HOW TO EAT

The importance of thorough mastication and insalivation cannot be overestimated. The mouth is a part of the digestive apparatus, and in it food is not only broken down, but is chemically changed by the action of the saliva. If buccal (mouth) digestion be neglected, the consequence is that the food passes into the stomach in a condition that renders it difficult for that organ to digest it and any of a great number of disturbances may result.

Mastication means a thorough breaking up of the food into the smallest particles, and insalivation means the mixing of the small particles with the saliva. The mechanical work is done with the jaws and tongue, and the chemical work is performed by the saliva. When the mechanical work is done thoroughly the chemical work is also thorough, and the test for thoroughness is loss of taste. Masticate the food until all taste has disappeared, and then it will be found that the swallowing reflex unconsciously absorbs the food, conscious swallowing, or at least, an effort to swallow, not being called for.

It may take some while to get into the habit of thorough mastication after having been accustomed to bolting food, but with a conscious effort at the first, the habit is formed, and then the effort is no longer a laborious exercise, but becomes perfectly natural and is performed unconsciously.

This ought to be common knowledge. That such a subject is not considered a necessary part of education is indeed lamentable, for the crass ignorance that everywhere abounds upon the subject of nutrition and diet is largely the cause of the frightful disease and debility so widespread throughout the land, and, as a secondary evil of an enormous waste of labour in the production and distribution of unneeded food. Were everyone to live according to Nature, hygienically and modestly, health, and all the happiness that comes with it, would become a national asset, and as a result of the decreased consumption of food, more time would be available for education, and the pursuit of all those arts which make for the enlightenment and progress of humanity.

To become a convert to this new order, adopting non-animal food and hygienic living, is not synonymous with monastical asceticism, as some imagine. Meat eaters when first confronted with vegetarianism often imagine their dietary is going to be restricted to a monotonous round of carrots, turnips, cabbages, and the like; and if their ignorance prevents them from arguing that it is impossible to maintain health and strength on such foods, then it is very often objected that carrots and cabbages are not liked, or would not be cared for all the time. The best way to answer this objection is to cite a few plain facts. From a catalogue of a firm supplying vegetarian specialties, (and there are now quite a number of such firms), most of the following information is derived:

Of nuts there are twelve varieties, sold either shelled, ground, or in shell. Many of these nuts are also mechanically prepared, and in some cases combined, and made into butters, nut-meats, lard, suet, oil, etc. The varieties of nut-butters are many, and the various combinations of nuts and vegetables making potted savouries, add to a long list of highly nutritious and palatable nut-foods. There are the pulses dried and entire, or ground into flour, such as pea-, bean-, and lentil-flour. There are the cereals, barley, corn, oats, rice, rye, wheat, etc., from which the number of preparations made such as breakfast foods, bread, biscuits, cakes, pastries, etc., is legion. (One firm advertises twenty-three varieties of prepared breakfast foods made from cereals.) Then there are the fruits, fresh, canned, and preserved, about twenty-five varieties; green vegetables, fresh and canned, about twenty-one varieties; and roots, about eleven varieties.

The difficulty is not that there is insufficient variety, but that the variety is so large that there is danger of being tempted beyond the limits dictated by the needs of the body. When, having had sufficient to eat, there yet remain many highly palatable dishes untasted, one is sometimes apt to gratify sense at the expense of health and good-breeding, to say nothing of economy. Simplicity and purity in food are essential to physical health as simplicity and purity in art are essential to moral and intellectual progress. ‘I may say,’ says Dr. Haig, ’that simple food of not more than two or three kinds at one meal is another secret of health; and if this seems harsh to those whose day is at present divided between anticipating their food and eating, I must ask them to consider whether such a life is not the acme of selfish shortsightedness. In case they should ever be at a loss what to do with the time and money thus saved from feasting, I would point on the one hand to the mass of unrelieved ignorance, sorrow, and suffering, and on the other to the doors of literature and art, which stand open to those fortunate enough to have time to enter them; and from none of these need any turn aside for want of new Kingdoms to conquer.’

This question of feeding may, by superficial thinkers, be looked upon as unimportant; yet it should not be forgotten that diet has much more to do with health than is commonly realized, and health is intimately connected with mental attitude, and oftentimes is at the foundation of religious and moral development. ‘Hypochondriacal crotchets’ are often the product of dyspepsia, and valetudinarianism and pessimism are not unrarely found together. ‘Alas,’ says Carlyle, ’what is the loftiest flight of genius, the finest frenzy that ever for moments united Heaven with Earth, to the perennial never-failing joys of a digestive apparatus thoroughly eupeptic?’

Our first duty is to learn to keep our body healthy. Naturally, we sooner expect to see a noble character possess a beautiful form than one disfigured by abuse and polluted by disease. We do not say that every sick man is a villain, but we do say that men and women of high character regard the body as an instrument for some high purpose, and believe that it should be cared for and nourished according to its natural requirements. In vegetarianism, scientifically practised, is a cure, and better, a preventative, for many physical, mental, and moral obliquities that trouble mankind, and if only a knowledge of this fact were to grow and distil itself into the public mind and conscience, there would be halcyon days in store for future generations, and much that now envelops man in darkness and in sorrow, would be regarded as a nightmare of the past.