HEAL

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 172, 29 April 1874, Page 3

HE AL

Tjtb Journal of Health say/; -•« Halfall ordinary diseases would be banished /rota civilised life, and dyspepsia become almost unknown, if everybody would eat thrice a day at regular times, and not an atom between the meals, the intervals being not !e«« than five Honrs, that being the time required to digest a full meal ami pass it out of the stomach. If a person eats between meals, the process of digestion of the food already ia the stomach Is arrested, until the last which ha* been eaten ia brought into the condition of tho former meal, just as if water is boiling and ice is put in—the whole ceases to boil until the ioa has been melted and brought to boiling point, and then the whole holts together- But it is a law of nature that all food begins to decay after exposure to the heat and moisture for a certain time. If a meal Is eaten, and in two hours another, the whole remains undigested for seven hours, before which time the rotting process commences, and the man has his stomach full of carrion, the very idea of which is horribly disgusting. As, then, all the food in the stomach is in a state of fermentative decay, it becomes unfit for the purposes of nutrition, and making good pure blood. Small wonder I* it that dyspeptics have such a variety of symptoms, and aches, and complaints in every part of the system, for there is not one drop of pure blood in the whole body. Hence the nerves, which feed on this impure and imperfect blood, aro not property nourished, and as a consequence so come diseased. p»ey complain they are hungry, and, like a hungry man, are peevish, fretful, and restless, we call it nervousness; and no one know a dyspeptic who was not restless, fretful, fidgety, and essentially disagreeable, fitful, and uncertain. The stomach is made of a number of muscles, all of which are brought into requisition in the process of digestion. But no muscle can work always. The heart is in a state of perfect repose for one-third of its time. The eye can work twice in a second, but this could not he continued five minutes. The bunds and foot must have rest, and so with the mu soles of tho stomach ; they can only rest when there is no work for them to do—-no food in the stomach to digest. Even at five hours* interval, and eating thrice a day, they are kept constantly at work from breakfast until the last meal is disposed of—-usually at tan o’clock at night. But multitudes oat beartly within an hour of bedtime. Thus while the other portions of tho body are at rest, the stomach is kept labouring until almost daylight, and made to begin again at breakfast time. No wonder it is that the stomach is wont out—has lest its power of action. Many girls become dyspeptic before they aro out of their teens, in consequence of being about the house and nibbling at everything they lay their eyes on that is good to eat.”