nd like coffee it is less disposed to produce
trouble if largely diluted with milk, or if taken without cream or sugar.

Cocoa and chocolate are often used as substitutes for tea or coffee, and
where they agree with the individual are perhaps as wholesome as either.
Both, however, contain considerable quantities of fat, and as they are
frequently prepared with cream, or very rich milk, they are not as a rule
well borne.

While milk might be considered as being almost as much a food as a drink
still the fact that it is fluid, and that it contains a very large
percentage of water, causes it to be regarded as a beverage. When taken
slowly--and this precaution is particularly necessary where it is fresh
and sweet--milk is a drink that should be regarded as being on a par with
water. It contains no injurious substances, but sour milk should, as a
rule, be avoided by dyspeptics.

The cardinal principle in taking beverages of any kind at mealtime is
that they should be drunk alone after the food has been swallowed, as
when they are taken with the purpose of softening the latter, mastication
is seriously interfered with and the proper soaking of the food in the
saliva prevented.

_Alcoholic Beverages._--Alcoholic drinks are so fully discussed in a
latter part of this book that here it may merely be stated that they
cannot be regarded as having food-value to any degree, and so far as the
matter is at present understood, appear to be entirely superfluous, and
even positively injurious. If taken at all, they should be consumed in
extreme moderation, after meals rather than before. The young especially
should be particularly warned against the use of all beverages of this
class.

_A Word on "Soft Drinks."_--Mention should also be made of those drinks
commonly sold at soda-fountains. The vast majority of them may be taken
occasionally without any appreciable ill effects, but the habitual use of
beverages containing considerable quantities of syrup is not entirely
wholesome. Particularly is this true where the drink contains stimulating
drugs, such as do some of those most advertised. Some of them are, if no
worse, the equivalent of a strong cup of coffee, and should, therefore,
no more be taken every hour or two during the day than a cup of the
substance just mentioned. If their use is persisted in, it is sure to be
followed by indigestion, and in many instances nervous disorders of even
a serious character. The reader should a