Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-22
DIET AND FADS.
Importance of Food on the Health and
Mind.
From the Baltimore Sun.

From the Baltimore Sum-
The indictment is often made against cur
rent methods of education that from the
nursery to the university degree they in
clude no adequate discussion of diet. Yet
proper regulation of diet is the most i'm
portant subject that can occupy ones at
tention. This is particularly true in this
age of artificial city life, factory employ
ments and deficient physical exercise. Our
grandfathers, living chiefly in the country,
or in cities little differing from the coun-
try and with rural habits, gave little at
ton to diet it is true, and sometimes lived
long; while our primitive ancestors, living
wholly in the open air, with no sedentary
pursuits, gave no attention whatever to
diet, ate voraciously whenever they had
chance, and rarely had an ache or pain till
an enemy's bludgeon or poisoned arrow
ended their days. Muscular activity was
almost their whole existence. They kept
their digestive apparatus in prime con-
dition. Ii at times they ate excessively,
they oftener rested the stomach by pro-
tracted involuntary fasts, so that kidney,
liver, pancreas, etc, were able on occasion
to make extra exertion 1t was not the
misfortune of primitive man to confront
three meals a day and be tempted by cuiln-
airy art to gorge himself 800 days IN the
year, tasking his organs OF digestion as
similation and eXcretion to the point OF
injury. He was doubtless as willing to eat
too much as his effete descendants and did
eat too much when he had 1t. but ne took
much exercise daily, lived out or doors ana
was commonly hungry. His compensation
for his hard life and spare diet was com
parative freedom from appendicitis,
Bright's disease tuberculosis, typhoid fever
and the hundred other ailments common TO
this age of excessive eating, deficient exef-
else in the open air and consequent I'M
paired vigor.
A perception of the fact that big eat
ing" is ruinous to any one who performs
rlve lah0 hGgiQS
But it too often shows itself in fads that
discredit 1t. The vegetarian tells us TO
eat no meat, overlooking the truth that the
ditch-digger can eat meat safely three
times a day. Whether one needs meat or
can use little or much of 1t, depends almost
wholly on ones age, mode or Ire, amount
OF physical exercise, etc. AS ones haplts
vary, so the diet must vary. NO DOUBT,
vegetable diet is wholesome, especially for
those who live sedentary and inactive
indoor life, but there is such thing as
excess in vegetables If It be admitted that
a moderate vegetable diet is good for most
persons, 1t by no means follows that meat
is to be altogether abandoned. Meat, one
often hears 1t said, goes to the spot as
nothing else will" So of foods OF vari-s
Gus brands; they are good in a way, chiefly
in proportion as they tend to limit the con-
sumption of more injurious Things Other
faddists are afflicted with dread OF uric
acid. Medical opinion Is divided upon the
common dictum that rheumatism Is due to
excessive uric acid in the blood Conserva-
tive doctors declare fatty that we really
know nothing as to the cause or rheuma-
tism But faddists who hold to the uric
acid hypothesis forbid the eating of this
and that because It contains xanthin and
other substances easily converted into uric
acid. Peas. beans and many other whole
some articles, oatmeal included, are thus
tabooed, to the injury of the menu and the
despair of the housekeeper So far has the
prescription of foodstuns gone That the
careful person is left little or nothing to
subsist upon. This. of course, Is absurd
What is bad for ore may be good for
occupation, habits amount of exercise out
of doors and dozen other factors which
discreet physician would take into account.
Every one is a law unto himself or should
BIZ law unto himself though too many
recognize no law but that of capricious
appetite The faddist has truth on his
SIDE. but only part OF Il ana often only
a very small fraction. All that can be laid
down with confidence is that the sedentafy
and Inactive person must restrict his diet.