--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Kirby, George D. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 12 number: 6 published: 1909-04 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Kirby, George D., "Food," *Improvement Era* 12, no. 6 (April 1909): 419–422.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1206unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1206unse start_page: 419 end_page: 422 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1909-04) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1206unse publication_year: 1909 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1909, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Food FOOD. BY GEO. D. KIRBY. The subject of "food" is rather a difficult one for a layman to discuss, but I shall endeavor to bring out the various points in a manner which may be understood by other laymen, and I trust will not receive too severe a criticism from the members of the medical profession to whose attention they may come. The maxim of Socrates, "know thyself," is sound advice. To know what is good for one's self and what is bad, and to cleave unto the good and avoid the bad, in the main, is not difficult. The trouble is that we don't try it. We deliberately violate the laws of health and depend upon doctors to keep us well. Some will say that if we have love in our hearts, thinking kindly of everybody, we will be well. The fact is that people who are poisoned with malnutrition cannot think well of themselves nor anybody else. The ability to love, as well as the ability to endure, depends upon the condition of the nerves, and the condition of the nerves depends largely upon the state of the digestion. As a rule, no parent has any business with any but healthy children, for wholesome food in proper quantities never deranged a stomach. Teeth never decayed through grinding pure and wholesome food, and no child, unless his appetite has been pampered, will ever crave that which it is necessary to withhold from him. The parents must refrain from indulging the child's appetite or take the consequence when that same appetite shall lay the child upon a sick bed, or bring him home reeling and staggering to their frantic arms. The appetite is depraved by poisonous nostrums, cookies, candies, sweetmeats, and the thousand products of human ingenuity 420 IMPROVEMENT. ERA. which conspire to destroy that pure instinct which God designed as a perfect guide as regards the quantity and quality of our food. "To dust thou shalt return," after death, but the ill man becomes partially dust while he is alive. The salts in impure water, the ashes from indigested starch foods, clog the kidneys, irritate the nerves and stiffen the joints. Dr. Lahrman of Dresden says that all chronic diseases are from an impure or obstructed blood supply, originating in many cases from overeating; that we do not need more blood, but better blood, and that if we avoid meats and starches and the acids from these, we will find that the blood will purify itself. The coffee, meat and pancake breakfast is a habit with most people. People who have heart-burn, bad breath, colds, throbbing at the stomach, pain in the side, headache, are almost all our meat-breakfast friends — there are few exceptions. These pleasant (?) symptoms are the result of food poisoning. The person has deposited in his stomach such a fine assortment of indigestibles, that nature pauses in perplexity. Fermentation follows, and the individual becomes but an animated garbage can. The simple cereal and cream habit means increased length of days. An enlightened people who prize health should make it a rule to eat at least one meal a day without meat, and two would be better. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that flesh-eating creates a thirst for alcoholic beverages and an appetite for tobacco. A good illustration of the value of cereals as food is shown in the fact that the Japanese on a rice diet and plenty of fresh air, defeated the Russians who over ate and took little exercise. Most of our ills come from over-eating, and to overeat is much more common than to overdrink. Diogenes, in his wanderings, once met a young man dressed up in gay attire. The philosopher asked him whither he was going and the youth replied that he was going to a feast. Diogenes promptly took him home and ordered his parents to lock him up until his sanity returned. The philosopher may have been a trifle eccentric, but he knew that feasting spelled disease, disintegration and death. In a land like ours, where plenty waits upon the people and hunger sits afar off, it is not strange that there is a tendency to over-eating. While food is needed to build up every organ and keep the body in the best condition the wise person will guard against the sin of glut- FOOD. 421 tony, depraving the appetite, overloading the stomach and overworking the delicate digestive organs, and laying the foundations of disease. Stimulants and condiments are resorted to when digestion has been enfeebled by rich food, tempting flavors, and irregular meals. These excite the appetite and the unwilling organs are burdened with unmanageable material . The stomach is overloaded and at last wears out, causing pain, discomfort and indigestion. The latter often results from the use of intoxicants; and so the victims of overeating are found on all sides suffering the penalties of violated laws. Alcohol is perhaps more active than any other agent in producing human degeneracy, and is one of the most direct and potent causes of criminality and insanity. The children of drunkards are very liable to be epileptic and idiotic, as well as criminal. The children of alcohol drinking parents, when young, do not appear different from other children, but as they grow older their criminal instincts begin to manifest themselves. Careful investigations have shown that there is an intimate relation between diet and alcoholism; especially that tea, coffee and condiments lead to the use of alcohol. The drinking of beer does not give strength for work, but on the other hand tends to make people dull, heavy, stupid and unfit for hard manual or mental labor. The constant use of beer every day gives the system no real recuperation, but steadily lowers the vital forces. One of the worst features of the poisonous characteristics of alcohol is its power, even in small quantities, to create a craving for itself that becomes irresistible. Alcohol does not act as a food; it cuts short the life of rapidly growing cells, and is not in the narrowest sense a food generating material. The use of tobacco, either in smoking or chewing, causes the glands of the mouth to secrete an unnatural amount of saliva; this weakens the glands and causes dryness of the throat. One of the more common effects of absorption of tobacco is to impair the appetite and weaken digestion. Cigarettes are the worst possible form in which it can be used. In the matter of exercise we are advised to breath deeply in the open air with the mouth closed and to exercise at least an hour each day in the open air. Severe exercise is not good, just 422 IMPROVEMENT ERA. after a full meal, for the reason that the blood which is needed to help the stomach is irawn to the organs undergoing the exercise. It will be a wise plan for us to be guided by the Word of Wisdom in the matter of food, and to make this decision: "I am a royal soul, and my body is its garment, I refuse to wear a soiled or torn garment." Sugar City, Idaho .