BAD HABITS IN EATING.
~1. Eating too Fast.~--A most common fault is eating too fast. When the
food is chewed too rapidly, and swallowed too quickly, it is not
properly divided and softened. Such food cannot be easily acted upon by
the various digestive juices.
~2. Eating too Much.~--A person who eats food too rapidly is also very
likely to injure himself by eating too much. The digestive organs are
able to do well only a certain amount of work. When too much food is
eaten, none of it is digested as well as it should be. Food which is not
well digested will not nourish the body.
~3. Eating too Often~--Many children make themselves sick by eating too
often. It is very harmful to take lunches or to eat at other than the
proper meal-times. The stomach needs time to rest, just as our legs and
arms and the other parts of the body do. For the same reason, it is well
for us to avoid eating late at night. The stomach needs to sleep with
the rest of the body. If one goes to bed with the stomach full of food,
the stomach cannot rest, and the work of digestion will go on so slowly
that the sleep will likely be disturbed. Such sleep is not refreshing.
~4.~ If we wish to keep our digestive organs in good order, we must take
care to eat at regular hours. We ought not to eat when we are very
tired. The stomach cannot digest well when we are very much fatigued.
~5. Sweet Foods.~--We ought not to eat too much sugar or sweet foods, as
they are likely to sour or ferment in the stomach, and so make us sick.
Candies often contain a great many things which are not good for us, and
which may make us sick. The colors used in candies are sometimes
poisonous. The flavors used in them are also sometimes very harmful.
~6. Fatty Foods Hurtful.~--Too much butter, fat meats, and other greasy
foods are hurtful. Cream is the most digestible form of fat, because it
readily dissolves in the fluids of the stomach, and mixes with the other
foods without preventing their digestion. Melted fats are especially
harmful. Cheese, fried foods, and rich pastry are very poor foods, and
likely to cause sickness.
~7. Eating too many Kinds of Foods.~--Children should avoid eating
freely of flesh meats. They ought also to avoid eating all
highly-seasoned dishes, and taking too many kinds of food at a meal. A
simple diet is much the more healthful. Milk and grain foods, as
oatmeal, cracked wheat, graham bread, with such delicious fruits as
apples, pears, and grapes, are much the best food for children.
~8. Avoid Use of Cold Foods.~--We ought not to take very cold foods or
liquids with our meals. Cold foods, ice-water, and other iced drinks
make the stomach so cold that it cannot digest the food. For this reason
it is very harmful to drink iced water or iced tea, or to eat ice-cream
at meals. These things are injurious to us at any time, but they do the
greatest amount of harm when taken with the food.
~9. Things sometimes Eaten which are not Foods.~--Things which are not
foods are often used as foods, such as mustard, pepper, and the various
kinds of seasonings. Soda, saleratus, and baking-powders also belong to
this class. All of these substances are more or less harmful,
particularly mustard, pepper, and hot sauces.
~10. Common Salt.~--The only apparent exception to the general rule that
all condiments and other substances which are not foods are harmful is
in the case of common salt. This is very commonly used among civilized
nations, although there are many barbarous tribes that never taste it.
It is quite certain that much more salt is used than is needed. When
much salt is added to the food, the action of the digestive fluids is
greatly hindered. Salt meats, and other foods which have much salt added
to them, are hard to digest because the salt hardens the fibres of the
meat, so that they are not easily dissolved by the digestive fluids.
~11. Care of the Teeth.~--The teeth are the first organs employed in the
work of digestion. It is of great importance that they should be kept in
health. Many persons neglect their teeth, and treat them so badly that
they begin to decay at a very early age.
~12.~ The mouth and teeth should be carefully cleansed immediately on
rising in the morning, and after each meal. All particles of food should
be removed from between the teeth by carefully rubbing both the inner
and the outer surfaces of the teeth with a soft brush, and rinsing very
thoroughly with water. A little soap may be used in cleansing the teeth,
but clear water is sufficient, if used frequently and thoroughly. The
teeth should not be used in breaking nuts or other hard substances. The
teeth are brittle, and are often broken in this way. The use of candy
and too much sweet food is also likely to injure the teeth.
~13.~ Some people think that it is not necessary to take care of the
first set of teeth. This is a great mistake. If the first set are lost
or are unhealthy, the second set will not be as perfect as they should
be. It is plain that we should not neglect our teeth at any time of
life.
~14. Tobacco.~--When a person first uses tobacco, it is apt to make him
very sick at the stomach. After he has used tobacco a few times it does
not make him sick, but it continues to do his stomach and other organs
harm, and after a time may injure him very seriously. Smokers sometimes
suffer from a horrible disease of the mouth or throat known as cancer.
~15. Effects of Alcohol upon the Stomach.~--If you should put a little
alcohol into your eye, the eye would become very red. When men take
strong liquors into their stomachs, the delicate membrane lining the
stomach becomes red in the same way. Perhaps you will ask how do we know
that alcohol has such an effect upon the stomach. More than sixty years
ago there lived in Michigan a man named Alexis St. Martin. One day he
was, by accident, shot in such a way that a large opening was made right
through the skin and flesh and into the stomach. The good doctor who
attended him took such excellent care of him that he got well. But when
he recovered, the hole in his stomach remained, so that the doctor could
look in and see just what was going on. St. Martin sometimes drank
whiskey, and when he did, the doctor often looked into his stomach to
see what the effect was, and he noticed that the inside of the stomach
looked very red and inflamed.
~16.~ If St. Martin continued to drink whiskey for several days, the
lining of the stomach looked very red and raw like a sore eye. A sore
stomach cannot digest food well, and so the whole body becomes sick and
weak. What would you think of a man who should keep his eyes always sore
and inflamed and finally destroy his eyesight by putting pepper or
alcohol or some other irritating substance into them every day? Is it
not equally foolish and wicked to injure the stomach and destroy one's
digestion by the use of alcoholic drinks? Alcohol, even when it is not
very strong, not only hurts the lining of the stomach, but injures the
gastric juice, so that it cannot digest the food well.
~17. Effects of Alcohol upon the Liver.~--The liver, as well as the
stomach, is greatly damaged by the use of alcohol. You will recollect
that nearly all the food digested and absorbed is filtered through the
liver before it goes to the heart to be distributed to the rest of the
body. In trying to save the rest of the body from the bad effects of
alcohol, the liver is badly burned by the fiery liquid, and sometimes
becomes so shrivelled up that it can no longer produce bile and perform
its other duties. Even beer, ale, and wine, which do not contain so much
alcohol as do rum, gin, and whiskey, have enough of the poison in them
to do the liver a great deal of harm, and to injure many other organs of
the body as well.
SUMMARY.
{Eating too fast.
{Eating too much.
{Eating too frequently.
{Eating irregularly.
1. CAUSES OF INDIGESTION. {Eating when tired.
{Eating too much of sweet foods.
{Eating too many kinds of food
at a meal.
{Using iced foods or drinks.
2. Irritating substances and things which are not foods should not be
eaten.
3. The teeth must be carefully used and kept clean.
4. Tobacco-using does the stomach harm, and sometimes causes cancer of
the mouth.
5. Alcohol injures the gastric juice, and causes disease of the stomach
and the liver.