The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-12-15
One Meal u Day.

DIR. G. E. Page sends to the Journal of
Chemistry an account of experiments
made to show that one meal q day is
enough for a man:
IS. N. s., twenty-eight years old, re-
solved to adopt the one meal system, and
he did so, leaving off meat and all condi-
ments, as salt and pepper, and eating
chiefly wheat.meal bread and fruit, the
bread made from unsifted meal and
mixed with water only, no salt or bread
raising devices -unleavened bread.
Within seven months his weight in
creased from one hundred and forty-five
pounds to one hundred and seventy
pounds, and his strength of both body
and mind had increased in proportion.
His labor had been severe, he is a ma.
chinist and an inventor, working ten
hours every day, and doing good deal
of practical and profitable thinking at the
same time. 1t is now full year since
he came to one meal, and the
weight gained has been main
tanned, and his health is perfect.
During the last winter, for the purpose
of testing the sufficiency Of one meal Of
pure food for the most trying labor, he
worked in an iron foundry for three
months, and Notwithstanding the ex-
IRENE and frequent changes of temper
allure incident to the work, on cold
mornings, with the mercury below zero,
and in the afternoon at 100 degrees
above, and all hands sweating like rain,
he had not cold for the winter, anG
was the only employe thus exempt. He
had formerly been subject to frequent
attacks of the above disease. His
,1,:l ~ osv IN
nine ounces according to labor--of
Graham flour, beside fruit sufficient to
supply all the liquids necessary-half
dozen apples or their equivalent in other
fruit. He is rarely thirsty, but
sometimes, if too little fruit is taken at
meal time, he takes q small draft of
water in the course of the day. This
meal is taken at night, after entire re-
covery from fatigue, usually at about
seven o'clock. During the month of
May, 1881, just passed, he gained sixty
hours, or six full days, working extra
hours at his bench, sometimes working
right through to midnight, and taking
his breakfast after short rest, before
retiring. No man in his employ had
gained SO much time. He has occasion
ally made q trial of bo)tedfour bread,
but has invariably experienced a loss of
weight and strength.
"My own experience goes far to prove
the efficiency Of the above regimen for
either the brain or the muscle worker.
am now taking but one meal day, and
find myself perfectly nourished, weight
and strength maintained, on about
fourteen ounces of unleavened wheat
meal bread, to the mastication of which
1 devote an hour or more. l find that
six cold gems, weighing about fourteen
ounces, without either butter or milk,
chewed deliberately and thoroughly
dissolved by the juices of the mouth,
will sustain me much better than when
eaten warm with butter or milk, or both
together added, and eaten as fast as one
naturally eats hot rolls and butter or
bread and milk. Considering the man.
ner in which people in general bolt their
food, it is not strange that large pro-
portion of it fails of digestion. Starchy
food cannot be transformed into pure
blood entire, except as far as the change
is begun in the mouth.
Until a few months ago 1 took my
food in the morning. but l find the eveu-
ing better time. During the day the
brain and muscles can have everything
their own way. without interfering or
hindering digestion, and at evening after
sufficient rest, there is perfect
tranquility of body and mind and
leisure to digest" 1 had never been a
good sleeper until I adopted this sys.
tenn of diet. People who eat several
meals q day do we'll to take the last one
early, and the lighter they make it the
better, but dyspeptics may rest assured
that the evening meal, of itself consid-
cred, is not the cause of their wakeful-
ness or troubled dreams. When ate
three meals OF mixed diet l could not
make the last one simple enough to give
me complete rest at night, but now when
rested from my days labor, l can eat
full vegetarian meal and sleep like a
well-fed babe. l could give quite
number of examples like the foregoing
of one-mealers, did space permit, all
tending to prove the superiority of vege'
table over animal diet, and of the whole
wheat over the most scientifically i'm
poverished article"
The New York Commissioners Of I'm
migration report an urgent demand