Food Remedies | Page 4

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 pass 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 substitute
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 substitute 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 butter machine, and mixing with orange or
lemon juice.
Almonds should always be blanched, that is, skinned by pouring
boiling water on the nuts and allowing them to soak for one minute,
after which the skins are easily removed. The latter possess irritating
properties.
Bitter almonds should not be used as a food. They contain a poison
identical with prussic acid.
Apple.
It is hardly possible to take up any newspaper or magazine now a days
without happening on advertisements of patent medicines whose chief
recommendation is that they "contain phosphorus." They are generally
very expensive, but the reader is assured that they are worth ten times
the price asked on account of their wonderful properties as nerve and
brain foods. The proprietors of these concoctions seemingly flourish
like green bay trees and spend many thousands of pounds per annum in
advertising. From which it may be deduced that sufferers from nervous
exhaustion and brain fag number millions. And surely only a sufferer
from brain fag would suffer himself to be led blindly into wasting his
money, and still further injuring his health, by buying and swallowing
drugs about whose properties and effects he knows absolutely nothing.
How much simpler, cheaper, and more enjoyable to eat apples!
The apple contains a larger percentage of phosphorus than any other
fruit or vegetable. For this reason it is an invaluable nerve and brain
food. Sufferers from nerve and brain exhaustion should eat at least two
apples at the beginning of each meal. At the same time they should
avoid tea and coffee, and supply their place with barley water or bran

tea flavoured with lemon juice, or even apple tea.
Apples are also invaluable to sufferers from the stone or calculus. It has
been observed that in cider countries where the natural unsweetened
cider is the common beverage, cases of stone are practically unknown.
Food-reformers do not deduce from this that the drinking of cider is to
be recommended, but that even better results may be obtained from
eating