Page:Strength from Eating.djvu/69

Rh evident, the one or two meal habit should be immediately adopted.

It would also be well to remember that the three meal habit often tends to actually lessen the virility of the blood. The gastric, and other digestive juices are not sufficiently strong to abstract all the best elements of the food; the blood becomes filled with waste and other foreign matter, and the process of eliminating this, results not only in a waste of energy, but usually, under such circumstances, there exists at least a chronic "tired feeling" though often troubles are induced that are far more serious in character.

If one is doing hard manual work there will be found little or no difficulty in digesting three meals, though two meals would certainly be better; but mental workers, to my mind, make a great mistake if they attempt to force this same habit upon themselves. In fact the belief so universally held that we must eat three meals each day to maintain health is unquestionably one of the principal causes that lead to many serious illnesses. It is this false