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Temperance and Dietetics
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nutrition. When 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, only a few kinds of food should be taken at a meal.
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. If 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 does not secure proper rest. The sleep
is disturbed, the brain and nerves are wearied, and the appetite for
breakfast is impaired. The whole system is unrefreshed and 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 when
one is young, that sleep should be regular and abundant.
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 relaxing and social occasion. Everything
that can burden or irritate should be avoided. Let trust and kind-
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liness 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.
The observance of temperance and regularity in all things has
a wonderful power. It will do more than circumstances or natural
endowments to promote that sweetness and serenity of disposition