Natural appetite

“ A careful observation and just views would be able, as a general thing without detriment, to wrest many an hour from vain, vulgar, useless, or harmful pursuits, to bestow it upon adornments and amenities that do not perish with the using. And if a man or a woman is so deteriorated as to prefer the indulgence of a coarse or frivolous appetite, or the inordinate indulgence of a merely natural appetite, to the gratification and cultivation of refined and elevated tastes,—the more’s the pity! ”

“ This is not a lecture directed against the fancy drink habit, or a temperance sermon, but just an illustration of the difference between a natural instinct and an acquired habit, or appetite. Appetite is an acquired habit of eating or drinking, and has but little to do with real hunger or thirst. ”

“ Application of Principles.—What is needed for the mental treatment of patients with defective appetite, is that they should be made to realize that appetite is a function of habit, rather than of absolute natural craving in the conditions in which men and women live at the present time. ”

“ I would say that any person who finds his appetite failing or fitful—sometimes poor, sometimes craving—and who has reason to fear the decline of his nutritive powers, will do well to make a radical change in his habits of living; and the sooner the better. The most pernicious custom of which I have any knowledge, yet one almost universal in the care of the sick, is that of “tempting the appetite,” concocting fancy or especially toothsome dishes, when nature is saying in the plainest manner that feeding has already been overdone. ”

“ If this is admitted, and the choice of the quantity and quality of food thrown on taste and appetite, we are at once provided with a natural means of ascertaining the body's actual wants from day to day. The phenomena that have resulted from the more thorough insalivation and mastication of food can only be described as remarkable and of the highest importance for the progress of that most important of all sciences, the right conduct of life. ”

“ A mind does not receive truth as a chest receives jewels that are put into it, but as the stomach takes up food into the system. It is no longer food, but flesh, and is assimilated. The appetite and the power of digestion measure our right to knowledge. He has it who can use it. As soon as our accumulation overruns our invention or power to use, the evils of intellectual gluttony begin,—congestion of the brain, apoplexy and strangulation. ”

“ Attend to the demands of appetite, but use all your judgment in determining whether it is a natural, undepraved craving of the system which speaks, or an acquired and vicious taste, and give or withhold accordingly; and, above all, never eat when you have no appetite. ”

“ If you once return to the natural habit of proper mastication, and experience the sensation that comes from proper eating, the abnormal appetites which have been acquired, will fall from you, and natural hunger will return. When natural hunger is with you, the instinct will be very keen in picking out nutritious food for you, and you will feel inclined toward that which will give you just the nourishment you need at any particular time. Man's instinct is a good guide, providing it has not been spoiled by the indulgence in the absurd dishes so common in these days, which create false appetite. ”

“ The natural appetites, as hunger, thirst, and the others, are likewise sensations excited in the mind by means of the nerves of the stomach, fauces, and other parts, and are entirely different from the will which we have to eat, drink, [and to do all that which we think proper for the conservation of our body] ”

“ The chief contention I make for natural nutrition is that the appetite is the only true indication of the bodily need, and you must interpret your own appetite both as to estimated quantity required and the sort of food craved. ”

“ Neither pain nor pleasure can be accepted as a guide. With the lower animals, indeed, these, for the most part tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Appetite is all that the creature has, and in the gratification of it the highest law of the animal being is fulfilled. In man, too, appetite has its own indispensable function to discharge. ”

“ This moving faculty is the other power of the sensitive soul, which causeth all those inward and outward animal motions in the body. It is divided into two faculties, the power of appetite, and of moving from place to place. This of appetite is threefold, so some will have it; natural, as it signifies any such inclination, as of a stone to fall downward, and such actions as retention, expulsion, which depend not on sense, but are vegetal, as the appetite of meat and drink; hunger and thirst. Sensitive is common to men and brutes. ”

“ There are people who have an appetite for grief, pleasure is not strong enough and they crave pain, mithridatic stomachs which must be fed on poisoned bread, natures so doomed that no prosperity can soothe their ragged and dishevelled desolation. ”

“ This desire of being filled is called the appetite, which arises from a sense of want, when the veins of the stomach absorb, and, as it were, suck from it, whereby a painful feeling is excited, the proper cure of which is a supply of food. ”

“ Appetite declares itself by languor in the stomach, and a slight sensation of fatigue.
The soul at the same time busies itself with things analogous to its wants; memory recalls food that has flattered its taste; imagination fancies that it sees them, and something like a dream takes place. This state is not without pleasure, and we have heard many adepts say, with joy in their heart, "What a pleasure it is to have a good appetite, when we are certain of a good meal." ”

“ Want of appetite is not always a morbid symptom, nor even a sign of imperfect digestion. Nature may have found it necessary to muster all the energies of our system for some special purpose, momentarily of paramount importance. ”

“ The appetite, the eager craving after food, is, indeed, a very complex sensation, and often not merely the need of the organism for food material is necessary for its excitement, but also a condition of thorough well-being, together with a normal healthy feeling in all parts of the digestive tract. ”

“ You may feel a feeling of faintness, all-goneness and an irresistible craving for food. These are mischievous pranks of a cultivated and pampered and artificial appetite. Drink water slowly but don't give your body anything else. Always keep before yourself the distinction between the regal "I—am—I" the soul and the carnal, sensating animal known as the body. ”

“ Children want food and drink before they know what it is they want, and birds in the nest, open their little mouths for the worm their mother brings them.
Appetites indulged in become strong, and are often uncontrolled by the reason and will; as the indulged appetite for liquor. A strong and healthy mind should [Pg 12] control the appetites, as we have learned it should control the emotions, and we are justly held responsible for the consequences of an indulged appetite. ”

“ Perhaps it is because it has been dinned into our ears from early childhood, that an appetite, a healthy longing for something good to eat, a tickling of the palate with wholesome, appetizing food, is beneath the attention of an aesthetic, intellectual man. ”

“ While speaking about too much food, it may be pointed out that the function of appetite is to inform us that the body is in need of nutriment. The appetite was intended by Nature for this purpose, yet how few people wait upon appetite! The generality of people eat by time, custom, habit, and sensual desire; not by appetite at all. If we eat when not hungry, and drink when not thirsty, we are doing the body no good but positive harm. ”

“ If it is your desire that your circulatory, respiratory, and digestive functions, should be discharged properly, normally, if you want your appetite to be good, your sleep sound, your humor equable, avoid all emotions that are over-strong, all pleasures that are too intense, and meet the inevitable sorrows and the cruel agonies of life with a resigned and firm soul. Ever have some occupation to employ and divert your mind, and to make it proof against the temptations of want or of desire. ”

“ It is known that withholding food from the organism, or in other words the creation of a necessity for food, does not lead immediately, nor in all cases, to the production of an appetite, to a passionate craving for food. How often does it happen that the ordinary hour for a meal has struck, and yet, owing to some keenly interesting occupation, not the least desire for food is felt? It is known to everybody, indeed it has become a proverb, that real appetite first sets in with eating. ”

“ Thirst for water will assert itself for a moment, sometimes asking but a drop and again for a full glass ; and, afterwards, when near the point of complete saturation, appetite will hesitate for a moment, as if searching around for some rare substance and may find its final satisfaction in a single spoonful of sweet, or of a sip of something in sight. "The appetite, satisfied by the infiltering process, is a sweetly appeased appetite, calm, rested, contented, normal. ”

“ The eagerness of appetite that one can fairly see in the watery and sensual eyes of men to whom eating has become the aim and joy of their existence—the absorption of every faculty in the gluttonous pursuit—the animal indulgence and delight—these are sickening ”

“ That is why I wish you, while children, to train your Taste, or appetite, so he will only call for the things which are best for your bodies, and so you will form no bad habits of eating and drinking. ”

“ Yet numbers of people attempt to justify the gratification of their gluttonous proclivities by the statement that they are "blessed with a good appetite," while the truth of the matter is, they are cursed with an inordinate lust for food. ”

“ Of course, the eating must be substantial, but the adventitious appetites accomplish nothing and they may be not only intemperate and damaging to health but even unmoral. Yet it is not alone the simplicity of the daily fare that interests me here, but the necessity that it shall be as direct as possible from the ground or the sea, and that it shall be undisguised and shall have meaning beyond the satisfying of the appetite. ”

“ Every man who eats his meal slowly and deliberately,—not forgetting the mill,—has had enough when his appetite is satisfied. Appetite really is Nature’s own guard. It is ruled, not by the state of the stomach, but by the condition of the blood. When so much blood has been taken from the supply-pipes of your body, by the working parts, that those pipes begin to be comparatively empty, their emptiness makes itself felt in your frame as hunger. Obedient to the hint, you find up food and eat. But while you are eating what happens? First you seize the food with all the keen relish of a hungry man. ”

“ It is a thing of the body, and provided the body remains healthy and exuberant, the pleasures it provides are never hackneyed. Given a fair appetite and a healthy digestion, and bread-and-butter will remain a joy for ever. ”

“ Let us take eating as a specimen, remembering, however, that everything we say about the appetite for food is equally true of all the other elementary appetites, such as those that deal with drink, sex, dress, property, amusement, and the like. ”

“ The appetite is the true criterion by which he may know what his body needs. If he feels a thirst for alcoholic drink, it is akin to a hunger for any special class of foods. He is not to ask his servant, the stomach, whether it is willing to do the work of transformation. ”

“ It follows then that our bodies are made of the food we eat. Evidently it was the design of our Creator that the prime object of eating should be the building up of tissue—muscles, bones and brains. That this may be a pleasure to us, He has associated with eating the delights of appetite. But most of us have so far perverted the divine order as to make the pleasures of appetite the chief object of eating. “Give us something good to eat,” is the great cry of humanity, and the goodness of food is gauged by the sensations of the palate and not by the law of nutrition. ”

“ I eat sufficient to satisfy my appetite, which certainly is not a very great one; I do not suffer from exposure to cold; I work all day, singing as merrily as a lark; and at night I sleep like a dormouse. ”

“ There is a proverb which says—"The appetite comes with eating." I do not advise you to follow this proverb too closely at dinner, for it might mislead you sadly. But it is always true when applied to learning; it is what one knows already that gives one a taste for learning more. If I have been making you bite at the organs to-day, which is rather a tough morsel, it was because I fancied that your appetite had begun to come. Was I wrong?
Let us now return to the blood which nourishes the organs. ”

“ Loss of sleep and appetite do not invariably occur from an attack of the “grand passion,” but they have been known to follow in its wake. Perhaps your food is not well chosen, and that you need fresh air and exercise, or perhaps a tonic. ”

“ We are all familiar with the fact that good news and cheerful surroundings promote a normal appetite, while bad news, depressing surroundings, etc., will cause the loss of the appetite. The mention of some favourite dish will make the mouth water, and the recollection of some unpleasant experience or sight may produce nausea. ”