavily taxed just before or just after eating, digestion is hindered.
When one is excited, anxious, or hurried, it is better not to eat until
rest or relief is found.
The stomach is closely related to the brain. When the brain is
constantly taxed and there is lack of physical exercise, even plain
food should be eaten sparingly. At mealtime cast off care and anxious
thought. Do not feel hurried. Eat slowly and be happy, with your
heart filled with gratitude to God for all His blessings.
Many who discard flesh meats and other gross and injurious arti-
cles think that because their food is simple and wholesome they may
indulge appetite without restraint. They eat to excess, sometimes
to gluttony. This is an error. The digestive organs should not be
burdened with a quantity or quality of food that will tax the system.
Custom has decreed that food shall be placed upon the table
in courses. Not knowing what is coming next, people may eat an
amount of food that perhaps is not best suited to them. When the
last course is brought on, they often venture to overstep the bounds
and take the tempting dessert, which, however, proves anything but
good for them. If all the food intended for a meal is placed on the
table at the beginning, one has opportunity to make the best choice.
Sometimes the result of overeating is felt at once. In other
cases there is no sensation of pain, but the digestive organs become
exhausted, and the foundation of physical strength is undermined.
The surplus food burdens the system and produces unhealthy,
feverish conditions. It calls an undue amount of blood to the stomach,
causing the limbs and extremities to chill quickly. It lays a heavy tax
on the digestive organs, and when these organs have accomplished
their task, there is a feeling of weakness or listlessness. Some who
are continually overeating think this all-gone feeling is hunger, but
it is caused by the overworked condition of the digestive organs. At