Chronic abnormal functioning of the organs, such as is seen in
indigestion, constipation, sluggish liver, etc., are physical habits.
If a mother feeds her babe every three hours the child will usually
wake and call for food about this period. If she has formed the habit
of nursing the child every two hours, it will call for food in about
two hours, even though all symptoms indicate that the child is overfed.
It is important that both child and adult establish regular and
hygienic habits because the digestive juices secrete themselves at the
regular periods established. _A right habit is as easily formed, and as
difficult to change, as a wrong one._
If one forms the habit of eating a certain amount of food, the stomach
calls for about the same amount, and when one first begins to change
the quantity it protests, whether the change be to eat more or less.
Few people form the habit of drinking sufficient water, particularly if
they have been taught that water at meals is injurious. In this busy
life, few remember to stop work and drink water between meals, and if
not consumed at the meal time the system suffers. Many people look
“dried up.”
The habit of drinking two glasses of water on first arising, and six or
eight more during the day is an important one.
There is no doubt that a large number of people constantly overload the
digestive organs. This, as well as the bolting of food, insufficiently
masticated, cannot be too strongly denounced. _All food should be
chewed to a pulp before being swallowed._
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Frequency of Meals]
To avoid overeating, many theorists are advocating two meals a day.
When two meals a day are eaten, the first meal should be at nine or
ten o’clock in the morning and the second meal at five or six o’clock
in the afternoon; whereas, for the average person who eats two meals
a day, this custom means that he goes without food until the midday
meal and then eats two meals within six hours, with nothing more for
eighteen hours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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