Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-12-07
SUBJECT OF EATING.
People Over 40 Eat Too Much to
 Be Healthy.

People Over 40 Eat Too Much to
 Be Healthy.
 One of the unfailing symptoms of 8 mans having reached the some what loosely indicated period known as middle age is his increased inter est in matters pertaining to the table, in the quantity as we'll as the quality of the food of which he par
 takes. The majority of people, up
 to the age of S5 or 40, practically
 disregard any other rule of diet than the simple one of eating as much and
 as often as their appetite invites them to do. Once on the shady side
 of forty, however, goodly number | discover that their physical we'll
 being renders it imperative that they
 pay some attention to the subject of
 dietetics. It is not a particularly
 appetite is a hearty one; and If, Ill
 addition to uniformly good appe-
 tite, he has a tendency to indoience, he rather resents the automatic dic-
 tum of the physicians, that most
 persons over forty eat too much and
 exercise too little." Yet his personal
 observation, if not of his own case.
 at least of that of more than one
 friend or acquaintance, should COZ
 vince him that The doctors are right.
 With half as much food and twice as
 much exercise as they take at pres
 ent, nine-tenths of the middle aged
 of to-day would stand much better
 chance than they do at present of
 becoming octogenarians.
 A recent writer quotes the famous
 oldtime dietist. Luigi Cornaro, whose
 ideas on the subject were so far vim
 dicated in his own person that he
 lived to be one hundred and four.
 The passage is worth reproducing, if only to show that, in the three and half centuries which have elapsed , since the old Italian wrote it, noth- ing especially new on the subject has come to light:
 There are old lovers of feeding who say that it is necessary that they ! should eat and Grink great deal to Feep up their natural heat, which . is constantly diminishing as they advance in years; and that it is { therefore, their duty to eat heartily and of such things as please their . palate, be they hot, cold or temper, ate; and that, were they to lead q , sober life, it would be a short one . To this I answer that our kind mother, Nature, in order that olt { men may live to still greater age has contrived matters so that the, . should be able to subsist on little, as do; for large quantities of fooG car not be digested by old and feehle ? stomachs.
 And thou, kind parent Nature ! who actest so lovingly by thy aget . offspring, in order to prolong his ! days, hast contrived matters so 1T < his favor that he can live upon very . little; and, in order to add to the } favor, and do him still, greater ser vice, hast made him sensible that as in his youth he used to ent twice 3 a day, when he arrives at old aee 5 he ought to divide that food, o 2 which he was accustomed before tC {. make but two meals, into four; be j cause, thus divided, it will be more \ easily digested; and, as in his youtl :. he made but two collations in a day ! he should, in his old age, make four provided, however, he lesseDs tll' ! quantity as his years increase. And this Is what I do, agreeabl! to my own experience; and, there { fore, my spirits, not oppressed b! much food, but barely kept up, ar, } always brisk, especially after eating s so that I am obliged then to sing ; ? song, and afterward to write. Nor do I ever find myself tn; worse for writing immediately afte | meals, nor is my understanding eve clearer, nor am I apt to be drowsy the food I take reing in too small ; : quantity to send up any fumes to th, brain. Oh, how advantageous it i to an old man to eat but little: Ac cordingly, I, who know it, eat bu just enough to keep body and sou together.
 There is, in connection with thi ! subject, one consideration which 1 very generally overlooked. It Is tha l to ohSh h dO plOSlCDolN !. suicide; and that self-muTdel ? whether inflicted instantaneoHsly 0 ! brought about ty deliberate iadul gence in practices that inevitabl
 lead to apoplexy. or to dea6ly dis eases of the heart and kidneys. i
 substantially the same sin. Tn |, heavy drinker" is not more cer
 tainly killing himself by inches thai
 is the heavy eater who indulges ii
 three full meals day, and does no
 take enough exercise in the twenty
 four hours to justify even one pf hi
 trips to the dining-roOm. Nor
 fasting and additional physical exer | tion would work wonders in til I matter of restoring or preservin health.