  I have discussed this question of the quantity of food necessary for the human body so exhaustively in my former book, “Vitality, Fasting and Nutrition,” that I need say but little in this place, beyond re-emphasising what I there said. I may, however, add one or two further reflections that have arisen in my mind since the publication of that book, and which may be of interest to those who think about their food at all. This book is devoted to the quality of the various foods, as my last was devoted to the quantity; and the disproportionate size of the two volumes rightly indicates what I conceive to be the relative value or place of the two—viz. errors in quality and errors in quantity. I believe that, although errors in quality are tremendously important, errors in quantity are vastly more so, and that, as Dr Graham so well said, many years ago: “It is as a general rule strictly true that a correct quantity of a less wholesome aliment is better for man than an excessively small or an excessively large quantity of a more wholesome aliment.” So far as health and longevity are concerned, therefore, it is incomparably better for man to subsist on a correct quantity of vegetable and animal food, properly prepared, than habitually to indulge in an excessive quantity of pure vegetable food of the best kind, and prepared in the best manner; and the difference is still greater if the vegetable food be badly prepared. And it is solely from the want of a proper regard for this important truth, that many have been unsuccessful in their attempts to live exclusively upon a vegetarian diet. I have previously pointed out the harm that may result to the body from an excess of food—showing how food in excess chokes and blocks the system throughout—impeding its proper functions, and rendering the perfect manifestation of life impossible. During the healthy growth of the body, the great process of upbuilding and the functions of nutrition are necessarily somewhat in excess of the processes of destruction; but even here a great excess of food is invariably eaten; and, while the growing child may be adding (say) half-an-ounce a day to its weight, it is urged and even forced to eat a pound of food a day, and even more! And the natural result is that the child becomes sick, and has colds and fever and other troubles, and no one can account for it! The same false notions are carried into adult life. Nearly everyone eats far too much—I mean by this very much too much. I believe that most persons could reduce their three daily meals to one, and curtail the amount eaten at that one meal, and still be ingesting too much food for the bodily needs. This will at all events show us how enormously we do overeat, and the only reason that we do not get ill immediately is, that the body is constantly getting rid of the excess of food material and poisons that are formed, as the result of this constant over-ingestion of food. It is generally believed that, as long as an individual is in health, or apparently so, he is not injured by habitually eating more than is really necessary for the healthy nourishment of his body, but this opinion is utterly and dangerously false. It is, indeed, one of the most mischievous errors entertained by the human mind. For there is nothing in nature more true, more certain, than these propositions: that all vital action is necessarily attended with some expenditure of vital power, and draws something from the ultimate fund of life; and therefore all excessive vital But we have as yet only presented the subject and contemplated it in its most favourable aspect. The case I have presented is a very extraordinary one. As a matter of fact, very few indeed who have constantly over-nourished their bodies do die from old age, but as a rule they die from painful and exhausting diseases long before that period is reached. Millions of human beings perish by disease, in all periods of life, from excessive alimentation or overeating. Generally, they are cut off by disease long before they have lived out their lives, and often prematurely. And the chief cause of all such death is, I must insist, overeating. This can readily be proved; and I have endeavoured to show why it should be the case in my previous work. Overeating is the chief cause of all diseases; and disease shortens and destroys life. Of that there can be no question. But even if no adventitious cause comes in to induce sudden and violent death, either local or general, the continued overworking of the system will almost inevitably exhaust, debilitate and It is therefore true, beyond all question, that in all countries where human aliment is abundant and easily procured, gluttony or excessive alimentation is decidedly the greatest source of disease and suffering and premature death known to man. “Excess in drinking,” said Hippocrates, more than two thousand years ago, “is almost as bad as excess in eating!” And the statement has remained true from that day to the present. How much food should be eaten, then, in order to remain in the best of health, and to preserve that “just balance we term health”? I have no hesitation whatever in laying down one general rule, which it is always safe to follow. Every individual should restrict himself to the smallest quantity that he finds, from careful investigation and experiment, will meet the wants of his system—knowing that whatever is more than this is harmful. Physiologists have got into a vicious circle when discussing the question of the amount of food that the system really requires. They have measured the income and the outgo of the food values and co-efficients, and have calculated the supposedly necessary quantities of food that the body needs from these figures—a practice open to many objections, and proved erroneous, in certain directions already—as e.g., by the Chittenden experiments on low proteid intake. It never seems to have struck these men that the more food that is ingested into the system, the more must necessarily be eliminated—for otherwise the body would choke up and die. The fact that more N. is excreted because more is “But,” as Dr Nichols pointed out, “what determines the amount of waste? A man must get rid of all he eats and drinks, or he must retain it in his system. If he keep at the same average weight, the daily waste will depend upon the daily consumption. He who eats and drinks two pounds will lose two pounds; he who eats and drinks six or eight pounds must get rid of that quantity. How, then, are we to get at the normal waste, and therefore at the requisite quantity of food?” Dr Nichols says further: “It is my experience—and I believe of many others who work as I do—that the less I eat the better I feel. I do not vary much in weight through months and years from 160 pounds. In solid, dry weight, my food, day by day, would not exceed ten or twelve ounces, and often, for days together, it would not exceed six ounces. I am satisfied by my experience and what I have seen of the effects of diet upon others, that most persons can be perfectly well nourished in full health and activity on from four to eight ounces of food, excluding liquids, and that the amount of water may safely be left to the demands of thirst.” This is even a more conservative estimate than mine and Dr Rabagliati’s—since we both agree that twelve The quantity of food eaten has so little relation to strength and weight that we see men eating ravenously and at the same time wasting to skeletons, and growing weaker and weaker; and we have strong men living on a spare and simple diet and increasing in weight. Indeed, we see many patients increase in health and strength during a fast of many days, when no food at all is eaten! The truth is, that the amount of food said to be eaten by navvies and other strong men is not the cause of their strength, but it is their strength which enables them to digest and dispose of such quantities of food. Weak men would break down under the strain. And indeed both weak and strong men do, when the resistance of the body is lowered by disease. To economise life, which is the great secret of health, we must find just the quantity of food we require—that which will supply (indirectly) the force we need, and will not uselessly take from what we have. Of course, we must keep within the limits of our digestive power; but we must do better than that. A man may be able to digest and dispose of three times as much food as he really requires. One ounce more than he requires is a waste of force, a waste of life. We waste life in eating more food than we need, in digesting it, and then in getting rid of it. Here is a triple waste. “We have other work to do in this world than eating unnecessary food, and spending our strength for nought.” In an excellent little book entitled “The Stomach and its Difficulties,” by Sir James Eyre, M.D., there is to be found some very good advice on this question “John Hunter, it is recorded, fed an eagle entirely on vegetable, and a sheep on animal food; and yet life and apparent health were sustained. Rabbits, if kept fasting a long time, will eat meat greedily. The teeth, however, were no doubt intended by our Creator to be our main guide on this point.... Eating in excess is the vice of the present day, and so well managed is it that even religious persons will not see its sinfulness—sinful, as absorbing and wasting so much more life and food than the body requires, and which so many absolutely need. Is drunkenness a sin and gluttony not?... Gout, rheumatism and various other disorders are often produced by the injudicious supplies given to the stomach, both in quantity and quality.... We too often charge cold and wet with being the cause of attacks of disease, but these attacks would not have occurred unless the blood had been infected with particles of depraved matter resulting from over-indulgence, or other irregularity of the organs of digestion—first and foremost, from our injudicious supplies to the stomach.... Perhaps we might lay it down as a rule that the majority of men eat twice as much as is really required for the support of health and strength.... No doubt as life advances we really require less food.... According to our mental and bodily employment, so should we eat.... Nature herself often gives notice of over-indulgence, by destroying appetite. Children take the warning and refuse food altogether; but it is so common a notion that we cannot go on without regular meals, that many adults aggravate stomach and liver derangements by persisting in taking food of some sort, but which affords no nourishment at all, because it cannot be digested, and thus acts as any other extraneous substance, by increasing the already deranged powers of the organ. We may rest assured that mischief rarely happens in disease from want of food, although much mischief is often caused by the ignorant in pressing it, against the warnings of nature in depriv After such a simple and clear statement of facts, it seems to me little remains to be said. I cannot emphasise too strongly the importance of limiting the amount of the food supply; and particularly is this warning applicable to vegetarians who are apt to overeat, under the erroneous impression that they must eat more, in order to offset the greater nutritive value of the meat (supposedly)! The fact of the matter is that they should eat less; and the more nourishing and concentrated the food is, the less of it should they eat. Most of the vegetarian dishes are highly concentrated, and exceedingly rich in nutritive values. For that reason they should be eaten sparingly. Nuts are especially rich, and contain a large amount of proteid in a small compass. In his pamphlet “Nuts and their Uses as Food” (Yearbook, U.S. Dept, of Agr.), Professor Jaffa says of such foods: “The digestibility of protein in 28 experiments with mixed diets, to which were added fruits and nuts, averaged 90 per cent. [see pp. 86-88].... The digestibility of the carbohydrates in nuts, so far as the available data show, is about equal to that of the same ingredients in other foods.... It would appear that, while it is not possible to state the exact digestion co-efficients for all nuts, enough has been done to indicate their high nutritive value and digestibility.... The distress sometimes experienced when nuts are eaten is undoubtedly often due to improper mastication or to over-indulgence. The investigations made at the California station indicate clearly that considerable quantities of nuts properly eaten do not cause distress.... A fruit and nut diet may be arranged to furnish sufficient protein, mainly from nuts, to satisfy the require I desire only to show in this place that nuts are a very concentrated article of diet, and should be eaten sparingly. The idea that more food should be eaten, when going on to a vegetarian diet, is grossly erroneous, and is the reason why many vegetarians fail. Less, not more, food, should be eaten; and as soon as the stomach has shrunk to its right proportions, and the customary reaction from the stimulation of the meat has worn off, a general feeling of invigoration and well-being will be experienced—and retained, if the diet be properly managed thenceforth. Too great care cannot be taken not to overeat; everyone would be better for a few days’ fast—particularly if they have been in the habit of eating meat! |
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