Eugene Christian

“ Hunger is the normal demand for food, expressed through the salivary glands. Appetite is the desire for liquor, coffee, tobacco, morphin, etc., and for food when one habitually overeats. It is expressed by an empty feeling or craving in the stomach, while hunger is felt only in the salivary glands, and in the region of the throat and the mouth. Appetite weakens the body; hunger stimulates thought and action.
Normal hunger can be produced by limiting the quantity of food below the actual needs of the body, for three or four days, or perhaps a week. ”

“ Every atom of solid food herein named should be masticated to infinite fineness. Do not overeat; eat slowly and do not engage in animated conversation while eating.
Every morning and every evening, immediately on rising and just before retiring, devote from three to five minutes to vigorous deep breathing exercises. If the bowels are constipated, take a tablespoonful of wheat bran on rising; also a small bunch of grapes and a glass of water. Take a spoonful or two of wheat bran, cooked, with the breakfast and evening meals, and another spoonful in hot water just before retiring. ”

“ Water performs another very valuable service. When one eats too many sweets, he should drink an abundance of water. This prevents stomach-acidity, and consequent fermentation and irritation of the mucous lining of the stomach. It also prevents torpidity of the liver, which usually follows the excessive use of sweets.
Two or three glasses of water taken at an ordinary meal will all be retained and used by the body, while the same quantity of water taken from two to three hours after a meal, will nearly all pass off in the form of urine. ”

“ Avoid sweets, especially sweet soda-fountain drinks. Sugar is composed largely of carbon, and carbon is one of Nature’s greatest heat-makers.
Confine the diet largely to semi-acid fruits, fresh vegetables, green salads, milk, eggs, nuts, and a very limited quantity of bread and cereal products.
Cereal starch is the most difficult of all carbohydrate matter to digest.
Drink an abundance of pure water at meals and between meals. ”

“ Add half a glass of milk to each egg and drink slowly
LUNCHEON
A small portion of wheat bran, cooked
A pint and a half of junket, taken slowly
One bran meal gem
DINNER
Carrots or winter squash
A small portion of tender fish or a whipped egg
A baked potato
A cup of cool water
[Pg 946]
To increase vital energy depends not so much upon the quantity as upon the amount of food ingested or assimilated. These menus are rather light for one of low vitality, but they are made to meet the requirements of one suffering from nervousness and insomnia. ”

“ He should swallow the seeds and pulp whole, and masticate and swallow the skins. He should eat plenty of fresh eggs, fresh milk, and ripe, sweet grapes. The milk and the eggs are good tissue-building foods, while sugar is a carbohydrate and makes a good winter food. The grapes are full of grape-sugar, which is an excellent nutrient, and also an aid to the digestion of other foods. ”

“ Eggs, milk, and sugar are the most readily convertible nutrients known to the science of food chemistry. In combination they represent the highest form of the nitrogenous (proteids and the carbohydrate) compounds, therefore to increase physical efficiency one should take as much of these as possible. ”

“ When a quantity of food, greater than the body can use, is taken and ingested into the circulation, the excess is carried to the lungs in the same manner as above described, and the same form of congestion and elimination takes place ”

“ At least an hour during the day should be devoted to moderate exercise and deep breathing.
In all conditions of malassimilation, there is more or less autointoxication. If the diet has been leveled or balanced, the next most important thing is exercise. The best balanced menus will not be effective in removing the causes of these conditions unless there is sufficient time devoted to exercise to create natural hunger. ”

“ There is nothing more valuable in the treatment of lung trouble than extreme deep breathing. After pure blood is made, the way to keep it pure is to keep it charged with oxygen, and the only way to do this is to breathe an abundance of fresh air into the lungs.
BREAKFAST
A bunch of grapes
Three or four eggs, whipped five or six minutes, into which whip a teaspoonful of sugar, and a teaspoonful of Cognac brandy or lemon juice, to each egg
Note: The brandy is germicidal and aids in the digestion of the egg yolks. ”

“ Whole wheat, thoroughly cooked
Two bananas, baked, if not very ripe; serve with cream and either nut butter or nuts
LUNCHEON
Baked beans, with sauce of olive-oil, lemon juice and sugar
A cup of chocolate
DINNER
A green salad
Smelts, or any young or tender fish
A potato
An onion
Gelatin, with fruit
Vigorous exercise and deep breathing are very necessary both in decreasing weight and increasing strength. ”

“ Avoid meat of all kinds, and eat a very limited quantity of fats.
By all means do not overeat. Every atom of food taken into the body that is not used must be cast off at a tremendous expense of energy. ”

“ Exercise and deep breathing are second in importance to diet, and should be taken daily, night and morning.
Drink from one to two glasses of water at each meal, but do not take water into the mouth until mastication is perfect. ”

“ These things control her health almost completely, and inasmuch as all mental conditions are principally governed by health, the intellectual faculties of the child are shaped largely by the condition of the mother’s digestion. It is obvious, therefore, that the health of the mother and the entire future of the child depend more upon her diet during pregnancy than upon any other one thing. ”

“ A salad of lettuce, tomatoes, and nuts
Green corn
Onions, en casserole
Rice steamed with raisins; serve with butter or cream
[Pg 1091]
WINTER MENU
ATHLETIC DIET
An orange, on rising
BREAKFAST
Baked chestnuts, with butter
Two or three eggs, whipped; add sugar to taste
A whole wheat muffin
A banana, with dates and cream
LUNCHEON
Baked beans
Milk
DINNER
Soup—cream of pea or corn
Squash or stewed pumpkin
Fish or an omelet
Corn bread, with butter or oil
Ripe olives, celery, nuts, and raisins
The primary purpose of fat in the diet is to produce body-heat. ”

“ The poisons that are constantly being eliminated through the pores are thus prevented from escaping through these channels, and are picked up by the circulation, and carried to the lungs to be burned with oxygen. The lung capacity being too limited, or the amount of poison too great, Nature suppurates these poisons and throws them off in the form of mucus. ”

“ Cream of rice soup
Two fresh vegetables
A potato or bran meal gems
Milk or cheese
Nuts and raisins
[Pg 1040]
THE NURSING MOTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR THE DIET
The nursing mother should omit all acid fruits, pickles, and condiments containing vinegar. She should eat sparingly of sweets, especially of the pastry and soda-fountain variety. She should omit such vegetables as radishes, cucumbers, cabbage, and sourcrout.
Fresh corn and dried beans often produce serious intestinal trouble in the young child. Eggs should never be eaten when there is the slightest fever. ”

“ Same as the second, slightly increasing the food if demanded by normal hunger, or decreasing it if there is a sense of fullness after meals. It is always well to cease eating before hunger is thoroughly satisfied. When the body is kept slightly hungry, it assimilates all the food eaten, and insures natural digestion and elimination of waste. ”

“ Onions, beans, carrots, or parsnips—any two of these
One or two eggs, whipped
A portion of wheat bran, cooked, or the whole wheat might be boiled until the grains burst open, and served with butter and cream. This is the best form in which cereal can be taken
[Pg 989]
MENUS FOR CONSUMPTION WEAK LUNGS—CONSUMPTION
For many centuries consumption, or the various forms of tuberculosis have preyed upon the human race, yet science has so far failed to give us one reliable artificial remedy. We must perforce turn to Nature, the only remedy now known being oxygen or common air. ”

“ TISSUE—REGULATING BOWELS
First Day: The first thing after rising, give the body a thorough rubbing with a coarse towel or flesh brush, and a gentle massage. Do not use water except on the face and hands.
BREAKFAST
Whip two fresh eggs very fine, adding slowly, while whipping, two teaspoonfuls of sugar, two and one-half teaspoonfuls of lemon juice, and two tablespoonfuls of cream. Add half a glass of milk to each egg and mix thoroughly
At usual breakfast hour begin taking not more than half a glass at first ”