The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-07-16
Eating Too Much.

edly startling asseI1Ioui Out IL 10 suS'SP
tible of proof and the fact is one which
ought in the interest of the public happi-
ness and prosperity, to be more generally
than it now is.
Much Of the food We eat is eaten to
waste. The absolute quantity of food ap-
propriatcd by the organism is surprisingly
small as compared with the quantity Of
food rejected. Making the largest allow
ance for the difference between the actual
bulk of what we eat and the measure Of
its nourshing properties, it will be found
that the average feeder consumes an ag-
gregate quantity greatly in excess of what
he requires. The first cause of this waste
is doubtless the needlessly bulky form of
the food on which We chiefly rely. In
the endeayor to procure what is termed
light aliment We squander the elements Of
nutriment. Ii is deemed triumph Of
the puryeyors skill to provide the public
with forms Of nutriment Of which much
can be consumed with impunity. No
provinder has yet achieved or seriousl y at
tempted the feat Of supplying US with food
so concentrated that the wants of the body
can be met with the smallest demand on
the digestive and the assimulative powers
Of the organism. Because man can take
a great deal into his stomach, it is assum-
Cd that he ought to do so, and the tenden-
cy Of modern enterprise in the matter OF
food is TO extend rather than to diminish
the total bulk of the material by which
the losses Of the organism in heat produc-
tion and exercise are TO be compensated.
If il we're otherwise, the net result would
no. be very different, or, the habit Of life
being 10 live to eat rather that to eat to
live, II uutriment were furnished in very
compact form aud bulk, the glut,On would
call the boon chiefly as aiFording increased
facilities fer the indulgence Of his apPe-
tite.
There is, however, another cause Of the
practice Of excess, which Is perhaps even
more pogeut We do no; eat by any rule
Of Judgment, bat in obedience to a craving
which 5 commonly misin,erpTeted. When
a man is Asngry, he eats until his hunger
Is appsased Now, in the nature Of things,
this eansol be until BE has overloaded his
stomach. The food is not digested and
assimulated the instant it is eaten; an in
,crval must elapse between the taking Of
material containing the elements Of nuiri-
,ion, aud the application Of these elements
10 their destined purpose. As matter Of
fact, probably ligtle Of the food taken at
meal IS appropriated BY the organism uu-
Ill aa hoar or more after il i consumed.
The sense Of reple,ion therefore Is not, in
any physiological sense, the result Of
uourishmen,, bu, the crude physical effect
Of filling the gastric organ, and setting the
processes of digestion in operation. Hence
il must be obvious that the sense Of safety
which wares an eater TO desist from the
pleasures Of the table affords no measure
Of the extent TO which he has provided for
the actual wants Of his system. II be eon-
samed Only twentieth part Of his ordi-
nary meal, aud waited an hour, probably
be would discover that be was quite as
vel fed as be Is after eating as much as
bis stomach will hold, and desisting only
wheu the mechanical effects Of loading
the apparatus Of digestion with ma,eria
became iueonyenieui Il must not be as
samei, because We habituate ourselves TO
eat to reple,ion, and DO not COMMONLY suf-
FER severely in consequence Of this clumsy
mode Of procedure, that We are not guilty
Of waste Nature has provided the organ
ism with the power Of rejecting what 1t
does no, require, and the large proportion
ate waste Of ordinary life is the witness at
once to the need aud efficiency Of the
safety-yaIvc with which the system has
been furnished; but it is at :he same time
a perpetual testimony to the crude and
unseieuti6e way 10 which We misunder-
stand our actual needs and abuse our ap-
petites-
The great majority Of the Ills which
affects US and the diseases from which We
suffer, causing US pains and shortening our
lives, are the fruits Of the excess we prae-
tiee in feeding. Gout, rheumatism, the
various forms Of indigestion, and the many
known aud recognized results Of excessive
or disorderly feeding are only the coarser
aud more evident consequences Of over
fceding. Underlying these aud unnOticed
BY the victim Of this common error are
the muhiluainous forms of organic disease
and disturbance. In short, the human
body encounters more risks in its daily
struggle to live and grow aud discharge it;
functions under the burden Of food forced
upon it than it runs by exposure to the
contingent danger Of infection; while, as a
matter of fact, nearly all the morbid pOis'
ons that assail it from without are either
generated from or by the decomposition
of food, or conveyed into the system under
one Of its guises. We give the machinery
of life an almost supernatural task to re-
ieet the harmful substances imposed on it.
and then complain because it breaks down
or does its work imperfectly. 1t is diff
cult to make plain without burdening ouT
page with details that would be unintelli-
gible but our failure to convince the
readers Judgment will not alter the fact
There are great practical difficulties on
either side-to obtain sufficient nutriment
without an ineumbrance of adventitious
materials which can not be used, and must
be rejected, and to avoid the error of load
ing the system with food which is insult
able and excessive.-Harper's Weekly.
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