THE HYGIENE OF THE DINING ROOM 95 



given : Avoid large amounts of meat foods. Use milk, fruits, 

 and vegetables freely. 



Drinking water. Water should be drunk freely many 

 times a day. Recent experiments have shown that drink- 

 ing water during the meals really helps the process of diges- 

 tion instead of hindering it, as has sometimes been thought. 

 Water should not be taken, however, when the mouth con- 

 tains food and used as a substitute for mastication to wash 

 down foods that are only partially masticated. Under 

 ordinary conditions a person needs about two glasses at each 

 meal, and two glasses between meals, or eight glasses a day, 

 which is equal to about two quarts. Other drinks such as 

 milk, tea, and coffee furnish a part of the needed water. 



Some misnamed foods. There are some drinks which 

 are very commonly used at the table that have sometimes 

 been carelessly called foods, namely coffee and tea. These 

 are not foods in any sense of the word. Both are stimu- 

 lants that act as a spur on the nervous system to in- 

 crease its activities. This stimulative effect is due to a 

 drug called caffeine in coffee and theine in tea, the two being 

 almost identical. Both also contain tannic acid, which is 

 very harmful to the membrane of the stomach. The tannic 

 acid does not dissolve in water as readily as the theine, 

 and the effects of tea are less harmful if the water is not 

 allowed to boil after the tea is made and dissolve the tannic 

 acid. 



Neither tea nor coffee serves any necessary function in the 

 body, and their use is to be looked on as an indulgence. 

 The effect of these drinks on adults varies greatly with 

 different people. Some people are distinctly harmed by 

 their use, while others seem to use them without any apparent 

 injury. One of the worst features attending the use of tea 

 and coffee is the possibility that one may acquire an appetite 

 which he cannot control and thus become a slave to tea and 

 coffee. But whatever may be said about their effect on 



