SOME VIEWS ON EATING

 

          SOME VIEWS ON EATING

Eating is essential. No living being can survive without eating some sort of food. Mothers start feeding their babies as soon as they are born. Eating is a source of energy and vitality. But one has to digest what one eats. There are people who pray to God to give them good digestion.

Fasting is part of eating. One does not eat all the time. There are intervals between meals: breakfast in the morning, lunch at noon,  and dinner at night. These have enough intervals in-between.

            What to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, when not to eat depends upon individuals. Roman statesman and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-143 B.C.) says that in the matter of eating reason should direct and appetite obey. The 2^nd century German philosopher Tyrius Maximus says choose rather to punish your appetites than to be punished by them. According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) temperance and labour are the two best physicians of man; labour sharpens the appetite, and temperance prevents from indulging to excess.

            Finally, two famous quotes :  

(1)  One should eat to live, not live to eat.---- American statesman  Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)  

(2) By eating what is sufficient man is enabled to work; he is hindered from working and becomes heavy, idle, and stupid if he takes too much.---As to bodily distempers occasioned by excess, there is no end to them. ----William Jones of Nayland (1726-1800).

                                                ******

G.R.Kanwal

19^th January 2024