Natural Dietetics
As a general rule, let one-half of your food
consist of Group V and the other half of a mixture of the first
four groups.
If you wish to follow a pure food
diet, exclude meat, fish, fowl, meat soups and sauces and all other
foods prepared from the dead animal carcass.
This is brief and comprehensive. When in
doubt, consult this rule.
Also do not use coffee, tea, alcoholic
beverages, tobacco or stimulants of any kind.
Good foods are:
Dairy Products: milk, buttermilk,
skimmed milk, cream, butter, fresh cottage cheese. fermented cheeses,
as American, Swiss, Holland and DeBrie, should be used sparingly.
The stronger cheeses like Camembert and Roquefort should not be
used at all
Eggs: Raw, soft-boiled
or poached, not fried or hard-boiled. Eggs should be used sparingly.
Two eggs three times a week or on an average one egg a day, is sufficient.
White of egg is much easier to digest than
the yolk, therefore the whites only should be used in cases of very
weak digestion. Beaten up with orange juice, they are both palatable
and wholesome; or they may be beaten very stiff and served cold
with a sauce of prune juice or other cooked fruit juices. This makes
a delicious and very nutritive dish.
Honey is a very valuable
food and a natural laxative. It is not generally known that honey
is not a purely vegetable product, but that in passing through the
organism of the bee it partakes of its life element (animal magnetism).
Honey is one of the best forms of sugar
available. The white sugar is detrimental to health, because it
has become inorganic through the refining process. The brown, unrefined
granulated sugar or maple sugar should be used instead.
Figs, dates, raisins, bananas and all the
other sweet fruits are excellent to satisfy the craving of the organism
for sweets.
Cereal Foods: Rice, wheat,
oats, barley, are good when properly combined with fruits and vegetables
and with dairy products.Use preferably the whole-grain preparations
such as shredded wheat or corn flakes. Oatmeal is not easily digestible;
it is all right for robust people working in the open air, but not
so good for invalids and people of sedentary habits.
Thin mushes are not to be recommended, because
they do not require mastication and therefore escape the action
of the saliva, which is indispensable to the digestion of starchy
foods.
Avoid the use of white bread or any other
white-flour products, especially pastry. White flour contains little
more than the starchy elements of the grain. Most of the valuable
proteins which are equal to meat in food value and the all-important
organic salts which lodge in the hulls and the outer layers of the
grain have been refined out of it together with the bran. The latter
is in itself very valuable as a mechanical stimulant to the peristaltic
action of the bowels.
In preference to white bread eat Graham
bread or whole rye bread. Our health bread forms the solid foundation
of a well-balanced vegetarian diet. It is prepared as follows:
Take one-third each of white flour, Graham
flour and rye meal (not the ordinary Bohemian rye flour, but the
coarse pumpernickel meal which contains the whole of the rye, including
the hull).
Make a sponge of the white flour in the
usual manner, either with good yeast or with leavened dough from
the last baking, which has been kept cold and sweet. When the sponge
has risen sufficiently, work the graham flour and rye meal into
it. Thorough kneading is of importance. Let rise slowly a second
time, place in pans, and bake slowly until thoroughly done.
By chemical analysis this bread has been
found to contain more nourishment than meat. It is very easily digested
and assimilated and is a natural laxative. Eaten with sweet butter
and in combination with fruits and vegetables, it makes a complete
and well balanced meal.
A good substitute for bread is the following
excellent whole wheat preparation: Soak clean, soft wheat in cold
water for about seven hours and steam in a double boiler for from
eight to twelve hours, or cook in a fireless cooker over night.
Eat with honey and milk or cream, or with prune juice, fig juice,
etc., or add butter and dates or raisins. This dish is more nutritious
than meat, and one of the finest laxative foods in existence.
Nuts are exceedingly rich in fats (60 percent)
and proteins (15 percent), but rank low in mineral salts. Therefore
they should be used sparingly, and always in combination with fruits,
berries or vegetables. The coconut differs from the other nuts in
that it contains less fats and proteins and more organic salts.
The meat of the coconut together with its milk comes nearer to the
chemical composition of human milk than any other food in existence.
Vegetables
Leguminous Vegetables,
such as peas, beans and lentils in the ripened state are richer
in protein than meat (25 percent), and besides they contain a large
percentage of starchy food elements (60 percent); therefore they
produce in the process of digestion large quantities of poisonous
acids, alkaloids of putrefaction and noxious gases.
They should not be taken in large quantities
and only in combination cooked or raw vegetables. As a dressing
use lemon juice and olive oil.
Peas and beans in the green state differ
very much from their chemical composition in the ripened state.
As long as these vegetables are green and in the pulp, they contain
large quantities of sugars and organic minerals, with but little
starch and protein. As the ripening process advances, the percentages
of starches and proteins increase, while those of the sugars and
of the organic minerals decrease. The latter retire into the leaves
and stems (polarization).
In the green, pulpy state these foods may,
therefore, be classed with Group II (Sugars) and with Group V (Organic
Minerals), while in the ripened state they must be classed with
Groups I (Starches) and Groups IV (Proteids).
Dried peas, beans and lentils are more palatable
and wholesome when cooked in combination with tomatoes or prunes.
The Leafy and Juicy Vegetables
growing in or near the ground are very rich in the positive
organic salts and therefore of great nutritive and medicinal value.
For this reason they are best suited to balance the negative,
acid-producing starches, sugars, fats and proteins.
Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, watercress, celery,
parsley, savoy cabbage, brussels sprouts, Scotch kale, leek and
endive rank highest in organic mineral salts. Next to these come
tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, radishes, onions, asparagus,
cauliflower and horseradish.(See also Group V in "Dietetics
in a Nutshell.")
Splendid, cooling summer foods, rich in
the blood-purifying organic salts, are watermelons, muskmelons.
cantaloupes, pumpkins, squashes and other members of the melon family.
The green vegetables are most beneficial
when eaten raw, with a dressing of lemon juice
and olive oil. Avoid the use of vinegar as much as possible. It
is a product of fermentation and a powerful preservative which retards
digestion as well as fermentation, both processes being very much
of the same character.
Use neither pepper nor salt at the table.
They may be used sparingly in cooking. Strong spices and condiments
are more or less irritating to the mucous linings of the intestinal
tract. They paralyze gradually the nerves of taste. At first they
stimulate the digestive organs; but, like all other stimulants,
in time they produce weakness and atrophy.
Cooking of Vegetables
While most vegetables are not improved by
cooking, we do not mean that they should never be cooked. Many diet
reformers go to extremes when they claim that all the organic salts
in fruits and vegetables are rendered inorganic
by cooking. This is an exaggera-tion. Cooking is merely a mechanical
process of subdivision, not a chemical process of transformation.
Mechanical processes of division do not dissolve or destroy organic
molecules to any great extent.
Nevertheless, it remains true that the green
leafy vegetables are not improved by cooking. It is different with
the starchy tubers and roots like potatoes, turnips, etc., and with
other starchy foods such as rice and grains. Here the cooking serves
to break up and separate the hard starch granules and to make them
more pervious to penetration by the digestive juices.
How to Cook Vegetables
After the vegetables are thoroughly washed
and cut into pieces as desired, place them in the cooking vessel,
adding only enough water to keep them from burning, cover the vessel
closely with a lid and let them steam slowly in their own juices.
The leafy vegetables (cabbage, spinach,
kale, etc.), usually contain enough water for their own steaming.
Cook all vegetables only as long as is required
to make them soft enough for easy mastication. Do not throw away
a drop of the water in which such vegetables as carrots, beets,
asparagus, oyster plant, egg plant, etc., have been cooked. Use
what is left for the making of soups and sauces.
The organic mineral salts contained in the
vegetables readily boil out into the water. If the vegetables, as
is the usual custom, are boiled in a large quantity of water, then
drained or, what is still worse, pressed out, they have lost their
nutritive and medicinal value. The mineral salts have vanished in
the sink, the remains are insipid and indigestible and have to be
soaked in soup stock and seasoned with strong condiments and spices
to make them at all palatable.
Fruits and Berries
Next to the leafy vegetables, fruits and
berries are the most valuable foods of the organic minerals group.
Lemons, grapefruit, oranges, apples are especially beneficial as
blood purifiers. Plums, pears, peaches, apricots, cherries, grapes,
etc., contain large amounts of fruit sugars in easily assimilable
form and are also very valuable on account of their mineral salts.
The different kinds of berries are even
richer in mineral salts than the acid and subacid fruits. In the
country homes of Germany they are always at hand either dried or
preserved to serve during the winter not only as delicious foods
but also as valuable home remedies.
Fruits and berries are best eaten raw, although
they may be stewed or baked. Very few people know that rhubarb and
cranberries are very palatable when cut up fine and well mixed with
honey, being allowed to stand for about an hour before serving.
Prepared in this way, they require much less sweetening and therefore
do not tax the organism nearly as much as the ordinary rhubarb or
cranberry sauce, which usually contains an excessive amount of sugar.
Cooking of Fruits
It is better to cook apples, cranberries,
rhubarb, strawberries, and all other acid fruits without
sugar until soft, and to add the sugar afterward. Much
less sugar will be required to sweeten them sufficiently than when
the sugar is added before or during the cooking.
Dried fruits rank next
to the fresh in value, as the evaporating process only removes a
large percentage of water, without changing the chemical composition
of the fruit in any way. Prunes, apricots, apples, pears, peaches
and berries may be obtained in the dried state all through the year.
Dates, figs, raisins and currants also come under this head.
Olives are an excellent
food. They are very rich in fats (about 50 percent), and contain
also considerable quantities of organic salts. They are therefore
a good substitute for animal fat.
Avoid factory-canned fruits.
In the first place, they have become deteriorated by the cooking
process and secondly, they usually contain poisonous chemical preservatives.
Home-preserved fruits and vegetables are all right providing they
do not contain too much sugar and no poisonous preservative.
Bananas differ from the
juicy fruits in that they consist almost entirely of starches, dextrines
and sugars. They belong to the carbohydrate groups and should be
used sparingly by people suffering from intestinal indigestion.
However, we do not share the belief entertained
by many people that bananas are injurious under all circumstances.
We consider them an excellent food, especially for children.
Mixing Fruits and Vegetables
Many people, when they first sit down to
our table, are horrified to see how we mix fruits and vegetables
in the same meal. They have been taught that it is a cardinal sin
against the laws of health to do this. After they overcome their
prejudice and partake heartily of the meals as we serve them, they
are greatly surprised to find that these combinations of vegetables
and juicy fruits are not only harmless, but agreeable and highly
beneficial.
We have never been able to find any good
reason why these foods should not be mixed and our experience proves
that no ill effects can be traced to this practice except in very
rare instances. There are a few individuals with whom the mixing
of fruits and vegetables does not seem to agree. These, of course,
should refrain from it. We must comply with idiosyncrasies until
they are overcome by natural living.
Eating fruits only or vegetables only at
one and the same meal limits the selection and combination of foods
to a very considerable extent and tends to create monotony, which
is not only unpleasant but injurious. The flow of saliva and of
the digestive juices is greatly increased by the agreeable sight,
smell and taste of appetizing food and these depend largely upon
its variety.
With very few exceptions, every one of our
patients (and we have in our institution as fine a collection of
dyspeptics as can be found anywhere) heartily enjoys our mixed dietary
and is greatly benefited by it.
Mixing Starches and Acid Fruits
Occasionally we find that one or another
of our patients cannot eat starchy foods and acid fruits at the
same meal without experiencing digestive disturbances. Whenever
this is the case, it is best to take with bread or cereals only
sweet, alkaline fruits such as prunes, figs, dates, raisins, or,
in their season, watermelons and cantaloupes or the alkaline vegetables
such as radishes, lettuce, onions, cabbage slaw, etc. The acid and
subacid fruits should then be taken between those
meals which consist largely of starchy foods.
A Word About the Milk Diet
When we explain that the natural diet is
based upon the chemical composition of milk because milk is the
only perfect natural food combination in existence, the question
comes up: "Why, then, not live on milk entirely?" To this
we reply: While milk is the natural food for the newborn and growing
infant, it is not natural for the adult. The digestive apparatus
of the infant is especially adapted to the digestion of milk, while
that of the adult requires more solid and bulky food.
Milk is a very beneficial article of diet
in all acid diseases, because it contains comparatively low percentages
of carbohydrates and proteins and large amounts of organic salts.
However, not everybody can use milk as a
food or medicine. In many instances it causes biliousness, fermentation
and constipation.
In cases where it is easily digested, a
straight milk diet often proves very beneficial. As a rule, however,
it is better to take fruits or vegetable salads with the milk.
Directly with milk may be taken any sweetish,
alkaline fruits such as melons, sweet pears, etc., or the dried
fruits, such as prunes, dates, figs, and raisins, also vegetable
salads. With the latter, if taken together with milk, little or
no lemon juice should be used.
All acid and subacid fruits should be taken
between the milk meals.
A patient on a milk diet may take from one
to five quarts of milk daily, according to his capacity to digest
it. This quantity may be distributed over the day after the following
plan:
Breakfast: One to three
pints of milk, sipped slowly with any of the sweetish, alkaline
fruits mentioned above, or with vegetable salads composed of lettuce,
celery, raw cabbage slaw, watercress, green onions, radishes, carrots,
etc
10:00 A.M.: Grapefruit,
oranges, peaches, apples, apricots, berries, grapes or other acid
and subacid fruits.
Luncheon: The same as breakfast.
3:00 P.M. The same as 10
a.m.
Supper: The same as breakfast.
An orange or apple may be taken before retiring.
When it is advisable to take a greater variety of food together
with large quantities of milk, good whole grain bread and butter,
cream, honey, cooked vegetables, moderate amounts of potatoes and
cereals may be added to the dietary.
ButtermiIk
Buttermilk is an excellent food for those
with whom it agrees. In many instances a straight buttermilk diet
for a certain period will prove very beneficial. This is especially
true in all forms of uric acid diseases.
Sour milk or clabber also has excellent
medicinal qualities and may be taken freely by those with whom it
agrees.
Drinks
It has been stated before that coffee, tea
and alcoholic beverages should be avoided.
Instead of the customary coffee, tea or
cocoa, delicious drinks, which are nutritious and at the same time
nonstimulating, may be prepared from the different fruit
and vegetable juices. They may be served cold in hot weather and
warm in winter. Recipes for fruit and vegetable drinks will be included
in our new Vegetarian Cookbook, now in preparation.
If more substantial drinks are desired,
white of egg may be added or the entire egg may be used in combination
with prune juice, fig juice or any of the acid fruit juices. Other
desirable and unobjectionable additions to beverages are flaked
nuts or bananas mashed to a liquid.
The juice of a lemon or an orange, unsweetened,
diluted with twice the amount of water, taken upon rising, is one
of the best means of purifying the blood and other fluids of the
body and, incidentally, clearing the complexion. The water in which
prunes or figs have been cooked should be taken freely to remedy
constipation.
As a practical illustration, I shall describe
briefly the daily dietary regimen as it is followed in our sanitarium
work.
Breakfast consists of juicy
fruits, raw, baked or stewed, a cereal (whole wheat steamed, cracked
wheat, shredded wheat, corn flakes, oat meal, etc.), and our health
bread with butter, cottage cheese or honey. Nuts of various kinds,
as well as figs, dates, or raisins, are always on the table. To
those of our patients who desire a drink, we serve milk, buttermilk
or cereal coffee.
Twice a week we serve eggs, preferably raw,
soft boiled or poached.
Luncheon is served at noontime
and is composed altogether of acid and subacid fruits, vegetable
salads or both. We have found by experience that, by having one
meal consist entirely of fruits and vegetables, the medicinal properties
of these foods have a chance to act on the system without interference
by starchy and protein food elements.
Dinner is served to our
patients between five and six. The items of the daily menu comprise
relishes, such as radishes, celery, olives, young onions, raw carrots,
etc., soup, one or two cooked vegetables, potatoes, preferably boiled
or baked in their skins, and a dessert consisting of either a fruit
combination or a pudding.
We serve soup three times a week only, because
we believe that a large amount of fluid of any kind taken into the
system at meal time dilutes and thereby weakens the digestive juices.
For this reason it is well to masticate with the soup some bread
or crackers or some vegetable relish.
As drinks we serve to those who desire it
water, milk or buttermilk.
Prunes or figs, stewed or raw, are served
at every meal to those who require a specially laxative diet.