Wrong Management

The dyspeptic business men and women who have no time or power to digest a meal during the middle of the day are generally the victims of early habits acquired when at school.

We cannot try to change the fixed and immovable laws of nature without paying the penalty. Nature will keep us in order and control our machine, if we fulfill her laws. The sun is in sympathy with our digestive forces; therefore we should rest from labor during the middle of the day, so that the muscles of the stomach may be able to give all the circular movements, and others that are necessary, to thoroughly mix the food with the stomach juices for rapid digestion. Solid foods of the protein class, can only undergo perfect digestion if eaten in the middle of the day. They require many hours to digest, and in this way they are ready for oxidation and assimilation at night, when the air is cool. The body can rest, and the lungs and heart can work better when the stomach is emptied. While on the other hand, if the heaviest meal is taken at night, it is either too rapidly digested by physical force, or it is left half digested in the stomach over night. It congests the liver and kidneys, produces fermentation, robs lungs, heart and skin of their nerve force, and creates an abnormal appetite the next morning for an excess of energy-giving food, or it produces a languid feeling and loss of appetite. Such a system of living is responsible for the large number of acute and chronic diseases and consumption, while those who seemingly keep in good health under such conditions do surely shorten their life.

Perfect health and comfort are worth more than earthly possessions, and those who strive earnestly to possess and retain health will find a way to change their system of living. There is strength in union, and if a sufficient number of sensible people demanded different hours for school-children and for people who work indoors, it would be possible to obtain them.

During hot summer days or in the tropics the noon hour is not always the best for the heaviest meal of the day, but neither should it be spent for work. Two meals per day is the best plan on hot days. An individual who is always keyed up to the highest point during the middle of the day, and expends the best of his energy for work, cannot expect anything else but bankruptcy.

For people who desire two meals per day, the best time for breakfast is between nine and ten in the morning, and for dinner between three and four in the afternoon.

If three meals are taken, hard muscular workers, or those who are employed out of doors, do well to substitute for their dinner a substantial cold or warm lunch. If through lack of time and convenience a child cannot have its dinner before 4 p. m., it is better off without it. Remember that a cooked dinner consisting of meat, potatoes and vegetables is not at all necessary for the child's welfare and development, and cooked vegetables should never be forced upon it if it prefers to eat them raw. Healthy children have keen instinct, and unless their appetite has become perverted by sweets and other artificial, unnatural foods, they are more likely to select the right kind of food than the average adult.

This book gives a large number of menus, consisting of raw-foods, which can be quickly prepared when the child comes home from school. Nuts, fruits and raw vegetables form an ideal diet for the summer. Baked beans, peas and lentils warmed over, or jellied fish, egg foods, cheese or steamed puddings in combination with a warm soup or raw apples form a perfect meal during cold, winter days. If the dinner is eaten between the hours of 3:30 p. m. and 4:00 p. m., no more food is necessary. If it is served at noon, give milk or soup between 5 and 6 p. m. Children should take at least one-half an hour's rest before eating, when coming home from school. The better way would be to allow children two hours for their noon meal or curtail the hours of school work from 9 a. m. to 1 or 2 p. m. Such is the custom in many European countries, and there is no reason why it could not be practiced here.

Children between the ages of eight and fourteen should retire between 7 and 8 p. m. If they get sufficient sleep and are properly fed, children's diseases need not be feared.