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| Posted: 05 Aug 2006 19:00 | ||
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All agree that excessive indulgence in alcoholics is harmful physically,mentally and morally. We condemn the too free use of tea and coffee andnearly all other excesses. However, intemperate eating is consideredrespectable. A large part of our social life consists in partaking oftoo much food.
Medical text-books say that we must eat great quantities of food tomaintain strength and health. Humanity views the subject of eating fromthe wrong angle, and it will perhaps be many years before the majoritygets the right point of view. We should eat to live, but most of us eatto die. Benjamin Franklin said that we dig our graves with our teeth. Men and women band themselves into societies and associations for the purpose of decreasing or doing away with the use of tobacco andalcoholic drinks. They advocate temperance and even abstinence in theuse of those things which do not appeal to their own senses; but most ofthem are far from temperate in their eating. They have very keen visionwhen searching for weaknesses and faults in others, but are quitenear-sighted regarding their own. Is excessive indulgence in liquor any worse than overeating? Notaccording to nature's answer. The inebriate deteriorates and so does theglutton. Both cause race deterioration. Gluttony is more common thaninebriety and is responsible for more ills. Gluttony is often the causeof the tea, coffee, alcohol and drug habits. Overeating often causes somuch irritation that food does not satisfy the cravings, and then drugsare used. Improper eating, chiefly overeating, causes most of the ills to whichman is heir. If people would learn to be moderate in all things diseaseand early death would be very rare. It is quite important to combine foods properly, but the worstcombinations of food eaten in moderation are harmless, as compared tothe damage done by overeating of the best foods. Overeating is with us from the cradle to the grave. It shortens our days and fills them withwoe. There is a hoary belief that a pregnant woman must eat for two. The mothers have generally obeyed this dictum. The result is that women suffer greatly during pregnancy and at childbirth. The morning sickness,the aching back, the headache, the swollen legs and all of the discomforts and diseases from which civilized woman suffers during this period are mostly due to improper eating. Pregnancy and childbirth arephysiologic and are devoid of any great amount of discomfort, pain ordanger when women lead normal lives. The overeating affects both mother and child. The mothers are ofteninjured or lose their lives during childbirth. Sometimes labor is soprotracted that the child dies and at other times the baby is so largethat it can not be born naturally. The mother's suffering is frequently very great. In fact, it is at times so great that it is like athreatening storm cloud to many women, and some of them refuse to becomemothers for this reason. Babies born of normal mothers, who have lived moderately on anon-stimulating diet during gestation, are small. They rarely weigh more than six pounds. Their bones are flexible. The skull can easily bemoulded because the bones are very cartilaginous. The result is that childbirth is rapid and practically devoid of pain. However, there are very few normal mothers, and consequently normal babies are also rare. A heavy baby is never healthy. Its growth has been forced by excessivematernal feeding. It is no hardier than other growing things whichresult from hot-house methods. Such babies show early signs of catarrhalafflictions, indigestion or skin disease. Their bodies are filled withpoisons before they are born. Mothers who overeat invariably overfeed their babies. And why shouldthey do otherwise? Family, friends and physicians give the same advice: The mother must eat much to be able to feed the child, and the childmust be fed frequently in order to grow. It sounds very plausible, butit does not work well in practice. Why are babies cross? Why do they soon show catarrhal symptoms? Why dothey vomit so much? Why are they so subject to stomach and intestinaldisorders? Why do they have skin eruptions? Because they are overfed. The diseases of babies are almost entirely of digestive origin, and innearly every instance overfeeding is the cause. Statistics show thatabout one-fifth of the babies born die before they are one year old. Innearly every instance the parents are to blame. One's intentions may begood, but good intentions coupled with wrong actions are deadly toinfants. Oscar Wilde wrote, "We kill the thing we love." Parental lovetoo often takes the form of indulging them and so it happens thathundreds of thousands of little ones are placed in their coffinsannually through love. Each year about 280,000 babies under one year of age perish in theUnited States, according to estimates based on census figures. Outsideof accidental deaths, which are but a small per cent., the mortalityshould be practically nil. It is natural for children to be well, andhealthy children do not die. If an army of about 280,000 of our men andwomen were to perish in a spectacular manner each year it would causesuch sorrow and indignation that a remedy would soon be found. But weare so accustomed to the procession of little caskets to the grave thatit hardly arouses comment. It costs too much in every way to producelife to waste it so lavishly. Why do little children suffer so much from eruptive diseases, whoopingcough, tonsilitis, adenoids, diphtheria and numerous other diseases?Because they are overfed. The younger the child the greater is the percent. of disease due to wrong feeding. In adult life overeating andeating improperly otherwise are still the principal causes of disease.But during adult life the causation of disease is more complex than inchildhood, for the senses have been more fully developed and instead ofconfining our physical sins to overeating we fall prey to the abuse ofvarious appetites and passions. Vigorous adults are often the victims of pneumonia, typhoid fever andtuberculosis. Overeating is chiefly to blame, not the bacteria which aregiven as the principal cause. Rheumatism, kidney disease and diseases that manifest in hardening ofthe various tissues, all being forms of degeneration, are quite common.Again, the principal cause is overeating. There are a great number of people who live many years without anyspecial disease, but who are always on the brink of being ill. They arefull-blooded and too corpulent. Although they are often consideredsuccessful, they are never fully efficient either physically ormentally. They do not know what good health is, but they are soaccustomed to their state of toleration that they consider themselveshealthy. They are rather proud of their stoutness and their friendsmistake their precarious condition for health. These people often diesuddenly, and friends and acquaintances are very much surprised. Nohealthy man dies suddenly and unexpectedly except by accident. Instead of growing old gracefully, in possession of our senses andfaculties, we die prematurely or go into physical and mental decay.Bleary eyes, pettiness, childishness and lost mental faculties are nopart of nature's plan for advanced years. Those manifestations resultfrom man's improvement on nature! From birth to death we are victims of this terrible ogre of overeating.It deprives us of friends and relatives. It takes away our strength andhealth. It makes us mentally inefficient and cowardly. At last itdeprives us of life when our work is not half done and our days shouldnot be half run.Part 2 on my blog.blog |
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