The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-23
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
BY FREDERIC j. HASKIN. Director.
Washington, d. C.
CALoRY COUNTERS.

to observe the latter thoughtfully con-
sidering each dish laid before him.
casting his eyes ceilingward, scratch
ing his head, and otherwise giving
evidence of severe mental effort AT
last a happy smile irradiated his face,
he carefully cut one-third off his pat
of butter, and laid aside one slice OF
his bread. Then he proceeded TO De
YOUR the meal with that anacenoa-lke
disregard for the process of mastlca-
ton which is SO characteristic OF the
ng-man-in-a-hurry-
What was all the brain work
about ?" his companion inquired, when
the attack began to slow down
Galleries" explained the young
man briefly. The sedentary worker
should eat not more than $500 calor-
les of food a day. l have little tapie
in nv head by which l can roughly
meal, and 1 am careful to always eat
exactly the right number
Chew the Galleries.
eff Won ate a few Galleries more or
less. and chewed them longer. IL
would add more years to your me-
the man of sciences suggested
This young calory-counter was one
manifestation of a new tendency
which is abroad in the land to reduce
eating, and in fact all of the processes
of physical life. to science we nave
reached a condition as far as posslpie
who never knew that he had d1geS-
ton. We are nearly all vividly con-
scious of the processes of metabolsfn
these days. -
There are two principal reasons Tor
this growing intimacy of man with
his a1imentary canal In the flrSt
place that indispensable machine does
not work as well as it did IN the Gays
when we all lived more outdoors
and life moved at more lelsureiy
fIaa
alimentary canal now has mllhon
press agents. The number of BOOKS
dealing with health subjects IN
popular style that roll from the press
es every year is enormous. All OF the
magazines carry health articles from
time to time~ Newspaper columns
are often filled with articles by doc
tors Even the advertising space IN
periodicals is rich in health lore-ln
long dissertations on the evils of con-
stipation, the dangers of worry, how
to combat the demon fat-often IL
Illustrated with diagrams of the inner
man.
Many Hints to Follow.
Now all of this is very well and
step in the right direction. Educa-
tion is necessary to the Improvement
of the national health But this pleth-
ora of health lore has led to the
development in many persons of
peculiar psychosis which seems worth
describing.
A type of person has been. devel-
opel, of which examples may be found
in every community, that continu-
ally seeks the boon of health by fol-
lowing the innumerable hints and
suggestions in print. One day he will
come home fired to enthusiasm by an
article he has read setting forth that
man eats too much meat and fat, that
the whole human race is poisoned
by it, that primitive man was a nut
fed animal, and that the eating of
meats in quantities is a mistake. He
will accordingly cut down his meat
rations for a few days, weeks or
months, but it is only a matter of
time till he is off in full cry on an
other hot trail. He has read the adj
vice of Elijah K. Jones of Flint River,
Arkansas, who in an interview with
newspaper reporter on the occasion
of his hundredth birthday records
that he has eaten an apple every
night before retiring without a miss
for eighty-seven years Elijah chews
tobacco and takes a drink of good red
liquor every morning before break
fast, and he does not believe that these
little indulgenOes ever hurt anyone.
The nightly pippin is the thing that
slaves off death.
Be Careful of Foods.
Accordingly our health dope fiend
becomes for a time a regular apple
eater, and apple eating absolutely dis
places eo-vegetarianism. Perhaps
the next tip he gets from the world
of science is to the effect that modern
man is fat-starved, that his nervous
troubles are due to a lack of that ele
ment in his diet, and forthwith he be-
comes a partisan of fat pork and Phil
adelphia scrapple, all forgetful that
three months before he was in pro-
cess of reverting to the nut feed health
of paleolithic man.
OF course, the sad thing about the
health dope fiend is that he can find
in the vast and variegated outpouring
of health literature justification for
almost anything he wants to do short
of swallowing nails or committing sui
eide. Even the greatest of doctors dis
agree. Thus one of the first and
greatest prophets of the health dope
cult, Mr.. Fletcher, who believed in
chewing everything forty-seven times,
and had his name verbalized into
F1etcherize, is directly contradicted
by the great Russian Metchnikoff,
who sent millions of gallons of but
termilk cascading down the human
throat. He believed that by drinking
buttermiIk we can exterminate the
colon bacilli that Kill us. He incident
ally mentions in one of his books that
excessive chewing is an evil and that
many persons have been seriously in
jured by their efforts to live up to Col
Fletcher's patient and heroic pro-
gram.
Difference of Opinion.
So it goes. You can find eminent
authority for the statement that cof-
fee is killing you, and assurances of
the highest order that a cup of coffee
in the morning is a fine thing for the
system Tobacco is regarded wholly as
poison by some authorities while one
eminent English writer finds that pipe
smoking. is a real cure for constipa-
ton, and that in moderation its bene-
fits will far outweigh it's deleterious
effects.
One of the latest and most widely
prevalent fads is that for foods de-
signed to prevent constipation. A man
who called upon a friend that had al
ways before produced a good red
bottle and cigar in the interests of