And if
it is natural that we should chew our food, the more thoroughly we chew it the
more completely natural the process must be. If you will chew every mouthful to
a liquid, you need not be in the least concerned as to what you shall eat, for
you can get sufficient nourishment out of any ordinary food.
Whether
or not this chewing shall be an irksome and laborious task or a most enjoyable
process, depends upon the mental attitude in which you come to the table.
If your
mind and attitude are on other things, or if you are anxious or worried about
business or domestic affairs, you will find it almost impossible to eat without
bolting more or less of your food. You must learn to live so scientifically
that you will have no business or domestic cares to worry about; this you can
do, and you can also learn to give your undivided attention to the act of
eating while at the table.
When you
eat, do so with an eye single to the purpose of getting all the enjoyment you
can from that meal; dismiss everything else from your mind, and do not let
anything take your attention from the food and its taste until your meal is
finished. Be cheerfully confident, for if you follow these instructions you may
KNOW that the food you eat is exactly the right food, and that it will "agree"
with you to perfection.
Sit down
to the table with confident cheerfulness, and take a moderate portion of the
food; take whatever thing looks the most desirable to you. Do not select some
food because you think it will be good for you; select that which will taste
good to you. If you are to get well and stay well, you must drop the idea of
doing things because they are good for your health, and do things because you
want to do them. Select the food you want most; gratefully give thanks to God
that you have learned how to eat it in such a way that digestion shall be
perfect; and take a moderate mouthful of it.
Do not
fix your attention on the act of chewing; fix it on the TASTE of the food; and
taste and enjoy it until it is reduced to a liquid state and passes down your
throat by involuntary swallowing. No matter how long it takes, do not think of
the time. Think of the taste.
Do not
allow your eyes to wander over the table, speculating as to what you shall eat
next; do not worry for fear there is not enough, and that you will not get your
share of everything. Do not anticipate the taste of the next thing; keep you
mind centered on the taste of what you have in your mouth. And that is all of
it.
Scientific
and healthful eating is a delightful process after you have learned how to do
it, and after you have overcome the bad habit of gobbling down you food
unchewed. It is best not to have too much conversation going on while eating;
be cheerful, but not talkative; do the talking afterward.
In most
cases, some use of the will is required to form the habit of correct eating.
The bolting habit is an unnatural one, and is without doubt mostly the result
of fear. Fear that we will be robbed of our food; fear that we will not get our
share of the good things; fear that we will lose precious time - these are the
causes of haste.
Then
there is anticipation of the dainties that are to come for dessert, and the
consequent desire to get at them as quickly as possible; and there is mental
abstraction, or thinking of other matters while eating. All these must be
overcome.
When you
find that your mind is wandering, call a halt; think for a moment of the food,
and of how good it tastes; of the perfect digestion and assimilation that are
going to follow the meal, and begin again. Begin again and again, though you
must do so twenty times in the course of a single meal; and again and again,
though you must do so every meal for weeks and months.
It is
perfectly certain that you CAN form the "Fletcher habit" if you
persevere; and when you have formed it, you will experience a healthful
pleasure you have never known.
This is
a vital point, and I must not leave it until I have thoroughly impressed it
upon your mind. Given the right materials, perfectly prepared, the Principle of
Health will positively build you a perfectly healthy body; and you cannot
prepare the materials perfectly in any other way that the one I am describing.
If you
are to have perfect health, you MUST eat in just this way; you can, and the
doing of it is only a matter of a little perseverance. What use for you to talk
of mental control unless you will govern yourself in so simple a matter as
ceasing to bolt you food? What use to talk of concentration unless you can keep
your mind on the act of eating for so short a space as fifteen or twenty
minutes, especially with all the pleasures of taste to help you?
Go on,
and conquer. In a few weeks, or months, as the case may be, you will find the
habit of scientific eating becoming fixed; and soon you will be in so splendid
a condition, mentally and physically, that nothing would induce you to return
to the bad old way.
We have
seen that if man will think only thoughts of perfect health, his internal
functions will be performed in a healthy manner; and we have seen that in order
to think thoughts of health, man must perform the voluntary functions in a
healthy manner. The most important of the voluntary functions is that of
eating; and we see, so far, no especial difficulty in eating in a perfectly
healthy way.
I will
here summarize the instructions as to when to eat, what to eat, and how to eat,
with the reasons herefore:
NEVER
eat until you have an EARNED hunger, no matter how long you go without food.
This is based on the fact that whenever food is needed in the system, if there
is power to digest it, the sub-conscious mind announces the need by the
sensation of hunger. Learn to distinguish between genuine hunger and the
gnawing and craving sensations caused by unnatural appetite.
Hunger
is never a disagreeable feeling, accompanied by weakness, faintness, or gnawing
feelings at the stomach; it is a pleasant, anticipatory desire for food, and is
felt mostly in the mouth and throat. It does not come at certain hours or at
stated intervals; it only comes when the sub-conscious mind is ready to
receive, digest, and assimilate food.
Eat
whatever foods you want, making your selection from the staples in general use
in the zone in which you live. The Supreme Intelligence has guided man to the
selection of these foods, and they are the right ones for all.
I am
referring, of course, to the foods which are taken to satisfy hunger, not to
those which have been contrived merely to gratify appetite or perverted taste.
The instinct which has guided the masses of men to make use of the great
staples of food to satisfy their hunger is a divine one. God has made no
mistake; if you eat these foods you will not go wrong.
Eat your
food with cheerful confidence, and get all the pleasure that is to be had from
the taste of every mouthful.
Chew
each morsel to a liquid, keeping your attention fixed on the enjoyment of the
process. This is the only way to eat in a perfectly complete and successful
manner; and when anything is done in a completely successful manner, the
general result cannot be a failure. In the attainment of health, the law is the
same as in the attainment of riches; if you make each act a success in itself,
the sum of all your acts must be a success.
When you
eat in the mental attitude I have described, and in the manner I have
described, nothing can be added to the process; it is done in a perfect manner
and it is successfully done. And if eating is successfully done, digestion,
assimilation, and the building of a healthy body are successfully begun. We
next take up the question of the quantity of food required.