The Virginia enterprise., 1908-12-18
WHAT DO YOU
EAT AND WHY?
Copyright, by Joseph B. Bowles)

OeAC "HoC llhc, WOulu U0 lllc
answer of the average person scan
ning the bill Of fare in the average
restaurant. And to eat what you like
because you like it, is the best pos
slble reason. To eat what one doesn't
like Is good for nobody. 1t has been
shown in the laboratory that "appe
tite juice" is the first requirement for
good digestion.
Animals in their natural state never
cat when they are not hungry, and
they never eat what they don't like;
and this together with abundance of
fresh air, water, exercise and normal
mental conditions, inhibits sickness,
except by accident, while man is al
ways aiing more or less And the
chief cause of all the ailments, not
mechanical or mental, to which flesh
is heir, is wrong eating.
1t IS generally admitted that most
sickness, temporary and chronic
originates in the arrangement of the
digestive system; auto-intoXication,
that is, self-poisoning, induced by alb
sorbinS into the blood the poisons
produced in the food tube by fermen-
tation resulting from eating too much
from hurried eating, from eating too
many kinds of food at the same meal
Many of the most advanced students
OF the cause Of disease now believe
that the one cause is the retaining of
waste matter in the system, which is
a necessary result of wrong feeding.
OF course these abnormal conditions
are traceablc, in the last analysis, to
wrong thinking, and they can be set
right only by changing the thought
And it is happy sign Of the times
that the study of the food question Is
receiving so much attention.
Il eat what can GET This would
be the answer Of many an unfortun-
ate; but whether his case is worse
than that Of him who can get what he
wants to eat, is doubtful. Is the for
elgner who comes to America and
changes his diet from black bread, a
few vegetables. apples and grapes to
an abundance Of highly seasoned
foods, meat fine white bread, pickles
and pie-is he fortunate, in the mat
ter of diet? The statistics say, No..
1t is peculiarly interesting fact that
the mortality from cancer is much
higher among fOreign-bOrn Germans,
Irish and some other nationalties in
this country than among the Ameri.
can born Of those races. Cancer, in
the opinion Of the late Dr. Nicholas
Sem and other eminent authorities,
Is a disease of over-indulgencc, and,
we believe Indulgence in flesh meat.
The Italians, Greeks, Bohemians and
others who continue to live on the
show a low rate of death from these
diseases. The foreign-born Irish and
German peasants sooner fall victims
to cancer and tuberculosis when they
adopt the eXtravagant mixed diet of
the average American family, because
they are more susceptible than those
who have become habitua,ed, to a GER
tain degree, to the more eXtravagant
dict of the new country
1t has been said that we are a ma
ton of dyspeptics. and the cause is
easily found Certainly, the natural
way is to eat what one likes. But,
unfortunately. many. if not all of us,
are not natural, in eating as in many
other things. How, then. can we de-.
pend upon our inclinations to tell us
what to eat? Nearly everybody now
admits that intOxicants are neces-
sarily Injurious, yet many have a de-
sire for them. Shall they follow the
inclination to drink what they like,
merely because they like it, or, shall
they not rather govern the appetite
by reason? And does not the same
argument apply, in some degree at
least. to eating?
This line of inquiry leads to the
question. What shall we eat to Sc
cure the greatest enjoyment of life?
What shall we eat to enjoy the great
est degree of health, the most vigor-
Gus, happy and useful life?
These questions cannot be answered
finally by laboratory investigation
alone. Only actual test of the effects
OF foods with careful allowance for
personal factors and varying abnor-
NAL conditions. can lead to wise con-
clusions. And in my next article
shall give the result Of my own ex-
periments.
Why do you eat? Because I
like to eat. 1t is one OF the pleasures
of life" This will be your answer
If you are an average reader. If not
you are abnormal. To be good man.
one must first be good animal, and
the first requirement in good animal
is to be a good feeder.
1t is a well-established principle in
psychology that we do best what we
do unconsciously. What must become
of man who is so conscious of his
digestion that he must take so many
chews for each mouthful and eat GER
tain prescribed foods? Is it not pos
sible that he may find it necessary to
lie awake at night to see that his
heart beats the right number to the
minute?
1t is commonly said that if a man
has a good stomach he doesn't know
that he has stomach, that so soon
as he finds out that his food digests,
there is indigestion. How often we
hear a man say, II wish l could eat
auything, just as l used to eat, with
out giving it thought" The physi-
clan is often called upon to deal with
cases in which people have destroyed
their digestion by thinking about it;
as the story goes