The Great Sin of Overeating (1)
One of the greatest sins against the body is overeating. The intemperate indulgence in alcoholic liquors, is, unquestionably, a great evil. It fills thousands of graves, and ruins thousands of homes, annually. But the evil of alcoholic intemperance is at nothing when compared to the evil of overeating. The habit of overeating is almost universal. Hardly a home exists that is not made unhappy, to a greater or less extent, by this habit. Hardly a life has been wrecked in health that this evil has not played an important part in causing the wreckage? In fact the evil of alcoholic intemperance itself, is largely caused by overeating. The stomach becomes overloaded; the mass refuses to digest–it ferments, and there is a desire for something, the victim hardly knows what– anything to rid the stomach of its vile contents. Alcohol affords this temporary relief. It spurs up the organs to increased activity, as they endeavor to quickly eliminate the poison, and when alcoholic liquors are taken under these abnormal conditions, it may actually be a natural appetite and productive of benefit instead of evil, for the evil that will result from the undigested mass of fermenting food if it remains in the stomach for a great length of time might be as great or greater than that resulting from the use of liquor.
There has been so much preaching on alcoholic intemperance that whenever one speaks of intemperance he is supposed to refer only to this evil. But it is time these narrow-minded temperance advocates were awakened–it is time for them to realize that the real cause of alcoholic intemperance is intemperance in eating; and never until this is understood and made plain to the victims and the classes that are to furnish other victims, will anything of importance be accomplished towards stamping out the alcohol curse. Intemperance begins at the family table, and it is perfectly natural, perfectly logical, for it to drift to the corner saloon.
Overeating permanently distends the walls of the stomach, and lessens their muscular vigor. It often actually strains these muscles permanently, and the churning process so necessary to perfect digestion, which the muscles involuntarily perform, cannot be properly accomplished. They become weakened just as would a muscle in the arm if unduly strained, or overworked. Their efficacy lessens under these circumstances to a similar degree. It would be well for every reader to remember that the entire digestive process is brought about largely by involuntary muscular action, and when the muscles are unnaturally strained as they are where the stomach is habitually overloaded, all the muscles are weakened and their functions greatly impaired, and in the end destroyed.
“There are two ways of putting a limit to a meal–to eating. One–the wrong one– comes in the shape of a protest on the part of a too full stomach while the appetite is yet ravenous. The right one comes naturally from a perfectly satisfied feeling–a ceasing of desire for anything more, no matter how alluring to the palate–before the stomach is overburdened. The former is evidence of glut, or gluttony, and the latter is Nature’s way, for which there is every desired reward.” —Horace Fletcher.
