Alcohol, therefore, even in small quantities, is a poison, and not a food.
In certain conditions it may be used in emergency to spur a flagging or failing organism to action, but owing to the facility with which the alcohol habit is acquired its use should not be continued beyond the period when its immediate action is deemed necessary.
Because tobacco and alcohol are both poisons, the healthy organism has no need of them. The diseased or deranged organism can often find greater benefit from natural remedies than from the artificial stimuli of these substances.
It is a known fact that far more men than women suffer from dyspepsia. One reason for this may be found in the prevalent habit of spitting. Smokers, in whom the irritation of the nicotin causes an excess of saliva, often suffer from gastric troubles, because they expectorate, thus wasting this valuable digestive juice.
Aside from the filthiness of the habit, which has caused laws to be enacted against it, one would think that a little reflection would cause those addicted to it to consider what it means to their health. Overstimulation means weakened salivary glands, impaired secretion, and consequent lessened digestive power. For the sake of their own health if not from motives of decency, men should abandon the habit of expectorating.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Editor’s Note:—Measurements of seventy thousand women show that sixty-two per cent. of women use only about one-half of their lung capacity and less than nine per cent. use their full capacity.
CHAPTER VII
COOKING
The question of the proper selection and cooking of food is so vital to the health and resultant happiness of every family, and to the strength and well being of a nation, that every one to whom cooking is entrusted should have special preparation for the work. Every girl should be given practical and thorough training in dietetics in our public schools. The study is as dignified as the study of music and art. Indeed it can be made an art in the highest conception of the term. Surely the education of every girl in the vocation in which she sooner or later may engage, either actively or by directing others, means more than education in music and drawing.
We must all eat two and three times every day; there are few things which we do so regularly and which are so vital; yet in the past we have given this subject less study than any common branch in our schools. When the dignity of the profession of dietetics is realized, the servant problem will be largely solved.