The Perils of a Modern Diet
A local column warns Tacoma residents that the 'great national vice' of gluttony and poor food combinations is endangering public health.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Dr. C. E. Kahle of Chicago tells of the case of a 16-year-old girl of Berlin who suffered from a 'mysterious' stomach trouble. Surgeons removed 1,184 nails, 79 bits of wire, 192 small hooks, six nail heads, 128 bent pins, four pieces of glass, and 27 straight pins. While our American taste has not quite descended to nails and glass, it is still low. The vital statistics of the cities paint awful pictures of suffering and death from improper feeding. It is the great national vice. We are becoming a race of guzzling gluttons. Think of the horrible combinations of sweet and sour, acid and grease, spice and paste that you pile into your stomach daily. Stop and think of what a repulsive mess it would be if you saw it chewed up and rotting in a garbage can! Food taken into a stomach that is excited, hurried, angry or anxious will not nourish the body. The answer is simple: eat sparingly of good meats, plenty of vegetables, a little fruit daily, drink milk, and eat good, old-fashioned bread, never fresh from the oven.
“Think of what a repulsive mess it would be if you saw it chewed up and rotting in a garbage can! Then think of your poor stomach that took that disgusting weight.”
This early 20th-century anxiety about processed foods and the 'rushed' American meal mirrors today's ongoing public health debates over ultra-processed diets and the wellness industry's focus on mindfulness. The author's disdain for 'raw food cranks' and 'vegetarians' highlights that the cultural tension between dietary fads and traditional eating is over a century old.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.