The Healthy Life Part 8

(5) Is the diet satisfying, or is there a longing for conventional dietary (often found amongst food reformers)?

(6) Is the diet quite satisfactory in winter?

_Two letters were published in the January number. Two more in February. Others will appear in future issues. We are anxious to receive a large number of personal experiences, but they must be brief, and cla.s.sified under the above heads as far as possible._--[EDS.]

ST ALBANS.

In response to your invitation I am sending you my experience with vegetarian dietary. Although, as you will see, this has not been altogether "unfired," I think it should be of interest to many.

(1) I became a vegetarian at the time of my marriage, nearly three years ago, my husband being already a vegetarian of eleven years. I considered this a good opportunity to commence. Previous to this I had for some time suffered from indigestion, which continued for a few months after marriage. I attribute the cure to the change of diet, and drinking hot water after meals.

(2) We have one child eighteen months old, totally breast fed for twelve months, and another four months: on breast and Ixion Food and some fruit juice.

She has never had any disease whatever, and so far her teeth are perfect and she has cut them quite easily. She is a bonny, st.u.r.dy little girl, and very intelligent.

(3) With regard to childbirth, I previously followed the advice of Dr Alice Stockholme in "Tokology," avoiding flesh meats and bone-making food and adopting a diet of fruit (chiefly lemons) and rice, brown bread and nut b.u.t.ter, wearing no corsets and taking frequent baths. The effect during pregnancy was highly satisfactory. I enjoyed perfect health the whole time, free from the usual discomforts, and at childbirth I received similar results: a speedy and safe delivery. Indeed, since marriage, my husband, baby and myself, have been singularly free from even minor complaints.

(4) As we do not have the specially prepared, expensive vegetarian foods (supposed to subst.i.tute meat), but mainly the simple foods, I consider the diet less costly than the meat diet.

(5) We are honestly quite free from the craving for meat or meat foods.

(6) In the summer-time we live princ.i.p.ally on salads, cheese, rissoles, etc., made from beans, peas, lentils, etc., fresh fruits, brown bread and nut b.u.t.ter. In the very cold weather we seem to need rather warmer stuffs, such as porridge (carefully cooked) and cooked vegetables, etc.

D. G.o.dMAN.

* * * * *

BRIGHTON.

I have read with the greatest interest the correspondence in _The Healthy Life_ on the unfired diet. As the majority of your correspondents have not been living _exclusively_ on unfired food, or have only done so for short periods, may I suggest that some of your correspondents or contributors live on an _entirely_ unfired diet, _excluding dairy produce_, for a period of six or twelve months and then relate their experiences. In this way some valuable evidence would be obtained. At any rate I am prepared to do this myself.

With reference to living on the unfired diet on 4d. a day, I have often had two unfired meals for less than 4d., and two meals a day are sufficient for anyone. Of course to do this one has to buy the food which is in season and therefore cheap. Dried fruit and nuts, followed by a cress salad with oil and lemon dressing, does not cost more than 2d. An unfired rissole made from grated carrot and flaked peanuts cost at most a penny, and if followed by dates or figs would be a sufficient meal, and 2d. would cover the cost.

In conclusion, I have no difficulty in producing a "two course"

unfired meal for 2d.--but perhaps I should have left the subject of cost for Dr Bell to deal with. Yours faithfully,

ALFRED LE HURAY.

MORE ABOUT TWO MEALS A DAY.

With reference to my article, "Two Meals a Day," which appeared in the May issue of _The Healthy Life_, several correspondents have asked me to give more particulars about my life and diet. I do so gladly; but I must be brief, as the demand upon s.p.a.ce in this magazine is now very great.

Resolved into a single sentence, what all my correspondents wish to know is this: Is a two-meal dietary best for all?

To this question, however, a definite answer cannot be given, for the simple reason that scientific experimentation with respect to food quant.i.ties and times of meals, etc., has gone such a little way, so that it would be presumptuous to set a limit in regard to meals and food reduction. To my mind, apart from the question of the quant.i.ty of food to be taken, there is a great and important field of inquiry open with respect to the effect of rest upon the stomach and the intestines, upon the digestive and a.s.similative powers of the body.

Now the whole purpose of my article was to show that a reduction of one's dietary was a matter of training, of gradual adaptation, but also--and this is the important fact-of gradual strengthening. My theory is that the two-meal plan is possible owing to the immense economy in digestive energy that is effected through giving the stomach adequate rest, and also through keeping the blood stream pure and unclogged, almost absolutely free from surfeit matter. A rested stomach will get more nutriment out of a small amount of food-stuff than an overworked stomach will get out of a much larger quant.i.ty. But experimentation which is sudden and covers a few weeks only, is worse than useless, as it tends to disprove the very principles that a saner method of experimentation would probably establish. And if I can impress this fact upon the reader I shall have performed a good service.

Carefully undertaken, and properly graduated, I believe there are few people in these days who would not greatly benefit by a reduction in the number of meals and in the quant.i.ty of food they take. By means of a healthy and cheerful habit of introspection--not morbid and feverish--I am firmly convinced that by cutting down their meals most people would not only greatly improve their health, but their mental and spiritual condition as well, and also greatly increase their capacity for work ... And if in this way we can effect such an improvement in our life and condition it does not really matter whether we get to the two or even one meal basis or not.

As to myself, my work is chiefly literary and my life moderately sedentary. But the fact is that I now have two moderate meals a day whereas I used to have four pretty good ones. But I have many friends whose work is mechanical, and demands much muscular energy, who are two-mealists. One lady I know, who is one of the healthiest, strongest and best physically developed persons I have ever met, is a two-mealist, and not only does she work at a mechanical occupation for ten hours a day, but on several evenings each week conducts a ladies gymnastics cla.s.s as well. But in her case, as in mine, the two meal was an ideal that was gradually and slowly attained, and not a sudden reform. Indeed, the main thing to remember is that it is all a matter of training, it being quite impossible to say where the limit is. For of one thing I am quite sure--viz. that most people, were they to adopt a slow process of food and meals reduction, on the lines I suggested in my article, would be astonished at the result. The number of people one meets, chiefly among those whose life is more or less sedentary, who say they can't work as they should, are subject to pains and heaviness in the head, constipation and indigestion, is simply appalling; and on questioning such people I come to the conclusion that in the majority of cases it is because they eat too much or too often.

My meals are very simple, and the simpler they are the better I like them. I like a cold lunch about noon, and a hot meal about six. I have tried a wholly uncooked diet, but as yet my body does not seem ready for it: perhaps it will be after a little while. The first meal usually consists of wholemeal bread and fruit, green or vegetable salads, just according to my needs at the time. In winter I take a more liberal supply of dried fruits and nuts. Pulses I eschew altogether. My second meal consists of a substantial entree with one or two conservatively cooked vegetables--occasionally I have a soup and a sweet in addition. But of course it is for everyone to find out his or her own ideal diet; and let me say that it is worth while to do so, even though it involves much confusion and perplexity during the period of experimentation.

WILFRED WELLOCK.

A BALLADE OF SKYFARING.

Ye whom bonds of the city chain, Yet whose heart must with Nature's be; Ye who, bound to a bed of pain, Dream there of torrent and tower and tree, Here behold them--the magic key, Turned by a thought in yon gates of blue, Even now has revealed to me Alps and Mediterranean too.

Why of the bondage of earth complain?

Wide as heaven is our liberty!

Where are the streets and their smoke and stain When to the land of the lark we flee?

Where is the sight that we may not see, Cloudland's citadel pa.s.sing through?

Switzerland beckons with Sicily, Alps and Mediterranean too.

Here, 'twixt walls with the marble's vein, Oared on a river of gold are we; There we watch, on a sapphire main, White fleets voyage to victory.

Day unto day flashes grief or glee; Night to night utters speech anew, Figuring forest and lane and lea-- Alps and Mediterranean too.

ENVOY

Prince whose course through the world is free, Fare you better than dreamers do?

Here are the mountains and here the sea-- Alps and Mediterranean too.

S. GERTRUDE FORD.

From _Lyric Leaves_, by S. Gertrude Ford. Cloth, 2s. 6d. net; 2s. 8d.

post free from _The Healthy Life_, 3 Amen Corner, E.C. This charmingly bound book makes an excellent holiday companion, for it contains many beautiful lyrics, all characterised by serious thought, generous human sympathies and a delicate imaginative quality.

A REMEDY FOR LONGEVITY.

Once upon a time there was a little boy whose parents took things very seriously. They answered all his questions with painstaking precision.

At a comparatively early age he could prove that fairies were non-existent. At the same time his toys were marvels of mechanical perfection.

At the age of seven he was sent to a very efficient school, where, being naturally a bright boy, he gained high marks every term and pa.s.sed all the examinations, for he had a wonderful and well-trained faculty for remembering exactly what his teachers had told him.