No
matter what man's thought or mental attitude may be, he cannot live unless he
eats, drinks, breathes, and sleeps; and moreover, he cannot be well if he eats,
drinks, breathes, and sleeps in an unnatural or wrong manner. It is therefore
vitally important that you should learn the right way to perform these
voluntary functions, and I shall proceed to show you this way, beginning with
the matter of eating, which is most important.
There
has been a vast amount of controversy as to when to eat, what to eat, how to
eat, and how much to eat; and all this controversy is unnecessary, for the Right Way is very
easy to find. You have only to consider the Law which governs all attainment,
whether of health, wealth, power, or happiness; and that law is that you must
do what you can do now, where you are now; do every separate act in the most
perfect manner possible, and put the power of faith into every action.
The
processes of digestion and assimilation are under the supervision and control
of an inner division of man's mentality, which is generally called the
sub-conscious mind; and I shall use that term here in order to be understood.
The sub-conscious mind is in charge of all the functions and processes of life;
and when more food is needed by the body, it makes the fact known by causing a
sensation called hunger.
Whenever
food is needed, and can be used, there is hunger; and whenever there is hunger
it is time to eat. When there is no hunger it is unnatural and wrong to eat, no
matter how great may APPEAR to be the need for food. Even if you are in a
condition of apparent starvation, with great emaciation, if there is no hunger
you may know that FOOD CANNOT BE USED, and it will be unnatural and wrong for
you to eat.
Though
you may not have eaten for days, weeks, or months, if you have no hunger you
may be perfectly sure that food cannot be used, and will probably not be used
if taken. Whenever food is needed, if there is power to digest and assimilate
it, so that it can be normally used, the sub-conscious mind will announce the
fact by a decided hunger.
Food,
taken when there is no hunger, will sometimes be digested and assimilated,
because Nature makes a special effort to perform the task which is thrust her
against her will; but if food be habitually taken when there is no hunger, the
digestive power is at last destroyed, and numberless evils caused.
If the
foregoing be true - and it is indisputably so - it is a self-evident proposition
that the natural time, and the healthy time, to eat is when one is hungry; and
that it is never a natural or healthy action to eat when one is not hungry. You
see, then, that it is an easy matter to scientifically settle the question when
to eat. ALWAYS eat when you are hungry; and NEVER eat when you are not hungry.
This is obedience to nature, which is obedience to God.
We must
not fail, however, to make clear the distinction between hunger and appetite.
Hunger is the call of the sub-conscious mind for more material to be used in
repairing and renewing the body, and in keeping up the internal heat; and
hunger is never felt unless there is need for more material, and unless there
is power to digest it when taken into the stomach.
Appetite
is a desire for the gratification of sensation. The drunkard has an appetite
for liquor, but he cannot have a hunger for it. A normally fed person cannot
have a hunger for candy or sweets; the desire for these things is an appetite.
You
cannot hunger for tea, coffee, spiced foods, or for the various taste-tempting
devices of the skilled cook; if you desire these things, it is with appetite,
not with hunger. Hunger is nature's call for material to be used in building
new cells, and nature never calls for anything which may not be legitimately
used for this purpose.
Appetite
is often largely a matter of habit; if one eats or drinks at a certain hour,
and especially if one takes sweetened or spiced and stimulating foods, the
desire comes regularly at the same hour; but this habitual desire for food
should never be mistaken for hunger. Hunger does not appear at specified times.
It only comes when work or exercise has destroyed sufficient tissue to make the
taking in of new raw material a necessity.
For
instance, if a person has been sufficiently fed on the preceding day, it is
impossible that he should feel a genuine hunger on arising from refreshing
sleep. In sleep the body is recharged with vital power, and the assimilation of
the food which has been taken during the day is completed; the system has no
need for food immediately after sleep, unless the person went to his rest in a
state of starvation. With a system of feeding, which is even a reasonable
approach to a natural one, no one can have a real hunger for an early morning
breakfast.
There is
no such thing possible as a normal or genuine hunger immediately after arising
from sound sleep. The early morning breakfast is always taken to gratify
appetite, never to satisfy hunger. No matter who you are, or what your condition
is; no matter how hard you work, or how much you are exposed, unless you go to
your bed starved, you cannot arise from your bed hungry.
Hunger
is not caused by sleep, but by work. And it does not matter who you are, or
what your condition, or how hard or easy your work, the so- called no-breakfast
plan is the right plan for you. It is the right plan for everybody because it
is based on the universal law that hunger never comes until it is EARNED.
I am
aware that a protest against this will come from the large number of people who
"enjoy" their breakfasts; whose breakfast is their "best
meal"; who believe that their work is so hard that they cannot "get
through the forenoon on an empty stomach," and so on. But all their
arguments fall down before the facts.
They
enjoy their breakfast as the toper enjoys his morning dram, because it
gratifies a habitual appetite and not because it supplies a natural want. It is
their best meal for the same reason that his morning dram is the toper's best
drink. And they CAN get along without it, because millions of people, of every
trade and profession, DO get along without it, and are vastly better for doing
so. If you are to live according to the Science of Being Well, you must NEVER EAT UNTIL YOU HAVE AN EARNED HUNGER.
But if I
do not eat on arising in the morning, when shall I take my first meal?
In
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred twelve o'clock noon, is early enough; and it
is generally the most convenient time. If you are doing heavy work, you will
get by noon a hunger sufficient to justify a good- sized meal; and if your work
is light, you will probably still have hunger enough for a moderate meal. The
best general rule or law that can be laid down is that you should eat your
first meal of the day at noon, if you are hungry; and if you are not hungry,
wait until you become so.
And when
shall I eat my second meal?
Not at
all, unless you are hungry for it; and that with a genuine earned hunger. If
you do get hungry for a second meal, eat at the most convenient time; but do
not eat until you have a really earned hunger.