Fletcherism: What It Is; Or, How I Became Young at SixtyFletcher, Horace
Science
Fletcherism: What It Is; Or, How I Became Young at Sixty
Fletcher, Horace
Mastication; Nutrition
The ordinary person will probably find his appetite leaning towards
the simplest of foods, and away from frequency of indulgence. If the
breakfast is postponed until a real, earned appetite has been secured,
the mid-day or later breakfast (remember always that breakfast means
the first meal of the day, no matter when taken) will be so enjoyable a
meal, and the appetite will be so entirely satisfied that there will
be no more demand for food until evening, and possibly not even then.
HOW MANY MEALS A DAY?
I am often asked if it is true that I eat only two meals a day; that I
never eat breakfast, and why I have dropped that meal.
I have two meals a day more habitually than any other number, but not
with any prescribed regularity, for the reason that my activities are
most irregular at times, and my appetite accommodates itself to my
needs.
When I am doing work under the most favourable of conditions, one meal
a day is the rhythm best appreciated by my body. But the question
of "How many meals a day?" is tantamount to the inquiry as to the
amount of sleep needed: it is a matter of satisfaction of the natural
requirements. The harder one works, the faster one runs, etc., the
more air he needs. The same applies to the need for food according to
the amount of heat eliminated, and the repair material consumed. The
really hardest work that anybody does is done within the body. Muscular
effort in normal conditions is not so waste-provoking and exacting as
getting rid of excess of food and the counteraction of worry or anger.
Likewise, idleness begets uneasiness, uneasiness begets desire for
something (nobody knows just what), and groping around for "Don't know
what" causes the temptation to eat and drink something which the body
does not need; and then the really hard work of the body begins in the
attempt of Nature to get rid of the excess. Excess of water can be
thrown off in perspiration with comparative ease, but with excess of
food it is different. The kidneys, bacteria and fuel furnaces of the
body are all over-worked to get rid of it.
When I am so busy that I have only time to replenish the real exhausted
need of the body, say half an hour at most, I find one meal a day all
that my appetite demands of me. This is taken after I have done my
day's work of, say, eight hours of writing, or twelve or thirteen hours
of bicycle riding or mountain climbing, and then I do not have appetite
for more until the next day, after the work is done.
When I mention two meals as being the more habitual, it is because I
am not fully, constructively active all the time now, although I am
usually "snowed under" with things that I _might_ do to advantage; and
hence I conform to the social custom and sit down to table some time in
the evening to be social.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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