Starch is surely the chief offender in aging people. It is such a concentrated food that overeating is easy, especially when it is taken in the soft forms, such as mushes, fresh bread, griddle cakes and mashed potatoes. If people would masticate their starchy foods thoroughly it would greatly reduce the danger of overeating. It is common to eat bread three times a day and in addition to take potatoes once or twice a day. Those who consume so much starch carry into the system more food than can be used and more of the mineral salts than can be excreted. The result is the formation of deposits, chiefly of lime carbonate and lime phosphate; fatty deposits are also common.

In order to live long and comfortably it would be well to reduce the starch intake to once a day. The meats also are objectionable when taken in excess. To them can be attributed the chief blame for the formation of gelatinous deposits in the body. However, they do not carry so much earthy matter into the blood stream as do the starches. It is best to partake of meat but once a day, or even more seldom. Meat should certainly not be taken more than twice a day even by those who are advanced in years. People who care enough for starch to take it three times a day, or are compelled to live chiefly upon it, grow old and homely more quickly than do those who are able to partake more plentifully of the more expensive proteins. The flesh obtained from young animals and birds is not so heavily charged with earthy matters as is that which is obtained from old animals and birds.

Fruits and nuts do not carry so much earthy matter as do the starches and meats. The sweet fruits could with profit partly take the place of the starchy foods. The sugar they contain, which has the same nutritive value as starches, needs very little preparation before entering the blood stream. Thus a large part of the energy required for starch digestion is saved. On the other hand, the use of too much refined sugar is even worse than an excessive intake of starch. Nuts are not difficult to digest if they are well masticated.

The objection to acid fruits during the latter years of life is that they thin the blood and cause chilliness. This is true if they are partaken of too liberally. It is not necessary to refrain from eating acid fruits, but they should be taken in moderation and the mild ones should be selected. Pears, mild apples and grapes are better than oranges, grapefruits and apricots. Those who have learned moderation can eat all the fruit desired, for they will not be harmed by what a normal appetite craves.

Vegetables carry considerable earthy matter, but on account of their helpfulness in keeping the blood sweet they should be eaten several times a week.

Those who think that overeating of starch is too harshly condemned are referred to the horse. When he is allowed to roam about and partake of his natural food, grass, he stays well and lives to be forty or more years old. When compelled to eat great quantities of corn and oats, which are very rich in starch, the horse becomes listless and slow at an early age. He is old at fifteen and before twenty he is generally dead. When horses suffer from stiffness in the joints a few weeks spent in pasture, where they have nothing but green grass and water, remove the stiffness and make them younger. This shows what partaking of nature's green salad does for them. Any good stock man will tell you that feeding too much grain "burns a cow out." It does exactly the same for a human being, burns him out and fills him with clinkers. Many people think that it is a hardship to be moderate in eating and drinking, but it is not. It brings such a feeling of well-being and comfort that it is unbelievable to those who have not experienced it.

Many envy the rich, thinking that they can and do live riotously. Rich men must live as simply as though they were poor or else they soon lose the mental efficiency that brought them their fortunes, for when health is gone mental power is reduced.

According to information in the Saturday Evening Post, the eating habits of many of our most influential business men are very simple and the amount of food partaken of small. John D. Rockefeller could hardly live more simply and plainly than he does. William Rockefeller, George F. Baker, James Stillman, Otto H. Kahn, Thomas Fortune Ryan, George W. Perkins, J. Ogden Armour, John H. Patterson, Jacob H. Schiff and Andrew Carnegie, all business giants with money enough to subsist on the most expensive delicacies, are said to live more plainly than does the average American who is complaining of the high cost of living. It is the price they have had to pay for success and it is the price that you and I will have to pay to live successfully, though our success may not take the form of financial power.

The one conspicuous exception among the financially great to the rule of simplicity was J. P. Morgan. His eating habits were somewhat gross, but on account of his rugged constitution he lived to be more than seventy-five years old. If he had given himself just a little more care he would be alive today. They say that his strong black cigars did him no apparent harm, but those who read of his last illness understandingly cannot agree to that statement. Mr. Morgan started with enough vitality to live and work far beyond the century mark. John D. Rockefeller was not physically strong when young. He has been compelled to take good care of himself and to be moderate. Now he is past seventy and enjoying good health.

John W. Gates died a martyr to excess, partly excess of food. He lacked balance. His son followed in his footsteps and died young.