The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-15
WHAT AND HOW TO EAT.
EUSTACE MILES DISCUSSES THE
SLOW CHEWING AND NO
BREAKFAST PLANS.

May Be Good in Some Instances.
The Fruit Breakfast Plan Also
Considerable New Plan should
Be Adopted in a Hurry, since sud-
den Change of Any Sort Is Likely
to Cause Inconvenience,
Copyright 1902, by Eustace Miles.
How extremely hard it is for many,
how extremely unpleasant, sometimes
almost heroic. to refuse meat or fowl
or fish at an ordinary meal. per-
son may feel that his heaviness after
a meal, and indeed his general unfit
ness at most times is due to mistakes
in diet, but he has not the strength of
mind, or it may seem like the heart
lessness toward his family. to decide
on giving up that which may be dis
agreeing with him. And, even If he
does give it up, he is very likely to go
wrong by emitting that which would
take the place of the nourishing flesh
foods. Is there any way out of the
difficulty?
There are apparently two ways out
of the difficulty, though personally
should urge that the trial of the flesh
less foods with some proper subSti
tute for meat, which must never be
forgotten) is best worth an expert
ment in every case.
Many readers will remember that Mr.
Horace Fletcher urges every one to
eat everything slowly, and even to
chew what he drinks, to swallow moth
ing voluntarily as we usually swal-
low things, so long as there be any
taste in them.
One great advantage of this slow
chewing plan is that it excites large
amount of saliva. This will go down
into the stomach and help to digest
not only the starch, but probably also
every article of food, though we can
not tell exactly what articles or to
what extent. The saliva will give a
necessary sense of fullness, which per-
haps the same meal eaten fast would
never give.
Need of AlkaIfs To-day.
The saliva is alkaline in it's tendency.
AS a rule, our blood is acid under mod
ern conditions. 1t is full of waste
products. And generally acidity shows
itself, not only in the blood, but also
in the faces and manners of ordinary
people. There IS something extremely
vinegar-like in city life The alkaline
saliva will help to counteract this. Sa-
liiva is much more wholesome than the
inorganic" bicarbonate of soda.
Slow eating will undoubtedly increase
the self-control and its effect will be
good upon the manners generally, (for
surely slow eating is good breeding);
it will also, undoubtedly, increase the
sense of taste. Instead of missing
nine-tenths of the flavor of each food
we shall get full pleasure from it, and
the taste will become to us a faithful
sentinel. There are certain things
which it will refuse to pass; and gem
orally we shah get an instinct in our
choice of foods which we may safely
trust. MIR. Fletcher finds that he can
trust his taste instincts absolutely.
His instinct leads him to eat less
than before, because he digests prac-
tically all that he does eat. And thus
he saves money and nervous energy,
energy which otherwise would be vast
ed, to digest the nourishment and ex-
crete the excess and the waste prod
uctS; and he saves time also. Very
few of us. 1 imagine, give up only thir-
ty-live minutes a day to our meals, and
are ready to work or take exercise i'm
mediately after eating. Mr.. Horace
Fletcher can do this, although he is
over fifty years of age and in early
life was by no means a healthy man.
Desire for stimuIants May Depart.
There is another important point to
which he called my attention at Cam
bridge; he has no particular desire for
stimulants. He can take them without
appreciate discomfort, and even with
some enjoyment. He takes them for
their taste rather than for their effects.
Confess: Which do you take them for
chiefly? l should doubt there being
many people who take alcohol for its
taste rather than for it's effects. He
also says that the experience of those
who have tried his plan has been that
any tendency toward undesirable i'm
aginations disappears. There comes an
increasingly noticeable freedom from
worry, fear, anger and the unwhole-
some feelings in general. He thinks
that in his plan lies one of the So
lutions of the great problem of i'm
purity.
Dewey's No-BreaI1fast Plan.
There is another way in which it is
possible to avoid the giving up of the
flesh foods. That way has been called
the no-breakfast plan. 1t does not in
terfere with the social evening meal
DR.. Dewey, an American, may be call
ed the inventor of it among Western
peoples He urges every one to adopt
it, and he has hundreds of successful
followers already. 1t is probable that
it is most likely to be successful if
the last meal be taken somewhat late
in the evening before.
The theory, which we must carefully
distinguish again from the results in
any given case, is that a long time is
needed for digestion and assimilation.
Many tables of digestion are given,
but they only tell how long it takes
for the food to be digested within the
stomach. The stomach is not the only
organ in which the food has to be di-
gested. Nor is the food assimilated at
the moment when it has been digested.
1t might be nearer to the mark to say
that complete success will take nearer
to five hours than to two or three in
the case of many articles of food. DR..
Dewey says that If we allow between
each meal and the next such an inter-
val that we may never be dealing with
two sets of food at the same time,
then two meals a day will be ample
for us. We shall use up less energy
in digestng and absorbing our food
and in getting rid of the waste. We
shall therefore have more energy for
muscular work or brain or both. In
the early morning, ne says. we should
do our best work The day Is fresh,
and we should be fresh also.
We should have a store OF energy
ready after the night Of rest, and that
energy we should use for our regular
occupation. Why should we use II for
digestion. especially when we remem-
Der that none OF the food may be ready
for actual service in the body TIL hours
after breakfast? II is found that lab
orers can get through their mornings