I stumbled across this article from a very old book called No Animal Food by Rubert H Wheldon. Much of what he says is common sense really but I thought I’d share…
It is an excellent rule that prescribes fasting when without hunger. When there is no appetite do not eat. It is an example of conventional stupidity that we eat because it is ‘meal time,’ even though there be not the slightest feeling of genuine hunger.
Leaving out of consideration the necessitous poor and those who for their living engage themselves in hard physical toil, it is safe to say that hardly one person in a thousand has ever felt real hunger. Yet no one was ever the worse for waiting upon appetite. No one was ever starved by not eating because of having no appetite.
Loss of appetite is a sign that the digestive organs require a rest. It is better to go without food for a time than to force oneself to eat against inclination. The forcing of oneself to eat to ‘keep up one’s strength,’ is perhaps the quickest way to bring down one’s strength by overworking the system and burdening it with material it does not need.
Eat by appetite, not by time.
Eat frequently when the appetite demands frequent satisfaction, and seldom when seldom hungry. These rules hold good at all times and for everyone. Loss of appetite during sickness should not be looked upon as anything serious in itself, but as a sign that the system does not require food. A sick man like a well man will feel hunger as soon as food is needed, and the practice of tempting the appetite with rich and costly foods is not only a waste of money but is injurious physiologically.
If a man is hungry enough to relish dry bread, then, and then only, does he really require nourishment.
Never eat to be sociable, or conventional, or sensual; eat when hungry.
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I read this great saying in this book of Glaswegian patter my friend Lucy got me for my birthday
Ah’m that hungry ah could eat a farmers arse through a hedge!
So before you chow down on your next meal ask yourself…
Am I really hungry?
It is an excellent rule that prescribes fasting when without hunger. When there is no appetite do not eat. It is an example of conventional stupidity that we eat because it is ‘meal time,’ even though there be not the slightest feeling of genuine hunger. Leaving out of consideration the necessitous poor and those who for their living engage themselves in hard physical toil, it is safe to say that hardly one person in a thousand has ever felt real hunger. Yet no one was ever the worse for waiting upon appetite. No one was ever starved by not eating because of having no appetite. Loss of appetite is a sign that the digestive organs require a rest. It is better to go without food for a time than to force oneself to eat against inclination. The forcing of oneself[Pg 100] to eat to ‘keep up one’s strength,’ is perhaps the quickest way to bring down one’s strength by overworking the system and burdening it with material it does not need. Eat by appetite, not by time. Eat frequently when the appetite demands frequent satisfaction, and seldom when seldom hungry. These rules hold good at all times and for everyone. Loss of appetite during sickness should not be looked upon as anything serious in itself, but as a sign that the system does not require food. A sick man like a well man will feel hunger as soon as food is needed, and the practice of tempting the appetite with rich and costly foods is not only a waste of money but is injurious physiologically. Possibly there may be pathological conditions under which hunger cannot make itself felt, but it would seem contrary to Nature as far as the writer, a layman, understands the matter. At least, leaving abnormal conditions of health out of consideration, we can say this much affirmatively: if a man is hungry enough to relish dry bread, then, and then only, does he really require nourishment.
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