Locke: Diet

Some Thoughts Concerning Education - by John Locke, 1693

§ 13 Diet. As for his diet, it ought to be very plain and simple; and, if I might advise, flesh should be forborn as long as he is in coats, or at least till he is two or three years old. But whatever advantage this may be to his present and future health and strength, I fear it will hardly be consented to by parents, misled by the custom of eating too much flesh themselves, who will be apt to think their children, as they do themselves, in danger to be starved, if they have not flesh at least twice a-day. This I am sure, children would breed their teeth with much less danger, be freer from diseases whilst they were little, and lay the foundations of an healthy and strong constitution much surer, if they were not cramrned so much as they are by fond mothers and foolish servants, and were kept wholly from flesh the first three or four years of their lives.

But if my young master must needs have flesh, let it be but once a-day, and of one sort at a meal. Plain beef; mutton, veal, &c. without other sauce than hunger, is best: and great care should be used, that he eat bread plentifully, both alone and with every thing else; and whatever he eats, that is solid, make him chew it well. We English are often negligent herein; from whence follow indigestion, and other great inconveniencies.

§ 14 For breakfast and supper, milk, milk-pottage, water-gruel, flummery, and twenty other things that we are wont to make in England, are very fit for children. Only, in all these, let care be taken that they be plain, and without much mixture, and very sparingly seasoned with sugar, or rather none at all; especially all spice, and other things that may heat the blood, are carefully to be avoided. Be sparing also of salt in the seasoning of all his victuals, and use him not to high-seasoned meats. Our palates grow into a relish and liking of the seasoning and cookery, which by custom they are set to: and an over-much use of salt, besides that it occasions thirst, and over-much drinking, has other ill effects upon the body. I should think, that a good piece of well-made and well-baked brown bread, sometimes with, and sometimes without butter or cheese, would be often the best breakfast for my young master. I am sure 'tis as wholesome, and will make him as strong a man as greater delicacies; and if he be used to it, it will be pleasant to him. If he at any time calls for victuals between meals, use him to nothing but dry bread. If he be hungry more than wanton, bread alone will down; and if he be not hungry, 'tis not fit he should eat. by this you will obtain two good effects: 1. That by custom, he will come to be in love with bread; for, as I said, our palates and stomachs too are pleated with the things we are used to. 2. Another good you will gain hereby is, that you will not teach him to eat more nor oftener than Nature requires. I do not think that all people's appetites are alike; some have naturally stronger, and some weaker stomachs. But this I think, that many are made gourmands and gluttons by custom, that were not so by Nature: and I see in come countries, men as lusty and strong, that eat but two meals a-day, as others that have set their stomachs by a constant usage, like larums, to call on them for four or five. The Romans usually fasted till supper, the only set meal even of those who ate more than once a-day; and those who used breakfasts, as some did at eight, some at ten, others at twelve of the clock, and some later, neither ate flesh, nor had any thing made ready for them. Augustus, when the greatest monarch on the earth, tells us, he took a bit of dry bread in his chariot. And Seneca, in his 83d Epistle, giving an account how he managed himself, even when he was old, and his age, permitted indulgence, says, that he used to eat a piece of dry bread for his dinner, without the formality of sitting to it, though his estate would as well have paid for a better meal (had health required it) as any subjects in England, were it doubled. The masters of the world were bred up with this spare diet; and the young gentlemen of rome felt no want of strength or spirit, because they ate but once a-day. Or, if it happened by chance, that any one could not fast so long as till supper, their only set meal, he took nothing but a bit of dry bread, or at most a few raisins, or some such slight thing with it, to stay his stomach. This part of temperance was found so necessary, both for health and business, that the custom of only one meal a-day held out against that prevailing luxury, which their Eastern conquests and spoils had brought in amongst them; and those who had given up their old frugal eating, and made feasts; yet began them not till the evening. And more than one set meal a-day was thought so rnonstrous, that it was a reproach as low down as Cesar's time, to make an entertainment, or sit down to a full table, till towards sun-set: and therefore, if it would not be thought too severe, I should judge it most convenient, that my young master should have nothing but bread too for breakfast. You cannot imagine of what force custom is; and I impute a great part of our diseases in England to our eating too much flesh, and too little bread.

§ 15 Meals. As to his meals, I should think it best, that as much as it can be conveniently avoided, they should not be kept constantly to an hour: for when custom has fixed his eating to certain stated periods; his stomach will expect victuals at the usual hour, and grow peevish if he passes it; either fretting itself into a troublesome excess, or flagging into a downright want of appetite. Therefore I would have no time kept constantly to, for his breakfast, dinner and supper; but rather varied almost every day. And if betwixt these, which I call meals, he will eat, let him have, as often as he calls for it, good dry bread. If any one think this too hard and sparing a diet for a child, let them know, that a child will never starve nor dwindle for want of nourishment, who, besides flesh at dinner, and spoon-meat, or some such other thing, at supper, may have good bread and beer as often as he has a stomach. For thus, upon second thoughts, I should judge it best for children to be ordered. The morning is generally designed for study, to which a full stomach is but an ill preparation. Dry bread, though the best nourishment, has the least temptation; and no body would have a child crammed at breakfast, who has any regard to his mind or body, and would not have him dull and unhealthy. Nor let any one think this unsuitable to one of estate and condition. A gentleman in any age ought to be so bred, as to be fitted to bear arms, and be a soldier. But he that in this breeds his son so, as if he designed him to sleep over his life in the plenty and ease of a full fortune he intends to leave him, little considers the examples he has seen, or the age he lives in.