Solid Food

 

     Taken in a liquid state, your food would not give healthful vigor or tone to the system. But when you change this habit, and eat more solids and less liquids, your stomach will feel disturbed. Notwithstanding this, you should not yield the point, you should educate your stomach to bear a more solid diet. 

     Dry food that requires mastication is far preferable to porridges. The health food preparations are a blessing in this respect. . . . For those who can use them, good vegetables, prepared in a healthful manner, are better than soft mushes and porridge. Fruits, used with thoroughly cooked bread two or three days old, which is more healthful than fresh bread, slowly and thoroughly masticated, will furnish all that the system requires.       

Very Hot Foods.

    Very hot food ought not to be taken into the stomach. Soups, puddings, and other articles of the kind, are often eaten too hot, and as a consequence the stomach is debilitated. Let them become partly cooled before they are eaten.   

Cold Food.

    I do not approve of eating much cold food, for the reason that the vitality must be drawn from the system to warm the food until it becomes of the same temperature as the stomach before the work of digestion can be carried on. 

Rich Diet.

    Rich and complicated mixtures of food are health destroying. Highly seasoned meats and rich pastry are wearing out the digestive organs of children.  

    At too many tables, when the stomach has received all that it requires to carry on the work of nourishing the system, another course, consisting of pies, puddings, and highly flavored sauces, is placed upon the table. . . . Many, though they have already eaten enough, will overstep the bounds, and eat the tempting dessert, which, however, proves anything but good to them. . . . If the extras which are provided for dessert were dispensed with altogether, it would be a blessing.                                                                              

    Many understand how to make different kinds of cakes, but cake is not the best food to be placed upon the table. Sweet cakes, sweet puddings, and custards will disorder the digestive organs; and why should we tempt those who surround the table by placing such articles before them?   

HL 90-92