THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS 



exercise, so that the muscular (nitrogenous) tissue of 

 your body is relatively little subject to wear and tear, 

 you will obviously need less nitrogenous food than 

 would be required by your neighbor whose calling is 

 more active. 



Now the nitrogenous foods are meats, eggs, milk, 

 cheese, and leguminous vegetables. Undoubtedly you 

 may eat too much of these, particularly if you have ac- 

 quired a taste for them during a period of activity. 

 Your diet remaining unchanged, after you have adopted 

 a sedentary manner of life, your system may be clogged, 

 as it were, with refuse nitrogenous products, with effects 

 equivalent to a mild poisoning. 



A very large number of Americans, particularly in 

 the cities, suffer from this cause. They eat meat, for 

 example, in considerable quantities, two or even three 

 times a day, while taking practically no exercise at all; 

 whereas even an athlete in training may very well get 

 along with meat once a day. Undoubtedly the effect, 

 particularly in persons past middle life, is detrimental; 

 not infrequently this habit contributes directly to the 

 causation of such diseases as gout and rheumatism, 

 and to affections of the kidneys. 



I trust that no one will construe this as an argument 

 against a meat diet as such. It is intended merely to 

 call attention to the dangers of over much cf one kind of 

 food element, which is essential to the bodily needs, 

 to be sure, but which may be taken in excess. And, 

 indeed, precisely the same manner of caution may be 

 urged against excessive use of other of the food elements. 

 The carbohydrates, for example, as represented by 



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