Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
A celebrated case in point is that of Louis Cornaro, an Italian, who
died in the year 1566 at the age of one hundred and two years. In his
youth he was very indiscreet and dissipated. He lived riotously until he
was forty years old, and then he found himself in such poor physical
condition that it was only a question of a few months until the end
would come. He had everything to make life worth living, except health,
so he decided to attempt to regain health and prolong his life. He quit
his old life, began to live simply and instead of being a waster he
became a useful citizen. We are unable to get much definite information
about his habits from what he wrote but we learn that he reduced the
quantity of food taken and used fewer varieties. Also, he drank
sparingly of wine. He did not have any definite ideas regarding diet
except that it is best to eat moderately and avoid the foods that
disagree with one. In his own words: "Little by little I began to draw
myself away from my disorderly life, and, little by little, to embrace
the orderly one. In this manner I gave myself up to the temperate life,
which has not since been wearisome to me; although, on account of the
weakness of my constitution, I was compelled to be extremely careful
with regard to the quality and quantity of my food and drink. However,
those persons who are blessed with strong constitutions may make use of
many other kinds and qualities of food and drink, and partake of them,
in greater quantities, than I do; so that, even though the life they
follow be the temperate one, it need not be as strict as mine, but much
freer."
These sentences were written fifty or sixty years after he changed his
mode of life, and show how well Mr. Cornaro realized the important fact
that all people need not be treated alike. They also show that after
making the change, Mr. Cornaro did not find it difficult to live simply
enough to enjoy health. In nearly every instance it is temporarily
disagreeable to forsake the path that is leading to death and take the
one that leads to life, but after one gets used to the new way, it
appears more beautiful and is more pleasant than the old.
If Cornaro had died at forty, as nearly every person situated as he was
would have done, his life would have been a total loss. A few of those
who were his boon companions and dissipated with him would have thought
of him for a few years and regretted his early passing, for "he was a
jolly good fellow." He lived a useful life, for over sixty years
thereafter, and has left us in his debt for his beautiful exhortations
to be temperate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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