BIOLOGY AND HEALTH 435 



Cool water drinking, including especially a glass half an hour 

 before breakfast and on retiring, is a remedy for constipation. 



Food. Teeth should be brushed thoroughly several times a day, 

 and floss silk used between the teeth. Persistence in keeping the 

 mouth clean is not only good for the teeth, but for the stomach. 



Masticate all food up to the point of involuntary swallowing, 

 with the attention on the taste, not on the mastication. Food 

 should simply be chewed and relished, with no thought of swallow- 

 ing. There should be no more effort to prevent than to force swal- 

 lowing. It will be found that if you attend only to the agreeable 

 task of extracting the flavors of your food, Nature will take care 

 of the swallowing, and this will become, like breathing, involuntary. 

 The more you rely on instinct, the more normal, stronger, and surer 

 the instinct becomes. The instinct by which most people eat is 

 perverted through the " hurry habit " and the use of abnormal 

 foods. Thorough mastication takes time, and therefore one must 

 not feel hurried at meals if the best results are to be secured. 



Sip liquids, except water, and mix with saliva as though they 

 were solids. 



The stopping point for eating should be at the earliest moment 

 when one is really satisfied. 



The. frequency of meals and time to take them should be so 

 adjusted that no meal is taken before a previous meal is well out 

 of the way, in order that the stomach may have had time to rest 

 and prepare new juices. Normal appetite is a good guide in this 

 respect. One's best sleep is on an empty stomach. Food puts 

 one to sleep by diverting blood from the head, but disturbs sleep 

 later. Water, however, or even fruit may be taken before retiring 

 without injury. 



An exclusive diet is usually unsafe. Even foods which are not 

 ideally the best are probably needed when no better are available, 

 or when the appetite especially calls for them. 



The following is a very tentative list of foods in the order of 

 excellence for general purposes, subject, of course, to their pal- 

 atability at the time eaten: fruits, nuts, grains (including bread), 

 butter, buttermilk, salt in small quantities, cream, milk, potatoes, 



