WHAT TO EAT 



[An amplification of certain aspects of the questions dealt with 

 in the Chapter on Physical Needs, pp. 19-38.] 



IT may be well to recall that there are two quite 

 different ways of regarding the food problem. 

 One may eat to live, or one may live to eat ; and 

 one's way of estimating the food problem will differ 

 somewhat according to the class one belongs to. Yet 

 after all, the difference is more seeming than real ; for 

 over-indulgence destroys the capacity for enjoyment; so 

 in the end the man who lives to eat will get more pleasure 

 from his palate by showing it some consideration. 

 Moreover, the individuals are few who wholly despise 

 the pleasures of the palate. Indeed, the physical appe- 

 tite is too deep-seated and too essential to be ignored 

 in practice, even by those who mentally deplore its ex- 

 istence. 



To appreciate the character of the insistent appeal, 

 and to understand the real share of food-taking in the 

 economy of the organism, it must be recalled that the 

 human body is a physical machine, to which the familiar 

 physical laws of the conservation of energy apply as 

 fully as to any mechanism of man's construction. 

 Every self-impelled motion of any portion of the body 

 be it but the flick of a finger is accompanied by the 



[375] 



