Fats and food cooked in fat must be avoided. Dried beef, lean boiled ham, and salt fish agree better with some than fresh meats. All sweets must be forbidden. Starchy foods are apt to produce “sour stomach.” Avoid meat with tough fiber, too fat meat (pork), sausage, lobster, salmon, chicken salads, mayonnaise, cucumbers, pickles, cabbage, tea, coffee, alcohol, pastry, too much sweets, and cheese if it disagrees. Five to six light meals a day are preferable to three heavy meals. _The flow of gastric juices_ is constitutional, thus the regulation of digestion depends on the general vitality as well as on foods. The circulation must be forceful, the habit of deep breathing and of regular periods of complete rest of body and mind must be established. Since one with chronic gastritis is liable to have many idiosyncrasies, he should not be urged to eat foods for which he has a dislike. The easily digested foods should be prepared in various ways and served in an appetizing, dainty manner. There are four special phases of chronic gastritis: Mucous Gastritis, Hyperchlorhydria, Hypochlorhydria, and Achlorhydria. In _Mucous Gastritis_ there is a profuse secretion of mucus in the stomach. In this case it is always well to wash out the stomach before introducing food, as suggested above. The same general diet suggested for acute gastritis should be followed. [Sidenote: Hyperchlorhydria] The condition known as hyperchlorhydria shows a liberal excess of hydrochloric acid. The condition is common, and is brought on by worry, nervous excitement, eating when overtired, irregularity of meals, imperfect mastication, and excessive use of alcohol. The diet should be a mixed one, in about normal proportions. If anything, it should incline more to proteins than to starches. The hydrochloric acid is necessary for the digestion of proteins and some physicians give a diet consisting almost entirely of proteins such as eggs, lean meat, etc., because hydrochloric acid reduces the protein to acid albumin, which is less irritating to the stomach than the free hydrochloric acid. However, the proteins are stimulating to the stomach and the protein proportion should not be carried to excess. The best method is to follow a diet in which the foods have practically their normal balance—avoiding all irritating foods. The juice of one-fourth of a lemon taken one-half hour before the meal will decrease the secretion of hydrochloric acid. Limewater and milk may be used exclusively for two days; alkaline, effervescing mineral water may be used and then the diet should follow the general diet in chronic gastritis.