HEALTH HABITS 



2741 



HEALTH HABITS 



ciple of proper food, including correct eating, 

 is rather simple and may be briefly stated. 



First, food must be dean. By this we mean 

 not only free from unwholesome foreign mat- 

 ter, but more particularly, free from parasites 

 and germs of disease. See BACTERIA AND BAC- 

 TERIOLOGY 



We must form the habit of demanding 

 wholesome food; for example, meats free from 

 tuberculosis germs and certain animal and 

 vegetable parasites; milk from tuberculin- 

 tested cattle, and handled in a sanitary manner 

 from the time of milking to the time of con- 

 sumption; bakery goods from clean, sanitary 

 bakeries, where not only the bakery itself, but 

 all the employees, are clean and free from in- 

 fection; vegetables and fruit from clean soil 

 unpolluted with sewage fertilizer or infected 

 water used in irrigation; the avoidance of 

 water and ice from a polluted source, such as 

 a sewage-infected river, lake or well. 



Every year thousands of infants are made 

 sick from infected milk, and many of these 

 die; every year thousands of children and 

 adults suffer or die from infected water, ice, 

 meat, vegetables and other foods, yet the prin- 

 ciples of avoiding infection through food are 

 extremely simple. Such principles should be- 

 come a part of our daily habits. Not only must 

 food be clean and sanitary, but selected with 

 reason in regard to quality, quantity, prepara- 

 tion and variety. 



Most people eat too much protein, which is 

 found principally in lean meat, eggs, cheese, 

 peas, beans and lentils. Professor Chittenden 

 of Yale has demonstrated that a high protein 

 diet is always harmful, while a low protein diet 

 reduces intestinal putrefaction, prevents undue 

 fatigue and increases endurance and general 

 efficiency. But in spite of this knowledge most 

 menus commonly in use contain a great excess 

 of protein food (see PROTEINS). 



An excess of any one food element produces 

 trouble. Many people suffer from "starch indi- 

 gestion" because of the use of too much starchy 

 food, such as cereals, bread and potatoes. 

 Some diseases, among them pellagra, seem to 

 be largely due to insufficient food and espe- 

 cially to a lack of protein, thus producing mal- 

 nutrition. Most people suffer from the lack 

 of sufficient water, of which the average person 

 requires at least six glasses per day. Green 

 vegetables are eaten much too sparingly by the 

 majority of persons. 



Coffee and tea, so commonly used through- 

 out the world, are not foods at all, but drugs. 



The average person takes about six grains of 

 caffeine per day in this way, which is far in 

 excess of what a doctor would prescribe for 

 even a single dosage, to say nothing of three 

 hundred and sixty-five such doses during the 

 year. Alcohol is taken by many with meals 

 in the form of wines and beers; yet alcohol, 

 except in very small doses, is not oxidized in 

 the body, and is therefore not a food, but a 

 direct poison, to the tissues of the body, de- 

 creasing physical endurance and mental vigor 

 as well as reducing resistance to disease. For 

 example, users of alcoholic drinks as a rule 

 make very poor recoveries from pneumonia 

 and typhoid fever. See ALCOHOLIC DRINKS. 



Sleep Habits. Next in importance to food 

 comes sleep. Sleep is a building-up process 

 in which the waste of the day is repaired and 

 energy stored up for further use. 



Too little sleep results not only in conscious 

 discomfort but in greatly reduced efficiency. 

 Dr. Crile of Cleveland has called attention 

 recently to the effect of loss of sleep on im- 

 portant organs, such as the thyroid, liver and 

 adrenal glands, and upon the cells of the 

 brain. Long periods of loss of sleep or con- 

 tinued short periods produce permanent effects 

 on our tissues, which rest never entirely ef- 

 faces. -Regular and sufficient hours of sleep 

 should become fixed habits with everyone. 

 Under stress and strain of emergencies such 

 habits will then stand us in good stead, for 

 reserve energy will have been stored up, on 

 which we can draw for some time without 

 serious, if any, damage. 



Most adults require eight to nine hours of 

 sleep. Children from six to ten years old 

 require from ten to twelve hours. Older chil- 

 dren usually need about ten hours. Of course 

 the hours of sleep required depend largely upon 

 the amount of energy used up in work, play, 

 stress and strain of the day, and on natural 

 resistance, and consequently there will be many 

 exceptions to any general rule. 



Mental Habits. Nothing is more important 

 in life than the formation of good mental hab- 

 its. Very few people understand that there is 

 any direct relation between mental habits and 

 health, but, as a matter of fact, every thought, 

 every emotion, every nervous impulse directly 

 affects the health of the whole body. Dr. 

 Crile's recent studies of anger, fear, mental 

 exhaustion, worry, grief, hatred and other emo- 

 tions demonstrate that definite damage is done 

 to such organs as the thyroid gland, the ad- 

 renals, the liver and the brain, and that a 



