Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Page 407-2136 - "But highly nutritious food, as we have seen may injure the eyes. Now, more than this is true. Many dishes found on our modern tables, without being highly nutritious, - which is quite bad enough, - are also over-stimulating, or at least heating, to the blood."

2140 - "The best condition of the eyes ..... will be found in those who use no drink but water, and no food but what is at once perfectly plain and simple."

Score - Unverified

Why 147 – Taste (What 133)

The sense of taste is damaged by some foods.

Page 415-2178 - "The sense of taste, however, is probably vitiated much more by condiments, preserves and sweetmeats, than by butter and eggs, and milk and cheese, - though the last-named are by no means innocuous."

Score - Unverified

What 134 – How Many Meals W 56 G 77 C 46 J 68 K 68

The less meals we eat in a day the better and no more than three should be eaten. Page 112-587 - "In general, the fewer our meals,” (the better)

Page 111-583 - "For the best purposes of health, in the adult, it should not happen at less frequent intervals than once in twenty-four hours."

Page 125-656 - "But I do say that more than three (meals a day) are injurious; that two would for most persons be preferable to three; and that one for most people may after all be found adequate to every purpose."

Page 126-660 - "Nothing containing nutriment, whether in a solid or liquid condition,-should go down our throats between our meals, except water. To this rule, so far as the health are concerned, I know of no exception." (661) - "May we not eat an apple, .... a little fruit, ... or a few nuts? ....... Not indeed"

Page 127-666 - "May we not take nourishing drink between our regular meals, such as milk and water, molasses and water, and bread coffee? Not a drop."

Comment – He seems to infer we should only have one meal a day.

Score – Unverified

Why 148 – Few Meals 1 (What 134) The stomach needs rest.

Page 123-644 - "Now, it is a law with all voluntary or willing muscular parts of the body, that they shall have their season of rest." 645 - "The muscular parts of the stomach, in all probability, come under the same necessity."

Score - Unverified

Why 149 – Few Meals 2 (What 134)

Too many meals a day cause toothaches, earaches, headaches, neuralgia, cold feet and a sour stomach.

Page 124-649 - "Such a course of life (having too many meals in a day).... will bring about, .... a bad state of things in the alimentary canal, which, in sympathy ... extends to other parts of the system. Many a tooth-ache, ear-ache, head-ache, and neuralgic attack, and not a few cold feet and sour stomach ....

Comment – The downside of too many meals is too much and often poor quality food.

Score – Unverified

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Why 150 – Constipation (What 134)

The fewer the meals in a day the less constipation.

Page 112-587 - "But no law or rules, in this and kindred matters, will be effective in insuring perfect regularity, unless we can insure perfect regularity with regard to times or seasons of eating. In general, the fewer our meals, the sooner and earlier we can bring our system under that diurnal motion"

Score - Unverified

Why 151 – Eating Between Meals (What 134)

Food eaten between meals impairs the tone of the whole alimentary system.

Page 131-689 - "a little fruit, a little candy, a little confectionery, etc., they are not only impairing their appetite, and contaminating their blood, but impairing the tone of their digestive system, and deranging the action, more or less, of the whole alimentary canal."

Score - Unverified

whimpers.(which is also harmful)”

Score – Unverified

Why 152 – Demand Feeding (What 135)

Demand feeding causes gluttony.

Page 137-720 - "Could better lessons in gluttony be possibly given?"

Score - Unverified

What 136 – Solid Foods

Children should only drink milk or eat bread.

Page 138-724 - "But, being seated with his seniors at his post, - usually a conspicuous one, - the child must needs eat and drink, it is thought, as they do. Instead of a small addition to his natural rations in plain bread, or at most, plain bread and milk, he is not only expected but urged to eat and drink of every kind, or nearly every kind, of which those around him partake,"

Score - Unverified

Why 153 – Solid Foods (What 136)

Children eating solid foods too early is the cause of tooth decay as hard food damages the enamel. Page 72-378 - "A child no sooner has teeth - if not indeed at a much earlier period - than he is not only permitted to use them .... he is encouraged in masticating all sorts of food to which the strongest adult teeth are ever subjected. (This is wrong) The result is, that the enamel often becomes more or less injured: and this paves the way for decay.”

Page 103-535 - "The hardest thing admissible (for a child) is the crust of good and well-baked bread."

Score – Unverified

What 137 – Over Feeding

Babies should not be fed until they get sick.

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Page 138-725 - "the stuffing practice is continued, at least until he gets sick, (is not healthy)” Comment – It is not best to overfeed infants, but it is far worse to underfeed them.

Score – Minor

Why 154 – Over feeding (What 137)

Overfeeding in childhood is the cause of high death rate of children.

Page 138-725 - "the stuffing practice is continued, at least until he gets sick, ..... nearly one-half of all who are born die under ten years of age,"

Comment – The high childhood mortality had nothing to do with infant overeating.

Score - Unverified

Why 155 – Night Feeds (What 137)

Babies eating at night is a cause of the high infant mortality.

Page 124-650 - "And the penalty is but too well known. Half of them, or nearly half, die under ten years of age; and this is one of the causes."

Score – Unverified

Page 115-600 - "We should fix upon what we know to be best for us, and habit will, ere long, render it tolerable, and in due time agreeable; even though we have, at the first, a disrelish for it."

Score - Minor

Comment – “Twice as much” as required is an overstatement.

Score – Significant

Why 156 – Hunger (What 140)

To feel hungry indicates disease and not that we need more food.

Page 128-669 - "neither the faintness nor the gnawing here spoken of (hunger pains) indicate any real hunger. They are mere nervous sensations. They indicate, moreover, a diseased condition of the nerves."

Comment – In fact hunger is a good guide to our requirements. Unfortunately habit can keep us eating without hunger.

Score – Unverified

Why 157 – Habit (What 140)

If we eat too much on a regular basis we will continue to eat too much.

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Page 136-714 - "One of the more frequent errors of early education ...... It is that of enlarging the stomach quite beyond its natural size, till it comes to demand a most unreasonable quantity in order to be satisfied."

Score – Verified

Why 158 – Overeating (What 140)

If we have a full stomach we compress the heart.

Page 220-1140 - "A full stomach adds to the evil of which I am now talking." (compressing the heart)

Score - Unverified

What 141 – Overweight

Overweight people are healthy people.

Page 198-1029 - "As certainly as "Laugh and be fat," means laugh and be healthy," Comment – Alcott associates being fat with being healthy.

Score - Unverified

We should always feel hungry even at the end of a meal.

Page 187-972 - "It has been shown that we should never lose our appetites; or, in other words, should never eat enough. The truth is, we should never - if we wish to be efficient or useful - be without good appetites for a single moment of our lives. By night or by day, at home or abroad, at the end of a meal, no less - or, at least, little less - than at the beginning,"

Comment – Under-eating has large nutritional risks.

Score - Unverified

What 143 – Labourers

If we have worked hard we should eat less, not more.

Page 136-713 - "Generally speaking, if he (a laborer) really overworks himself, he should eat somewhat less, since the same causes which have over tasked and crippled his general system must reduce the energies of his digestive system in the same proportion."

Comment - The more we exercise the more we should eat.

Score – Unverified

What 144 – Breakfast

We should not eat breakfast

Page 188-976 - We rise in the morning, refreshed by sleep, and ready, with the addition of a little brisk exercise of body and mind, ......while the system is still well replenished with good blood .....

we proceed to load the stomach."

Comment - In fact breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Score – Unverified

the currant, melon, and cucumber. But these last would be equally unadapted to the wants of the system, or the demands of the season, in the month of June."