Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter eleven of the Science of Being Well by Wallace D. Wattles.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
Daniel Sanchez. How to Eat. It is a settled fact
that man naturally choose his food. The few faddests who
maintain that we should bolt our nourishment after the manner
(00:21):
of the dog and others of the lower animals can
no longer get a hearing. We know that we should
chew our food, and if it is natural that we
should chew our food, the more thoroughly we chew it,
the more completely natural the process must be. If you
will chew every mouthful to a liquid, you need not
be in the least concerned as to what you shall eat,
(00:44):
for you can get sufficient nourishment out of any ordinary food.
Whether or not this chewing shall be an irksome and
laborious task or a most enjoyable process, depends upon the
mental attitude in which you come to the table. If
your mind and attitude are on other things, or if
you are anxious or worried about business or domestic affairs,
(01:07):
you will find it almost impossible to eat without bolting
more or less of your food. You must learn to
live so scientifically that you will have no business or
domestic cares to worry about. This you can do, and
you can also learn to give your undivided attention to
the act of eating while at the table. When you eat,
(01:29):
do so with an eye single to the purpose of
getting all the enjoyment you can from that meal. Dismiss
everything else from your mind, and do not let anything
take your attention from the food and its taste until
your meal is finished. Be cheerfully confident, for if you
follow these instructions, you may know that the food you
(01:50):
eat is exactly the right food, and that it will
agree with you to perfection. Sit down to the table
with confident cheerfulness, and take a moderate portion of the food.
Take whatever thing looks most desirable to you. Do not
select some food because you think it will be good
for you. Select that which will taste good to you.
(02:13):
If you are to get well and stay well, you
must drop the idea of doing things because they are
good for your health, and do things because you want
to do them. Select the food you want most gratefully
give thanks to God that you have learned how to
eat it in such a way that digestions shall be
perfect and take a moderate mouthful of it. Do not
(02:36):
fix your attention on the act of chewing. Fix it
on the taste of the food and taste and enjoy
it until it is reduced to a liquid state and
passes down your throat by involuntary swallowing, no matter how
long it takes. Do not think of the time, Think
of the taste. Do not allow your eyes to wander
(02:57):
over the table speculating as to what you shall eat next.
Do not worry for fear there is not enough and
that you will not get your share of everything. Do
not anticipate the taste of the next thing. Keep your
mind centered on the taste of what you have in
your mouth, and that is all of it. Scientific and
(03:18):
healthful eating is a delightful process. After you have learned
how to do it, and after you have overcome the
bad old habit of gobbling down your food unchewed. It
is best not to have too much conversation going on
while eating. Be cheerful, but not talkative. Do the talking afterward.
(03:38):
In most cases, some use of the will is required
to form the habit of correct eating. The bolting habit
is an unnatural one and is without doubt mostly the
result of fear. Fear that we will be robbed of
our food, fear that we will not get our share
of the good things, fear that we will lose precious time.
(03:59):
These are the causes of haste. Then there is anticipation
of the dainties that are to come for dessert, and
the consequent desire to get at them as quickly as possible.
And there is mental abstraction or thinking of other matters
while eating. All these must be overcome. When you find
(04:19):
that your mind is wandering, call a halt. Think for
a moment of the food, and of how good it tastes,
of the perfect digestion and assimilation that are going to
follow the meal, And begin again, Begin again and again,
though you must do so twenty times in the course
of a single meal, and again and again, though you
(04:41):
must do so every meal for weeks and months. It
is perfectly certain that you can form the Fletcher habit
if you persevere, and when you have formed it, you
will experience a healthful pleasure you have never known. This
is a vital point, and I must not leave it
until I have thoroughly impressed upon your mind. Given the
(05:03):
right materials, perfectly prepared the principle of health will positively
build you a perfectly healthy body, And you cannot prepare
the materials perfectly in any other way that the one
I am describing. If you are to have perfect health,
you must eat in just this way you can, and
(05:23):
the doing of it is only a matter of a
little perseverance. What use for you to talk of mental
control unless you will govern yourself in so simple a
matter as ceasing to bolt your food? What use to
talk of concentration unless you can keep your mind on
the act of eating for so short a space as
fifteen or twenty minutes, especially with all the pleasures of
(05:47):
taste to help you go on and conquer. In a
few weeks or months, as the case may be, you
will find the habit of scientific eating becoming fixed, and
soon you will be in so splendid condition mentally and
physically that nothing would induce you to return to the
bad old way. We have seen that if man will
(06:09):
think only thoughts of perfect health, his internal functions will
be performed in a healthy manner. And we have seen
that in order to think thoughts of health, man must
perform the voluntary functions in a healthy manner. The most
important of the voluntary functions is that of eating, and
we see so far no especial difficulty in eating in
(06:32):
a perfectly healthy way. I will here summarize the instruction
as to when to eat, what to eat, and how
to eat with the reasons therefore, never eat until you
have an earned hunger, no matter how long you go
without food. This is based on the fact that whenever
food is needed in the system, if there is power
(06:54):
to digest it, the subconscious mind announces the need by
the sensation of hunger. Learn to distinguish between genuine hunger
and the gnawing and craving sensations caused by unnatural appetite.
Hunger is never a disagreeable feeling accompanied by weakness, faintness,
or gnawing feelings at the stomach. It is a pleasant,
(07:17):
anticipatory desire for food and is felt mostly in the
mouth and throat. It does not come at certain hours
or at stated intervals. It only comes when the subconscious
mind is ready to receive, digest, and assimilate food. Eat
whatever foods you want, making your selection from the staples
(07:38):
in general use in the zone in which you live.
The supreme intelligence has guided man to the selection of
these foods, and they are the right ones for all.
I am referring, of course, to the foods which are
taken to satisfy hunger, not to those which have been
contrived merely to gratify appetite or perverted taste. The instinct
(08:00):
which has guided the masses of men to make use
of the great staples of food to satisfy their hunger
is a divine one. God has made no mistake. If
you eat these foods, you will not go wrong. Eat
your food with cheerful confidence, and get all the pleasure
that is to be had from the taste of every mouthful.
(08:21):
Chew each morsel to a liquid, keeping your attention fixed
on the enjoyment of the process. This is the only
way to eat in a perfectly complete and successful manner.
And when anything is done in a completely successful manner,
the general result cannot be a failure. In the attainment
(08:42):
of health, the law is the same as in the
attainment of riches. If you make each act a success
in itself, the sum of all your acts must be
a success. When you eat in the mental attitude I
have described, and in the manner I have described, nothing
can be added to the process. It is done in
(09:03):
a perfect manner, and it is successfully done. And if
eating is successfully done, digestion, assimilation, and the building of
a healthy body are successfully begun. We next take up
the question of the quantity of food required. End of
Chapter eleven.
Chapter eleven of the Science of Being Well by Wallace D. Wattles.
This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by
Daniel Sanchez. How to Eat. It is a settled fact
that man naturally choose his food. The few faddests who
maintain that we should bolt our nourishment after the manner
(00:21):
of the dog and others of the lower animals can
no longer get a hearing. We know that we should
chew our food, and if it is natural that we
should chew our food, the more thoroughly we chew it,
the more completely natural the process must be. If you
will chew every mouthful to a liquid, you need not
be in the least concerned as to what you shall eat,
(00:44):
for you can get sufficient nourishment out of any ordinary food.
Whether or not this chewing shall be an irksome and
laborious task or a most enjoyable process, depends upon the
mental attitude in which you come to the table. If
your mind and attitude are on other things, or if
you are anxious or worried about business or domestic affairs,
(01:07):
you will find it almost impossible to eat without bolting
more or less of your food. You must learn to
live so scientifically that you will have no business or
domestic cares to worry about. This you can do, and
you can also learn to give your undivided attention to
the act of eating while at the table. When you eat,
(01:29):
do so with an eye single to the purpose of
getting all the enjoyment you can from that meal. Dismiss
everything else from your mind, and do not let anything
take your attention from the food and its taste until
your meal is finished. Be cheerfully confident, for if you
follow these instructions, you may know that the food you
(01:50):
eat is exactly the right food, and that it will
agree with you to perfection. Sit down to the table
with confident cheerfulness, and take a moderate portion of the food.
Take whatever thing looks most desirable to you. Do not
select some food because you think it will be good
for you. Select that which will taste good to you.
(02:13):
If you are to get well and stay well, you
must drop the idea of doing things because they are
good for your health, and do things because you want
to do them. Select the food you want most gratefully
give thanks to God that you have learned how to
eat it in such a way that digestions shall be
perfect and take a moderate mouthful of it. Do not
(02:36):
fix your attention on the act of chewing. Fix it
on the taste of the food and taste and enjoy
it until it is reduced to a liquid state and
passes down your throat by involuntary swallowing, no matter how
long it takes. Do not think of the time, Think
of the taste. Do not allow your eyes to wander
(02:57):
over the table speculating as to what you shall eat next.
Do not worry for fear there is not enough and
that you will not get your share of everything. Do
not anticipate the taste of the next thing. Keep your
mind centered on the taste of what you have in
your mouth, and that is all of it. Scientific and
(03:18):
healthful eating is a delightful process. After you have learned
how to do it, and after you have overcome the
bad old habit of gobbling down your food unchewed. It
is best not to have too much conversation going on
while eating. Be cheerful, but not talkative. Do the talking afterward.
(03:38):
In most cases, some use of the will is required
to form the habit of correct eating. The bolting habit
is an unnatural one and is without doubt mostly the
result of fear. Fear that we will be robbed of
our food, fear that we will not get our share
of the good things, fear that we will lose precious time.
(03:59):
These are the causes of haste. Then there is anticipation
of the dainties that are to come for dessert, and
the consequent desire to get at them as quickly as possible.
And there is mental abstraction or thinking of other matters
while eating. All these must be overcome. When you find
(04:19):
that your mind is wandering, call a halt. Think for
a moment of the food, and of how good it tastes,
of the perfect digestion and assimilation that are going to
follow the meal, And begin again, Begin again and again,
though you must do so twenty times in the course
of a single meal, and again and again, though you
(04:41):
must do so every meal for weeks and months. It
is perfectly certain that you can form the Fletcher habit
if you persevere, and when you have formed it, you
will experience a healthful pleasure you have never known. This
is a vital point, and I must not leave it
until I have thoroughly impressed upon your mind. Given the
(05:03):
right materials, perfectly prepared the principle of health will positively
build you a perfectly healthy body, And you cannot prepare
the materials perfectly in any other way that the one
I am describing. If you are to have perfect health,
you must eat in just this way you can, and
(05:23):
the doing of it is only a matter of a
little perseverance. What use for you to talk of mental
control unless you will govern yourself in so simple a
matter as ceasing to bolt your food? What use to
talk of concentration unless you can keep your mind on
the act of eating for so short a space as
fifteen or twenty minutes, especially with all the pleasures of
(05:47):
taste to help you go on and conquer. In a
few weeks or months, as the case may be, you
will find the habit of scientific eating becoming fixed, and
soon you will be in so splendid condition mentally and
physically that nothing would induce you to return to the
bad old way. We have seen that if man will
(06:09):
think only thoughts of perfect health, his internal functions will
be performed in a healthy manner. And we have seen
that in order to think thoughts of health, man must
perform the voluntary functions in a healthy manner. The most
important of the voluntary functions is that of eating, and
we see so far no especial difficulty in eating in
(06:32):
a perfectly healthy way. I will here summarize the instruction
as to when to eat, what to eat, and how
to eat with the reasons therefore, never eat until you
have an earned hunger, no matter how long you go
without food. This is based on the fact that whenever
food is needed in the system, if there is power
(06:54):
to digest it, the subconscious mind announces the need by
the sensation of hunger. Learn to distinguish between genuine hunger
and the gnawing and craving sensations caused by unnatural appetite.
Hunger is never a disagreeable feeling accompanied by weakness, faintness,
or gnawing feelings at the stomach. It is a pleasant,
(07:17):
anticipatory desire for food and is felt mostly in the
mouth and throat. It does not come at certain hours
or at stated intervals. It only comes when the subconscious
mind is ready to receive, digest, and assimilate food. Eat
whatever foods you want, making your selection from the staples
(07:38):
in general use in the zone in which you live.
The supreme intelligence has guided man to the selection of
these foods, and they are the right ones for all.
I am referring, of course, to the foods which are
taken to satisfy hunger, not to those which have been
contrived merely to gratify appetite or perverted taste. The instinct
(08:00):
which has guided the masses of men to make use
of the great staples of food to satisfy their hunger
is a divine one. God has made no mistake. If
you eat these foods, you will not go wrong. Eat
your food with cheerful confidence, and get all the pleasure
that is to be had from the taste of every mouthful.
(08:21):
Chew each morsel to a liquid, keeping your attention fixed
on the enjoyment of the process. This is the only
way to eat in a perfectly complete and successful manner.
And when anything is done in a completely successful manner,
the general result cannot be a failure. In the attainment
(08:42):
of health, the law is the same as in the
attainment of riches. If you make each act a success
in itself, the sum of all your acts must be
a success. When you eat in the mental attitude I
have described, and in the manner I have described, nothing
can be added to the process. It is done in
(09:03):
a perfect manner, and it is successfully done. And if
eating is successfully done, digestion, assimilation, and the building of
a healthy body are successfully begun. We next take up
the question of the quantity of food required. End of
Chapter eleven.
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