If the appetite is lacking because of physical exhaustion, it is unwise to eat, because the digestive organs are tired, and to load a tired stomach with food, still further weakens it and results in indigestion. The better plan is to drink two glasses of cold water and lie down for an hour.
Lack of appetite and the taste for highly seasoned food may come from a monotonous diet or one that does not contain sufficient coarse food or sufficient water to stimulate peristalsis; the result is stagnation and constipation, with the disorders that follow in its train. The monotonous diet, from its effect on the mind, results in lack of desire for food. Both the condition and the appetite are often stimulated and changed by a greater variety in the kinds of food.
Care should be taken not to form the habit of using stimulants too freely, particularly with children.
Condiments and stimulants, used to make the food “appetizing,” unduly stimulate the nerves, and pervert the natural taste, and foods containing their natural amount of spices or extractives no longer tempt one. Those whose nerves are highly keyed, form the habit of seasoning the food too highly. This undue stimulation calls for more food at the time of eating than a normal appetite would demand. The taste being cultivated for the stimulant, the habit of eating too much food is formed.
A wise provision of Nature makes the system, in a normal condition, its own regulator, protesting against food when it has not assimilated or eliminated that consumed. One should learn to obey such protests and cut down the quantity when Nature calls “enough,” and exercise to eliminate waste, thus creating a better assimilation. Nature does not call for more food until she has eliminated the excess of waste.
There are exceptions, however. Some phases of indigestion cause a gnawing sensation in the stomach which is often mistaken for a desire for food. This is not a normal appetite. Water will usually relieve it.
Often loss of appetite is the result of a clogging of the intestines or liver, or is due to an excess of bile, which, not having been properly discharged into the intestines, has entered the blood stream or regurgitated into the stomach. A torpid liver often expresses itself in a dull mental force, the toxins deadening the nerve cells.
The lack of desire for exercise of those living in warm climates results in a sluggish activity of the system. As a result it demands less food, and habits of excessive seasoning to stimulate the appetite have been formed.
The desire for excessive stimulants, such as salt, may be a cultivated taste and the habit should be corrected.
There is a difference between the cultivated and the normal appetite. A child rarely shows a desire for stimulants such as tea or coffee, excessive salt, pepper, pickles, catsups, etc., unless unwisely encouraged by an adult, who does it, not because it is food for the child, but because the individual himself has cultivated a taste for it.