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_ ILLUSTkATED WORLD 289
Why the Average American
Dies at Forty-three
"He Feeds His Stomach with Tasty Junk," says E. E. Rittenhouse
By R. W. Lockwood
T H E presidents of life insurance companies
with perhaps twenty billion dollars insurance
on the lives of Americans, recently
met in convention at the Hotel Astor in New
York, and in their discussion brought out some
of the reasons why the average American dies at
about forty-three years of age.
According to the press reports, Mr. E. E. Rittenhouse,
Commissioner of Public Service and Conservation
of the Equitable Life Assurance Society,
said: "The average American would not think
of mixing bricks or scrap iron or gravel with
the fuel for his furnace, yet he feeds his stomach
with all sorts of tasty junk, much of which cannot
be fully digested ... he is seriously overstraining
his heart, arteries, kidneys, nerves and
digestion, as the rapidly increasing death rate
shows."
This statement from such an authoritative
source—from a man who makes it his business
to study both vital statistics and the causes
behind them—sounds a warning which should be
heeded by every man and woman.
Indeed, there is no longer a doubt among
intelligent people that many of the foods and
combinations of foods which we are most accustomed
to eat are the direct cause of much sickness.
Yet how few of us heed the early warnings
of illness, such as acid-stomach, fermentation, or
constipation. I venture to say that nine out of
ten persons suffer to a greater or lesser extent
from one or more of these three symptoms, which
are in many cases the forerunners of more serious
sickness.
Stomach medicines and laxatives are plentiful,
but of what avail are they? The only thing that
a stomach medicine can do is to temporarily
neutralize the extra amount of acid in the stomach,
because it is stronger than the acid. And
this injures the stomach, usually bringing the
acid back worse than il was before. A laxative
is just as bad, if not a little worse; not only is
its effect temporary, but all laxatives are habitforming
and are required in ever-increasing
doses
If neglected, a simple case of acid-stomach
may lead in a short time to fermentation with
of Equitable Life
President of the Corrective Eating Society Inc.
gas, and constipation. The fermenting food forms
poisons which are absorbed into the blood, causing
auto-intoxication, nervousness, mental depression,
and a host of other unpleasant symptoms.
Is it any wonder that the officers of large
insurance companies sound a warning against the
evils of wrong eating?
* * * * * * * *
But just as wrong eating is the cause of 90
per cent of common illnesses, so will correct
eating create and maintain both bodily vigor and
mental energy. And by right eating I do not
mean freak foods—I mean just good every-day
foods properly combined. In fact, to eat correctly,
or follow a course of Corrective Eating
it is not at all necessary to upset your table.
Eugene Christian, the well-known food specialist,
has proved the efficacy of Corrective
Eating in thousands of cases. Entirely without
the use of drugs or medicines, men and women
suffering from almost every conceivable nonorganic
ailment have been returned to health and
vigor by following his simple directions in regard
to their eating.
In a recent talk with Eugene Christian he told
me of several interesting cases which had
recently come under his care. One was that of
a woman prominent in Woman Suffrage work
in New York City. She had come to him with
stomach and intestinal fermentation and gas,
auto-intoxication, mental depression and anemia,
vertigo, and threatened heart failure. She was
very much over-weight when she commenced,
but reduced her weight thirty-seven pounds during
the treatment. He showed me a letter she
had written him afterward, in which she said:
"I am sure you will be gratified to hear that
I continue to improve—it seems sometimes that
I must have been made over, and it is difficult
to remember that less than eight months ago I
was a feeble old woman depending upon daily
doses of strychnia for what little strength I had.
When I came under your treatment, I weighed
one hundred and ninety-seven pounds, was hardly
able to walk, and was subject to most serious
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