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Diet and Health
211
harmful to those who are sluggish in temperament. These should
eat sparingly and take plenty of physical exercise. There are men
and women of excellent natural ability who do not accomplish half
what they might if they would exercise self-control in the denial of
appetite.
Many writers and speakers fail here. After eating heartily, they
give themselves to sedentary occupations, reading, studying, or
writing, allowing no time for physical exercise. As a consequence,
the free flow of thought and words is checked. They cannot write
or speak with the force and intensity necessary in order to reach the
heart. Their efforts are tame and fruitless.
Those upon whom rest important responsibilities, those, above
all, who are guardians of spiritual interests, should be persons of
keen feeling and quick perception. More than others, they need to be
temperate in eating. Rich and luxurious food should have no place
on their tables.
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Every day people in positions of trust have decisions to make
upon which depend results of great importance. Often they have to
think rapidly, and they can do this successfully only if they practice
strict temperance. The mind strengthens under the correct treatment
of the physical and mental powers. If the strain is not too great, new
vigor comes with every taxation. But often the work of those who
have important plans to consider and important decisions to make
is affected for evil by the results of improper diet. A disordered
stomach produces a disordered, uncertain state of mind. Often it
causes irritability, harshness, or injustice. Many a plan that would
have been a blessing to the world has been discarded, many unjust,
oppressive, even cruel measures have been enacted as the result of
diseased conditions due to wrong habits of eating.
Let all whose work is sedentary or chiefly mental and who have
sufficient moral courage and self-control try the following sugges-
tion: At each meal take only two or three kinds of simple food, and
eat no more than is required to satisfy hunger. Take active exercise
every day, and see if you do not receive benefit.
Strong men who are engaged in active physical labor are not
compelled to be as careful as to the quantity or quality of their food
as are persons of sedentary habits, but even these would have better
health if they would practice self-control in eating and drinking.