Foods Not To Be Eaten

Such include syrups, sweet preserves, molasses plain or compounded, all candies and jams. -Honey contains dextrose and levulose, but I think the harm of honey is worse because it is eaten with bread or other carbohydrates. Common breads, cakes, and pastry must be avoided. As a rule, the latter is bad for well persons. Tapioca, arrowroot, rice, and sago are very injurious. All articles made of Indian corn are less injurious than those made from wheat, but nevertheless should be forbidden, as well as all hot breads and cakes made from buckwheat and such. Oatmeal is nitrogenous, but has too much carbohydrates. With the one exception I have spoken of, all macaronis and such stuffs are bad. The white potato is proscribed by most authorities. For absolute diet it must be proscribed. Where some carbohydrates are allowable it furnishes them in the best form, if well baked. It has only about 20 per cent. of starch. It is a much maligned carbohydrate in the diets for the diabetic, and the obese, if used well baked and in no other way. Of course much water goes off in baking, but the starch is better broken up. Cauliflower has more carbohydrates than cabbage or Brussels sprouts, but may be eaten in moderation. Sweet potatoes, parsnips, carrots, beans, and peas, with the exceptions heretofore noted, drop entirely. String beans may be used young. Green corn and beets we must proscribe, and rhubarb too. Turnips we must avoid, as well as hominy, rice, grits, and such. Again I say, the diabetic must practise moderation and good common sense in all things.

Conclusions

I think it is the general conclusion of all who have paid any attention to the matter of dietetics that we all eat too much, that we eat from instinct more than from reason; in fact, few of us reason at all. There are two sides to this matter of eating and drinking, the purely animal side and the purely social side. Professor Chittenden's experiments show well the fallacies of the animal side, and to any one who will observe carefully and critically the social side, the social side as demonstrated by the social atmosphere and habits, particularly of the well-to-do and idle people, it will be apparent that here especially promiscuous eating and drinking cannot but do great harm to the individual.

As an object lesson observe the eating and drinking habits on one of the great ocean liners of any of the European routes. The assemblage is cosmopolitan and a good one for study and contemplation in such matters as we are discussing.

At seven a.m., say, one has coffee and a roll served in his room. Then comes the bath and preparation for breakfast at 8.30 a.m. At 11 a.m. broth and biscuits are served. At 1.30 p.m. a very substantial midday meal, really a dinner, is served. At 4 p.m. comes the afternoon tea, now developing into a meal almost the world over. At 7.30 p.m. a well-served, substantial dinner comes in routine, and with this probably wine. This does not end the feasting for some, for up to 11 p.m., or even later, sandwiches, or worse than that, Welsh rarebit and such, and beer, are served. This is the habit, and many partake more or less at all of these feasts. Where is any rest for the digestive organs or the weary nerves here, and how is it possible for the system to rid itself of the waste from all this inordinate gourmandizing? One under forty years of age may withstand it for a time, but from personal observation many older people are the sinners here, too. This may be said to be the habits of those merely on an outing; but such is not the case, this method is becoming a custom well fixed, has been a custom well fixed in the daily life of many people. It is all wrong, it is bad, it is suicidal.

The evolution of the social side of eating and drinking has reached a point where intelligent people must pause and consider the consequences. Added to all this is quite a large consumption of spirituous and malt liquors and wines in the intervals. The social life, the club life of both men and women, has reached a point where reason must prevail and not mere instinct or habit, or the race must deteriorate as organic disease of vital organs causes them to succumb to the violation of all hygienic rules by so many people.

Ask the sociologist of to-day where we are to look for the strong characters with whom to carry on the greater work of the next generation, and the answer will be, not from the degenerate sons of the dissipated, not from among the dwellers of our great centres of population, but from the ruddy, healthy lads and lassies of the country-side, whose blood and life cells have not yet been debased by the evils so greatly besetting the rich and well-to-do among our congregated masses.

Remember, man reverts through the influence of heredity to ancestral character, to ancestral types, and for the sake of those to come after us let us guard on all sides both our animal and our spiritual welfare. We must all reason out such matters and check our indiscretions or suffer the untold horrors in the loss of health and prosperity now menacing us.

Our social life out of doors has developed pan passu with excesses in living. Our golf, our tennis, our football, our polo, our out-door life generally among both men and women in a measure correct the evil, but this out-door life at the same time increases our appetite for food and drink, and the danger here is our excesses in eating and drinking overbalance the good done by the exercises indulged in. The reform must commence in cutting out the eating and drinking of these now growing to be extra meals, the 11 a.m. broth and biscuits and the afternoon tea, with its sweets, and even our heavy midday luncheons.