Drinks.--It is better not to drink during eating, or insalivation may be
interfered with; a drink is better taken at the end of a meal. The
practice of washing down food with hot tea is bad. The refreshing nature
of a cup of hot tea, coffee, or cocoa is to a very great extent due to the
warmth of the water. The benefit is felt at once, before the alkaloid can
enter the blood stream and stimulate the nerve centres. Hot water, not too
hot to cause congestion of the mucous membrane, is one of the best drinks.
When the purity of the water supply is doubtful, there is advantage in
first bringing it to the boil, as pathogenic bacteria are destroyed. Some
find it beneficial to drink a cup of hot water the first thing in the
morning; this cleanses the stomach from any accumulation of mucus.

If fruit, succulent vegetables, or cooked food, containing much water be
freely used, and there be little perspiration, it is possible to do
without drinking; but there is danger of taking insufficient water to
hold freely in solution the waste products excreted by the body.

Aerated drinks, except a very few of the best, and non-alcoholic beers and
wines, are generally unwholesome, from their containing preservatives,
foaming powders, artificial flavourings, &c.

Stimulants.--Tea and coffee contain an alkaloid theine, besides volatile
oils, tannin, &c. Cocoa contains the milder alkaloid, theobromine. They
stimulate the heart and nervous systems; tea and coffee have also a
diuretic effect. Formerly they were erroneously thought to lessen tissue
waste. These alkaloids, being purins, are open to the general objections
named elsewhere. Stimulants do not impart energy or force of any kind, but
only call forth reserve strength by exciting the heart, nervous system,
&c., to increased activity. This is followed by a depression which is as
great, generally greater, than the previous stimulation. Except, perhaps,