92 SCIENCE OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 



remain in the mouth long enough for the process to get 

 well started. We have seen, furthermore, that thorough 

 mastication helps one to develop a natural appetite that 

 serves as a guide in eating. 



Overeating. Overeating and mastication are closely re- 

 lated, because insufficient mastication tends towards over- 

 eating and one of the chief reasons for emphasizing thorough 

 mastication is to avoid the ills resulting from overeating. 

 Many digestive ills are due to eating more food than the 

 body needs; this is especially true in the cases of those 

 people who lead a sedentary life, which involves little mus- 

 cular exercise. 



As a result of taking too much food into the stomach, that 

 organ is not able to take care properly of its contents, so 

 that the food remains a long time in the stomach. There it 

 may begin to decay and give off gases that may cause stomach 

 trouble. The whole digestive system, stomach, intes- 

 tines, and the organs connected with them, is overworked 

 to get rid of the excess of food. Those systems which care 

 for the food after it is digested and used, the absorptive 

 and excretory systems, are overtaxed so that they become 

 weakened. The kidneys in particular are strained by the 

 extra work required in throwing off the excess of nitrogenous 

 waste matter, due to eating too much protein food. The 

 working of the whole machinery of the body is hindered 

 by the excessive work demanded of it, and its action is 

 clogged by the excess of food. As a result, the general 

 efficiency of the body is lowered and the health impaired. 



Sir Henry Thompson, a noted English physician, says, 

 " I have come to the conclusion that more than half the 

 disease which embitters the middle and latter part of life 

 is due to avoidable errors in diet, and that more mischief 

 in the form of actual disease, of impaired vigor, and of 

 shortened life accrues to civilized man in England and 

 throughout Central Europe from erroneous habits of eating 



