King Cyrus asked the ambassador of a luxurious potentate: "Do you know how invincible men are who can live on herbs and acorns?" Simplicity should characterize the meals. A variety of foods at a variety of meals should be the rule. Too many foods at a time complicate the digestive process. Great variety always encourages overeating.

I have coined the term monotrophic meals to designate the practice of eating but one food at a time as distinguished from the mono-diet where only one food is consumed (as the milk diet) at all times. The monotrophic meal simplifies matters but is not essential if the meal is properly combined.

The strictest monodiet tends to become extremely monotonous and will not be long adhered to. Moses fed the Hebrews on a mono-diet in the wilderness--a diet of manna--against which they were in constant rebellion.

The milk diet is an example of a real mono diet. Monodiets have certain value in various conditions, but they are by no means an ideal diet for long, regular and continued use, not alone because they are monotonous, but, also, and more importantly, because they are very inadequate.

There are other reasons why a variety of foods should not be eaten besides the fact that they induce overeating. The greater the variety of foods consumed at a meal, the more complicated and, consequently, less efficient, becomes the digestive process. Simple meals digest better and with less tax upon the digestive organs than complicated meals. Digestion is most efficient when but one food is eaten at a time. Where the limitations of the digestive enzymes are not respected, as is the case with millions, and no consideration is given to the proper combinations of foods, the more foods that are eaten at the meal the more complicated the digestive process becomes.

The reader will please bear in mind that I offer no objection to eating a variety of foods. I believe, on the contrary, in eating a wide variety of them. I am here discussing the evils of the common practice of trying to secure the whole variety at one meal. Properly managed, a variety of foods guarantees better nourishment than only a few foods.

To return to our main theme, that of overeating induced by great variety at meals, let us point out that it is practically impossible to avoid overeating so long as appetite is constantly tempted and stimulated by a great variety of foods. So long as we insist on having a great variety of foods at the same meal, the evils of overeating will remain within us.