Here’s a little excerpt from a book written by Robert Armitage titled How to Stay Young. If this is true, I’m in big trouble, because my Girl Scout cookies ~ those delicious chocolate mints, of course ~ arrived this week.
1918: How Unnatural Cravings Are Caused
An abnormal desire for something is due to a disordered condition of the blood and the body which is caused by a congested stomach.
Before a child is born, the mother has cravings which she is unable to resist and she often does herself and the child a great injury. The real cause of this craving was the congested stomach. Therefore the mother should be extremely careful of her diet to protect her own health and that of the child, so it may be brought into the world without any abnormal cravings which are the heritage of many unfortunates.
The desire for stimulants can be wonderfully increased or decreased by the increase and decrease of the congestion in the stomach. The frying pan and tea and coffee make drunkards. Frying foods with lard makes them much harder to digest, hence increases indigestion of the stomach. An instance came to our attention recently. The man through his will power had conquered his desire for strong drink which however he did not dare to see or touch, so great was its power over him. One morning his wife gave him for breakfast a big plate of fried liver and potatoes; he went to work but a severe attack of indigestion brought back his old craving for alcohol and this craving he has never again been able to curb so that he paid in a ruined life for what most of us would consider nutritious food.
Foods that take a long time to digest and those that belong to the ‘Never Class’ are really responsible for most of the vices. They cause unrest and this feeling torments the person into trying to obtain some kind of relief. Intemperance in food will cause the rapid descent into degredation of one who has previously lived decently. The brain in time becomes congested, passions are let loose, the person becomes a victim of moods, and life is no longer worth living. Not only ‘as a man thinketh so is he’ but also, as a man eateth so is he.
Source: Armitage, Robert B. How to Stay Young (Perpetual Youth). Chicago: Advanced Thought Publishing, 1918.
~ pp. 241-42 ~