The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1920-05-07
HASTY EATING.

Indigestion, like the poor, appears to
be always with US, and there is very
little doubt that this is largely due to
the hurried eating of meals, followed
Immediately by some employment that
occupies the whole attention and takes
up all or nearly all of the physical en-
ergies. Sometimes the malady shows
itself in excessive irritability, a sure
indication that nerve force has been
exhausted; the double draft in order
to digest food and carry on the bust
ness has been more than nature could
stand without being thrown out of
gear. In another case the person is
exceedingly dull as soon as he has
Few minutes of leisure. The mind
seems a blank and can only move in
Its accustomed channels, and then only
when compelled. This also is an indi-
cation of nervous exhaustion. Others
Will have decided pains in the stom-
ach, or a sense of weight, as if a heavy
burden was inside. Others again will
be able to eat nothing that will agree
with them; everything that is put in
side the stomach is made the subject
or violent protest on the part of that
organ, and the person suffers much dis
tress In consequence. Others suffer
from constant hunger. They may eat ali
they can and feel hungry still. If they
feel satisfied for little time the least
unusual exertion brings on the hungry
feeling, and they can do no more until
something is eaten. Scarcely any two
persons are affected exactly In the
same way, the disordered condition
manifesting itself according to tenn
permanent and occupation. Employ
ments that call for mental work. and
those whose scene of action lies in
doors, affect persons more serious
~ than those carried on in the open
air, and those which are merely me-
chanical, and do not engage the mind.
All, or nearly all, of these difficulties
of digestion might have never been
known by the sufferers had they left
their business behind them and rested
a short time after eating, instead of
rushing off to work Immediately after
hastily swallowing their food. Nature
does not do two things at a time and
do both well, as a rule. Everyone
knows that when a force is divided it
is weakened. If the meal were eaten
slowly, without preoccupation of the
mind, and the stomach allowed at least
half an hours chance to get its work
well undertaken before the nervous
force is turned in another direction,
patients suffering from dyspepsia"
would be few. 1T does not so much
matter what we eat as how we eat it."
While this is only partly true, it GER
tainly is true that the most healthfuI
food hurriedly eaten, and Immediately
followed by work which engages the
entire available physical and mental
forces, is much worse than a meal of
poor food eaten leisureIy and followed
by an interval of rest.
The tendency of hasty downtown
luncheOns upon the health and morals
of all ought to be pointed out, with a
Importance of devising some remedy
for evils so great and so inevitable.
Many business men take haSty lunch
con at noon to prevent the stomach
becoming too empty, or the system
from too great exhaustion from the
long interval between breakfast and
the regular evening dinner. The OBJ
ject is good and the philosophy of it
is founded on true physiological rea-
sons; but the manner of the perform
ance makes all the difference in the
world A change from our hurried,
unsocial, piggish boiling of food, to
order, beauty, elaboration and socia-
bility of the table, would increase ten
fold our table pleasures, and add in
definitely to our health. LEARN
HOW TO LIVE.