Eating out of mealtimes should be strictly avoided, for it robs the stomach of its needed rest.  Food eaten when the body and mind are wearied is not well digested.  Rest, even for a few minutes, should be taken before eating a full meal.  It is well to lie down, or sit quietly and read, fifteen minutes before eating, and directly afterwards, if possible.

Severe exercise and hard study just after a full meal, are very apt to delay or actually arrest digestion, for after eating heartily, the vital forces of the body are called upon to help the stomach digest its food.  If our bodily energies are compelled, in addition to this, to help the muscles or brain, digestion is retarded, and a feeling of dullness and heaviness follows.  Fermentative changes, instead of the normal digestive changes, are apt to take place in the food.

167.  Practical Points about Eating.  We should not eat for at least two or three hours before going to bed.  When we are asleep, the vital forces are at a low ebb, the process of digestion is for the time nearly suspended, and the retention of incompletely digested food in the stomach may cause bad dreams and troubled sleep.  But in many cases of sleeplessness, a trifle of some simple food, especially if the stomach seems to feel exhausted, often appears to promote sleep and rest.

[NOTE.  The table on the next page shows the results of many experiments to illustrate the time taken for the gastric digestion of a number of the more common solid foods.  There are a good many factors of which the table takes no account, such as the interval since the last meal, state of the appetite, amount of work and exercise, method of cooking, and especially the quantity of food.]

Table Showing the Digestibility of the More Common Solid Foods.

Food How Time in
Cooked Stomach,
Hours
-------------------------------------------------
Apples, sweet and mellow Raw 1-1/2
Apples, sour and hard " 2-1/2
Apple Dumpling Boiled 3
Bass, striped, fresh Broiled 3
Beans, pod Boiled 2-1/2
Beef, with salt only " 2-3/4
" fresh, lean Raw 3
" " " Fried 4
" " " Roasted 3-1/2
" old, hard, salted Boiled 4-1/4
Beefsteak Broiled 3
Beets Boiled 3-3/4
Bread, corn Baked 3-1/4
" wheat, fresh " 3-1/2
Butter Melted 3-1/2
Cabbage, with vinegar Raw 2
" " " Boiled 4-1/2
" heads Raw 2-1/2
Carrots Boiled 3-1/4
Cheese, old, strong Raw 3-1/2
Chicken, full-grown Fricassee 2-3/4