Unnatural Stimulants

These are any substances which excite cell or tissue to undue activity by reason of their irritating presence. Condiments then would be included under this head (see previous chapter), but as they have already been discussed, we will devote the contents of this chapter to those stimulants which affect the nervous system. These are substances which excite the brain and nerves to abnormal activity by reason of their irritating presence in the blood. This undue stimulation is always followed by a compensatory period of depression. This is more than a mere physiological sedation, for after repeated stimulation of this sort it takes more of the stimulant to produce the same amount of activity until the nerves tend toward a wornout state or a condition of exhaustion.

Exhausted nerves are always irritable, and as the end result of a continued abnormal stimulation the nerves become weak, unsteady and unable to do with poise and control the work of governing the muscular mechanism of the body. Under the head of such stimulants may be classed: Alcohol, tobacco, various drugs, many patent medicines, tea, coffee, cocoa, and meat juices.

Alcohol, the great destroyer of the race, we need not discuss here. Tobacco, a menace to the physical and intellectual integrity of mankind, is not included in the realm of dietetics. The promiscuous use of drugs and patent medicines the people are being, to an extent, saved from by educational campaigns and the law. But coming more strictly in the province of our discussion, and often apparently innocent in their effects, are those in the remainder of the list - tea, coffee, cocoa, and meat juices.

Tea: "That social cup which sharpens wit, brightens repartee, accelerates the flow of ideas, quickens the pulse, relieves one of headache and fatigue and drives away dull care is not the innocent benefactor of the race that it may seem to be. Instead it is a deceiver which, commending itself for the present as a thing 'to be desired to make one wise' and well, in the end robs us of a hundredfold more of the very things it seems to give." - Dr. D. D. Comstock in Signs of the Times, July, 1917.

Theine

Tea contains two injurious extractives - a somewhat bitter alkaloidal poison called theine, and an astringent acid called tannin. A small cup of tea - four ounces - will contain from 1/2 to one grain of theine and a variable amount . of tannic acid. The physiological effects of theine are principally those of stimulation. It is an excitant to the brain, quickens the pulse and raises blood pressure, apparently relieving fatigue.

"Used in excess it (tea) exerts a harmful influence upon the nervous system, and in too strong a form injures the digestive tract and function." - Harrington and Richardson's Practical Hygiene, page 212.

According to Bullard, "the abuse of tea as a beverage leads to ringing in the ears, tremor, nervousness, headache, neuralgia and constipation".

A Habit-Forming Drug

Practically all medical authorities classify theine with the habit forming drugs, such as morphine, cocaine and alcohol.

Who shall say then just what is excess or abuse? Experiments of the Pasteur Institute have shown that the long continued use of even very small doses of poison ultimately produces decided injury to the organism, and some observers say that a given amount of poison taken in small doses over a long period of time does more harm than if taken in large doses at infrequent intervals. Just as there is greater damage inflicted by alcohol on the "tippler" than on the man who goes on a "spree" occasionally, but abstains at other times.

The astringent action of the tannic acid of tea in its effect on the bowel is no small factor in the causation of the prevalent disease, constipation, and many a girl and young woman has laid the foundation for future ill health in her daily indulgence in a cup of tea.

A Tragedy

"With nerves all a-quiver with theine, and the bowels all puckered with tannin, what an amazing preparation for the battles of life! It is but little short of a tragedy that a girl of a nervous and artistic temperament, with a natural tendency toward functional disease of the nervous system, should be encouraged or even allowed by her parents to begin so young to cultivate a disorder toward which she has a natural bent - nervous prostration and chronic constipation - through the free use of tea and other nerve stimulants and sedatives." - D. D. Comstock.

Caffeine

Coffee: The stimulating principle of coffee is caffeine, which is practically the same as the theine of tea, and identical in its effects, and much that has been said of tea might also be said of coffee. Caffeine is a drug that is commonly used in headache powders or is prescribed by physicians when an emergency stimulant is needed. Coffee contains about 2-grs. of caffeine to the cup and thus its effect upon the nervous system is even more marked than that of tea; and while tea, because of its astringent action, interferes with the normal peristalsis of the intestine, coffee interferes to a greater extent with stomach digestion.

15,000,000 Pounds

American people yearly consume about 15,000,000 pounds of caffeine, which if given at one time would kill the whole world at one dose. This if divided into doses would equal more than 100,000,000,000 doses annually or a little more than 3 grains daily for every man, woman and child in the nation. Surely this can not tend toward the physical uplift of the race, but must have its effect in the gradual increase of chronic disease.

Quoting from Gautier: "Coffee, as everybody knows, produces a nervous excitement, which if abused may lead to insomnia, halluciantions, troubles of the circulation, and muscular enervation, to pericordial distress and to dyspnoea. One can become caffeic, just as one can become alcoholic or a morphia maniac".

And again from Harrington and Richardson's Practical Hygiene, page 214: "Coffee taken in extreme quantities causes palpitation and intermission, besides general nervousness and derangement of digestion. It has a marked inhibitory influence on gastric digestion and is more oppressive to the stomach than tea, and hence should be used with caution by dyspeptics".

For That Headache

The headache that one has when deprived of his morning coffee or his daily portion of tea is one of the greatest evidences that the nervous system has learned to depend upon the artificial stimulation and that, sooner or later, if the habit is continued nature will reach the place where she can no longer cope with the situation and the collapse will come.

"There can be no doubt but that the human race would be better off if these beverages had never been discovered, and many cases of nervousness, dyspepsia, and constipation would be either greatly helped or entirely relieved if these beverages were banished from our tables." - Sadler in Science of Living, p. 162.

Theobromin

Cocoa: Many giving up tea and coffee feel that they can indulge themselves freely in cocoa, but here again a mistake is made; for even in the use of this delightful beverage, care and moderation should be exercised. It contains the active principle theobromin which is related to caffeine, though not so deleterious in its effects, it not having the untoward effect on the cerebral centers and the heart that does the active principal of either coffee or tea. However, it is a drug, its drug action affecting principally the kidneys and urinary tract. A cup of cocoa contains about one-half as much of its active principle as does tea or coffee and the theobromin may be considered one-half as injurious in its effects as caffeine.

Cocoa has an advantage over tea and coffee. Being rich in fat and protein, it has rather a high food value. Chocolate and cocoa are the same except that in cocoa the fat has been largely removed. This fat is placed on the market as cocoa butter.

So while the same things cannot be said against cocoa as can be said against tea and coffee, and it may at times serve a useful purpose as food, yet it should be used only with care and moderation. Especially should children be kept from the use of cocoa, it being particularly deleterious to them because of its action on the urinary tract.

Little Foxes

Truly it is "the little foxes that spoil the vines" and our safety and greatest efficiency lie in a selection of food which will yield the highest results healthwise, and in the avoiding of those things which are questionable in their effects.

Meat Extractives: The end products of protein metabolism already described are closely related to caffeine. For this reason the stimulating effect of meat or meat broths, which when taken add these extractives in excess to those already formed normally in the tissues, and the sensation of weakness when they are omitted from the dietary by one accustomed to having them.

A Devitalizing Effect

The feeling of strength obtained from meat broths is thus not a true tonic but an unnatural stimulant, which if freely indulged in cannot but have in the end a devitalizing effect upon the general nervous system.

Eating for health means eliminating from one's diet those things which tend to make for disease and race decadence and in subsisting on those foods so abundant that are full of life and health properties. The more we are able to reach this ideal the nearer does the body approach the normal state which means not only fulness of physical but of intellectual strength.

'Blessed art thou, O land, when . . . thy princes eat in due season, for strength and not for drunkenness".