As food is the most important of our wants, it is wise to say a word about diet in health before we discuss diet in disease.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

Food requirements vary with the occupation, climate and method of life, but a general outline may be followed by all healthy, right living persons.

Do not place too much dependence on individual opinions. Startling announcements are every now and then made that some one form of food has produced a wonderful cure, or has made persons very ill. These statements are, as a rule, exaggerated, and many of them are advertisements for patented foods.

Do not go off on a tangent and follow every new line of diet that is recommended. Stop, look, and listen, before you cross the road of the faddist. A correct diet must contain all the nutritive elements of the body in proper proportions - protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, water and air.

Study the chemical elements of the body, and the natural foods that will best feed these elements. Do not think too much about your food, and never talk of it at table. Keep your mind free from fear, and do not imagine that you have indigestion simply because you feel uncomfortable after eating; you probably have eaten too much.

It is not the amount of food one eats that builds the body, but it is that which is digested and assimilated. Cease eating before you have a sensation of fullness; distention of the stomach frequently makes digestion lax, and overtaxes the heart and excretory organs.

One must enjoy food in order to have it do its best work; one's table must be in harmony with one's self.

Eat just enough, but not an ounce too much. "Keep the patient well nourished" has taken many a person out of the world who might have lived comfortably for many years on a slim diet or a partial fast during an illness. A loss of appetite is Nature's way of saying: "fast." Give thought to your food in selection, cooking and combinations. Variety is necessary to keep up the appetite and produce health.

Do not live, for instance, every day in the year, on roasted meat and mashed potatoes. If your neighborhood does not give full markets, change the accessible foods by different methods of cooking. For instance, beef may be broiled, roasted, baked, stewed, rolled, spiced, chopped and made into twenty different dishes, and still it is all beef.

Do not eat unhealthful combinations. Flour, fruit and butter are excellent foods in their places, but when made into complicated puddings or pies, are difficult of digestion. Time, money and health have been wasted.

Do not cater to habits; they are blots upon your character; get rid of them as soon as possible. If your father and mother had them, so much the greater need for you to struggle against them, that the next generation may start life without a handicap.

Do not make excuses. Nature knows nothing of'circumstances. Her laws are harmonious, and if they are broken, you must pay the penalty. She never forgets, nor does she forgive bodily abuses. Knowledge is one thing, but the intelligence that puts knowledge into practice is quite another thing. Be intelligent.

Do not eat when tired.

Masticate thoroughly every mouthful of food, solid or liquid..

Masticate all hard foods until they are soft; do not soften them with liquids.

If your digestion is already impaired, bring it back to its natural condition by selecting proper food, with not too great a variety at one meal. Good results are obtained from eating meat at one meal, and starches at another.

Avoid all fried foods; the frying pan is a remnant of barbarism.

Life and vigor do not depend on the amount of meat one eats.

It is far easier to keep well than to allow one's self to run down, become ill, and then try by a curative diet and drugs to get back to the right road.

The dietary of the so-called civilized people of the world, has come largely from the teachings of convenience and instinct. Primitive man must have thought little about the question of dietetics. He probably knew nothing of food values, and like the Eskimo ate and drank that which was accessible, and consumed enough to keep up activity and health. Can any student of dietetics truly say that we, in this twentieth century of learning, with all our experiments and knowledge, have thought out or taught a better method? Even among the learned, the palate is still the guide, and "I like" or "I do not like" plays the most important part in the daily bills of fare. The animal of our existence is still prominent, and what we call natural instinct or natural tastes have been largely influenced by our parents and conditions of life.

Modern dietitians argue that a diet composed largely of lean meats is best for the business man, and a vegetable diet is best suited to the outdoor laborer. Examinations, however, prove that the average United States business man breaks down between the ages of forty and fifty, with diseases that come from an over-nitrogenous diet. If the organs of the body are made to do the work in forty years instead of in eighty, as planned by Nature, a man at forty is eighty years old. We have been told over and over again that "man is as old as his arteries, digestive and excretory organs." A man is what he eats, and the diet he selects is the measure of his intelligence.

We have been teaching diet, cookery and methods of serving in all our public schools for thirty years. Have you noticed any great change in the family tables of the masses?

Have the fried pork and fried potatoes been replaced by carefully selected and broiled meats? Have the fruits been served in perfection, or are they still stewed with sugar for hours? Are the dining-rooms artistic and restful, or arc they still semi-barbaric? I see but little change, and I do not believe that we can reach our highest attainments without being artistic and learned in all branches that pertain to life and living.

A very young child can easily be taught the needs of the body and how to select a general diet. One need not necessarily weigh or measure every mouthful of food nor give hours to the thought and preparation of a meal at the expense of every other thing in life.

Serve every meal, three times a day, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, in a simple, artistic fashion. Sit down, eat slowly and comfortably, and enjoy it. Eat to live. Health is always worth while.

A little reading and a few weeks' good study will enable any housewife to create from the materials at hand, acceptable bills of fare. She must first learn combinations that go to form a balanced ration. She may have fat pork and beans, lean beef and potatoes, desserts made from starchy foods and fruits, but not eggs and milk, after a meat dinner. Bread and butter, not bread and molasses. Meat, potatoes and cauliflower or cabbage, not meat, potatoes and rice. One starchy food, one green vegetable, one nitrogenous dish. A puree of lentils, with baked potato and tomato salad, with bread and butter, form a complete meal. Beef or mutton, following puree of lentils, upsets the balance and gives too much nitrogenous food.

Use plenty of pure cold water; take it at the end of the meal, and drink it freely between meals. Do not wash your foods down with slops - tea and coffee saturated with sugar and milk.

If you have aches and pains, stop and think what natural law you have violated. When you discover the error, avoid it at another time, for simple errors, repeated frequently, produce incurable diseases.

The Bath

Bathe every day in cold or tepid water, and rub thoroughly to keep the skin active. Live and sleep in the open air. I have frequently noticed that persons who are afraid of air are unhygienic and uncleanly in other respects.