Therefore, one who does not suffer from any specific disease or deficiency but who is interested in food supplements for prophylactic or preventive reasons—that is for health protection —should not take any vitamins, minerals, or other isolated factors. But he should use natural food supplements, such as brewers yeast, kelp, bone meal, rose hips, cold-pressed vegetable oils, cod liver oil, wheat germ oil, etc. These are all natural, unrefined foods, rather than isolated vitamins or minerals. When you take them you will be benefiting not only from all the known vitamins and other nutritional factors, but also from all the unknown, as yet undiscovered, factors. Moreover, in such natural food supplements all the vital factors are present in their naturally balanced combination. This is important for two reasons. First, this will assure their full biological activity and maximum assimilation. Second, it will prevent overdosage which, as in the cases of vitamins D, A, and certain vitamins of the B-complex, could be quite dangerous.

The above remarks are made in reference to relatively healthy people. In the case of disease, however, the use of isolated vitamins and other nutritional factors could be not only justified but, in many cases, absolutely essential.

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Many of us eat too fast, gulp our food down without chewing it properly-not to mention the fact that we often eat when we are not really hungry, merely because it is dinner time. Also, we eat when we are tense and irritated or when our thoughts are far away from food. Or, we eat certain foods because we think they are good for us, without really enjoying them.

No, all foods should be eaten slowly and chewed very thoroughly. Never eat in a hurry. It is far better to skip a meal than to eat it in a hurry. Slow eating and good mastication will increase the assimilation of nutrients in the intestinal tract and make you feel satisfied with a smaller quantity of food. Well-chewed and generously salivated food is practically half-digested in the mouth. Saliva contains enzymes and other digestive agents.

And, finally, food should be eaten in a relaxed atmosphere and enjoyed. My old friend and teacher, Dr. Ragnar Berg, one of the world’s most renowned nutritionists, used to say, “Eating should be a pleasure.” Please, don’t misconstrue his statement to mean that you should eat for pleasure! Eat to live—don’t live to eat! The biological fact is that only foods eaten with a genuine pleasure will do you any good. A peaceful, unhurried, pleasurable, and happy atmosphere around the table will pay good dividends in improved digestion and assimilation of food and in better health.

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As Benjamin Franklin said, “A full belly is the mother of all evil.” Obesity is, perhaps, the biggest American health problem and a contributing cause in the contraction of many diseases, including arthritis. As Thomas Edison suggested, “People gorge themselves with rich foods, use their time, ruin their digestion, and poison themselves…”

Food eaten in excess of the actual bodily need acts in the system as a poison; interferes with digestion; causes internal sluggishness, gas, incomplete assimilation, and other metabolic disturbances. It causes fermentation and putrefaction and actually poisons your system.

Leave your table when the food tastes its best. Several smaller meals or snacks are better than a few huge meals. Train yourself to systematically undereat and you will give yourself the best—and the cheapest—health insurance possible.

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