It is remarkable to find how many people eat out of boredom, sheer habit, or to the accompaniment of a newspaper, a book, or a heated business discussion. Many succumb to the habit of eating at a “minute” diner, fast food restaurant or lunch counter, gulping their food and running a “hoof and mouth” race with Father Time. (He always wins.)
Others are trained from childhood to stuff themselves”finish your plate (An old relic of primitive days when food scarcities or the uncertainties of a next meal or a next day were constantly present). Some call this “scavenger eating;” many children acquire this habit by imitating their parents who are imitating their parents who may have been raised under food scarcity circumstances.
Many men and women are the victims of monotony or plain poor cooking in their meals. They rarely vary the selection and choice of foods out of sheer inertia, indifference, or lack of attention. So they try to make up in quantity what they lack in quality, seeking satisfaction from calories instead of from quality and contrast.
Dr. Arthur Master, in a study of a group of patients not suffering from...