Dieting

“ In towns we often observe the bad effects of over feeding in young female servants recently arrived from the country. From being accustomed to constant exercise in the open air, and to the comparatively innutritious diet on which the labouring classes subsist, they pass all at once, with appetite, digestion, and health in their fullest vigour, to the confinement of a house, to the impure atmosphere of a crowded city, and to a rich and stimulating diet. Appetite, still keen, is freely indulged ”

“ I eat only the simplest food, and in moderation—yet I will, sometimes, eat a little more than I need—some meals or some days—and will have a little headache, or, perhaps, an old tooth will ache, or there may be a little disturbance in the stomach; but whatever it is, I eat more moderately—sometimes go without a meal; and if anything more serious than I have named presents itself—lack of appetite, or a bad feeling at the stomach, or a bad headache—I go all day without eating, and keep about my work, as usual, or take a walk outdoors, and this plan always works a cure. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The more I study the question of nutrition in disease at the bedside of acute illness the more am I unable to comprehend the logic of giving the sick, and especially the very sick, a form of food that even in the most vigorous health cannot be borne, even for a single day, without a lowering of vital power; nay, that where even one meal of it cannot be put into the stomach of hunger without a clearly perceptible loss of power. ”

“ Then the same process of overfeeding recommences with renewed appetite and sensations of invigorated digestion, until in two or three, or five or six weeks, according to the ratio existing between the amount of food ingested and the habit of expending or eliminating it from the body, the recurring attack appears and again clears the system, and so on during several years of life. If the individual takes abundant exercise and expends much energy in the business of life, a large quantity of food can be properly disposed of. ”

“ The consequences are, that hunger soon returns, and the party must either have recourse to food between the usual time of meals, or suffer the consequences of imperfect nutrition. Exercise and labour, within certain limits, promote the healthy functions of the stomach and bowels, through the action of the muscles of the abdomen increasing the peristaltic motion of these viscera. An inordinate appetite in persons leading a sedentary life is generally indicative of the food passing off imperfectly digested, or of the coats of the stomach being relaxed, or even diseased. ”

“ Whereas, if we fulfil the laws of our constitution, by rising from bed in the morning, obtaining a healthy appetite and lively circulation by the regular exercise of the various functions of mind and body in a free and pure atmosphere, eating moderately, and enjoying social relaxation after our meals,—digestion will be so far strengthened, that no very rigid observance of any particular kind of diet will be necessary; it being always understood, however, that we shall not exceed in quantity what the wants of the system require. ”

“ What should be eaten at this meal? Everything and anything agreeable to the appetite and as much as one wants. Eat a mixed diet; the system needs all kinds of food from which to select the new fuel for its new release of interior substance, and a single diet will not satisfy the demands of the physical cells. ”

“ Any change in diet that carries with it the persuasion that for any reason digestion ought to be better, will, because of this, make digestion better. Any habit of taking warm or cold water before meals, or of chewing in a particular way, or of taking a particular kind of food different from what is usually taken—exclusively cereal, uncooked, largely fruit, vegetarian, etc.—will lift the concentration of attention on the digestive process, and so give the stomach a chance to do its work without interference from the brain. ”

“ These include diabetes, gout, arthritis, rheumatism, rickets, scurvy, obesity, emaciation, adiposis dolorosa, and various disorders of the liver, heart, and the circulatory system; also constipation and dozens of disorders under the broad term of autointoxication.
The first step in the practise of scientific eating should be to limit the quantity of food, or, in many cases, to take a complete fast for a brief time.
In the slow stages of human development, Nature seems to have accommodated herself to man's omnivorous habits of eating. ”

“ Following this direction, and aiming constantly, but comfortably, to maintain the balance between diet and labor—between the food eaten and the needs of the organism for nutriment—one may not only enjoy, as he ought, the pleasures of the table, but, in very many cases, absolutely and largely increase these pleasures, in the aggregate, considering, more especially, his exemption from sickness with its occasional involuntary fasts, and with many, the quite frequent periods of slight, or non-satisfaction, through nausea and lack of appetite arising from an injudicious dietary. ”

“ The evil to be corrected is imperfect nutrition, and the want of strength. The imperfect nutrition, however, is caused, not by deficient food, but by impaired powers of digestion and assimilation, and these suffer only because the lungs are denied the free air, the muscles their necessary exertion, the brain its cheerful recreation, and the circulation the healthy stimulus which these united conditions infallibly produce. ”

“ Now to make up for the daily waste of the other 15 elements, which form 35 per cent of the body tissues, and to support 63the necessary activities of the system, mental and physical, it is necessary every day to take a more or less even supply of substances, which we call food and drink, which should contain about the proper proportion of the requisite bodily components. Under normal conditions of healthy living the appetite ordinarily serves as a proper guide for health in man and beast, serving to regulate the selection of material to preserve the balance of nutrition. ”

“ When we go out to luncheon or have guests to dinner, matters of diet and digestion are talked of so freely that we seem to eat with a chart of the digestive tract before our mind's eye, and we suspiciously watch while innocent food, which unobserved might have given vitality and cheer, becomes a cause of weariness and depression. ”

“ In visiting lunatic asylums in this and other countries, I have been struck with the140 appearance of groups of patients—the similarity of their physique, as compared with the men and women seen on our streets every day—fat or lean, seldom medium—all exhibiting clearly the physical characteristics of disease, as emaciation, obesity, lack of, or ravenous, appetite, usually the latter. Meal-time comes every five or six hours, and if the appetite is good, all are permitted to eat very much in excess of their needs; they are urged to eat when they desire to fast ”

“ These inharmonious deposits which cause so much direct and indirect trouble are mainly, and probably entirely, the result of excess of eating, or of wrong eating, so that the digestive organs of the body cannot take care of what is forced on them; or, of admitting substances which they are powerless to make into [Pg 157] good blood or discharge by the regular means provided by nature.
Right eating and right food are, then, the all-important considerations of health, as far as the tissues are concerned ”

“ Food that will bring pain and suffering when taken by a tired stomach, may prove entirely nourishing when the stomach is rested and ready for it. In that case, the owner of the stomach has learned once for all never to give his digestive apparatus work to do when it is tired. Send a warm drink as a messenger to say that food is coming later, give yourself a little rest, and then eat your dinner. The fundamental laws of health in eating are very simple; their variations for individual needs must be discovered by each for himself. ”

“ Many of the cures effected by special diet. Habits of exercise, health resort regimes and the like, owe their efficacy to this accompanying repeated suggestion of acts for the formation of new habits or the breaking of old ones.
Physiological Measures.—There are, of course, certain details with regard to digestion in which the patient's mental attitude needs to be changed by instruction rather than persuasion, by knowledge of physiology rather than by psychology. In the taking of food itself, chewing is, of course, the most important consideration after its good preparation by the cook. ”

“ It strengthens the eyesight and increases the energy of the body, improves its power of digestion and heightens its glow and complexion. Fat is deranged by such acts as, an abuse of astringent, bitter, cold, parchifying or Vistambhi (indigestible food which remains stuffed in the stomach) substances, a voluntary repression of the natural urging for evacutions of the body, by excessive sexual indulgence, and fatiguing physical exercise, or by the draining action of any particular disease. ”

“ A healthy person, whose exercise is in pure air, may be accustomed to take more food than is necessary. The useless excess is removed from the system by the waste outlets, as the skin, lungs, liver, kidneys, &c. In such cases, if food is not taken in the usual quantity, there will be a feeling of emptiness, if not of hunger, from the want of the usual distention of the stomach. This condition of the digestive organs may be the result of disease, but it is more frequently produced by inordinate daily indulgence in eating, amounting almost to gluttony. ”

“ Entertaining books were thrown in its way, reading by the fireside encouraged, play and exercise neglected, the diet allowed to be full and heating, and the appetite pampered by every delicacy. The results were the speedy deterioration of a weak constitution, a high degree of nervous sensibility, deranged digestion, disordered bowels, defective nutrition, and, lastly, death, at the very time when the interest excited by the mental precocity was at its height. ”

“ A. Bodily exercise, especially in the open air.
Q. Is it best to eat simple food?
A. Yes. It is destructive of health to partake of many different dishes, or of such as are prepared with much art; for they are very difficult of digestion, and afford bad and unwholesome nourishment.
Q. If our food be not sufficiently chewed and converted into a pap-like substance, what is the consequence?
A It cannot be digested sufficiently; and undigested food yields bad nourishment to the body, overloads the stomach, and induces a weak, morbid state of the whole constitution. ”

“ Experience, indeed, amply demonstrates that precocious and excessive activity of intellect and vivacity of feeling are most powerful impediments to healthy and vigorous digestion, and consequently to a sufficient nutrition. In early life, therefore, when not only health but future usefulness depend mainly on the completeness and vigour with which the system shall proceed towards its full development, the preservation of the digestive organs by suitable diet, exercise, and regimen, ought to be a primary object of attention with every sensible parent. ”

“ Persons, whose solids are weak and relaxed, ought to avoid all viscid food, or such things as are hard of digestion. Their diet, however, ought to be nourishing; and they should take sufficient exercise in the open air.
71Such as abound with blood should be sparing in the use of every thing that is highly nourishing, as fat meat, rich wines, strong ale, and such like. Their food should consist chiefly of bread and other vegetable substances; and their drink ought to be water, whey, or small beer.
Fat people should not eat freely of oily nourishing diet. ”

“ When the body requires a given kind of diet, specially demanded by brain, lungs, or muscles, the appetite will crave food for it until the necessary amount of this article is secured. If, then, the food in which the needed aliment abounds is not supplied, other food will be taken in larger quantities than needed until that amount is gained. For all kinds of food have supplies for every want of the body, though in different proportions. ”

“ As experience is the best guide to knowledge, I may be allowed to add, that, when travelling on the Continent in health and strength, I suffered more from feverish fatigue and stomachic discomfort, induced by ignorant infringement of the laws of digestion, than I ever afterwards did, even from more continued exertion when travelling as an invalid under a better regulated system of diet. ”

“ All excretions from the patient should be buried, and not committed to privies to communicate disease to those who frequent them.
The Diet contains a very important relation to health. During the process of acute disease, the appetite is generally much impaired, if not entirely absent. It should then be the study of the nurse to devise such articles of nourishment as will [pg 381] be acceptable to the patient and suitable to the condition. The food should be light, nutritious, and easy of digestion.
Each individual disease requires a diet adapted to its peculiarities. ”

“ To overload feeble digestive organs is the surest way of preventing them from doing even as much work as they could do if they were allowed to work quietly. Again, a little wise starvation is Nature's cure, and the best for many complaints.
Diet as a Cure.—There are not a few diseases where the only hope of cure or alleviation lies in rigid abstention from some sorts of food. Diet can often cure where drugs are useless or worse. ”