White flour products are easier to digest than the whole wheat products, but normal people can digest the latter very well and it is a better food than white flour. I know one gentleman in his eighth decade of life who has grown stronger and younger by abandoning the conventional eating habits and living mostly on moderate meals of milk and whole wheat biscuits. As Cornaro said, some need more than others, but all should be moderate.
One meal a day of milk and biscuits is all right. These biscuits should be well baked and well masticated. The milk should be taken slowly.
Another meal can be meat or eggs or fish with some of the cooked and raw succulent vegetables.
If a third meal is taken, it may consist of clabbered milk or buttermilk; or of one of the sweet fruits, and the sweet fruits may be used any time in place of bread or biscuits. Cottage cheese is a good food at any time, and may be taken with fruits, either acid or sweet.
As often as desired, in summer, take fruit. Because the very acid, juicy fruits have a tendency to cause chilliness and to thin the blood, it is well to take them in moderation during advanced years, but that does not mean that those who like them should avoid them. In winter time the sweet fruit is best. Mild apples and bananas may be used as often as there is a desire for them. Oranges should be taken more rarely, as well as grapefruit, pineapples and other fruits that are heavily charged with acid.
As a general rule, the starchy foods should be eaten but once a day, but those who are very moderate may take them twice a day without bad results. Vegetarians have eggs and milk to take the place of flesh foods. They also have lentils, peas, beans and the protein in the whole wheat and other cereals. Lentils, peas and beans must be taken in moderation, for they are rich in nutriment and if too much is eaten they soon cause disease. Nuts, if well masticated, are also all right.
The general basis of feeding should be starch once a day and protein once a day in moderation. All kinds of starch and all kinds of protein may be used. Fruits more moderately than during the earlier years of life is best. All the succulent vegetables that are desired may be partaken of. By cooking the foods simply, as recommended in this book, they are rendered easier to digest than under the conventional manner of cooking. Simple cooking will help to preserve health and prolong life.
Work is one of the greatest blessings of life. Those who would live long and be useful must exercise both body and mind. Like all other blessings, if it is carried to excess it is injurious. It is unfortunate that some people must work too hard because there is a class of people who do nothing useful, being content to be wasters.
Work has been looked upon as a curse. This is a mistake. Those who live in the hope and expectation that they may some day cease working in order to enjoy life, will find when they reach the goal that life without work is not worth while. Those who can afford it can with benefit lessen the amount of productive work they do and evolve more into cultural lines, but it is dangerous to cease working. The human being is so constituted that without activity of body and mind there is degeneration. What is sadder than to see a capable individual who has won a competence and then has retired to enjoy it! He does not enjoy it. Either he has to get into some line of work, physical or mental, or he soon dies. We must have a lively interest in something or there is stagnation.
There are many beautiful things in life, and we should cultivate them while we are young enough to be able to learn to enjoy them. The loftiest spirits of the ages have left their inspirations and their aspirations with us in poetry, prose, music, painting, statuary and in other forms. We should try to cultivate understanding of these subjects, not necessarily all of them, but of one or more, for with understanding come the elevation and broadening of mind that are always present when there is sympathy, and sympathy is closely related to understanding. Culture along one or more lines broadens the mind and makes a person more worth while not only to himself, but to others. We can not estimate the value of the beauty in life in dollars and cents, but he is poor indeed who is rich in worldly goods alone.