It is important that both child and adult establish regular and hygienic habits because the digestive juices secrete themselves at the regular periods established. A right habit is as easily formed, and as difficult to change, as a wrong one.
If one forms the habit of eating a certain amount of food, the stomach calls for about the same amount, and when one first begins to change the quantity it protests, whether the change be to eat more or less.
Few people form the habit of drinking sufficient water, particularly if they have been taught that water at meals is injurious. In this busy life, few remember to stop work and drink water between meals, and if not consumed at the meal time the system suffers. Many people look “dried up.”
The habit of drinking two glasses of water on first arising, and six or eight more during the day is an important one.
There is no doubt that a large number of people constantly overload the digestive organs. This, as well as the bolting of food, insufficiently masticated, cannot be too strongly denounced. All food should be chewed to a pulp before being swallowed.
Frequency of Meals
To avoid overeating, many theorists are advocating two meals a day.
When two meals a day are eaten, the first meal should be at nine or ten o’clock in the morning and the second meal at five or six o’clock in the afternoon; whereas, for the average person who eats two meals a day, this custom means that he goes without food until the midday meal and then eats two meals within six hours, with nothing more for eighteen hours.
The argument in favor of two meals a day has been that the digestive system is inactive during sleep, and, therefore, it is not ready for a meal on arising. Pawlow’s experiments, however, show that digestion continues during sleep, though less actively; and it must be borne in mind that the average evening meal is eaten about six o’clock and that there are about four waking hours between this meal and the sleep period; also, that the average individual is awake and moderately active an hour before the morning meal. This gives five waking hours between the evening and the morning meal. About the same time, five hours, elapses between the morning and the midday meal, and between the midday and the evening meal, so that three meals a day divide the digestion periods about evenly. If the amount of food supplied by two meals seems to be sufficient for the needs of the individual, and it is not practical to eat at the hours stated, then omit the midday meal.