The Royal Road to Health; Or, the Secret of Health Without Drugs — John Shaqi
The Royal Road to Health; Or, the Secret of Health Without DrugsTyrrell, Chas. A. (Charles Alfred)
Science
The Royal Road to Health; Or, the Secret of Health Without Drugs
Tyrrell, Chas. A. (Charles Alfred)
Enema; Health; Health -- Popular works; Health promotion; Hygiene
It is a grave mistake to suppose that it is necessary to eat a large
quantity of food to become healthy and strong. The system only needs
sufficient nourishment to repair the waste that has taken place.
Besides, the digestive fluids are not secreted in an indefinite
quantity, but in proportion to the immediate need. Hence, food taken
in excess of requirements, being only partially digested, acts as a
foreign substance; i. e., a poison, and in addition unduly taxes the
system to dispose of the unnecessary waste.
Hunger is the natural expression of the needs of the system for
nutrition. Appetite is the index as to the quantity of food that
should be taken to replace the loss by waste. It should never be
overruled. Appetite is a wise provision of Nature. Gluttony is a
degrading habit. Yet numbers of people attempt to justify the
gratification of their gluttonous proclivities by the statement that
they are "blessed with a good appetite," while the truth of the matter
is, they are cursed with an inordinate lust for food. If people were
more temperate in the pleasures of the table, the purveyors of
remedies for dyspepsia would find their incomes considerably lessened.
Satisfy your hunger, by all means, but do not pander to the vice of
gluttony.
Instead of "eating to live," a large proportion of people simply "live
to eat." But sooner or later Nature exacts the penalty for violation
of one of her cardinal laws, which is "temperance." An outraged
stomach will not always remain quiescent, and when the reaction comes,
the offender realizes that "they who sow the wind shall reap the
whirlwind."
But people may, and do, continually do violence to that long suffering
organ, the stomach, without being gluttons--we refer to the habit, so
universally practiced in this country, of bolting the food without
properly masticating it. So long as this iniquitous practice is
persisted in, and the equally hurtful one of swallowing large
quantities of liquids with the meals, and so long as sufficient time
is not given the food to digest, just so long will you suffer from a
disordered stomach. Speaking generally, Americans are a nation of
dyspeptics, because they are perpetually in a hurry. The acquisition
of wealth, in moderation, is a commendable pursuit, but it is the
height of folly to sacrifice the priceless jewel of health to acquire
it. But it is a fact, nevertheless, that the average American
considers eating an unprofitable interference with business, without
stopping to weigh the advantages of sound health against the almighty
dollar.
This habit must be abandoned by those who are addicted to it, before
they can expect to regain health or preserve it. Strange, is it not,
that a race, proverbial for having an eye to the main chance, should
fail to recognize the financial wisdom of husbanding their health, a
factor so important in successful business enterprises! They might,
with advantage, copy the example of John Bull in the matter of eating.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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