DRINK AT MEALS

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15033, 2 September 1922, Page 19 (Supplement)

DRINK AT MEALS

DOCTOR’S ADVICE. A little girl was told by her mother that she must not drink until the end of a. meal. ■■ \Yi]y not, Mummy?" she asked. "Look at tlic cows, dear,” replied Hie mother. "They never drink until after they have, finished eating.” "Bui, .'lummy,” said the little gift. “1 don't want, lo be a cow.” This story, writes "The Diner Out,’ is recalled to me by a Idler from Dr. Wynne Yorkc-Davies, of Harley Street, W., wherein lie advocates drinking at meals, it is a point on which 'doctors differ, and on which the average man goes his own way. It is true that with most of the animal kingdom eating and drinking are separate and distinct processes. But man is a thinking and reasoning animal, and has evolved his own methods.

A dinner without drink would be to me an impossibility. I could not get it, down. I certainly could not enjoy it. Good wine increases the flow of the gastric juices and aids digestion. Claret and other red wines are digestive agents of a high order. The combination of the right kinds of wines with the right kinds of foods is not a mere accident nor a mere matter of taste. The iact that you take light wines with soup and fish, red wine, claret, or Burgundy with certain entrees or game, and port at the end of a meal, is based upon sound dietetic principle's. Let any moderate drinker try “dry meals, and the result will be violent indigestion. Sound wine in moderation hurt no man yet. Dr. Yorke-Davies told a Daily Mail reporter that he always advises patients to drink as much as they can. “Water is the best drink at meals, and mineral waters are also very good,” said Dr. Yorkc-Davies. "There is no reason why a man should not take his wine or whisky, but these should be supplemented with sufficient water to wash away the waste products. If wine is taken, it should be one of the light dinner wines; sherry, for instance, is too sweet. “There is a belief among obese people that if they do not drink at meals they will loose weight. This is a fallacy. I find that although a person who cuts down the quantity of fluid at meals will eat less at the beginning, bis appelite for the dry meals returns in a few months, and he eats as much as before. Perhaps the best way would be to drink between meals, but for many people this is impracticable. I therefore advise these to drink as much as they like at meals. “My obese patients are surprised and also' greatly relieved when I insist on their drinking plenty of liquid; they soon discover the benefit of the advice.”