MODERATION IN DIET.

Otago Witness, Issue 3832, 23 August 1927, Page 61

MODERATION IN DIET.

TO THE EDITOR. Slit, —In your issue of the 2nd inst. “Italy,” Timaru, asks for some particulars of a Florentine noble who dieted and prolonged his life. I think this is Count Mattei, who loomed high on the horizon over 30 years ago. Marshall’s Pharmacy, Dunedin, kept his dietary pamphlet and pills, or globules as they were called. I was not impressed with the pills. One was to be placed in a small tumbler of water, and then a spoonful put in another small tumbler of water, and then a mouthful of the latter taken every hour. One would think that so much dilution would make the medicine useless. Whatever it was it caused much excitement among a section of the medical world, and there were sundry articles in the Otago Witness about it. Every medical man who studies the question declares that the average man “ digs his grave with his teeth,” implying thereby that he overloads his stomach and there- I fore overtaxes all his internal organs, and dies prematurely. Too many varieties of food are eaten at one time, and too much of it is bolted. Numberless cases are on record of men subsisting on very small supplies of food A Siberian prisoner who was always in a cell lived to be 90, and his food consisted of 11b of coarse bread a day, except on the Emperor’s birthday, when he got 21b. Lately travellers tell us about the Tibetan monk who shuts himself in a stone box, and lives in darkness to a' great age on one meal a day consisting of a pancake. An aged Englishman suddenly moderated his diet to one dumpling a day made out of 11b of flour, and consumed it at one midday meal. And a | man and his small son lived on whole I wheaten meal porridge and boiled apples, at a cost of one shilling each per week. Sometimes the porridge would be 'eft till it got cold and then fried. There are plenty of people who pm their faith on non-cooked foods and live on nuts and fruits both dry and fresh. A Dunedin grocer once told me that one of his customers left off dealing with him, and when he investigated the matter ascertained that the whole family lived on bread and treacle for a fortnight in order to save up and go to the races and “ put a pound on,” after which they came back 'to him. Plenty people who go back to the ! simple life practise vegetarianism, and live on two meals a day, aud vary their diet by eating raw green cabbage leaf, salad, raisins, and figs, and several kinds of nuts. And I heard of a woman who lived on biscuits only, and always had several kinds on hand, but I never heard any details. The case recorded in the papers lately of the man and his wife and four ol a family requiring £l7 worth of groceries per month was amazing. They must have been enormous eaters, and wasted as much as they ate, which we see occasionally. Then they must have had large quantities of pickles and sauces and tinned fish, which are best left alone. Anyone thinking over food supplies can look up with advantage alimentativcncss in any good book on phrenology. It is sometimes surprising how long delicate men will last and how easily they go out; they live carefully and take no risks. It is surprising and disquieting the large number of deaths among ; youthful people as recorded in the press. And there are large numbers of cases of . insomnia and constipation which should ’ not be. In the towns, people, including children, do not go to bed early enough, • and get up too late in the mornings, and then gobble away for dear life, chewing e the last mouthful as they go out of the door. And smoking as much as £lO wortl\ i, of tobacco a year must also be injurious.— a I am, etc., Richard Norman. Lawrence, August 10.