7. How Overeating Vitiates The Body

Sylvester Graham used to say, "A drunkard may reach old age, a glutton never." And Hippocrates also said, more than two thousand years ago, "Excess in drinking is almost as bad as excess in eating."

Remember that we require less food—and can utilize less food—as we grow older; and that overweight becomes a greater threat with the passing years. Excess poundage not only increases the threat of coronary problems, diabetes, and a host of other degenerative diseases—obesity will undoubtedly shorten one's life.

Dr. Shelton says that overeating overworks and poisons the body. Overindulgence in food works all the organs of the body to death and wrecks the whole system long before the digestive organs begin to show signs of weakening. Don't labor under the delusion that unless food causes distress in the stomach, it produces no harm.

In the overeater, all the functions of the body are conducted more rapidly than they should be until the overwork forces them to stop. Light eaters who use no stimulants should have a heartbeat (pulse) of about sixty a minute. The average of seventy-two that is considered normal is too high, and is the average standard for over-stimulated, overfed individuals.

Cornaro's food selection is not one that we would recommend, but the point here is not the particular food items but the quantity of food ingested that resulted in his longevity, ed.