gE OW to keep fit in a modern world
228 pd has always been a problem. It
Pt would be far less a problem if we
all lived more natural lives. The
tendency of modern life is for people to
crowd into towns and cities, where living 1s
more or less artificial. By far the most of
us spend our lives in offices, shops, ware-
houses, or factories. There, the ever n-
creasing wear and tear of a closely confined
life imposes such strain on all concerned
that the brief week-end rest is scarcely long
enough to bring about complete recovery
of mental and spiritual poise.
If this is so in peacetime, it 1s much more
so In wartime, which brings added strain ol
body and mind for everyone. Iood must
be strictly rationed. This involves extra
vigilance and care on the part of both
buyer and seller. The housewife, of course,
must ultimately bear the brunt of the
strain, as she is in charge of the family
larder. She must carry most of her goods,
instead of having them brought to the door.
Often, long and anxious waiting in sheps
tries her patience and her strength, as well
as consumes much of her precious time.
She may even have to do part-time war
work, which adds considerably to the pres-
sure of her nfe,
Besides this, in Great Britain there 1s
the threat of air raids, endangering life
and limb, and demanding strict black-out
rules, which must be carefully observed on
penalty of a heavy fine. Workers already
loing a full-time job have to do “fire-
watching’ duties at night. Thus, when
they most need sleep they have to keep
awake at least some part of the night.
So for nearly all concerned, wartime
means long hours, extra burdens, worries,
and anxieties, which tend to wear down
body and mind, and so reduce fitness.
Yet, apart from the extra trouble of a
complicated food-rationing system, there
are compensations. The net result is de-
cidedly encouraging from a health point of
view.
Before the war, there was much waste.
Living was far from simple, and hence far
from healthful. Sad to say, most people
cannot be trusted to choose the simplest
and most nourishing foods. Taste and de-
sire very largely rule their lives. But with
foodstuffs running short or disappearing
altogether, the Government has had to
step in and regulate the kind and the
amount of food necessary to adequate
individual sustenance.
So it comes about that we are all con-
fined to limited amounts of simple, nourish-
ing food. Brown bread has replaced white
bread, which is all to the good. We rely
less on meat and more on firsthand foods,
which may be more healthful and more
sustaining.
The consumption of such things as
alcoholic drinks, tobacco, tea, and coffee,
has been cut down, and may still further
be reduced. Healthwise, this is all to the
good, since these at best are doubtful
Page TEN
luxuries which do not make for fitness, but
rather tend to reduce it.
So, in Britain, we are all on a diet, a diet
that has been carefully planned by medical
experts, and which enables each individual,
according to age, constitution, and calling,
to get the maximum amount of nourish-
ment out of a minimum of food supplies.
We are all “under the doctor,” and that
doctor 1s a kindly, well-informed, well-
intentioned government, of which any na-
tion might be justly prowd. Under its
firm but fatherly direction, we are learning
to appreciate the simple life, and ave feeling
better for it.
Perhaps the most promising sign of the
times 1s the back-to-the-land movement.
It has taken another war to bring home to
us the truth of the wise man’s words that
“the profit of the earth is for all: the king
himself 1s served by the field.”
The land, after all, is a nation’s chief and
most permanent source of sustenance.
Whether they realize 1t or no, those who
till the soil are, to the very highest degree,
and 1n more ways than one, doing “the
king's business.” There can be no more
healthful, more uplifting, more useful lite
than that of the land-worker, and it 15 «
step mm the right direction that thousands
of young men and young women are leaving
the more or less artificial life in offices,
shops, and factories, for the more natural
calling of the land, where they are {inding
renewed health and fresh vitality in the
“simple sanities of the soil.”
Allotment holders are renewing their
vouth as they dig and plant and hoe to
produce food for the family, the com-
munity, and hence for the nation. The
revival of agriculture is one of the greatest
of wartime blessings, which must never be
allowed to flag, not even when the war is
over. We ought to be less a nation of shop-
keepers, and more a nation of peasant-
proprietors. Perhaps we are even now
heading toward that happy, healthy
achievement.
®
The increase of employment all round
has brought blessings to many who hitherto
were without work. Some were unemployed
through no fault of their own; others were
unoccupied because they were not obliged
to work. These, for the most part, have
been drawn into the ranks of the nation’s
army of workers. As a result, the strain on
the unemployment insurance funds hax
been greatly relieved, and ua substantial
surplus for future emergencies is being
built up; while the leisured classes are no
longer frittering away their lives in a use-
less round of pleasure-seeking.
Of course, there is the danger of over-
strain through long hours of arduous toil.
The seven-day week has been introduced
into factories doing war-work. It has been
demonstrated over and over again that
nothing is gained by continuous and unre-
mitting labor. A fifty-five-hour week 1s the
proved maximum, in which men and
women can maintain health and efficiency.
hEEPING FI
By H. F. Ue'Ath,
It 1s not so much the number of hours
people are willing to put in, as the amount
and quality of work they are able to turn
out in a given time. It should be re-
membered that most war-work 1s done at
high speed, and requires close concentra-
tion. Hence the need of keeping the hours
of labor within a wisely prescribed limit.
Moreover, much of the work is trying to
the eves, and demands continuous stand-
ing, which tires the feet and encourages the
development of foot trouble. All this mukes
it imperative that the health of the workers
“When the Frost Is On the Punkin”
By James Whitcomb Riley
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the sho
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the strultin’ turkey-
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the he
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
0, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best, ®
With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful re,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the s
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shoc
From ** Neighborly Poems,” By James Whitcomb Riley, Copyright
rorg. Used by special permission of the publishers, The Bobbs-Merri
The WATCHMAN MAGAZINE
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