"EATING BETWEEN MEALS is bad for your health," my parents used to tell me. Since my father was a physician, I accepted this, along with a number of other rules that made up the pattern of healthful living my father and mother taught me.
Even though I followed the rules, I was not strongly convinced of the importance of not eating between meals. My conviction was lessened by the fact that I was constantly assailed by an active appetite. The availability of snack foods didn't make things any easier. There were nuts, fruit, corn chips, and other things around the house that were used at mealtime and for the lunches the children took to school. And there are always boxes of candy on hospital wards.
As I listened to patients in my office, it seemed there were "benefits" of between- meal feedings. A small snack would dependably quench the fire in an acid stomach, and soothe an ulcer if present. Many patients discovered that a snack at bedtime was the only way they could "improve their troubled sleep." Any suggestion that a bedtime snack might have caused their "troubled sleep" was usually poorly received and was difficult to demonstrate.
From the standpoint of physiology, it seems that the human body should be able to take care of snacks very well. God has given us, in every organ system, a tremendous physiologic reserve. Each system is designed to function at a peak capacity several times over what is needed for ordinary daily living. This reserve power is also present in the digestive organs. Apparently digestive organs can continue to digest as long as food is present, without apparent fatigue.
For many years gastroenterologists have been treating ulcers by giving milk or cream every hour on the hour, and antacids on the half hour. As the patient improved, this was modified by allowing a bland, three-meal diet pro gram, with milk or a snack between meals to neutralize the acid. These concepts were taught in the classroom, and by practice in the clinic. It was very plain to see that acid was neutralized by food and by milk, and that by giving these things constantly, acids should be reduced.
Yet, there was this advice not to eat between meals. I'm sure my readers are familiar with these. Let me just list a few:
"I am astonished to learn that, after all the light that has been given in this place, many of you eat between meals! You should never let a morsel pass your lips between your regular meals. Eat what you ought, but eat it at one meal, and then wait until the next." —Testimonies, vol. 2, p. 373.
"Regularity should be the rule in all the habits of children. Mothers make a great mistake in permitting them to eat between meals. The stomach becomes deranged by this practice, and the foundation is laid for future suffering. Their fretfulness may have been caused by unwholesome food, still undigested; but the mother feels that she cannot spend time to reason upon the matter and correct her injurious management. Neither can she stop to soothe their impatient worrying. She gives the little sufferers a piece of cake or some other dainty to quiet them, but this only increases the evil." —Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 150.
"Our preachers are not particular enough in regard to their habits of eating. . . . They have no rules by which to regulate their diet, but indulge in eating fruit or nuts between their meals, and thus impose too heavy burdens upon the digestive organs." —Testimo nies, vol. 4, p. 416.
No Mincing of Words
In these sample quotations there is no mincing of words, no hesitation, no room for compromise. They involve everyone, including children and preachers. There is a simple, firm, categorical, and emphatic statement that eating be tween meals is harmful.
In the light of my observation and training, how should I consider such ad vice? There are three possibilities:
1. This might be categorized as religious dogma, having some ritualistic merit, but not related to healthful living. Or
2. This could be advice, somehow pertinent to times past, but not to the present time. Or—
3. This could be in that broad category of advance recommendations that God has given us as a people, which has not yet been proved scientifically, but by which He meant for us to benefit.
In talking to patients, as well as to others who are members of the remnant church and who conscientiously follow its teachings and life practices, I find that many are not fully convinced on this point. Obviously the time is ripe for God to show His people again that He meant just exactly what He said.
Recent research has shown that our previous methods of treating peptic ulcers have been all wrong. In fact, it has been another demonstration that the human body is marvelously resilient, and that people with peptic ulcers man age to get well in spite of the methods we have been using in trying to treat them. Our current approach in treating ulcers is almost directly opposite in some respects to what has been recommended for many years (see references).
This change is based on information shown in the accompanying graphs.
Figure 1 shows that after a meal is taken the acid in the stomach continues to be produced for about four hours. Those who have duodenal ulcer disease produce acid at almost twice the rate of the average normal.
Figure 2 shows that after a regular meal the acid is quite adequately neutralized for about an hour or so, then rapidly rises for an hour or so until an other meal, when it is neutralized again. For those who take milk and cream every hour, the acid stays at a constant high level and is never neutralized. After the last meal in the evening, the acid gradually drops off again and is very low during the night. Other studies have shown that on the three-meal pattern a person does not need to go on a special diet. A bland diet is no more effective in reducing acid than a regular normal diet.
The most logical approach is to allow patients with a peptic ulcer to eat a normal diet of their own choosing, and not try to make limitations that might result in a diet that was not as nutritious and as beneficial as the normal diet would be. Since food causes a dramatic and prolonged stimulation of acid secretion, particularly in patients with ulcer disease, ulcer patients should not take any food late in the evening. Food taken at bedtime causes so much acid to be produced that the person may awaken later at night with pain.
Frequent feedings, as opposed to two or three meals a day, are illogical. Repeated stimulation of the stomach leads to a high sustained acid level. There is some speculation that by repeated stimulation the parietal (acidproducing) cells are greatly increased in ability to produce acid, and may in a sense increase the likelihood of developing ulcer disease. 4
Considering again the advice that Adventists have been given, I am impressed at how accurately this information has been relayed to us. There are a number of things that we have been told regarding our eating habits, such as overeating, use of milk and sugar, fruits and vegetables together, spices, too much variety at one meal, and other things.
We have good evidence on some of these things. The evidence is incomplete or yet to come in on several other very important items. In what category should these be put? Are these advance recommendations that we should begin to benefit from now, or are we going to put these into a lesser category and again wait for the world to show us why they are harmful?
In my opinion it is God's will that His remnant people be an example for the world in good health and in joyful living. The recommendations He has given are given to us as advance knowledge that will help us in this direction.
