For initial experiment, do not change any of your present habits of
living as to time of meals, kind of food, etc.
Following the directions given hereafter will undoubtedly lead to just
the right thing for you in these regards.
There is no doubt but that the early morning meal is not productive of
the best results in nutrition and strength, but it is better to have
Appetite suggest the necessary change in accustomed habits. Dr. Dewey's
advice in the "No-Breakfast" regimen is excellent. The getting-up
craving is not an _earned_ appetite.
Forced abstinence from a heavy morning meal will _surely_ bring about
normal conditions of appetite which are best adapted to perfect
nutrition, so that if the invitation to give up the morning gorge
voluntarily does not overcome perverse habit, the heroic denial may be
tried.
The value of the discovery lies in recognising the fact that Taste
still has important work to do with passing food while yet there is
taste, and that what remains after Taste ceases to express itself
should _not_ go into the stomach.
The ease with which one will learn to enjoy and "hang on" to food in
the mouth, even milk and soup, after he has learned a good reason for
doing so, will quickly create a counter habit which is in accordance
with Nature's _perfect way_.
When one has discovered the delight of _that last indescribably sweet
flash of taste_, which Taste offers as a _pousse café_ to those who
serve it with respect, he will find _any_ food that Appetite selects is
needed for his nutrition, and is good.
Remember this! Salt, sugar, some sauces and spices which are used to
make food palatable may be in themselves nutritious, but do not let
them mislead you. The tendency is to relish them and think that they
represent the food they disguise, which, however, is often only an
excuse for them, and has very little nutrition itself. In this case a
morsel of food is taken into the mouth, the sauce or spice which it
carries meets immediate response from Taste and disappears, whereupon
the indigestible food morsel is swallowed in indigestible condition so
as to admit another sauce-laden supply.
The most nutritious food does not require sauces. It may seem dry and
tasteless to the first impression, but, as the juices of the mouth get
possession of it, warm it up, solve its life-giving qualities out of it
and coax it into usefulness, the delight of a new-found delicacy will
greet the discoverer.
It may be difficult, at first, to avoid swallowing food before it is
thoroughly separated, the nutriment dissolved and the dirt rejected,
but after a little practice there will be no difficulty. On the
contrary, there will be an involuntary habit of retention established
that will be as tenacious of a morsel of food till that last and
sweetest taste has been found, as a dog is tenacious of a savory bone.
Did it ever occur to gum chewers that the gum is simply an exciter
of saliva, and that the sweet taste is the nutritious dextrin in the
saliva and has nothing to do with the gum? In the ordinary "watering of
the mouth" the same sweet taste is experienced.
Another important fact in this connection, and which belongs in the
list of "directions" because it is a leader, is, that perfect nutrition
is a source of ample saliva, the effect thereby reproducing the cause
in friendly reciprocity.
It will be found that, when normal conditions have been attained
through attention to the inspection, selection and rejection of Taste,
when the tongue has lost its malarial yellow scum and when Hunger
is represented by healthful Appetite and has dismissed bilious and
insatiable Craving from its service, there will at all times be a
delicately sweet taste in the mouth which will prevent craving for
anything else. For instance, a person in possession of normal taste
conditions may pass a confectionery shop or a fruit stand without
temptation to eat of their wares, for they would _spoil_ the taste
already in possession of the mouth.
The expert wine tasters in Rhineland, where the full flavour of the
luscious fruit is retained in the wine as Nature put it there, never
_drink_ wine. They breathe it into the mouth and atomise it on the
tongue with utmost relish. To them the swallowing of the precious
juice without dissipation by taste is an unpardonable sacrilege. The
Bavarians also, whose beer is the best in the world, practically do not
drink beer as Americans are accustomed to seeing it drunk. They sit
over a _stein_ of beer for an hour, reading or chatting with friends.
The epicurean drinkers of what has been termed _eau de vie_ in France
sit and sip a "pony" of their beloved Cognac while they enjoy a view
of pastoral loveliness or a throng of passers-by in a boulevard of
Paris. None of these people drink anything but water and hence are not
drunkards; and, at the same time, they have full enjoyment of Nature's
most stimulating and delicious compounds in a form preserved by Nature
for the use of man.
The taste of these students of nutrition becomes so discriminating
that they can distinguish a wine or a beer or a cognac, as they would
distinguish between intimate friends and strangers. The year, the
vineyard, the state of the weather, or any accident that may have
surrounded the development of the fruit are as distinguishable to these
epicures in the essential juices as are the marks on men which indicate
prosperity, happiness or any stamp of environment whatever.
An epicurean cannot be a glutton. There may be gluttons who are less
gluttonous than other gluttons, but epicureanism is like politeness
and cleanliness, and is the certain mark of gentility.
A physiological chemist, a friend of the author, who is responsible
for the suggestion that the function of saliva in turning the starches
of our food into nutritious glucose may never have been fully given a
chance to act, thus accounts for the last delicate sweet taste which is
attained by complete mastication. It is then a _perfect_ solution, and
hence the delicacy of the taste.
For illustration, try a ship's biscuit--commonly called hardtack--and
keep it in the mouth, tasting it as you would a piece of sugar, till it
has disappeared entirely, and note what a treasure of delight there is
in it.
Taste will teach the experimenter more than I can even suggest. I
simply offer an introduction to Doctor N. Appetite and to Doctor G.
Taste and state some of their excellences that I have discovered
through their attentions to myself and others under my direction.