You are astonished and you tell him, "There it lies on the ground right
before your eyes! Can't you see it?"
But he turns and walks away saying: "There is no tree there; it is all
in your mind."
This is exactly what people with "nerves" have been told again and again
by physicians, by relatives, and by most other people who have never had
"nerves."
I tell you these things so that when you begin to eat sparingly and chew
your food to a cream you may fortify yourself against well-meaning but
mistaken friends and relatives. And, oddly enough, it does seem that the
individual with "nerves" has more friends and relatives than any other
person in the world.
Remember you must not only chew your food to the consistency of cream
for one or two months, you must make this practice a lifelong habit. If
you cannot take time to eat a meal in this way, you had much better go
hungry. To people who travel and must frequently take their meals in
railroad eating houses, I would say, get some bread and butter
sandwiches and eat them slowly while on the train. There is always a
chance to secure all you need to eat, too. You may not always be able to
sit an hour at the table--the time we should give to a meal if we eat as
we should. I know many object to this rule on the ground that if we
followed it we should get nothing else done. But that is nonsense. Did
not the Master of us all say, "Are there not twelve hours in the day?"
Then can we not devote three of the twelve to our food? If we have nine
hours in which we are at our highest efficiency, is it not good sense,
if we eat three meals a day, to give three hours to these meals? There
is only one sane answer to the question; we should take an hour for a
meal.
Every now and then some magazine writer will state that the chewing of
food to a cream does not help anybody. He will tell you that you can
swallow your food any old way and it will not hurt you in the least. In
fact, I actually saw an article in one of our leading periodicals
containing just such statements. We should, I suppose, have only pity
for an editor who would give space to such stuff, and should also pity
the poor wretch who by writing it is striving to attain notoriety. At
any rate there is one excellent thing about such lies, they do harm for
only a little while. When people find out that a thing is harmful to
them, they usually quit it, no matter how many notoriety seekers are
urging and encouraging them to keep on.
Usually the sufferer with "nerves" is the only one in the household who
will eat sparingly and chew his food slowly. But now and then I find an
intelligent, sympathetic man who will do so because it is helpful to his
wife. He sympathizes with her infirmity, and with fine self-denial eats
as she does. And note this: he usually derives benefit from so doing.
Time after time when I have put a nervous woman under this regimen, and
then her husband elected to go along with her, I have had the man come
to me and say: "Well, doctor, I declare I'm feeling a whole lot better
myself! I don't get sleepy any more during the daytime, and that pain I
used to have in the region of my liver is gone!" And so on and on.
The fact is just this: anybody who follows the rules that I learned to
apply in my own case cannot fail to be benefited. And although those not
inclined to "nerves" can eat a greater variety of food, it's greatly to
be desired when there is a nervous person in a household of grownups
that all other members of the family enter together into this thing. It
could not fail to help every one of them. To be truthful, in the
beginning you will all find it mighty hard to persist in chewing all
your food to a cream. Mouthful after mouthful of food will get away from
you when you are not thinking. This just goes to show how we are in the
habit of bolting our food. At first people who Fletcherize or chew their
food perfectly, usually lose weight. I most certainly did. I lost about
twenty pounds because of it, but I was so well and felt so good I could
almost have jumped over the North Star.
I know that, unfortunately, a lot of people with "nerves" have started
to chew their food carefully and to eat sparingly, but the minute they
found themselves losing weight they were frightened and quit. They went
on carrying that ten or twenty or thirty pounds of flesh and all the
time suffering the tortures of the damned just in order that they might
keep it. But of what benefit are a certain number of extra pounds of
flesh and how can a man explain such a senseless action?
The astonishing thing is that many physicians are willing to condemn a
cure just as soon as they find the patient has lost a pound of beef. But
as I said before, the primary mission of man in this world is not to
raise beef. I do not find fault with the raising of beef in the feeding
yards, but if beef must be raised let us confine the industry to the
cattle pens and stock yards. Let us not worship it to the degree that we
would rather live in hell than part with a few extra pounds that
overload our own bodies.
Now just here I want it distinctly understood, as I have said before,
that this text is primarily for _functional nervous cases_. Tubercular
people belong to an entirely different class. They should live out of
doors day and night and should, if possible, be treated at outdoor
institutions established for such cases. But the individual with
"nerves" will find what he needs and will find it abundantly if he has
enough determination to take hold of it and keep at it.
On the part of many it will take all the determination they have to chew
their food to a cream and always eat sparingly. In regard to the amount
of food taken, judgment must of course be used. We all know that it is
possible to eat too little. But you should always quit eating while you
still feel you would like a little more. I know of no better guide than
this to offer you. But I have observed that the person who eats slowly
and chews his food to a cream never eats as much food as he would if he
bolted it. It is just like letting a thirsty horse drink water. I
remember, as a boy on the farm, when I led a very thirsty horse from
the field to the water tank how rapidly he would swallow. If my father
were with me, after the horse had drunk a while he would say, "Make him
hold his head up." Frequently when I did so the horse would draw a long
breath and drink no more. Had he gone right on drinking, as a thirsty
horse will if you permit him to do so, he might have drunk twice as much
as was good for him. And that's the way people eat. As a result the
horse that drinks and drinks and drinks when he is very thirsty
sometimes dies in a few hours. I have seen a horse die from drinking too
much water and I have also seen people die in a few hours after a
terrible gorge that they could not get rid of. Do you know that most
nervous people have a way of sitting down to the table and eating until
they are literally full? If you could take out the stomach of such a
person and look at it, the sight would frighten you. And with good
reason. For as a result of this habit many nervous people have dilated
stomachs. But if they would correct their manner of eating there is
usually enough tone in the muscular walls of the stomach to get it back
to normal. I marvel again and again over how miraculously nature
restores herself even after she has been terribly abused, if only she is
given a chance.
I am certain that all human beings would be more efficient if they
chewed all solid food to a cream and sipped all liquids slowly. The late
Professor William James, the great Harvard psychologist, testified to
the value of such a habit, as did a number of other distinguished
Harvard professors. I regret that some physicians still hold out in
their belief that it does no good although the evidence stands out as
clearly before them as a tree along the roadside. But they are like the
physician who some years ago declared that bathing was bad for people. I
recall how hard we all bore down upon him, as he richly deserved, and
how the Journal of the American Medical Association printed a short poem
ridiculing him. I am quite certain that the members of the Regular
school of medicine have progressed infinitely farther toward the cure of
diseases than members of all the other schools combined. I do not say
this simply because I happen to be a physician of the Regular school; I
say it because a candid survey of what has been accomplished, and by
whom, proves it. But as to diet, we have done little compared with what
we should do. We have made no greater progress along this line because
so many of us have been blinded by prejudice--the curse of the human
race.
With regard to chewing all food to a cream, most modern writers on
dietetics, while acknowledging that this super-mastication is useful,
maintain that it does not increase the value of the food. But they err
greatly in this, as we can prove in a very few words: If a certain
amount of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates is bolted by a nervous man
suffering from a breakdown, it will cause intestinal toxemia as a result
of the bolted food, but if he chews the food to a cream it will be
digested in a normal manner and will not cause gas in the stomach or
intestines. The proper amount of food is absorbed and nourishes the man
as it should. Now did not the thorough mastication of that food increase
the value of the proteins, fats, and carbohydrates? The thing is a
self-evident fact. In the first case a man takes food which quickly
turns to a loathsome poison. In the second instance the same kind of
food is so thoroughly mixed with the ptyalin in the saliva that whatever
is eaten becomes of value as protein or fat or some other food element.
After many years of sad experience with this malady we call "nerves" I
am convinced that the reason why people have this disease is because
they are literally "food drunk." I have treated men who had been on an
alcohol debauch and I know how terribly depressed they are after such a
spree is over. It is exactly the same way with the pre-nervous people
that break down. They sit down to a big meal and overeat. There is a
temporary stimulus, just as in the case of the person who takes
intoxicants, followed by that terrible mental depression that all who
have suffered from "nerves" know. And because the individual with the
"nerves" is overeating two or three times each day, he stays drunk with
the poisons that form in his stomach and intestines. Such people
over-assimilate the poisonous products of proteins, especially of
sugars. Of course this may seem oddly stated because we would not want
any absorption of the poisons in the intestines, but it is probable that
nature can and does take care of a little of it there in the healthy
individual.
It is perfectly absurd to say, as some physicians still continue to say,
that no poisonous matter is ever absorbed in the intestinal tract. Give
a child something that causes intestinal indigestion and see how quickly
he has a rise in temperature. This fever is the direct result of poisons
absorbed in the intestines. In the case of the nervous adult, however,
this poison does not as often result in fever as it does in a horrible
mental depression and a complete inability to perform any sort of work.
And so there seems no question but that this terrible malady we call
"nerves," or a nervous breakdown in any of its many forms, is in a
majority of cases the result of the wrong eating habits of the
individual. The chewing of all food to a cream will go far toward curing
the trouble, but in most cases this alone will not effect a cure. It
would not have done so in my own case, although I did see much
improvement as a result of that practice alone.
And here I want to say this: There are many who say they cannot eat acid
fruits because of the distress they cause. Now if such people would
always chew an apple, a pear, or other fruit to a cream, no distress
would result from eating fresh fruit. But such people must follow in
detail the diet I shall give farther on.
Now, facts cannot be stated too strongly. It is certain acid fruits will
cause distress if you do not chew them to a cream. I would swell up like
a toad if I ate only one apple hurriedly. I don't dare think what might
happen to me if I ate three or four in that way. I might possibly find
myself transformed into a human balloon and float away into space. But I
don't eat apples that way--not now. Some who read these pages may think
it very strange, yet it is quite true that there really are persons
suffering with "nerves" who have not gumption enough to follow this
simple rule of chewing all food to a cream. I despair of ever helping
those people. They still continue to dispose of a big meal in fifteen
minutes, and then insist they have chewed all their food carefully. I
have had that thing happen right before my own eyes. Then think of their
complaining that they cannot eat apples because they cause so much gas
in the stomach!
One reason why a large number of such people are troubled with gas, even
though they do chew their food to a cream, is because they immediately
follow a meal with one or two cups of tea or coffee. Now please remember
this: An individual afflicted with "nerves" has no business drinking
either tea or coffee. He should let them both alone. Plain hot water is
the very best drink in the world for a nervous person. If you want a
drink after your meal drink a cup of plain hot water. And you should
also drink a cup of hot water half an hour before breakfast. If you do
not care for breakfast, and feel you do not need this meal, drink the
hot water anyway. The victim of "nerves" should never drink during the
meal but after it, if he must drink anything at all. He should also
drink a pint or more of cold water between meals every day.
Now, another thing with regard to chewing all solid food to a cream. It
has been proved over and over again in my own case and in that of many
others, that in doing this the brain and muscles are both made stronger
and keener for work, that those who chew their food in this way have
much greater endurance, both mental and physical, than those who do not.
Today if I should relax my vigilance in respect to chewing my food I
should soon go down again. But with this aid, which I now so easily
employ, combined with exactly the right things to eat, I find I need
have no fear. It has been ten years since my last breakdown and in that
interval I have done the very best work and by far the hardest brain
work of a lifetime. I do not believe people break down from overwork.
You may think that a perfectly absurd statement. But I have good grounds
upon which to base my belief. If nervous people would eat sparingly and
chew their food to a cream, eating the foods I shall mention later on, I
am confident they would rarely, if ever, break down.
It is certain that in the last ten years, with the greatest mental
strain on me, I should have gone down again, and perhaps more than once,
if I had not found what caused "nerves" and how to prevent it. In the
meantime I have written ten or more books, and every writer, at least,
knows what a nerve-racking profession writing is. In addition to all
this mental labor I have gone right ahead with my medical practice.
Surely there is balm in this particular Gilead.
But if you will not chew your food to a cream you need not expect to win
the entire reward. And you must do this not only one day or one week or
one month or one year, but all the days, weeks, months, and years that
you may live. And, alas! I know only too well all the trouble
well-meaning but deluded people who sit at the table with a nervous
individual will make him when they discover how much time he is taking
to chew his food. At first, because of the length of time I spent at a
meal, such people thought I must be eating as much as a horse. But, here
and there, for I was in many places, when people found out what I was
doing, they would only courteously deride me for being so gullible about
what they termed fads.
We are all well aware that the vast majority of Americans do not chew
their food to a cream or anything like it. And there are those,
therefore, who advance as an argument that because the majority do not
there must be something wrong with the minority who do. Well, let us
follow this out a little: Not so many hundred years ago everybody
believed the world was _flat_. But their theory did not make it flat.
And so, even though thousands of people who crowd our eating houses do
bolt their food, that does not prove there is no danger in the practice.
And they who do it are digging their graves with their teeth.
_Chew your food!_