Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-07-22
A LATTER OF EATING.

DoInes-elc reforms are justly engaging
much attention, and none demand it more
thar those connected with the table. The
" rying.pan has been pronounced the
evil genius OF America. There is truth in
the grim witticism. We are essentially a
frying-pa people; and as result a nation
of dyspeptics. The art of living is not
one highly cultivated among us, and one OF
the branches of that art is almost wholly
neglected, as any one may see who looks
about him in the restaurants, hotels and
public boarding houses. We refer to de-
liberate eating. We pay too little atten-
We do not permit it to fulfill its great
Office, the preparation of the nourishment
for the stomach. On the contrary, we
treat it as mere receptacle for the mo-
mentary deposit of food until it can be
washed down all unprepared. Observa-
ton of the eating habits of our people, as
manifested at the public table, leads us to
the belief that there is more in how we
eat than in what we eat, and that
there is more depending upon 1t
regarding our moral, physical and national
growth than most people are ready to con-
TESS. A dyspeptic and bilious people can
not be happy, and without happiness there
can be no material advancement. The
stomach of the country is, after all, the
heart of the nation. These are generaliza-
tions, but they will suffice for the present
to set thought on wheels. A healthful
dietary must of course depend upon vari-
ETY. and excellence Of selection, and that
must be supplemented by proper cooking,
in which, as remarked, there is all too
much use of the frying pan. But select
as we may, apply the highest skill in the
kitchen, and still all depends upon the
mouth and its Office. The saliva in a
healthy mouth is alkaline, and, as the
scientists inform us, &c the alkali combines
''with those parts of the food which,
without it, would prove refractory, or
"would ferment in the stomach and its
combinations. The actual operation of
"the saliva in eating is to kill the food
that is, to render it entirely inert. That
{" this is the fact may be learned by any
body who chooses to try the expert
"ment." But we do not need the sci
entists to tell us that well-masticated food
is more easily digested than that bolted in
hot haste; nor do we need to be told
that all too many of our people bolt their
food, shovel it down, wash it down whole.
and that the practice is so common among
our children that we have come to give it
little or no attention. The results of this
neglect are deplorable. Dyspepsia has be-
come the national disease, kidney diseases
almost rival it, and all the long train of
ailments which follow in the wake of dis
ordered digestion, may be traced, in large
majority, to the simple fact that we eat
too fast and drink while eating. We
should eat as if we had no other business
on hand, but glance at the public table,
and many private one, must convince
the observer that fully three-fourths of
our people eat as if that was the least i'm
portant business of life-that the sooner it
is disposed of the better 1t is subject
of great Importance, affects not only our
present welfare, but has vital value for the
next generation enters into the question
of our physical development and mental
attainments has its influence upon the
character OF our thought, and is felt in
every nerve of organized society. We
ought to think and act on the matter, be-
gin the reform with ourselves, enforce it
with our children and save them from the
tyranny of rebellious stomach. As one
careful writer on dietary habits puts it,
we should "eat fair variety; see that it
is thoroughly cooked and not robbed of
g its natural flavor by condiments masti-
&c cate slowly, and until the tongue has
90 reveled in the favor, and trust the NOR
Z" sci to find its way into the stomach with
" out flooding the passage with tea, coffee
" or water" It is possible to do without
teeth, but we could not live at all were it
not for the salivary glands. Therefore we
should put those glands to use at the
table; kill our food before we swallow it
and unless it is very badly prepared it viii
digest, and furnish blood, bone, muscle
and everything that goes to repair waste
of tissues ard nerve.force.