_We must make our diet fit into our civilized requirements._
Civilization has imposed many customs, habits, and duties upon us that
have not been properly met by nutrition or diet. This is why nearly 91
per cent of our ills are caused by errors in eating.
[Sidenote: Effect of sedative occupations upon nutrition]
Under continued physical exertion, the body will thrive for a time on
an unbalanced diet. It will cast off surplus nutrition, and convert one
element into another, a problem unknown to modern science, but under
sedative or modern business habits and occupations, it will not continue
to cast off a surplus, or to reconvert nutritive elements. As a result
of an unbalanced bill of fare, the nutrients taken in excess of the
daily needs undergo a form of decomposition, producing what is called
autointoxication, and become a most prolific source of dis-ease.