o say, when the water in which they were
boiled is thrown away. The polishing of rice, the use of white flour
in manufacturing macaroni, the refining of our sugar, and many other
processes, are directly responsible for the almost universal habit of
overeating. Certain elements are taken out of the food, the body
craves these elements, and in trying to secure adequate nourishment, one
eats an excessive amount of the refined defective foods.

CHAPTER XIII: What to Eat

The suggestions offered in the previous chapter concerning the necessity
for the enjoyment of food, give one a fairly clear idea as to what he
should eat. In other words, he should select those foods that he
thoroughly enjoys, keeping in mind the necessity of using only those
that are at least reasonably wholesome. If you have a large variety
from which to select, this will be to your advantage, provided you do
not include too many foods at one meal. It is a good plan to get your
variety from meal to meal and from day to day, but without including too
many dishes at any one meal.

One of the most remarkable cases of longevity with which I have ever
come in contact proved in a very pointed way the value of this
suggestion. This was a woman who had lived to be over eighty years of
age. During the last forty years of her life she was as agile, as clear-
headed and as capable as a young woman in the heyday of her youth. I am
satisfied that to a large extent the unusual vitality possessed by this
woman was due to her habit of eating but one article of food two meals
each day, although occasionally she would eat only one. Her
meals were taken irregularly, because she would eat only when she was
hungry. When she had a definite appetite it would nearly always
indicate to her the particular food that she wanted. She would then
prepare a meal of this food and thoroughly satisfy her appetite with it.
Nothing else was eaten at that meal. This woman naturally went through
some very severe trials before she adopted this diet-indeed, a terrible
lesson of some sort seems necessary to compel one to follow a strict
dietetic regimen. At the age of forty she was a physical wreck, having
been for years tortured with rheumatism. Having vainly tried every
other remedy, she finally became interested in diet, and through it
finally overcame her difficulty. It might also be of interest in this
connection to know that she never used salt, pepp