The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, January 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific CircleChautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 03, January 1883: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
But what is enough? That in regard to the feeding is a very serious
question. At the first glance, too, it seems to be one which is not
altogether easy to answer, because some men require more food than
others, just as some steam engines consume more coal than others, to
keep themselves moving; and just as some lamps take more oil than
others, to keep up their flames. It is, nevertheless, a question which
may be very easily answered. 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. Then
as you eat on, the relish becomes less and less, and if your meal be
a simple one, when you have had enough, all relish has disappeared,
and the very things that tasted so deliciously at first, are insipid,
so that you find no farther enjoyment in the act of grinding and
swallowing them. Go on eating after this, and the insipidity will
be transformed into disgust; and if notwithstanding this you still
persevere in forcing food into your stomach, that sensible organ will
at last rebel against the tyranny, and return the whole which it has
received upon your hands. Then it will be some little time before the
stomach gets over the insult. Consequently the blood remains all this
while in the impoverished state, and the result of the over-gorge is
that the body itself is actually starved, instead of being feasted. If
when your natural appetite for food is satisfied, and your enjoyment
and relish of it have ceased, you have rich and high flavored dishes
set before you, the high-flavors will then still prove agreeable to
the palate, and act upon it as a sort of excitement, and the natural
appetite will have its work superseded by a false and artificial one,
and you will go on eating under this temptation, until your stomach is
over-crammed. All the so-called luxuries of cooking are merely devices
to make men eat more, who have already eaten enough.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account