Food drunk is a term used to describe the physiological state of a person after consuming large amounts of food.[1]
The use of "drunk" to mean overcome by substances other than alcohol is long-established, e.g. drunk with opium (1585), or with tobacco (1698).[2]
In October 1905 Thomas Edison (then 58 years old) declared that "the country is food drunk.... the people eat too much and sleep too much, and don't work enough".[3] Citing the theories of Louis Cornaro (born 1464), Edison explained how an assistant had been so affected by experiments with X-rays that "doctors had to amputate one limb after another.... and finally he died", but that he had reversed the effect of radiation on himself by reducing his food intake to 12 ounces a day.[4]
The phrase was echoed by Dr J E Rullfson of Toledo after fasting for sixty days from January 5, 1907. He holds that the entire human race is food drunk, saying "the dinner eaten by Napoleon just before the battle of Leipsic proved so indigestible that the monarch's brain was clouded and as a result the battle was lost. The eel stews of Mohammed kept the whole empire in a state of turmoil, and a pie which King Philip failed to digest caused the revolt of the Netherlands."[5]