Food Remedies.

by Florence Daniel.

_PREFACE_

There is a sentence in the Talmud to the effect that the Kingdom of G.o.d is nigh when the teacher gives the name of the author of the information that he is pa.s.sing on. With every desire to fulfil the rabbinical precept and acknowledge the sources of this booklet, I find myself in a quandary. If I make my acknowledgments duly I must begin with my grandmother and Culpeper's Herbal. Following upon those come the results of my own and friends' practical experience. After this I should, perhaps, give a list of the periodicals from whose pages I have culled much helpful information. But as s.p.a.ce and memory preclude individual mention I must content myself with this general acknowledgment. Lastly, I desire to record my thanks to Dr. Fernie, whose _Meals Medicinal_, a large and exhaustive collection of facts about food, has afforded not the least valuable a.s.sistance.

F. D.

FOOD REMEDIES

PART I.--INTRODUCTORY

_While there is Fruit there is hope._

While there is life--and fruit--there is hope. When this truth is realised by the laity nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand professors of the healing art will be obliged to abandon their profession and take to fruit-growing for a living.

Many people have heard vaguely of the "grape cure" for diseases arising from over-feeding, and the lemon cure for rheumatism, but for the most part these "cures" remain mere names. Nevertheless it is almost incredible to the uninitiated what may be accomplished by the abandonment for a time of every kind of food in favour of fruit. Of course, such a proceeding should not be entered upon in a careless or random fashion. Too sudden changes of habit are apt to be attended with disturbances that discourage the patient, and cause him to lose patience and abandon the treatment without giving it a fair trial. In countries where the "grape cure" is practised the patient starts by taking one pound of grapes each day, which quant.i.ty is gradually increased until he can consume six pounds. As the quant.i.ty of grapes is increased that of the ordinary food is decreased, until at last the patient lives on nothing but grapes.[1] I have not visited a "grape cure" centre in person, but I have read that it is not only persons suffering from the effects of over-feeding who find salvation in the "grape cure," but that consumptive patients thrive and even put on weight under it.

The _Herald of Health_ stated, some few years back, that in the South of France where the "grape cure" is practised consumptive patients are fed on grapes alone, and become quite strong and well in a year or two. And I have myself known wonderful cures to follow on the adoption of a fruitarian dietary in cases of cancer, tumour, gout, eczema, all kinds of inflammatory complaints, and wounds that refused to heal.

H. Benjafield, M.B., writing in the _Herald of Health_, says: "Garrod, the great London authority on gout, advises his patients to take oranges, lemons, strawberries, grapes, apples, pears, etc. Tardieu, the great French authority, maintains that the salts of potash found so plentifully in fruits are the chief agents in purifying the blood from these rheumatic and gouty poisons.... Dr. Buzzard advises the s...o...b..tic to take fruit morning, noon, and night. Fresh lemon juice in the form of lemonade is to be his ordinary drink; the existence of diarrhoea should be no reason for withholding it." The writer goes on to show that headache, indigestion, constipation, and all other complaints that result from the sluggish action of bowels and liver can never be cured by the use of artificial fruit salts and drugs.

Salts and acids as found in organised forms are quite different in their effects to the products of the laboratory, notwithstanding that the chemical composition may be shown to be the same. The chemist may be able to manufacture a "fruit juice," but he cannot, as yet, manufacture the actual fruit. The mysterious life force always evades him. Fruit is a vital food, it supplies the body with something over and above the mere elements that the chemist succeeds in isolating by a.n.a.lysis. The vegetable kingdom possesses the power of directly utilising minerals, and it is only in this "live" form that they are fit for the consumption of man. In the consumption of sodium chloride (common table salt), baking powders, and the whole army of mineral drugs and essences, we violate that decree of Nature which ordains that the animal kingdom shall feed upon the vegetable and the vegetable upon the mineral.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This was the original treatment; now other food is added, although excellent results were obtained under the old _regime_.

_Fruit and the Teeth._

I mention the above because one of the objections that I have heard cited against the free use of fruit is that "the acids act injuriously upon the teeth." Until I became a vegetarian I used to visit a dentist regularly every six months. I had done this for ten years, and nearly every tooth in my gums had its gold filling. The last time I visited the dentist I told him that I had become a vegetarian, and he replied that he rather thought my teeth would decay quicker in future on account of an increased consumption of vegetable acids. But from that day, now nearly six years ago, to the present time, I have never been near a dentist. My teeth seem to have taken a new lease of life. It is a fact that the acids in fruit and vegetables so far from injuring the teeth benefit them. Many of these acids are strongly antiseptic and actually destroy the germs that cause the teeth to decay. On the other hand, they do _not_ attack the enamel of the teeth, while inorganic acids do.

Nothing cleanses the teeth so effectually as to thoroughly chew a large and juicy apple.

_Fruit is a Food._

Until quite recently the majority of English-speaking people have been accustomed to look upon fruit not as a food, but rather as a sweetmeat, to be eaten merely for pleasure, and therefore very sparingly. It has consequently been banished from its rightful place at the beginning of meals. But fruit is not a "goody," it is a food, and, moreover, a complete food. All vegetable foods (in their natural state) contain all the elements necessary to form a complete food. At a pinch human life might be supported on any one of them. I say "at a pinch" because if the nuts cereals and pulses were ruled out of the dietary it would, for most people, be deficient in fat and proteid (the flesh and muscle-forming element). Nevertheless, fruit alone _will_ sustain life if taken in large quant.i.ties with small output of energy on the part of the person living upon it, as witness the "grape cure."[2] The percentage of proteid in grapes is particularly high for fruit.

Those people who desire to make a fruitarian dietary their daily _regime_ cannot do better than take the advice of O. Hashnu Hara, an American writer. He says: "Every adult requires from twelve to sixteen ounces of dry food, _free from water_, daily. To supply this a quarter of a pound of _sh.e.l.led_ nuts and three-quarters of a pound of any dried fruit must be used. In addition to this, from two to three pounds of any _fresh fruit_ in season goes to complete the day's allowance. These quant.i.ties should be weighed out ... and will sustain a full-grown man in perfect health and vitality. The quant.i.ty of ripe fresh fruit may be slightly increased in summer, with a corresponding decrease in the dried fruit."

FOOTNOTE:

[2] Recent years have witnessed a modification of the original cure.

Other food is now included, but I have not heard that the results are better.

_Objections to Fruit._

Some vegetarians object that it is possible to eat too much fruit, and recommend caution in the use of it to people of nervous temperament, or those who seem predisposed to skin ailments. It is true that the consumption of large quant.i.ties of fruit may appear to render the nervous person more irritable, and to increase the external manifestations of a skin disease. But in the latter event the fruit is merely a.s.sisting Nature to throw the disease out and off more quickly, while in the former case the real cause lies not in the fruit but in some nerve irritant, tea, for example, the effects of which are more acutely felt under the new _regime_. The nervous system tends to become much more sensitive upon a vegetarian, especially fruitarian, diet, and people often attribute their increased nervousness and irritability to the diet when it is simply that they now react more quickly to poisons.

This is not a bad thing, on the contrary, it shows that the system has become more alert. Under the old _regime_ we tend to store up poisons and impurities in the body, but the effect of a vegetable diet, especially when united with the use of distilled water, is to cause all our diseases and impurities to be expelled outwards and downwards. Tea is a slow poison, and so is coffee except under exceptional conditions when it is used as a medicine, and then it should always be pale-roasted.

Fruit should always be eaten at the beginning of a meal. Again, when the diet consists of a mixture of cooked and uncooked foods, the uncooked should always be eaten first. Also when the meal consists of two courses, a sweet and a savoury dish, sufferers from indigestion should try taking the sweet course first. I have known several cases where this simple expedient has resulted in a complete cessation of the discomfort of which the patient complained.

_A Pioneer of Food Remedies._

The pioneer, in England, of the treatment of all sorts and conditions of disease by means of a vegetable (chiefly fruit) dietary was Dr. Lambe, a contemporary of the poet Sh.e.l.ley. His last book appeared in 1815, and in it and the one preceding are recorded some wonderful cures, especially in cases of cancer. It is only fair to add here that in Dr. Lambe's opinion no system of cure is completely efficacious so long as the patient is allowed to drink the ordinary tap or well water. Distilled water was the only drink he advised. But he held it better still not to drink at all if the necessary liquid could be supplied to the body by means of fresh, juicy fruits. He contended that man is not naturally a drinking animal; that his thirst is a morbid symptom, the outcome of a carnivorous diet and other unwholesome habits. And I think that anyone may prove the truth of this for him or herself if he or she will adopt a fruitarian dietary and abstain from the use of salt and other condiments.

I have cited so out-of-date a personage as Dr. Lambe for two reasons.

The first is that I know many of the so-called new and unorthodox ideas are more likely to appeal to some readers, if it can be shown that they originated with a duly qualified medical pract.i.tioner who recorded the results of his observations and experiments in black and white. The second is that the principles and practices of Dr. Lambe are incorporated with those of the Physical Regeneration Society, a large and ever-increasing body of enthusiasts having its head-quarters in London, to whose annals I must refer those readers who desire up-to-date instances of the efficacy of the use of fruit in disease. Lack of s.p.a.ce will not allow me to quote them here.

_The Simple Life._

We hear a great deal about the "Simple Life" and "Returning to Nature"

nowadays, but most of us are so situated that the proposed simplicity simply spells increased complexity. The "vegetarian chop" costs the housewife more than double the time and labour involved in preparing its fleshly namesake. And when it comes to illness some of the systems of bathing and exercising prescribed by the "naturopath" are infinitely more troublesome to the patient and his friends than the simple expedient of sending for the doctor and taking the prescribed doses. I do not want to be misunderstood here. I am not condemning treatment with water and exercises. On the contrary, I hope to pa.s.s on what I have learnt about these methods of treatment. But so many people lack the time, help, and conveniences necessary to carry them out successfully.

It is to these that I would say that the patient's cure may be effected just as surely, if more slowly, by means of fruit alone.

_Fruit or Fasting._

Treatment of disease by fasting has come into fashion of late, and there is really no lack of proof as to the benefits to be obtained from abstaining entirely from food for a short period. I know of an elderly man who fasts for a fortnight every spring, and gains, not loses, weight during the process! He accounts for this by explaining that certain stored up, undigested food particles come out and are digested while he fasts. Whether this is the correct explanation I do not know, but the fact remains, and it is not by any means a solitary case. Of course, the majority of people lose weight when fasting, but this is very quickly recovered. Now I do not think fasting should be undertaken recklessly, but only under competent direction. But an excellent and safe subst.i.tute for a fast is an exclusive fruit diet.

_Acute Illness._

The simplest and quickest method of recovering from attacks of acute illness, fevers, inflammatory diseases, etc., is to rest quietly in bed in a warm but well-ventilated room, and to take three meals a day of fresh ripe fruit, grapes by preference. If the grapes are grown out of doors and ripened in the sun so much the better. I have found from two to three pounds of grapes per day sufficient. If there is thirst, barley water flavoured with lemon juice should be taken between the meals.

PART II.--FOODS AND THEIR MEDICINAL USES

_Almond._

Almond soup is an excellent subst.i.tute for beef-tea for convalescents.

It is made by simply blanching and pounding a quarter of a pound of sweet almonds with half a pint of milk, or vegetable stock. Another pint of milk or stock is then to be added and the whole warmed. After this add another pint and a half of stock if the soup is to be a vegetable one, or rice water if milk has been used.

An emulsion of almonds is useful in chest affections. It is made by well macerating the nuts in a nut b.u.t.ter machine, and mixing with orange or lemon juice.