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Appetite

Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., MD, (1901-1967) dedicated his professional life to understanding the role of nutrition in the prevention of chronic illness and physical degeneration. He was best known for his ten-year feeding study examining the effects of feeding cooked and heat-processed vs. raw foods to cats, the findings of which were chronicled in the book Pottenger’s Cats (available from PPNF). Dr. Pottenger served as president of the Los Angeles County Medical Association, American Therapeutic Society, and American Academy of Applied Nutrition. In 1940, he founded the Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., Hospital in Monrovia, California, for the treatment of respiratory diseases. This is one of the many articles by Dr. Pottenger that can be found in the PPNF research archives. The undated article provides an interesting historical perspective on appetite and its importance in good nutrition.
The first principles of good nutrition have not changed over the ages. It is only the greater knowledge of the fragments that make the sum total of good nutrition that has changed. Though not identified as such, the fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, enzymes, and minerals necessary for good nutrition have always been present in the optimum dietary of all peoples, regardless of whether they lived on a Polynesian Island, in an igloo on the Beaufort Sea, on the slopes of the Andes, in the heart of China, or on an early American farm.
A common denominator of good nutrition is appetite. A physician can find no more intricate problem to solve in a child or an adult than lack of appetite. He may encounter the situation in a young child who does not take easily to solid foods. Though an infant may ingest milk either by breast or bottle well enough, he may begin to revolt at the texture of the first proffered solid foods. Circumventing this by diluting the foods to a liquid state in a bottle is possible for a while, but the problem of normal eating still has to be solved. When the child learns to chew and swallow, ordinarily there will be little trouble, since he will grow hungry at regular intervals and partake of whatever food is usual for him. It is not uncommon that he rebels at new foods, and then all the persuasion of serving small portions, calling attention to the fact that the parents are enjoying the same food, and other devices are employed to broaden the child’s dietary horizons. Most youngsters gradually develop normal appetites and enjoyment of food, and do not become medical cases.
Mealtime atmosphere
Physicians who practice nutrition see more “problem eaters” than others. The parent, conscious of the state of malnutrition, not only wants to know how to get the child to eat but to repair the existing damage by the best possible nutrition. It is no simple matter to diagnose the lack of appetite. It is frequently difficult to gain the full confidence and cooperation of a parent in analyzing the problem. Those parents who can be encouraged to openly survey the home situation and the dietary appraisal will more quickly come to a solution.
The following questions must be honestly answered:
- Is there at least one formal meal a day at which you dress appropriately and enjoy the graciousness of lovely table setting?
- Do you feed the child on a fairly regular time schedule?
- Do you turn off all radio and television programs so that the meal hour is quiet?
- Do you compose yourself to quietly supervise the meal without crossness or nagging?
- Do you give thought to making the food appear neat and “surmountable” on the plate?
- Do you take the plate away without comment when enough time has elapsed for eating?
Other factors
- Do you confine between-meal “piecing” to a small portion of fruit, a carrot or celery stick, or a small glass of milk?
- Do you keep older children from causing a hullaballoo at mealtime?
- Do you see that the child gets enough rest, both by a normal bedtime hour and by an afternoon nap?
- Do you make the effort to establish a regular time for bowel evacuation?
- Do you make the effort to minimize excitement of all kinds [in] the child’s life, not only at mealtime but throughout the day?
None of these ideas is original, yet the high percentage of negative answers frequently sheds the first light on solving the problem. The average family does not find it convenient to set the stage for the benefit of one difficult child.
When the physician has helped identify some of the mechanical riddles, he is then ready to provide his little patient with ideas of nutritional probity: freshness, fragrance, flavor, and tempting appearance of the food. He knows from experience that too large a quantity repels, even when all of the other qualities are present.
The parent must not expect a miracle but must patiently study the emotional and physical environment in which the child is existing. Most parents will look back on these times as amongst the most trying days of child-rearing.
The average adult who works physically ordinarily uses up sufficient energy to bring an appetite to mealtimes. An exception is when the body or mind is unduly fatigued. Most of these people do not bring to the physicians the complaint of lack of appetite.
Older people’s appetites
However, in the older age group, this is a very common complaint. It is true that the aging body does not crave the amount of food required by the active adult. However, a state of malnutrition frequently occurs in the retired person who loses appetite and interest in food. The questions asked about the atmosphere surrounding the children will neatly apply to this group – but the solutions will not be as easy. One of the most important considerations will be chronic fatigue or indifference with a disinclination to go to the effort to prepare meals for only one or two people. Eating out of a can or at a soda fountain, or draining the appetite by eating too [many] sweets or baked goods are common. Worry and confusion of all kinds detract from the normal interest in meals. Dentures limit the capacity for handling some foods. The physical depletion due to malnutrition knows no bounds.
The physician then is successful if he can persuade his patient to take an interest again in cooking – to fill the kitchen full of the fragrance of bread baking, a kettle of soup simmering, or a little roast wafting its bouquet; if he can get the patient to ask in a guest or two to share a meal; if he can persuade him to go out occasionally to a good restaurant, or to accept invitations to the homes of friends. He should remind him of the benefit of a background of tuneful music, of a table prettily if simply laid, and of all the elements of gracious living that the average person considered part of usual life in earlier years. Lessened vigor should not excuse the patient from performing some of these gracious rites and [these] should be acknowledged to be no hardship, but rather a blessing that can be accomplished into considerable old age with facility. Almost every woman has some art in her cuisine for which she is famous amongst her friends and family and she should be encouraged to continue with it. Men in retirement can be stimulated to experiment in the kitchen too – to brew perfect coffee,to broil an excellent chop, to combine flavorful foods for a casserole. Shopping and cooking can become an absorbing hobby and the dividend can be health.
Published in the Price-Pottenger Journal of Health and Healing
Fall 2014 | Volume 38, Number 3
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