Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency) Part 39

Lunch: Dish of rhubarb.

Dinner: Sweet potato, dish of parsnips, stewed peas.

Lunch: Dish of ice cream, piece of white cake. Dinner: Cheese cake, dish of fruit salad.

Lunch: One hard boiled egg, about one and one-half slices white bread, two big radishes, one young onion, b.u.t.ter.

Dinner: Nothing.

The servings are the ordinary restaurant servings. No dressings were used except the ones mentioned. This man used to be very fond of sweets and employed salt freely. Now he finds his foods more agreeable when taken plain, for they have a better flavor. He rarely uses salt or pepper. He has simplified his food intake because he finds he feels better and stronger and is able to think to better advantage than he did when he partook of a greater variety and amount of food at each meal.

Food scientists say that from two thousand, seven hundred to three thousand, three hundred calories are needed daily, but you will note that this man generally keeps below one-half of this, if you are able to figure food values.

People who are trying to get well are often called fools and cranks when they treat themselves properly, but this does not matter, for such fools generally live to see their wise critics prematurely consigned to the earth.

When taking health advice, try to keep your balance. Get thoroughly well before you try to guide others.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

RETROSPECT.

Several hundred pages have been devoted to those matters which must receive attention in order to have good physical and mental health, so as to be able to get the most out of life and give the most, that is, in order to live fully. The basis of health is internal cleanliness, and to attain this it is necessary to exercise self-control and moderation, as well as to cultivate good will and kindliness towards others. Kindness and love lubricate life and make the running smooth. Envy, spite, hatred and the other negative emotions act like sand in the bearings, producing friction in the vital machinery, which they destroy in the end.

Success in life means balance, poise, adjustment. We must adjust ourselves so as to be in harmony with others, and we must be in harmony with nature. Our minds will at times be in opposition to the laws of nature. Then we must exercise enough self-control to bring them into harmony again, for natural laws are no respecters of persons. It is said that we break these laws, but that is not true. If we disregard them often enough they break us. We must realize our unity with nature, our at-one-ment. We must realize that we are a part of nature, not above it, and hence that we are governed by the same fixed laws that govern the rest of nature. These laws are for our good. Attempts to escape from their workings indicate a lack of understanding.

Discord produces disease and death. Harmony leads to health and long life.

The adjustment must be both physical and mental.

The physical part means to live or adjust ourselves so that all the functions of the body are carried on normally. The body is self-regulating and if we do nothing harmful health will be our portion.

However, life under our present civilization is so complex that the demands upon our nervous systems are excessive. It is easy to live so that we can have health, but to do so is not conventional, and hence not very popular.

In order to have good physical health under present conditions, it is necessary to make some effort. The effort is not great enough to be onerous and does not require much time. It is important to get health knowledge, which the majority lacks today. This knowledge is most excellent, but it does not benefit the individual unless it is applied.

We all wish to have health, but this is not enough. We must will to have it. When we say that we cannot, it should generally be interpreted to mean that we will not.

Some important subjects regarding which special knowledge should be secured are: Food, drink, exercise, care of the skin, sleep, work and play, breathing, clothing, and mental att.i.tude.

These subjects, as well as others, have been quite extensively discussed. It is impossible to give full information in tabloid form. It is also impossible to read a book of this character once and get all the information it contains. Those who are in earnest will study the subject, instead of merely reading it.

Allow me to remind you that nearly all of our diseases are due to faulty dietary habits. So it was in the time of Hippocrates, according to that sage, and so it is today. It is a common statement that about 90 per cent. of our physical ills come from improper diet, and this is the truth. It follows from this that it is most important to know about correct feeding habits, and put them in practice. Improper diet results in faulty nutrition, after which physical and mental ills make their appearance.

There are many systems of feeding, and nearly all of them will bring good results if the most important prescription is followed, namely, moderation. Simplicity leads to moderation.

Those who are reasonable about their food intake often serve as targets for the shafts of ridicule launched at them by those who are ignorant of the subject or too self-indulgent to exercise a little self-control.

Ridicule is one of the most deadly of weapons, but it never harms those who have the hardihood of getting down to basic facts and cla.s.sifying things and ideas according to their true value. Why should we be guided by the wit and sarcasm of indolent voluptuaries who daily desecrate their bodies through ruinous indulgences?

There is no need of becoming harsh and austere, nor is it necessary to fall into deadly habits of self-indulgence. Sometimes we can go with the current with benefit, but at times it is also necessary to paddle up-stream. Life demands a certain amount of hardihood from those who would live in health, and this comes not from self-indulgence, but from self-denial. It is necessary to do almost daily something that we are not inclined to do.

It is well to remember that if the eating is correct, it is difficult to become physically deranged, and consequently to become mentally deranged. Allow me to repeat four short sentences which are helpful and most important guides, sentences which ought to form a part of every child's education:

If ill, eat nothing, but live on water.

Eat only when there is a desire for food.

Masticate all foods thoroughly.

Always be moderate in your food intake.

These are the four golden rules regarding eating, and if they were adhered to, they would save us from an incalculable amount of sin and suffering. They would increase the duration of life and the joy of living. They would add to our physical and mental prosperity. Hence they are worthy of the emphasis given them.

In brief: Physical health is based on internal cleanliness, which can be attained only through moderation, that is, by not habitually overburdening the system, especially with food. Our bodies thrive when used, but not when abused. It is necessary for our physical well-being to get air, sunshine, water, food, sleep, rest, exercise, work and play in proper proportion, and in addition cultivate a kindly, balanced spirit. Drugs, such as alcohol, coffee, morphine, bromine, and hundreds of others which could be named, are not only unnecessary, but harmful.

The mental side is as important as the physical side. With a healthy body it is easy to have a happy outlook. Indigestion and biliousness can make a dreary waste out of the most beautiful landscape. The body and mind react and interact, one upon the other. When one is poised it is easy to get the other into balance. It requires a poised body to produce the best fruitage--a fine spirit.

It is necessary to be honest with one's self. Face life courageously and honestly. If you do, you will soon realize that the physical and mental ills from which you suffer are mostly of your own making. Then you can choose whether to let them continue or to end them, but if you choose to remain ill, bear your cross uncomplainingly, for you have no right to afflict others with your self-imposed sufferings.

On the other hand, try to see life from the view point of others, and you will often find that what you think is the highest good and most desirable in life does not seem worthy of great effort to them. Variety adds spice to life. To impose one's own views and ways on others has always seemed desirable to the majority of people, but it is the height of folly and stupidity. So long as the race exists there will be many men of many minds, and it is best so. We can not force any benefit, such as health or goodness, upon others. Instead of attracting, the process of forcing repels.

What we can do mentally to benefit ourselves and others is to get adjusted, to cultivate kindness and charity, to be broad-minded and forgiving, to be slow to take and give offense, to accept the little buffetings that fate has in store for us all with good grace, and through it all to possess our souls in patience.

Physically, be moderate.

Mentally, cultivate equanimity.