Fortunately Nature does not demand exactness. She has made wonderful provision for our errors or our lack of precision. If we eat too much now and then she will cast out the excess. If, however, we habitually overeat, she will store away the surplus in the form of useless fat, or she will decompose it; that is, make an effort to volatilize it and cast it out through the pores of the skin. If our diet is unbalanced, Nature has the power to convert one chemical into another - a secret yet unknown to modern science.

While the tendency of Nature is to maintain normality by casting the debris out of the body, she demands that we obey the laws of motion and oxidation. If we do not observe these laws, the debris or matter she cannot use will accumulate, and congestion and constipation will take place. As was shown in Lesson V, the various forms of bacteria always present during the ravages of disease are produced by the decomposition of this congested matter. This is Nature's way - perhaps her last method of disposing of effete matter. Bacteria is, therefore, the result and not the cause of disease. The effects of overeating are so far-reaching, and so common among civilized people that a volume might be devoted to this habit and the subject not exhausted. Here, however, I will review only that which is of most importance to the student of dietetics, namely, the causes and a few of the effects of overeating.

Injurious effects of congested waste matter.

Overeating is due to three specific causes:

1 Eating several articles of food at the same meal which are chemically inharmonious.

2 Taking stimulants at meals.

3 Eating too many things at the same meal.

(1) Chemically Inharmonious

When foods are eaten together that are inharmonious they produce a chemical disturbance which usually results in irritation of the mucous membrane of the stomach, or superacidity (too much acid), or both.

(2) Stimulants With Meals

When one takes stimulants such as beer, liquor or wine with meals, the stomach-cells secrete a superabundance of hydrochloric acid, causing food to leave the stomach too quickly; that is, before stomach-digestion is complete. This leaves a residue of clear acid in the stomach, which causes severe irritation and is the primary cause of stomach-catarrh, ulcer and finally cancer.

The cycle of cause and effect.

(3) Too Many Things At Same Meal

Too many things eaten at the same meal may exhaust the digestive juices and cause a condition of subacidity (lack of acid), which is true indigestion, or it may cause just the reverse, too much acid, and therefore produce the same result as in taking stimulants with meals. (See "Causes of Superacidity," item 2, p. 420).

In nearly all cases of overeating Nature's only weapon with which to defend herself is hydrochloric acid, thus the stomach-cells become over-trained in the secretion of acid, and the constant irritation caused by acid fermentation produces abnormal appetite. The desire to satisfy this abnormal craving produces more acid, therefore the cycle of overeating and superacidity is complete.

Disorders originating in the stomach.

Standard medical works give about sixty different disorders arising from what is termed diseases of nutrition. These include diabetes, gout, arthritis, rheumatism, rickets, scurvy, obesity, emaciation, adiposis dolorosa, and various disorders of the liver, heart, and the circulatory system; also constipation and dozens of disorders under the broad term of autointoxication.

The first step in the practise of scientific eating should be to limit the quantity of food, or, in many cases, to take a complete fast for a brief time.

In the slow stages of human development, Nature seems to have accommodated herself to man's omnivorous habits of eating. She will accept many things that are wholly unfit for food without apparent harm if the quantity is not too great. On the contrary, the results of the most scientific dieting will be injurious if a quantity be taken in excess of that which the body can use.

Slow or rapid digestion determined by amount of acid