American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian HomesStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Home economics
Many students and women using little exercise in the open air, grow
thin and weak, because the vital powers are exhausted in throwing off
excess of food, especially of the carbonaceous. The liver is especially
taxed in such cases, being unable to remove all the excess of
carbonaceous matter from, the blood, and thus "biliousness" ensues,
particularly on the approach of warm weather, when the air brings less
oxygen than in cold.
It is found, by experiment, that the supply of gastric juice, furnished
from the blood by the arteries of the stomach, is proportioned, not
to the amount of food put into the stomach, but to the wants of the
body; so that it is possible to put much more into the stomach than
can be digested. To guide and regulate in this matter, the sensation
called _hunger_ is provided. In a healthy state of the body, as
soon as the blood has lost its nutritive supplies, the craving of
hunger is felt, and then, if the food is suitable, and is taken in the
proper manner, this sensation ceases as soon as the stomach has received
enough to supply the wants of the system. But our benevolent Creator,
in this, as in our other duties, has connected enjoyment with the
operation needful to sustain our bodies. In addition to the allaying
of hunger, the gratification of the palate is secured by the immense
variety of food, some articles of which are far more agreeable than
others.
This arrangement of Providence, designed for our happiness, has become,
either through ignorance, or want of self-control, the chief cause of
the many diseases and suffering which afflict those classes who have
the means of seeking a variety to gratify the palate. If mankind had
only one article of food, and only water to drink, though they would
have less enjoyment in eating, they would never be tempted to put any
more into the stomach than the calls of hunger require. But the customs
of society, which present an incessant change, and a great variety of
food, with those various condiments which stimulate appetite, lead
almost every person very frequently to eat merely to gratify the palate,
after the stomach has been abundantly supplied, so that hunger has
ceased.
When too great a supply of food is put into the stomach, the gastric
juice dissolves only that portion which the wants of the system demand.
Most of the remainder is ejected, in an unprepared state; the absorbents
take portions of it into the system; and all the various functions of
the body, which depend on the ministries of the blood, are thus
gradually and imperceptibly injured. Very often, intemperance in eating
produces immediate results, such as colic, headaches, pains of
indigestion, and vertigo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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