Habits and cravings are certainly very unreliable indices of true physiological requirements. Man is constantly acquiring new habits, and these in time become second nature, forcing him to practise that which he has become accustomed to, regardless of whether it is beneficial or otherwise. The celebrated philosopher, John Locke, in his essay on education, says: “I do not think all people’s appetites are alike ... but this I think, that many are made gourmands and gluttons by custom, that were not so by nature; and I see in some countries, men as lusty and strong, that eat but two meals a day, as others that have set their stomachs by a constant usage, like Larums, to call on them for four or five.” Again, the so-called cravings of appetite are largely artificial and mainly the result of habit. A habit once acquired and persistently followed soon has us in its grasp, and then any deviation therefrom is very apt to disturb our physiological equilibrium. The system makes complaint, and we experience a craving, it may be, for that to which the body has become accustomed. There has thus come about a sentiment that the cravings of the appetite for food are to be fully satisfied, that this is merely obedience to nature’s laws. In reality, there is no foundation for such a belief; any one with a little persistence can change his or her habits of life, change the whole order of cravings, thereby indicating that the latter are essentially artificial, and that they have no necessary connection with the welfare or needs of the body. The man who for some reason deems it advisable to adopt two meals a day in place of three or four, at first experiences a certain amount of discomfort, but eventually the new habit becomes a part of the daily routine, and the man’s life moves forward as before, with perfect comfort and without a suggestion of craving, or a pang of hunger. Dietetic requirements, and standard dietaries, are not to be founded upon the so-called cravings of appetite and the instinctive demands for food, but upon reason and intelligence, reinforced by definite knowledge of the real necessities of the bodily machinery.