Sick, to recover soonest.
Another saith, that the less food the sick person eats, the sooner he will recover; for it is a true saying, the more you fill foul bodies, the more you hurt them. The stomach being the place where diseases have their origin, when that part therefore is weak, and out of order, and cannot make a good digestion, if much is eaten, raw and crude humours must needs be bred, and bad humours cannot produce good blood.
The evil of full meals.
All men find by experience, that, in the morning before they have eaten, they are light and pleasantly easy in their bodies; but, after they have indulged their appetites with plenty of food, they find themselves heavy and dull, and often sleepy: which sufficiently shews, that those full meals are prejudicial to the welfare of the body; for a moderate meal would have continued the ease and lightsomeness they before found in themselves, and would have refreshed any faintness that emptiness might occasion. And he certainly, who useth the most simple meats and drinks, avoideth the snare of provoking his appetite beyond the necessities of nature; whereas variety enticeth to a fresh desire of every dainty, till at last the stomach is gorged, and made uncapable of performing a good digestion; and this produceth those crudities which are the cause of all diseases, and of so many sudden deaths.
The evil of high feeding.
It is generally observed, that the most unhealthy are found among those who feed high upon the most delicious dainties, and drink nothing but the strongest and most spirituous liquors; whereas others who want this delicate fare, are seldom sick, except they have such unsatiable appetites as to eat too much; which a man may do of the plainest diet, whose belly is his god, as an apostle expresses it. Phil. iii 19. But tho’ men may glut themselves with coarse food, yet coarse food, and long life are very confident, as appears by John Bill, mentioned in the history of Cold Baths, p. 408. whose food was bread, cheese, and butter; and drink, whey, butter-milk, or water; and yet he lived 133 years, and was a strong, strait, upright man. And the food of John Bailes, whose age amounted to 128, was for the most part brown bread and cheese; and his drink, water, or small beer and milk, Cold Bath, p. 416. He had buried the whole town of Northampton twenty times over, except three or four, and said, Strong drink killed them all.
Small suppers best.
Dr. Pratt adviseth to sup sparingly; for to sup sparingly, he saith, is most healthful, because of the experience of an infinite number of persons who have received the greatest benefit from light suppers. For the stomach being not overburdened, the sleep is more pleasant; and from sparing suppers the breeding of those humours it prevented, which cause defluxions, rheumatisms, gouts, dropsies, giddiness, and corruption in the mouth from the scurvy: And from light suppers a freedom from sickness and reaching in the morning is obtained, and concoction is made perfect, which prevents obstructions.
Fasting, its benefit.
Another saith, it is well known, that many indispositions are cured by fasting, or a very spare diet; for what is taken into the stomach being no more than can be well digested, the chylous juice, so rightly prepared, is conveyed into the lacteal vessels, and from thence into the blood; so that, nature being duly supplied with well-concocted nourishment, the corrupted blood will free itself from that corruption in time, by throwing it out, through the pores of the skin, in perspiration, and supply itself with the purer juices; and, in this way, consumptions and scurvies, and other chronical distempers, will be overcome. Which way of curing diseases by fasting, swine do naturally betake themselves to, who, when sick, will eat nothing till they recover, as they always do after they injure themselves by over-eating; in which over-eating they are imitated by all who delight in gluttony, tho’ not in using the same means of recovery, by fasting; so that hogs are wiser in that particular than such people.