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f﻿﻿﻿RATIONAL DIET﻿﻿RATIONAL DIET
AN ADVANCED TREATISE ON THE
FOOD QUESTION
BY
OTTO CÀRQÜE
too AtigeUo
TlMES-MlRROR PRESS
1923﻿Copyright, 1923, by
OTTO CARQUE
Los Angele», Calif.﻿PREFACE
The aim of this book is to disseminate a better knowledge of
diet in its relation to health and disease, in plain non-technical
language, understandable to all who seek more scientific informa-
tion on this vitally important subject. Health and success in the
life of the individual, as well as of nations, depend primarily on
living in harmony with nature’s laws, on the intelligent conserva-
tion of our vital forces and on the development of our highest
mental faculties.
There is no doubt that man could wonderfully increase his
capacity for physical and intellectual work by paying proper atten-
tion to the principles of rational nutrition, thus insuring normal
functioning of all the bodily organs. The proverb mens sana in
corpore sano—“a sound mind in a sound body”—is true for all
time.
The author’s interest in the food question developed early in
life, when he recognized the inadequacy of the prevailing methods
of cultivating food products and of artificially preparing them for
the table. For thirty years, both in Europe and America, he has
been a close student of the laws of diet and health, and his writings
are well known. The present volume is the result of many years
of careful study of the subjects of food chemistry and nutrition.
The author has stressed the value of organized mineral elements,
or organic salts, which are the most essential factors in the normal
growth of the body in maintaining vitality and increasing its﻿VI
PREFACE
power of resistance. Indeed, tlie wonderful creative work of nature
throughout the plant and animal world is largely due to the actions
and reactions of the mineral elements and their vibratory forces,
whose great importance in the processes of life and growth is just
beginning to be recognized.
If human welfare is enhanced through a more general applica-
tion of the principles outlined in this volume, the author will
consider that his efforts have been well repaid.
The author wishes to express his gratitude to Conrad Seiler and
Charles Whipple for contributing many valuable suggestions and
criticisms in connection with the preparation of the present volume.
OTTO CARQUE
Los Angeles, California, September, 1923.﻿CONTENTS
Tage
Preface....................................................Y"
Introduction...............................................XI
PART I
Chemistry of Foods
With Special Reference to the Organic Salts
Chapter I
Matter and Energy......................................3
The atomic and electronic theories. The law of vibration. The law
of conservation of energy.
Chapter II
The Problem of Life and Groivth................................17
Protoplasmic development and characteristics of living matter. The
process of digestion. Consciousness. The potentialities and mystery
of liffc
Chapter III
Sunlight and Air...............................................25
Their beneficial influence in the growth and development of the body.
John Blayton’s experiment with bean plants. The necessity of air and
sun baths. Ventilation.
Chapter IV
Water........................................................34
Soft and hard water; rain water, spring water, mineral water and
distilled water. Fresh fruits and vegetables, the purest and most whole-
some sources of water supply for the body.
Chapter V
The Constituents of Food.......................................42
How the chemical elements and their combinations build up the plant
and animal world. The nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous compounds.
Organic salts, vitamins, etc.
Chapter VI
Proteins..............................................................49
Their formation from amino acids. Chemical composition and classifi-
cation of proteins. Amount necessary for normal growth and nutrition.
vii﻿CONTENTS
viii
Chapter VII
Fats ....................................................62
Sources and composition. Fatty acids. Hydrogenation of fats. Essen-
tial oils. Lecithins and Cholesterins.
Chapter VIII
Carbohydrates............................................67
Sugars, starches, pectins and cellulose, the principal sources of heat and
energy in nutrition. Injuriousnees of refined sugar.
Chapter IX
The Organic Acids.................................................79
Their composition and distribution in fruits and vegetables. Fruit acids
as distinguished from free acids.
Chapter X
The Organic Mineral Elements or Organic Salts
“The Missing Link in Dietetics”............................83
Organic salts, the r$$l building stohee of the body. Their importance
in the prevention and cure of disease. Organic versus inorganic elements.
Chapter XI
Variation of the Percentage of Mineral Elements and Their
Polaric Distribution in Foods.................................97
The great difference in the chemical analysis of the same kind of food
products derived from different soils or different animals.
Chapter XII
The Acid-Binding (Alkaline) Elements.......................106
Potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese and aluminum.
Their chemical properties and physiological functions.
Chapter XIII
The Acid-Forming Elements.........................................132
Phosphorus, sulphur, silicon, chlorine, fluorine, iodine and arsenic. Their
chemical properties and physiological functions.
Chapter XIV
The Vitamins......................................................146
Their classification and relation to the development of plants and animals.
Vitamins only active in the presence of organic salts.
Chapter XV
The Soil in Relation to Food	and Health........................153
Erroneous theories of fertilization. The importance of mineral ferti-
lizers in improving the products of the soil and in the prevention of
plant diseases. Fruits and vegetables grown on properly fertilized soil
essential for the preservation of health and vitality.﻿CONTENTS
IX
PART II
Foods—Their Origin, Nutritive and Hygienic Value
and Their Relation to Health and Disease
Chapter I
Man’s Natural Diet.............................................169
The geological and climatic changée during the pre historic periods and
their influence upon diet. Man frugivorous by nature. The temporary
change in his original diet. The beginning of agriculture.
Chapter II
Fruits of the Temperate and Tropical Zones.....................176
Nature’s most wholesome products. Fruit sugar, nature’s great source
of potential energy. Medicinal value of fruits. The value of dried
fruits. Injuriousness of sulphured fruit. Descriptions and analyses of
the best known varieties.
Chapter III
Nuts............................................................239
Nature’s most concentrated foods. Their digestibility and place in the
human dietary. Descriptions and analysas of the best known varieties.
Chapter IV
Vegetables....................................................270
Their importance in supplying the alkaline elements. General classifi-
cation: Vegetable fruits, green leaf vegetables, stems, tubers and roots.
Chapter V
Cereals, Legumes and Miscellaneous Food Products . .	. 298
Their cultivation and place in the human dietary. Bread falsely called,
“The Staff of Life.’’ The injurious effect of the modern milling pro-
cesses. Comparative analyses of cereals and legumes. Oily seeds, sugar
cane, honey and maple sugar.
Chapter VI
Dairy Products................................................324
Milk as a human food. The great variation in the chemical composition
of milk. Changes caused by pasteurization, sterilization and fermenta-
tion. Cow’s milk and goat’s milk. Milk for infants. Various fermented
milk products. Eggs, their chemical composition and food value.
Chapter VII
Flesh Foods...................................................341
The origin of meat eating in the human race. Consumption of meat in
the principal countries. Flesh foods not essential for the attainment of
health and vigor; their use considered from a sanitary, economical and
ethical point of view.﻿X
CONTENTS
Chapter YIII
Dehydration of Foods............................................365
Modern dehydrating processes used in food preservation. The advantage
of dehydrated foods over canned foods.
Chapter IX
The New Agriculture.............................................383
The great importance and possibilities of fruit tree culture and its advan-
tages over the cultivation of cereals.
Chapter X
Stimulants and Narcotics........................................401
Their increasing consumption and degenerating influence. Alcoholic
beverages, coffee, tea, maté, kola, cocoa and chocolate, opium, hemp,
coca, tobacco, salt, etc.
Chapter XI
Adulteration of Food and Drink..............................422
Extensive use of adulteration in manufacturing food products. Pure
food laws do not protect the unwary.
Chapter XII
Faulty Nutrition and Disease................................439
Prevalence of disease in the United States. The increasing consump-
tion of devitalized, demineralized and acid-forming foods one of the
leading causes of malnutrition, enervation and functional diseases. The
fallacy of the germ theory and vaccination.
Chapter XIII
Medical Science and the Cure of Disease.....................454
The error of medical science. The futility of vivisection and serum
therapy. The most prevalent diseases, enlarged tonsils and adenoids,
constipation, cancer, diabetes, rheumatism, hardening of the arteries,
diseases of the liver, tuberculosis and climatic diseases discussed from
the standpoint of nature cure.
Chapter XIV
Degeneration through Diet...................................475
Preparation and combination of foods. The selection of a simple and
wholesome dietary. A rational system of diet based on the results of
biology and physiological chemistry as outlined in this book, the most
essential factor in rejuvenating the human body, increasing its immunity
against disease, and in the prolongation of life. Conclusion.
Appendix
Tables of Food Analyses.....................................493
Mendeleeff’s table of periodicity. Complete analyses of over 200 food
products, showing the amount of the different organic salts in 1,000 parts
of water free substance. Tables comparing the amounts of protein,
sodium, calcium, iron, phosphorus and chlorine in foods.
Bibliography............................................517
Index...................................................521﻿INTRODUCTION
Never in the history of civilization has mankind made such
material progress as during the latter part of the nineteenth and
the beginning of the twentieth centuries. This has been an age of
great inventions. Steam and electricity have revolutionized com-
pletely the ways and means of transportation; the telephone, tele-
graph and radiograph have minimized the time of communication;
the automobile has brought city and country more closely together,
while the aeroplane has still further conquered time and space.
Enormous individual fortunes have been accumulated by those
in a position to profit by the advantages that modern machinery
and a rapid increase of land values afford. While the aggregate
wealth of the leading nations has increased immensely, it appears
to the close observer that our much-boasted progress has been one-
sided in many respects, since poverty and crime, famine and
disease still hold their unabated sway in human society.
The so-called infectious diseases, the terror of ancient, me-
diaeval, and even semi-modern times, have more or less disappeared,
because of improved sanitary conditions, better housing and drain-
age, in short, thorough cleanliness, strictly enforced in the large
centers of population. The plagues and fearful epidemics of old
do not terrorize us any longer, but these have been replaced by
another evil, which, more subtle and cunning in its workings, is
none the less pernicious in its results. It is the belief that disease
is an entity, the result of outward influences, instead of the cumu-
lative effect of our perverted dietetics and hygienic habits.
Those who have carefully studied the laws of health agree that
the main source of disease is to be found in the declining quality of
our food supply, the result of foolish attempts to improve on
nature. Although food may be ample in quantity, modem machin-
ery is constantly removing some of the important elements, and in
many cases adulterants and poisonous preservatives are added to
disguise the inferior quality. According to our present knowledge,
there are about eighteen elements required to build the human
body. These elements, which must be supplied in an organized
form by our food, may be called “the building stones of the body.”
xi﻿INTRODUCTION
xii
And since they constitute the organic salts and are the constructive
agents for the final erection of the ideal physical man, they can-
not with impunity be dispensed with or inorganic material sub-
stituted in their stead, for lack, or deficiency, of any of these
elements will in time cause serious disturbance, and ultimately
wreck the human edifice. Nearly all diseases that have baffled
the medical profession may be traced to some deficiency in our
diet, and it may be truthfully said, that at least ninety per cent
of human ailments are traceable to inadequate nutrition. Yet in
no field of study and observation has medical need been more
insufficiently met than in that of rational dietetics, both in relation
to the maintenance of health, and to the treatment of disease. It
is, in fact, amazing to the conscientious student to note the almost
universal failure to fully recognize the importance of the organic
salts in the compilation of books on physiological chemistry, and
in the general attitude of so-called medical authorities toward this
fundamental subject.
At one time calories, or heat units, were thought to be a suffi-
ciently substantial foundation upon which to build a system of
healthy nutrition, but this was abandoned as a delusive method
for determining the nutritive food value of food. Substances that
show a very high caloric value may often lead to starvation because
of their deficiency in organic salts, and other elements of nutrition.
Neither can the recently discovered vitamins, important as they
are, solve the problem of building a strong and healthy organism,
since they supply neither energy nor tissue-building substances.
Vitamins appear to be integral parts of all plant protoplasm, and
to be primarily connected with the germination and development
of seeds and the nourishment of the young plant. While vitamins
are admittedly essential, they can be active factors in the health of
the human and animal organism only when the organic salts are
present.
It is highly important, therefore, to study the chemical com-
position of all foods regarding the amounts of the mineral elements
they contain, in order to determine their true nutritive and
hygienic value. Comparatively few analyses of this kind have been
made in this country. As early as 1904 the author wrote to Dr.
Harvey W. Wiley, then chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, a﻿INTRODUCTION
xiii
branch of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.,
and this was his reply:
“I regret to say that no one in this country has undertaken a
complete analysis of all the mineral constituents of foods. An
analysis usually relates to the nutritive value and general com-
position, but does not give, as a rule, the composition of ash.
“I think it is highly desirable that the composition of ash be
carefully studied and hope that some chemist will take that matter
up in the near future.
‘ ‘ Respectfully,
(Signed) “H. W. Wiley.”
In Europe the importance of this branch of dietetics was
recognized at a much earlier date, and numerous analyses have
been made determining the percentage of the various elements in
foods, especially by the German chemists, Drs. Koenig and Wolff.
While Baron Justus von Liebig was one of the first to establish a
new system of agricultural chemistry, we owe a great deal to the
far-seeing genius of Dr. Julius Hensel. He, by his tireless investi-
gations and observations, clearly demonstrated the importance of
the mineral elements for the healthy growth of the plant, as well
as of the human and animal body. He was followed by Dr. H.
Lahmann, of the world-renowned sanitarium, ‘‘Weisser Hirsch,”
near Dresden, Saxony. Lahmann published a number of books
in which he showed that the deficiency of certain organic salts and
the resulting retention of toxins in the body are the causes of the
majority of functional diseases. In applying his discoveries in his
sanitarium he met with remarkable success, and many representa-
tives of Europe’s nobility were among his patients. Lahmann’s
dietetic treatment of disease is now practiced in nearly all the
leading Nature Cure sanitariums of Europe. A successor of Dr.
Lahmann, Dr. Ragnar Berg, has published a valuable book, in
which he gives complete analyses of a large number of foods. Dr.
M. Hindhede, of Copenhagen, who made many interesting experi-
ments in nutrition, may also be mentioned here.
Another German physician who paid special attention to the
subject of mineral elements in foods was Dr. William Schuessler,
of Oldenburg. His system of bio-chemistry, which he employed
extensively in the treatment of disease, included the inorganic
elements, that, possibly, have a temporary and stimulating effect,
but produce no permanent cure. A similar system of healing by
the application of cell salts has been propounded by Dr. George﻿XIV
INTRODUCTION
W. Carey, of Los Angeles, who has published a number of interest-
ing books on his theories. While the works of the early bio-chem-
ists have revealed some important truths, the fact can never he too
strongly emphasized that the highly developed human body, in
order to maintain supreme health and efficiency, requires the
elements of nutrition in an organized form, as found in the cells
of natural foods.
Dr. A. Gautier of Paris, and Dr. Alexander Haig of London,
have also made some valuable contributions to the new science of
nutrition, and their works are well known to students of dietetics.
Sampson Morgan of Tenter den, Kent (England), has made valu-
able studies in regard to the importance of mineral elements in the
fertilization of the soil which he described in his books “Clean
Culture,” and “The New Soil Science.”
Among the early pioneers in America, who stood firmly for
natural methods of living and healing, must be mentioned Dr.
Sylvester Graham, Dr. Russel T. Trail and Dr. A. P. Reinhold.
They have laid the foundation for a better understanding of the
relation of diet and disease and of natural methods in the resto-
ration of health. Although their work found but little recognition
during their lifetime, still they paved the way for a rapidly
and constantly increasing number of nature cure physicians and
dietitians. Among those who deserve much credit for their untir-
ing efforts in educating the people to a better knowledge of the laws
of life, may be mentioned: Drs. B. Lust, Elmer Lee and Eugene
Christian of New York City; Dr. John H. Kellogg of Battle Creek,
Michigan; Drs. H. Lindlahr, J. Drews and V. G. Rocine, of
Chicago; Dr. R. L. Alsaker, of St. Louis; Dr. J. H. Tilden, of
Denver; Dr. Harry Ellington Brook, editor of the “Care of Body,”
Los Angeles Times; Drs. George Starr White, Axel Emil Gib-
son, Philip Lovell and John T. Richter, all of Los Angeles,
California. The late Professor Arnold Ehret, who conducted a
large sanitarium in Switzerland, before he came to California, may
also be included among these pioneers.
Special attention should be called to the extensive nutrition
experiments of Professor Meyer E. Jaffa, of the University of
California, to which more detailed reference is made in the pages
of this book. As early as 1900 Professor Jaffa made a number of
dietary studies with fruitarians as subjects.﻿INTRODUCTION
xv
Professor B. P. Forbes, and others of the Ohio Agricultural
Experiment Station, have made very interesting investigations in
regard to the mineral metabolism of farm animals, especially of
the milch cow, which have been published in a number of bulletins.
Bernarr McFadden, Milo Hastings and Alfred McCann, of New
York City, are doing most valuable work in educating the coun-
try through their publications and books, and seem to enjoy an in-
creasing appreciation. Professor E. Y. McCollum of Johns Hop-
kins University, Baltimore, devoted considerable study and research
to the vitamin theory. He published his results in his bock, “The
Newer Knowledge of Nutrition.”
Notwithstanding the progress that has been made in the science
of nutrition for the last thirty years, diet-reform is progressing
slowly. We are living in an age of commercialism, and millions
of dollars have been invested in the manufacture of demineralized
food products, for which a large demand has been created by
shrewd, misleading advertisements, often supported by statements
of chemists, evidently hired for the occasion. The general public,
devoid of exact knowledge concerning food values, buys these im-
poverished products, unaware of the fact that they gradually
undermine health and vitality.
We are spending billions of dollars in guns, battleships and
the maintenance of armies and navies while but an insignificant
amount is given for improving the quality of our food, and, inci-
dentally, of the soil from which it draws its sustenance. Careful
analyses of all food products should be made frequently to deter-
mine the amounts of the different organic salts they contain, as
this is the only sound basis upon which a system of rational nutri-
tion can be established.
It is from these points of view that the author has given the
subject of foods and nutrition most careful study for the past
thirty years, and has published a number of small treatises, now
out of print. These publications have been enlarged upon in the
present volume, which especially treats the subject of organic salts
in food, and their relation to health and disease—the missing link
in dietetics.
The problem of nutrition, its relation to the growth and develop-
ment of plant and animal organisms and to the action and re-
action of the elements constituting the organic world, are better
understood if we give a general survey of the electronic theories﻿XVI
INTRODUCTION
of matter, atomic vibration and of the evolution of cell life. These
theories, which have been fully accepted by the leading scientists,
show what the material manifestations of life are thought to be,
and how the wonderful psychic force of the creative processes is
reaching down to the atomic groups of the different elements,
drawing them to itself, and transmitting them into organic life in
the form of the organized cell. Health means normal digestion,
assimilation and elimination. All these depend upon normal
atomic cell vibration, arising from a perfect equilibrium of the
life elements.
Despite the unprecedented material progress of mankind during
the past generation, there still remains one great obstacle to the
general advancement of human welfare and happiness. It is the
almost appalling ignorance of the average individual regarding
the laws of his being. Unfortunately, much that is called educa-
tion at present simply renders a man unfit to successfully fight the
battle of life. The great need of our time is a saner and more
wholesome standard of living, upon which a new and higher civili-
zation must be built.
Having realized these important facts, the author has tried to
outline a rational system of diet, giving a concise, yet comprehen-
sive view of the chemistry of foods, their origin, cultivation,
nutritive and hygienic value and showing at the same time the
pitfalls into which the artificial and irrational preparation of our
foodstuffs will ultimately lead. Faulty nutrition is one of the
principal causes of degeneration, disease, suffering and premature
death. The foundation of all lasting reform must therefore begin
with the purification of the body which naturally leads to the im-
provement of the intellectual and moral faculties.
Those who have acquired a deeper understanding of the true
relation of food to health will realize that diet reform, which, in
a larger sense, means the mental and physical regeneration of the
individual, must become one of the most essential of all reforms,
and that only by making the unit, the individual, in society healthy
and self-supporting shall we be able to solve successfully the social
and economic problems that confront the world today. Dietetic
and hygienic habits have always been a most important factor in
the rise and downfall of nations. Likewise the source and purity
of its food supply will remain one of the most vital factors in
the progress and welfare of the human race.﻿PART I
CHEMISTRY OF FOODS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE
TO THE ORGANIC SALTS﻿r r r
+ *﻿RATIONAL DIET
CHAPTER I
Matter and Energy
It is difficult to delve deeply into the phenomena which con-
tinually present themselves in all animate and inanimate matter,
without a clear comprehension of the great unchanging laws that
govern the evolution of suns and planets, as well as the formation
of the grains of sand washed by the ocean wave; of the laws that
reveal themselves both in the growth of giant trees which have
stood the storms for thousands of years, and in the fragrant flower
which grows beneath their shade and dies at the end of a summer;
of the laws that govern the birth and death of men who may walk
the earth a century or more, as well as the microbe whose existence
spans but a day or an hour.
In elucidating our present subject we have to consult pri-
marily two branches of science—chemistry, dealing with the com-
position and transformation of matter, and physics, which inves-
tigates the transformation of energy and the laws which govern it.
Chemical analysis of all the various forms of matter, gases,
liquids and solids, has led to the discovery of more than ninety
distinct substances called elements, which cannot be separated by
any ordinary means now at our disposal, into simpler substances.
The science of chemistry is divided into two branches—inorganic
chemistry, dealing with the chemical composition of inanimate
matter; and organic chemistry, which is concerned with the more
or less complex compounds found in, or derived from, plants and
animals.
Energy manifests itself in different forms of which we may
distinguish the following:
Energy of gravitation
Energy of heat
Energy of elasticity
Energy of cohesion
Electrical energy
Magnetic energy
Radiant energy
Vital energy
Chemical energy (affinity of the elements)
3﻿4
RATIONAL DIET
These various forms of energy may not be distinct from one
another, but simply represent so many different manifestations of
higher or lower potentiality. Life is the most complex expression
of the transformation of matter and energy.
The ninety elements are, figuratively speaking, the building
material of our planet, solar system, and probably of the universe;
but undoubtedly there are a number of elements in the universe
that still await discovery. Most of the elements which make up the
surface of our planet are easily obtained, while others exist in such
small quantities, hidden among other substances, that they are ex-
tracted only with the greatest difficulty. Thus the newly discovered
element of radium, even in its impure state, is a thousand times
rarer than gold.
A number of the elements like gold and a few of the other
heavier metals are generally found in the elementary state. Our
atmosphere consists chiefly of the two elements, oxygen and nitro-
gen, in the free state. Carbon, copper, silver and sulphur are
occasionally found in the elementary state, but most of the elements
exist in chemical combinations. The number of elements composing
the materials which chiefly make up the organic part of our planet,
including the plants and animals is comparatively small. The
solid surface of the earth is mainly composed of substances such
as quartz or flint, chalk or limestone and various combinations like
feldspar and clay. The elements which are the chief constituents
of these substances are oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, phos-
phorus, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, iron, manganese, potas-
sium, silicon, chlorine and fluorine.
In order to explain the intricate changes of matter chemists
have adopted the atomic or molecular theory, which was first
promulgated about 480 B. C. by the Greek philosopher, Leucippus,
and later elaborated upon by Democritus of Abdera (460-371
B. C.). About the year 1750 the Italian scientist, Boscovich, pre-
sented this theory to the world in so clear a manner that it has be-
come the accepted idea. In the beginning of the nineteenth century
Dalton brought it to its present perfection by showing that matter
is composed of indivisible particles or atoms in varying numbers
and weights. So infinitesimal are these molecules that a billion of
them are only barely visible witli the most powerful microscope,﻿MATTER AND ENERGY
and a speck of matter, in order to be visible to the naked eye, like
a grain of dust, must be a million times larger.
The molecules of a given element always consist of a certain
number of the same atoms, whereas those of compound or chemical
combinations are aggregations of different atoms. Furthermore,
the molecules which constitute a certain elementary substance,
are alike in weight and general properties, but differ from the
characteristics of the molecules making up some other elementary
substance. For instance, the molecules of iron have different size,
shape and weight than those of sulphur.
The study of the changes which take place in the composition
of molecules under the influence of various forces, and which result
from their action upon one another, is the work of the chemist,
while it is the field of the physicist to study the influences of those
forces which affect matter without in any way altering its atomic
structure, for instance, in the mechanical division of matter.
To summarize the atomic theory of matter, as we know it
today, we may give the following definitions:
A molecule is the smallest particle of a substance that exists in
a free state, and which has the same composition as any larger
mass of the same substance.
An atom is the smallest particle of an element that exists in any
molecule.
A compound is a substance whose molecules contain two or
more kinds of atoms.
An element is that part of a substance which contains only one
or more of the same kinds of atoms. In mercury, for instance,
one molecule consists of one atom only, and the two terms become
congruent in this case. The molecule of hydrogen consists of two
atoms, and that of phosphorus of four atoms.
Another interesting fact should be mentioned here. It was found
that out of the list of the ninety or more elements little groups
could be selected with similar properties corresponding under cer-
tain conditions to all the elements of other groups. In other words,
the elements of one and the same group seemed to be related to
each other. In the year 1863 the chemist, John Newland, pointed
out that if the elements were arranged in tabular form in the
order of their atomic weight they fell naturally into such groups;
that elements similar in chemical affinity occurred in the same
columns, and if, moreover, the number of the elements between﻿6
RATIONAL DIET
any one and the next similar one was seven, the members of the
same groups would stand in the same relation to one another as
the extremities of one or more octaves in music. This wonderful
relationship between the elements was further investigated by the
Russian chemist, Mendeleeff, and the German scientist, Lothar
Meyer, and resulted in the discovery of the periodic law, or the
periodic system of elements, which may ultimately lead us to a
more perfect knowledge of the history of evolution and the rhythmic
laws governing the development of both organic and inorganic
matter. In his interesting and instructive book, “The New Knowl-
edge,” Professor Robert Kennedy Duncan says:
“This periodic law of the atoms is God’s alphabet of the uni-
verse. By means of it, and by means of it only, can we ever hope
to spell out the history and the future of creation. It lies here be-
fore us lacking only the master word, the open sesame, to creation,
and, who knows, to the Creator, too?”
The relationship and periodicity of the properties, evident in
the elements, has lead to the theory that the atoms of the elements
are made up of still smaller particles, which act in the atom just
as the atoms act in the molecule, and that atoms, as we know them,
are the result of evolution from simpler forms. Further investi-
gations revealed the fact that the slight conductivity of gases, may
be vastly increased until they become good conductors; and this
knowledge again led to the discovery of certain electrified parti-
cles in gaseous form, the so-called ions, consisting of the positive
particles which are simply called “ions” and the negative particles
or “corpuscles.” While the size of an ion is about equal to that
of an atom of ordinary matter, that of a corpuscle, is about a
thousand times smaller than that of the hydrogen atom. The cor-
puscles travel through space with wonderful velocity, ranging from
10,000 to 100,000 miles a second, and from a comparison of the two
kinds of ions, it appears that the negative corpuscles are far more
important. They seem to be the carriers and workers and builders
of the universe and all it contains. The corpuscles have led to the
electronic theory of matter, and in that connection these particles
are generally given another name. They are called electrons.
Prof. J. J. Thomson, of the Cavendish Laboratories, of Cam-
bridge, England, has perfected the theory of the electrons, for
which work he was awarded the 1906 Nobel prize of $40,000. He
has reached the conclusion in his electronic theory of matter,﻿MATTER AND ENERGY
7
which is at present accepted by nearly all the leading scientists,
that the electron is the ultimate unit of all matter. The atoms are
made up of electrons or disembodied electrical charges in rapid
motion; the atom of one elementary substance only is the number
and arrangement of elsetrons contained in it. Thus it becomes
clear, that the ultimate unit of which all matter iff composed, is not
matter at all, as we ordinarily understand the term, but electricity.
Matter, then, is a pure hypothesis, and energy is the only reality.
The electron, being a disembodied charge, contains no matter,
and is the electrical unit.
The electronic theory teaches that the atoms of all matter are
composed of numerous electrons that are at all times in a constant
state of motion or vibration; that the electron is the electrical
unit, and that the negative electrons are greatly in excess of the
positive; but that the positive electron controls the vibration of the
negative ones and holds them within the atom; that vibration is
the primal law of nature and is universal in its application, leaving
nothing exempt from this law; that the atoms of matter themselves
are made of negative charges of electrons, each aggregation of
electrons being surrounded by a sphere of positive electricity; that
consequently, matter, in its last analysis, is identical with elec-
tricity.
The atomic masses of the chemical elements differ as widely as
1.01 for Hydrogen and 258 for Radium, and all intermediate
orders of magnitude are met with. These masses are due to the
electrical charges or number of electrons of which the atoms of
all the elements are composed. The heavier atoms contain a larger
number of electrons than the lighter ones—the approximate num-
ber in any atom being expressed by the atomic weight of that atom
in terms of Hydrogen as a unity, multiplied by 770, this being
the number of electrons in a Hydrogen atom.
In the appendix of this volume will be found a copy of Men-
deleeff’s Periodic Table modified, showing the atomic weight and
number of electrons in over seventy of the best known elements.
Mendeleeff has also originated the conception that ether instead
of being some mysterious form of non-matter as generally believed,
is actually the lightest and simplest of the elements, and a definite
form of matter. The atomic weight of ether he concludes to be
nearly one-millionth of that of hydrogen, and its atoms conse-
quently travel with enormous velocity. This extreme velocity he﻿8
RATIONAL DIET
explains by the all-pervading character of the substance. An atom
of ether must be infinitesimally smaller than the electron.
The size of an electron must be at least one hundred-thousandth
of the linear dimensions of an atom; a size with which its penetrat-
ing power and other behavior is quite consistent. Assuming this
estimate to be true, it is readily seen how very small these elec-
trical particles are, compared to the atom of matter. If an electron
is represented by a sph&pe an inch in diameter, the diameter of an
atom of matter on the same scale is a mile and a half. In other
words, each atom represents a miniature solar system in itself,
with the electrons moving with very high velocity. Indeed, the
different characteristics of chemical elements may be explained by
the relative number of positive and negative electrons their atoms
contain. On the other hand, the infinitesimal negatively charged
electrons, whose diameter has been estimated to be about one sixth-
trillion (1-6,000,000,000,000) of an inch, are alike, in every particu-
lar. The atoms of the different elements are distinguished by the
increasing mass and greater complexity of the nuclear charge, plus
a progressive augmentation in the number of the surrounding elec-
trons, the positive central charge determining the spatial arrange-
ment of the revolving or vibrating electrons. A rate of wave vibra-
tion has been measured to 762 trillions pe* Second.
The (Mitual size of each kind of atom is not known, but it is
assumed that the atoms increase in size with increasing atomic
weight, the additional electrons, however, adding little to the total
mass of the atom. The increase in atomic weight is due almost
entirely to the nuclear charge, or positive ions.
The most remarkable of these phenomena are the properties of
the newly discovered and exceedingly rare element of radium, which
exists in infinitesimal quantities in chemical combinations from
which thus far it could be separated only in tlie form of radium
salts. A little pinch of the Balt radiates from its surface myriads
of corpuscles possessing the wonderful velocity of over 100,000
mile® a second, a velocity sufficient to carry them, if unimpeded,
five times around. thEearth in a ¡second, while the masses of these
tiny bodies are a thousand times smaller than the smallasst estimated
atom known to science- These corpuscles are charged with nega-
tive electricity and pass straight through bodies considered opaque,
regardless of the properties of the bodies, with the exception of
their density. The substances which they strike will shine in the﻿MATTER AND ENERGY
9
dark; they affect a photographic plat«i they render the air a con-
ductor of electricity, they cause clouds in humid air, and have a
peculiar physiological action in the organic world.
Our interest in the effects of radium rays on living organisms
will be enhanced by the dHtfsErgery that radio-activity is widely
distributed in nature. It is probable that all plants and animals
are adjusted to a normal degree of radio-activity in their environ-
ment. Professor J. J. Thomson was the first to discover that the
air bubbles in Cambridge spring water became decidedly radio-
active. Subsequent researches of numerous physicists have taught
us that this property belongs to the water of most deep wells, to
freshly fallen rain or snow, to the spray at the foot of waterfalls,
to the water of the ocean in certain localities, and probably to all
spring waters. The presence of radio-activity in the earth’s atmos-
phere has also been ascertained. The air in the soil is more
strongly radio-active than air abovpthe ground. Radio-activity,
therefore; must be recognized as a factor in plant environment
and plant physiology.
The question now arises: How are the various forms of energy
transmitted through space with almost inconceivable velocity?
According to the atomic theory, now almost universally accepted,
matter, as we know it, consists of an inconceivably large number
of small particles, separated by a medium differing entirely from
these particles in properties. This medium is known as ether.
No ordinary matter is capable of transmitting the undulations or
tremors which we call light at a velocity of 186,000 miles an hour.
The theory is advanced that ether is a medium of extreme rarity
and elasticity diffused through all space from star to star, filling
the vast interplanetary and interstellar regions in the universe.
Thus the electronic theory accounts for the different forms of
electricity, magnetism, the radiation of light, chemical action, the
periodic law of the elements, the phenomena of radio-activity and
the physical basis of life. It may ultimately lead to the recogni-
tion of the fact that chemical affinity and electrical attraction are
one and the same; that the electric force between charged bodies
is really chemical action at a distance; and that the chemical com-
bination of atoms and molecules is due to their mutual electrical
attraction. The theory is not yet fully proven, but it would appear
to serve for the time being as a reasonable assumption that would﻿10
RATIONAL DIET
account in a plausible way for many phenomena in the organic
world.
The late Dr. Vm. Lawrence Woodruff of Long Beach, Califor-
nia, explains the atomic vibration governing cell-life in his book
“Therapeutics of Vibration,” published in 1907, but which, unfor-
tunately, is now out of print. Dr. Woodruff says in part:
‘ ‘ The cell is the unit of life as the electron is the unit of matter,
or, more properly speaking, of force. The cell is made up of a
group of atoms, each containing numerous electrons, all in active
vibration, and consequently electronic vibration is the material
life of the cell. This being true of one cell, it is true of all. (The
italics are mine.)
“Electronic atomic cell vibration generates a magnetic field
individualized for each group of cells forming the different organs
and tissues. This is the law of selection or attraction which enables
a cell or group of cells to select from the nutrient blood the ele-
ments needed for its sustenance and explains why certain groups
of atoms are drawn to a cell or group of cells and other groups
pass by to be later attracted by other cells, and why the cell debris
is thrown off from an uncongenial magnetic field back into circula-
tion, by which it is carried on to the eliminating organs, where it
is attracted, appropriated and formed into excretion and thus
eliminated from the body.
“The association of the different groups of electronic atomic
elements in the Cell or group of cells making up a given organ or
tissue, means an attunement of unison of the atomic cell vibration
with a magnetic atmosphere that is the peculiar property of the
organ or tissue, and because of this specific magnetic atmosphere,
the organ or tissue has the power of making selections which,
speaking in general terms, are always the same. On the other
hand, the different groups of cells called organs or tissues must
have, within certain definite limits, the same general attunement
of atomic cell vibration; for the whole organism must be attuned
to the same general key.
“That there may be some departure from the normal in the
cell vibration of a certain organ of tissue is true, but this, if long
maintained, will speedily effect the attunement of the whole organ-
ism. Since the life of the cell is atomic cell vibration, the same is
true of the mass of cells that make up the individual, and this be-
ing so, there must be a normal and an abnormal cell vibration. A
normal cell vibration means perfect health, and abnormal vibration
means disease, suffering and ultimate death of the cell and of the
mass of cells; or, in other words, the death of the individual.
“Water is one of the principal compounds of the universe. It
is also one of the principal elements that go to make up all cell
life, be it vegetable or animal. About seven-eighths of all animal
tissue is water. A molecule of water is composed of one atom of﻿MATTER AND ENERGY
11
oxygen and two atoms of hydrogen. In further analyzing the
atoms of hydrogen and oxygen we find they are composed of
electrons and nothing else, and the one and only difference between
one and the other is that an atom of oxygen contains 11,550 elec-
trons more than does an atom of hydrogen. From this it is
apparent that water resolves itself, in an elementary sense, back
to the electron, which is the unit of electricity, and is in fact simply
electricity and nothing else. I simply use this as an illustration
of the point that all matter is electricity, and as an aid in fastening
it firmly in the mind.
“The cell being composed of different atomic groups, which
are simply masses of electrons always in violent motion or vibra-
tion, then the individual life, be it animal or vegetable, is simply
a mass of individualized electrical force, always undergoing loss
by spending itself in the performance of its functions, always
changing its combinations, but always doing so according to fixed
laws. Its energy is constantly being radiated into space and to
neighboring organisms, and consequently it must be constantly
restored to the organism from the different natural elements or
atomic groups and neighboring individual organism. Thus, every
organism is a collector of and a storage battery for this electrical
force, and creates its own magnetic field.
“In obedience to the law of supply and demand, ample pro-
vision is made in every organism for the collection and storage of
this electrical force. Owing to a too intense life or too rapid
radiation or because some one or more of nature’s laws is not
obeyed, this electrical force falls below the normal. The point
most often negle&ted is that of supply, for a certain quantity of
the material elements must he supplied and appropriated each day
to make up for energy lost or expended. (The italics are mine.)
“A definite quantity of water must be supplied to the system
to take the place of that passed off by the skin and kidneys and
that given off by the lungs. Going off with the water is a consider-
able quantity of sodium chloride, and this waste must be made up.
This is simply an example of what is taking place with regard to
all the other elements, and all these deficiencies must be supplied
by fresh material in the form of abundance of pure air, water,
natural foods in adequate quantities, and moreover, the appropria-
tion of the substances requires that the atomic cell vibration be
sufficiently near the normal to attract them to the cells that are
hungering for them.
“Health means absolutely normal function, normal digestion,
assimilation and elimination, and this means normal cell-feeding
and perfect elimination of debris. All this depends upon normal
atomic cell vibration and the other conditions named with it. Any-
thing that interferes with normal cell vibration, normal distribu-
tion of the vital stored up nerve forces, or normal voltage causes
disease.”﻿12
RATIONAL DIET
It is from this point of view that the study of the characteristics
of the elements which make up the organic world becomes highly
instructive and interesting. Although the electronic theory is new,
attempts have been made already to commercialize it in the treat-
ment of disease by means of doubtful devices. But as all perma-
nent healing must come from within by the restoration of the
equilibrium of the vital forces by means of right living, guided
by a true understanding of the natural laws, these human make-
shifts will be found wanting and soon recognized at their true
value.
The eighteen elements which build up the various forms of the
vegetable and animal kingdom, also enter into the chemical com-
position of the human body. They are:
Atonal«	Atomic
Symbol Weight	Symbol Weight
Hydrogen	II	1	Iron	Fe	56
Carbon	C	12	Phosphorus	P	31
Nitrogen	N	14	Sulphur	S	32
Oxygen	0	16	Silicon	Si	28
Potassium	P	39.1	Chlorine	Cl	35.5
Sodium	Na	23	Fluorine	F	19
Calcium	Ca	40	Iodine	I	127
Magnesium	Mg	24.4	Aluminum	Al	27
Manganese	Mn	55	Arsenic	As	75
Oxygen is the only element that enters the living organism in
a free state as a part of the air we breathe. Most of the oxygen
enters the organisms of plants as water (II20) and carbonic acid
(C 02). The other elements are taken up in more or less complex
compounds. Carbon exists only to a very limited extent in the
free state, such as graphite and diamond, or in coal, where it is
more or less mixed with other substances. Carbon, in chemical
combination with lime and magnesia, forms the surface of the
earth’s crust. All of the carbon is or has been in the form of
carbonic acid, and through this compound the element must always
pass in its countless combination« Carbonic acid is taken up by
the plants, building with other elements the various food-materials
for the animal world and returning free oxygen to the atmosphere.
The animals in turn excrete carbonic acid or such waste products
from which it is rapidly formed. Thus the balance of oxygen and
carbonic acid is maintained in the atmosphere through the exchange
of these gases by the vegetable and animal kingdoms.﻿MATTER AND ENERGY
13
Hydrogen, which is the lightest of all the elements, occurs very
seldom as a free gas. It is one of the constituents of water and,
therefore, one of the most ereential elements of the organic world.
Nitrogen, forming about four-fifths of the atmosphere, has but
a weak affinity for other elements. Only a*comparatively small
portion of it is found in inorganic compounds, through which it
enters the vegetable kingdom. The free nitrogen of the air cannot
be assimilated by the plant, except by aid of certain bacteria,
which are found at the roots of leguminous plants. The other
elements will be treated in Chapters X to XIII, dealing with the
so-called organic salts.
We shall briefly consider here the law of conservation of energy,
a knowledge of which is necessary to understand the constantly
changing forms and positions of matter in the organic, as well as
inorganic world.
Over two thousand years ago the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus,
conceived the idea that every particle of the universe is in never-
ceasing motion, and modern science has verified this theory by
demonstrating that motion or energy, like matter, cannot be de-
stroyed.
According to our present conceptions, the sum total of all
potential energy and of all kinetic energy in the universe always
remains the same. For instance, an electric current represents a
certain form of kinetic energy, which is able to split a chemical
compound into its elements, by which a part of the kinetic energy
apparently disappears, being converted into so-called chemical
potential energy, represented in the separated atoms. By synthesis
again, the potential energy they contain is again converted into
kinetic energy, which appears to us as light and heat, ns, for in-
stance, when a flame is produced by the combination of carbon
and oxygen.
All, or most forms of energy appearing upon our planet, may be
traced back ultimately to one common source, viz., to the waves of
heat, light, magnetism and electricity emanating from the sun.
Wind and wave, the formation of clouds, the falling rain, the flow-
ing brooks and rivers, the power that turns water wheels, are
forms of kinetic energy derived from the potential energy of the
sun’s heat. Likewise all the material manifestations of plant and﻿14
RATIONAL DIET
animal life are directly or indirectly derived from solar light and
heat.
Plants are constantly taking up carbonic acid and water,
separating the oxygen from these compounds and thereby forming
other combinations poorer in oxygen and with a great affinity for
this element. As carbonic acid and water are fully oxidized com-
pounds, no potential energy is conveyed to the plant by these
substances. It is the kinetic energy of sunlight which again
separates the oxygen from the carbon and hydrogen in the plant,
forming compounds of potential energy. The plant liberates
oxygen only in the sunshine and the amount of oxygen set free
varies in direct proportion to the intensity of the light. Thus it
becomes obvious that all the potential energy stored up in the
products of the vegetable kingdom is converted sunlight. The
burning candle, the glowing coal, are but sunlight in another form.
The immense amount of potential energy lying in the vast coal
fields of the earth, which keeps all the wheels of modern industry
in motion, is only stored-up sunlight, which once shone upon the
primeval forests of ferns and palms millions of years ago.
Animals depend for their food on plants. The oxygen which
is liberated from the water and carbonic acid in the plant by the
kinetic energy of sunlight, is in the animal body again united with
compounds deficient in oxygen, and the ultimate producta of this
combination are given off as carbonic acid and water, which serve
8gain as food for the plant. The chemical energy of food is thus
apparently used up; but we find an equivalent amount of other
forms of energy appearing in the animal body, such as animal
heat and muscular force. The sum of the work executed by an
animal, and of the heat which it gives out, can, therefore, never
exceed the amount of the chemical potential energy taken in with its
food, and of the kinetic energy of sunlight used in the production
of this potential energy by the plant.
The German naturalist, Dr. Max Rubner, has taken up this
subject with all the aids of modern science, and has succeeded in
demonstrating the exact equivalents between the chemical potential
energy taken up by the body in the form of food and the kinetic
energy given out by the animal. In his laborious and painstaking
work, covering a period of twenty years, and mainly published in
his hook, “The Laws of Consumption of Energy in Nutrition,’’ ho﻿MATTER AND ENERGY
15
has shown conclusively that the law of the conservation of energy
rules in every department of animal life; that our body-heat,
muscular energy and all our perceptible vital functions are trans-
muted sunlight. It is very probable that our psychical functions,
all our feelings, emotions, instincts and ideas are governed by the
same law. We know that sensation is excited by a process of move-
ment in the nervous system, and a muscular contraction is the
result of an impulse of the will. Thus far, however, we do not
possess any exact means of measuring the intensity of sensations,
or of any other psychical conditions and processes. Emotions
probably far exceed all other mental exertions in the expenditure
of energy. We may ascertain that a portion of the brain sub-
stance is consumed or oxidized in every mental effort, but we must
also consider that the weight of the brain is less than one-fiftieth
of that of the body, and that only a portion of the brain is active
in mental functions. Even if we were able to measure our psychic
forces, such as the will, we might not be able to maintain that they
■were simply converted potential energy. To be sure, our body is
material and can act on other matter, and its energy is mainly
derived from the oxygen of the air and food; but the question is
whether our will or mind is directing our body’s forces along cer-
tain lines to achieve desired ends, or whether all our physical and
mental activities are dominated by mechanical causes. It seems to
the casual observer that energy itself has no directing power and
that inorganic matter is impelled solely by pressure back of it,
following no preconceived course nor moving towards predeter-
mined ends; as for instance, in case of an earthquake or the erup-
tion of a volcano. On the other hand, may we not assume that
life is more than a mere function of matter and energy; and,
although dependent on matter for its phenomenal appearance, it
is able, to a certain extent, to control or direct material forces?
In the small acorn there is already the potentiality not only of one
oak tree, but of an entire forest of oak trees; and although the
potential energy stored up in an acorn is infinitesimally small as
compared with an entire forest, still we cannot maintain that life
has generated the smallest amount of energy; it can only guide
its transformations according to nature’s laws, perhaps supple-
menting these laws, but in no way contradicting or suspending
them.﻿16
RATIONAL DIET
A human body is formed according to the same laws of evolu-
tionary development as a crystal, a microbe, a plant, a tree. This
earth, the sun, our solar-system, the galaxy, all suns and worlds,
the stellar universe; the simplest forms of life, the monera and
protozoa, as well as flowers, animals and man are not the products
of mere, chance, the result of blind physical and chemical forces.
They are all the expression of preceding stages of evolution, direct-
ing the various forms of energy in certain defined channels of
unfoldment.
May we then not assume that in the universe there is an intelli-
gence superior to that of man, who is hut a speck of dust in infinite
space, and whose life is hardly a second in eternity? The human
brain, which seems to us the highest organization of matter and
energy, is hut the result of an all-pervading mind embracing the
experience of eons and countless worlds, manifesting itself in the
corpuscle, as well as in the largest sun, in the plant as well as in
man, always leading onward and upward to higher forms of life
and existence.﻿CHAPTER II
The Problem of Life and Growth
The simplest form of organic matter capable of exhibiting the
phenomena of life is called “protoplasm,” a word derived from
the Greek, protosBmeaning “first,” and plasma, “formed sub-
stance.” Protoplasm possesses a viscous or jelly-like consistency.
Under the strongest microscope it seems to he homogeneous, or
slightly granulated, like a sheet of ground glass. Not only can
it assimilate nutriment and increase in size, but it possesses the,
power of spontaneous movement and contractility. It enters in a
very important manner into the structure of the bodies of the
lower animals. As a rule, however, in both vegetable and animal
organisms, the specks or clumps of protoplasm assume definite
shapes, showing evidence of internal differentiation. In the midst
of a minute clump of this substance a sharply defined body called
a nucleus is formed, which differs from the surrounding protoplasm
in not being contractile. "When a definite clump of protoplasm
contains a nucleus in its interior, it is called a nucleated cell. The
cell constitutes, therefore, the first step from protoplasm toward
organized existence.
Some of the lowest organisms consist merely of a single cell,
others of two or more cells united. The cells, invisible as they are
to the naked eye, are composed of billions of molecules, which
again have a very complicated atomic structure. It has been
shown that a molecule of protoplasm contains several thousands
of atoms, giving us an idea of nature’s most intricate and wonder-
ful work even in the lowest forms of life.
Cells enter into the constitution of the textures of all higher
forms of plants and animals. In the cell we have to search for the
source of the vital currents which move the mechanism of the
organic world. The most simple cell exhibits all the essential
processes of life—nutrition, growth, reproduction, movement,
reaction to stimulation. It displays even functions which act at
least as a substitute for the psychical powers of higher organisms.
The properties of living matter distinguish it absolutely from
17﻿18
RATIONAL DIET
all other substances, and the present state of knowledge furnishes
us with no link between the organic and inorganic worlds. The
distinctive properties of living matter are:
1.	Its chemical composition, containing one or more forms of
a complex compound of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen,
the so-called “protein,” united with a large proportion of water
and certain mineral elements, forming the chief constituents of
protoplasm.
2.	Its universal chemical disintegration and waste by oxidation
and its simultaneous reconstruction by new matter. The process
of waste resulting from the decomposition or re-organization of
the molecules of the protoplasm, breaking them up into more highly
oxidated products, which cease to form any part of the living body,
is a characteristic of life. Carbon dioxide is always one of these
waste products while the others, known as purin bodies, contain
the remainder of carbon, the nitrogen, the hydrogen, and the other
elements which may enter into the composition of the protoplasm.
3.	Its tendency to reproduce itself. In the general course of
nature, all living matter proceeds from pre-existing living matter,
a portion of the latter being detached and acquiring an indepen-
dent existence. The new form takes on the character of the
substance from which it arose, exhibits the same power of propa-
gating itself by means of an offshoot, and sooner or later, like its
predecessor, ceases to exhibit the phenomena pertaining to life
and returns its component elements to the universal storehouse of
nature.
But in addition to these distinctive characteristics, living mat-
ter has some other peculiarities, the chief of which are the depen-
dence of all its activities upon moisture and heat, within a limited
range of temperature, and the fact that it usually possesses a cer-
tain structure or organization. A degree of heat sufficient to
decompose protein matter, if sufficiently prolonged, destroys life
by demolishing the highly intricate molecular structure upon which
life depends. Recent investigations show that the immediate cause
of the arrest of vitality1 and of its ultimate disappearance is the
coagulation of certain substances in the protoplasm, and that the
latter contains various coagulable matters which solidify at dif-
ferent temperatures, ranging from 140 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
There are numerous forms of living matter which it cannot﻿PROBLEMS OF LIFE AND GROWTH
19
properly be said possess either a definite structure, or permanently
specialized organs; but the simple particles of living matter must
have a highly complex molecular structure which is far beyond the
reach of physical vision. Thomas Huxley in his “Lay Sermons”
gives the following classic description of the physical basis of life:
“Through the tube of my microscope I am watching the
development of a speck of protoplasm. Strange possibilities lie
dormant in that semi-fluid globule. Let a moderate supply of
warmth reach its watery cradle, and the plastic matter undergoes
changes so rapid and yet so steady and purpose-like in their suc-
cession, that one can compare them to those operated by a skilled
modeller upon a formless lump of clay. As with an invisible
trowel, the mass is divided into smaller and smaller portions, until
it is reduced to an aggregation of granules—not too large to build
withal the finest fabrics of the nascent organism. And then it is
as if a delicate finger traced out the line to be occupied by the
coming spinal column and moulded the contour of the body; pinch-
ing up the head at one end, the tail at the other, and fashioning
flank and limb into due proportion in so artistic a way that after
watching the process one is almost involuntarily possessed by the
notion that some more subtle aid to vision than the chromatic
would show the hidden artist, with his plan before him, striving
with skillful manipulation to perfect his work.”
The broad distinctions which, as a matter of fact, exist between
every known form of living substance and every other component
of the material world, justify the specialization in the study of
the problems of life.
We can never expect fully to explain the processes of life by the
laws of physics and chemistry alone. The more thoroughly and
conscientiously we endeavor to study biological problems, the more
are we convinced that even those processes which we have already
regarded as. explicable by chemical and physical laws, are, in real-
ity, infinitely more complex, and at present defy any attempt at a
mechanical explanation.
Careful observations have revealed the fact that all unicellular
organisms possess the power of selecting their food, of taking the
useful and rejecting' the useless. If this power of selecting food
is possessed by a structureless mass of protoplasm, why should it
not also be a function of the epithelium cells of the alimentary
canal? Every epithelial cell is in itself an organism, a live being
with the most complex functions.
The small intestine, where the bulk of the nutritive material is﻿20
RATIONAL DIET
absorbed, is covered with minute vascular projections—“villi”—
proceeding from the mucous membrane throughout its whole ex-
tent. The structure of the “villi,” whose total number amounts
to about four millions, is indicated in the following illustrations :
Linear -enlargement about 50:1; the dark parts in the middle of each
villus represent the lacteals which co#fey chyle during the process of diges-
tion, while at other time# they carry lymph; the lacteals are surrounded by
lymphatics and capillary blood vessels.
Diagrammatic section of a viftlis, showing the cells; linear enlargement
about 300:1; ep-epitheliuin (only partly shaded in); $ e e’-membrane and
ttisue-celU} Macteal; l’-upper limit of the chyle-vessel; Ic-lymph corpuscles;
m-muscle fibres surrounding the lacteal; ■y-blood-vessels; c-fine net work (pro-
toplasm) filling out the space between the cells.﻿PROBLEMS OF LIFE AND GROWTH
21
All food materials after they have been acted upon by the
digestive juices and broken down into simpler compounds, have
to pass through the epithelium cells, and the mechanical part of
the process called “osmosis,” can take place only when a variety
of elements is present, so that the ingredients of the fluids on one
side of the membranes are different in chemical composition from
those on the other side. We can illustrate the process easily by
immersing a bladder containing a solution of salt in pure wrater.
In a short time both fluids begin to pass through the membrane
towards each other until a uniform solution is attained. The same
process is going on in the millions and millions of cells in our
body, and without the mineral ingredients in the fluids no change,
or hardly any, could be effected, and assimilation and nutrition
would come to a standstill.
Thus the mechanical part of food absorption may be explained
by the laws of diffusion and osmosis. But the wall of the intestine
does not behave like a dead membrane. Every epithelial cell is in
itself an organism, a living being with the most complete function-
ing. These cells prevent the absorption of a whole series of poisons,
although the latter may be easily soluble in the gastric and intes-
tinal juices.'*"
The activity of the glands and the processes of secretion show.
the same wonderful power of selection, of picking out certain
constituents of the blood, of altering them by processes of synthesis
and decomposition, of sending some into the ducts of the glands,
and others back into the lymph and blood. The epithelial cells
of the mammary gland collect all the organic salts from the blood
which has an entirely different composition, in the exact proportion
required by the infant. These phenomena cannotrbe explained
simply by the mechanical process of osmosis.
All of the cells of our body possess the same wonderful powers
as the epithelial cells of the alimentary canal and of the glands.
All tissues and organs are produced from a single ovum, and in
proportion as the cells increase by segmentation, they become dif-
ferentiated on the principle of the division of labor. Every cell
acquires the faculty of rejecting some substancesBof attracting
others and storing them up, thereby attaining the composition
necessary for the proper performance of all the physiological func-
tions in the system. But as soon as life ceases, as soon as the vital﻿22
RATIONAL DIET
phenomena stop, the ability of selecting substances likewise dis-
appears in every cell of our body. Food itself does not produce
life. It only keeps the vital currents flowing, by the chemical and
physiological actions of the organism if the food materials are
furnished in suitable quality and quantity. If the vital flame
which keeps our heart pulsating is once extinguished the finest
food and purest air can never light it again. Digestion and assimi-
lation are processes of the living organism and have no analogy
in the test tube of the chemical laboratory.
Consciousness is not necessarily and entirely bound up within
certain parts of the brain. It manifests or arises by inheritance
through a simple cell, from which by repeated division, all of the
cells and tissues of our body are derived, including those of the
brain and cerebral hemispheres and other parts of the nervous
system. The history of the evolution of function should parallel
that of the evolution of structure. We can hardly assume that,
as we trace the animal kingdom downwards to the unicellular
organisms, the conscious life of the individual ceases at that exact
point where a brain is no longer present, or even where we can
no longer make out a specially differentiated nervous system. May
not all life be conscious life; may not consciousness be an inherent
attribute of all matter, manifesting itself wherever and whenever
the proper physical conditions occur?
Considered apart from the phenomena of consciousness, the
phenomena of life are all dependent upon the working of the same
eternal, universal laws which govern the rest of the world. The
doctrine of evolution compels us to admit that consciousness must
be present potentially in the simple protoplasm of the lowest forms
of life, and must be present, consequently, in all the tissues of the
highly developed animal instead of being confined to some limited
portion of the nervous system. All of the parts and organs of the
complex animal are the outcome of the differentiation of the
primordial protoplasm, and there is no reason why this differ-
entiation, which sets apart the nervous tissue from other parts
of the body, should not operate in the nervous tissue itself, develop-
ing the rudiments of consciousness present in all nervous material
by differentiation, and in that particular kind of nerve substance,
the brain cells, which are the seat of some higher form of conscious-
ness. But we must unreservedly admit that very little has been﻿PEOBLEMS OF LIFE AND GEOWTH
23
done towards the final solution of the great problem of life. Of
its ultimate cause and innermost workings we know practically
nothing. No chemist is able to isolate the life-principle from its
original form of manifestation on earth—protoplasm. It is elusive
and cannot be determined by the most subtle instruments of the
laboratory.
How is it that through a single spermatozoon, through a minute
cell, thousands of which would hardly occupy a pin’s head, all the
physical and intellectual peculiarities may he transmitted from
father to son, or even to grandson? How wonderful must be the
molecular structure," %ow complicated the interchange of forces,
how intricate the forms of motion, in this small cell which shall
direct all subsequent forms of motion and the physical develop-
ment for generations! And how in this speck of matter—invisible
to the naked eye—are the mental qualities evolved? Our present
state of knowledge utterly fails to answer these questions.
In the future the problems of physiology will be largely con-
cerned with the structure and evolution of protoplasm. In these
investigations inductive reasoning will play a far more important
role than the microscope, although the latter may be improved by
still more powerful lenses than we have today. Then we may
ascertain ultimately the laws according to which protoplasm is
built up, as well as the laws according to which it breaks down;
for these laws when ascertained will help to explain the wonderful
creative work which the protoplasm performs throughout the or-
ganic world in the evolution of the amoeba to man.
Future generations may overcome the stupendous difficulties
which at present beset physiological investigations, and may come
nearer to solving the mysteries of life which now puzzle the minds
of the profoundest students of nature. In the meantime, let us
not become too dogmatic. There is no reason to believe that the
continuous progress of evolution should culminate in the present
type of man. Far back in the dawn of the ages, when the pri-
mordial sea covered this planet, animal life began in the lowest
forms. The time may come when a race of men will develop as
superior to ourselves in intellect as we are to our predecessors
who inhabited the earth hundreds of thousands of years ago. We
are on the threshold of a new civilization, but we cannot enter the
promised land until we have made ourselves fit by a more thorough﻿24
RATIONAL DIET
understanding and practice of the fundamental laws of life, as far
as we have cognizance of them today.
There are three factors which are most intimately connected
with the problems of life and nutrition, viz., sunlight, air and
water. They are most potent factors in the growth and develop-
ment of the organic world, as will he shown in the two following
chapters.﻿CHAPTER III
Sunlight and Air
Most important for the preservation of health and vitality are
sunlight and air. They are just as necessary for growth and per-
petuation of life as liquid and solid food. “When the sun does not
enter, the physician enters,” says an old proverb. It has been
found that the greatest mortality occurs in the narrow streets of
cities and in houses having northern exposure. The inhabitants
of southern mountain slopes are stronger and healthier than those
living on the northern sides. Inhabitants of secluded valleys where
the sun rises late and Sets early, are generally afflicted with
peculiar diseases, chiefly due to a lack of direct sunlight and its
salutary power to dissipate and decompose noxious vapors which
accumulate in dark and low places.
The sun indeed is the great and ultimate source of all power
wh|ch manifests itself in the inorganic as well as in the organic
formations of matter. Plants require sunlight above all, for the
completion of their complicated organic combinations. While the
lowest species of organic life, such as fungi, are capable of develop-
ing in darkness, the higher plants which principally support
animal life, always depend upon the rays of the sun for the proc-
esses of assimilating the elements of soil and atmosphere. They
require especially the non-illuminating, ultra-violet rays, which
we know to be most active in the production of electro-chemical
effects. Likewise the animal body is to a large extent directly
dependent on sunlight for its growth and healthy development.
It is a well established fact that, as the result of an insufficiency of
light, the fibrine and the red blood corpuscles become diminished
in quantity, while the serum or watery portion of the blood is
increased, inducing leukemia, a sickness characterized by a great
increase in the number of white blood corpuscles. A total exclusion
of the sunlight induces the severer forms of anemic diseases, origi-
nating from an impoverished and disordered state of blood.
Of the many experiments which have been made so far to
demonstrate the beneficial effects of sunlight, that of John Blayton
25﻿26
RATIONAL DIET
is the most remarkable and significant. In order to determine
whether the indirect or diffused daylight, perhaps during a longer
period of time, has the same effect as the direct sunlight, he selected
twelve bean plants of the same variety and in the same stage of
development. Then he planted them in such a way near one an-
other, that six always had full direct sunlight, while the others
received only the diffused daylight. In October the pods were
harvested, and the weight of those grown in the shade or diffused
light compared with that of those exposed to the sun rays was
found to he in the proportion of 29:99; that of the dried
beans 1:3.
This result was to be expected, but in the following year, when
all the plants grown from the same seed received the full amount
of the direct sunlight, the surprising fact was ascertained that
those which had been raised in the shade only yielded half the
amount of the previous year’s harvest, while in the fourth year
they blossomed but did not mature. The deprivation of direct
sunlight during one summer weakened the stock to such a degree
that the species became extinct after four years.
The lesson of this experiment may be applied with great benefit
to men and their daily habits. The highly beneficial effect of sun-
baths, if judiciously taken, is demonstrated by the above example
in the best possible manner. A dwelling place which admits the
sunlight during all hours of the day, is, therefore, one of the first
conditions for the preservation of health. On the other hand,
statistics show that the tenement house districts of the large cities
to which sunlight has very slight access, have the greatest infant
mortality and are perilous breeding places of rickets and tuber-
culosis. If it were not for the constant renewal of the population
from the rural districts, the city dwellers, especially the poorer
classes, would die out in the course of a few generations. All
mothers should realize the importance of the beneficial action of
the sunlight and use every opportunity to admit the direct rays
of the sun to their living and sleeping rooms whenever and wher-
ever this is possible. Sunlight and fresh air are primal factors
on which the normal development, health and power of resistance
of the child depend.
A frequent exposure of the naked body to the sunlight will
greatly assist the system in the performance of all physiological﻿SUNLIGHT AND AIR
27
functions. It will especially insure an even distribution of the
blood. Such an adjustment of the circulation is necessary for
the normal functioning of all organs. People should make it a
practice to expose their nude bodies frequently to sunlight and
fresh air in order to keep in the best possible phyjfcal condition.
Public parks should have enclosures wherein light and air baths
can be taken, and these should become an adjunct of every modern
progressive city. Sunlight is the best germicide, but it also kills
the cells of our bodies, if they are exposed too much to the very
intense rays of the sun. Moderation and discrimination should
always be exercised. Sunbaths are best taken in the morning, and
a room with an eastern exposure should be selected for the purpose.
Equal attention should be paid to a continuous supply of fresh
air during day and night. Not many persons seem to realize the
absolute necessity of the electrifying, life-giving oxygen for the
maintenance of vitality and the prevention of disease. It has been
only a century and a half ago (1774) since the English scientist,
Priestly, and the French scientist, Lavoisier, discovered that we
live by means of a chemical process of combustion, in which the
blood unites with the inhaled air, yielding the products of com-
bustion which we exhale as aqueous vapor and carbonic acid gas.
This chemical action corresponds to that which we find in the
case of a burning candle or a lamp fed with oil. If the supply of
air is cut off we will be suffocated, just as the flame of a lamp is
extinguished if the air is prevented from passing to it. A man
may live more than sixty days without food, and a few days with-
out water, but when deprived of air or oxygen, he dies in a few
minutes. This proves that pure air is the most necessary of all
the essentials of life.
Atmospheric air consists of two gases, viz.: nitrogen and oxy-
gen; the former serves only to dilute the oxygen. Besides these
two elements the air always contains some aqueous vapor, carbon
dioxide and ammonia. On an average, 100 volumes of air contain:
78.35	vol. of Nitrogen	(N)
20.77	vol. of Oxygen	(O)
0.84	vol. of Water vapor	(H20)
0.04	vol. of Carbon dioxide	(C02)
0.0001	vol. of Ammonia	(NII3)
Traces of other gases (ozone, etc.)﻿28
RATIONAL DIET
There are also various kinds of microbes in the air, according
to moisture and temperature, causing fermentation and chemical
disintegration of organic substances. The composition of air, i. e.,
its proportions of nitrogen and oxygen, is the same all over the
surface of the earth. The degree of moisture or humidity in the
air varies according to location and temperature. Carbon dioxide
is always present, even in mid ocean and forests, but its quantity
is very small, ranging from three to four parts per ten thousand
by volume. In closed rooms, however, where numbers of persons
are present and at the same time gas and coal are burned, the
percentage of carbon dioxide rapidly increases. At the same time
the air is filled with other and more poisonous gases, such as am-
monia and albuminoid ammonia, while the amount of oxygen is
gradually lowered. All these facts should be seriously considered
in the proper ventilation of living-rooms, schoolrooms, etc. The
following table gives the average amount of carbon dioxide in 10,000
parts found in the air of different localities:
Ocean and forests	0.3
Cities, open streets	0.1 to 0.5
Bedroom during night, window partly open	0.8
Bedroom during night, window closed	1.2
Schoolrooms	1.5 to 3.
Hospitals	2.8
Schoolroom, 70 occupants at close of school hrs	. 7.2
Churches, during services	3.5 to 7.
Churches, if heated by furnaces	20. to 30.
Theatres, crowded meeting rooms	25.
Workshops, ill ventilated	30.
These figures show how little attention is paid to proper venti-
lation and explain the constant increase of pneumonia and similar
diseases. The importance of pure air becomes still more obvious
if we consider the wonderful anatomical structure of the respira-
tory organs. The lungs into which the air is drawn, consist of
two rounded, oblong, somewhat flattened masses of cellular sub-
stance, situated in the cavity of the chest, which communicates
with the atmosphere through the windpipe (trachea). The latter,
as it descends from the throat, branches off into large tubes, and
these branch again and again into smaller and still smaller ones,
and finally into hairlike vessels. Through these the air penetrates
into the remotest parts of the cellular substance. Around each﻿SUNLIGHT AND AIR
29
visible extremity nearly 18,000 cells are clustered, each of which
is connected through these minute tubes with the external air.
The cells vary in size. They have an average diameter of about
one one-hundredth inch. Their total number has been estimated
at about six hundred millions. The wall of these cells is very thin;
they are mere air vesicles.
The internal surfaces of all these cells together form an area
of about one hundred and sixty square yards of thin cell-wall.
Over the whole of this surface minute blood-vessels branch out,
almost entirely covering it. Along these tiny vessels the blood
continually flows and in its course absorbs through their walls the
oxygen of the inhaled air. It is in the delicate membrane of these
blood-vessels that the change from venous into arterial blood is
effected. The venous blood must be changed continually because
it is an impure fluid containing matter that has already served
for the support of life in the various parts of the body. Carbon
dioxide and other gases are given off, and the oxygen of the air-
enters the cells of the lungs and is absorbed by the minute vessels
which spread over the cell walls. Within these vessels the oxygen
combines directly with the hemoglobin of the blood, and by means
of the action of the heart, proceeds with it in ceaseless currents
through the, arteries and veins.
To a certain extent the skin also absorbs oxygen and exhales
carbon dioxide, the amount being about one-thirtieth of that ex-
creted by the lungs. Besides, the skin gives off other gases, water
and solid matter, amounting to from one to two pounds during
the day. In summer people perspire more than in winter. During
exercise or exertion more water is lost than when at rest. All
parts of the skin should be brought frequently in immediate con-
tact with the external air. There are several million pores in the
skin acting as little sewers, through which various waste products
of the system are constantly excreted. The clothing and particu-
larly the underwear should be porous, to permit free circulation
of the air. Closely woven linen or cotton shirts, if covered with
heavy woolen clothes, cause the retention of waste matter which
is partly reabsorbed by the system and thrown back on the lungs
and kidneys, overworking and weakening these organs.
As has been shown, in ill-ventilated and often tobacco-laden
public halls, churches, schoolrooms, theatres and workshops, the﻿30
RATIONAL DIET
air thrown off from the lungs is rendered still more noxious by
the emanations of the skin. People on leaving such places feel the
contrast between the inside and outside air and erroneously make
the fresh air responsible for their “colds,” which are hut the result
of the inhaled poisonous gases and their unsanitary methods of
living in general.
Many persons sleep with closed windows, because they cherish
the old delusion that “night-air is dangerous.” After a few hours
they begin to breathe the exhaled air over again. In the morning
they get up with a “tired feeling” and have to resort to “eye-
openers” which make their condition still worse. It is during the
night when we are at rest that the lungs redouble their efforts
to inhale the life-giving oxygen to recharge the human dynamo.
It is therefore even more essential to provide for an adequate sup-
ply of pure air during the night than in the day time. There is
absolutely no danger of “catching cold” from cold, fresh air. On
the contrary, the bodily heat, which results from combustion, is
increased by an abundant supply of oxygen. A “cold” is really
but an effort of the system to cast out impurities, chiefly through
the mucous membranes of the throat and nose. Few persons real-
ize that the amount of air taken up by the system daily outweighs
that of the solid food.
The changes which have taken place in the composition of the
exhaled air are indicated by the following table:
Constituent
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Carbon dioxide
Inhaled Ale Exhaled Air
Volumes per cent
78.35	78.85
20.77	16.
0.04	4.35
Exhaled air is also saturated with water vapor and contains
traces of ammonia and organic matter varying with the diet, cli-
mate and occupation of the individual. Under normal conditions, if
the blood is rich in the essential organic salts, the lungs absorb
through the medium of the red blood corpuscles twenty-four and
one-half ounces of oxygen during twenty-four hours, while they
give off twenty-eight ounces of carbon dioxide in the same time.
If the blood is deficient in sodium, a considerable amount of car-
bon dioxide is retained in the lungs. Children need relatively﻿SUNLIGHT AND AIR
31
more oxygen than adults, as the tissue changes are more active
during the growth of the organism.
The adult man of average weight, at each inhalation draws in
about one pint of air, and during twenty-four hours he averages
fifteen respirations a minute. Thus he takes in two gallons of air
a minute or 120 gallons an hour, amounting to about 2,880 gallons
or 384 cubic feet a day. This volume of air would fill a room
measuring a little over seven feet in each direction. The weight
of this volume is about thirty pounds.,and contains about seven
pounds of oxygen, as the latter forms 23.2 per cent of weight of the
atmosphere. Of the total amount of inhaled air the human body
takes up oxygen at the rate of 4.78 per cent by volume or 5.25
per cent by weight, while exhaled air contains 4.34 per cent of
carbon dioxide by volume or 6.5 per cent by weight.
Of the total amount of oxygen inhaled, the body generally ab-
sorbs from eight to ten ounces (one-third) during the activities
of day time, while during sleep in the open air, or in well ventilated
rooms, the quantity may be doubled to sixteen ounces. It may be
noted here, incidentally, that the absorption of oxygen depends
largely on the number of red blood corpuscles in a given quantity
of blood, a subject which will be treated more fully in another
chapter. During severe muscular exertion respiration is also in-
creased in frequency and in depth, and the volume of air exchanged
may be from five to seven times greater than during a period of
rest.
Experiments have been made by German scientists showing the
effect on oxygen consumption of walking on a level and climbing.
The following figures give the quantities of oxygen consumed dur-
ing one minute, the subject being a man of 125 pounds weight:
It appears that walking increases the consumption of oxygen
threefold, climbing nearly fivefold over that consumed at rest.
These facts illustrate the influence of muscular activity upon the
bodily metabolism and the incidental purification of the system
from waste matter. Regular exercise in the open air, during all
Form of Exercise
Standing at rest
Walking on a level
Climbing
Oxygen Consumption
16 cubic inches
48	“
78 I﻿32
RATIONAL DIET
seasons of the year, is one of the most important factors for the
preservation of health and the prolongation of life.
There is also a remarkable difference in the various species of
animals in regard to their need of oxygen. It appears that this
need is regulated by the amount of heat generated. The birds, on
account of their enormous muscular activity during flight, use
up more than the mammals, and the latter require at least from
ten to twenty times as much oxygen, in proportion to their weight,
as the cold blooded animals. A small animal gives off more heat
from a relatively larger surface and consequently requires more
oxygen than animals of a larger size, while young animals require
more than full-grown animals of the same species. The following
table serves to illustrate these differences:
Amount of oxygen consumed in 24 hours, in proportion
to one ounce of bodily weight in cubic inches at 32°F.
Sparrow	690	cubic inches
Duck	100-135	a n
Dog	65-100	l l < c
Man	30- 48	( i a
Frog	4- 8	a a
Earthworm	7-	a a
Eel	4- 5	a a
Lizard, hibernating	1- 6	ii ii
The temperature of the air must also be considered in relation
to its effect upon our health. Cold air causes a natural exhilaration
far superior to the stimulation of any artificial tonic. It is denser
and richer in oxygen than hot air. Let us compare zero air and
air at 100° F. Since about one-fifth of the air is oxygen, 1,000
cubic feet of air contain 200 cubic feet of oxygen at 100° F. Air
increases and decreases in volume as it rises or falls in temperature.
For every degree it rises, it increases about 1/500. In 100 degrees
it will increase or decrease in volume 100/500 or 1/5. Thus by
lowering the temperature of the air from 100° F. to zero, the
amount of oxygen it contains will be one-fifth greater. But there
is also a decrease in volume, and the 1,000 cubic feet of air will
now be 800 cubic feet, containing the 200 cubic feet of oxygen.
If we increase this volume of cold air again to 1,000 feet we will
have over four pounds oxygen more than in the same volume of air
at 100° F. In other words, when we reduce this 1,000 cubic feet
to zero, we shall have fifty cubic feet of oxygen, or twenty-five per﻿SUNLIGHT AND AIE
33
cent more oxygen than at 100° F. Consequently when we take
in a breath of twenty-eight cubic inches, as we do on an average,
we get one-fourth more oxygen at zero than at 100° F., and if we
breathe air at 50°, we get one-eighth more oxygen than at
100° F. The degree of activity of our life depends upon the
amount of oxygen in our bodies. In hot weather, especially on
sultry nights, it is difficult to store up enough oxygen during
sleep to replace the amount we lose during the day. But in the
cold, dense air of the winter we get a larger supply of oxygen,
which makes us more active physically as well as mentally. It is
the out-door life in the cool, fresh air of the temperate zones
which gives us a strong constitution and increases our resistance
against disease. This is the reason why the inhabitants of the
temperate zones have more energy and are more advanced than
those of the tropics. Today the Caucasians are the foremost among
the races of the world, not because they are more or less meat-
eaters, as is so often asserted, but because during thousands of
years our ancestors possessed the advantage of a cool and invig-
orating climate, which helped to develop their mental and physical
powers to a higher degree. A sound and vigorous body can be
produced only by pure blood and healthy nerves. One of the best
blood purifiers and one of the most effective nerve-tonics is that
which nature has amply provided for all—oxygen, the elixir of life.
Procure your full measure of it every day of the year by doing
useful work in the open air. It will bring you new strength and
vitality and a happy and cheerful attitude of mind.﻿CHAPTER IV
Water
Water is one of the most characteristic substances of our planet
It may simultaneously appear in solid, liquid and gaseous form;
it has been adapted as a unit of measure for the specific gravity
of all other substances; it plays an important role in the circula-
tion of the elements in the earth’s surface. From oceans and
lakes, fields and forests, a continuous stream of water is rising as
vapor into the atmosphere, to be recondensed in cooler regions
and precipitated as rain or snow. Three-fourths of these precipi-
tations, of course, return directly to the oceans, the rest falling
on land, collecting in rivers and lakes or else penetrating the earth,
perhaps to be brought to the surface again as springs and wells.
When water falls as rain to the earth, it absorbs carbon dioxide,
ammonia and other soluble gases, if present, and washes the
atmosphere free from dust-particles and impurities. This meteoric
water (rain or snow), although nearly free from dissolved mineral
substances, is therefore by no means pure, except in very high
altitudes and above the line of perpetual snow and ice.
From twenty-five to forty per cent of the annual rainfall in
the temperate zones, soaks at once into the ground and passes
downward through the soil to hardpan, to clayey or impervious
layers, or to rock surface, thence through crevices, broken joints,
or glacial drift deposits to the water-table. From here it may flow
along the slopes for many miles, until it finds its way again to
the surface, either from the bottom of a lake, the bed of a river,
the side of a hill or mountain, or supplying wells. Reappearing as
spring water it is free from all organic matter, but often rich in
gases and minerals. The hardness of most spring-water is chiefly
due to its content of calcium bicarbonate wiijch is formed by the
action of carbonic acid in rain water upon calcareous materials.
Good water should be clear, colorless, quite free from sus-
pended matter, and yet it should contain small quantities of carbon
dioxide and pure air so as to give it a pleasant taste. In its
chemical composition it ought to be as free as possible from organic
34﻿WATER; ITS RELATION TO LIFE
35
matter and not contain more than one-thousandth part of mineral
matter or fifty grains per gallon. Unless the source of water is
above suspicion, the water should he boiled, filtered or distilled.
An addition of a small quantity of lime juice or lemon juice has
also a purifying influence, on account of its large percentage
of fruit acid.
Absolutely pure water can be obtained only by repeated dis-
tillations of fairly pure water in vessels constructed of silver.
Distilled water, even when stored in porcelain or glass, quickly
takes up small quantities of silicates, of which the containers are
made. The purest water we can obtain in nature is the rain falling
on high mountains, or in the country after iwveral hours of heavy
precipitation.
Even rain water contains some minute solid particles, which
are necessary for the condensation of the water vapor in the
atmosphere, but the earthy matter of rain water is infinitesimal
compared to that of hard water. Bacteria are also present in rain
water, which should be filtered if to be used for drinking purposes.
Rain water is best stored in cement lined wells, as metal poisoning
may occur from water stored in galvanized iron tanks. Decay-
ing organic matter increases the solvent power of water for metals,
corroding, thereforePIthe containers and conveyance pipes. We
hear of occasional cases of lead and zinc poisoning, resulting from
water stored too long in galvanized tanks, which should never be
used for this purpose.
All spring waters are more or less hard, the degree of hardness
being generally determined by their capacity for dissolving soap.
In soft wTater, such as rain water or distilled water, soap lathers
immediately, while in hard water a considerable amount of soap
is wasted before any lather is formed. This condition is caused
by the calcium salts, carbonates and sulphate of lime, which unite
with the fatty acids of the soap to produce new combinations.
Only after these salts are chemically combined with the fatty
acids can a satisfactory lather be made.
Calcium carbonate in spring-water is formed by the presence
of free carbonic acid gas (collected during its passage through
the air as rain) which combines with the lime, taken up from the
soil. Boiling the water breaks up the calcium carbonate into its
component parts. The carbonic acid gas escapes into the air﻿36
RATIONAL DIET
and the lime is precipitated, but unless calcium carbonate was the
only mineral present, the water may still be hard, although less
so than before. Chloride of calcium and sulphate of calcium can-
not he removed by boiling, and for separating these substances,
there is no better remedy than distillation. If a still is used to
purify the drinking water, such water, from which a part of the
impurities have been removed by boiling or filtering, will not clog
or coat the apparatus with lime as readily as very hard waters.
The belief that hard waters are beneficial because they furnish
the necessary lime to the human system, and that soft water causes
soft bones and premature decay of the teeth, or dissolves some of
the necessary elements of the mucous membranes of the stomach
and intestines, has no foundation at all. Distilled water will not
deprive living tissues of organic salts, as is often assumed.
Lime, to be of any benefit to the system, must be supplied in
the organic form such as found in fruits and vegetables. The com-
mon practice of giving lime water to babies cannot be justified in
the light of modern physiological chemistry. In fact, very hard
waters often cause dyspepsia and constipation, which are relieved
by the use of soft or distilled water.
Vegetables cooked in hard water are rendered hard and indi-
gestible. This is especially the case with legumes, as the sulphate
of calcium in water, when boiled, forms hard indigestible com-
pounds with the legumin, causing flatulency. There is no doubt
that the use of distilled water tends to prolong life as it prevents
to a large extent the ossification of the arteries and lessens the work
of the kidneys.
Dr. Luther L. Von Wedekind of the Navy Yard of Brooklyn,
N. Y., who has had wide experience in regard to distilled water,
which is used exclusively in the U. S. Navy, writes as follows:
“Any thinking person, medical or lay, who has even a medi-
ocre knowledge of the process of elimination, not only of toxins,
but the general run of excrementitious matter from the human
body, will at once recognize the therapeutic value of pure water;
for if he thinks only a little, he will realize that this surplus of
fluid in no way overtaxes the kidneys, but relieves it of its burden
by sending to this filter a diluted instead of a concentrated solu-
tion, and that the process of elimination by the pores is vastly
improved.”
It is unquestionable that well aerated distilled water, i.e., is﻿WATER; ITS RELATION TO LIFE
37
purified water, is preferable to the usual hard spring waters. Those
who live far away from the centers of population, where distilled
water can be had at reasonable prices, and are doubtful about their
water supply, should procure a small water still for their daily sup-
ply of drinking water.
Water is necessary to all forms of vegetable and animal life,
even the lowest types. The change of matter which produces
human energy is dependent upon the presence of water in the
tissues. No vital action is possible without it. It makes up nearly
two-thirds of the human body, and the following table gives the
percentage of water in its various parts:
The presence of water is essential in the processes of digestion
and absorption as a solvent for foods. It is likewise necessary for
dissolving the various substances which have to be removed from
the body through the excretory organs. More than one-half of
the amount of water taken into the system is again discharged
through the kidneys, about one-quarter through the skin, seven-
teen per cent through the lungs and four per cent through the
intestines. Thus we are constantly losing water in various ways.
The air we exhale is saturated with moisture and the skin is daily
giving off from one to two pints of water in the form of invisible
perspiration, or in the form of sweat during strenuous exercise.
Under normal conditions, the kidneys discharge from two to three
pints daily, but there are habitual drinkers of light alcoholic
beverages, such as beer, who often consume from eight to ten
Teeth
Bones
Cartilage
Red blood corpuscles
Liver
Muscular tissues
Spleen
Lungs
Brain
Bile
Blood plasma
Blood serum
Lymph
Saliva
Gastric juice
10.	per	cent
13.	“	“
55.	“	“
68.7	“	“
71.5	“	“
75.	“	I
75.5	“	m
80.	“
80.5	“	“
86.	“	“
90.	“
90.7	“
94.	“
95.5	“	“
99.5	E	I﻿;8
RATIONAL DIET
pints of liquid during a single day, thus overtaxing and weaken-
ing the kidneys and at the same time impoverishing the blood.
The amount of water actually needed by the body depends on
various circumstances, principally on climate and occupation. The
greater the functional activity of the organism, the greater the
need for fluid. This need is indicated by thirst which is best
satisfied by pure water, but the larger part of the water necessary
for the physiological functions of the system, may be derived from
our food, if judiciously selected. Thus fruits contain a very large
percentage of water, from 80 to 90 per cent, so that people par-
taking freely of fresh fruits and vegetables, need little or no water
in addition to that supplied by their food. Furthermore, in na-
ture’s products, we procure water in the purest form, distilled in
her own laboratory, and this is undoubtedly the best and most
hygienic way in which water can be taken. Besides, in fruits and
vegetables, the water is in an organic combination with other
elements and in this state has the most beneficial action upon our
system. A person living largely on these foods has very little
desire for any liquid. It is only the excessive consumption of meat
and other highly seasoned foods which create an abnormal thirst.
Certain animals, such as hares and rabbits, which feed on grasses
and herbs containing about 85% of water, never drink as long as
they can find their natural food. Mother’s milk contains about
87% of water, and juicy fruits and succulent vegetables nearly
come up to the same standard. A person consuming about four
pounds of fresh fruit daily, has in addition to about eight ounces
of solid food, at least three pints of water of unsurpassed quality.
As already stated, in case of a high protein diet more water
is necessary than with a diet consisting largely of foods in which
fats and carbohydrates predominate, because the waste products of
the former need a large amount of water for their solution and ex-
cretion. We should not, however, entertain the idea that by copious
water drinking we are able to flush the system like a sewer. This
is a mistaken view resulting from a lack of understanding of
the physiological functions of the organism. Purification of the
human organism is an electro-chemical process of the living cells.
The waste products like uric acid, sulphuric acid, carbonic acid,
etc., must be first combined with some of the alkaline elements,﻿WATER; ITS RELATION TO LIFE
39
principally sodium, before they can be taken up by the blood stream
and excreted. If the diet is lacking in the necessary organic salts,
large quantities of water will only complicate matters by thinning
the blood and still further reducing its percentage of mineral ele-
ments. Similarly, the digestive juices and other fluids of the
body will lose their strength. Digestion and elimination will be
impaired, while the heart and kidneys will be overworked. On
the other hand, a well-planned improvement of the diet will enrich
the blood in the needful organic salts and aid the system in the
performance of its physiological functions, especially in the more
complete digestion of foods and in the excretion of waste matter.
The excessive use of table salt (inorganic chloride of sodium)
wht$h is often used as an aid to digestion, cannot be condemned
too severely. It creates an unnatural thirst, as it deprives the tis-
sues of a largflamount of water on account of its diuretic proper-
tied/ Moreover, a person who partakes of a beverage, not because
he is thirsty, but because that beverage is palatable, is exceeding
the actual needs of the system and overtaxing his excretory organs.
Indeed, a very large number of people think they cannot quench
their thirst with plain water, but must have an ingredient which
also pleases the palate. These artificially acquired cravings, largely
due to wrong eating, are responsible for a good deal of over-drink-
ing with its fatal consequences. The thirsty person who cannot
satisfy his thirst unless the beverage contains what is really a drug,
has actually acquired a most pernicious habit. Among such un-
hygienic drinks can be classified the various intoxicating bever-
ages, even if containing but a small percentage of alcohol, and
coffee, tea, soda water and the numerous cai’bonated drinks which
are dispensed at soda fountains and refreshment counters. All
these drinks, when consumed regularly, convey something into
the organism over and above the water itself, something that is
not only distinctly injurious to the system, but that also offsets
the beneficial action of the water. Furthermore, alcoholic bever-
ages stimulate the kidneys to excessive excretions of urine which
constantly carry off necessary mineral elements from blood and
lymph.
All fluids have to pass through the blood-vessels of the stomach
and the lacteals of the small intestine to the thoracic duct which﻿40
RATIONAL DIET
passes upward along the front of the spine and opens at the root
of the neck into the large blood-vessel leading to the heart. Prom
here the blood stream passes to every part and organ of the body,
nourishing and cleansing the cells and forming digestive juices
and glandular secretions. The organic salts in performing their
functions use up vital electricity and magnetism, and must be
renewed by means of natural food. Mineral waters, coffee, tea
and alcoholic beverages do not supply these salts, but still further
vitiate the already impoverished blood and lymph. In all such
conditions an exclusive fruit diet will be more beneficial than the
taking of one or two gallons of liquid daily, for which there is no
physiological need.
There also exists a wide-spread and entirely unfounded notion
that the salts contained in mineral waters supply the elements for
the proper physiological functions of our organism. Careful in-
vestigations have shown repeatedly that inorganic substances, like
lime, soda, potash, iron, silica, etc., contained in these waters,
while they may enter into the circulation and produce some tem-
porary chemical action, are not able to perform the vital processes
in place of the highly organized salts of natural foods. The won-
derful cures reported from renowned watering places, must be
attributed to the increased exercise in fresh air and a more or less
restricted diet, rather than to the copious drinking from certain
springs. Most of the mineral waters which are used as aperients
give only temporary relief and, if regularly taken, produce a
catarrhal condition of the alimentary canal. Pure water, with the
addition of some unfermented fruit juices, is far more beneficial
in such cases, as the mild organic acids of the fruits promote the
normal action of the digestive organs and help to overcome
constipation.
As already pointed out, the best way to regulate the water sup-
ply of the system, is to adopt a simple and frugal diet, free from
inorganic salt, spices and condiments, but with a liberal supply of
salad plants and fresh fruits. Thus the desire for liquids will be
greatly reduced and, whenever thirst occurs, it will be natural and
best satisfied with pure and soft water in moderate quantity.
If liquids for which there is no physiological need, are habit-
ually taken into the system it is certainly not in accordance with
the laws of hygiene. No strict rules in regard to the quantity of﻿WATER; ITS RELATION TO LIFE
41
water can be made, except that drinking during meals should he
avoided, or at least reduced to a minimum. If there is an indi-
cation of thirst, the meal should consist largely of fresh fruit.
Ice water should never be taken, and the temperature of drink-
ing water should never be much below 50° Fahrenheit. When
the use of hot water is required internally, the temperature should
be between 110° and 120° Fahrenheit, or slightly above blood heat.﻿CHAPTER V
The Constituents of Food
The problem of proper nutrition is a very important one in the
life of the single cell as well as in the complicated organism of
higher plants and animals. The scientific study of this subject is
comparatively new. The first effective impulse to systematic in-
vestigation of the chemistry of foods was given by the German
scientist Baron von Liebig about seventy years ago. It is only
within recent years that we have acquired definite knowledge of
the chemical composition of foods. No one knew formerly, except
in a very crude way, of what our bodies and our foods were com-
posed and how the different chemical elements served their pur-
poses in nutrition. Even today the majority of otherwise intelli-
gent people know but little about what their food contains; how
it nourishes them; whether they are economical or wasteful in
buying and preparing it for use, and whether or not the food is
suitable for the actual needs of the body.
The physical manifestations of animal life depend primarily
upon the electric and magnetic power stored up by the sunlight in
the complex organic compounds of the vegetable kingdom. All food
for men and animals is directly or indirectly the product of vege-
table life. The process of digestion splits these compounds into
simple organic forms, thereby setting free the latent electric and
magnetic energy stored in the food and transferring it to our sys-
tem. The building of the tissues proceeds according to the general
ISvv of life and growth, which is founded on the impulse to form
new cells and to renovate or change old ones. In other words,
nutrition is essentially the attraction and assimilation of a certain
amount of new matter by the cells of the body, with the simulta-
neous removal of substances which have expended their vital energy.
To insure perfect and healthy nutrition food should contain
all the eighteen elements which are essential to make up the body.
Furthermore, these elements must be furnished in organic com-
binations and in certain well-defined proportions, as they exist
in natural food products. Life cannot be maintained by proxi-
42﻿THE CONSTITUENTS OF FOOD
43
mate food principles extracted artifically from natural foods, as,
for instance, pure gluten separated from the wheat kernel, refined
sugar extracted from the sugar beet, and the many manufactured
products which flood the market. Crude minerals, such as lime,
magnesia, table salt, etc., are likewise unable to build the living tis-
sues of the human body although they may produce some purely
chemical reactions. Still less can the elements as proximate prin-
ciples serve in the processes of nutrition. Organized by nature in
the highly complex compounds of fruits and vegetables, phosphorus,
sulphur and chlorine are assimilated and beneficial; but in their
elementary state they are injurious and even deadly poisonous to
the system.
The oxygen we breathe is the only element which is taken up in
the uncombined state by the body. As such, however, it does not
become an integral part of our tissues, but only enters in a loose
combination with the hemoglobin of the red blood corpuscles, in
which form it is the most productive source of energy.
Although the chemist is able to build up artificially a series of
more or less complex organic compounds, his experiments do not
represent the synthetic processes in the living cell. All of the so-
called organic substances coming from the laboratory are produced
by the application of forces and agents which can never play a
part in the vital processes, such as extreme pressure, high tempera-
ture, strong galvanic currents, etc., agencies which would be
immediately fatal to a living cell. To take an extreme case, how
can a chemist imitate a wheat-kernel? No amount of analysis and
subsequent synthesis will enable him to do so. For, though he
should succeed in forming the simpler organic combinations in their
due proportions, and even imitate the more complex compounds,
still there would be lacking the life-principle with its power of
reproduction, which would utterly defy his efforts. There are in
nature’s organic products subtle qualities which are not susceptible
to chemical analysis, and these are too volatile to survive the
laboratory process of condensation and extraction. The ingre-
dients revealed by the material analyses of foods, are believed
to be essential constituents. Here, too, it is probable that these
ingredients are not the most valuable, but only the coarser part.
Manifold as they seem, the material manifestations of animal life
have but one origin, viz., the oxidation of complex organic sub-﻿44
RATIONAL DIET
stances, and but one object, viz., vital electricity, with beat and
muscular energy as by-products.
The continual setting free of energy, peculiar to tbe living
body, entailing as it does the ceaseless breaking up of various sub-
stances, constitutes a drain upon the system which must be met
by constantly renewed supplies; otherwise the body would waste
away and its energy diminish. Hence, the necessity on the one
hand for food, or those substances which are a source of energy,
and which replace the lost constituents of the body; and on the
other hand, for pure air which supplies oxygen and may be
classed among the foodstuffs. The air combines with the organic
substances, reducing them at the same time to simpler molecules
in the processes of oxidation or combustion, by which potential
energy is turned into kinetic energy. Food, of itself, can exhibit
energy as heat only with intervening phases of chemical action.
Before its energy can be turned into the various forms of ner-
vous and muscular action, it needs to be transmuted into blood
and lymph, and in that transmutation there is a preliminary ex-
penditure of a part of the food’s store of energy. Part of the
potential energy, in other words, of the food is used up in digestion
and assimilation. The nutritive value of food is, to a certain ex-
tent, determined by its digestibility. The energy furnished by a
given amount of food is measured by calories; one calory represent-
ing the amount of heat which would raise the temperature of one
pint of water four degrees Fahrenheit. The number of calories of
a certain food product, however, cannot determine its dietetic and
hygienic value. As already mentioned, the potential energy of
foodstuffs, as utilized by the heart, and the nervous system, is not
only due to the production of heat, but also to the electric, magnetic
and other imponderable forces stored up in the highly organized
molecules of food. In point of fact, the principal role of food
is not simply to he digested and oxidized, as present-day physi-
ology assumes, hut to supply vital electricity and magnetism, and
these are best obtained from the various products of the soil, which
should not undergo much, if any, artificial preparation. A pound
of white flour has 1,635 calories; a pound of refined sugar has 1,750
calories, and a pint of whiskey about the same. Yet none of these
substances if used exclusively can maintain life for any length of
time. Indeed, they would destroy life sooner than total abstinence﻿THE CONSTITUENTS OF FOOD
45
from all food, as they rapidly break down the cells, by depriving
them of their alkaline elements.
While there are more than a thousand different food-products,
their constituents or proximate principles are always about the
same, although they are found in varying proportions. We shall
here briefly enumerate these constituents and deal with them
more explicitly in the following pages.
Water, composed of hydrogen and oxygen, is contained in vary-
ing percentages in all natural food® It is indispensable as a sol-
vent in all the physiological functions of the body and of every
form of life.
Nitrogenous compounds, chiefly found in the form of protein,
are composed of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulphur.
They rebuild the wTear and tear of the tissues and furnish, also,
some potential energy when there is more supplied than needed
for functional purposes. The protoplasm of both the plant and
animal cell is composed mainly of protein. Protein, again, exists
in different forms, such as the albumen of eggs, the casein of milk,
the gluten of cereals, the legumin of pulses, etc. Similar to protein
in chemical composition are the gelatins which, however, do not
assist in repairing the waste of the tissues, but serve as a source
of heat and energy. About fifty different proteins have been suffi-
ciently isolated and studied. Their nitrogen content ranges from
15.50 per cent in egg albumen to about 18 per cent in gluten,
found in wheat and other cereals. The amino acids are nitrogenous
compounds of simpler structure than the proteins. Seventeen
different kinds have been determined so far. In the construction
of the protein molecules of plants, nitrogen is absorbed from the
soil in soluble forms, as compounds of nitrates and ammonium salts,
which are converted first into amino acids and then into protein.
The reverse takes place in the animal body, where the protein
molecule is again broken up into simpler compounds su'th as amino
acids, and is finally transmuted into ammonia, urea, uric acid,
etc., which, in the open air, undergo oxidation and re-conversion
into nitrates and ammonium salts, ready to be taken up again by
the plant.
The non-nitrogenous compounds exist in the form of car*
bohydrates and fats, and are always composed of the same three
elements: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen.﻿46
RATIONAL DIET
The carbohydrates are chiefly products of the vegetable king-
dom, such as sugars, starches, cellulose, gums, pectins and dextrins.
In the milk of mammals, however, we find a considerable amount
of carbohydrates in the form of milk sugar. Carbohydrates are not
directly required, like protein, to build up or repair the cells of
the body, but they are readily oxidized by the inhaled air into
carbon dioxide and water, furnishing heat and energy to the system
with the greatest vital economy.
Fats are found mainly in the seeds of plants and to some extent
in the leaV$8^ skins and fruits; they are also found in most of
the animal food products. Fats are deficient in oxygen and rich
in carbon and hydrogen. Consequently their heat-equivalent is
much greater than that of the carbohydrates. The latter yield
1,820 calories per pound, the former more than twice as much, or
4,040 calories.
The fats and the carbohydrates may replace each other, but
only within certain limits. They do not appear to play exactly the
same part, although composed of the same elements. The fact
that fat is contained in the milk of all mammals, in the eggs, and
in all seeds of plants, seems to demonstrate that it is an indispen-
sable food constituent. It is further proved by the instinctive de-
sire for the addition of fat to a diet, however abundant in car-
bohydrates it may be, and the desire, on the other hand, for the
addition of carbohydrates to the richest fat diet.
To the non-nitrogenous compounds also belong the organic
acids of the vegetable kingdom, such as tartaric acid, citric acid
and malic acid, which are likewise oxidized into carbon dioxide and
water, supplying heat and energy to the system.
While carbohydrates and fats cannot replace protein, a defi-
ciency of nitrogen is made good, to a limited extent, by the protec-
tive agency of the other foodstuffs which offer themselves for all the
purposes except the final one of tissue building. The fat of all foods
is very completely absorbed, far more so than the protein. The
same is true of all carbohydrates, with the single exception of
cellulose.
The vitamins or life elements, whose chemical composition is
not yet fully known, are present in all natural foods. They are
intimately connected with the processes of life and growth, but﻿THE CONSTITUENTS OF FOOD
47
they can be active only when all the body-building elements are
present.
The organic salts play the most important part in our nutri-
tion. In articles on foods and tables of food-contents, they gener-
ally figure under the collective names of mineral matter, ash, or in-
organic foodstuffs, without any attention being paid to their ele-
mentary composition. Their study has been woefully neglected
by the majority of physiologists, who have treated them as a
subject of little importance. We are often confronted with such
statements as these: “The part which each of the mineral elements
takes in animal nutrition is not wrell understood,” or “With
the ordinary mixed diet the body demands for mineral matter may
be met,” but as long as thwimportance of the organic salts in our
system is not recognized and understood, just so long will there
exist such deplorable guesswork, both with regard to diagnosis and
to the treatment of disease.
Physician and patient quite often resemble “the blind leading
the blind” and, indeed, the blinder the members of the medical
profession are, the more instruments do they need in their prac-
tice. They come armed with the microscope, laryngoscope and a
chest of re-agents. They discover germs and bacilli, and invent
serums, vaccines and antitoxins. They do not yet understand that
the real and ultimate cause of disease is beyond the reach of the
microscope; that the origin of all so-called diseases lies in the
diminished vital electricity of the cells, with a corresponding re-
duction of the nerve power and lowering of vital resistance, result-
ing from faulty nutrition, especially from eating emasculated foods,
deficient in organic salts. The organized mineral elements in the
natural foods are essentially the preservers of all the tissues,
giving them stability and power of vital resistance. To the degree
they are lacking in our food or are not supplied in the proper pro-
portion and organic combinations, we are susceptible to injurious
influences.
The mineral constituents of the body are potassium, sodium,
calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, phosphoras, sulphur, silicon,
chlorine, fluorine, and minute quantities of iodine, arsenic and
aluminum. They enter the system as fully oxidized compounds,
and as such furnish little or no potential energy. But they are
indispensable in the performance of all the physiological functions﻿48
RATIONAL DIET
of the system, in the processes of digestion and assimilation, secre-
tion and excretion and in the purification of the blood from waste
matter. They are most essential for the healthy and normal growth
of the organism and may be truly called “the building stones of
the body.”
To enjoy perfect health and immunity from disease, our blood
must contain all the necessary elements in their wonderful combina-
tions; because it is the blood which carries them to the different
parts of the body, nourishing and cleansing the tissues, creating
animal heat, magnetism and electricity.
In recapitulating the different constituents of food, we may
divide them into three classes:
(1)	Those which replace the worn-out tissue elements of the
body and at the same time supply heat and energy, such as proteins
and fats;
(2)	Those which supply heat and energy only, such as car-
bohydrates, gelatins and the inhaled oxygen of the air;
(3)	Those which repair only the worn-out tissues, such as
water and organic salts, the latter through their electro-magnetic
properties being most essential in all the vital functions of the
organism. The organic salts are of as great importance to the
animal and human organism as the proteins, fats and carbohy-
drates.
As previously mentioned, no proximate food-principle alone is
able to sustain vital force in the animal organism, and the above
division is merely provisional. Fats may be placed in the first as
well as in the second class, while gelatins and carbohydrates may
indirectly assist in the building up of cells, by protecting the tissues
from decomposition and oxidation.
In the subsequent pages the different food-constituents will
be considered more elaborately.﻿CHAPTER VI
Pkoteins
Proteins are never absent from the protoplasm of acting living
cells, whether animal or vegetable, and they are indissolubly con-
nected with every manifestation of organic activity. Proteins are
highly complex compounds of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen,
and sulphur, occurring in a solid or viscous condition or, in solution,
in nearly all the solids and liquids of the organism.
In vegetables the proteins are constructed out of the simpler,
chemical compounds which serve as plant food. In animals such
a synthesis never occurs, but the proteins are derived directly or
indirectly from vegetables.
The principal vegetable proteins are:
Albumen in fruits and soft, growing vegetables
Gluten in wheat and other cereals
Legumin in peas, beans, lentils, etc.
Globulin in legumes and nuts
Nucleo-protein in the germs of seeds
Some of the animal proteins are:
Casein in milk and cheese
Albumen in the white and yolk of eggs
Myosin in the flesh of animals
Serum, albumen and fibrin in the blood
Gelatine in bones, collagen and tendons
Nitrogenous extractions in creatin, and allied compounds
In the process of digestion the protein molecule is broken up
into simpler compounds, among which the most essential are the
amino acids. Experiments have shown that they pre-exist in the
protein molecule and are not formed during the digestive process.
Amino acids are crystallizable and do not show the colloidal char-
acter of the protein molecule and are therefore, easily dissolved.
While all proteins yield amino acids, the proteins differ from one
another chemically in the amount of different amino acids they
contain. In the processes of life and growth the animal body
builds its own protein, tissues, and organic matter, which in each﻿50
RATIONAL DIET
organism have an architecture as distinct and characteristic as the
form of the organism itself.
Experiments show, that by the decomposition of protein into
amino acids very little energy is expended; hence, only a very
small amount of energy is required to reconstruct or renew the
tissues of the body.
Attention should be paid to the fact that the nutritive value of
protein, or of a mixture of proteins, depends upon the presence in
its molecules of all the essential amino acids and upon the extent to
which their proportions correspond to those existing in the body
proteins, as one kind of protein may supplement the deficiency of
another. It is, therefore, desirable to include in one’s diet a variety
of foods, not of course to be eaten at the same meal, hut varied
from day to day, from week to week, and from month to month,
such as are furnished by nature in the course of the seasons.
The various proteins differ somewhat in elementary composition,
within the limits of the following figures:
Carbon	(C)	50.	to	55.	per	cent
Oxygen	(O)	19.	to	24.	“	“
Hydrogen	(II)	6.6	to	7.3	“
Nitrogen	(N)	15.	to	19.	“	“
Sulphur	(S)	0.3	to	2.4	“
A few of the vegetable and animal proteins have been analyzed
and their highly complicated atomic structure is indicated by the
following formulas:				No. of Atoms in the Molecule	
Egg-albumin C204		N„	oue	S2	646
Globulin from pumpkin seeds C292	h481	^ 90	o83	s2	948
Protein in hemoglobin of horse Ccao	H1008	N210	0241	s2	2231
Protein in hemoglobin of dog C726	Him	9S	B	s U3	2308
It appears that the proteins	in the	various	species of plants and		
animals have a different atomic structure and arrangement, and
even among the same species there seems to be a difference in that
respect, which is, to a certain extent, reflected in the physical de-
velopment of the individual. A very serious mistake is often made
by valuing all proteins alike. For instance, the amount of pro-﻿PROTEINS; THEIR COMPOSITION
51
tein in meat is calculated according to amounts of nitrogen it
contains, multiplying this amount by 6.25; but we find in meat a
considerable quantity of gelatinous substances, which have a totally
different action in nutrition from that of protein. Artificial prep-
aration, like cooking or frying, diminishes the nutritive value of
proteins to some extent, a fact which should be also considered.
Again, the proteins derived from fresh fruits and vegetables,
also those from uncooked milk, are associated with a greater amount
of alkaline elements which, from a hygienic point of view, make
vegetable proteins superior to those obtained from flesh foods.
The nucleo-proteins, so called because they occur in the nuclei
of cells, generally contain a small amount of phosphorus, while
hemoglobin, a protein compound constituting the red coloring
matter of the blood, contains, besides sulphur, about 0.3 per cent
iron, two atoms of sulphur combining with one of iron.
The fibrous tissues of animals, such as are found in bones, ten-
dons, and ligaments, contain a substance known as collagen, which,
when boiled in water, is transformed into gelatine. The per-
centage composition of the varieties of gelatine is nearly the same
as that of the proteins. The former are somewhat poorer in carbon
and richer in oxygen; they are products of the beginning of the
breaking up and oxidation of the proteins in the animal body, con-
sequently the heat equivalent of gelatine is lower than that of the
proteins. Experiments have shoAvn that no protein can be produced
from gelatine, although we know that all gelatine-yielding tissues
are formed from protein. But if to a small amount of the protein
in the food, which was not in itself sufficient to prevent a loss of
tissue-protein, gelatine was added, the nitrogenous equilibrium
was restored. The gelatine, therefore, had preserved the protein
of the tissues from decomposition. This protein-sparing action is
also shared by fats and carbohydrates, but not in the same degree
as by gelatine.
Since muscle consists chiefly of protein, the early students of
physiology supposed that this substance was the source of muscular
energy. This view was first maintained by Baron von Liebig who
contrasted the foodstuffs containing no nitrogen (the fats and
carbohydrates), which he named “respiratory foods,” with the
proteins, which he termed “plaster foods.” He believed that the
former served mainly to generate heat, while the latter were indis-﻿52
EATIONAL DIET
pensable for the production of energy. Today we know that in
muscular work, the excretion of nitrogen is increased only to a
very slight degree, but that the excretion of carbonic acid and the
absorption of oxygen is notably increased; that, therefore, muscu-
lar energy is mainly derived from non-nitrogenous substances. A
portion of the carbon and hydrogen of the protein molecule will
be oxidized within the body, but there remains a nucleus of nitro-
gen, with some carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which resists com-
bustion and must be excreted by the liver and kidneys. In physical
exercise, when foods rich in proteins are the sole source of the
energy of muscular contraction, the work accomplished results
from the direct oxidation of carbohydrate material, indirectly de-
rived from the protein molecules. But for the normal man this
process is far less economical physiologically than the direct utili-
zation of carbohydrate and fat, introduced in the form of natural
foods, such as fruit, nuts, cereal or vegetable products in proper
combinations, furnishing sufficient protein to meet the ordinary
nitrogen requirements of the body. While an increase in the pro-
tein may assist in building new tissues, the source of muscular
energy is to be chiefly found in the oxidation of the non-nitrogenous
materials, carbohydrate and fat.
It has been one of the physiological dogmas of the past that
the tissues and organs of the body, or rather their constituent cells,
must be supplied with protein for all their functions whenever it
was available. The remarkable fact that the output of nitrogen is
equivalent to the intake of protein; that the body cannot store up
nitrogen to any considerable extent, has been taken as conclusive
evidence that the organism prefers to use protein for most of its
requirements. We may with more valid reason argue that the
large and significant increase in excretion of nitrogen, after partak-
ing of foods rich in proteins, is an indication that the body has
no need of this excess of nitrogen; that it is really a possible source
of danger, since the system immediately rids itself of the surplus,
involving a needless waste of vital energy.
The metabolism in the body usually takes place in the active
tissues, but, according to our present knowledge of the matter, it
does not seem to occur at the expense of the protein in living cells.
In other words, it is not the protein incorporated in the cells that
undergoes change, but the protein circulating in and about the﻿PROTEINS; THEIR COMPOSITION
53
internal meshes of the cells and tissues, the living cell being the
active agent in controlling the process. This view readily explains
the elimination of nitrogen after a meal rich in proteins, as a means
of excreting a surplus of food elements for which the body has no
need.
As the protein changes into blood and lymph, the fluids bathing
the cells are correspondingly enriched, and as a result the break-
ing down of protein molecules is accelerated to the same degree.
The protein organized in the cell is never decomposed directly.
It must first undergo cleavage, and then under the influence of
the living cells it will be changed into carbonic acid and urea in
the same manner as the circulating protein. It is evident that an
excess of the latter will be attended by an increased excretion of
nitrogen in the form of waste products, while at the same time
there may be some accumulation of protein in the cells, and conse-
quently some conversion into siiperfluous tissue. During fasting,
or with an insufficient intake of protein, the current will naturally
be in the opposite direction, and the organized proteids of the cells
will slowly but surely be drawn upon. A small amount of protein
(one to two ounces) will always be necessary to supply the loss
incidental to tissue waste, but beyond this requirement there is no
real need of protein. We may compare, to a certain extent, the
tissues of the body with the structure of an engine which wears
out very slowly, while fresh fuel for power must constantly be
supplied.
The physiological fuel value of protein, containing as it does
from fifty per cent to fifty-five per cent of carbon, is not greater
than that of an equal amount of sugar or starch, and considerably
less than half that of fat. Consequently, there is no reason why
protein should be used for its energy-value in preference to the
non-nitrogenous foodstuffs. As already indicated, muscular energy
is mainly the result of the direct oxidation of fat and carbohy-
drates, while in the breaking down of protein molecules a large
proportion of nitrogenous matter has to be split off and disposed
of before the carbon molecule can be rendered available. This
process involves not only a loss of energy, but, in addition, a cer-
tain amount of useless labor is thrown upon the liver, kidneys and
other organs. The greater part of the protein included in so-called
standard diets is not needed. In order to make use of the carbon﻿54
RATIONAL DIET
contained in the protein molecule, the organism is forced to tem-
porarily put extra work upon the excretory organs.
The numerous dietary studies made in the United States and
Europe do not throw light on the hygienic aspect of the food prob-
lem, especially on the proper selection and combination of foods.
The usual bill of fare is not an index to the normal needs of the
body, but rather to the morbid cravings of perverted appetite.
The quantity of food consumed, moreover, is by no means a safe
indication of the physiological requirements of the body. Eating
three or four meals a day has become a habit with many people;
and as meat, cereals, eggs or dairy products constitute the greater
part of the dietary, a large quantity of protein is consumed for
which there is no actual need. No intelligent person can maintain
that the enormous consumption of meat, alcohol, coffee and tea
indicates a true physiological requirement. Civilized man lives to
eat instead of eating to live, and the majority of people will con-
temptuously reject any advice of moderation, until, after years of
over-indulgence, they find themselves in the grip of chronic dis-
ease. The actual requirements of the body can never be deter-
mined accurately by what the average person eats and drinks, or
by his instincts, but only by the knowledge resulting from a care-
fid study of the physiological functions of the body.
As early as 1887 experiments were made in German}7 which
demonstrated that the amount of protein used could safely be
reduced to 40 grams (1 y2 ounces), or to about one-third of the
usual amount of 120 grams (4^4 ounces). Later investigations
confirmed the results of these experiments. But the old standards
of Liebig and Voit had been so firmly established in the minds of
the medical profession, that these experiments merely excited com-
ment without changing to any extent the prevalent belief of the
necessity for large amounts of protein to maintain health and
strength.
In the United States extended experiments have been made by
Professor Jaffa of the University of California at Berkeley, and
by Dr. Russell H. Chittenden of Yale University at New Haven,
Connecticut. Professor Jaffa’s report of investigations made
among a number of fruitarians, contains an interesting account
of a dietary study of a family of fruitarians, consisting of two﻿PROTEINS; THEIR COMPOSITION
55
women and three children. They had all been fruitarians from
five to seven years, their diet consisting chiefly of fruits and nuts,
with the addition of celery, honey, olive oil, and occasionally a
small amount of prepared cereal food. This family was in the
habit of taking only two meals a day, at 10:30 in the morning and
at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. The first meal always consisted of
nuts and fruit, the nuts being eaten first. At the second meal,
nuts were usually replaced by olive oil and honey. The nuts used
were almonds, Brazil-nuts, pine-nuts, pignolias and walnuts.
Fruits, both fresh and dried, were used, the former including
apples, apricots, bananas, figs, grapes, olives, oranges, peaches,
pears, plums, and tomatoes. The dried fruits were dates and
raisins.
On this frugal diet, which consisted chiefly of uncooked foods,
excluding all animal foods and legumes, this family with three
growing children had lived in good health all these years. All
the members of the family were put under observation for about
three weeks. The food consumed was carefully weighed and its
chemical composition determined. The average amount of food
consumed per day was: 33 grams (1% ounce) of protein, 59 grams
(2 ounces) of fat, 150 grams (7yi ounces) of carbohydrates,
with a total of about 11 ounces of solid food.
The results of the experiments are summarized in the table
below, which for purposes of comparison includes the results of
Yoit’s experiments on a man living on bread, fruit and oil. The
table also gives the results of a number of American dietary studies,
as well as the still commonly accepted standards for a man and a
woman taking moderate muscular exercise. The figures give the
daily amount consumed (28 grams (metric system) are equal to
one ounce).
Carbo- Ratio of protein
	Years	Weight	Cost, cents	Protein, grams	Fat, grams	hydrates, grams	to fat and carbohydrates
Woman	33	90 lbs.	23.1	33	59	150	1-8.6
Woman	30	104 lbs.	17.2	25	57	99	1-9.1
Girl	13	75 lbs.	19.0	26	52	157	1-10.5
Boy	9	43 lbs.	19.9	27	56	152	1-10.3
Girl	6	30 lbs.	17.0	24	58	134	1-11.
Girl	7	34 lbs.	27.5	40	72	134	1-7.4﻿56
RATIONAL DIET
Carbo«
Other Dietary Studies	¡g*
German vegetarian (Yoit)	54	22	573
Average of 53 investigations of
well-to-do families in the U. S. 103	138	436
Ratio of protein
to fat and
carbohydrate»
1-11.6
1-7.3
Old Dietary Standards
Man with light muscular work
(Atwater)	112
Man with moderate muscular work
(Voit)	118	56	400
1-5.8
1-5.3
Man with moderate muscular work
(Atwater)	125	1-5.8
Woman with moderate muscular
work (Atwater)	90	1-6.1
The experiments as a whole show very small amounts of protein,
ranging from 24 grams (% ounce) to 40 grams (1^2 ounces) per
day, while Atwater’s standard referred to above for a man at
light muscular work calls for 112 grains (4 ounces) of protein.
The nutritive ratio (protein to fat and carbohydrates) of the old
standards ranges between 1-5 and 1-6, that of the fruitarian diet-
aries between 1-7.4 and 1-11. For the adult man a nutritive ratio
of 1-10, or even 1-12, would be adequate, which means that
the main bulk of our food supply, whether we are vegetarians or
not, should consist of fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably those
which can be eaten in the uncooked state. Says Professor Jaffa
regarding the foregoing fruitarian dietaries:
“It would appear upon examining the recorded data and com-
paring the results with commonly accepted standards, that all the
subjects were decidedly under-nourished, even making allowance
for their light weight. But when we consider that the two adults
have lived on this diet for 7 years, and think they are in better
health and capable of more work than they ever were before, we
hesitate to pronounce judgment. The three children, though below
the average in height and weight, had the appearance of health and
strength. They ran and jumped and played all day like ordinary
healthy children, and were said to be unusually free from colds
and other complaints peculiar to childhood.”
Likewise, a number of German scientists have reported experi-
ments with subjects on vegetarian, as well as mixed diets, furnish-
ing much less nitrogen than the commonly accepted standards call
for, and have found that the nitrogen equilibrium can be main-
tained with small amounts of protein food.﻿PROTEINS; THEIR COMPOSITION
57
Most interesting and valuable are the systematic experiments
conducted by Dr. Russell II. Chittenden at Yale University with
a number of professional men and a detachment of twenty men
from the Hospital Corps of the U. S. Army. The investigations,
which were especially made to determine more closely the nitrogen
requirements of man, covered many months and are fully described
in Dr. Chittenden’s works, “The Physiological Economy of Nutri-
tion” and “The Nutrition of Man.” The dietetic habits of all
the men were in accord with common practice and their daily con-
sumption of protein averaged from four to six ounces, which was
gradually reduced to about two ounces. Says Dr. Chittenden:
“The experimental results presented afford very convincing
proof that so far as body-weight and nitrogen-equilibrium are con-
cerned, the needs of the body are fully met by a consumption of
protein food far below the fixed dietary standards and still further
below the amounts called for by the recorded habits of mankind.
General health is equally well maintained, and with suggestions of
improvement that are frequently so marked as to challenge atten-
tion. Most conspicuous, however, though something that was en-
tirely unlooked for, was the effect observed on the muscular
strength of the various subjects.
“With the soldier detail, fifteen distinct strength tests were
made with each man during the six months’ period by means of
appropriate dynamometer tests. . . . Without exception, with all
of the men a phenomenal gain in strength was noted, which
demands explanation. Was it all due to the change in diet? Prob-
ably not, for these men at the beginning of the experiment were
untrained, and it is not to be assumed that months of practical
work in the gymnasium would not result in a certain amount of
physical development with corresponding gain in muscular skill
and power. Putting the question aside for the moment, however,
it is surely proper to emphasize this fact, viz., that although the
men for a period of five months were restricted to a daily diet con-
taining only one-third to one-half the amount of protein food they
had been accustomed to, there was no loss of physical strength, no
indication of any physical deterioration that could be detected. In
other words, the men were certainly not being weakened by the
lowered intake of protein food. This is in harmony with the prin-
ciple already discussed, that the energy of muscle work comes pri-
marily from the breaking down of non-nitrogenous material, and
consequently a diminished intake of protein food can have no in-
hibitory effect, provided of course there is an adequate amount of
proteid ingested to satisfy the endogenous requirements of the
tissues. ’ ’﻿58
RATIONAL DIET
It is now a fairly well established fact that the average need
for proteid food by adults is fully met by a supply from five to
six grains for each pound of body-weight. Hence, for a man
weighing 150 pounds there would be required about two ounces of
protein daily. Some German dietitians have reduced even this
amount to one-half and advocate a nutritive ratio of 1:20 (propor-
tion of protein to fats and carbohydrates). It should he remem-
bered, however, that such loiv standards can he maintained only
when due respect is paid to the quality of the food, particularly
to its content of organic salts, a matter which has heen entirely
overlooked by nearly all investigators along these lines.
For instance, Dr. Chittenden outlines a daily dietary in which
sweets and farinaceous foods predominate, while there is deficiency
of fresh fruits and 'well prepared vegetables, which supply the need-
ful organic salts for the formation of normal and healthy blood,
a fact which will be better understood by a careful study of the
following chapters. Such a diet may not show any ill effects in the
course of a few months or a year, especially if the person takes a
liberal amount of exercise and does not take stimulants and nar-
cotics. But it may be safely said that in time, grave functional
disorders will appear if the elements which are essential for the
formation of normal and healthy blood are not furnished in suffi-
cient quantity and in the right proportion. It often takes nearly
a lifetime to ascertain the merits and demerits of a certain dietetic
regimen. There are many persons who are apparently healthy,
but are suddenly “stricken” with disease.
While the menus outlined by Dr. Chittenden are better than
the average American dietary,'1still they leave room for improve-
ment. If the organic salts are not furnished in the right propor-
tion, or if any of the elements are lacking in our daily food, which
may be otherwise well-proportioned, the living cells of the body
are broken down in abnormal quantities in order to make up for
the deficiency. Nevertheless, the medical profewion still holds to
the idea that a high protein diet is necessary. Doctors are not yet
realizing the great importance of the organic salts for the human
body, for the performance of its various physiological fxmctions
and their relation to health and disease.
While*ome dietitians admit that the body can maintain it-
self for a short period on a small amount of protein, they claim﻿PROTEINS; THEIR COMPOSITION
59
that finally the organism will be injured if the usual quantity of
nitrogenous foods is not supplied. This theory is pretty well re-
futed by the investigations of the Japanese scientist, Kintaro
Oshima, who published an interesting treatise in the English lan-
guage giving the results of a number of experiments among all
classes of people living in different parts of Japan where certain
dietetic habits have been established for hundreds of years. Says
Oshima:
“Probably the most interesting of the dietary studies are those
with poorer classes which comprise by far the larger part of the
population. The dietaries of the miscellaneous class, including
employees, prisoners, etc., consisted largely of vegetable foods and
supplied on an average 59 grains (2 ounces of proteid and 2190
calories of energy) per man per day.”
Most instructive and interesting are the results obtained in a
study of the dietary habits of three healthy natives of Formosa,
employed as day laborers at the military hospital. They weighed
respectively 134, 121, 120^ pounds. The main portion of their
diet was rice, supplemented by a little salt fish, melon, spinach,
ginger and greens. The daily amount of protein consumed was
48 grams or about 37 grams (lyi ounces) digestible protein,
with a total fuel value of 1948 calories. We may assume that the
amount of protein in the dietaries of the classes living largely on
vegetable foods may not be very far from 2 ounces or 1^ ounces
digestible protein.
Oshima gives a significant picture of the Japanese farming dis-
tricts :
“The rural population of the interior depends very largely or
entirely upon a vegetable diet. Fish is eaten perhaps once or twice
a month and meat once or twice a year, if at all. The poorer work-
ing classes in the cities also use very little animal food. But the
poorer classes in the city and the peasantry comprise nearly 75%
of the total population, and it is, therefore, safe to assume that this
proportion lives chiefly or wholly upon vegetable diet. And this,
it may be observed, practically means vegetarianism. The so-
called lacto-vegetarianism is unknown in Japan. Cows are scarce,
and milk and other dairy products are expensive, and such as are
available are consumed almost entirely by the wealthier people in
the cities.”
In regard to the sanitary conditions Oshima remarks that the
peasants in the rural districts of Japan are really healthier and
stronger than people of the better classes who live on a mixed diet.﻿60
RATIONAL DIET
Regarding the disease known as beri-beri, which frequently
occurred, especially in the Japanese navy, Oshima says: “While
no satisfactory explanation as to the cause of disease was offered,
it was generally believed that there was some very close relation
between the disease and the rice-diet.” Baron Takaki, the Jap-
anese Surgeon-General, claims that the disease is due to a lack of
nitrogen in the food supply, but there is a more correct explana-
tion of the cause of this dreaded nervous disease. The Japanese
remove the outer coat from the rice-kernel and with it some im-
portant organic salts, especially potash, magnesia, oxide of iron,
fluoride of calcium and silica. Fish is also deficient in iron and
silica, and when at the same time not a sufficient quantity of fresh
vegetables is supplied, the blood is impoverished and the nerves
starved. In combating the disease, a liberal supply of vegetables
which are rich in soda, iron, silica and chlorine, is far more effec-
tive than an increase of nitrogenous food in the form of canned
meats which were imported in large quantities during the recent
war. From the official reports it appears that, in considering the
dietetic requirements of man, too much attention has been paid to
the proteins, and not enough to the proportion of the organic salts.
The experiments of the German scientist Rubner demonstrated
that only four per cent of the entire production of energy in the
system goes to the renewal of the tissues, and only four per cent
have to be supplied by the proteins of our food. In a total produc-
tion of about 2,800 calories per day, this would amount to about
112 calories, equal to about one ounce of protein, or four times
less than the requirements of the old formulas of Voit and Atwater.
The low protein requirements of man’s normal diet are distinctly
proven by the changes which occur in mother’s milk, at the differ-
ent stages of the child’s development; these changes are illustrated
in the following table, giving the analyses taken at different periods :
TIME AFTER BIRTH	Protein Per Cent	Fat Per Cent	Milk Sugar Per Cent
From the 8th to the 11th day	2.38	2.92	6.39
From the 20th to the 40th day	1.79	4.04	6.36
From the 70th to the 120th day	1.49	3.29	6.66
At the 170th and later	1.07	2.47	6.86
The mammary glands of the mother supply less protein as the
nursing child grows older, so that after six months the percentage﻿PROTEINS; THEIR COMPOSITION
61
of protein has decreased about seventy per cent, and at the end of
the nursing period the ratio of protein to non-nitrogenous com-
pounds may be considered as one to twelve.
Another important fact regarding nutrition is that the milk
of the various mammals has different amounts of protein adapted
to the rapidity of the growth of the organism. Bunge shows this
in the following comparative table: Time in days for the new-born animal to double its weight		100 parts of milk contain protein
Man	180	1.6 (average)
Horse	60	2.0
Calf	47	3.5
Kid	19	4.3
Pig	18	5.9
Lamb	10	6.5
Dog	8	7.1
Cat	7	9.5
It appears that the rapidly growing body of the infant is well
nourished with milk containing less than two per cent protein, or
about one-half an ounce of protein per day, figuring four pints of
milk as a liberal daily supply.
These are certainly excellent proofs that our daily require-
ment of protein is much smaller than has been so far assumed.
The necessary amount of from one to about two ounces per day
for the adult man can easily be supplied by the products of the
vegetable kingdom without unduly taxing the digestive organs.
The craving for concentrated protein foods, like meat, is one of
man’s acquired habits which lead to many diseased conditions. A
diet of fresh fruits and green-leaf vegetables, supplemented by a
small amount of nuts (preferably nut butter, hygienically pre-
pared), or dairy products, furnishes sufficient protein for almost
any emergency, and such a diet is at the same time most conducive
to health and longevity.﻿CHAPTEE VII
Pats
The non-nitrogenous constituents of foods are divided into two
distinct groups: fats and carbohydrates. Both groups are made up
of the same three elements—carbon, hydrogen and oxygen—but
the quantitative composition is quite different.
Fats are much poorer in oxygen and richer in carbon and
hydrogen than carbohydrates, while their heat equivalent is much
greater. They yield 4040 calories per pound, while carbohydrates
furnish only 1820 calories per pound. The fats are made up of
about 76 per cent carbon, 12 per cent hydrogen and 12 per cent
oxygen.
Fats, as previously stated, exist chiefly in the seeds of plants
and to some extent in fruits, leaves and stems, also in animal
foods, such as milk, eggs and meat. In the animal body fat is mostly
deposited near the surface, but it is also scattered in minute parti-
cles through the various tissues. Fats form on an average about
fifteen per cent of the weight of the body, but the amount varies
with the quantity and quality of food, exercise, climatic and other
conditions. When more food is taken than is necessary for imme-
diate use, the surplus is usually stored up as fat in the body. Lack
of certain organic salts, like iron and sodium, in food also favors
the formation of fat, since the blood is unable to take up a suffi-
cient amount of oxygen for the complete combustion of the carbon.
Under these conditions, both protein and carbohydrates are con-
verted into adipose tissue.
The fats found in plants are, like the carbohydrates, derived
from carbon dioxide and water, and are also very likely formed
synthetically through the agency of chlorophyl. The fat in the
animal body may have three different sources. One portion may
lie derived from the fats which have been ingested as food; an-
other may be formed from the different carbohydrates; while a
third may be the product of the decomposition of protein. That
portion of the body’s fat which is directly derived from the ingested
fats is comparatively small, the greater amount resulting from
the carbohydrates.
62﻿FATS; THEIR COMPOSITION
63
The principal fats contained in vegetable and animal food pro-
ducts are olein, palmitin and stearin. These are chemical combi-
nations of glycerin (C3II803) and fatty acids; the former being a
common constituent, while each fat shows its own characteristic
acid. Accordingly we find:
Oleic acid (C18H3402) in olein
Palmitic acid (C16II3202) in palmitin
Stearic acid (C18II30O2) in stearin
In round numbers it may be said that fats are composed of
nine parts of a fatty acid and one part of glycerine. When at a
moderate temperature these combinations are in a liquid form they
are called oil. If in a solid or semi-solid condition, they are known
as fats.
The three above mentioned fatty acids are the most important
from a dietetic point of view, as they make up the greater part of
the edible vegetable oils and fats. Of the three, oleic acid consti-
tutes the greatest part of nearly all fats, especially oil. Palmitic
acid exists chiefly in certain forms of vegetable oil and fats, while
stearic acid is a constituent of animal oils and fats.
The hydrogenation of fats and oils, a process recently discov-
ered, is now widely used for hardening fats. The process consists
of heating them to a temperature of from 212° F. to 400° F., and
introducing hydrogen in connection with some catalyctic agent,
such as nickel or platinum. By means of this process the oleic
acid molecule takes up two atoms of hydrogen and is turned into
stearic acid. After completing the process the metal is removed by
filtration. The heating of the oils destroys the natural flavor and
the vitamins. Cottonseed oil, peanut oil and corn oil are generally
hydrogenated, while the oils of olives and nuts are not, as a rule,
subjected to this process, and therefore are preferable.
In nearly all fats there is found also a small quantity of free
acid, that is, a fatty acid which is uncombined with the glycerine.
This free acid is contained in larger proportions in over-ripe and
older plants than in the freshly matured ones. The extracted oil
also contains certain other ingredients or impurities, which have
to be removed by the process of refining before they are ready for
the table. Among the free fatty acids may be mentioned linolin
acid, which exists in considerable quantities in the oil of flaxseed,
giving to it the property of a drying oil which makes it useful in﻿64
RATIONAL DIET
the manufacture of paints. All oils and fats which contain appre-
ciable quantities of linolin, or any other fatty acid which has drying
properties, are not fit for nutrition. The principal drying oils are
linseed oil, hempseed oil, and poppy seed oil. Small quantities of
free acids are found in cottonseed oil, sesame oil, maize or corn oil,
and rapeseed oil. Olive oil and peanut oil are the best oils from
a hygienic point of view.
One of the vegetable oils which contains particularly injurious
substances is castor oil. The poisonous and purgative effects are
due to a substance Sailed ricinolein. The castor bean from which
the oil is obtained, contains also a poisonous alkaloid called ricin,
particles of which are mingled with the oil itself.
All fats have a lower specific gravity than water, usually rang-
ing from 0.89 to 0.94.
Essential or volatile oils which are mostly used for flavoring
purposes, differ from fats or fixed oils in chemical composition and
physical properties. They are readily volatilized, leaving no resi-
due, while the fixed fats are practically non-volatile. The charac-
teristic flavor of many fruits and vegetables is due to the essential
oils they contain. These oils have little food value, but often pro-
mote favorable digestive action and increase the palatability of the
food.
Closely related to the fats are the different lecithins and
cholesterins. The lecithins are compounds which may be regarded
as a union of one molecule of glycerine with two molecules of a
fatty acid, one molecule of phosphoric acid and one molecule of
cholin, with the loss of four molecules of water. Cholin has an
ammonium base, the composition of which is indicated by the chem-
ical formula C502H14N. The lecithins are widely distributed
in both the animal and vegetable worlds. They are found in all
cells and body fluids and are especially abundant in nerve-tissue,
as well as in the eggs, in the ovum and semen of animals and
man. In common with fats, to which they are very similar in com-
position^lecithins have the property of solubility in alcohol and
ether, but at the same time they possess the peculiar power of
swelling and becoming slimy in water. This property enables them
to aid in the interaction of watery solutions and substances not
soluble in water, and also to take part in a large variety of chemi-﻿FATS; THEIR COMPOSITION
65
eal processes of the body. The presence of lecithin in milk shows
how indispensable this substance is in nutrition of the infant.
The cholesterins, like the lecithins, are normal constituents of
all vegetable and animal tissues, as well as of milk. They are
especially abundant in the nerve tissue and in bile. Like lecithins
and fats, they are insoluble in water, but soluble in ether and
alcohol. The chemical composition of cholesterin is represented by
the formula C27H460.
In natural food products the fats are mingled with other sub-
stances. Free fats, such as oils (extracted from oily seeds or
fruits) and butter, are highly concentrated food principles and
should be used sparingly and not without some less concentrated
foods, such as green-leaf vegetables, which are rich in alkaline
bases. In order to be digested, fats must be saponified, i. e., split
up in the intestine into glycerine and salts of fatty acids. The
presence of free alkalies, especially sodium salts, is necessary for
this process of saponification and these are furnished by the bile
and pancreatic juice. The fatty acids, after saponification, are
absorbed and reconstructed into neutral fats. Fats derived from
the vegetable kingdom should always be preferred to those derived
from dead animals. The following table gives the percentage of
fat in various food products:
Amount of Fat in Food Materials
ANIMAL PRODUCTS
White of eggs	0.25 per cent	Yolk of egg	32.	per cent
Buttermilk	0.50 “ “	Swiss cheese	35.	il ll
Cottage cheese	1. “ “	Salt pork	60.	Il 1 1
Cow’s milk	3.70 “ “	Bacon, smoked	62.	í ( 11
Human milk	4. “ “	Oleomargarine	83.	1 1 li
Meat, average	5. “ “	Cow’s butter	85.	ti 11
Eggs, whole	12. “ “	Lard, unrefined	94.	Il il
Cream	18.50 *1 “			
	VEGETABLES	AND FRUITS		
Vegetables 0.10	to 1. per cent	Sunflower seed	32.	per cent
Sweet		Poppy seed	38.	l l il
fruits 0.50 to 1. “ “		Cocoa beans	50.	Il l l
Legumes 1.	to 2. “ “	Olive (dried)	52.	Il ll
Avocado	20. “ K	Refined oils	100.	Il ll
Mustard seed	30. “ “			﻿66
RATIONAL DIET
Amount of Fat in Food Materials—Continued
cereals
Polished rice	0.50	per	cent	Barley	2.20	per	cent
Unpolished rice	0.90	< i	< i	Wheat bran	3.50	1 i	
White flour Corn flour Whole rye	0.90 1.30 1.80	( ( < < < t	< t i t i l	Rye bran Millet Corn Oats	3.70 3.80 4.60 5.20	t < c i < ( ( i	t i u i i l f
Whole wheat	1.90	**	< i	Rice bran	7.80	< <	( i
			NUTS				
Chestnuts, dry	7.	per	cent	Pistachios	55.	per i (	cent
Cocoanuts	36.		“	Pinons	62.		“
Beechnuts	42.50		“	Filberts	64.	< (	i i
Peanuts	45.		( i	Walnuts	65.	i <	i (
Pignolias	48.		( t	Brazil nuts	65.		< i
Almonds	55.	C i	i t	Pecans	70.	t <	i i﻿CHAPTER VITI
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates comprise a number of chemically related sub-
stances: the sugars of different kinds; the various forms of starch
in its normal condition, as well as in soluble form, such as
dextrins, etc.; the gums, pectins, or jelly-like bodies; and finally
fiber and cellulose. They contain on an average 44 per cent car-
bon, 6 per cent hydrogen, 50 per cent oxygen.
They are subdivided according to their chemical composition
into three distinct groups:
1.	Monosaccharides (C6H1206), comprising grape sugar (dex-
trose or glucose), fruit sugar (fructose or levulose) and galatose
(derived from milk sugar).
2.	Disaccharides (C12H22011), comprising sucrose (saccharose
or cane sugar) found often combined with dextrose and fructose in
the juice of many fruits and vegetables, maltose (malt sugar)
formed from starch by enzymic action, and lactose (milk sugar)
found in the milk of all mammals.
3.	Polysaccharides (CcH10O5) X; “X” being a variable fac-
tor, but always exceeding 2. They include starch, in which form
nature stores most of the carbohydrates in the vegetable kingdom ;
glycogen, which is stored as reserve carbohydrate principally in the
liver and muscular tissues of the animals; dextrins, which are
formed from starch by diastase, acid or heat; cellulose, principally
found in wood and in the cell walls of plants; galactans, which oc-
cur in seeds of legumes and cereals, in some of the algae and lichens,
and the pectins or jelly-like bodies. To this group also belong the
pentosans (C5H804) X, which generally exist in the fibrous tissues
and gummy exudations of plants, but not in the starchy and succu-
lent parts.
By the chemical addition of a certain amount of water the
second and third groups can be converted into substances of the
first. This process is called inversion and may be produced in a
number of ways.
Grape-sugar and fruit-sugar exist together in most of the sweet
67﻿68
RATIONAL DIET
fruits and honey, and, although they have the same chemical com-
position, they are not identical bodies. This is accounted for by
their peculiar molecular structure, the same number of atoms being
arranged in a different way.
Cane sugar (sucrose), or the more or less refined sugar of com-
merce, is two and one-half times sweeter than grape sugar. It
exists in many vegetable juices. It is found in the stems and roots
of all the grasses, especially in the sugar cane and sorghum;
in succulent roots, such as the carrot, turnip, sweet potato
and sugar beet; in the sap of trees, such as the date palm and
sugar maple; also to a small extent in all sweet fruits, and in the
nectar of flowers. The commercial manufacture of refined sugar
from sugar beets and sugar cane has developed from crude begin-
nings. In ancient times sugar was a very expensive luxury, mostly
imported from the Orient. In the latter part of the nineteenth
century the manufacture of refined sugar from sugar cane and
sugar beets developed to such an extent, both in America and in
Europe, that it is now one of the great staples of commerce.
Cane sugar cannot be directly utilized in the body. By the
action of a ferment in the intestine known as invert in it is con-
verted into monosaccharides, that is, changed into levulose and
glucose which are ready for immediate absorption and use in the
system. The change of cane sugar in solution into dextrose and
levulose can also be brought about to some extent by the action of
heat and diluted acids, as in cooking fruits with cane sugar.
Maltose, belonging to the same group of disaccharides, is pro-
duced in sprouting grains by a digestive process which converts the
starch into sugar. The unorganized ferment, or enzyme, which
accomplishes this change is known as diastase. A similar ferment
is found in the saliva, as well as in the pancreatic juice. This fer-
ment is able to convert raw starch into maltose, which may be
absorbed without undergoing change in the intestine.
It should be borne in mind, however, that the various forms of
sugar, as we find them in their natural state in fruits, stems aud
roots, are organized by nature during the process of growth, and
intimately associated with other nourishing constituents. Sugars
contained in natural food products are infinitely better than the
manufactured sweets of commerce, which are chemically isolated
food principles and can never fully supply the needs of the body.﻿CARBOHYDRATES
69
The reason for the injurious effects of manufactured sugar and
glucose is that they are artificially extracted and separated from
those organic combinations which are necessary for the building
up of tissues and bones, for the proper functioning of the nervous
system and the purification of the blood. Without a constant re-
newal of the elements of iron and sodium the blood cannot take
up sufficient oxygen and the products of combustion cannot be
neutralized and eliminated. The blood stream is overloaded with
waste products, causing sluggishness and general drowsiness, the
symptoms of carbonic acid poisoning.
The extensive use of artificial sweets, especially in connection
with starch foods is responsible for a large number of diseases of
the digestive organs. The liver and kidneys are severely affected by
the increased formation of toxic substances, and the accumulation
of acids in the blood causes a catarrhal condition of all the mucous
membranes. Not enough can be said in warning against the preva-
lent and extensive use of refined sugar in the various forms of
pastry and confectionery. That the general public is not aware
of the injurious effects of artificial sweets, seems to be indicated by
the rapid increase in the manufacture and consumption of sugar.
Figures gathered by the Bureau of Statistics show that the
average American consumes about ninety pounds of sugar every
year, and Uncle Sam’s sugar bill averages over two million dol-
lars a day. The total annual consumption of sugar in the United
States amounts to about ten billion pounds. Calculating this enor-
mous total at the average retail price of 7cents per pound, we
get a total of $750,000,000 as its cost to the consumers.
The per capita consumption of sugar in the principal countries
is as follows:
Australia
England
Canada
Argentine Republic
Germany
France
Austria
Russia
Spain
Italy
Europe
112.06 pounds
95.70
92.70
64.10
40.92
36.05
24.32
20.55
11.37
7.63
31.61﻿70
KATIONAL DIET
The foregoing table shows that the United States consumed
more sugar per capita than any other countries except Australia
and England, the consumption in this country being nearly three
times as much as in European countries in general. Whatever in-
terest these figures may possess from a commercial standpoint, con-
sidered from a hygienic point of view, they are deplorable. Indeed,
the use of artificial sweets is one of the most pernicious customs of
the day, causing defective development of the skeleton of the infan-
tile body, and in later years a morbid softening of the bones, mak-
ing dentistry one of the most lucrative professions in this country.
The taste for sweets is natural, and indicates a physiological
demand. This demand, however, can be met only by the natural
sweets existing principally in sweet fruits. The nutritious and
fattening qualities of the whole sugar cane, for instance, are suf-
ficiently shown on every sugar estate. The negroes of the West
Indies and animals about the plantation at the time of harvest
show conclusively, by the excellent state of their health, the
wholesome and nutritious properties of the cane juice. This is
but another illustration of the fact that we cannot improve on
nature; for in the ripened sugar cane sugar is organized with
other constituents, making it a complete food.
Some of the sugar that is not immediately needed by the system
is converted by the liver into glycogen, and stored away in that
organ and in the muscles for future use in the performance of
muscular work. The habitual indulgence in sugar in the concen-
trated form, causes fatty degeneration of the organs of the body.
This condition is known to be the foundation of such disorders
as diabetes, apoplexy, paralysis, fatty heart and abnormal condi-
tions of the liver, kidneys, muscles and bones. Again, sugar in
great excess of what the liver can take care of, causes fermenta-
tion in the alimentary canal, producing alcohol, carbonic and acetic
acids. Like all other acquired tastes, the sugar eating habit is hard
to give up, but numerous tests have shown that when the habit is
once broken, the natural taste of food appears more pleasant than
when it is disguised by the presence of manufactured sugar.
Milk sugar, or lactose, is similar in chemical composition to
cane sugar, but is not nearly so sweet. It is found in the milk of
all mammals in various percentages, ranging from two to eight per
cent. It is the most digestible sugar for infants. When milk is﻿CARBOHYDRATES
71
exposed to the air, the milk sugar undergoes decomposition whereby
lactic acid is formed and the milk becomes sour. In fermentation
one molecule of milk sugar takes up one of water and splits into
four of lactic acid. (C12H22011 plus II20 equals 4C3H603.)
Starch, next to water, is the substance most abundant in the
average diet of man, largely because the majority of the food prod-
ucts which contain it can be produced cheaply. In nature starches
are never found in their proximate form—they are always inti-
mately connected with other food-elements of the protoplasmic cell.
The general formula for starches and dextrins, or polysaccha-
rides, is (C8II10O5) X, in which “X” is a variable factor, but al-
ways exceeds two. In the case of the starch molecule X is equiva-
lent to 108; in others, such as glycogen and dextrins, X is much
smaller. Starch is the form in which nature stores up the carbo-
hydrates in seeds and roots for future use. If sugar were stored
away in the place of starch it would be dissolved by the first rain-
storm, and the water would spoil the seed; but raw starch
is insoluble and at the same time unfermentable. For instance,
there is but little starch in corn until it is perfectly ripe; then
the soluble dextrine and sugar are converted into starch and
deposited in the kernel for future use. If green corn is eaten we
get the starch mostly in soluble form, but, as the kernels mature,
the dextrin and sugar are finally converted into starch, leaving to
remain only a small quantity of sucrose. The same is true of all
the cereals.
Raw starch grains from different kinds of plants vary in their
microscopic appearance, and it is interesting to study their peculiar
structure. Arthur Meyer, a German scientist, made a series of
investigations of starch grains, and as a result of his work he offers
a theory of starch composition which is generally accepted by the
botanists today. Starch grains are more or less regular spheres,
composed of a mass of radiating needle-shaped crystals, which lie
calls “trichites. ”﻿72
RATIONAL DIET
The diagram on page 71, taken from Professor Meyer’s “Inves-
tigations of Starch Granules,” illustrates his theory of a four-
layered starch grain, while the illustration following gives the
appearance of raw starch grains, magnified 385 times.
Starch grains: a, from potato; t, from arrowroot; c and d, from wheat;
c side view, d flat view; e and f from barley; g, from corn (maize); h, from
rice. (Courtesy of U. S. Dept, of Agriculture.)
First we note the characteristic appearance of a normal potato
starch grain, showing on an average of twenty layers. According
to Professor Meyer these layers are composed of trichites and are
successively deposited one outside of another, beginning with the
point of origin. The difference in the appearance of the layers of
the various starches is due to the changing size of the trichites and
to the smaller or larger amount of space between them. This,
again, is due to alternating changes in growth conditions in the
plant cell under which the grain is formed, the loose layers being
produced, during the night, by partial solution on the surface of
the starch deposited during the previous day. The outer layer is
not different from the others except that in some cases it is more
dense, due to the fact that the starch is gathered after the end of
the growth period in the plant, and the last growth is slower than
the first.
The starches of all grains are similarly constructed, although
they present different appearances. The potato and arrowroot
starch grains are irregularly ovoid solid grains, while the wheat
and barley starch grains are lens-shaped, showing a hollowed space﻿CARBOHYDRATES
73
in the center. Rice and cornstarch grains are generally polyhedral
in shape, with a more or less star-shaped crack in the center. The
starch grains are of various sizes, and there are several hundred in
a single cell, and from 10,000,000 to 20,000,000 in a kernel of wheat.
The flour cells, which are found in the interior portion of the wheat
kernel, in addition to starch, contain gluten and a small proportion
of fat and mineral matter; they do not consist of starch only, as
appears from the following illustration:
Fig. 1. Starch grains in a flour Fig. 2. Protoplasmic structure of
In order to make clear the complicated structure of a single flour
cell, we should remember that starch grains (Fig. 1) are embedded
in the protoplasmic network (Fig. 2). The character of the cell
contents varies considerably in different parts of the wheat berry.
The interior portions show proportionately more starch than the
outer layers of the kernel, ■which are richer in gluten and mineral
elements.
We have learned that nature changes sugar and dextrine in the
ripening grain into insoluble starch, and the protoplasmic flour
cell contains the food with which the little plant has to start out
in life in the succeeding generation. But the embryo plant, which
again proceeds from the germ, cannot make any use of raw starch;
so nature deposits in each kernel of grain, like wheat, corn, barley,
or rye, a little digestive agent, called diastase, which has the power
of converting the starch into soluble form, as soon as the sun,
cell of the wheat berry
a flour cell with its nucleus
(Courtesy U. S. Dept, of Agriculture.)﻿74
RATIONAL DIET
moisture and warmth begin their action on the soil. Thus the food
is made digestible for the embryo plant, furnishing it with material
for building up a stem with its two rudimentary leaves, the plant
being nourished in this manner until it grows well above the
ground, for only under the vitalizing influence of the direct sun-
light is starch formed in the chlorophyll grains by the chemical
combination of carbon dioxide and water.
Sachs, another German scientist, has clearly shown by a series of
experiments, that as soon as the breaking up of the carbonic acid
ceases, during the night, the formation of starch also ceases. As
starch, in addition to carbon, contains only hydrogen and oxygen
in the same relative proportion as water, it can be derived by
synthesis from the carbon that is set free and the water that is
received through the roots. In starch we have the first and sole
visible product of assimilation, from which all other organic com-
pounds of the plant are derived, by means of chemical combination
with other elements. If, therefore, the plant forms later other
carbohydrates, fats, and finally proteids, all of which contain car-
bon, it can only employ starch as a starting point. It is the plant
which originally constructs the highly complex protein molecule
out of the simplest inorganic compounds, carbon dioxide, water,
salts and ammonia. Man and all animals are directly or indirectly
dependent on the vegetable kingdom for their food.
As already stated, the raw starch is converted into soluble forms
of carbohydrates, by the action of diastase which belongs to the
unorganized but soluble ferments called “enzymes.” These fer-
ments have a cell structure like the organized ferments, and are
composed of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and mineral mat-
ter. Diastase coagulates in a watery solution on being heated
to 167° F. When dry it withstands a temperature of 310° F. Its
action upon starch is increased by the presence of minimum
amounts of acids, as well as small amounts of salts. Greater
amounts of acids and alkalies hinder or completely check its action.
Under favorable conditions diastase is able to convert large
amounts of starch into soluble compounds. When starch is exposed
to the action of diastase, it undergoes a series of successive decom-
positions, resulting finally in maltose. All of these intermediate
products are soluble in water, and hence more easily assimilated
and digested than the natural starch grain.﻿CARBOHYDRATES
75
The enzymes are found principally in cereal grains, and it ap-
pears that each species possesses a specific enzyme, but so far the
enzyme of barley, or diastase, has served as the type for this kind
of ferments. Certain bacteria act upon solid or liquefied starch in a
manner similar to diastase, and the action is probably due to an
enzyme secreted by the bacteria. The yeast employed for raising
bread contains also a specific enzyme, capable of inverting many
times its own weight of starch and producing the fermentable
dextrose. All these enzymes become active during the process of
germination, and as moisture is the exciting cause of this activity,
it follows that, whenever raw grain or the flour prepared from it
is moistenedBas in the preparation of bread, conditions are pro-
duced for the action of the diastase upon starch. The action of
the enzymes, however, is checked as soon as the baking begins, as
they are rendered ineffective by a temperature exceeding 167° P.
During exposure to heat and moisture the starch cells are also
affected in a mechanical way, and the following illustration shows
how the starch cells of the potato are changed in cooking.
Changea of starch eells in cooking : a, cells of a raw potato with starch
grains in natural condition; b, cells of a partially cooked potato; c, cells of a
thoroughly boiled potato. (Courtesy of U. S. Dept, of Agriculture.)
The expanding steam breaks the minute cell walls and the
starch grains inside the cells are thus released; some of them being
also disintegrated, while part of them are changed into the soluble
form of dextrine. When suspended in water, all varieties of starch
are converted in soluble forms at a temperature of 212° P. or less.
In order to cook starch it is essential that every grain be brought
into contact with water of at least 140° to 178° P. The action be-
comes less marked where the starch is merely moist. Dry starch
is converted into soluble forms at about 400° F., the temperature﻿76
RATIONAL MET
of the bake oven. According to these views the starch of bread
should be made largely soluble by baking, but only a small amount
of soluble starch, dextrine, etc., is produced in the crust of the
loaf. The starch of the interior is hardly heated beyond 212° F.,
and this is not sufficient in the absence of an excess of moisture to
produce the change to soluble forms.
Contrary to generally accepted belief, the process of baking
does not change the nature or condition of the carbohydrates in
cereals to any appreciable extent, as it is shown in the following
table compiled by the U. S. Department of Agriculture:
Carbohydrates in Dry Matter of Wheat, Maize and Bread
	Whole Winter Wheat		Fine Winter	Flour Wheat	Maize	
	Raw Grain	Bread	Raw Flour	Bread	Raw Grain	Bread
	Per Cent	Per Cent	Per Cent	Per Cent	Per Cent	Per Ct.
Sucrose	0.51	0.014	0.20	0.15	0.27	0.16
Invert sugar	0.08	0.10	None	0.38	None	0.19
Dextrin	0.27	0.68	1.06	0.91	0.32	None
Soluble starch	None	1.37	None	1.74	None	2.80
Normal starch	30.94	27.93	34.04	31.99	42.50	40.37
Pentosans	4.54	4.16	None	None	5.14	3.54
Crude fiber	2.68	2.70	0.25	0.17	1.99	2.22
Total	39.02	36.96	35.55	35.34	50.22	49.28
When the grains, or the flours made from them, are subjected to
the action of yeast and heat, as in baking bread, an absolute loss
of carbohydrates occurs, amounting to from one to five per cent
of the total dry matter of the flour or grain.
The combined action of moisture, yeast and heat in preparing
and baking bread, diminishes the sugar and tends to convert the
starch into soluble and fermentable forms. The actual amount of
starch thus changed does not exceed ten per cent of the total starch
present. This change occurs in the more exposed portions of the
loaf. In the interior the starch undergoes practically no change.
In other words, in the ordinary loaf of bread ninety per cent of
the starch is in an unsoluble state. In toasting the bread some of
the starch is dextrinized, but at the same time, the other ingre-
dients, the protein and organic salts, are still further impaired.
From all these facts it appears that cereals aud starchy foods are
by no means an ideal food for man, as is so often claimed. Cereals
are useful to the extent that they provide carbohydrates in absence
of sweet and dried fruits.﻿CARBOHYDRATES
77
Nature never intended that we should eat products of the soil
containing a large amount of raw starch, as our teeth are not suit-
ably constructed for the perfect mastication of dry grain. As
will be shown in one of the following chapters, man’s original home
was in the tropical and subtropical zones which produce an abun-
dance of fruits containing the carbohydrates in a soluble form and
needing no further preparation. Persons with feound teeth and
healthy digestive organs can undoubtedly eat raw cereals in reason-
able amounts with impunity, but it is difficult to break down all the
cell walls protecting the starch grainy even by prolonged mastica-
tion. Only a small percentage of the starch is changed by the
enzyme of the saliva; and while the inversion, if there is no hyper-
acidity, may go on for some time in the stomach, it has to be com-
pleted by the more powerful enzyme of the pancreatic juice.
One of the advantages in cooking or baking potatoes and other
starchy foods is the improvement in flavor, which is due in part to
the development of the cooked-starch taste, which is more pleasant
than that of raw starch. The degree of digestibility of the most
used starches, beginning with the starch which is most easily di-
gested, is as follows: potato, sweet potato, corn, rice, and wheat.
Cereal products should preferably be eaten in a dry state to ensure
perfect mastication. Mixtures of watery mushes and concentrated
cane sugar should be avoided, as they are apt to cause fermenta-
tions, because the presence of sugar interferes with the digestion of
starch.
Cellulose, which also belongs to the class of carbohydrates, is
the basis of the cell structure of plants and exists in various forms.
It is sometimes a hard and dense substance, but in the earlier stages
of plant growth, as in tender leaves and vegetables, it is chemically
combined with water in a more soluble and digestible form. Until
quite recently cellulose was held to be indigestible, but experiments
have proven that a large percentage may disappear in the diges-
tive canal; and if the foods are thoroughly masticated, from
twenty-five to fifty per cent are digested. While, on an average,
cellulose may have but little food value, it is of great importance in
acting as a mechanical stimulus to promote the peristaltic move-
ment of the intestine. The diet of man must contain some bulk in
the form of more or less woody fibres, as the muscular wall of the﻿RATIONAL DIET
intestine, if it has no work to do, becomes atrophied like every
other muscle.
There is a tendency among the American people to remove as
much as possible of the cellulose from food and to give a preference
to artificially prepared and concentrated food products, a circum-
stance which has led to an almost universal debility of the intes-
tinal muscular walls, with resultant chronic constipation. For the
same reason an exclusive milk diet will lead to costiveness, because
animal foods and products contain no cellulose. The following
table gives the amount of cellulose in a number of foods used by
man:
Food Products	Per Cent Cellulose	Food Products	Per Cent Cellulose
Rice flour	0.2	Peanuts	2.2
Wheat flour (fine)	0.3	Strawberries	2.3
Rice, polished	0.6	Maize	2.5
Cucumber	0.6	Whole wheat	2.5
Onion	0.7	Peas	2.6
Potato	0.8	Horseradish	2.8
Tomato	0.8	Lentils	3.0
Cauliflower	0.9	Filberts	3.3
Oatmeal	1.0	Beans	3.6
Asparagus	1.0	Grapes	3.6
Carrots	1.0	Rice, unpolished	4.0
Melon	1.1	Pears	4.3
String beans	1.2	Plums	4.3
Mushroom	1.4	Figs	4.5
Apple	1.5	Whole barley	5.3
Rye meal	1.6	Prunes	5.4
Radish	1.6	Dates	5.5
Barley, peeled	1.6	Walnuts	6.2
Cabbage	1.8	Almonds	6.6
Oranges, peeled	1.8	Raspberries	6.7
Green peas	1.9	Wheat bran	8.7
Rye	2.0	Rice bran	10.6
The pectins are jelly-like bodies, which are closely related to
the carbohydrates and are contained in most fruits and vegetables.
In the early stages of growth the pectins are combined with organic
acids, forming insoluble compounds, but during the ripening of
fruit and cooking of vegetables they are changed into soluble com-
pounds, which in nutrition serve practically the same functions as
starches and sugars. In food analyses the pectin bodies are usually
included with the carbohydrates.﻿CHAPTER IX
Organic Acids
Organic acids in foods should be distinguished from the acids of
decomposition such as uric acid, etc. Organic acids are used by
the living plants in their synthetic processes. In the ripening
of fruit some of the acids are progressively utilized in the formation
of ethers and carbohydrates. Others are combined to form salts
of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, etc. The combined
organic acids or salts consumed in food are generally changed in
the animal body into alkaline carbonates, thereby increasing the
alkalinity of the blood and secretions. The uncombined acids either
form alkaline carbonates, or are oxidized into carbon dioxide and
water.
There prevails an erroneous idea that fruit acids increase the
acidity of the blood. Acid fruits often stir up digestive troubles
with people whose blood is in an acid condition and who suffer
from chronic inflammation of the stomach. In such cases a diet
of fresh vegetables, preferably in salad form, is required, without
salt and condiments, until normal conditions are restored.
The fruit acids, like the carbohydrates, are composed of three
elements—carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. A short description of
the principal organic acids is herewith given.
Acetic acid (C2II402) is frequently found in organic form in
many plants, combined with alcohol, and in ethers or essential oils.
It forms salts with sodium, potassium, ammonium and other alka-
line elements. These salts, or acetates^ exist naturally in certain
vegetable juices. In the animal body acetic acid and its salts are
oxidized and changed into alkaline carbonates, in which form they
are excreted by the urine.
Free acetic acid, as found in vinegar, is distinctly injurious to
health, even more so than alcohol. It rapidly breaks down the red
corpuscles and causes anemic conditions. In the preparation of
salads, lemon juice should be used instead of vinegar.
Citric acid (C„II807) is contained in many fruits, such as lem-
ons, tomatoes, etc., or combined with alkaline salts, as citrates, in
70﻿80
RATIONAL DIET
all the citric fruits, quinces, currants, gooseberries, strawberries,
raspberries, cranberries and many others. Citric acid is absorbed
from the alimentary canal, and partly decomposed and excreted
by the kidneys, as sodium carbonate.
Malic acid (C4H8Os) occurs in a free state in apples, pears,
quinces, sour cherries, pineapples, grapes, currants,, blackberries,
etc., or in combination with alkaline bases, as malates, in sweet
cherries, apples, rhubarb, gooseberries, grapes and strawberries.
These fruits usually contain malic acid, besides a malate of potash,
calcium and magnesium. Malic acid is combined with citric acid
in unripe apples, grapes, pineapple«, gooseberries, cherries, bilber-
ries, strawberries, etc. Malic acid, or malates, are also found in
potatoes, carrots and parsley.
Lactic acid (CjlleOA. This acid arises during the process of
fermentation of milk sugar or lactose, as in the souring of milk,
cheese making, and ripening of cream. Lactic acid is also found
as a side product in the fermentation of various sugars, starches
and other substances in the presence of protein. It is a thick, sour
hygroscopic liquid which can be mixed easily wTith water or alcohol
in any proportion.
Tartaric acid (C4H608) is one of the most common organic acids
in the vegetable kingdom, especially in grapes and other fruits.
During the final stages of fermentation of grape-must a consider-
able quantity of cream tartar (KaC4H406) is deposited. The
gradual disappearance of organic acids as the fruit ripens, and the
simultaneous increase of sugar and other carbohydrates indicate
their transformation into sugars and starches.
Gallic acid (C7H805) is widely distributed in vegetables, espe-
cially in the form of compounds known as “tannins.” It is found
as such in the leaves of many plants, especially in the leaves of
black and green tea.
Tannin (C14H0O9) is found in gall nuts, in all kinds of bark and
the skins of fruits. It is colorless and readily soluble in water.
Tannic acid (CH202) is contained in small proportions in
honey, where it acts as a preservative. It is also found in nettles.
It is colorless, can be easily mixed with water or alcohol, and has
a pungent odor resembling sulphurous acid.
Oxalic acid (C,H204) is widely distributed throughout the veg-
etable kingdom, sometimes in the form of oxalate. Sorrel, spinach,﻿ORGANIC ACIDS
81
rhubarb, cacao, black tea and pepper contain from two to four per
mille in the fresh material. Contrary to popular opinion, tomatoes
show a very small amount, less than .005 per mille. Their sour
taste is due to the presence of citric acid. As oxalate of calcium
it is found in lichens and in the leaves and roots of many plants.
Oxalic acid, when taken in food, circulates through the animal
tissues and fluids either as the free acid or as a salt, usually calcium
salt. In the normal and healthy body it undergoes oxidation into
carbon dioxide and water. If, on account of high acidity of the
blood, the metabolism is faulty, a part of the oxalic acid may pass
into the kidneys unchanged, giving rise to the formation of calcium
oxalate stones in kidneys and bladder.
As shown in the following table, the amount of oxalic acid in
most of our common foods is very small:
Amount of Oxalic Acid in 1000 parts of fresh substance, ac-
rding to Esbach: p	er Mille		Per Mille
Cocoa 3.52	to 4.50	Raspberries	0.06
Chocolate 0.724 to 0.90		Oranges	0.03
Infusion of tea, 5 min.	2.06	Lemons	0.03
Pepper	3.25	Tomatoes	0.002 to 0.050
Coffee infusion	0.13	Asparagus	0.028 to 0.044
Sorrel 2.74	to 3.63	Brussels sprouts	0.02
Spinach 1.91	to 3.17	Endive	0.02
Rhubarb stems	2.47	Strawberries	0.01
String beans 0.06	to 0.21	Apples	0.01
White beans	0.31	Watercress	traces
Beet roots	0.39	Radishes	‘ ‘
Wheat bread 0.04"	F to 0.130	Grapes	( i
Potatoes	0.05	Pears	i i
Buckwheat flour	0.17	Apricots	| [
Cabbage	0.31	Peaches	‘ ‘
Cucumber	0.251	Melons	* 4
Carrots	0.030	Flesh	‘ 1
Salsify	0.070	Cauliflower	none
Dried figs	0.270	Lettuce	41
Cherries	0.025	Milk	c i
Currants	0.13	Rye	“
Prunes	0.12	Lentils	< (
Chicory	0.10	Green peas	< t
Plums	0.07	Red wine	< (
The amount of oxalic acid in cocoa and black tea is especially
high, and an over-indulgence in these drinks, combined with an acid-
forming diet, will greatly favor the formation, or the deposit, of﻿82
RATIONAL DIET
urates and oxalates in the kidneys and bladder. All conditions
that favor the increase of uric acid in the body, such as a high pro-
tein diet combined with demineralized foods, will also contribute to
the formation of oxalates.
In the accompanying table the amount of fruit acid in some of
the best known fruits is given. As already stated, fruit acids are
not free acids, but organic acids. In other words, they are integral
parts of the cells, the same as organic salts. There are generally
different kinds of acid found in one kind of fruit, but in the present
table, the predominating acid is considered. In cranberries one
of the acids is benzoic, amounting sometimes to as much as 0.05
per cent.
Sugars and Acids in Fruits
Variety	Fruit Sugar Per Cent Fruit Acid Per Cent Kind of Acid
Apples, Rhode Island
Greening	11.	0.70	malic
Apples, Wine Sap	12.	0.50	44
Apples, Northern Spy 12.		0.70	i(
Apricots, fresh	10 to 13.	1.	t(
Apricots, dried	50.	2.50	fi
Blackberries	6 to 8.	0.8 to 1.	
Cherries	10 to 16.	0.90	
Cherimoya	18.40	0.06	“
Cranberries	1.52	2.30	4t
Currants	6 to 8.	2.25	
Gooseberries	10 to 13.	1. to 1.50	
Grapes	8 to 25.	0.5 to 1.	tartaric
Grapefruit	5 to 10.	1. to 2.	citric
Huckleberries	7.	1. to 1.60	malic
Lemons	1 to 2.	5. to 6.	citric
Limes	1 to 2.	5. to 6.	a
Loquats	10 to 12.	1.	malic
Mangos	13 to 14.	0.3 to 0.50	malic and tartaric
Oranges	5 to 12.	1. to 1.50	citric
Papayas	10.	0.07	malic
Peaches	8 to 10.	0.5 to 0.90	a
Pears	9 to 14.	0.20	ft
Pineapples	9 to 12.	0.60	malic and citric
Pomegranate	16 to 17.	0.6 to 1.	mostly citric
Plums	14 to 16.	0.75	malic
Prunes	16 to 18.	0.3 to 1.	
Quinces	9.	0.60	<<
Raspberries	6 to 8.	1. to 1.50	((
Strawberries	6 to 8.	1. to 6.	malic and citric
Tamarinds	30 to 32.	6. to 12.	citric and tartaric
Tomatoes	4.	0.50	mostly malic and
citric﻿CHAPTER X
The Organized Mineral Elements or Organic Salts
“The Missing Link in Dietetics”
We have learned that of the eighteen elements composing the
human body, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen are the chief
constituents of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. We shall now
consider the other so-called mineral elements and their relationship
and importance in the organic world. They are:
The acid binding basic or alkaline elements:
Potassium	(K)
Sodium	(Na)
Calcium	(Ca)
Magnesium	(Mg)
Iron	(Fe)
Manganese	(Mn)
Aluminum	(Al)
The acid forming elements:	
Phosphorus	(P)
Sulphur	(S)
Silicon	(Si)
Chlorine	(Cl)
Fluorine	(FI)
Iodine	(I)
Arsenic	(As)
The characteristics of each of these elements and their relation	
to each other in the living body, which	is a most interesting and
instructive study, giving the key to all dietetic reform, will be taken	
up in this and following chapters.	
A normal man weighing 150 pounds	> is composed of about:
90 lbs. of oxygen	3y2 oz. of sulphur
36 lbs. of carbon	3 oz. of potassium
14 lbs. of hydrogen	2y2 oz. of sodium
3 lbs. 8 oz. of nitrogen	2 oz. of fluorine
3 lbs. 12 oz. of calcium	1 y2 oz. of magnesium
1 lb. 4 oz. of phosphorus	14 oz. of silicon
4 oz. of chlorine	Ye oz. of iron
Traces of manganese, iodine, aluminum and arsenic.	﻿84
RATIONAL DIET
The chemical elements in the human body of the same weight,
150 pounds, are found in the following organic combinations and
approximate quantities.
Water	90 lbs.
Nitrogenous matter (protein,
gelatin, etc.)	30 lbs.
Fat (adipose tissue)	22 lbs.
Phosphate of lime	5 lbs.	12	oz.
Carbonate of lime	1 lb.		
Chloride of sodium		G	oz.
Fluoride of calcium		3	oz.
Sulphate of soda		U	oz.
Carbonate of soda		■	oz.
Phosphate of soda		1	oz.
Sulphate of potash		1	oz.
Peroxide of iron		□	oz.
Phosphate of potash		■	oz.
Phosphate of magnesia		%	oz.
Chloride of potassium		traces	
Although the organic salts make up only a comparatively small
amount of the body—about five per cent—they are nevertheless
essential constituents, and every element has some distinct and
necessary physiological function to perform. The normal and
healthy development of the organism primarily depends upon an
adequate supply of the organic salts, which are necessary in the
life processes of plants and animals.
The organic salts enter the system as fully oxidized compounds
and, therefore, furnish practically no heat and energy. Neverthe-
less, they hold the key to nearly all of the material manifestations
of life. They are indispensable in the formation of cells and
tissues, giving them firmness and form. They are the conveyors
of vital electricity and magnetism, constantly recharging the human
dynamo; they are the carriers of the life-giving oxygen to all parts
of the body.
They are the essential factors in digestion and assimilation, as
ingredients of the digestive juices regulating the osmotic exchange
between lymph and blood and cells.
They are the scavengers of the body and the purifiers of the
blood, neutralizing the waste products, uric acid, carbonic acid,
etc., and assisting in removing them from the system. They are
the real materia medica, which remove one of the fundamental﻿ORGANIC SALTS
85
causes of disease, and restore the equilibrium of perfect health;
they are nature’s real antitoxins, giving vital resistance to every cell
and thus making the system invulnerable to all so-called “germs
of disease”; they are the foundation upon which a new system of
living and healing must be built, which utterly rejects all poison-
ous drugs, vaccines and serums.
This particular and important branch of food chemistry has not
received heretofore the degree of attention which it deserves, and
it may be aptly called “the missing link in dietetics.” It is a most
significant fact that medical textbooks pay very little attention to
the importance of mineral elements in the body. No system of cure
can be complete and efficient which does not give paramount con-
sideration to the mineral elements in food. The laws of life and
growth are very closely interwoven with the characteristics of these
elements. The problems of healthy and adequate nutrition cannot
be solved satisfactorily without the most extensive and careful
study of all the physiological functions of the organic salts, and
their relation in the system to each other.
So far the majority of investigations have been made from the
standpoint of agricultural chemistry. The Englishman, Sir Hum-
phrey Davy (1778-1823), who was the first scientist to recognize
the mineral elements that are essential for the development of
plants, says in his “Elements of Agricultural Chemistry” (Lon-
don, 1814) :
“The chemistry of the simpler manures (the manures which
act in very small quantities, such as gypsum, alkalis, and various
saline substances) has hitherto been exceedingly obscure. It has
been generally supposed that these materials act in the vegetable
economy in the same manner as condiments or stimulants in the
animal economy, and that they render the common food more
nutritive. It seems, however, a much more probable idea that they
are actually a part of the true food of plants, and that they supply
that kind of matter to the vegetable fiber which is analogous to
the bony matter in animal structures.”
In Germany it was principally Liebig (1803-1873) who in the
middle of the nineteenth century made very important researches
and demonstrated the absolute necessity of mineral salts in plants,
and who ascribed certain diseases of plants to the deficiency of
mineral matter in the soil. Fungi and animal parasites can develop
only on protoplasm having a deficiency in certain mineral elements.﻿86
RATIONAL DIET
Thus iron, sulphur and lime are injurious to microbes and insects,
which cannot live and propagate on foliage and fruits rich in these
elements. Yet farmers go on spraying and fumigating instead of
investigating the condition of the soil and restoring it to its normal
state.
In a normally developed plant each element is present in a
definite proportion. Perfect growth cannot be expected when any
one of the mineral nutrients is supplied in insufficient quantity, no
matter what amount of the other mineral elements may be available.
The production of the organic matter of a plant of definite size
depends, therefore, upon those mineral elements which are present
in even relatively small amounts. For instance, when there is but
a small amount of phosphoric acid present, only a corresponding
amount of nucleo-proteids can be produced. Likewise, potassium
is essential to organic synthesis, and if there is but little available,
the plant will depend on this amount, irrespective of the quantity
in which the other mineral nutrients are supplied. This fact, which
means that the size of the harvest depends upon the mineral
elements present in the least amount, is known as “Liebig’s Law
of the Minimum.” Liebig derived this law from general princi-
ples, without closely investigating the special function of each
mineral constituent. Liebig’s work was taken up by Dr. Koenig
and Dr. Wolff who made chemical analyses of a large number of
human and animal food products, especially investigating their
percentage of mineral elements. The tables contained in the last
pages of the present volume are chiefly prepared from these
sources.
The early food chemists paid no particular attention to the
physiological functions of the different elements in the animal and
human organism. The German scientists, Dr. Hensel and Dr.
Lahmann, first took up the careful study of this highly important
subject. Hensel also devoted much time to agricultural chemistry
and demonstrated by his tireless investigations which, unfortu-
nately, are not yet fully understood and appreciated, how even the
poorest soil can be wonderfully improved. He taught that the
intelligent application of mineral fertilizers will bring forth the
most wholesome, tasty products which do not readily deteriorate;
that plants require for their healthy and vigorous growth the
various mineral elements in their right proportion; that an over﻿ORGANIC SALTS
87
supply of nitrogenous compounds (ammonia) and a deficiency
of minerals, produces a vegetation which has no vital resistance,
and thus makes it an easy prey to disease, just as poorly nourished
men and animals do.
Organic Versus Inorganic Salts
While Hensel clearly pointed out the mistakes of agriculturists,
he committed a grave error in recommending the mineral elements
such as his “physiological earths” and “physiological salt water,”
in their crude inorganic form as remedies for the human system.
The same idea of administering inorganic salts as foods and reme-
dies for men was also taken up by the homeopaths, first by Schues-
sler, who modified their use by giving them in a highly triturated
form. These preparations are generally known as “tissue salts”
or “cell salts” of the biochemic school, and are now widely adver-
tised as therapeutic agents. The claim is made that, while the
inorganic salts in the crude form, as they appear in the soil or in
the common mineral waters, are not utilized by the system, by
subjecting these salts to a continuous process of trituration in which
the molecules of the salt are finally diffused evenly throughout
the triturating medium, they become capable of assimilation. The
brochemists believe that by the process of trituration the properties
are changed in some mysterious manner. No doubt the elements in
their inorganic form may be absorbed by the lacteals and enter
into circulation, and may even produce some chemical changes or
reactions, but they cannot perform any vital functions, no matter
how finely they are triturated. They lack that imponderable vital
electricity and magnetism which is imparted to them in the organic
combinations of the vegetable kingdom.
Even the embryonic plant must feed on the organic compounds
of the seed until its roots and leaves are grown. The elevation and
characteristic change of inorganic into organic matter, which takes
place principally in the green leaves of the plant, by means of the
chlorophyll, is the starting point of all organic combinations.
Chlorophyll is, therefore, a substance of great physiological im-
portance in plant life. The general conditions upon which its
formation depends are the electro-chemical effects of solar light,
warmth and a certain amount of mineral matter, principally iron
and lime salts. Plants which are normally green, become etiolated﻿88
RATIONAL DIET
or pale, and consequently diseased, if any of these conditions
are not supplied. Only by the presence of chlorophyll is the plant
enabled to utilize the inorganic carbon molecule, and convert it
with hydrogen and oxygen into the organic combinations of starch
and sugar, and ultimately—with nitrogen and other mineral ele-
ments from the soil—into higher organic combinations. The lower
forms of plant life (like bacteria, fungi, and certain kinds of
algae) have no chlorophyll and are therefore unable to feed on
carbon dioxide. They are none the less plants, since they closely
resemble the chlorophyll-bearing plants in details of form and
structure, mode of growth and reproduction. Higher develop-
ment in form and function, however, becomes possible only when
the lower forms of life acquire the ability to assimilate iron and
lime salts and to utilize the resulting combinations for the construc-
tion of nucleo-proteids.
We must, therefore, draw a sharp line of demarcation between
organic and inorganic salts, as well as between vitality and chemi-
cal energy. Chemically the elements are always the same, whether
they are found in the air, earth, plant or animal. It is only through
the life-process of the plant that the constituents of air and soil
become vitalized; and this property of vitality alone distinguishes,
for instance, the atom of iron in the red blood corpuscles from
that furnished in the form of inorganic “tissue-salts,” or other
artificial preparations. That some elements exist in our body in
such combinations as are found in the mineral kingdom, or as can
be produced in the chemical laboratory, does not justify us in call-
ing them “inorganic,” after they have become integral parts of
the living organism. Still, in most of the medical and physiological
textbooks, the mineral elements in foods and in the body are termed
“inorganic salts”; and this misleading denomination has also
given the public the erroneous idea that the term “salt” refers
to the common salt, or chloride of sodium, which is considered an
indispensable adjunct to almost all foods. There are some people
who believe that common jpalt makes blood and bone, and for that
reason add salt even to the milk which serves as an exclusive food
for infants!
The fact cannot be too frequently emphasized that there is a
vital change going on in all the elements as they pass into the
structure of the plant. On the other hand, chemical analysis or﻿OKGANIC SALTS
89
separation of the elements means destruction of the living tissues;
and, of course, the chemist will find in the elements of the “ash”
the same properties that are found in the elements of the soil, but
that subtle, imponderable force—vital electricity—has escaped.
It cannot be isolated by the laboratory process of condensation or
extraction. We must learn to recognize the mineral elements of
the body as really “organic,” integral parts of the living body and
subject to the same vital changes—life and death—as the entire
organism.
The phosphate of lime and the carbonate of lime of the skeleton,
the iron contained in the red blood corpuscles, the phosphate of
sodium, chloride of potassium, chloride of sodium, etc., found in
the blood serum, are organized, and as such have a certain duration
of life, during which they have vital functions to perform. Sooner
or later the molecules will become fatigued or devitalized, accord-
ing to the degree of their physiological activity, and they must be
supplanted by fresh material. In other words, their biological
existence is at an end when the vitality of the molecules imparted
to them by the organism of the plant is used up, just as the death
of the whole organism occurs when its vitality is depleted. Pro-
teins present in the living body are combined with mineral ele-
ments, whereby the proteins concerned acquire specific properties
and functional signification in the organism. We can hope to
understand the living state of th® protoplasm only when the
complex organic combinations are recognized, chemically and bio-
logically, as very changeable bodies which the slightest influence
will often disintegrate into the more stable compounds of dead or
inorganic matter. The higher the forms of life and the more in-
tense the vital activity of the elements in the organism, the more
subtle and refined their organic combinations have to be, and the
more they are subject to change and renewal.
To illustrate: the comparatively stable molecules in the bones
and teeth will last a longer time before they require replacement
than the highly active atoms of iron, which are the oxygen carriers
of the blood. The quantity of blood of a normal adult man of 160
pounds is about twelve pounds (7% per cent of the body weight)
and contains approximately fifty grains of iron. With every
pulse beat nearly six ounces of blood are forced from the heart
into the aorta, and, during every half minute, the entire quantity﻿90
KATIONAL DIET
of blood passes from the heart into the lungs and from there into
the arteries and capillaries through the body. Consequently, the
fifty grains of iron pass through the heart and lungs 120 times an
hour and 2880 times a day. "Within twenty-four hours, under
normal conditions, the fifty grains of iron have to expend the same
effort or vital action as 2880 x 50 grains or more than 20 pounds.
The iron of the blood is a constituent of the hemoglobin, a protein
compound making up the red blood corpuscles. The hemoglobin
molecule is of enormous size, chemically considered, and iron makes
up only the three-hundredth part of it by weight. Iron has the
highest specific weight of all the elements entering the animal
organism, being nearly eight times heavier than water. Therefore,
nature had to construct such a large and highly complex organic
molecule, in which iron occupies a small part, so that it could
easily float along with the blood-current. To graphically illustrate
this, the chemical analysis of the hemoglobin from horse blood,
according to a German scientist, is represented by the formula:
C712IIj130N214O245FeS2, showing more than 2000 atoms in one mole-
cule. In natural foods iron is found solely in the form of com-
plicated organic compounds which have been built by the life
processes of plants. From these compounds hemoglobin is pro-
duced in the animal organism, which is not able to construct the
highly complex organic molecule from inorganic substances.
Experiments have shown that animals slowly starved if they
were fed only on a mixture of protein, carbohydrates and fat, all
the mineral elements of milk chemically separated, but exactly
in the same proportions found in whole milk; while animals which
were fed exclusively on natural milk remained in good health.
This is a most significant fact. Young animals can live on fresh
milk alone. But if we put together artificially the constituents of
the milk, which, according to the teachings of present-day physi-
ology, are necessary for the sustenance of life, the animals die
rapidly. The milk is an organic whole, in which the tissue salts
are chemically associated with the organic substances, and only in
this form are they able to sustain vital force. The absolute ne-
cessity for electric and magnetic vitality in all of the atoms and
molecules of food does away forever with the fanciful idea of
some dreamers that some day we may be able to prepare artificial
and concentrated foods in the chemical laboratory. Nature knows﻿OBGANIC SALTS
91
her business infinitely better than the expert chemists, and all at-
tempts to imitate her intricate work will he failures from the very
beginning.
The question of the absorption and utilization of different forms
of iron in particular, was thoroughly investigated by Abderhalden,
a German scientist, in an extended series of experiments upon
several species of animals. He found that the animals fed with
food poor in iron, plus an addition of inorganic iron, were unable
in the long run to produce as much hemoglobin as those receiving
normal food. While inorganic iron may be absorbed, it is not
utilized in the formation of hemoglobin, but remains unused in
the tissues. The same fact was found to be true clinically, and indi-
cates that any apparent benefit is due to stimulation without the
iron actually forming hemoglobin. Abderhalden also came to the
conclusion that hemoglobin is derived essentially from the organic
iron compounds of the food, while inorganic iron acts mainly, if not
entirely, as a stimulant.
Chloride of sodium, or common salt, is another inorganic sub-
stance which has caused much confusion in the minds of people in
regard to its necessity as an adjunct to our food. We constantly
meet such statements as these: “It is the only substance which we
take into our bodies directly from the mineral elements; and the
desire for salt is instinctive with nearly all animals”; or “Com-
mon salt is one of the most essential of the mineral constituents
of the body. When sodium chloride is entirely withheld from an
animal, death from salt starvation ensues.” Both of these asser-
tions, and many similar ones, are almost diametrically opposed to
the truth. Why should chloride of sodium be an exception to the
other elements? Because an article has been largely used as an
article of diet perhaps for thousands of years, does not entitle us,
without unbiased investigation, to consider it wholesome. The
salt-eating habit may be acquired as any other unhygienic habit,
and, if we choose our food rightly, there is absolutely no necessity
for it. The advocates of salt point to the animals who often go
for miles to so-called “salt licks,” but that fact does not by any
means demonstrate that salt serves as food or performs some vital
functions in the organism. This craving for salt is in most in-
stances caused by feeding the cattle on herbage grown on soils poor
in mineral elements, especially sodium, as on mountain slopes﻿92
RATIONAL DIET
■where rains have carried away the most soluble parts of the soil
and deposited them in the valleys.
It has also been observed that herbivorous animals after the
winter months, when they have subsisted mostly on barks and
twigs of trees, become constipated and look scrawny for the lack
of the alkaline elements which are supplied in the various grasses
in spring and summer. When the ground is heavily covered with
snow, often for months, they cannot obtain the needful organic
salts and vitamins in sufficient quantities, but as soon as there is a
plentiful supply of herbs and greens, they very seldom go to salt-
licks, which, by the way, contain very little sodium chloride and
are mostly composed of other minerals.
Extensive experiments made in Germany with the horses of ten
squadrons of cavalry and two batteries of artillery, during two
years, showed that the animals, if they had their choice, preferred
the unsalted fodder. If half an ounce of salt was added to their
daily rations, they ate them without difficulty, but if an ounce was
given, they showed apparent disgust. In every instance the use
of salt was rather injurious than beneficial and did not increase
the strength of the animals. With cows, a very small amount of
salt increases the quantity of milk, but deteriorates the quality.
Larger portions are decidedly detrimental, as the salt has a highly
irritating influence upon all the tissues it comes in contact with.
Professor Bunge assumes that the over-supply of potassium in some
of the vegetable foods is the cause of desire for salt in the herbiv-
orous animals. If a salt of potassium, such as potassium carbo-
nate, meets with chloride of sodium in solution, a partial exchange
takes place and chloride of potassium and carbonate of sodium are
formed. This chloride of sodium is practically withdrawn from
the organism and this loss seems to cause a craving for salt. Bunge
further says that a man living chiefly on potatoes, for instance,
takes in nearly one ounce and a half of potash salts a day. Cereals
and pulses, generally used as staple articles of food, are likewise
rich in potassium and poor in sodium. Man was never intended
to be a potato or cereal eater, and the statements of Bunge only
prove how urgently people need enlightenment in regard to their
dietary habits. A combination of potatoes, cereals and pulses,
with or without meat, is detrimental, since it is acid-forming. These
foods, which at present make up the larger part of man’s diet,﻿ORGANIC SALTS
93
are, as a rule, not sufficiently supplemented by non-starcliy veg-
etables, especially salad plants supplying sodium and the other
alkaline elements. Furthermore, most of the vegetables are pre-
pared so irrationally that their hygienic value is almost entirely
lost. Salad is prepared with vinegar (which is worse than alcohol)
and condiments; and the vegetables are boiled in water which is
thrown away, together with the easily soluble salts, making them,
of course, insipid and valueless. The consequence is that common
salt is used in an attempt to restore the organic salts lost in the
water. Thus the very purpose which the vegetables should serve,
is frustrated by their irrational preparation. We should, there-
fore, always prefer those vegetables which we can enjoy in their
natural and uncooked state. Those who will not dispense with
table salt entirely should at least reduce its consumption to a
minimum, not exceeding twenty-five grains daily, which is as
much as will go on the point of a knife. Yet there are people who
consume an ounce and even more per day, especially if they par-
take freely of salt butter, cheese, ham, etc. The following table
gives the amounts of table salt in some commonly used foods:
Bread, average	25	to	30
Salt butter	¡3	to	1
Swiss cheese	n	to	1
Smoked sausage	Vi	to	%
Ham	%	to	%
Caviar	3A	to	1
Salt beef	l	to	m
Salt pork	\y	to	m
Salt herring	m	to	2
Cod liver oil	2%	to	3
Further attention must be called to the scientifically proved
fact, that all foods which are kept in salt-water or brine, exchange
some of the organic salts for the common salt by osmosis. Thus
the valuable constituents are thrown away with the brine. Al-
though the living cells of the body will protect themselves for some
time against such mineral poisons, they will gradually lose their
power of resistance. Salt is a strong diureter, subtracting from
blood and lymph the necessary wrater for its excretion by the kid-
neys, a circumstance which causes abnormal thirst which is gen-
erally satisfied by stimulants and alcoholic beverages. All that may
be claimed for salt is that it gives some palatability to emasculated﻿94
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food, while the quality is in no way improved. But why deprive
the foods of their natural organic salts and then add the inorganic
table salt?
The old dietary standards with their larger amount of protein,
and the fallacious estimation of food-values by the amount of cal-
ories, with entire disregard to the organic salts, have led to an
over-consumption of meat, pulses and cereals, while the hygienic
value of fresh fruits and vegetables is very much underestimated.
These conditions are well illustrated by the fact, that of the
total amount expended for food, the American people spend about
forty per cent for meat, about twenty per cent for dairy products,
about twenty per cent for demineralized cereals and refined suk~r,
and only eleven per cent for fruits and vegetables. In other words,
only eleven cents of each dollar spent for food goes towards the
purchase of nature’s most wholesome products. In fact, Americans
spend five times more money for refined sugar, artificial concoc-
tions and manufactured sweets than for fruits. Their annual
expenditure for these items follows:
So-called soft drinks (mostly made with
cane sugar syrup, artificial flavor and
colors)	$
Ice cream
Cakes and candies
Chewing gum
Refined sugar, molasses, etc.
350.000.	000
250.000.	000
350.000.	000
50,000,000
500.000.	000
Total, per year
For fruits per year, only
$1,500,000,000
300,000,000
In other words, the annual per capita consumption of fruits is
less than $3.00 while that for artificial sweets in various forms is
$15.00. Americans are fast becoming the best fed, but most poorly
nourished nation on earth, from the lack of the needfid organic
salts in their daily food supply. The result is a rapid increase of
nutritional diseases in spite of an army of over 100,000 physicians,
who are only too prone to recommend surgical operations instead
of a radical change in the patient’s dietetic habits. The nutritive
value of fresh fruits and vegetables is still very much under-
estimated by physicians and laymen alike, because foods are still
judged by the amount of protein and calories they contain, instead
of by the organic salts and vitamins.﻿ORGANIC SALTS
95
The tables of analyses in the appendix show the proportion
of mineral elements entering into the composition of the human
body and most of the generally used food materials. We see at a
glance that there is a great variation in the quantity and propor-
tion of the different elements. The green-leaf vegetables have the
highest amount of organic salts, especially sodium, iron and chlo-
rine, which are very essential for the formation of normal and
healthy blood. On the other hand, the milling products, like white
flour, corn flour, and polished rice, which are paraded as “the staff
of life,” are poorest in the total amount of minerals, as well as in
the amount of essential blood salts. The cereals are deprived, on
an average, of seventy-five per cent of their mineral elements
through the modern milling processes which, as experiments show,
make them practically starvation foods. Meat ranks above the
cereals in the total amount of salts. We must take into considera-
tion, however, that the molecules in flesh foods have already lost a
part of their vital electricity and magnetism by performing the
life-processes in the animal body. In the organism of the plant
these processes are chiefly constructive in storing up the vital
forces in their organic combinations. Furthermore, we should con-
sider that high degrees of heat, as employed in cooking, baking and
frying, also produce certain biological changes in foods, and some
of the mineral elements are separated from their organic combina-
tions and reduced to the inorganic state.
In the Agricultural College of Greifswald (Germany) a number
of interesting experiments were made to determine the difference
between raw and boiled milk in the nutrition of the animal body.
A litter of eight pups were divided into two groups, A and B, of
wdiich the one group was fed on raw milk, the other on boiled milk.
During the course of the experiment, which lasted three months,
no other food was given. The animals were weighed weekly, with
the following results:
The first week the dogs of group A (raw milk) increased in
weight more rapidly than those of group B (boiled milk). With
the beginning of the second week the conditions were reversed,
due to the accumulation of fat in the tissues of group B. A care-
ful analysis of the blood showed that the contents of fibrin, al-
bumin, organic salts, and consequently the specific weight of the
blood, were much lower in group B than in group A. The tissues﻿96
RATIONAL DIET
of the bones of the former were far less firm than those of the
latter group. The marrow of the bones of group B was decidedly
anemic, the bones could be easily detached, while at the same time
they showed a marked deficiency in mineral matter, such as potas-
sium phosphate, calcium phosphate, magnesium phosphate, etc.
In boiling milk, the change which takes place is due to the
coagulation of the globulin, or protein molecule, which splits away
from the mineral molecules, and renders the combinations of
iron and fluorine and the phosphate molecules unassimilable. Sim-
ilar changes take place to a greater or lesser extent in the arti-
ficial preparation of all foods, whenever a degree of heat is applied
that causes the coagulation or breaking up of protein molecule in
which the subtle, imponderable vital forces are destroyed. Cooked
foods, to be sure, can sustain life, but in the long run they cause
a degeneration of the tissues and a lessened vitality and power of
resistance. The dietetic and hygienic value of natural uncooked
foods, therefore, becomes apparent.
By living during many generations largely on cooked foods,
the organs of digestion and assimilation of the majority of people
have been weakened to such a degree that they cannot properly
digest uncooked foods, which require strong and powerful digestive
juices. But the system will gradually adapt itself to natural foods
again, if they are prepared judiciously and given in the right com-
binations. In fact, the organism responds quickly to the medici-
nal qualities of fresh fruits and green-leaf vegetables, which should
be our only materia medica for restoring the normal physiological
functions of the human body and for the increase of its powers
of resistance.﻿CHAPTER XI
Variation op the Percentage of Mineral Elements and
Their Polaric Distribution in Foods
In studying tables of food analyses one important fact is gen-
erally overlooked, viz., the wide variation in the chemical com-
position of the mineral matter in food products of the same kind,
which is shown in table in the appendix. Thus we see, for in-
stance, in cow’s milk a variation of the total mineral matter from
0.35 per cent to 1.21 per cent; in grapes from 0.36 to 0.70 per cent;
in potatoes from 0.42 to 1.46 per cent; in peas from 1.76 to 3.49
per cent, while soda, lime and iron vary as follows :
SODA:	LIME:
(Per Cent of Total Mineral Matter)
In milk	from 8.60 to 11.18
In grapes	from 0.29 to 10.54
In potatoes from none to 16.93
In peas from none to 3.54
17.31 to 27.55
1.70 to 22.60
0.51 to 6.23
2.31 to 7.90
IRON:
0.33 to 0.76
0.05 to 1.68
0.04 to 7.18
none to 3.83
Again, according to Watts and other chemists, oxide of iron
shows the following variations in different cereals:
Percentage of iron in total amount of mineral matter:
In oats from
In wheat from
In rye from
In barley from
In millet from
In rice from
In corn from
0.1 to 5.1
trace to 3.3
none to 2.2
0.1 to 2.1
trace to 1.8
none to 1.4
0.5 to 0.8
Similar variations could very likely be detected in all food
products grown in different soils. Such changes may go on slowly
and imperceptibly; but in the course of years the soil may dete-
riorate to such a degree that its products become of an inferior
quality, especially deficient in the essential organic salts. Men and
animals subsisting on such abnormal foods will eventually show
various signs of degeneration which reveal themselves in defective
development of bones and tissues and in the lack of vital resistance
or vital electricity. We must begin to look for the origin of so-
07﻿98
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called contagious diseases—consumption, cholera, cancer, smallpox,
etc., which are decimating the human race—in the devitalized cells
and tissues of the organism, chiefly caused by faulty and perverted
nutrition, and foods raised on impoverished soils, and not by germs
and bacilli. We must learn to combat these diseases not by serums,
vaccines and anti-toxins, but by reforming our dietetic and hygienic
habits in accordance with nature’s inexorable laws, and by intelli-
gently improving the soil, and with it, the quality of our foods.
As long as farmers continue to fumigate and spray deteriorated
vegetation, instead of seeking for the cause of such deterioration;
as long as dóítors, being unable to distinguish between cause and
effect, inject vaccine and serums into degenerated tissues, just so
long will disease decimate mankind, notwithstanding the much-
lauded progress of science.
The average college-bred physician accepts the established
dietary standards as something axiomatic and not to be ques-
tioned. He is not aware of the relation which food bears to health
and disease and, therefore, loses the advantage of an important
therapeutic agent. We have a number of pathological conditions
which, according to the teaching hitherto prevalent, are regarded
erroneously as totally heterogeneous and disconnected. This mis-
understanding has produced innumerable “specialists,” each one
treating a particular organ or symptom, without considering the
body as an organic whole. A perfect understanding of the char-
acteristics of each of the eighteen elements which make up the
human body, of their relation to each other, of their functions in
nutrition, growth and elimination in the living organism, will
go far toward establishing a correct method of diagnosing diseased
conditions, thus simplifying pathology and therapeutics. While
the investigations which have been made in this respect are com-
paratively few, yet they are sufficient to establish an intelligent
view of the prevention of all disease. They will ultimately in-
augurate a rational and liberating system of living on a new
and solid foundation of physiological and biological facts.
Polakic Distribution of the Elements
The early agricultural chemists had already found that in
plants as well as animals and man, the mineral elements are not
equally distributed, but that certain elements predominate in﻿VARIATION OF MINERAL CONTENTS
99
certain parts of the organism. Thus potassium, sodium, calcium,
iron and sulphur generally pass into the stems, leaves and fruits
of the plants, while potassium phosphorus and magnesium are the
principal mineral constituents of the seeds and roots. This fact
becomes apparent by a careful study of the tables of analyses con-
tained in this book. The tendency of certain elements to accumu-
late in certain parts of the plants may he compared with the polaric
distribution of the earth’s magnetism which is strongest at its poles.
This is probably due to the polaric accumulation of iron which is
the principal source of magnetic power on our planet. Just as
magnetic iron attracts the non-magnetic metal, so the mineral
elements in the living organism of the plant, charged as they are
with vital electricity and magnetism by the great central station
of the sun, attract similar non-magnetic elements as well as carbon
dioxide and ammonia. The latter, combined with water, form the
carbohydrates, proteids and nucleo-proteids. We may always
recognize in plants distinct parts or poles, characterized by the
particular mineral elements which they attract and accumulate,
viz.: the leaves, blades, stems and juicy fruits on one hand, and
on the other, the seeds (grains, nuts, seeds, contained in fruits)
which serve for the reproduction of the species. The polaric dis-
tribution can also be noticed to a certain extent in the seeds them-
selves. Here we find in the outer layer of the kernels an accumu-
lation of calcium, sodium, magnesium, sulphur, fluorine and silica,
while potassium and phosphorus predominate in the inner parts.
Even in the cells a characteristic division of the elements in the
cell walls from the interior parts can he detected.
In the human and animal bodies nature woi’ks according to
the same principle. Here we find the principal anatomical parts—
the muscular tissues, the cartilage, the skeleton, the blood, the
organs, etc.—likewise characterized by the polaric accumulation
of certain mineral elements. The muscular tissues or meat, being
rich in potassium and phosphorus, resemble in their chemical com-
position the seeds, while the skeleton, blood and skin, with their
large amount of calcium, sodium, magnesium, iron, silicon, chlorine
and fluorine, may be compared with the stems, leaves and juicy
fruits. Although sodium, chlorine, and iron predominate in the
blood, the latter must necessarily carry a certain quantity of all
the elements entering into the composition of the human body, be-﻿100
RATIONAL DIET
cause it is blood which carries them to the different parts and
organs, nourishing and cleansing the tissues and creating heat,
vital electricity and magnetism. If all the blood vessels are filled
with oxygenated, nerve-vivifying blood, containing the due amount
of organic salts, this must be of advantage to every part of the
body. Under such conditions liver, spleen, stomach, pancreas and
intestines, as well as lungs, kidneys and skin, harmoniously work
together, supporting and complementing each other. Again, in
the cells making up the various organs there predominate certain
mineral bases and salts which determine their vital functions, at-
tracting by means of their electro-magnetic properties similar
atomic groups, and eliminating the worn-out material, thus con-
trolling the processes of absorption, assimilation and excretion. It
is also interesting to note in this connection the role played by the
elements in the struggle for existence which led to the evolution
of the different species of the plant and animal world. The quan-
tity and proportion of the mineral elements in the food shaped
the various kinds of protoplasmic cells, which served as bases for the
size and form, growth and propagation of the numerous species of
the organic kingdoms. An insufficiency or plentiful supply of
one or more elements will always greatly modify the character of
the vegetable and animal organism affected. In other words, the
protoplasmic cells in each species depend for the continuation of
their vitality on certain well-defined food materials. To illustrate:
the silkworn lives exclusively on mulberry leaves, while beech-tree
leaves would be poison to it, because the latter contain lime, mag-
nesia and sulphur, elements which in large amounts are injurious
to worms; and mulberry leaves contain considerably less of these
elements.
The gigantic saurians that lived during the carboniferous
age, millions of years ago, and whose fossils and bones we now find
in the strata of limestone, composing the earth’s crust, could only
attain such enormoui proportions by developing a large and bony
skeleton. This in turn could be built only by feeding on the won-
derfully luxuriant vegetation of that period, produced by a moist,
tropical climate and a soil rich in calcium, magnesium, sodium and
iron. In the course of time, floods, volcanic eruptions and earth-
quakes greatly changed the topographical and meteorological con-
ditions of our planet, and these animals gradually became extinct.﻿VARIATION OF MINERAL CONTENTS
101
The vegetation assumed a different character according to climate
and soil, and could no longer abundantly supply the material for
the formation of such enormous frames as supported their bodies.
The remains of these antediluvian monsters, from which their
imagined appearance has been reconstructed, ought to teach us
that it is the skeleton, that part of the body richest in mineral
elements, which gives animals and men their characteristic form,
strength and power of resistance. When we further consider that
calcium make up more than one-half of the entire mineral matter
in the animal and human bodies, the important part of this ele-
ment in the growth and development of the organism becomes still
more apparent.
The chemical composition of the bones varies according to the
size and age of the animal. They contain on an average
5	to	50	per	cent	of	water
15	to	50	per	cent	of	cartilage	(a	gelatinous	substance)
5	to	20	per	cent	of	fat
20	to	70	per	cent	of	mineral	matter,	chiefly	composed of
phosphate of lime with some carbonate of lime, phosphate
of magnesia and small quanties of other elements.
The ribs, for instance, are composed of about
34 per cent of cartilage
57 per cent of phosphate of calcium
4 per cent of carbonate of calcium
2	per cent of phosphate of magnesium
3	per cent of other elements
While the cartilage consists of
67.67 per cent of water
30.13 per cent of mostly gelatinous substance
1.20 per cent of organic salts
The organic salts of cartilage are made up of
26.66 per cent of sulphate of potash
44.80 per cent of sulphate of sodium
6.10 per cent of chloride of sodium
8.40 per cent of phosphate of sodium
7.88 per cent of phosphate of calcium
4.55 per cent of phosphate of magnesium
Cartilage contains more sodium than any other tissue in our
bodies. The gelatin, which can be cooked from the bones, is a ni-
trogenous substance. While it has some cohesive force, it readily﻿102
RATIONAL DIET
decomposes if dissolved in water and exposed to light and air, and
for that reason it should never be used as human food. The skele-
ton, on the other hand, chiefly composed of mineral matter, may last
thousands of years, until it slowly decays by the action of moisture
and atmosphere. All parts of our body which are rich in cartilage
need a constant renewal of their component mineral elements for
protection against decomposition. Foods too rich in carbonaceous
and nitrogenous substances and deficient in minerals, which are so
universally consumed today, lower vital resistance and give rise to
all kinds of diseased and degenerate conditions. It is only when
the necessary organic salts are combined with other organic sub-
stances (protein, etc.) that the latter are rendered suitable for
healthy and adequate nutrition. The mineral elements give firm-
ness to the tissues and at the same time create that subtle, vital
electricity and magnetism which are the sources of our resisting
power against injurious influences. Perfect health can only be
maintained when the vital force is stronger than the disintegrating
effect of foreign substances and micro-organisms which pass into
our system by means of air, water and food. It is, furthermore,
the presence of the alkaline minerals in normal quantities and pro-
portions which protects the organism from constantly forming
poisonous waste products, by neutralizing them and removing them
promptly from the system. As long as these facts are not recog-
nized by the medical profession, it will continue to grope in error,
hunting for “germs of disease,” “discovering” antitoxins and
serums, vivisecting, quarantining and disinfecting, cutting out
organs, inventing “elixirs of life,” compounding paralyzing drugs,
and deriving its “knoivledge” from the test tubes of the laboratory
instead of directly from nature—the eternal source of all life, and
the fountain of truth and ivisdom. How true are Goethe’s words
in his immortal “Faust”:
“Nature retains her veil, despite our clamors:
That which she doth not willingly display
Cannot be wrenched from her with levers, screws
and hammers.”
Agriculture suffers frequently from errors similar to modern
medicine. Because the seeds of plants contain a considerable quan-
tity of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid, these substances
were considered the most essential plant-foods. A system of ferti-
lizing was established on this theory, disregarding the fact that﻿VARIATION OF MINERAL CONTENTS
103
the entire plant during the processes of growth requires quite dif-
ferent proportions of elements from those which may be derived
from the seeds alone. Nitrogenous fertilizers are used extensively,
and, apparently, they produce plants of luxuriant growth, bring-
ing forth fruits of large size and attractive to the eye, but of
inferior quality and little durability. It is the proper quantity
and proportion of all the mineral elements which give the fruits
and vegetables their intrinsic food value, and not their content of
nitrogen, ammoniacal compounds and wTater. The usual manures
supply plants with too much forcing material, artificially stimulat-
ing growth, and producing a vegetation which lacks the material
firmness and the power of vital resistance-jand, therefore, is sub-
ject to the attacks of fungi, parasites and all kinds of plant diseases.
No normal body substance can be formed by foods grown on
soil in which some of the essential elements are deficient. The
milk obtained from animals feeding on impoverished vegetation is
naturally of inferior quality, no matter how carefully handled and
pasteurized. The large mortality of infants must be largely traced
to milk produced by animals feeding on vegetation grown upon
impoverished soils, aside from the fact that cow’s milk is not a
natural food for human beings.
There is nothing needed more in agriculture and in the science
of nutrition than a clear and correct understanding of the polaric
distribution, relationship and functions of the elements which
build the organic world. It is only such knowledge that will help
us to deal intelligently with the problems of health and disease,
and dissipate the old superstitions which still hold their sway.
The mineral elements entering into the composition of the
human body, with the exception of sulphur and iron, are not found
in nature in the uncombined or elementary state. Taken as such
they would be more or less injurious and even poisonous to the
system, on account of their great affinity for oxygen and other
elements, which would rapidly disintegrate all organized matter.
It is only in their various chemical combinations with other sub-
stances that the elements become so modified that they can serve
as foods for plants, which, in turn, transform them into still higher
forms of organic combinations, enabling them to perform various
complex vital functions in the animal and human organism.
It should be emphasized that the generation of vital electricity﻿104
RATIONAL DIET
and magnetism, on which the function of the brain and nervous
system depends, is the primary function of all food-substances,
while.the production of heat is of secondary importance. For that
reason, the determination of food values by calories is misleading.
Chemically pure albumen, refined sugar and starch' substances
giving about 1750 calories per pound, cannot maintain life. In
fact, they would exhaust the vital forces sooner than the total
abstinence from all food, because they are deprived of the organic
salts, which are necessary for the generation of vital electricity,
and for the reduction and elimination of waste matter.
Another point to be mentioned here is that blood rich in alka-
line salts makes the digestive juices stronger and more effective,
abstracting, therefore, more nutriment from a certain quantity of
food than when the blood is in an acid condition, which is apt to
impair the action of the digestive juices.
Equally important is the proportion of organic salts contained
in food for healthy and adequate nutrition. A dietary may con-
tain the necessary amount of calories, but the organic salts may be
present in deficient quantities or wrong proportions. Mother’s
milk which is the natural food for the growing infant, indicates
approximately the right proportions of the different organic salts
which should constitute our food-supply. It contains:
33.80 per cent Potash
9.10 per cent Soda
16.70	per cent Lime
2.20 per cent Magnesia
0.22 per cent Oxide of iron
22.70	per cent Phosphoric acid
0.95 per cent Sulphur
0.02 per cent Silica
14.30 per cent Chlorine
Traces of Fluorine
It should be noted, however, that the growing organism needs
more phosphate of potash and lime for the formation of bone and
tissues than does the adult who needs more of soda, iron, sulphur
and silica. Under normal conditions nature has stored a supply
of iron in the liver and spleen of the newborn, seemingly to pro-
tect the body against possible deficiency of this important element
which may occur in the food supply.﻿VARIATION OF MINERAL CONTENTS
105
The foods which constitute the larger part of the average diet-
ary, meat, cereals, and pulses, are too rich in phosphate of potash
and deficient in iron, lime, soda, magnesia, sulphur, silica, and
fluorine, a circumstance which is productive of many diseases,
whose origin was hitherto obscure and falsely attributed to exter-
nal causes, such as bacilli, germs or inclemency of the weather.﻿CHAPTER XII
The Acid-Binding Elements
The acid-binding, or alkaline elements, necessary lor the growth
of the human body, and the performance of its physiological func-
tions, are potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese
and aluminum.
Potassium (K) exists in inorganic nature in the form of chlo-
ride and sulphate of potassium in sea-water, or as deposits of
rocksalt in the earth’s surface; it is also found as silicate of potas-
sium in feldspar and glimmer. This element never occurs in the
free state, but can be obtained by electrolysis from chloride of
potassium, when it appears as a brilliant white mineral, soft as
wax, somewhat lighter than water, with a melting point of 145° F.
It rapidly oxidizes if exposed to the air, but may be kept intact in
coal-oil. If thrown on water it rapidly decomposes, the latter form-
ing liydroxid of potassium (KOH), whereby such a degree of heat
is generated that the liberated hydrogen burns with a blue flame, as
it arises from the liquid, presenting the peculiar spectacle of seem-
ingly burning water. The salts of potassium (potash) are found
in large proportions in all plants. They are essential to the pro-
duction of starchy fiber and the growth of grain and fruits.
Without potassium there cannot be full development of plant or
seed. Other things being equal, an increase of potash will increase
to a certain degree the percentage of carbohydrates. Furthermore,
potash is found to be present in larger proportions in those parts
in which the carbohydrates are formed, as in all the connective
tissues. As already mentioned, seeds always contain much more
potassium phosphate than sodium phosphate, while on the other
hand the proportion of soda to potash is found to be larger in the
leaves and in a number of roots.
Potassium, if present in proper proportions, is a protection
against parasites, fungi, insects, worms, etc. In places where in-
sect pests oecur, we find a deficiency of potassium, calcium, soda
and iron; or the soil may contain these elements in such a state
that they are not available to the plant. Phosphate of potassium
100﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
107
is the mineral basis of all muscular tissues, giving them their char-
acteristic pliancy. All other organic salts exist in muscular tissues
only in small proportions. Flesh is a very incomplete food, aside
from the objection to the waste products it contains. It is adapted
only to carnivorous animals, which are able to get their supply of
soda, lime and iron by devouring the blood, bones and cartilage of
their prey. Cereals, especially white flour products, show the same
deficiency in organic salts as meat. Although the statement that
“there is no life without potassium” cannot be contradicted, it
should be modified, for potassium acts more favorably when the
other elements are present in right proportion. An over-supply of
this element is always injurious to organic life, and it is well known
that, if contained in the soil in large proportions, or too frequently
applied as a fertilizer, it is capable of producing poisonous effects.
Experiments on wheat show that the roots make a much better
growth in a mixture of chloride of potassium and chloride of
sodium than in the pure solutions of these substances. It must be
admitted, however, that potassium salts are of first importance in
all processes of organic combinations of the elements. They are
essential not only in the formation of carbohydrates and fat, but
also in that of proteids, which are the principal organic compounds
of the plant cell. In the synthetic processes of animal life, potas-
sium salts are also indispensable. They play a part in the forma-
tion of glycogen from glucose, of fats from glycogen, and of pro-
teids from peptones and proteoses. The liver, which is the principal
organ in glycogen-formation, contains twice as much potassium as
sodium, while in the spleen the proportion of potassium to sodium
is one to four. Potassium is also a predominant element in the red
blood corpuscles and in the brain, and we may conclude, therefore,
that the element is in some way concerned in the generation of vital
electricity and the functions of the brain and nervous system.
Although potassium and sodium have similar chemical properties,
they cannot be replaced by each other.
Sodium occurs in inorganic nature in the form of salts, gener-
ally as chloride of sodium in the water of oceans and salt seas, and,
to a smaller extent, in spring waters. It is found as common
salt in the strata of the earth’s crust. As nitrate of sodium, or
chili-nitre, it is found in large quantities in South America. As﻿108
RATIONAL DIET
silicate of sodium it is a constituent of many minerals. Like potas-
sium it can be obtained in its elementary condition by electrolysis.
It is a soft, white metal, melting at about 200° F. It rapidly oxi-
dizes in the air and, if heated, burns with a yellow flame. It decom-
poses water, but the generated heat is not high enough to ignite the
liberated hydrogen.
The view has been prevalent that sodium, although indispensable
to animals, was of no special value to plants. So far no distinction
has been made between the two fundamental functions of mineral
salts which we now characterize as nutritive and protective. The
protective function has not been understood until quite recently.
Professor Osterhout of the department of botany in the University
of California has made some interesting experiments in this respect.
He says, in part:
“The whole subject was placed in a new light by Professor
Jacques Loeb’s formulation of balanced solutions which developed
as the result of experiments on animals and demonstrated the pro-
tective action of sodium for muscle and nerve. I have shown in
the last two years that this conception applies equally to plants.
In proof of this I have shown that each of the ordinary salts of the
soil (as well as of fresh water and ocean water) is poisonous for
the plant when it alone is present in solution. We find, for example,
that seeds placed in a solution of any one of these salts do not grow
as well as in distilled water. Closer investigation shows that each
of these salts has in addition to its osmotic effect a specific toxic
effect according to its chemical nature. This is in the majority of
cases due to the action of ions. We also find that we can counteract
these poisonous chemical effects by adding certain salts which act
as antidotes and which are therefore said to exercise a protective
action. The same combination of salts which are beneficial for
animals prove to be so for plants likewise. The agreement with the
results from animals is complete, not only in principle, but even in
details. ’ ’
Experiments have shown that sodium is able to act as a means
of protection against excess of other salts in the soil, principally
those of potassium, ammonium, calcium and magnesium. The
abundance and ease of application of soda salts give them special
value for normal plant-growth. In the same way, sodium acts as a
protective agent in animals. This discovery constitutes a very
important point of agreement between animals and plants and has﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
109
a significant bearing on the theory of the unity of the phenomena
of life.
In the animal and human organism sodium has many important
functions to perform. In combination with chlorine it is one of
the principal constituents of the lymph. For the transmission of
the electric induction-current, which is generated in the nerve
spirals by the iron of the blood, a salty liquid is necessary, as is
shown by the construction of electric batteries. The normal blood
serum contains for this purpose a comparatively large quantity of
sodium chloride, which favors and sustains the generation and con-
duction of electric currents.
Sodium further serves to make the lime and magnesia salts in
our food and, consequently, in the blood, more soluble and to
keep them in a liquid state for perfect assimilation. Lime and
magnesia, if not kept liquid by sodium, are soon deposited in the
body, obstructing the capillaries, causing gall and bladder stones,
paralysis, etc. Sodium also protects the blood from becoming too
easily coagulated, the same as in the case of milk, where it keeps the
casein, which is combined with lime and magnesia, in a liquid state.
How very important sodium and sodium salts are for healthy nutri-
tion appears, for instance, in the case of diphtheria. The real
cause of this disease is a secretion of fibrin through the fauces from
lymph and blood, because the latter does not contain enough sodium
salts to prevent rapid coagulation of the fibrin. These salts have
the property of redissolving even the coagulated fibrin and reducing
it again to its liquid state.
* Sodium also plays an important part in the formation of
saliva, pancreatic juices and bile. In the latter, especially, the dis-
solving and reducing properties of the sodium salts can be very
distinctly recognized in the emulsification and saponification of
fats. Without a sufficient amount of sulphate of soda in our food,
no normal bile can be formed, and grave disorders of the digestive
functions, such as flatulency and constipation, will follow.
The deficiency of sodium in the blood is also one of the princi-
pal causes of diabetes, because of the inability of the system to
take up sufficient oxygen to burn the carbon in the food.
It has been pointed out that the absorption of oxygen depends
on the amount of iron in the hemoglobin of the blood. On the other﻿110
RATIONAL DIET
hand, the excretion of carbonic acid, as a result of the oxidation of
protein, fat and carbohydrates, is carried on by the sodium phos-
phate and sodium carbonate contained in the blood and lymph.
This process is carried on in the following manner:	sodium
circulates in the blood as di-sodium phosphate, that is, in molecules
which contain one atom of phosphorus to two atoms of sodium.
While sodium phosphate is a staple union, the second atom of
sodium is loosely connected with it. As soon as this additional atom
finds a more powerful attraction, it separates and enters into a new
combination. In this manner the carbon dioxide, resulting from
the various processes of oxidation in the system, is taken up by the
loose atom of sodium and turned into sodium carbonate again. This
latter combination is not a lasting one, for as soon as it reaches the
lungs through the veins, the carbon dioxide is discharged into the
air, while the atom of sodium reunites with the sodium phosphate
and continues its valuable function. In sodium we have, therefore,
an indefatigable purifier of the system from poisonous carbonaceous
waste products. Whenever there is a deficiency of sodium salts in
the blood, the chemical changes between tissues and blood cannot
be regulated, and excessive accumulation of carbon dioxide takes
place in the body. The production of this waste product goes on,
while its excretion is incomplete. Hence, we have the symptoms of
carbon dioxide poisoning—pallid complexion, sour stomach, consti-
pation and the proverbial “tired feeling.” These symptoms gen-
erally occur more frequently towards the end of winter and early
spring, as during the colder seasons the average diet consists mainly
of meat, pulses and cereals, which are lacking in soda salts. What-
ever vegetables are eaten are, as a rule, so irrationally prepared
that they are of little food value. As a matter of fact, under the
present methods of living, almost every individual suffers from a
deficiency of soda in the blood as a result of a wTrong selection of
food and over-eating. In the causation of disease uric acid is not
such a prominent factor as the accumulation of carbon dioxide in
the fluids and tissues. Carbon dioxide causes a deficient circulation
of the blood in the skin, and this, again, by preventing the excretion
of waste products through the skin, is responsible for a persistent
inclination towards “catching cold,” which is really a synonymous
expression for the retention of waste matter in the system. The﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
111
imperfect circulation of the blood in the body generally makes the
process of oxidation more difficult, thus giving rise to the formation
of abnormal products of tissue change. Consequently, all the proc-
esses of nutrition are functioning under difficulties and are incom-
plete, as the small part of oxygen absorbed is not sufficient for
perfect oxidation. The accumulation of insufficiently oxidized
proteins, as in the case of an excessive meat, pulse or cereal diet,
gives rise to the formation of considerable quantities of free sul-
phuric and phosphoric acids, which, as they cannot combine with
alkalies, will attack the tissues. This process takes place, for in-
stance, in the so-called Banting-cure, in which emaciation actually
results from the almost exclusive meat diet. Such a dietary, as
also in the case of the Salisbury system, cannot be regarded as a
rational cure, although it may temporarily remove some symp-
toms, not, however, without weakening the patient and lowering
his general resisting power.
It is now admitted by all advanced physiologists that the power
of the blood to resist disease depends upon its degree of alkalinity.
Indeed, any body having blood rich in alkaline salts, and especially
blood serum containing a normal amount of soda—the most impor-
tant of the acid-binding salts—will show a high degree of resisting
power against injurious influences and so-called contagious dis-
eases, whether they be called smallpox, diphtheria, yellow fever or
tuberculosis. The medical profession does, not yet recognize these
important facts, nor does it realize that protection against disease
must come from the development of strong and healthy tissues and
not through vaccines, anti-toxins and serums. In other words, pre-
vention and cure of disease must come from sunlight, pure air and,
above all, from a properly regulated diet, rich in alkaline salts.
If sodium is lacking in our food, and consequently in the blood,
the bones will be attacked by the latter to supply the necessary
alkaline salts to neutralize the acids, a condition which will cause
diseases of the bones. In cases of rickets the blood often shows
only forty per cent of the normal sodium and calcium contents.
A table in the appendix shows the amount of sodium contained
in 1,000 parts of water-free substance of all foods so far analyzed.
It is well worth careful consideration in selecting and combining
our foods.﻿112
RATIONAL DIET
For the sake of comparison a smaller table with the sodium
contents in foods is given below:
Sodium Contained in 1,000 Parts of Water-free Substance
Corn	0.02	Prunes	3.41
Walnuts	0.17	Apricots	3.76
Peanuts	0.21	Cow’s milk	5.34
Pecans	0.36	Cauliflower	5.38
Almonds	0.38	Turnips	7.10
Beans	0.42	Apples	8.61
Wheat	0.50	Beets	9.00
Oats	0.59	Eggs	9.56
Rice	0.67	Whey	9.75
Cherries	0.76	Cucumbers	10.00
Oranges	0.95	Dried Figs	10.77
Potatoes	1.33	Cabbage	11.68
Yolk of Egg	1.44	Lettuce	13.55
Meat	1.44	Dandelions	13.63
Onions	1.55	Carrots	14.63
Cocoanuts	1.57	Asparagus	14.77
Olives	2.52	Strawberries	18.53
Human Milk	3.16	Radish	23.37
Tomatoes	3.40	Spinach	57.42
Cereals, pulses and	nuts are	low in the amount	of sodium
and should, therefore, form the smaller part of our dietary, while
the bulk of our food should consist of fresh fruits and vegetables,
giving always preference to those rich in organic sodium salts.
If we observe this rule we will find that we can gradually dis-
pense with the inorganic chloride of sodium or table salt, or at
least reduce its use to a minimum, much to the benefit of our health.
Calcium is one of the most prevalent of the elements. As
carbonate of calcium (CaCOs) it is found in the form of calcium
spar, limestone, chalk, marble, shells of eggs, mollusca, and corals,
of which entire groups of islands are built. Sulphate of calcium
and bicarbonate of calcium are readily dissolved in soft spring
water. The element itself can be procured by electrolysis from
molten chloride of calcium, when it appears as a light yellow metal,
harder than lead, with a specific gravity of 1.58. Calcium in nature
is always accompanied by more or less magnesium and, with the
latter, represents the opposite pole to potassium (phosphate of
potash) and ammonia, which predominate in all seeds and in the﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
113
muscular tissues of the animals, thus holding the balance to these
substances. Calcium in connection with magnesium is, therefore,
the mineral foundation of the entire skeleton, as well as the carti-
lages and tendons. Magnesium gives the bones a certain flexibility
and protects them from becoming too easily fractured.
Magnesium occupies a position intermediate between the alkali
metals and the alkaline earths. To some extent it also resembles
heavy metal zinc. Magnesium is widely diffused in nature and
several of its compounds are found in large quantities. It occurs as
chloride and sulphate in many spring waters and in salt mines, as
in Stassfurt (Germany). Metallic magnesium may be obtained by
the decomposition of magnesium chloride, by sodium or electrolysis.
Magnesium is an almost silver white metal with a specific gravity
of 1.74, losing its lustre rapidly in moist air by oxidation of the
surface. It decomposes hot water by liberating oxygen, and, when
heated to a red heat burns with a brilliant bluish white flame, form-
ing magnesium oxide.
Magnesium exists in the body principally as phosphate of mag-
nesia in the bones, which contain about 50 per cent of phosphate
of lime and one per cent of phosphate of magnesia. Yet this com-
paratively small quantity gives the skeleton its firmness and pre-
vents softening of the bony tissues (osteomalacea). Our teeth are
harder than our bones, because they contain iy2 per cent, or y2 per
cent more phosphate of magnesia than the bones. This explains the
fact that in exhumation of ancient skulls the jawbones are partly
decayed and decomposed, while the teeth are still pretty well pre-
served. The ivory tusks of elephants contain 2 per cent phosphate
of magnesium, and the billiard balls made from them are almost
indestructible. The teeth of carnivorous animals contain nearly 5
per cent phosphate of magnesia, and, for that reason, they are able
to crush and grind the bones of their prey without difficulty. This
is another proof that man is not of a carnivorous nature, and that
meat eating is only one of his acquired habits. Curvature of the
spine and the premature decay of teeth have to be attributed also
to the lack of this element in our food.
Magnesium, as well as calcium, iron and sulphur, also take part
in the formation of the albumen of the blood. Magnesium is
always found in much larger quantities than calcium in the
muscular tissues, brain and nerves. Normal and healthy lungs﻿114
RATIONAL DIET
show twice as much magnesia as lime. We must consider the salts
of magnesium as cell-builders, particularly of the nervous system
and lung tissues. They are also instrumental in reducing foreign
matter and waste, and in carrying them out of the system, thus
invigorating the natural excretory organs and maintaining the
natural fluidity of the blood and osmotic pressure, without which
metabolism would be impossible.
Lime and magnesia also play an important part in the vegetable
kingdom. Analytical investigations show that lime and magnesia
are present in every part of the plants. The leaves contain rela-
tively more lime, and the seeds relatively more magnesia than the
other parts of the plants. These characteristics are the result of
definite functions. The lime is necessary for the formation of cer-
tain calcium compounds of nucleo-proteids required in the organ-
ized structures of nuclei and chlorophyll bodies of the leaves, while
the magnesium serves for the assimilation of phosphoric acid, as
magnesium phosphate can release its phosphoric acid more easily
than any other phosphate that occurs in plant juices. Thus calcium
is chiefly required for the construction of plant tissue and at the
same time facilitates the assimilation of other elements, while
magnesium serves especially in aiding the assimilation of phos-
phoric acid. These two elements can exert their nutritive func-
tions only while they are in a certain dependence upon each other.
An excess of the former in the soil will lead to starvation of the
plants, and predominance of the latter to poisonous phenomena in
growth. Lime is necessary for the formation of the cell wall from
starch and sugar. It practically forms the skeleton of the cell wall,
and in that respect is just as necessary for the foundation of
the bones. In fact, a higher development in form and function
becomes possible only when the lower forms of life acquire the
ability to assimilate lime and to utilize the resulting calcium proteid
compound for the formation of nuclei. The greater the leaf surface
of plants is developed in a certain time, the more lime is necessary.
A normal crop of wheat requires per acre about 10 lbs.; sugar
beets, 26 lbs.; grass, 43^2 lbs.; clover, 98^ lbs.; and tobacco, 135
lbs., while a normal growth of wood needs annually about 44 lbs.
of lime, besides 15 to 35 lbs. of magnesia, 4y2 to 22 lbs. of potash,
and 2 to 9 lbs. of phosphoric acid.﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
115
A deficiency of lime in the soil makes itself visible in diseased
leaves and retarded growth. It has been found that etiolated or
pale leaves contain less lime than do greener leaves. According to
chemical analysis, 1,000 parts of green leaves contain 13.3 parts of
lime, while the same quantity of etiolated leaves shows only 2.6
parts of lime. Diseased leaves of the sugar beet show only half the
amount of lime present in healthy leaves. The favorable influence
of lime on certain soils has led to the very common agricultural
practice of liming.
Magnesium salts are especially important in the formation of
seeds which are rich in phosphoric acid, but are also required by
all other parts of plants, especially while in the process of develop-
ment. Seeds rich in fat contain more magnesia than those rich in
starch. The average proportion of magnesia in starchy seeds to
that in oily seeds is about 2:5. In cereals magnesium is polarized
in the outer coat or bran, which contains about four times as much
of this element as the whole kernel, and about twenty times as
much as the flour cells.
Magnesium salts can exert their nourishing functions only iu
the presence of calcium salts, while in the absence of the latter they
have an injurious effect. On the other hand, the absence of mag-
nesium salts in otherwise complete culture solutions leads to a
gradual stoppage of all further development and to final inanition.
The determination and balancing of the available amount of mag-
nesia and lime in the soils is, therefore, an important factor in suc-
cessful farming. While lime salts are indispensable for animals,
the higher plants and algae, they are not so in the case of bacteria,
fungi, and lower algae. Certain parasitic fungi and insects in the
soil are easily killed by the alkaline properties of burnt lime.
In man and the higher vertebrate animals the lime salts make
up more than 50 per cent of all the mineral elements composing the
body. They are not only necessary for the formation of bones,
but also for every part of the organism. Lime and iron are essential
for the production of red blood corpuscles which are essential for
proper respiration, since it is their function chemically to combine
with oxygen. Without proper respiration the ingested food is oxi-
dized incompletely and causes the accumulation of fat, which can
be produced from sugar as well as from albumen. All protein mole-﻿116
RATIONAL DIET
cules are intimately combined with small quantities of lime salts
which seem indispensable for many functions of the body, as, for
instance, the beating of the heart and the contraction of the skeletal
muscles. Lime, if properly absorbed by the body, exercises a
strengthening, cohesive influence on the bony structure, and the
strength of our sinews and muscles attached to the bones must vary
according to the strength and firmness of our skeleton.
Calcium stands for strength and durability in the animal organ-
ism. In order to retain health and vitality the food should con-
tain the necessary amount of organic lime salts. Without a suffi-
cient amount of lime, firm and healthy bones cannot be built. Even
in the adult the bony tissues must be renewed from time to time,
as they are subject to change of matter like all the other tissues of
the body. Blood vessels enter the bones. They supply them with
the necessary material for growth and tissue changes. In this way
the bones are furnished with phosphate of lime and the other ele-
ments entering into their structure. The arteries and capillaries
bring continuously new material for the repair of all parts of the
skeleton. On the other hand, the veins constantly carry off some of
the worn-out lime salts for excretion. If there is a deficiency
of lime salts in food, and consequently in the blood, the gelatine
of the bones loses its chemical support and begins to decompose.
Thus the teeth are first attacked from the inside by the venous
blood, becoming hollow, while the saliva attacks them from without,
dissolving the gelatinous matter which has lost its hold. In this
way the teeth are deprived of their support in both directions and
decay prematurely. It is often maintained that foods rich in lime
tend to ossify the arteries and cause calcareous degeneration of the
tissues. This occurs only in those cases in which the blood does not
contain sufficient sodium salts to keep the phosphate of lime in
solution. That there is lack of sodium in the usual diet of meat,
white flour products and poorly prepared vegetables, has been
pointed out. The habitual consumption of alcoholic beverages,
such as wine and beer, likewise the use of vinegar, which are all
deficient in mineral elements, also deprive the blood of organic
salts, which are carried away by increased urination and the for-
mation of carbon dioxide, resulting from the oxidation of alcohol.
When wine and beer are drunk regularly every day, in time a
condition must necessarily arrive when the blood does not contain﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
117
a sufficient amount of the essential organic salts for the formation
of red blood corpuscles. It is then that asthma, corpulency and
rheumatism appear.
The greater part of the calcium, magnesium and sodium salts
are contained in the blood, bones, tendons and cartilages. These
are devoured by the carnivorous animals, but are not food for man,
who should chiefly derive his supply of these elements from
fruits and vegetables. The usual meat and cereal diet, especially
white flour products in combination with refined sugar, are wholly
inadequate in the amount of the above-named organic salts. A
large number of diseases, especially during childhood, where the
tissue changes are most pronounced, must be attributed to this fact.
On account of the deficiency in lime, iron and sulphur, meat*
especially that of fish, decomposes very rapidly. By salting and
pickling the meat in order to preserve it, the organic salts are
replaced through osmosis by the inorganic chloride of sodium, the
former passing into the brine. It is mainly for this reason that
people living largely on salted meat or fish suffer from scurvy and
leprosy. Wherever there is a deficiency of lime in the organic
world, we see an increase in development of invertebrate creatures,
such as worms and maggots, parasites and fungi, which always
indicate a deficiency of calcium, magnesium, iron and sulphur in
the plants. A table containing the amount of calcium in 1,000
parts of water free substance in foods is given in the appendix.
It is, of course, irrational to prescribe lime for children in the
form of inorganic compounds. In medical practice, rickety and
scrofulous children are constantly being ordered to take a couple of
teaspoonfuls of lime-water. Even if the inorganic lime could be
utilized, the amount ordered would be far too small. A saturated
solution of lime contains less lime than cow’s milk. A pint of
cow’s milk contains 26 grains of lime; a pint of lime-water only
19 grains.
Green leaf vegetables rank highest in the amount of lime.
Among fruits, oranges, lemons, strawberries, figs and grapes excel
in this important element. Cereals are more or less deficient in
lime, and therefore, contrary to the general opinion, do not cause
hardening of the artex-ies, which is rather due to retention of waste
matter, resulting from a high protein diet.
It has been estimated that the calcium requirements of the﻿118
RATIONAL DIET
average adult person are about 0.45 gram or 200 grains per day.
This requirement must naturally increase in maternity, especially
during the last three months of pregnancy, when the foetus is
rapidly growing. A daily supply of green leaf vegetables in the
form of salads is, therefore, absolutely necessary, not only to insure
the normal growth of the unborn child, but also an easy parturition.
Iron, among all the heavy metals, is the most useful as
well as the most widely and abundantly diffused in nature. It is
usually found in small quantities in nearly all forms of rock, clay,
sand and earth. It never occurs as a free metal, but chiefly com-
bined with oxygen as ferrous and ferric oxides. Chemically pure
iron has a silver white color and a specific weight of 7.8. It is,
therefore, the heaviest element composing the human body. In
inorganic form iron is generally combined with oxygen, sulphur,
carbon and silicon. Silicates of iron, when decomposed by atmos-
pheric carbonic acid, turn into carbonate of iron which is soluble
in water containing carbonic acid, and is thus distributed by water
all over the earth. Carbonate of iron, in coming in contact with
the air, is oxidized into oxide of iron. The latter is again reduced by
decaying organic matter into carbonate of iron and dissolved and
carried off by water. We have in iron, therefore, a ceaseless oxidiz-
ing agent, preventing the retention of carbon in the soil and en-
abling it to return to the air, in order to begin anew the cycle of
life.
In the organic world iron also plays an important part as a
carrier of oxygen and stands in the closest possible relation to the
fundamental processes of change of matter, or metabolism.
It has been pointed out heretofore that iron in the animal
organism does not occur in an inorganic form, but as a small part
of a complex organic compound. This is the most complicated
compound that has been carefully investigated, containing as it
does over two thousand atoms in a molecule and making up the
red coloring matter of the blood, the hemoglobin, which first ap-
pears in the body of the vertebrate animals. The vegetable king-
dom, which has the power of assimilating inorganic compounds
of iron, builds up the complex organic compounds from which the
hemoglobin is produced. Iron is taken from the soil and carried
to the leaves, where it takes part in the formation of the chloro-
phyll granules, which is the green coloring matter of nature.﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
119
If plants are allowed to grow in solutions free from iron, the
leaves become colorless or etiolated, but turn green as soon as iron
salts are added to the liquid in which the roots are immersed.
The amounts of iron and chlorophyll vary in the different parts
of the plant. For instance, the green leaves of cabbage contain
four times as much iron as the inner etiolated leaves. From many
investigations it appears that in the bodies of plants, animals
and man, iron serves for the following distinct purposes:
(1)	For the production of the chlorophyll of the plant, prin-
cipally contained in the green leaves, and of the hemoglobin of
the red blood corpuscles.
(2)	For the assimilation of carbon dioxide, and for the
synthesis of organic matter from inorganic matter in the plant by
means of the chlorophyll and sunlight.
(3)	For the process of respiration in man and animals. It
is the hemoglobin that carries the molecular oxygen through the
capillaries to all parts of the body where the ingested food, which
has been changed into blood and lymph and stored in the cells of
the tissues, is oxidized or burnt.
(4)	For the generation of a magnetic blood current and an
electro-magnetic induction current in the nerve spirals which
pass through the walls of arteries and veins and help to build
and nourish them.
Chlorophyll, or the coloring matter of the leaf, which also needs
for its production other mineral elements besides iron (such as
lime and phosphoric acid), is closely related to hemoglobin, or the
coloring matter of the blood, and the formation of the latter de-
pends on the presence of the former. Only those cells in the plant
that contain chlorophyll are capable of absoi’bing carbon dioxide.
Without the latter the necessary proteins cannot be formed, as
the plant must construct the highly complex protein molecule
from the simples^ inorganic compounds, viz., carbon dioxide,
water, salts and oxygen, while the animal requires the organized
substances for his nourishment. Proteins, like sugars and
starches, are carbon compounds, containing as they do over fifty
per cent carbon. As the carbon of the plant is governed by the
chlorophyll, and the latter depends upon the iron, it follows that
chlorotic or etiolated plants must contain less of carbon compounds
than plants containing the maximum of iron and, consequently,
of chlorophyll. Man and animals, in turn, partaking of such
food cannot receive therefrom the chemical constituents necessary﻿120
RATIONAL MET
for health. We should, therefore, pay attention not only to the
food we eat, but also to the soil upon which it is grown. Indeed,
it is the soil to which we have to look for the ultimate source of our
welfare.
Iron plays such an important part in the prevention of disease,
that all of its functions should be considered more carefully. Iron
is found not only in the hemoglobin but in other cells and tissues
of the body. It is also vitally concerned with the processes of
secretion, reproduction, and development, standing, therefore, in
fundamental relation to all the vegetative processes of the system.
The iron of food, after the latter has been converted into
chyme and chyle, is largely absorbed from the small intestines,
entering the circulation by way of the lymph tract, and is de-
posited mainly in the liver, spleen and bone marrow. Its final
elimination takes place chiefly through the walls of the larger
intestines, especially the colon.
The total amount of iron in the human body is comparatively
small and probably does not exceed seventy-five grains in the normal
state of health. Of this quantity about fifty grains are contained in
the blood, the remainder being distributed in the marrow of the
bones, the liver and principally in the spleen. Iron is perhaps
the most active element in the system and needs, therefore, to be
renewed more frequently than, for instance, calcium and potas-
sium. The body of an adult man needs about one-third of a grain
(twenty milligrams) daily. Smaller animals need more iron
proportionally than larger ones on account of increased respira-
tion. While in man the amount of iron is about 0.2 per mille of
the entire body weight, in a mouse it is over 0.4 per mille. In
iron nature demonstrates how she can obtain the greatest results
with the smallest quantities of matter. Upon the iron content
of the blood depends, in the last analysis, not only its oxidation and
circulation, but also the degree of vitality of the body. As Fara-
day demonstrated, the ferruginous blood is of a magnetic nature.
By means of its circulation, which is partly produced by respira-
tion, partly by the positive power of attraction of the nervous
system and the negative condition of the blood, the iron contents
of the latter become magnetic, and the blood itself acquires the
magnetic power of attraction. This mutual, electro-magnetic
power of attraction of the electric nervous system, by means of﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
121
the respired oxygen, effects the combustion of blood and nerve
substance and simultaneously the liberation of the latent energy—
heat, and, above all, electricity. The latter is largely stored up
in all the natural foods, from which normal blood and nerves are
formed.
The blood corpuscles play, therefore, a leading part in those
tissue changes essential to life. Each corpuscle consists of a
stroma permeated by a red fluid—hemoglobin—which readily com-
bines with either oxygen or carbonic acid, but so loosely that,
under slightly altered conditions, these gases easily separate from
the corpuscles. In the lungs the corpuscles, through the hemo-
globin, take up oxygen which they carry to all parts of the body.
In its tissue metabolism, the red blood corpuscles yield up the
oxygen wdfich is necessary for the processes of combustion, and
subsequently for the creation of animal heat and magnetism.
After having parted writh the oxygen, the hemoglobin unites with
part of the carbonic acid produced by the tissue changes, and
the corpuscles, thus re-laden, carry their burden back to the lungs
and discharge the carbonic acid, taking up a new supply of oxy-
gen. If the hemoglobin of the blood falls below a certain standard,
the supply of oxygen necessary to healthy tissue changes, in brain,
nerve, muscle, etc., becomes too limited, and all the metabolic
processes will be performed imperfectly, the vitality lowered, and
resisting power of the body lessened. A deficiency of hemo-
globin is remedied by a supply of foods rich in organic iron com-
pounds. Only the latter are able to promote the production of
blood corpuscles, and cause each corpuscle to carry with it more
hemoglobin; hence the specific health-giving power of organic
iron.
The popular term “anemia,” a condition wrhich is generally
indicated by pallor of the skin and mucous membranes, and men-
tal and physical depression, is not accurately descriptive, since
the blood of an anemic person really is not deficient in quantity
but in quality. It is lacking in organic salts, especially in those
of iron and sodium, and shows, therefore, a low specific gravity
and a deficiency of red blood corpuscles. Comparing the blood of
a healthy person with that of one suffering from extreme anemia,﻿122
RATIONAL DIET
great differences have been found, as is shown in the following
table:
In State	In Anaemia and
op Health:	Chlorosis:
Proportion of water
Proportion of solids
Specific gravity
80 per cent
20 per cent
1.055
88 per cent
12 per cent
1.035
Number of red blood corpuscles
per cubic m.m. or small
drop	4 to 5 millions 1 to 2 millions
Proportion of hemoglobin 12 per cent	2 per cent
Knowing that hemoglobin is the carrier of oxygen in and
through the system, it becomes obvious that in certain instances a
healthy and normal individual can take into his system at least
six times more oxygen than one suffering from impoverished blood.
It is, therefore, not only necessary that the oxygen enters the
lungs, hut that it should actually he absorbed into the system
by the action of a sufficient number of red blood corpuscles. Those
whose blood is anemic and whose vitality is low, because of wrong
and inadequate nutrition, cannot derive much benefit from deep
breathing and exercise in fresh air, before they have corrected
their dietetic errors, and improved the condition of their blood and
lymph.
That nature tries to protect the system from a deficiency of
iron, by storing this element in the liver and spleen, is a most
significant fact. Under normal conditions these organs store up
a certain amount of iron to he drawn upon when there is a sud-
den demand for the rapid formation of red corpuscles, as, for in-
stance, after heavy losses of blood. In the liver we find iron in
various forms, from the simple oxide and phosphate of iron to
the more complicated compounds which rapidly diminish after
hemorrhages, or when the food does not furnish the requisite
amount of this element. This circumstance indicates that the
normal liver maintains the balance of organic iron in the system,
thus repairing any accidental loss.
Most remarkable and characteristic is the function of iron in
the spleen, an organ whose physiological importance has not been
understood until within recent years. The spleen acts in our
body as an electric power station where the blood is recharged﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
123
with electricity. This is effected by means of an apparently in-
significant device by which the blood current is suddenly checked.
As is well known, the arterial capillaries in all other parts of our
body pass into those of the veins, but in the spleen the fine arterial
capillaries terminate and become small sacs, which are called after
their discoverer the “Malpighian corpuscles.” There the circula-
tion of the blood apparently is brought to a standstill. The follow-
ing illustration shows the termination of an arterial capillary in the
spleen, in linear enlargement of about 1:50:
a.	Arterial capillaries of the spleen in longitudinal section.
b.	Malpighian corpuscles, consisting of a delicate network, in the
meshes of which lie ordinary lymphoid cells.
We know that the ferruginous blood is magnetic in character.
The sudden impact of the magnetic blood current upon the walls
of the Malpighian corpuscles has the effect of converting its mag-
netism into electricity. We must, therefore, assume that minute
electric discharges take place from the spherical walls of the
Malpighian corpuscles into the blood. That this is actually the
case is shown by the fact that the fluid plasma which penetrates
through the delicate membranes of the corpuscles contains certain
fatty acids, which are the result of electrical decomposition of
nerve fat. We know that the exceedingly fine nerve filaments
of the spleen, which proceed from the solar plexus of the sympa-
thetic system, accompany the ramifications of the splenic artery
to the Malpighian corpuscles. The acid splenic secretion is taken﻿124
RATIONAL DIET
up by the venous capillaries, which carry it by means of the por-
tal vein to the liver. Here the acids act as electric excitants,
supplying the necessary electrical tension to the hepatic cells in
order to secrete a strongly digestive alkaline bile. It becomes
obvious that the action of the liver is dependent upon that of the
spleen, principally in its iron contents. If, by a deficiency of this
element, the function of the spleen is thrown out of order, we
have no proper bile secretion, and, without the latter, no perfect
digestion and assimilation. Consequently, malnutrition, impov-
erished blood, diminished nervous strength, and a lowered state
of vitality soon render the body easily subject to any injurious
influences.
The importance of iron in the vegetable and animal kingdom,
and its relation to health and disease has been exhaustively
treated by Professor E. P. "Wright in his interesting and instruc-
tive book “Plant Disease,” from which the following paragraphs
are quoted:
‘ ‘ It can be taken as an axiom that in all fevers the active agent
is a bacterium which is another name for one class of plants known
as fungi. It is taught by many that it is the fungus which causes
the chemical deficiency, while others say there must be a deficiency
before the fungus can start its growth. I shall try to allow that
the first position is untenable. Some say that while the bacteria
could not consume the iron, they might act on the blood chemically,
so that the iron would escape from the system. This suggestion
seems to be an impossibility, brought forward to support a bad
case, because it has been proved over and over again that iron is
fatal to all fungi, consequently it is unreasonable to suggest that
bacteria would attack a perfectly healthy animal, and destroy the
blood containing a constituent which was poison to them.
“Secondly, if bacteria could attack all alike, the natural con-
clusion would be that it would not be long before this fungi would
have destroyed all higher forms of life from the face of the earth.
“That such is not the case, however, is proven by the fact
that the majority of doctors and nurses in consumptive hospitals
always remain immune to this disease.
“Further, it has been proven that where animals can obtain
iron, they are much more immune to disease than in places where
iron is wanting, from which we can only conclude that the pres-
ence of iron in the blood enables animal life to withstand the
attacks of these bacteria, and as a corollary that the bacteria do
not produce the deficiency, a conclusion which is further confirmed﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
125
by the fact that bacteria can only live on foods that correspond
more or less with their own chemical composition.
“Another factor is that proteins are fatal to bacteria, and the
fact that a normal hemoglobin which is of the nature of a protein,
is a poison to these, explains why these fungi are never found in
normal blood, for the all powerful reason that they could not live
in it.
“This reduces the whole question again to the fact that a
normal hemoglobin, through its various functions, renders the
animal immune to an innumerable number of bacterial or fungoid
diseases.
“In tuberculosis, it is universally recognized that oxygen is
very beneficial, but the fact that thousands of cattle living in the
open air suffer from it, shows that it is not sufficient that the
oxygen should enter the lungs, but that it must be absorbed into
the system, which can only be accomplished by the action of
normal hemoglobin.
“It is clear from the above that in certain diseases at any rate,
and, as I think, in most, the animal having a normal hemoglobin,
is more likely to be immune than one whose blood is defective. In
other words, if my conclusion is correct, the susceptibility to cer-
tain bacterial diseases is directly traceable to the use of chlorotic
food. . . Animal life living on normal or the best foods, has
its whole system worked as nature intended it should be worked.
And as food degenerates from the normal, so do the functions of
animal life degenerate, so that the greater the degeneration of
the food, the greater the degeneration of the functions, and the
degree of variation in degeneration accounts for the degree of
variation in the virulence of a given disease in any animal
attacked.”
Accepting the conclusion arrived at by both experiment and
practical experience, viz., that inorganic forms of iron are of no
value in the vital economy of the system; that all the supply of
iron must come from natural food stuffs, in which that element
exists in the form of highly complex organic compounds, from
which hemoglobin can be produced, we must necessarily devote
some study to the iron contents of the various articles of diet. This
knowledge will be of the greatest value in the treatment and pre-
vention of all diseases arising from an impoverished state of blood.
"While a most comprehensive table of the iron contents of foods
is given with the other tables, we shall consider here only some﻿126
RATIONAL DIET
of the most frequently used articles of the human dietary, stating
the amount of iron in 1000 parts of water free substance:
Fish	trace	Pinons	0.60
Meat of chicken	trace	Walnuts	0.61
White flour	0.03	Cherries	0.70
Polished rice	0.05	Carrots	0.70
Dates	0.06	Prunes	0.94
Bananas	0.07	Tomatoes	1.00
Human milk	0.07	Horseradish	1.25
Meat, average	0.15	Gooseberries	1.32
Beans	0.19	Rye bran	1.40
Unpolished rice	0.22	Cucumbers	1.40
White of egg	0.25	Pumpkins	1.88
Rye	0.25	Cabbage	2.16
Peanuts	0.27	Onions	2.20
Cow’s milk	0.30	Swiss chard	2.30
Wliole wheat	0.30	Asparagus	2.94
Wheat bran	0.38	Radishes	3.00
Oranges	0.38	Strawberries	3.73
Cocoanut	0.40	Rice bran	4.00
Yolk of egg	0.40	Spinach	6.05
Grapes, average	0.45	Leeks	7.60
Apples	0.46	Lettuce	9.40
Figs	0.60	Sorrel	9.85
In glancing over the above table we find the surprising fact
that milk, which is the exclusive food of the growing organism,
possesses a very small amount of iron. This is the more remark-
able since all the organic salts are contained in milk in about the
same proportion as they are needed for the growth of the new-
born. According to the analysis of Professor Bunge, the total
mineral matter in dog’s milk and in the newborn puppy are com-
posed as follows:	Dog’s Milk	Newborn Puppy
Potash	14.98 per cent	11.42 per cent
Soda	8.80 “ “	10.64 “ “
Lime	27.24 “ “	29.52 “ “
Magnesia	1.54 “ “	1.82 1 “
Oxide of iron	0.12 “ “	0.72 “ “
Phosphoric acid	34.22 “ £	39.42 “ "
Chlorine	16.90 “ 1	8.35 1 1
The relative proportions of the mineral constituents, with the
exception of iron, show but slight variation in each case. The
amount of this element contained in the young animal is six times﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
127
larger than in that of the milk upon which it is fed. That the
young animal grows rapidly and increases its blood supply in spite
of this apparent deficiency of iron, is explained by the fact that
the newborn is provided with a reserve supply of iron in its tissues.
In a series of carefully conducted experiments with various ani-
mals, Bunge has shown that the amount of iron is the highest at
birth, and that it gradually diminishes afterwards, until the animal
is able to partake of the natural solid food for which its organ-
ism is adapted. Thus at least five times more iron is found in the
liver of the new-born than in that of full-grown animals. Nature
seems to have made this wise provision for the reason that the
organic compounds of iron are apparently assimilated with great
difficulty by the new-born. Hence, the material organism uses up
its supply of iron with the greatest economy. The amount which
must be conveyed to the infant organism could reach it in two
ways: through the placenta or through the mammary glands.
Nature chooses the former as the safer plan because the organic^
compounds of iron, if conveyed through the mouth and alimentary
canal, might be decomposed by fermentative processes before they
could be absorbed by the system. That nature protects the grow-
ing organism from a deficiency of iron is certainly proof of the
great necessity for an ample supply of this element in building
up the normal and healthy body.
Only a small quantity of iron is assimilated from the milk dur-
ing lactation. Bunge showed that in young rabbits the absolute
amount of iron remains nearly always the same, while the body
increases in weight sixfold by the end of the fourth week. Con-
sequently, the relative proportion of iron falls to one-sixth and
the animals at this time appear to be already anemic. As soon as
they begin to feed on grass and green leaves containing an abun-
dance of iron, the amount of hemoglobin begins to increase again.
In the light of this knowledge, it seems very probable that
children often become anemic if the milk diet is prolonged or too
exclusively employed after the natural period of lactation. This
is confirmed by many who have made close observation. For in-
stance, Professor Rubner, a German physician of wide experience,
makes the following statement:
| ‘ For many years a number of children’s physicians have
recommended that an exclusive milk diet should not be continued
too long towards the end of the nursing period. For about ten﻿128
RATIONAL DIET
years I have myself adopted and have also taught the principle
of giving other food as a supplement to milk after the infant has
reached the age of nine or ten months, and this not only in cases
of anaemia, but also in other rachitic conditions of rickety chil-
dren, although I am not able to adduce any reason for this treat-
ment. I may add that I was much pleased to read the first work
published by Professor Bunge on this subject, and have followed
his experiments with the greatest interest. Since then I have
found it highly beneficial to give even vegetables to young chil-
dren. In my practice I have met with the greatest astonishment
on the part of the parents who consulted me, when I told them
to give the child (which perhaps had eight teeth) a small spoon-
ful of fresh spinach juice or scraped apple or something of the
kind every day. This advice was the result of long and favorable
experience. ’ ’
Again, Professor Monti of Vienna says in an article on “Wean-
ing and Nutrition”:
“If children are nursed up to the fifteenth month, they do not
grow as they should, even when the milk is sufficient in quantity.
They become anaemic, their muscles become flabby, and their de-
velopment is delayed, so that, instead of attempting to walk at the
end of the first year, they do not begin to do so until they are
about eighteen or nineteen months old. There are certainly a few
races with whom it is customary to nurse children after they have
attained the first year. We have frequently had the opportunity
of seeing some of these children, most of whom are of Slavonic
parentage, and found in all cases a state of malnutrition. Other
food than mother’s milk is always required. The custom of pro-
longed nursing exists in France, in a few parts of Italy, and,
according to hearsay, in Japan. All authorities are agreed, how-
ever, that the continuation of the nursing period beyond the
proper time always induces disturbances in the child’s nutrition,
and that many cases of rickets must be ascribed to this practice.”
Bunge mentions a youth of eighteen years who had lived on
nothing but milk from the time of his birth. The boy stated that
lie had occasionally tried a piece of bread or a pear, but that it
had not agreed with him. He had an intense dislike to all animal
and vegetable food. His face was pale, as well as the mucous
membrane of the tongue and of the conjunctivae. He suffered
from cold feet and hands, was easily tired in walking, and had
palpitation of the heart when he ascended the stairs. It was
found that, although his blood contained five million blood cor-
puscles in the cubic millimeter (a quantity making up a small
drop), it had only 8.6 per cent hemoglobin, whereas a normal﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
129
person has 12 to 16 per cent. The hoy’s condition was similar
to that occurring in chlorosis. Furthermore, Bunge regards it
as probable that many prospective mothers during the period of
pregnancy do not assimilate as much iron as is required by the
foetus.
It has been estimated that the normal child at birth has about
ten grains of iron, of which two-thirds has been drawn from the
blood of the mother during the last three months, so that it is very
important that before and during this period the diet should fur-
nish an abundance of iron, as well as sodium and calcium. During
normal lactation the daily secretion of milk is about one quart.
The iron requirement of the mother must be increased accordingly
by a liberal supply of fresh fruits and green-leaf vegetables.
Next to milk, cereals, which are so-called staple foods, contain
the smallest amount of iron, at least in the form in which they arc
generally consumed, when deprived of their outer coats. Chemical
analysis shows that white flour and polished rice contain only one-
half as much iron as human milk, and rice even ten times less
than cow’s milk. All grains contain iron, which varies, of course,
according to the iron contents of the soil. The greater amount
of the element, being stored up in the outer layers and in the
germ of the kernel, is lost in the modern milling processes. The
organic iron compounds of the germ seem to play an important
part in the germination of the seed and the nutrition of the young
plant which, similarly to the new-born animal, requires easily
digestible and assimilable food. Experiments indicate that the
iron in bran is also assimilated by the animal body, and promotes
the formation of hemoglobin.
Fruits and nuts contain an appreciable amount of iron, straw-
berries and walnuts ranking highest. Of the vegetables, those
bearing the greenest leaves always have the largest amount of iron
compounds. But we must remember that in order to produce
normal food products, special attention must be paid to the soil,
which should contain an appreciable amount of iron. Frequent
analyses of the soil are, therefore, of great importance.
In eggs the iron is mostly contained in the yolk, while the
white contains only traces of it. Meat, as ordinarily eaten, the
muscular tissues having been washed free from blood, contains
but a comparatively small amount of iron. Fatty tissues are﻿130
RATIONAL DIET
nearly free from iron. The quantity of iron in fat meat is much
less than that in lean meat. As the iron in meat is largely due
to the amount of blood retained in it, anaemic persons have been
sent to slaughter houses to drink the warm blood just as it came
from the animal’s body, but with apparently little success. The
iron in the product of the dead animal naturally has a decidedly
lower nutritive value than the iron compounds of the vegetable
kingdom, as the animal organism—the hemoglobin molecule—has
lost part of its vitality in the metabolic life processes.
The flesh of most kinds of fish is more or less deficient in iron.
This is most likely the reason why people subsisting chiefly on
peeled rice and fish are subject to severe skin and nervous diseases,
such as scurvy, leprosy, beri-beri, etc., which have their origin in
a degeneration of blood and lymph. During the campaign in the
Philippine Islands, an army officer, while stationed on the Island
of Samar, observed that many elderly people of that locality were
victims of leprosy. When asked how the disease was contracted,
they referred back to a time—some thirty years previous—when
a terrible storm visited the interior of the island and destroyed all
their trees and vegetable food products. They were compelled
for months to live on fish and clams. They declared that the
disease started at that time and the exclusive fish and clam diet
was directly responsible for it.
The importance of green vegetables, especially prepared as
wholesome salads, must, therefore, be particularly emphasized,
since we are practically dependent upon the vegetable kingdom
for the greater part of iron, which is found in plants in the form
of highly organized ferruginous nucleo-albumens.
Manganese resembles iron in its physical and chemical prop-
erties. Its specific weight, 7.2, is a little less than that of iron,
while it is slightly darker in color, considerably harder, and some-
what more easily oxidized. In nature manganese accompanies iron
everywhere. It is contained in the red blood corpuscles, though in
much smaller quantities than iron, and seems to have a decided
influence on the vegetative functions and the glands in general,
enabling them to improve the quality of their secretions. Like
iron, manganese is an oxygen carrier from the lungs to the cell&
Traces of this element are found throughout the vegetable
kingdom, and in considerable quantity in the ash of a few plants,﻿THE ACID-BINDING ELEMENTS
131
especially in the wood of some trees. Experiments have shown,
however, that, physiologically, manganese cannot replace iron in
plants in all instances, although the chemical properties of the
elements are similar. Soluble manganese compounds may, on the
one hand, be injurious to the chlorophyll, while, on the other hand,
they may exert a beneficial action by stimulating the growth of
the plant, especially when these compounds are supplied in a
sufficiently high degree of dilution. A Japanese investigator in a
field experiment with rice recently observed an increase of one-tliird
of the harvest after adding sulphate of manganese to the soil at
the rate of about forty pounds per acre. Great care should always
be exercised in application of both iron and manganese compounds
to the soil, as an over supply of these elements has a detrimental
effect on the growth of plants and trees.
Aluminum is often found in foods of both vegetable and ani-
mal origin. It is present only in very diminutive amounts as alu-
minum oxide, or alumina (A203). Its chemical action is similar to
that of magnesium.﻿CHAPTER XIII
The Acid-Forming Elements
The principal acid-forming elements in the body consist of
phosphorus, sulphur, silicon, chlorine and fluorine.
Phosphorus is chiefly found in nature in the form of phos-
phates of calcium, iron and aluminum, which minerals form de-
posits in some localities, but also occur diffused in small quantities
through all soils upon which plants will grow, phosphorus being
an essential constituent in the food of most plants.
Phosphorus in its isolated state is manufactured chemically
from bones, which contain fifty-eight per cent phosphate of cal-
cium and four per cent phosphate of magnesium. The element
appears as a colorless, transparent substance which has somewhat
the appearance and consistency of bleached wax. In the course of
time, and especially upon exposure to the light, it changes by de-
grees and becomes less and less translucent, gradually turns white,
yellow and, finally, yellowish-red. It has a specific gravity of
1.83 and is brittle at the freezing point, until it fuses at 111° F.,
forming a yellowish fluid.
The most characteristic features of phosphorus are its great
affinity for oxygen, and its luminosity. It is visible in the dark
(phosphorescence), from which property its name, signifying
“carrier of light,” has been derived. Because of its affinity for
oxygen, phosphorus has to be kept under water, as it invariably
takes fire when exposed to the air. The slow oxidation takes place
upon the surface of the phosphorus, soon raising it to 122° F., at
which temperature it ignites and burns with a bright white flame,
and gives off dense white fumes of phosphoric dioxide. Phosphorus
is invisible in water, slightly soluble in alcohol and, if brought in
contact with living tissues, causes burns. Taken internally it acts
as a strong poison.
In the plant, phosphoric acid takes part in the formation of
the very complicated compounds of the various forms of lecithin
formula and nueleo-proteins, which are integral parts of every
vegetable and animal cell. Phosphorus enters the animal body
132﻿THE ACID-FORMING ELEMENTS
133
chiefly in combinations, and only to a small extent as salts. Phos-
phorus leaves the body in the same form in which it entered the
plant, namely, as phosphate. The embryos of plants can develop
by cell division only when phosphates are stored up in sufficient
quantities in the seeds for the formation and increase of the nu-
clear substance in the new cells. The yield of grain is increased
much more by phosphoric acid than by nitrogen or potash.
In the vital processes of the animal, lecithins (phosphorus com-
pounds) , play a most important part. They have, in common with
fats, to which they are closely allied in composition, the property
of solubility in alcohol and ether. But at the same time they have
the property of swelling in water, and of being somewhat soluble
in it—a property which renders them physiologically superior to
ordinary fats.
Lecithin seems to be essential to respiration, as it represents
the form into which the fat must be changed to become oxidized
in the protoplasm, since the substances serving for respiration
must be present in the protoplasm in a dissolved condition. It is
this peculiarity which enables lecithin to take part in many other
chemical processes of the tissues. The brain and the nervous sys-
tem contain an appreciable amount of lecithin, and the gray mat-
ter of the brain shows seventeen per cent of this substance, which
is the essential and indispensable medium through which the
higher intellectual forces manifest themselves.
Although phosphorus is one of the principal constituents of
the brain, the expression of Moleschott, “no thought without phos-
phorus,” is not justified, if it is meant to convey the idea that the
amount of phosphorus passing through the body bears a causal
relation to the intensity of thought. A captive lion or tiger as-
similates and parts with a greater amount of phosphorus than a
person performing difficult mental labor, while the excreta of a
beaver noted for its powers of contrivance are so small that chem-
ical analysis can hardly find it.
The greater the purity in which lecithin is found, the higher
the intelligence of the animal, even in the smallest insects. The
superior acuteness of senses displayed, for instance, by bees and
ants, is due to this fact. It is not the quantity, but the quality of
the highly organized phosphorus compounds which seems to be so
vitally connected with the thought processes.﻿134
RATIONAL DIET
Chemically considered, lecithin is a combination of two por-
tions of fat with one of phosphate of ammonia; it can also be
formed directly from sugar, which is the chemical basis of all
fats. Being easily combustible and having a large amount of
potential energy in a small volume, lecithin is well adapted to sus-
tain the ceaseless activities of the nervous system and the respira-
tory organs. As common oil burns in the wick of a lamp, so does
our nerve-oil or lecithin burn in the fine ramifications of the wick-
like nerve-fibres, by means of the oxygen supplied by the arteries
and capillaries from the lungs.
It may be asserted that for the proper function of the brain
a supply of phosphoric salts is necessary, but the same may
be said with equal justice of oxygen, carbon, water, etc. The
intensity of thought does not depend on a single element, but on
a perfect working order of brain and nervous system, in which
the compounds of phosphorus are essential. But this element
itself does not produce thought, any more than do the other ele-
ments entering into the composition of brain and nerve cells.
In the organic world phosphorus is generally combined with
potassium as phosphate of potash, and as such it makes up the
greater part of the mineral contents of the seeds of plants and the
muscplar tissues of animals. All the organs and tissues of the
animal body are to a considerable extent chemical combinations
of phosphates and various proteins. The bulk of phosphorus, how-
ever, in vertebrate animals is contained in the skeleton. In the
body of a normal man, weighing about 150 pounds, there are
about thirty ounces of phosphorus, of which twenty-seven ounces
are in the bones, a little over two and one-half ounces in the mus-
cular tissues and about one-quarter ounce in the brain and nervous
system. In cases of prolonged fasting the necessary amount of
phosphorus is largely contributed by the bones, while the brain
remains almost intact.
The water-free substance of muscles or flesh contains about
four per cent of mineral matter, of which nearly two-thirds consist
of phosphate of potash. Likewise, the water-free substance of
seeds, such as cereals, pulses and nuts, shows from one to three
per cent mineral matter, of which about one-half is composed of
phosphate of potash. The accumulation of phosphorus in the
nuclei-proteids of seeds and muscular tissues justifies us in con-﻿THE ACID-FORMING ELEMENTS
135
eluding that this element is a strong stimulant in the growth and
development of new tissues, due largely perhaps to its great oxidiz-
ing powers. In this respect phosphorus is counterbalanced by sul-
phur, which plays the part of a regulator, protecting the organ-
ism from over-stimulated growth. The relation of phosphorus and
sulphur in our foods is therefore worthy of careful attention.
Sulphur is found in the elementary state, mixed with earthy
matter in volcanic districts, the chief supply being derived from
Sicily. Considerable quantities also are mined now in Utah,
Nevada and California. In combination sulphur is widely diffused
in the form of sulphates and sulphides. Sulphur is a yellow,
brittle, solid substance, having neither taste nor odor. It is in-
soluble in water and nearly so in alcohol. It melts at 239° F. and,
if heated to 500° F., burns with a blue flame into sulphur dioxide
(S02). Its specific weight is about 2.
In the organic world sulphur is built in the protein molecule
of the plant from the sulphates taken from the soil. It is chiefly
taken up by the animal organism in the form of protein, and
secreted for the most part in the highest oxidized condition as
sulphuric acid, derived from the splitting up and oxidation of the
protein molecule. In this form, combined and neutralized by
alkalies, it is again ready to begin the cycle of life, by forming
organic sulphur compounds in plants.
Sulphur is a constituent of the hemoglobin of the blood, where
is also serves as an oxidizing agent. It is noteworthy that, accord-
ing to analyses, the animals requiring more oxygen have likewise
more sulphur in their hemoglobin. Four atoms of sulphur in
the hemoglobin of the horse, six in that of the dog, and nine in
that of the chicken, combine with two of iron. Sulphur enters into
the composition of albumen, gelatin, etc., in all of the tissues. It
is one of those elements that make up the natural resisting power
of the body, as the organized sulphuric acid salts have a cleansing
and antiseptic influence in the alimentary canal.
All organic building material contains phosphorus and sulphur
at the same time, although in very different proportions. The
phosphates (the combinations of phosphoric acid with the basic or
alkaline elements) serve preeminently the purpose of giving the
actual impulse to growth. This is explained by the fact that we
find phosphate of potash in all seeds which are intended to﻿RATIONAL DIET
136
give birth to new organisms. The seed that is put into the soil
has, above all things, to grow as rapidly as possible, so that it can
l’each out in both directions, to send its tiny roots downward and
small stem and leaves upward so that they may absorb further
nourishment from earth and air. Seeds, in order to give the
embryo plant every chance for growth, contain, therefore, com-
paratively little sulphur. Likewise, in the animal body those parts
which are intimately connected with growth show a marked pre-
ponderance of phosphorus over sulphur. Thus we find that the
skeleton contains a large amount of phosphate of lime and mag-
nesia, the muscular tissues, phosphate potash, and the brain and
nervous system, lecithin. "While in the blood the proportion of
sulphur to phosphorus is 1 to 2, it is, in the muscular tissues and
brain, about 1 to 65.
Every impulse in nature, in order that it may not continue un-
restricted, must be to a certain extent counteracted. It is in this
manner that phosphorus and sulphur supplement each other.
The easily inflammable phosphorus represents the centrifugal
force; the somewhat inert sulphur, the centripetal force. All vital
processes in nature ultimately rest on this principle of contrariety,
arising from the different chemical affinities of the elements, as ex-
plained by Mendeleeff’s periodic law. As a clock is regulated by
a pendulum, so our body needs a regulating factor which gives
the whole system a degree of balance. It is for this reason that
normal blood plasma and blood serum have about equal quantities
of phosphoric acid and sulphuric acid salts. This wise arrange-
ment of nature prevents an unimpeded growth of those nerve fila-
ments which terminate in the mucous membranes. The sulphuric
acid salts of the blood coming, by means of the capillaries, in con-
tact with the nerve terminations control the action of the phos-
phoric acid salts contained in the latter. In the processes of
metabolism, which are always carried on by means of the electricity
conveyed by the nerves, the sulphur of the blood takes hold of
part of the oxygen which otherwise would combine wholly or to
a large extent with the phosphatic nerve-fat (lecithin), pro-
ducing a too rapid oxidation of the latter and consequent nervous
disorders. Sulphur must always keep the balance in the body.
Many diseases of the nervous system are due chiefly to the unbal-
anced proportion in which the elements of sulphur and phos-﻿THE ACID-FORMING ELEMENTS
137
phorus are supplied in the usual foods (princially cereals and
meat). Such conditions as mental irritability, neurasthenia, ab-
normal sexual desires, insanity, etc., are very much aggravated by
an excessive amount of phosphoric acid. Furthermore, an over-
supply of phosphorus and nitrogen in our diet, with a simultaneous
deficiency of sulphur and sodium, lead to abnormal tissue forma-
tions, such as polypi, tumors, elephantiasis, cancerous growths|
etc. There are many pathological conditions which may appear
to the uninformed physician as being entirely heterogeneous, but
which in reality have the same source, viz., an insufficient supply
of sulphur, sodium and calcium in foods, with a preponderance of
phosphorus and nitrogenous compounds. For instance, obesity,
asthma, rheumatism, diabetes, etc., are ofttimes merely different
symptoms of one cause—the inadequate supply of sulphur, iron
and calcium. These elements, supplied in natural foods, are the
essential basis of normal albumen of the blood or hemoglobin. On
the condition of the latter depends the capacity for absorption of
oxygen in the organism, and, consequently, perfect oxidation.
Many diseases, which hitherto have been ascribed solely to the
accumulation of uric acid in the system, are really caused by the
consumption of foods which are too rich in phosphoric acid and
deficient in sulphur. This is the case with all foods which abound
in nucleo-proteids (although they may contain but very little uric
acid), such as milk, cheese, eggs, nuts and cereals. These foods
should never be taken as an exclusive diet, but always in small
quantities, properly balanced with fruit and vegetables rich in
sulphur to counteract the excessive amount of phosphoric acid
salts.
The following table, which gives the proportion of sulphur and
phosphorus in the most frequently used food-products, will be of
special interest to the student of dietetics:
Proportion of Organic Sulphur and Phosphorus in Foods
Horseradish	1	0.25	Carrots	1	2.
Cabbage	1	0.65	Pineapple	1	2.15
Beets	1	1.30	Apples	1	2.20
Spinach	1	1.50	Celery	1	2.20
Cauliflower	1	1.50	Bananas	1	2.20
Radishes	1	1.70	Figs	1	2.30
Chestnuts	1	1.80	Cocoanuts	1	2.30
Blood	1	2.	Oranges	1	2.35﻿138
RATIONAL DIET
Proportion of Organic Sulphur and Phosphorus in Foods
(Continued)
Lettuce	1	2.40	Peas	1	: 10.50
Potatoes	1	2.60	Beans	1	: 11.40
Grapes	1	2.70	Barley	1	: 12.
Pears	1	2.70	Oats	1	: 14.
Onions	1	2.70	Peanuts	1	: 23.50
Swiss chard	1	2.80	Human milk Meat	1 1	: 24. : 27. to 100
Asparagus	1	3.	Seafish	1	: 34.
Parsnips	1	3.	Rye	1	: 36.
Tomatoes	1	3.	Haddock	1	: 38.
Grapefruit	1	3.30	Cottage cheese	1	: 40.
Strawberries	1	3.90	Cow’s milk	1	: 40. to 90
Plums	1	4.	Corn	1	: 56.
Apricots	1	4.	Rice	1	:100.
Lemons	1	4.	Wheat	1	:100.
Almonds	1	10.50	Eggs	1	:100.
A cursory reading of this table will reveal the fact that those
foods which constitute the bulk of the usual dietary—cereals, pulses,
dairy products, meat and fish—are low or entirely deficient in
sulphur and comparatively righ in phosphorus; while fruit, and
especially green-leaf vegetables, show a far better proportion
of these two elements, coming nearer to that of normal blood.
The great dietetic and hygienic value of fruits, vegetables and
herbs, which consists principally in their comparative richness in
the blood-building elements, iron, calcium and sulphur, is not yet
fully realized. They are still regarded as mere ornaments or
accessories to the ordinary diet with its surplus of meat and fari-
naceous foods. Moreover, in the average kitchen, vegetables are
so irrationally prepared that their beneficial properties are almost
entirely lost.
Considering the nutrition of man in the light of above facts,
we find an explanation for many diseases which arise from faulty
metabolism—diseases which are hardly noticed in the beginning,
but which become only too apparent in the course of time; and then
years of the strictest hygienic living and self-denial are required
to eradicate, or, at least, to alleviate them. It is small wonder that
people seek vicarious atonement in patent-medicines, serums and
drugs, which promise instant relief.
The excessive use of white flour products in occidental coun-
tries as the fundamental cause of abnormal formation of tissues,﻿THE ACID-FORMING ELEMENTS
130
cancerous and nervous diseases, asthma, obesity, diabetes, etc.,
finds its correlative in the more or less exclusive fish and rice
diet of the oriental countries, as the source of leprosy, beri-beri,
etc. Almost every civilized nation has its characteristic diseases,
arising from faulty nutrition. Thus we find gout and rheumatism
predominant among the meat-eating northern peoples, white pella-
gra is found in the southern European countries, chiefly in Italy,
where people live on macaroni, maize, cheese and wine.
The polaric distribution of sulphur in plants should also be
considered. During their growth this element is carried to the
stems, leaves and skins of fruits and seeds, corresponding to the
accumulation of sulphur in the skins, sinews, hair and feathers
of the animal body. Nature here follows a definite object. Sul-
phur, like silicon, has a good insulating power which holds the
electricity of the body together, preventing its premature and too
rapid dissipation, and at the same time giving all those parts of
the body containing it, softness, elasticity and pliability.
Sulphur can, of course, exert its beneficial influence only when
it is taken in organic form. The inorganic compounds of sulphur,
as they are found in mineral waters, or used as preservatives,
are always detrimental to the system.
Silicon, or Silicium (Si)* is found in nature very abundantly
as silicon dioxide or silica (Si02) in the form of rock-crystal,
quartz, agate, sand, etc. It exists also in the form of silicates,
which are silicic acid in which the hydrogen has been replaced by
metals. Most of our common rocks, such as granite, porphyry,
basalt, feldspar, mica, etc., are such silicates or a mixture of them.
Small quantities of silica are found in spring waters, as well as
in vegetable and animal substances. Silicon resembles carbon both
in physical and chemical properties, and belongs to the same group
of elements. (See Mendeleeff’s periodic table.) In its elementary
state it forms steel-gray octahedrons with a specific weight of 2.5.
In the organic world silica is most effective as a protective agent
against chemical disintegration and putrefaction. The element
has, therefore, a strong antiseptic action, being a safeguard against
epidemic diseases. The mineral matter from healthy muscular
tissues contains at least two per cent silica, which is also found to
a considerable extent in hair, feathers, nails and claws. In veg-
etable foods the silica is combined with cellulose, and forms the﻿140
RATIONAL DIET
skin of fruits and vegetables and the outer coats of cereals. In
white flour, also cornmeal, polished rice, etc., this coat has been
removed in the form of bran. This deficiency of silica gives rise
to many diseased conditions and makes the system easily suscepti-
ble to injurious influences. Silica, being a good insulator, warms
the blood by insulating and keeping together the electricity im-
parted through its salty constituents. Silicon is found particularly
in the connective tissue. As nerve substance contains nearly the
same amount of silica as the albumen in the blood, this element
forms, as it were, a connecting link between blood and nerves,
preserving their proper relations. Many diseases of the blood and
nervous system may be traced to a lack of silica in the food.
The pancreas is especially rich in this element, its mineral con-
stituents showing about twelve per cent of silica. It is found com-
bined with fluorine in the enamel of the teeth. Human hair shows
from 0.10 to 0.23 per cent of silica. Hair needs for its growth
both silica and sulphur. If they are not given in sufficient quanti-
ties to the blood, the hair cannot be nourished properly and falls
out. The skin, and likewise the walls of all cells, contain a con-
siderable amount of silica, which has been placed there by nature
to prevent a too rapid radiation of the body’s heat and electricity.
"We, therefore, see that silicon, like the other elements, has certain
physiological functions to perform, which makes its presence in
our food and, consequently, in the different parts and organs, in-
dispensable. The amount of silicon in the body may be small,
compared with other elements, but its importance as an essential
building element of the body should never be overlooked. The
origin of so-called infectious diseases must be largely attributed
to a deficiency of this element in the system, as the average diet
of man usually lacks silica. The ash, for instance, of the outer
coats of the rice kernel contains about eighty per cent of silica,
which is to a large extent lost by the peeling, and, further, by the
polishing process. In the same manner silica is lost in the artificial
preparation of all cereal foods. In peeling fruit we also lose an
appreciable amount of organic salts. Wherever it is possible,
fruits should be eaten with the skin which must, of course, be
properly masticated.
Chemical analysis shows that very valuable elements are con-
tained in all skins of cereals, fruits and vegetables. As an in-﻿THE ACID-FORMING ELEMENTS
141
stance of the great difference to the health resulting from the use
or rejection of the skins, an incident may he given that occurred
in India, as told by an Indian officer.
A regiment was stationed in a part of the country where
grapes were the chief article of food. The officers, one after an-
other, became so sick that they were unfit for service. Since,
at the same time, the remarkable fact was noticed that the troops
were all well, a commission of inquiry was instituted. It was
found that while every trooper in eating the grapes swallowed the
skins, the officers followed the fashionable habit of rejecting them.
The officers were then ordered to masticate and swallow the skins.
This was done, and they quickly recovered.
Chlorine is chiefly found in sodium chloride or common salt
(NaCl), either dissolved in water (small quantities in almost all
spring water, larger quantities in some mineral waters, and the
greatest amount in sea-water), or as solid deposits in the interior
of the earth as rock salt. It may be isolated by chemical processes,
when it appears as a yellowish-green gas, having a disagreeable
taste and an extremely penetrating and suffocating odor, acting
energetically upon the air passages, producing violent coughing
and inflammation. Chlorine is about two and a half times heavier
than air and is soluble in water. There are but few elements which
have as strong an affinity for other elements as chlorine. The act
of combination between chlorine and other elements is frequently
attended by the evolution of so much heat, that light is produced,
—or, in other words, combustion takes place.
In the vegetable kingdom chlorine occurs mostly in the form
of potassium chloride and sodium chloride. Small quantities of
sodium chloride applied to the soil have a beneficial action on
various crops, andjFto an extent, increase their resistance to
drought and rust fungi. When the amount of sodium chloride
reaches a certain degree of concentration in the soil, however, in-
jurious effects will he observed. A solution of 1.8 per cent sodium
chloride will prevent the germination of wheat. The assimilative
process in the leaves is also retarded by a surplus of sodium
chloride in the soil. Other injurious effects are the decrease of
sugar in the sugar beet, and of starch in the potato. An over-sup-
ply of potassium and magnesium chlorides also depresses the starch
content of the potato.﻿142
RATIONAL DIET
Chlorine, in the form of sodium chloride, plays an important
part in the animal organism. It assists in the formation of all the
digestive juices, principally the gastric juice, which contains two
per mille hydrochloric acid. The mineral matter of the blood
serum is largely made up of sodium chloride which favors and
sustains the generation and conduction of electric currents. About
one-third of the ash of the white of hen’s eggs consists of sodium
chloride. Milk also contains a large amount of chlorine, which
perhaps may be explained by the fact that the chlorides are useful,
not only in the construction of the organs hut also in the prepara-
tion of the digestive secretions.
Chlorides are likewise important for renal secretion. They are
necessary for the elimination of the nitrogenous products of metab-
olism. This is shown by the fact, among others, that diuretics
also increase the excretion of chlorine. The fact that sodium
chloride is a normal constituent of the human body, being present
to the extent of 6.5 per mille in the blood, has given it special im-
portance in the eyes of the people, and has lent credence to many
exaggerated popular notions regarding its curative effects. When-
ever the inorganic salt is ingested, it draws fluid from the tissues
rapidly and there results an increased discharge of urine, greatly
exceeding the quantity of water ingested. This produces the sen-
sation of thirst which leads to the excessive imbibing of liquids
and consequent weakening of the kidneys. The inorganic salt
also diminishes the secretion of hydrochloric acid, causes peptones
to become deficient, and disturbs the absorption of sugar.
Chloride of sodium added to food is not, in any case, essential
to health, but is treated simply as a foreign body, the system
being able to utilize as food only the chloride which exists as
organic combinations in food stuffs. The amount of sodium
chloride contained in a natural form in vegetables and fruits is
quite sufficient for our needs.
A table giving the amount of chloride in various food products
will be found in the appendix of this book.
Fluorine exists chiefly in nature as fluorspar and calcium fluor-
ide (CaF2). Traces of fluorine occur in many minerals, in some
waters, and also in the bones of mammals and in the enamel of
the teeth. Fluorine was scarcely known until 1887 in the ele-
mentary state, because all attempts to isolate it were frustrated﻿THE ACID-FORMING ELEMENTS
113
by the powerful affinities which this element possesses, and which
render it difficult to obtain any material for the manufacture of
a vessel which is not chemically acted upon, and therefore de-
stroyed by fluorine. The method now used for lilarating fluorine
depends upon the decomposition of hydrofluoric acid by a strong
current of eleetricity in an apparatus constructed of platinum
with stoppers of fluorspar. To prevent a too rapid corrosion of
the platinum vessels, the decomposition is accomplished at a tem-
perature below the freezing point. Fluorine is a gas of yellowish-
color, having a highly irritating and suffocating odor, and posaess-
ing affinities stronger than those of any other element.
Fluorine exists in small quantities in nearly all plants and
animals. It is chiefly found as fluorid of calcium in the bones of
te£th of men and mammals, but the exact amount has not yet been
ascertained. It has also been detw&d in the blood of birds and
mammals, as well as in thij" yolk of tggs and in milk, also in the
outer coats of grains.
We must, therefore, conclude that it is an essential element of
the organism. It assists in building the enamel of the teeth, and
is needed in the development of the skeleton, as no normal bony
substance can be formed without fluorine. The iris of the eye,
which reflects the -whole organism, also requires fluorine. A
deficiency of the element in the lens of the iris is followed by
ophthalmic diseases. The artificial preparation of our food stuffs
by which the greater part of the fluoride of calcium is removed
or made inert, also the inadequate supply of this substance to the
soil, is one of the principal causes of premature decay of the teeth,
curvature of the spine, and early weakening of the eyesight.
Iodine is a non-metallic element, found in small quantities in
many plants and animals. In its free state the element is soluble
in ether and alcohol, but only slightly in -water. It possesses an
acrid burning taste, and a neutral reaction. According to the
degree of the application, it stains the skin yellow, brown or black,
and its action is painless, provided the skin is intact. Upon mu-
cous membranes iodine acts as a powerful irritant. Taken as a
drug it escapes chiefly through the kidneys, the skin and the
salivary glands.
Very little is known yet about the action of organic iodiia upon﻿144
RATIONAL DIET
the physiological functions, hut it seems to he a natural stimulant
to the nutritive processes of the body and the circulatory system.
The element is present in the thyroid gland to the extent of
about two per mille of the dried weight of the gland, or about ten
to fifteen milligrams in the entire gland. It is essential for the
formation of an organic iodine compound—thyrosin—which regu-
lates some of the metabolic functions of the organism. A lack of
iodine prevents the formation of thyroxin and causes enlargement
of the thyroid gland, or goitre. This disease is common in certain
districts of the European Alps and the Rocky Mountains. It is
probably caused by an insufScient and one-sided diet, and a lack
of iodine in the soil. As sea water contains iodine, it is naturally
present in all sea plants, such as alga, kelp, Irish moss, etc.
According to Dr. Bouriet, a French chemist, iodine occurs in
small quantities in the following vegetable and animal products:
Iodine in 1000 Parts of Fresh Substance
Asparagus	0.240	Potatoes	0.010
Garlic	0.210	Leeks	0.120
Pineapple	0.310	Pears	0.017
Carrots	0.134	Grapes	0.010
Mushrooms	0.172	Rice	0.170
Cabbage	0.210	Lettuce	0.012
Strawberries	0.170	Tomatoes	0.023
Green kidney beans	0.320	ArtichokejgM	0.017
Dry white beans	0.014	Oat flour	0.009
Green peas	0.080	Wheat flour	0.007
Sorrel	0.120	White bread	0.000
Fruits and foods very rich in		starch contain but little iodine.	
According to the same	author, foods of animal origin		contain the
following amounts of this element		in 1000 parts of fresh substance.	
Eel	0.80	Oyster	1.37
Anchovy	0.95	Lobster	1.78
Grey shrimp	5.91	Whiting	0.31
Crab	1.82	Fresh cod	1.23
Roach	1.38	Fresh salmon	1.40
Smoked herring	1.57	Trout	0.08
Another element, bromine, often accompanies iodine, but it is
not known as yet whether it performs any definite physiological
functions in the body.﻿THE ACID-FORMING ELEMENTS
145
Arsenic, which exists in the earth as sulphide of arsenic, is
found in minute traces in animals and vegetables. Until recently
it has not been considered essential to their well-being. The
French chemist, Bertrand, however, as a result of numerous ex-
periments, has arrived at the conclusion that arsenic, instead of
being a constituent of a few tissues only, is a constant element of
the living cell. He finds arsenic present in the eggs of all fowls,
in exceedingly small quantities, the yolks generally containing
twice as much as the white.
In 1900 Dr. Gautier, of Paris, established the fact that arsenic
in a very small proportion enters into the constitution of the outer
tissues, the epiderm, hair, nails, thyroid gland, brain and breast.
There are some very small traces of it in other parts of the body.
Arsenic appears to resemble in its chemical affinities those of phos-
phorus.
Copper exists in the earth in metallic form, and enters into
the composition of many vegetable and animal tissues, although
the quantity is very small and it is not yet known whether its
presence has any special significance.﻿CHAPTER XIV
The Vitamins
The word vitamin is derived from the Latin word vita, mean-
ing “life,” and amins or amino acids, which are component
parts of protoplasm. A free translation of the word would be
“life substances,” or complex organic compounds, upon which the
growth and perpetuation of plants and animals depend. Their
presence was first discovered by Casimir Funk in 1912, and their
effect upon growth has been especially studied by Osborne and
Mendel, and McCollum and Davis. Like the enzymes they seem
to be composed principally of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitro-
gen, but their atomic and molecular construction is not yet under-
stood.
According to our present knowledge only plant life can synthe-
size or build up vitamins out of simpler combinations. We must
emphasize the fact, however, that vitamins cannot perform their
functions if the food products are deficient in the organic salts
necessary for organic growth. In other words, they must be chem-
ically united with other food substances in such organic com-
pounds as we find in wholesome, natural foods. The chemical and
biological actions of the vitamins must always be studied in close
connection ivith those of the organic salts, if ive would gain any
clear understanding of the problems of nutrition.
So far three distinctive vitamins have been discovered:
Fat soluble “A” or anti-rachitic vitamin
Water soluble “B” or anti-beriberi vitamin
Water soluble “ C ” or anti-scorbutic vitamin
Dr. Herbert Evans and Dr. K. Scott Bishop, of the University
of California, claim to have discovered another vitamin called
“X,” which exists in lettuce, alfalfa and egg yolk and will prob-
ably take its place as the fourth established vitamin. There are
probably many more vitamins in natural food but until the dis-
covery of vitamin “X,” only three had been commonly demon-
strated and accepted.﻿THE VITAMINS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS
147
Two vitamins “D” have also bSn announced recently. Dr.
E. V. McCollum has so designated an anti-racliitic factor which
is different from vitamin “A.” Casimir Funk gave the letter
“D” to another vitamin that yeast Contains in addition to “B.”
This second yeast vitamin does not seem to play a part in mam-
malian physiology. Neither of these vitamins is fully accepted
as yet and it seems probable that the dietary factor “X” will be
considered the fourth established vitamin.
Vitamin “A” is found mostly in the green leaves of plants,
such as spinach, lettuce, cabbage, alfalfa,gclover, etc.; in tomatoes,
carrots, sweet potatoes, yellow	flpawe peas, etc.; also in
butter-fat, egg yolk, palm oil, cod liver oil, in liver and kidney
tissues and glandular organs in general. The solids of spinach
and tomatoes contain more of jrftamin “A” than butter-fat. It
is essential to the normal growth of the child, or the young of
animals, and a deficiency of it will produce stunted growth,
emaciation and rjiGhitic conditions.
Vitamin “B” is contained principally in plant foods, the seeds
of cereals, peas, beans and other legumes in their natural state,
and when not impolgerished by modern milling processes. Citrus
fruits furnish a considerable amount of vitamin “B,” more than
do the deciduous fruits. Nuts contain a considerable quantity,
and, like vitamin “A,” it is also found in the green leaf vegetables.
An insufficient supply of the vitamin “B,” as for instance in a
diet consisting largely of peeled or polished rice, results often in
a specific nervoujk disease known as beri-beri. In order to main-
tain health in young and old, a constant supply of ' ‘ B ” is required.
Vitamin “C” is present in largest amounts in fresh fruits; to
a less extent in raw vegetables and tubers; in moderately small
quantities in milk and meat. Among fruits the best sources are
oranges and lemons; among the vegetables, various turnips, car-
rots, rhubarb and tomatoes. Baked potatoes contain moderate
quantities. An absence or insufficient supply of vitamin “C” pro-
duces scurvy.
Of the three vitamins, “C” seems to be the least stable and is
easily affected by heating. A liberal amount of fresh fruits and
vegetables, therefore, is always necessary to maintain health.
Sufficient quantities of vitamin “A” may be obtained from
steamed vegetables in which all the organic salts are preserved.﻿148
RATIONAL DIET
“B” occupies an intermediate position, and while raw cereals can-
not be recommended as ideal food for man, they should at least be
used in their natural form, such as whole rice, whole barley, whole
wheat bread, whole corn meal, etc.
According to the Daily Science News Bulletin, in experi-
ments which have been made with rats, the Vitamin X does not
seem to affect the growth of the individual rat, but its lack does
prevent the mother rat from having offspring. Drs. Evans and
Bishop have found that rats reared on the ordinary “purified”
laboratory diet, consisting of casein, cornstarch and lard, with a
little butter-fat and salts, even when given ample quantities of
the growth-producing vitamins A and B, are sterile without ex-
ception. To quote from the bulletin (the italics are mine):
“ ‘It is startling to observe that fat, slick-coated rats fed on.
this diet are sterile, but that when they are fed fresh green leaves
of lettuce they immediately are able to produce full and normal
litters of young,’ explained Dr. Evans here today where he is con-
ferring with officials of the U. S. Bureau of Animal industry on
details of his work in cooperation with governmental dairy experts.
“The experiments that demonstrated this new factor in food
were carefully carried out so as to eliminate the possibility that the
non-productiveness of the rats had any other cause. In most cases
sister rats from the same litter were used. The one fed on the
laboratory diet without lettuce remained consistently sterile, while
the one that received the lettuce ration was always productive.
By switching the diet, the opposite results could be obtained.
“The government experts in animal husbandry at the Depart-
ment of Agriculture here are extremely interested in Dr. Evans’
results and they believe that factor X may explain cases of infer-
tility in cattle that have puzzled them in the past. Experiments
at the Beltsville, Md., experimental farm are planned.”
Anybody with a thorough understanding of the problem of
nutrition knows that all animals, if fed on denatured foods in
which the elements essential for growth are lacking, will lose their
fecundity, just as carnivorous animals do in captivity, if fed
mostly on lean meat, for the necessary organic salts are contained
in the blood, bones and entrails. That the rats recovered rapidly,
if given green leaf vegetables, rich in sodium, calcium, magnesium
and iron, the principal bone and blood building elements, confirms
the vital importance of these foods in building a strong and healthy
body, a fact which has long been known by students of dietetics.﻿THE VITAMINS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS
149
We cannot extract vitamins. Even if it were possible to do so,
we cannot utilize them separately as body-building material,
any more than we can dissolve an apple into its inorganic elements
and try to live on them. Vitamins, as already stated, are active
only when they exist in combination with other elements in nat-
ural food.
The vitamins themselves supply the body with neither energy
nor tissue building substances. They enable the body to utilize
the energy-producing components of our foods, and, if offered in
an organic form, regulate the assimilation of the tissue-building
elements. They are active in extremely minute quantities, and,
in that respect, they resemble the enzymes in their catalytic actions,
producing chemical changes without undergoing any change what-
ever in themselves.
The vitamins, to be sure, are indispensable in the process of
nutrition and growth in the vegetable, as well as the animal king-
dom. But far more important than the vitamins are the mineral
elements, or organic salts, in our food, especially in their relation
to each other in the normal growth of the body, and in the per-
formance of the various physiological functions of the organism,
and, last but not least, in the preservation of its health and power
of resistance to injurious influences.
The vitamins have furnished the medical profession with a
clue, whereby they can gradually work towards a more sensible
and natural method of nutrition and prevention of disease, as
evidenced by numerous magazine articles and books, which have
recently appeared. It is regrettable, however, that commercial-
ism is taking undue advantage of this situation and is now exploit-
ing the vitamin theory. “Specially prepared” vitamin foods,
mostly in the form of tablets, also different kinds of yeast, are
being widely circulated, claiming miraculous effects, and seem to
find a ready sale to a credulous, misinformed public.
Drs. McCollum and Simmonds have recently investigated a
number of such commercial preparations, in regard to their alleged
potency as sources of water soluble “B” or vitamin “B,” the
anti-beri-beri, or anti-neurotic vitamin. Concerning the labels
they make the following statement:
“An examination of the labels on the containers of the vitamin
preparations which we have studied, suggests at once that their
promotion for therapeutic purposes represents a repetition of the﻿150
RATIONAL DIET
‘patent medicine’ propaganda which has for so long been inflicted
on the American public. Thus, the same general symptoms have
been used in labels of sarsaparillas, blood-purifiers, kidney remedies,
remedies for female weaknesses, eto^ reappear as conditions for
which the vitamin preparations are said to be specific remedies,
“The claims set forth on the labels* of the medicinal values of
these preparations, are .extravagant and misleading. They do not
contain the vitamin ‘B’ in concentrated form, as they are repre-
sented to do. The marketing of these preparations represents an
attempt, and, unfortunately, a successful one, to substitute a com-
mercial vitamin propaganda for the nefarious patent medicine
business. ’ ’
Dr. Casimir Funk, discoverer of the vitamins, when recently
interviewed, also expressed the opinion that the American public
would do well to curb its tendency towards making a fad out of
the practical application of vitamins to daily routine. He said
in part :
“Science is very much in the dark yet as to the composition
and functions of vitamin. The combined research has taught us
that all we do know about the subject is of tremendous importance.
But it is not detracting from the valuable place that vitamins hold
in the list of food elements to say that we are just beginning to
understand them a little.
“Reputable scientists do not countenance the efforts that are
being made to deceive the public into believing that the time has
come when it can be said satisfactorily that such and such a result
will follow the practice of taking certain proprietary vitamin prep-
arations.
“To put it briefly, the people who are promoting such prepara-
tions do not know what they are talking about. And they cer-
tainly are leading the public into deception. If their claims for
these products could be substantiated, science would greet them
with open arms. There are several hundred scientists experiment-
ing, but, as yet, vitamins have not been isolated, much less con-
centrated.
“Besides, vitamins so far have proved of value only where
there have been cases of very distinct vitamin deficiency. When
the diet is complete, we do not hnow yet whether an additional
supply of vitamins is needed or even advisable. No one has estab-
lished the quantity of vitamins necessary for maintenance of the
average healthy person.
“There is nothing mysterious about vitamins. They are just
food constituents that should be in our diet, just as other food
properties should be found there too.
“I do not know what use, practical or otherwise, will be﻿THE VITAMINS AND THEIR FUNCTIONS
151
made of isolated vitamins when we have succeeded in separating
them. I could not even venture a guess—no one can know. I
confidently predict that the time will come eventually when we
shall succeed in such isolation. But no one has succeeded in doing
it yet.
“What would he the use in preparing all our foods artificially,
so long as Nature is producing her oivn foods in suffi&ent abun-
dance to supply an increasing population? It would he folly even
to think of turning ourselves into domestic manufacturers and con-
sumers of self-made food so long as Nature gives us enough.”
(The italics are mine.)
In regard to milk Dr. Funk said i
“The contents of vitamins in milk have been greatly exagger-
ated. There are other foods that are far richer in vitamin content
than is milk. We are by no means dependent upon milk alone for
our supply of vitamins.
I ‘ The vitamin content in both mother *• and cow’s milk is essen-
tial for infants. But titamins are not any magical possession of
either milk. They exist only because the mother or the cow has
assembled them from the food she has eaten prior to production
of the milk.”
It is evident that the quality of mother’s milk, or that of any
animal, depends largely upon the quality of food consumed. If
the food is impoverished, naturally the milk cannot supply the nec-
essary elements for growth. We cannot recommend cow’s milk
unqualifiedly without knowing how the animals were fed.
After all it is reasonable to assume that nature has built the
vitamins principally for the growth and perpetuation of plant life
itself. Without the vegetable kingdom, the great store house of
potential energy, stored up by the sunlight, the animal kingdom
could not exist. The vitamins in the seeds serve primarily for the
germination and development of the seed into the embryo plant,
while the vitamins in the roots and fruits all have their special
physiological functions to perform. In the nutrition of man and
the animal the vitamins are only of secondary importance.
The chemistry of life is very complex, and in order to come
to a deeper understanding of it, we have to consider all of the
elements in their chemical affinities and reactions, their polariza-
tion in the diffei’ent parts of the plant, and again in the animal
body, especially during the period of growth. The discovery of
the vitamins, important as it is, can never furnish us with a sat-﻿152
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isfactory explanation of all the wonderful phenomena of organic
life. It is only one link in the chain of the science of nutrition.
In discussing the vitamins, let us always remember these great
and outstanding facts: the human race has survived in the strug-
gle for existence for millions of years, developing its superior men-
tal and physical qualities, while subsisting on natural foods, such
as nature in her infinite wisdom had prepared, unblemished by
the hand of man. On the other hand, flour and rice mills, sugar
refineries, slaughter houses, and especially elaborate cookery, all
characteristic features of modern civilization—are constantly turn-
ing out devitalized and demineralized foods, with the result that
our standard of health has been lowered to an appalling degree.
Nearly every year a new discovery in physics or chemistry
is heralded as a panacea for all evils to a suffering humanity. A
few years ago it was radium, and now it is vitamins. There is only
one way to secure your daily ration of vitamins. Eat simple, nat-
ural foods, chiefly fruits and green leaf vegetables, with a few
nuts, or whole grain products, and you will be well nourished,
without the addition of yeast cakes or vitamin tablets.﻿CHAPTER XV
The Soil and Its Relation to Food and Health
As all our food comes directly or indirectly from the soil, the
fact should be emphasized that the chemical composition of the soil
is a most important factor in the production of a healthy vegeta-
tion. "What has been said about mineral elements in relation to
the human body, holds equally true in the case of plants and trees.
These often suffer from the want or excess of proper minerals in
the soil, which naturally results in poor crops and diseased con-
ditions. We should learn to recognize the fact that the soil must
contain all the essential constituents of plant life in an assimila-
ble form, in order to produce a normal plant containing all the
required elements in the right proportion; and that man is, there-
fore, absolutely dependent on the soil to produce such foods as
give him the best health and the greatest power of resistance.
The present systems of fertilization are still governed by many
erroneous ideas. The German scientist Ilensel wTas one of the
first to point out the mistakes made in agriculture. A consider-
able quantity of phosphoric acid and of potash is found in the
ashes of all seeds. As these do not exist in the air and must, there-
fore, he furnished by the soil, it was natural that the teachers of
agriculture announced that potash and phosphoric acid, including
nitrogen, are the most essential fertilizers, and the more phos-
phoric acid the better. But this conclusion is erroneous and has
caused much injury. The fact was overlooked that, during the
time of vegetation, phosphoric acid is so uniformly distributed
that it does not amount, on the average, to more than one-tentli
of the total mineral constituents. The peculiarity that phos-
phoric acid, during the process of ripening, accumulates in the
seeds to such an extent that it constitutes not merely ten, but
from thirty to fifty per cent of the total mineral matter, is ex-
plained by the fact that the phosphorus passes from the stems,
stalks and leaves into the seeds, leaving the straw very poor in
phosphoric acid. Taking the average of seventy to eighty analyses
of German field crops, which also include the roots, stems and
leaves, we find that phosphoric acid constitutes about one-tentli
H﻿154
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of the mineral constituents; while potash, soda, lime, magnesia,
iron, silica, sulphuric acid, chlorine and fluorine, constitute the
remaining nine-tenths. Furthermore, potash and soda are present
on the average in the same amount of weight as lime and magnesia,
these four bases amounting to about eight-tenths of the whole
quantity of ashes.
According to these facts a fertilizer which would satisfy the
natural demand of supplying the minerals necessary for the de-
velopment of plants should contain eight parts of potash, soda, lime
and magnesia to one part of phosphoric acid. These mineral bases
are found in every primitive rock and when perfectly decomposed
and judiciously mixed with humus, make ideal fertilizers. In
Germany an increasing number of farmers are experimenting
successfully with this new method of fertilizing which will be ap-
preciated more and more and gradually supersede the old methods.
The common commercial fertilizers and manures supply plants
with too much forcing material and too much phosphoric acid,
substances which favor the propagations of all kinds of injurious
insects. Vegetables and fruits grown on a soil treated chiefly
with manure may be larger, on account of the over-supply of
ammoniacal compounds, which have the tendency to draw water,
but they are deficient in the important minerals which give firm-
ness and consistency to the tissues and prevent them from pre-
maturely decaying. When the early agriculturists established
their theories of fertilization on the mineral constituents of seeds
with their high contents of phosphorus, potash and nitrogen, they
did not consider that the different parts of the plant require dif-
ferent proportions of elements than those which are found in the
seeds alone. Hensel saw what some day all the world will see,
viz,, that plants require a certain well-proportioned quantity of
all the necessary mineral elements for their healthy growth, just
as much as man and animals do; that insufficiently or wrongly
nourished plants, like animals, fall a prey to diseases more quickly
than those specimens which are well built, as a result of an ade-
quate supply of the essential organic salts.
Ilensel’s views on the proper feeding of plants invite a com-
parison with the usual methods of human nutrition which are still
advocated by the majority of the medical practitioners, who con-
cern themselves very little with real prevention of disease. Neu-﻿CHEMISTRY OF THE SOIL
155
rasthenics and consumptives are advised to eat heartily of meat,
eggs and other protein foods which easily enter the circula-
tion hut overload the system with nitrogen and phosphate of
potash, which still further increase the acidity of the blood. The
consequence is an increased stimulation of the nervous system
and irritation of the whole organism. This irritation, which is
mistaken for an improvement, soon leads to complete exhaustion
and debility.
That nitrogenous foods are strengthening is a grave error full
of fatal consequences for the nutrition of the plants as well as of
animals and men. The constantly increasing number of diseases
is largely the result of impoverished foods raised on impover-
ished soil. Germs and microbes are the effect and not the cause
of this deplorable condition. They cannot live and propagate on
sound and healthy tissues, any more than a crop of wheat can be
raised on a solid granite rock. Man is learning slowly and pays
for his deviation from the laws of health and right living by dis-
ease and needless suffering.
Sixty years ago Baron von Liebig wrote in his work “Natural
Laws of Husbandry,” with the characteristic, penetrating thought
of genius:
“No intelligent man who contemplates the state of agriculture
with an unbiased mind, can remain in doubt, even for a moment,
as to the stage which husbandry has reached in Europe. We find
that all countries and regions of the earth, where man has omitted
to restore to the land the conditions of its continued fertility,
after having attained the culminating period of the greatest den-
sity of population, fall into a state of barrenness and desolation.
Historians are wont to attribute the decay of nations to political
events and social causes. These may, indeed, have greatly con-
tributed to the result; but we may well ask whether some far
deeper 'cause, not so easily recognized by historians, has not pro-
duced decay and downfall of nations, and whether most of the
exterminating wars between different races may not have sprung
from the inexorable law of self-preservation. It may seem to
the superficial observer that nations, like men, pass from youth
to age, and then die out; but if we look at the matter a little more
closely, we shall find that, as the conditions for the continuance
of the human race which nature has placed in the ground, are very
limited and readily exhausted, the nations that have disappeared
from the earth have dug their own graves by not knowing how to
preserve these conditions. Nations like China and Japan which
know how to preserve these conditions of life have not died out.﻿156
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“Not the fertility of the earth, but the duration of that fer-
tility, lies within the power of the human will.”
In regard to nitrogenous manures the same scientist says:
“Upon a field excessively rich in nitrogenous food there is a
kind of rankness in the early growth like that produced by a
hot-bed; the leaves and stalks are weak and watery, because of the
want of time in their over-hasty growth to absorb simultaneously
from the soil the necessary quantity of substances, such as silicic
acid and lime, capable of communicating to their organs a certain
solidity and power of resistance against those external causes which
endanger their existence. The stalks fail to acquire the necessary
stiffness and strength, and are always liable to be laid, especially
upon lime soils.
“This injurious influence of an excess of nitrogenous food is
particularly remarkable in the case of the potato plant; for if it
grows upon a soil excessively rich in nitrogenous food, and the
temperature should suddenly fall and wet weather supervene, the
plant is often attacked by the so-called potato-disease; while a
neighboring potato field merely manured with ashes shows no trace
of it.
“Many thousand farmers who have not the remotest concep-
tion of manures, apply guano, nitrates, and other fertilizers to
their fields with fully the same effect and with even the same skill
as others who possess such information; nor do the latter derive
any manifest advantage from their knowledge, because it is not
of the right kind. For example, the chemical analysis of manures
is rather calculated to ascertain their purity, and to determine
their price, than as a means for making us acquainted with their
effect upon the land. ’ I
Professor Frank M. Keith of Medford, Massachusetts, who has
made many investigations in regard to deterioration of the soil
and the increase of plant diseases, comes to the same conclusion as
Dr. Julius Hensel of Germany. In a highly interesting and in-
structive article, which appeared some time ago in the Sunday
Herald, Boston, Mass., Professor Keith said in part:
“For many years the agriculturist has been confronted with
the problem of just why his crops do not increase even though he
has used unlimited supplies of manures and fertilizers. In most
cases he does not get anywhere near the crops that had been taken
from the same land twenty or thirty years before.
“Just why this condition should exist the farmer can’t explain,
and in many cases is so thick-headed he won’t listen to those who
would be only too glad to help him out.
“When the virgin soil was tilled by the early settlers, no
manure or fertilizers were used at all, and large crops were pro-﻿CHEMISTRY OF THE SOIL
157
duced. "Why? Because the conditions were as nature had made
them and had not been disturbed. It is a scientific fact that when
vegetables, etc., have been growing for years on the same soil, those
vegetables have continually sapped the soil of a large percentage
of available minerals. No amount of manures or commercial
(three part) fertilizers can possibly restore the soil to anywhere
near its virginal condition, because they do not contain the ten
minerals necessary to plant life in sufficient quantities to sustain
life.”
We have been taught for years by some of the most learned
professors in many of our state agricultural colleges that the three
elements necessary to be added to the soil to produce maximum
crops are nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid, the proportions
varying according to the crop to be grown. And because of these
teachings, our farm crops are on the decrease and will continue to
decrease until such a time as those professors wake up from years
of purely theoretic reasoning and begin to work along practical
lines, or when the farmer will take the initiative himself without
the assistance of the agricultural college.
For a long time potash was declared to he one of the most es-
sential ingredients of all commercial fertilizers. Until the World
War we were told that to grow crops without the constant use of
additional potash was impossible. But when the war started and
potash was not obtainable from abroad, we were informed that just
as good crops could be grown without its addition to the soil. This
last fact should have been discovered years ago.
The agricultural chemist shows us that the ashes of all veg-
etables and plants contain potash, iron, sulphur, magnesia, lime,
manganese, phosphorus, silicon, soda and chlorine, and that the
plants cannot be grown to perfection with the omission of any one
of these elements. If this is so—and we know it is—how did the
plants get these minerals? Surely not from the air. They must,
then, have been obtained from the soil. But the question naturally
arises as to how these minerals could possibly he absorbed by the
plant.
There are in the soil, provided plenty of humus (disintegrated
vegetable matter) is present, humin and humic acids which, with
the heat, moisture, freezing, and thawing, cause an erosion in the
small stone particles of the soil, which have gradually been liber-
ated, thereby making them available for plant food. When the﻿158
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different minerals are liberated and come in contact with the humus
and humic acids, there are very minute bacteria being bred, and
it is these that change the minerals into a liquid substance
which can be taken up by the plant. To the unthinking, happy-
go-lucky farmer this statement will seem almost unbelievable. But
it is self-evident to those who have been making a careful study of
plant conditions and are anxious to know everything possible about
the normal development of plant life.
Some agriculturists who have experimented successfully with
certain methods of mineral fertilization when confronted by state-
ments of so-called scientific investigators have not, except in a
very few cases, had the courage of their convictions, and have
given up their claims, despairing of ever putting them into prac-
tical operation.
There has been great waste of time and effort in the name of
science to determine the available plant foods in soils. The as-
sumption has been that plant foods in soils are of two distinct
kinds, “available” and “unavailable,” and that the determination
of “unavailable” plant food would show not only the crop pro-
ducing power, but the fundamental fertilizer needed to improve
the soil so that it could produce crops.
The question should not be “How much is available?” but
rather “How much can be made available during the season?”
Or, to put it even more plainly, we must make plant food avail-
able by practical and not theoretical methods of liberation, by
converting insoluble compounds into soluble compounds, which
are accessible to the growing plants. Our Federal Bureau of Soils
of the Department of Agriculture at Washington in 1908 made
the following statement, which was met by considerable opposition
and criticism: “The soil is the one indestructible immutable asset
of the nation. It is the one resource that cannot be exhausted,
that cannot be used up. It may be impaired by abuse, but not
destroyed.”
Some of our greatest scientists firmly believe that soils do not
wear out. On the other hand, our agricultural colleges, not all,
but many of them, teach the theory that soils do wear out. The
old theories regarding infertility have arisen from the fact that
sufficient minerals have not been available in ordinary soils. Not
until the Federated Bureau of Soils took up the study in a sys-﻿CHEMISTRY OF THE SOIL
159
tematic manner, and established the fact that organic matter is
quite as important as minerals, was this known; but fertilizers
too rich in nitrogen and acids, such as stable manure, are injurious
to the plant, and, consequently, to men and animals. Nitrogen,
potash, phosphoric acid act only as stimulants, producing quick
and rank growth, wholly lacking in strength and stability.
Mineral, or finely pulverized rock, may work more slowly than
some of the widely advertised nitrogen stimulants, but it works
surely and the soil is improved by its use.
When some great modern chemist commits a stupendous blun-
der, his erroneous conclusions are heralded throughout the world
and accepted as gospel truth. The French chemist Boussingoult,
for instance, evolved the theory that plants required a supply of
nitrogen in the soil and thousands of agricultural scientists have
ever since repeated the same error and induced farmers to buy
millions of dollars worth of fertilizers containing nitrogen com-
pounds. The “learned” agriculturists contend, moreover, that
plants require an additional supply of phosphoric acid. These
“scientists” forget, however, that the required supply of phos-
phoric acid is already stored in the roots, stalks, and leaves before
the grain ripens, and that it is conveyed to the kernels during the
ripening process of the grain.
Plants require very little phosphoric acid, and any excess is
more injurious than beneficial. The practice of excessive potash,
phosphoric acid, and nitrogen fertilization has caused cattle and
human beings to become victims of disease. Systematically, al-
though not knowingly and intentionally, they have prepared the
way for the spreading of influenza, diphtheria, cancer, diabetes,
consumption, typhoid fever, anthrax, glanders, cattle plague, foot
and mouth diseases, rinderpest, etc., with the result that America
is at the present time paying to its chemical “scientists” more
than $600,000,000 for poisonous drugs for human beings, over
$100,000,000 for equally injurious concoctions for their cattle, and
more than $300,000,000 for doctoring the soil with fertilizers which
cannot produce sound and wholesome products.
In Europe agricultural “scientists” recommended fertilizing
vineyards with stable manure. Shortly after that the phylloxera
made its appearance and destroyed innumerable vines. Then the
“scientists” made millions by selling spray to destroy the pests.﻿160
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Irrational, incomplete fertilization with commercial fertilizers,
overloaded with phosphates, or with manure, which likewise
abounds in phosphoric acid, is the cause of insect pests such as
pin worms, the caterpillars of the conchylis ambiguella, as well as
the peronospora viticola. Phosphates are a vital necessity for the
propagation of all parasites. Tests made with fungilice and worms
show that the residue of their bodies after combustion consists
almost entirely of phosphate of potash, but contains only traces of
sulphates. This leads to the conclusion that an increase in phos-
phates means an increase in parasites, while sulphur in combina-
tion with other important minerals will check all parasite life.
Curiously enough, our agricultural teachers consider this
abundance of nitrogen the most essential factor in ascertaining
the value of manure as a fertilizer. They are, however, completely
deluded, though it is true that the ammonia contained in stable
manure causes a luxurious vegetation, thus making it apparently a
substitute for lime, carbonate of soda, calcareous earth and sul-
phate of soda, insofar as it frequently produces the same growth
as these mineral salts. Such vegetables and fruits, however, will
decay quickly. Intelligent fertilization will prevent the loss of
many millions of dollars ’ worth of vegetables and fruits.
Stable manure is detrimental to the keeping quality of the
soil’s products, because it is not a polarically unified combination.
Mineral fertilizers are beneficial, because they produce a unified
mineral soil which will bring forth sound, wholesome crops. It
is a well known fact that ashes possess disinfecting properties and
will to a certain extent neutralize manure or any foul, ill-smelling
matter. Volcanic ashes in their most powerful combination will
produce vigorous plant growth, and, indirectly, strong and healthy
people. Vegetables and fruits grown in such a soil will make
pure alkaline blood in animals and men.
These statements are corroborated by Sampson Morgan, an-
other pioneer of sane agriculture, of Tenterden, Kent, England,
who published some interesting and instructive essays on mineral
fertilization entitled “Clean Culture” and “The New Soil Sci-
ence.” In 1873 Mr. Morgan made his first experiments in cultiva-
tion. He planted medium sized potato seeds on the level ground,
covered them up with fine soil, gave the latter a sprinkling of plas-
ter of paris, which contains lime, then covered them with rich﻿CHEMISTRY OF THE SOIL
161
soil and finally obtained a yield of forty tons an acre. The speci-
mens were enormous, and perfectly free from disease. For forty
years he has continued his experiments when opportunities pre-
sented themselves, enabling him to put “Clean Culture” upon a
sound, practical and scientific basis. Mr. Morgan says in part:
“ ‘Clean Culture’ is of universal application. It would work
wonders in every part of the world. It would in time make all
soils healthy, and all people proof against disease.
“Generally, it will assure the creation and development of co-
lossal new industries, through the peaceful and profitable utiliza-
tion of countless billions of tons of non-stimulating plantfood, at
present lying unutilized on every hand.
‘ ‘ I have proved that granite dust, the bon-fire ash of the world-
forming conflagration, furnishes all the potash crops need. I have
also proved that the millions spent by cultivators upon chemical
and ‘forcing’ plant foods have practically been wasted, besides
often causing much harm. I have further proved that many bodily
ailments are mainly due to the continued consumption of defi-
ciency foods, produced with manure devoid of the mineral fur-
nished in the primary rocks in a perfect form.
“In 1915 I broke all records for apples and potatoes for the
world, thanks to ‘Clean Culture.’ The apples were grown on a
young dwarf tree planted two years and specially pruned. It bore
twenty large fruits. They measured on the average fourteen
inches in circumference and weighed four ounces, though gathered
six weeks before they had finished swelling. This was equal to
over 100 bushels per acre within two years of planting. Other
trees, in the same experiment plot, two years planted, bore from
30 to 100 fruits each. The potatoes grown on my mound sys-
tem produced from eighteen to thirty-six potatoes to a root, weigh-
ing nine to ten pounds, equal to fifty tons to an acre. The samples
were very clean and of good grade. The largest were six inches
long, three broad, and weighed from ten to sixteen ounces each.
Two boxes of those products exhibited in London and inspected by
large crowds were admitted the greatest hit of the season.
LTYln 1917 I again broke all records in apple production. On
one dwarf tree four years planted on a surface space of only eight-
een inches by seven, were twenty-two good sized apples, beauti-
fully colored, growing apparently in one cluster. Several of Cox’s
Orange Pippin trees had from 80 to 120 large, richly colored
specimens. An early culinary variety, five feet in height, includ-
ing the year’s new wood-growth, had 250 apples, 150 were thinned
out, 40 were used when well grown and the remaining 60, when
fully developed, were from 9 to 10 inches in circumference, though
none were grown for size. A tree, on a surface space of 17 by 10﻿162
RATIONAL DIET
inches, showed an unbroken surface of 17 fine apples. It had 60
fruits even within 32 inches of the ground.
“Several of the trees bore 80 half-pound apples each. One
produced 90 such. A Peasgoods Nonsuch, 4 feet high, bore 26
fruits, each 12 to 13 inches round, weighing on an average of 13
ounces each. The trees, which produced a bushel each, show the
possibility of getting apples at the rate from 150, 300 and even
600 bushels an acre from dwarf trees. An Essex grower claims
to have got 300 bushels from an acre of cordon trees. I had cor-
dons carrying 30 apples, weighing 7 pounds, at the rate of 600
bushels an acre. Has a bushel of apples from a dwarf tree, four
years planted, ever been equalled? I doubt it. I challenge any-
one to repeat the performance with a manure-fed tree. Specimens
were sent to leading representatives in literary and scientific cir-
cles and brought me flattering commendations. Bushel boxes of
the record apples were exhibited in six large cities including Lon-
don.
“In 1918 I broke all records for potatoes wTith a 500-foot row,
digging fine samples at the rate of 65 tons an acre, a success never
achieved by any other experimentor.
“When I introduced ‘Clean Culture’ it was abused by sceptics
and parties interested in perpetuating the bad, unscientific old
system. But as the result of the magnificent appreciation ex-
pressed for it by those who put it to test, the experts, writers in
trade magazines, specialists, chemists and scientists are coming
round gradually to my views, though they do not commend my
work.
“American investigators say there is something in the soil of
a deleterious nature which at present they do not understand, but
that it is of an organic nature. Clean Culture explains the mys-
tery. The deleterious organic matter is the poisonous soil-souring
carbonate of ammonia which is contained in stable manure. I
was the first to claim and prove that uncontaminated humus,
green manure humus, is vital to the health of the good bacteria,
and without it a healthy and productive soil is utterly impossible.
“Until I dealt with the subject of foods and feeding in con-
nection with soil bacteria, no one ever thought about the subject.
The greatest experimentalists on the Continent putting it to test,
wrere forced to the conclusion that I was right concerning the true
food of the soil bacteria.
“Without the provision of uncontaminated organic matter and
ash, the maintenance of fertility is impossible. Clean Culture
mineralized humus is the last word that can be said in respect to
perfect production, the elaboration of healthy fruitful tissue and
permanent fertility.﻿CHEMISTRY OP THE SOIL
163
“The men who introduced condensed extracted chemical food
for plants, predicted they would feed man on chemical food. But
the wheat and fruit forms still remain. ’ ’
Dr. H. Lindlahr of Chicago, one of the pioneers of Nature Cure
in the United States, gives in his “Vegêtarian Cook Book,” the fol-
lowing interesting and instructive data :
“In our institutions for the healing of the sick we begin the
treatment of patients by treating the soil of our gardens and farm
lands with mineral fertilizers. In connection with our Elmhurst
Health Resort we have been cultivating sufficient garden and farm
land to furnish our institutions from spring to fall with vegetables
grown on highly mineralized soil. For many seasons now we have
saturated the land with wood ash, sifted coal ash, finely pulverized
lime rock, pulverized phosphate rock, iron filings and with small
quantities of ground rock salt.
“Wood ash is to the soil what milk is to the human body. It
contains all the minerals in the vegetable kingdom in concentrated
form and in the right proportions. When any kind of vegetation
is burned, all the negative carbonaceous and protein elements are
dissipated, while the positive alkaline bases of iron, lime, sodium,
potassium, magnesium, manganese, silicon, and also the earthy sul-
phates and phosphates, remain in the ash.
“Sifted coal ash also is a good mineral fertilizer, though not
as valuable as wood ash. Coal originally was vegetable matter
which contained minerals in the live organic form. Coal ash is
rich in iron, sulphur and silicon.
“Lime rock from Elmhurst quarries^specially pulverized for
fertilizing purposes, contains about fifty per cent lime and four
other valuable minerals.
“The value of pulverized phosphate rock as a mineral fertilizer
is now generally recognized by our agricultural stations. The
addition of this fertilizer alone has, in many cases, doubled and
trebled the crops from land that was supposed to be completely
exhausted.
“Iron filings decompose or rust in the soil and enter into chem-
ical combinations suitable for assimilation by plant life.
“Black loam that has a tendency to acidity can also stand a
moderate amount of ground rock salt. Too much of it would burn
the tender plant. We have applied to our garden land from two
hundred to three hundred pounds per acre.
“The effect of this continued, systematic, mineral fertilizing on
the products of our gardens has been little short of marvelous.
Every season our vegetable gardens excite the admiration of those
who have the pleasure of seeing them.﻿164
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“During a period of four years we have grown over forty
varieties of vegetables and, when the weather was seasonable, with
splendid results as regards quantity and quality.”
How important it is to pay proper attention to the condition
and chemical composition of the soil as the source of our food sup-
ply and in determining its quality, could he shown by many strik-
ing examples. For instance, it has been found in Victoria (Aus-
tralia) that cattle on certain pastures develop paralysis and other
infirmities which can be cured by proper fertilization of the soil.
In the United States in some areas it is impossible to maintain
cattle in good condition until the forage is improved by suitable
mineral fertilizers, which illustrates the fact that a deficiency of
organic salts in plant tissues leads to nutritional disorders in
animals, conditions which are often ascribed to infection by germs.
Wrong fertilization and exhaustion of the necessary mineral
elements of the soil is probably the cause of many failures in fruit
crops and a larger number of nutritional diseases than has been
hitherto thought. For years mankind has accepted the idea that
fertilizing must be done (to use plain English) with filth—animal,
bird or human excrement, reinforced with nitrates and phosphates.
But it will be found eventually that despite all such manure, the
land is slowly but surely losing its fertility; that insect pests in-
crease, and, what is worse, that the quality of the soil’s products
is deteriorating. Intelligent soil culture will, therefore, be one of
the most important problems with which the growing population
of the earth will have to deal, for the health and welfare of nations
depends on rational nutrition.
Investigations along these lines are of such vital importance
that the government of every civilized country ought to take up
the extensive study of the subject. The United States Department
of Agriculture has made a large number of analyses of food prod-
ucts, but the specific study of the mineral elements and their rela-
tion to each other in the healthy growth of plants and animals has
been neglected. All nations are spending vast sums for the con-
stant increase of armies and navies and for instruments of destruc-
tion. If they devoted but a hundredth part of this money to the
advance of agricultural food chemistry and the science of nutri-
tion, there would soon be no more need for territorial conquests,
and a more amiable relationship between the nations would result.﻿CHEMISTRY OF THE SOIL
165
The World War, from whose effects our superficial civilization
is still suffering, was nothing but the outcome of our present sys-
tem of commercialism, which pervades both modern industry and
agriculture. Everything is raised or manufactured for quick profits
and the accumulation of fortunes, exciting the rivalry of individuals
and nations. The quality of the products is sacrificed to the
quantity of goods, which must be disposed of at all costs.
In the intelligent and intensive culture of the soil, in the rais-
ing of wholesome and durable products, in making the land acces-
sible to all—in rational living, mankind will yet find its salvation
from famine, disease and war.﻿﻿PART II
FOODS: THEIR ORIGIN, NUTRITIVE AND
HYGIENIC VALUE
AND
Their Relation to Health and Disease﻿﻿CHAPTER I
Man’s Natural Diet
Modern science enables us to discover the natural diet for man,
first, by revealing his true place in evolutionary processes of nature;
secondly, by studying the qualities and chemical compositions of
the different articles of food, and their functions and effects in
human nutrition.
According to their bodily structure and their natural capacity
to provide, digest and assimilate food, comparative anatomy divides
the ma.mma.1ia, to which man belongs, into four distinct classes:
the omnivorous, the carnivorous, the herbivorous and the frugiv-
orous. Man’s strong resemblance to the anthropoid apes, which
subsist mainly on fruits and nuts, places him in the frugivorous
class. In fact, all the great anatomists, Sir Charles Bell, Dr.
Richard Owen, Dr. William P. Carpenter and Baron Cuvier, have
demonstrated that man is not only adapted by anatomical structure
to a diet of fruits and nuts, but that man’s disregard for the
natural law of his being is a source of endless suffering and disease.
This fact, which was recognized already by the ancient sages,
Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Plutarch, Seneca and others, has
also been confirmed by the great universal law of evolution, which
Lamarck, Darwin, and Haeckel have scientifically established, and
which has thrown much light upon the origin of life and its develop-
ment on our planet.
As early as the beginning of the nineteenth century, the French
scientist, Lamarck, by his geological researches came to the mo-
mentous conclusion that all the existing species of plants and an-
imals had gradually developed from the lowest and simplest forms
to their present complicated organisms; and that immense periods,
perhaps many millions of years, had been necessary to effect these
great transformations.
Lamarck was the first who clearly showed in his Zoologie
philosophique that the history of organic life upon our planet
is recorded in the sedimentary rocks of its surface, and that the
strata of these rocks are the leaves in the great book of nature in
169﻿170
RATIONAL DIET
which she unmistakingly reveals her wonderful works of creation.
In the different strata of rock we find different fossils or petrifac-
tions of animals and plants, and ascending from the interior to the
surface of the earth, we find an almost uninterrupted gradation
from the lowest to the highest form of organic life. According to
the time in which these changes on the earth’s surface took place,
the different layers are called primary, secondary, tertiary and
quaternary rocks or strata.
The lowest forms of vertebrate animals, the fishes and amphib-
ians, are found in the primary rocks. In the secondary strata
appear fossils of reptiles, birds and mammals; in the tertiary
strata, nearest to the surface we find remains of the higher organ-
ized mammals. While in the quaternary strata appear the traces
of more modern forms of life.
Between the development of animal and plant life throughout
the ages exists a certain relation which is significant for the
solution of the problem of nutrition. Plants assimilate the in-
organic matter, or, in other words, organize water and the tissue
salts, as found in the earth and air, into vegetable substance.
Animal life, being of a higher order, must have its original ele-
ments in a more refined, or vitalized condition.
All life originated in the water, which in the primordial age
almost entirely covered our planet. The lowest animal forms
were nourished by the lowest plant forms; the ancient fishes, by
the sea plants of that period; the monsters of the carboniferous
period, by the coarse and luxuriant vegetation now stored up in
the coal beds; while the higher order of plants, especially the
fruit trees, belong to the era of man and his immediate progenitors.
The fact that the majority of our flower-bearing plants and fruit
trees are unknown in a fossil state, clearly demonstrates their
recent origin, which must have been simultaneous with that of
man.
Thus by reviewing all the sciences bearing upon this subject,
we are forced to the conclusion that since man is the most highly
developed animal, he can thrive best on such foods as contain the
nutritive elements in the purest and most perfect form. Indeed,
the original home of man is also the home of the fruit trees, the
largest portion of our best known varieties being indigenous to﻿MAN’S NATURAL DIET
171
the south, spreading over the globe simultaneously with the wander-
ings of the human race.
It would appear that the food of all animals was originally
derived from the vegetable kingdom, which is the storehouse of
all nutrition, as the animal organism cannot assimilate directly
the soil elements. Some naturalists even maintain that no animals
were originally carnivorous, but that the evolution of this
class of animals was brought about by scarcity of proper plant
food in a later geological period, and that still later, probably for
the samBreason, man was forced by famine to subsist on flesh food.
But as the fact remains that in the process of evolution, this
temporary modification in man’s diet had hardly any influence on
his anatomical structure, this change must have occurred at a com-
paratively recent date of man’s existence on this planet and
apparently under the most adverse conditions. The importance
of this fact and the conclusions which may be derived from it
merit much more consideration than they have been given. Evi-
dence accumulates to support the contention that man with
his perfected anatomy has lived on the earth for untold ages,
and that natural cataclysms and not evolution developed
the change from a frugivorous to an omnivorous diet. It is quite
probable that the so-called glacial period, or age of ice, which
according to geologists occurred some twenty or thirty thousand
years ago and subjected organic life to altogether new conditions,
also induced man to deviate from his original and natural diet
after he had subsisted on fruits, nuts and succulent plants for
many thousands of generations.
Although the exact time of man’s prehistoric existence is
more or less speculative, his gradual development from his animal
predecessors into an intellectual being, unquestionably covered a
period of at least a million years. It is also certain that the human
race was widely spread over the globe when for the first time
enormous ice and snow fields reached far down into the present
temperate zones.
Geological research has succeeded in tracing man’s ancestry
back to the middle and even to the early part of the tertiary period
when the climate and configuration of the continents were alto-
gether different from what they are now. All progressive anthro-﻿172
RATIONAL DIET
pologists agree that man’s early evolution took place in the south
of Asia where a now sunken continent, called Lemuria, stretched
from Madagascar to Sumatra, Java, Borneo, New Guinea and
West Australia. Ceylon and the many smaller islands appear to
constitute the remains of this once uninterrupted land mass,
from which the human race gradually spread over the entire planet.
Man is by no means the direct descendant of the now existing
types of apes, but evolved from man-like types long extinct. The
oldest human relics yet discovered have been reconstructed by
scientists into a primate called pithecanthropus erectus, otherwise
the erect ape-man; and he belonged to an age so remote that no
other trace or record of this creature has been found. The erect
ape-man lived, as nearly as science can estimate, one million years
ago.
The relics consist of a skull, thigh bone and a few molar
teeth which were found in Java by a Dutch surgeon, in
1891, under fifty feet of strata. After a reconstruction of the
fragments, the most reasonable conclusions deducible were that
they belonged to a being less developed than man, and somewhat
higher than an ape. He was apparently between these two types
and belonged to a species from which the human race was evolved
during a geological period when Java was probably a part of
the Asiatic mainland. Before these oldest traces of mankind
came to light, other human relics had been discovered in Central
Europe, but their age was negligible compared with that of the
ape-man of Java.
Antedating the remarkable geological and topographical changes
upon the surface of our planet, and during a vast period of time,
a uniformly warm climate existed over the entire earth, even
within the arctic zones, evidenced by many fossil remains of
tropical animals and plants found far in the north. There were
probably no alternations of seasons in the primordial world. Day
alternated with night, but month succeeded month in almost un-
broken sameness. In fact, as late as the carboniferous period,
the globe apparently was nowhere colder than the present sub-
tropical zones, or below a mean temperature of 60 degrees F.
The bondage of winter did not impede the growth of vegetation,
and animals of fabulous size and form developed, indicating
wonderful productiveness of nature in that far remote age.﻿MAN’S NATURAL DIET
173
Thus in a climate of eternal spring, when snow and ice were
unknown, primeval man lived for thousands of years, and the
tropical forests furnished all the necessities of life in abundance.
With but little effort, bread-fruit, bananas, dates, nuts, etc., were
secured in endless variety throughout the year. It was needless
to invent tools and to discover fire, so long as nature provided
lavishly all the necessities of life.
These paradisiacal conditions came to an abrupt end with the
beginning of the glacial period, and man was compelled to
pass through the school of want and deprivation. The ante-
diluvian continent extending to the south of Asia began to sink
below the level of the sea. The rising waters of the Indian
ocean formed the Persian gulf, the Red and Mediterranean seas,
and opened the Straits of Gibraltar in the west. The waters of
the Pacific Ocean, in breaking up the old continent, left the
numerous East Indian islands, and separated North America from
Asia by forming the Behring Straits. With this transfiguration
of the continents, also began the differentiation of climatic zones.
Man, hemmed in by an endless sea at the south and the
enormous ice fields of the glacial period at the north, was sub-
jected to abject want. Millions of creatures must have perished
by terrible earthquakes and inundations, and those who survived
were forced into a remorseless struggle for existence. All these
changes on the surface of our planet were precipitated within a
comparatively short period of time, and naturally created entirely
new conditions for animals and plants. While they do not appear
to have developed new species, they considerably influenced the
character and habits of those already in existence.
Cave deposits and fossil remains indicate that pre-historic
man originally migrated along the routes developed by the climatic
and topographical changes of the glacial periods to which the
Northern and Southern Hemispheres were alternately subjected.
The shores of the Mediterranean in the west, and the coasts of the
Pacific ocean in the east seem to have attracted our early ancestors,
as they were barred from migration to the north by the high
mountain ranges of the Himalayas. Further to the west, how-
ever, they gained access more easily to the middle and western
portions of Europe, where they found an inhospitable region
of forests and swamps after the ice had melted. Here they﻿174
RATIONAL DIET
were forced to contend with the mammoth, the hear, the cave-lion
and other species of animals now extinct. These seemingly adverse
conditions put man firmly on his feet, taught him the free use
of his arms and hands, and developed his ingenuity and cranial
capacity in the struggle to defend himself against those monsters
of the forest.
Cut off from the prolific tropical soil, a majority of the human
race was compelled to resort to the use of many kinds of food
hitherto repulsive, and dire want finally forced man to the slaughter
of animals in order to provide himself with the necessities for his
existence. It is very probable, therefore, that the use of flesh-foods
originated during long periods of famine in the glacial era, and
that it was during this time that man first became a hunter.
The development of the hunter into a warrior followed as a
natural consequence, since the different tribes were forced, because
of scarcity of food, to contest for the spoils of the chase.
Throughout all ages since the dawn of civilization, the truth
has appeared conclusive to all great minds that, in the provision
for man’s sustenance, it was not natural that he should devour
his fellow beings, and thereby place himself on a level of beasts
of prey.
The consumption of flesh foods for many thousands of years
may indeed have given to man certain carnivorous characteristics,
yet his anatomical structure and physiological functions remain
unchanged, which conclusively indicate that nature did not design
him as a flesh-eating animal, and that sooner or later he must
return to his rightful heritage—the products of the soil.
Necessity soon taught man the secrets of agriculture and
horticulture, and wherever these industries prevailed, one observes
the dawning of real culture and the awakening of man’s higher
intellectual and moral faculties that lift him so far above the animal
world. "We find, for example, that in the temperate zones where, by
human skill and effort, the cultivation of fruits became most varied
and ahundantjfthe life of man is most progressive and prolific,
and that his appreciation for the beautiful, the basis of fine arts,
is best developed.
The ultimate course of development, as man progresses from a
savage to a civilized state, is certainly not in the direction of
slaughtering animals for food. The ability to hunt and kill is﻿MAN’S NATURAL DIET
175
naturally of a lower order than the ability to till the soil. The
first steps toward civilization were in the displacement of the
uncertainties of nomadic life by concentrated efforts in agriculture
and tree planting.
In reviewing the long march of evolution of the human race
from the earlier part of the tertiary period up to the present,
we conclude that for a vast period of time man subsisted on fruits
and nuts—his natural diet—which were furnished abundantly
by a virgin soil and a congenial climate. During the age of ice,
which occurred at a comparatively late period in the history of the
organic world, the surface and temperature of the globe were com-
pletely changed, and man was forced by necessity and want to
take his food, at least in part, from the animal kingdom. How-
ever, as his anatomical structure and physiological functions have
become firmly established, it is natural that he should return to
the diet which nature intended for him.
The biblical allegory of the Garden of Eden would appear to
have an historical background, and the more highly developed
and thoughtful man of today will perceive that when nature drove
our early ancestors from the tropical fields, and condemned them
to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, she enlarged their
opportunities for developing latent intellectual powers, and in the
struggle for existence opened to their vision, new and grander
fields of activity.
In ignorance and want, man was forced to leave his early
paradise. Through science, art and industry he will regain it.
But, according to the laws of nature, there need be no danger
of returning to the misery and savagery of previous ages, for the
cultivation of this planet of ours has hardly begun, and vast
treasures are still buried beneath its surface, awaiting a higher
order of intellectual development and skill to unearth them for
the common good of all.﻿CHAPTEE n
Fruits
Fruits, more than other products of the soil, receive the
beneficent influences of light, heat and air, through which the
electric and magnetic forces of the sun are transmitted. Fruits
have, therefore, the highest rate of atomic cell vibrations of all
foods, and while we cannot determine by chemical analysis this
subtle power, we can feel, when eating fruits, their enlivening
effects through our whole system.
In the selection of our foods, fruits must be given the highest
place as being most conducive to health and longevity. Fruits*
keep the alkalinity of the blood in a normal condition, while
more concentrated foods, like cereals, pulses, cheese, meat and
meat products are more or less acid-forming. The alkaline
elements, which are chemically combined with the fruit acids,
act as natural laxatives by promoting the action of the secretory
glands. They also are indispensable in preserving the normal
physical condition of the epithelium cells, upon which the proper
functioning of the intestinal walls depends. Fruits supply es-
pecially the elements of potassium, calcium, iron and phosphorus
in a highly organized form, and in this respect are far superior
to cereal products. Figs, grapes, prunes, olives, and many va-
rieties of berries are especially rich in organic iron compounds
which we need daily to replenish the red blood corpuscles.
Fruits are also excellent sources of vitamins “ B ’ ’ and “ C, ” *
the latter being chiefly contained in citrus fruits, a fact that
emphasizes the importance of pure, sweet, orange juice, preferably
unsweetened, as a valuable article of diet, and one of the best
remedies for anemic conditions.
The protein and fat contents of fruits, with a few exceptions,
are low, and, while it is possible to live exclusively on a fruit diet,
it is best to supplement this with a small amount of nuts or well
prepared nut butters. For a week or two a so-called fruit fast
is highly beneficial, because it helps to excrete toxins, and to
reduce blood pressure.
176﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
177
Fruits are generally divided into three classes, according to
the amount of fruit acid they contain, viz., acid, sub-acid, and
sweet fruits. The chief fruit acids are malic, tartaric, citric,
and oxalic acid. The fruit acids occur usually as acid salts of
potassium, sodium or calcium, imparting an agreeable flavor to
the juice, and adding a wholesome and stimulating variety to
food. Malic acid is chiefly found in apples, pears, currants,
berries, pineapples, grapes, and cherries; tartaric acid is charac-
teristic of grapes; citric acid occurs especially in the juice of
limes, lemons, grape fruit, oranges, currants, unripe tomatoes and
gooseberries; oxalic acid is contained in small amounts in rasp-
berries, tomatoes, grapes and currants, while only a trace is found
in oranges, lemons, plums, and apples. During the process of
ripening, the fruit acids are reduced as they are slowly trans-
formed into sugar.
Attention should be called to the fact that fruit acids are
beneficial only in their organic form as acid salts. Artificially
prepared or extracted acids can never produce the wholesome
effects of those prepared by nature in the fruits, where they are
combined with the alkaline elements. Avoid, therefore, artificially
flavored and colored drinks, which are more or less injurious, and
cannot replace the acid salts in their organic state.
The principal sweet fruits are dates, figs, muscat grapes, and
raisins; sub-acid fruits: apples, apricots, blackberries, blueberries,
raspberries, cherries, grapes, peaches, persimmons, plums, and
nearly all deciduous fruits. The acid fruits are oranges, lemons,
grape-fruit, limes, pineapples, strawberries, loganberries, cran-
berries, loquats and tamarinds. It is the sugar content of fruits,
which is really transformed solar light and electricity, that makes
them invaluable as a source of energy. Under the continuous in-
fluence of the sun’s rays, carbonic acid unites with water and forms
various forms of carbohydrates, attaining in the easily soluble
organic fruit sugars, their highest form of chemical synthesis. The
sugar in fruits, and not animal protein, is nature’s great source
of potential energy, which manifests itself in the increase of
our endurance. Furthermore, in the process of digestion, ripe
fruits—provided they are eaten by themselves and not added to
a heavy meal—require only a small expenditure of nerve force.
They are superior to starch-hearing foods that draw more heavily﻿178
RATIONAL DIET
on our nerve force, thus overtaxing and gradually weakening the
organs of digestion and assimilation.
Scientific experiments have proved that fruit sugar is the
most economical source of animal heat and energy, but one must
always discriminate between sugar as it exists in fruits or succulent
plants, and the refined sugar of commerce, or glucose made from
corn starch. Although their chemical composition is similar,
fruit sugar is intimately associated with basic elements that are
essential in neutralizing the carbonic acid, arising from its oxida-
tion in the system, while refined sugar, though it may act tem-
porarily as a stimulant during exertion, cannot maintain the life
processes of the body. When refined sugar is taken, the body
cells are rapidly broken down to furnish the blood the necessary
alkaline elements for removal of the acids, resulting from its
combustion. This explains why the body when fed on proximate
food principles, or devitalized foods, will break down sooner than
when subjected to an absolute fast.
While fresh fruits do not possess the high nutritive value of
the more concentrated cereals, legumes or nuts, they are never-
theless indispensable for maintaining health and vitality; and
money spent on fruit is a good investment that will return to us
ample dividends by increasing our vitality. If fresh fruits are not
available, dried fruits should be used. In nutritive value the dried
fruits are similar to cereals. The average amount of carbohydrates,
mainly sugar, in dried fruits is about 62 per cent, while the aver-
age amount of carbohydrates, mainly starch, in flour is 75 per
cent; in bread only 50 per cent. Dried fruits are superior to bread
in nutritive value, besides furnishing the necessary alkaline ele-
ments, which are lacking in cereals.
Unfortunately the great dietetic and hygienic value of fruits
is not yet appreciated by the majority of people. Statistics show
that fresh fruits make up only 3.8 per cent of the total amount
of food consumed by the American people, and supply only 2.5
per cent of the total carbohydrates. The total amount spent for
food in the United States is seven billion dollars. Of this, only 300
million dollars, or less than 5 per cent, are spent for fruit, while
nearly 600 million dollars are spent for sugar and candy. Meat,
dairy products, and cereals, all acid-forming foods, are consumed to
the extent of 4% billion dollars, with the result that diseases of﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
179
the digestive organs are constantly increasing. The production
and consumption of fruits can he vastly increased, and, with
better systems of distribution, can be made more available as soon
as people understand that in fruits they receive food and medicine
alike, while drugs and artificial sweets gradually undermine health
and vitality.
The daily per capita consumption of fruit in the United States
is less than one cent; of refined sugar, candy, preparations arti-
ficially sweetened, about four cents; of cereal products, mostly
demineralized, the same amount; and for meat about eight cents.
As compared with other foods, the amount spent for fruit is
ridiculously small. If the per capita consumption would increase
only to one pound of fresh fruit daily, or its equivalent of dried
fruit, it would mean a yearly consumption of twenty million tons,
or more than five times the present rate. But, with the increased
use of fruits, the consumption of artificial sweets, cereals and meat
would be reduced. This will involve a continuous campaign of
education of the public, in which the growers and distributors of
fruits should be especially interested, as this is the only way to
create an increasing demand for their products.
In temperate zones the season for fresh fruits is comparatively
short, but a large portion of each fruit crop is dried, either in
the sun, where climatic conditions are favorable, as in certain parts
of California, or in dehydraters by means of hot air currents.
The process of dehydrating, if performed scientifically, is to be pre-
ferred to sun-drying, as it requires a considerably shorter time,
and does not expose the fruit to dust and insects. Furthermore,
if done economically, it is not more expensive than the sun-drying
process.
Attention should be called to the fact that sulphur is used in
the drying process of many fruits, such as apples, apricots, peaches,
pears, seedless raisins, etc., to obtain a brighter and more uniform
appearance, making the article attractive to the eye at the expense
of its wholesomeness. If we consider the fact that highly sulphured
fruits can be preserved with a water content as high as 30 per
cent, while unsulphured, evaporated fruits show on an average a
moisture content of no more than 15 or 20 per cent, we must see
that the latter are really more economical, besides being free from
deleterious substances.﻿180
RATIONAL DIET
It is often said that a small amount of sulphurous acid in
dried fruits is not injurious. To be sure the effects of preserva-
tives are not always immediately noticed, especially in the case of
adults with a robust constitution, but finally they will impair the
organs of digestion and assimilation. Extensive experiments con-
ducted by Dr. H. W. Wiley, former chief chemist of the United
States Department of Agriculture, have shown that the use of
sulphurous acid in food is always deleterious; that it never adds
anything to the flavor or quality of food, but renders it less pala-
table and less wholesome. Sulphur, like all other chemical pre-
servatives, such as benzoic acid, salicylic acid, saccharine, etc., acts
as a poison to the system. Sulphurous acid seriously interferes
with the action of the kidneys, which have to remove all the added
sulphur from the body. It also retards the formation of the red
blood corpuscles, and destroys the vitamins in the fruit.
Unsulphured, dehydrated fruits are more wholesome and eco-
nomical than canned fruits. For instance, a can of apricots con-
tains one pound of fresh fruit and twelve ounces of syrup, usually
made from refined sugar. One pound of dehydrated apricots rep-
resents about six pounds of fresh fruit. In other words, the nutri-
tive value of one pound of dehydrated apricots is equal to that of
about six cans of apricots, A carload of 30,000 cans of fruit has
a gross weight of about 30 tons, but actually contains only about
15 tons of fresh fruit. A carload of dehydrated fruit of about
the same gross weight represents at least 150 tons of fresh fruit.
The consumer has to pay for the cost of syrup and canning, also
for the increased cost of transportation, at the ratio of about
ten to one.
Sun-dried, or dehydrated fruits, should never be cooked. The
best way to prepare them for the table is to soak them in water
for about twelve hours, or until they are sufficiently softened. In
cold weather the fruit may be slightly warmed, but never boiled.
With our constantly increasing and much improved methods
of preserving, transporting and distributing food products, many
of the tropical fruits and nuts are rapidly coming within the
reach of a large proportion of the inhabitants of the temperate
zone. In fact, such products as the pineapple, banana, date and
cocoanut have become staple foods in many parts of Europe and
North America.﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
181
Some of the tropical fruits, hitherto unknown or neglected
outside their native countries, are now receiving attention not
only in the markets of the temperate zone but also among growers
in the tropics and in sub-tropical regions, where some of the more
hardy of these fruits are being cultivated.
The banana is a striking example of what can he done with
most tropical fruits, if methods of harvesting, transportation, and
distribution are improved. Eventually other tropical fruits will
likewise become staple food products. The avocado, the most
conspicuous aspirant for popular favor at the present time, appears
in varieties even outside of the tropics, hundreds of acres being
planted in Florida and Southern California.
In the not far distant future, such wholesome and nutritious
foods as the sapodilla, cherimoya and mangosteen, which are now
luxuries on the tables of the rich, will be available in the colder
climates, and at prices that will be within the reach of all. The
productivity of the tropical soil is marvelously abundant, and
there is no reason why we should not amplify our dietary by the
addition of nature’s most delicious tropical fruits.
As has been shown in the preceding chapter, man is a child of
the tropics. For many hundred thousands of years he subsisted on
the products of the tropical forests, before climate and configuration
of the continents forced him to migrate to the temperate zones,
where the struggle for existence was more severe. But even in our
less favored climates, where the growth of vegetation is impeded
by cold seasons, the soil, if properly cultivated, yields an abun-
dance of nourishment. The fruit trees, especially, show a remark-
able fertility which can be always maintained, if the right kind of
fertilizer is utilized. The perfection of all hard-wood fruit trees
demands plenty of the mineral substances in the soil, which nat-
urally must be replaced.
In the following pages of this chapter, the most common species
of fruits, growing in the temperate, sub-tropical and tropical zones,
will be briefly described.
Fruits of the Temperate Zones
THE APPLE
The apple (pyrus malus) is the most important fruit of the cool
temperate zone, over which it is universally cultivated as far north
as 60 degrees latitude. All the cultivated varieties have been﻿182
RATIONAL DIET
derived from the crab, a wild apple (pyrus baccata), whose culti-
vation is pre-historic. The tree is indigenous to most countries of
Europe, and, in almost all countries where the oak thrives, it is the
longest lived. With the exception of the cherry tree, the apple is
the largest of our fruit trees. It is not uncommon to find trees
healthy and hearing at the age of one hundred years, often pro-
ducing from ten to twenty barrels of fruit. The apple tree is hardy
and adapted to a wider range of soil and climatic conditions than
any other important fruit. It grows well in the North Atlantic
states, Ohio, along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and in a
large part of the Mississippi valley, but the protracted and humid
summer of the cotton belt is not favorable to its best development.
It does well in the sheltered districts of the Ozark Mountains,
while the best and highest priced apples in North America are
produced in the Rocky Mountains, Pacific Coast States and south-
ern British Columbia. New York is the leading American state in
commercial apple-growing. Four counties on the shore of Lake
Ontario in the western part of the state have had for a number
of years the most important apple shipping districts.
There are over a thousand varieties of apples in the United
States, but most of them are only of local value. The most
common varieties in America are Baldwin, Bellflower, Ben Davis,
Delicious, Gravenstein, Greening, Northern Spy, Pearmain, New-
town Pippin, Oldenburg, Astrachan, Roxbury Russet, Smith Cider,
Spitzenbergen and Winesap. The U. S. census of 1900 showed a
total of 210 million trees in what are known as commercial orchards,
covering an area of about four million acres that yield over 210
million bushels annually.
An apple tree will rarely hear two heavy crops in succession.
This fact, in addition to occasional injuries by frosts, makes it
exceedingly rare for all the different apple districts to have a
full crop at the same time.
The yield of the apple is often as high as ten tons per acre,
especially if properly cultivated and fertilized. It is capable
of being produced on rough, unarable land, of which there is a
large amount, especially east of the Mississippi River. A large
part of the annual apple crop of the United States is used in
the form of dried apples, apple butter, apple jelly, apple juice,
boiled cider and vinegar. France is the leading cider-producing﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
183
country in the world. In northern France and southern Germany,
millions of dollars are invested in growing cider apples, and the
annual production of France is from 300 to 600 million gallons.
This is, naturally, a waste of good food material, as the valuable
fruit sugar is converted into alcohol during the process of fer-
mentation. Unfermented apple juice, or sweet cider, can be easily
kept in good condition by pasteurization at 160 degrees, or by
putting it in cold storage, at 35 to 40 degrees F.
Millions of barrels of apples are now placed in cold storage
plants where a temperature within a few degrees of freezing point
will keep them for a full year, thus rendering this wholesome fruit
available at all seasons.
While the protein content of the apple is low, not averaging
more than 0.5 per cent, the sugar content varies from 10 to 15
per cent, as in Baldwins and Spitzenbergens, if fully ripe. Malic
acid is found in quantities from 0.3 to 0.6 per cent. Apples con-
tain often as much as 4 to 5 per cent of pectin, or vegetable
jelly, upon which the successful making of apple jelly depends.
The mineral matter of apples is especially rich in potassium,
sodium, magnesium and iron salts, which contribute to the building
of blood and bone. A more or less exclusive diet of apples is highly
beneficial in cases of hyper-acidity of the blood, as also in diseases
of the liver and kidneys, especially diabetes.
TEE MEDLAR
The Medlar (pyrus germanicus) is common throughout Europe
and the British Isles, but not in the United States. In appearance
medlars are somewhat like small apples and are not edible until
they have undergone a peculiar ripening process, induced by the
enzymes of the fruit. Ripe medlars are very rich in sugar, con-
taining as much as 16 per cent, and have a pleasant flavor.
TEE PEAR
The pear (pyrus communis) is botanically related to the apple,
and also has a similar chemical composition, but it contains more
sugar and less malic acid. The tree is a native of temperate
Europe and Asia. It is now largely grown in California, Oregon
and Washington, where it was among the first fruit trees planted.
The best known varieties are the Bartlett, Sugar Pear, Winter﻿184
RATIONAL DIET
Nellis, Kieffer and Seckel. The Bartlett is the most popular Cali-
fornia pear on account of its size, delicate flavor and aroma. The
pear tree is hardier than the apple tree and also has a wider range
in local adaptation. The larger portion of the California pear
crop is shipped fresh to the large Eastern cities, while the re-
mainder is canned and dried.
Most of the dried California pears are quite heavily sulphured,
which destroys their hygienic value. Unsulphured, dehydrated
pears should be demanded by consumers, who for the most part
are unfortunately guided in their selection by the brighter appear-
ance of the sulphured article.
THE QUINCE
The quince (cydonia dblonga) was known to the ancient Greeks
and Romans, and is now cultivated throughout southern Europe,
western Asia and America. It was naturalized at an early period
in Persia and in all the countries surrounding the Mediterranean.
The quince does well in California and rewards the grower with
large crops, but it is not a very popular fruit. It is hard and
astringent, and has been improved but little since the time of the
ancient Greeks. The flavor of the quince is very much improved
by cooking. It is rather extensively used for making marmalade
and jellies. The quince contains on an average about 9 per cent
of sugar, 1 per cent of protein, 0.47 per cent mineral matter, 0.60
malic acid, and shows a large amount of cellulose, about 18 per cent.
THE APRICOT
The apricot (prunus armeniaca) came originally from Armenia,
and it is said to be found wild on the southern slopes of the Cauca-
sus mountains. It grows readily in warm and temperate climates,
and is one of the early ripening fruits. The apricot is now exten-
sively grown in China and Japan, in some of the protected places
of Central Europe, and more recently in different parts of Cali-
fornia. The leading apricot growing counties in California, are
Riverside, Ventura, Kings, Santa Clara, Alameda and Solano.
At present there are about 60,000 acres in the state planted to
apricots. From 300 to 400 cars are shipped fresh to the Eastern
markets, while a considerable quantity is canned and dried. The
principal varieties are the Blenheim, Royal, Tilton and Moorpark.﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
185
A well cared for orchard often will produce in the fifth year five
tons or more to the acre.
The apricot contains only a moderate amount of sugar, from
10 to 13 per cent, hut has about one per cent of fruit acid, a
larger amount than either the apple or pear.
The mineral matter of the apricot is distributed as follows:
Potash
Soda
Lime
Magnesia
Iron
59.36	per	cent	Manganese	9.37	per	cent
10.26	“	“	Phosphoric Acid 13.09	“	“
3.17	“	“	Sulphur	2.63	“	“
3.68	“	“	Silica	5.23	“	“
1.68	1	“	Chlorine	9.45	I
These figures represent the average of over fifty analyses of
the whole fruit.
THE PEACH
The cultivation of the peach (prunus persica) dates from the
remotest antiquity, at least two thousand years before its intro-
duction to the ancient Greeks and Romans. The botanical name
seems to indicate Persian origin.
Peaches are now largely grown in south-western Europe, es-
pecially in France. They are also grown in southern Canada, in
many districts of the United States, as Georgia, Maryland, New
Jersey, southwestern Michigan and most extensively in California,
which now has the leadership in their production, growing more
than all other states of the Union combined. The average produc-
tion in California is about 300,000 tons, of which about one-half
is shipped fresh, the remainder canned or dried. As with apricots
and pears, peaches as a rule are heavily sulphured, and, there-
fore, preference should be given to the unsulphured, dehydrated
product, which is sweeter and more palatable.
The average composition of the peach is 80 per cent water, 0.7
per cent protein, 0.1 per cent fat, about 10 per cent sugar, 0.9 per
cent acid, 0.7 per cent mineral matter; potash, lime and soda
make up the larger portion of the organic salts.
The flesh of the peach is flavored by the presence of a very
small quantity of hydro-cyanic acid and fruit ethers. In general,
there are two kinds of peaches: free stone, in which the pulp readily
separates from the stone; and clings, in which the pulp adheres
to the stone. Peaches picked before they are fully ripe and taken﻿186
RATIONAL DIET
to the market in refrigerator cars do not develop as fine a flavor
as those practically ripe when picked. Peaches are made available
to the consumer by planting early and late varieties, and by rapid
methods of transportation from one region to another.
The principal varieties grown in California are Briggs, Red
May, Foster, Crawford, Tuskena, Muir, Elberta, Lovell, Philipps
Cling, and the delicious so-called “Saucerpeach” which is not
extensively cultivated because it is too tender-skinned for trans-
portation.
THE NECTARINE
The nectarine (prunus persica) is closely related to the peach.
In fact, it is a variety of peach in a smooth skin. The chemical
analysis of the nectarine shows a similar content to that of the
peach, and the fruits are the same in natural adaptation. Not-
withstanding the many attractive features of the nectarine, it
has never become as popular as the peach, owing probably to the
fact that it is not so well known. Its smooth skin makes it as
easy to handle as the apricot, while the beauty of the product,
exceeds that of the peach.
PLUMS AND PRUNES
The word prunes (prunus) applies to those varieties of plums
that can he dried successfully without the removal of the pit.
The fruit has been dried for centuries in some of the European
countries, notably France, Bosnia, Servia, Dalmatia, and lately in
California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Although the sun
drying process has for the most part been employed in the treat-
ment of prunes, modern methods of artificial evaporation will be
more or less exclusively used by progressive fruit growers, be-
cause the process is cheaper in the end, and cleaner, as the fruit
is not contaminated by dust, dirt and insects. The production of
sun dried prunes increased in California from 10,000 tons in 1890
to 112,000 tons in 1917. The prevailing dried varieties are the
French and Imperial prune, the latter being the largest of its kind.
The following varieties of plums are generally shipped fresh:
Tragedy, Burbank, Sugar, Silver Prune, Yellow Egg, Satsuma, or
Blood Plum, the last being introduced and fruited in this country
by Luther Burbank of Santa Rosa. Analyses show that they
generally contain from 10 to 20 per cent sugar, one per cent﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
187
protein, from 0.3 to one per cent acid, and 0.6 per cent mineral
matter. Dried prunes contain as much as 70 per cent sugar and
more than 2 per cent mineral matter. The latter is distributed as
follows:
Potash
Soda
Lime
Magnesia
Iron
63.83	per	cent
2.65	“	“
4.66	“	“
5.47	“	“
2.72	1	H
Phosphoric Acid 14.08	per	cent
Sulphur	2.68	“	“
Silica	3.07	“	“
Chlorine	0.34	“	“
Prunes are exceptionally rich in magnesia and iron, and are
therefore, excellent blood builders. The above figures represent the
average of a number of analyses.
THE PLVMCOT
The plumcot is one of the most striking achievements of Mr.
Burbank. It is the cross of the plum and apricot, which he has
very fitly named the plumcot.
This fruit is about the size of an ordinary apricot, and has a
deep purple, velvety skin. One of its striking features is the bril-
liant red flesh which possesses a strong sub-acid flavor, rendering
it suitable for cooking, jellies and jams. The fruit is in great
demand for such uses, but is not yet cultivated to any large extent.
THE CHERRY
Like the apricot, the cherry (prunus cerasus) comes to us from
the Caucasus and the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, and is
now cultivated in most countries of the temperate zone. Over two
hundred varieties are grown, some sweet and some sour. In New
England, New York, Michigan, Iowa, and more recently in Cal-
ifornia and Oregon, cherries are now extensively grown, ripening
through May, June and July. Although the amount of cherries
grown in California is small, as compared with the aggregate
weights of some other fruits, the cherry, considering the growth
of the tree and the size and quality of the product, is entitled to
rank as one of the grand fruits of the Golden State. It is more
adaptable to the northern parts of California, Oregon and Wash-
ington.
Cherry trees begin to bear when four or five years old, and
continue bearing to a great age, sometimes one hundred years or﻿188
RATIONAL DIET
more. The composition of the fruit varies with the variety, and
the flavor is influenced by the soil and climatic conditions. Cherries
on the average contain 80 per cent water, 1 per cent protein, 0.8
per cent fat, from 10 to 16 per cent sugar, 0.9 per cent acid, mostly
malic, and 0.6 per cent mineral matter.
THE GRAPE
The grape (vitis vinifera) is one of the most popular fruits of
the temperate zones and is grown as far north as 55 degrees latitude.
It is a native of Central Asia and is still found growing wild south
of the Caspian sea, the Caucasus and Armenia. The records of
the cultivation of the grape and the making of wine go back five
or six thousand years. The grape was introduced into Europe by
the Phoenicians. Its culture by the ancient Greeks and Romans is
well known, and indeed its greater antiquity in some parts of
Europe seems to point to pre-historic times, as seeds of the grape
have been found in the lake dwellings of Switzerland and south-
ern France.
The leading grape growing countries of the world are those
bordering on the Mediterranean sea, especially Greece, Italy,
France, Algeria and Morocco. In North America, as compared
with that of the old world, the area devoted to grape culture is
small. The principal grape growing districts are Virginia, nor-
thern New York, the shores of Lake Erie, southern Michigan,
Missouri and the Pacific Coast States, of which California takes the
leading part. In the Southern Hemisphere, Chili, western Argen-
tina, Cape Colony and Southern Australia grow a considerable
amount of grapes, mostly for home consumption.
The larger portion of the European grape crop is annually con-
verted into wine, champagne and brandy, which is really a great
economic waste, as the valuable grape sugar is converted into
alcohol during the process of fermentation, involving a most
unnecessary loss. The virtues of wine, to be sure, have been
sung by poets since time immemorial, and millions of people
still sacrifice to Bacchus, the god of wine of the ancient Greeks.
But, notwithstanding the fact that since the dawn of history
many nations have been accustomed to the daily use of wine, the
truth is not less potent that the real nutritive and hygienic value
of the fruit of the vine can be enjoyed only when fresh or dried,﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
189
or in the form of unfermented grape juice, containing the natural
grape sugar and the valuable organic salts, which are almost
entirely lost in the process of fermentation and distillation.
It is gratifying to note, on the other hand, that in many parts
of Europe the so-called “grape cure” during the harvest has be-
come very popular. It is used in many health resorts in southern
Germany, Austria and northern Italy, where people live on grapes
exclusively from four to six weeks, increasing the quantity from
three to eight pounds daily, according to age and constitution.
The cure is especially helpful in diseases of the respiratory organs
and kidneys, also in anemic conditions. The beneficial action of the
grape cure is due chiefly to the simplicity of the diet, which fur-
nishes the protein and carbohydrates in most assimilable form,
while the large proportion of alkaline salts, such as potash, lime,
magnesia and iron, reduce the acidity of the blood. Fresh grape
juice also contains vitamins “B” and “C” which are partly lost
in the pasteurized or preserved juice.
The chemical analysis of the grape shows a great many varia-
tions, according to climate, soil, topography of the country, etc.
The sugar content may be from 15 to 30 per cent, protein from
0.6 to 1.5 per cent, pectin about 1 per cent, tartaric acid from 0.5
to 1.2 per cent, while mineral matter averages about 0.5 per cent.
In the central and northeastern portions of the United States,
the Concord grape predominates. It is used mostly fresh and in the
production of unfermented grape juice. Other popular eastern
varieties are the Catawba, Delaware and Niagara grapes. Among
the Pacific Coast States, California now leads in grape growing,
producing over one million tons annually. The principal varieties
are the Mission (the first variety grown in California), Almeria,
Black Hamburg, Black Malvoise, Chasselas, Comichon, Emperor,
Feherzago, Malaga, Muscatel, Muscat of Alexandria, Tokay, Zin-
fandel. The California Concord and Isabella do well in the coast
districts. The Black Corinth, known as “currants” when dried,
is also raised to a certain extent, but most of the currants sold in
the United States are imported from Greece. Sultanas and Thomp-
sons are the best known seedless varieties of grapes.
Prior to the enactment of the prohibition laws, about 250,000
tons of California grapes were annually converted into wine, sweet
wine and brandy every year. As the home manufacture of wine﻿190
RATIONAL DIET
has become a national industry, the demand for wine grapes is
increasing rather than diminishing, and prices for these grapes are
now higher than ever before in the United States. Growers of wine
grapes, who expected to become bankrupt, found themselves sud-
denly in an enviable position, while their land doubled and tripled
in value within a few years. This is another illustration of the
fact that we cannot change ingrained habits simply by legislating
against them. • People who immigrated to America from southern
Europe have been accustomed to the use of wine for thousands of
years, and it will require a good deal of sound education to effect
a change in their methods of living.
About 250,000 tons of California grapes are shipped fresh for
table use. The best varieties for eastern markets are the Corni-
chons, Emperors, Malagas, Muscats and Tokays.
The raisin industry, which consumes the balance of the Cali-
fornia grape crop—about 600,000 tons—has made wonderful prog-
ress since the growers became well organized. The raisin crop in
1912 amounted to 170 million pounds, and increased to 264 million
pounds in 1920, while the present production is over 400 million
pounds, (200,000 tons). Muscat grapes make the best raisins for
table use, while the seedless grapes, Sultanas and Thompsons, are
excellent for many culinary and manufacturing purposes. Cali-
fornia raisins are among the most wholesome and nutritious dried
fruits produced in the world. They are generally dried in the sun,
without sulphur, as the dry heat of the interior valleys rapidly
takes up the moisture of the fruit.
The average of seven analyses gives the following composition of
raisins:
Mineral Matter 3.00 “	“
Raisins are rich in potash, magnesia and iron, and should be
used in place of artificial sweets.
THE AMERICAN PAWPAW
The American pawpaw (asimina triloba) must be distinguished
from the tropical papaya tree (carica papaya) whose fruit is often
called “papaw” or ‘‘pawpaw.” The papaw tree is a native of the
"Water
Protein
Fat
14.60 per cent
2.60 “ . “
3.30 “	“
76.10 I I
Sugar﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
191
United States, and seems to grow best in the lowlands of the Mis-
sissippi valley. The fruit was much valued by the Indians, from
whom the early European settlers learned its use. As the flesh of
the fully ripe fruit is very soft and easily bruised, it cannot be
shipped conveniently to any great distance, and is, therefore, little
known outside of the regions where, for the most part, it grows
wild.
Professor C. P. Langworthy and A. D. Holmes, of the United
States Department of Agriculture, have recently made some very
valuable and interesting investigations of this most wholesome and
nutritious fruit, which deserves more general cultivation and wider
use. There is no doubt that with proper care the papaw can be
cultivated throughout the warmer regions of the United States.
The papaw tree varies in size from a bush to a medium-sized
tree, and is a prolific bearer. The fruit, which matures about the
middle of September, resembles in appearance a small banana more
than any other fruit, but it is practically cylindrical and has
both ends rounded. It reaches a length of four to six inches, with
a diameter of one to two inches. The stem of the papaw is at-
tached a little to one side of the axis of the fruit, so that it hangs
almost horizontal, rather than vertical. In favorable localities the
fruits often reach a weight of three-quarters of a pound to a pound,
although most of them are smaller, particularly when clustered on
the branches. On account of the close resemblance of its fruit to
the banana, the papaw tree is often called the “little wild banana
tree.”
The fruit contains a double row of shiny black seeds, arranged
at right angles to its axis, constituting nearly one-fifth of the pulp,
which is smooth, creamy, and of rather pungent aroma. In this
respect the papaw has much in common with the tropical custard
apple (cherimoya). The skin of the fruit is very thin and is
generally eaten with the pulp.
One of the most striking characteristics of the papaw is its high
percentage of protein, in this respect surpassing any other variety
of fresh fruit known. The edible portion of the fruit shows the
following composition:
Water	76.6 per cent	Carbohydrates
Protein 5.2 “	“	(mostly sugar) 16.8 per cent
Fat	0.9 “ I	Mineral Matter	0.5 “	|﻿192
RATIONAL DIET
It is, therefore, fully equal, if not superior in nutritive value
to the banana. Like the latter, the papaw, if cut in half, can easily
be dried, especially by means of a modem dehydrater, in which
temperature and moisture can be well regulated. The papaw, on
account of its dietetic and hygienic value, is certainly worthy of
consideration and of further study.
SMALL FRUITS
The small fruits, or berries, have the advantage over tree fruits,
in that they can be made to yield profits often in a year or two
after planting, while in the home gardens they will supply fresh
fruit of various kinds for the table throughout a long season. Fur-
thermore, because of the fact that berries provide a source of im-
mediate income and only occupy the soil for a limited length of
time, they are used considerably as inter-crops in orchards. If
properly managed, no injury to the trees results, and until the trees
come into bearing, the grower has a source of revenue.
Berries consist of a more or less watery pulp, containing a mass
of seeds. The various kinds of berries contain from 85 to 90 per
cent of water; 8 to 12 per cent of fruit sugar; a small amount of
protein, fat and pectin; from 0.4 to 0.7 per cent of mineral matter,
mostly potash, lime and magnesia; and, in the currant and straw-
berry, a considerable amount of iron. The fruit acids, mostly in
the form of malic acid, amount to from 1 per cent to over 2 per
cent.
The principal varieties of berries are the Blackberry, Cran-
berry, Currant, Dewberry, Elderberry, Gooseberry, Huckleberry,
Loganberry, Raspberry and Strawberry. Most of them, with the
exception of the strawberry, are grown on low bushes, or small
trees. Many of these varieties grow wild over vast areas in the
United States. Likewise in the Eastern Hemisphere, many of these
varieties have been known in a wild state from earliest times.
The Blackberry (rubus nigrobaccus) has been improved great-
ly in size and appearance by cultivation. The berries are red before
they turn black on becoming fully ripe, and when at their best,
contain about 8 per cent sugar and 1 per cent acid.
The Cranberry (vaccinium macrocarpon) grows on vines or
low bushes in the temperate zone of both Europe and America.
It has a rich red color and an abundance of pectin, which makes it﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
193
valuable for making sauces and jellies. The cranberry in its ripe
state contains about 10 per cent sugar and 2.3 per cent malic acid.
It is one of the few fruits that naturally has a small quantity of
benzoic acid. Cranberries are highly beneficial in diseases of the
liver and kidneys when eaten without refined sugar, because of their
large content of organic acids that exist in the form of malates
of potash and lime.
Currants (ribes) are grown in three varieties, red, black and
white, and contain about 7 per cent sugar and 2.25 per cent malic
acid, mostly in the form of malate of potash. Black currants are
especially appreciated for their general medicinal value.
The Dewberry (rubus vitifolius) grows wild abundantly in the
United States and has a very delicate flavor. Its chemical compo-
sition is similar to that of the blackberry.
The Elderberry (sambucus canadensis) grows on shrubs which
often attain a considerable size. It is found wild throughout the
temperate zone. The ripe berries make a dark-colored juice, which
may be preserved with the addition of a little honey.
The Gooseberry (ribes grossularia), which is also found wild
throughout Europe and North America, has been very much im-
proved by cultivation. While some of the small wild berries are
thickly covered with spines, some of the improved large varieties
have an almost smooth skin. Under favorable conditions they
contain as much as 13 per cent sugar, while the acid is not higher
than 1 or 1.5 per cent. They also have a considerable amount
of pectose, while among the organic salts, potash, lime and mag-
nesia predominate.
The Mulberry (morns alba) also grows wild on medium-sized
trees over a large area both in the United States and Europe.
The berries are very sweet, containing as much as 15 per cent sugar,
and little acid. In the Orient the tree is cultivated for the silk
industry, as the silk worm feeds on its leaves.
The Raspberry (rubus strigosus) is extensively cultivated,
but like all berries, grows wild in most parts of the United States.
It has a very delicate and distinct flavor for which it is highly
esteemed. Fully ripened raspberries make one of the most deli-
cious and refreshing fruit juices. In places where the berries
are grown on a commercial scale, they are often dehydrated. Ripe﻿194
RATIONAL DIET
raspberries contain about 1 per cent protein, 8 per cent sugar and
from 1 to 1.5 per cent malic acid.
The Loganberry is a hybrid plant obtained by crossing the red
raspberry and the blackberry. The fruit is large, long, dark-red in
color, sub-acid in flavor, and good in quality. It makes an excellent
unfermented fruit juice. It is grown in nearly all the berry sec-
tions of the United States.
The Huckleberry (gaylussacia resinosa) grows wild on small
bushes throughout the North Temperate zone. It is also found in
large quantities on waste lands in the northern United States and
southern Canada, where it is gathered by the natives and shipped
to distant towns and cities. Huckleberries can be dried easily so
that they can be kept during the winter. The ripe berries contain
about 80 per cent water, 7 per cent sugar, 1 to 1.6 per cent malic
and citric acid. They are rich in potash, lime, and magnesia
salts.
The Strawberry (fragraria chiloensis) undoubtedly is superior
to other berries on account of its excellent flavor and great hygienic
value. Although it grows wild in many places, it has been exten-
sively cultivated since the sixteenth century, and by continuous
improvement a large variety of luscious berries is now grown
throughout the temperate zones. Strawberries contain from 85
to 90 per cent of water; 0.7 to 1 per cent protein; 7 to 8 per cent
sugar; 1 to 1.6 per cent malic and citric acid, and 0.6 to 0.8
per cent of mineral matter, which includes a larger amount of iron
than contained in any of the other berries.
Tropical and Sub-tropical Fruits
Citrus Fruits
THE LEMON
The lemon (citrus limonum) was introduced into Palestine and
Egypt by the Arabs in the tenth century, and into Europe at the
time of the Crusades.
Although lemons have been grown in California for half a
century, it is only during the last 25 years that they have risen
to considerable commercial importance. The lemon tree is less
hardy than the orange and comprises from 10 to 15 per cent of
the citrus crop. The principal varieties of lemons grown in Cali-﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
195
fornia are the Eureka; the Genoa, imported from Genoa; the Lis-
bon, from Portugal; Villa Franca, imported from Europe, and the
Bonnie Brae, mostly grown in San Diego County, California. The
average annual yield in California, on about 4,500 acres of lemon
orchards during a period of five years was about 196 boxes per
acre. In the United States there are at present over 30,000 acres
of lemons in bearing. Practically all the imported lemons come
from Sicily, where the production is very large.
Chemical analysis of lemon juice shows the following constit-
Uen^S ‘	Water	88.00 per cent
Protein	0.94	“	“
Sugar	2.08	“	“
Mineral Matter 1.00	“	“
Citric Acid	7.66	“	“
As in the orange, potash, lime, magnesia, and phosphoric acid pre-
dominate in the mineral content of lemons. Lemon juice should
always take the place of vinegar in the preparation of vegetables.
The medicinal value of the lemon consists of its high percentage
of citric acid, combined with potash and lime, and its large amount
of vitamins “B” and “C.”
THE CITRON
The citron (citrus medica) of commerce was grown by the Cali-
fornia Missions in the early days, but is now grown only to a
small extent in Riverside County, California. It is extensively
cultivated in China, Persia and the Mediterranean countries. The
tree is similar to the lemon, but the fruit is much larger, being
from four to six inches long. The interior consists of a somewhat
acid pulp, from which a juice is pressed, which is used like lemon
juice. The rind of the citron, which is thick and spongy, is fre-
quently used in candied form.
THE LIME
The lime (citrus acida) is grown and cultivated especially in
the West Indies, Italy and Florida; also to a small extent in Cali-
fornia. The fruit is oval, yellow, about one inch long, and not
suitable for eating. It is highly valued for its large content of
citric acid (from 7 to 8 per cent), and the essential oil and
the lime juice that may be obtained from it. The chemical compo-
sition of the lime is about the same as that of the lemon. Lime
juice is also very valuable, as it contains the anti-scorbutic vitamin﻿196
RATIONAL DIET
“C,” and is, therefore, indispensable to those who are deprived of
fresh vegetables for a long time.
THE POMELO, OR GRAPE FRUIT
The pomelo (citrus granáis) was one time almost exclusively
grown in Florida, but its cultivation has increased in recent years,
and considerable quantities are produced in Riverside, Tulare, San
Diego and other citrus counties of California. The pomelo, which
originally came from China, is the largest of the citrus fruits.
It contains a considerable amount of acid, although not so much as
the lemon, and also a peculiar bitter principle. It is best served
cut in halves and eaten with a teaspoon, after some honey has been
added, to suit the taste.
The juice of the fully ripened fruit contains on an average:
Water	87.00	per	cent	Sugar	7.00	per	cent
Protein	0.56	“	“	Citric Acid	1.00	“	“
Mineral	Matter 0.56	“	“
The mineral matter is composed as follows:
Potash	43.01	per	cent	Phosphoric Acid	11.09	per	cent
Magnesia	3.92	“	“	Sulphuric Acid	3.39	“	“
Lime	7.34	“	“	Chlorine	1.38	“	“
Iron	1.28	“	“
THE KUMQUAT
The kumquat (citrus japónica) is one of the smallest of the
citrus fruits. It is a native of China, and has been grown in Florida
and California for some time. The fruit is bright golden yellow,
growing in clusters, and is only about 1 to 1% inches long. The
thin rind is sweet and aromatic, and the entire fruit, rind and
all, is usually eaten. The tree is exceedingly ornamental, espe-
cially when covered with its bright yellow fruit. It makes a
delicious preserve if sweetened with honey.
THE ORANGE
The orange (citrus sinensis) is probably a native of southern
China, whence it was introduced into Syria, Arabia, and the west-
ern Mediterranean countries. It was brought to America by the
Spaniards. In the United States we have three well developed
orange regions: Central and southern Florida, the Delta region of
the Mississippi, California, and some parts of Arizona. At present
the great orange centers in California are in Los Angeles, San﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
197
Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties. But there are
various orange centers in central and northern California where
the successful culture of this fruit has been continuous for a number
of years.
The standard varieties are the Washington Navel, the Paper
Rind, the Saint Michael, the Valencia Late, the Blood orange,
Tangerines, and the Mediterranean Sweets. The superior quality
of the Navels grown in California commands the winter market,
hut the St. Michael and the Valencia are good oranges, and can
he left on the tree until May or June.
The introduction, by the United States Department of Agri-
culture, of the Washington Navel orange in 1870 from Bahia,
Brazil, under the name of “Bahia” orange, and the sending of
two trees propagated from those introduced from Brazil to Mrs.
L. C. Tibbets, Riverside, California, in 1873, mark the most im-
portant epoch in the history of citrus culture in California. At
that time there were many types of oranges grown in Southern
California, most of which were descended from trees planted in
gardens around the old Missions.
At present the orange industry in California represents an
investment of about $150,000,000. During the season of 1916-1917,
over 15 million boxes were shipped, representing a value of over
$33,000,000. The average annual yield on a twenty acre orange
grove from 1906 to 1911 was about 158 boxes, or 8,000 pounds of
fruit per acre.
A number of chemical analyses from the juice of ripe oranges
show on	the average the followin	g constituents:		
Water	87.00 per cent	Fruit Sugar	10.00 per	cent
Protein	0.80 “ “	Citric Acid	1.25 “	< i
Fat	0.20 “ “	Mineral matter	1.25 “	i <
The last	is composed as follows, giving the average of nine analyses			
in per cent of the total amount:				
Potash	48.94 per cent	Soda	2.50 per	cent
Lime	22.71 “ “	Magnesia	5.34 “	< C
Iron	0.97 I “	Manganese	0.37 “	i <
Phosphoric acid 12.37 “ “		Sulphuric acid	5.25 “	% t
Silica	0.65 9 “	Chlorine	0.92 “	l l
Pure orange juice is especially valuable for growing children
on account of the high content of lime and magnesia, both bone﻿198
RATIONAL DIET
building elements. Although the orange contains a large amount
of citric acid, the juice, on account of its large amount of potash,
is decidedly alkaline in its reaction. Special attention should be
called to the fact that nine analyses show the following variation
in the percentage of composition:
Lime	16.37	per	cent	to	27.70	per	cent
Soda	1.67	“	“	“	4.09	“	“
Iron	0.41	“	“	“	2.00	“	“
Phosphoric acid 9.75	“	“	“	14.46	“	“
Silica	0.31	|	“	“	0.94	*	V
Proper fertilization of the soil will undoubtedly increase the
contents of soda, lime, and iron in the fruit, and make it still
more valuable from a hygienic point of view.
The evergreen nature of the orange tree and its heavy bearing
properties are a severe drain on the soil, and annual fertilization
with cover crops is necessary when trees are several years old—
cover crops being in all cases much superior in their yield of essen-
tial soil requirements, as well as being more wholesome and hygienic
than animal or stockyard fertilizers.
THE TANGERINE
The tangerine (citrus nobilis) appears to be a race distinct
from the orange and indigenous in northeastern India and southern
China. The leaves and blossoms are smaller than those of the
orange, and exhale a peculiar aromatic odor. The branches are
slender and the fruit is flattened, with segments loosely adhering,
forming a hole in the center. The rind is saffron yellow, smooth,
and glossy. When fully ripe the fruit is exceedingly juicy and
of a delicious flavor.
THE AVOCADO
The avocado (persea gratissima) is one of the most ideal of all
fruits. It is indigenous to the mainland of tropical America. Its
chemical composition shows a high food value. The average of ten
varieties analyzed shows:
Water
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Mineral matter
68.85	per	cent
2.00	“	“
21.60	“	“
6.00	“	“
1.55	V	“
Some varieties show a fat content as high as 29 per cent, protein
2.43 per cent, while the total amount of organic salts is much﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
199
greater than that contained in many other fresh fruits. Potassium,
sodium, calcium, and magnesium compose more than one-half of the
total mineral matter, giving a preponderance of the alkaline ele-
ments, while nuts show an excess of the acid-forming elements.
Avocados grow on beautiful evergreen trees which are larger
in some instances, than large apple trees. The hardier varieties
will stand about as much frost as the orange tree. The size of the
fruit varies from a few ounces to several pounds. The shape varies
from round to oval or pear shaped. This is perhaps the reason
why the avocado is sometimes called “alligator pear,” although
generally it hears no relation to the ordinary pear. The color
varies from light green to dark purple, sometimes black. The fruit,
which has one large seed, should not be removed from the tree until
it is mature. Avocados become soft when off the trees within one
or two weeks after picking. When ready to eat they should be soft
enough to spread on bread like butter.
The avocado differs from most fruits in that it is not juicy, be-
ing neither acid nor sweet. Its smooth and buttery consistency and
rich nutty flavor distinguishes it from all other fruits. It is richer
in protein than most fruits, while the best varieties have more than
twenty per cent fat in a very palatable and digestible form, supe-
rior to butter fat. In fact, this fruit replaces meat to a very large
extent in all countries where it can be grown successfully. It is an
excellent addition to combination salads, as it supplies both protein
and fat, which are deficient in vegetables.
The high prices, which have made the avocado so far prohibitive
to many people with moderate means, have been due to the fact
that the demand has been much greater than the supply. As the
supply increases, the price will, of course, go down, but one should
not expect the price to decrease to that of apples or peaches. New
methods of dehydration or preservation, may bring the fruits of
Mexico, Central America and the West Indies in large quantities
to the United States, and may make the fruit almost as popular as
the cocoanut.
Although the avocado attains its greatest production in the
tropics, it does well in many favored places of sub-tropical countries.
The rapid growth of the avocado industry in Southern California
and Florida forms a new and important chapter in the horticultural
industries of the United States. From a few scattered trees in 1915,﻿200
RATIONAL DIET
the number has increased to many thousands of trees in orchard
form, and thousands of trees are being planted each year/* The
United States Government sent Mr. Wilson Popenoe, an expert
horticultural explorer, to the parts of the world where the avocado
grows to perfection to secure budwood of the choicest varieties for
use in this country, and is offering every possible assistance to en-
courage the growing of avocados where climatic conditions will
permit. In an interesting article, “Avocados as Food in Guate-
mala,” Mr. Popenoe says:
“As far as can be judged from the experience of the past ten
years, Americans in general are going to like the avocado immense-
ly. Probably not one per cent have tasted it as yet, but among
those who have been fortunate enough to do so, there is no ques-
tion regarding the popularity of this fruit. It must be admitted
that the avocado is delicious. It is a taste which grows upon one,
The delicately rich flavor of its soft creamy flesh is pleasant and
satisfying to a degree rarely experienced. While it is most com-
monly eaten with the addition of nothing more than a little salt
and a dash of lemon juice, it blends admirably with certain other
foods.
‘ ‘ In certain portions of the Guatemalan highlands the avocado is
eminently at home. It not only grows in almost every door yard,
but also in the edges of cultivated fields and along the road sides,
yielding generously of its handsome fruit, although it receives no
care from man. It is difficult for one who has not actually visited
these regions to appreciate the extent to which the avocado replaces
meat in the dietary of these industrious folk. It must be understood
that meat, in Guatemala, is a luxury to be indulged in mainly by
the well-to-do, its use among the poorer classes being very limited.
* * The abundance of avocados, their cheapness, and the long sea-
son during which they are available make it possible for even the
poorest natives in all principal avocado regions to use them as a
daily article of food throughout more than half of the year. An
avocado, four or five tortillas (small round cakes of coarsely
ground maize) and a cup of coffee are considered by many In-
dians the constituents of a good meal. The cost of such a meal is
seldom over two cents, for outside the larger cities avocados are
rarely sold for more than half a cent each.
“No data regarding the annual production of avocados in
Guatemala are available. While avocados are grown in practically
all parts of Guatemala, certain regions are especially renowned
for their production and supply most of the fruits sold in larger
cities and towns. These regions all lie at elevations above 2,500 feet
and are not only the greatest producers of avocados but the great
horticultural centers of the republic. Favored by climatic condi-﻿THE MESERVE AVOCADO ORIGINATED NEAR LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA﻿﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
201
tions and possessing an exceedingly fertile soil, they have long been
cultivated intensively by the Indians.
“In Florida, an orchard of Trapp avocados at five years of age
has produced an average of four crates of fruit per tree. Since
there are 80 trees planted to the acre, this gives 320 crates of fruit
per acre. Each crate contains an average of 40 avocados, which
weigh about 12 ounces each. In other words, a crate contains 30
pounds of fruit. This acre therefore produced 320 times 30 or
9,600 pounds of fruit. ’ ’
An article entitled “The Avocado in Florida” appeared in The
Country Gentleman under the date of April 29th, 1922, from which
the following paragraphs are quoted:
“As a result of his observations Mr. Krome has been convinced
that future cultural practices with the avocado must include care-
ful thinning of the fruit, whenever this tendency to overbear mani-
fests itself.^ This grower has taken as many as thirty-two crates of
avocados from a single tree.
“From between January 15th and March he didn’t have a sale
of avocados in New York under $32.50 a crate. He frequently
had them bring $40.00 a crate up to the time when Central Ameri-
can avocados began to come in and break the market down to $15.00
a crate.”
According to these figures thirty-two crates at prices received
brought a return of about $1,000 per tree. Basing these estimates
on individual trees, an acre of the best budded varieties will pro-
duce at least 30,000 pounds of fruit in a year. At a price of even
twenty cents a pound, this would mean a gross income of $6,000
per acre.
A number of full-grown avocado trees are scattered over South-
ern California and bring very remarkable returns. There is grow-
ing on the property of Joseph H. Walker, 1547 Los Palmas Ave-
nue, Hollywood, a tree that in one year has produced over $1,800
worth of fruit. Mr. Walker has had crops from this tree worth
$1,500 and $1,200. The tree is very large now. By assuming that
there were only twenty such trees per acre, they would bring a
royal income.
The old Taft tree at Orange, California, has produced as high
as $800 worth of fruit in one year. A few years ago there was a
tree in the Whittier District that produced $2,100 worth of fruit
and $1,800 worth of budwood in one year. Allowing one hundred
trees to the acre with an average crop of only $50 per tree, the
income would be $5,000 per acre.﻿202
RATIONAL DIET
There may be found throughout Southern California along the
frostless foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains, locations which
are ideal for the growing of the avocado, as far as climatic condi-
tions are concerned. Such lands for the growing of this veritable
“tree of gold” are very valuable.
Miami, Florida, is now one of the largest producing sections of
the South; the fruit there usually ripens late in summer. The aver-
age price, when the fruit is plentiful, is twelve cents a pound and at
that figure the daily consumption is equal to one-fourth pound per
capita of this district, the fruit being greatly in demand by all
classes.
In the city of Havana, the average per capita consumption is
even more during the season when the fruit is cheap. Should the
average daily per capita consumption in the United States reach
only one-twentieth of a pound a day, it would require 500,000
pounds a day or 1,500,000,000 pounds for 300 days of the year.
This would be the product of 50,000 acres at the rate of 30,000
pounds per acre, if the trees were in full bearing.
There are about 180 varieties of avocados classified in California.
Seedling trees have grown sixty feet high with fifty feet spread.
Budded trees bear in from two to four years, according to variety.
Seedling trees bear in from five to seven years. Orchards may be
so arranged that fruit may be had all the year around. The time
will come when people in Southern California, instead of planting
the pepper, acacia and other trees for shade, will be planting the
avocado, wherever there is no danger from severe frost.
THE BANANA
The banana (musa sapientum) is to the inhabitants of the trop-
ics what the potato, sweet potato and other starchy roots are to the
people of the temperate zones. It thrives best where the climate
is moist and warm and the rainfall sufficient. As a producer of food,
the banana tree is almost without a rival, and while cereals and
potatoes require much labor and constant tillage of the soil, this
tree, if kept free from rival plants, will grow rapidly and produce
fruit after a few months. No yearly replanting is necessary, and
the tree will produce continuously for many years. It is reported
that in southern Brazil, banana plants, with slight care, have
stood for thirty years, and still produce bunches of seventy bananas﻿THE GUAYA (see page 220)
MEXICAN AVOCADOS
Average Weight Over One Pound﻿﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
203
each. The average yield per acre is from ten to fifteen times more
than that of any of the cereals grown in northern countries, and
even excels the prolific potato. An average annual yield of 400
hunches per acre, weighing from 50 to 75 pounds, is considered a
good crop. In 1913, the banana acreage in the West Indies and
Central America amounted to 520,000, and this large expanse has
since been greatly increased.
The banana is shipped in a green state, when most of the carbo-
hydrates are still in the form of starch, which ia converted into
sugar during the ripening process. When the skin becomes yellow
and shows dark spots, the edible part of the fruit is in best condition
to be eaten without further preparation. In some localities of the
West Indies and Central America, bananas are now dehydrated,
which permits the ripening of the fruit on the tree. With the
improved processes of dehydration, bananas can be shipped to
greater distances and will have a larger field of distribution.
During the ripening the starch of the banana is changed into
soluble carbohydrates, chiefly cane and invert sugars and dextrin.
The total amount of carbohydrates is about 20 per cent, of protein
1.3 per cent and mineral matter 0.8 per cent, consisting largely of
potash, sodium, and chlorine, while it is deficient in lime and iron.
In the growth of the banana plant, the elements of lime and iron
pass into the heavy stem and big leaves and are therefore lost for
human nutrition. Ripe bananas should therefore be supplemented
with green leaf vegetables. The unripe banana is often dried
and ground into flour which is equal in nutritive value to wheat
flour.
A close relative to the banana is the plantain which often reaches
a length of twelve inches and a diameter of two and a half inches.
It is generally eaten cooked or baked, in which form it is more
palatable than when raw. Its constituents are about the same as
those of the banana.
The banana very closely resembles the potato in chemical compo-
sition, as is shown by the following table:
Potato	Banana
(Average)	(Average)
Water	78.3	per	cent	75.3	per	cent
Protein	2.2	“	“	1.3	“	“
Fat	0.1	“	“	0.6	“	“
Total carbohydrates 18.0	“	“	22.0	“	“
Mineral	matter	1.0	“	|	0.8	“	I﻿204
RATIONAL DIET
An analysis of the mineral matter made by Professor Samuel G.
Prescott, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gives the follow-
ing figures in per cent of the total amount of organic salts:
The banana has the advantage over cereals in that its mineral
matter is largely made up of base-forming salts, while that of the
cereals has an excess of acid-forming elements.
Most of the bananas imported into the United States come from
the coasts of Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, northern
Columbia, while a large percentage is also supplied by the West
Indies. Southern Brazil sends its bananas to Uruguay and Ar-
gentina, while southern Australia and New Zealand are supplied
by Queensland and the South Sea Islands.
The banana has been successfully grown in a few sheltered and
frost-free spots of Southern California and Florida, where the
fruit has matured to fair size, having a delicious and mellow flavor.
With the cocoanut and the banana, the bread fruit (artocarpus
communis) forms one of the three leading staple foods of the
tropics, especially in the South Sea Islands, Ceylon, and in some
parts of southern India. The fruit is also cultivated on a small scale
in the West Indies, the coast regions of Mexico, Central America,
and tropical South America. The tree, which reaches a height of
from 40 to 60 feet, is one of the handsomest of the tropics. It has
large ovate, leathery leaves which are entire at the base, and have
from three to nine lobes toward the upper end. Male and female
flowers are produced on the same tree. The ripe fruit, which is
composed of the matured ovaries of the female flowers, is round
or oval in form, generally from four to eight inches in diameter.
It is green when immature, but turns brownish and yellow while
ripening. The pulp is fibrous, pure white in the immature fruit
and yellowish in the fully ripe state. The fruit grows on small short
branches, commonly in clusters of two or three. It is often
eaten before it becomes ripe, while the pulp is still white and mealy
and of a consistency between that of bread and sweet potatoes.
Potash
Soda
Lime
Magnesia
43.55	per	cent	Iron oxide	0.18	per	cent
15.11	“	“	Phosphoric	acid	7.68	“	“
1.82	“	“	Sulphur Trioxide	3.26	“	"
6.45	H	“	Chlorine	7.23	“	“
TEE BREAD FRUIT﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
205
Some of the South Sea islanders bake it by means of heated stones
in a hole, with layers of stones, bread fruit, and green leaves
alternating.
It is similar to the banana in food value, and takes the place
of bread in the Pacific Islands.
Ripe bread fruit from Samoa, of the seedless variety, shows the
following analysis:
Total solids
Fat
Sugar
Starch
26.90 per cent
0.50 r	“
14.60 “	“
9.20 ■	I
Protein
Mineral Matter
Crude fiber
1.57 per cent
1.15 “	“
1.00 “
TEE CAROB
The carob tree (ceratonia siliqua) whose fruit is commonly
known as St. John’s bread, is a native of the shores of the Medi-
terranean Sea. It is found chiefly in the islands of Sicily, Cyprus,
Malta, the southern part of Sardinia, and the Adriatic coast of
southern Italy. The Spaniards brought it to Mexico and South
America, and the English to South Africa, Australia and India.
The carob was introduced into the United States in 1860. About
8,000 plants were distributed, which were sent mostly to the Middle
and Southern States, and a few reached California. In Southern
California bearing carob trees are frequent. Experience has shown
that the trees, when young, are no hardier than orange trees. When
once established, however, the carob is more resistant to frost than
the orange.
The carob belongs to the legume family, and is the only species
of the genus Ceratonia, derived from the Greek, Tceronia, meaning
horn, referring to the form of the pod. The tree is a handsome
evergreen, 40 to 50 feet high, with large compound leaves. The
reddish or yellowish flowers appear from October to December,
although the blooming season may extend much later. As a rule,
male flowers are on one tree and female flowers on another, although
occasionally trees are found that produce male and female flowers
in one cluster.
In Europe the wild-growing carob pods have been used exten-
sively as a food for cattle, but on account of the large amount of
fiber, only to a small extent as a food for man. There is no
reason, however, why the carob, by cultivating varieties that show﻿206
RATIONAL DIET
a minimum amount of crude fiber, should not be utilized more
commonly as a human food.
It is one of the most prolific bearing trees, and according to
chemical analysis, one of the most nutritious foods. The average
of sixteen analyses of the dried pods shows the following contents:
Water	11.50 per cent Nitrogen free extract
Protein	4.50 “	" other than sugar 36.30 per cent
Fat	2.37 “	“	Crude fiber	8.78	“	“
Sugar	34.31 “	“	Mineral matter	2.72	“	“
Some of the varieties examined had a sugar content of 45 and
50 per cent, while the crude fiber was as low as 3.14. Small quan-
tities of carob are annually imported from Europe, but thus far
the food has met with little favor by the American people, largely
because the quality is poor and the pods too hard and dry. The
carob can be softened in water, the seeds removed, and the pulp
ground in a food chopper. In this form it may be mixed easily
with dried fruits, such as figs, raisins or dates, to which a few
chopped nuts may be added.
It is reported that trees from 25 to 30 years old yield from 450
to 550 pounds of pods annually. Large plantings of the carob tree
have been made recently in Riverside County, Southern California.
CACTUS FRUIT OR PRICKLY PEAR
The prickly pear (opuntia tuna) sometimes called Indian fig,
is found throughout California, southern Arizona, New Mexico, and
northern Mexico, and is grown also in Italy, Sicily and northern
Africa. It is a purplish fruit, having a succulent, juicy pulp. The
spines, covering the skin of the fruit, can be burned off easily by
means of a candle flame. The fruit is eaten in large quantities by
the Indians and Mexicans. The composition is:
Water	79.2	per	cent	Sugar	11.7	per	cent
Protein	1.4	“	“	Fiber	3.7	“	“
Fat	1.3	“	“	Mineral Matter	2.7	“	“
A distinction should be made between the prickly pear and the
smooth, spineless fruit, which is superior in quality, as well as
unarmed with prickles, and, therefore, readily handled and eaten.
Luther Burbank, of Santa Rosa, California, has undertaken a great
deal of special work with the cactus, both for fruitage and forage﻿X
THE FEIJOA
(Sec page 'Il﻿﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES	207
purposes, and his remarkable success has attracted widespread
attention.
THE CHEBIMOYA (CUSTARD APPLE)
The cherimoya (annona cherimola) belongs to the family of
tropical fruits, called “annonas,” composed of more or less coher-
ent fleshy carpels, or parts. About fifty species are known, several
of which are widely cultivated, but the fruit has not yet achieved
the commercial prominence that it merits. Experience in exporting
the fruit from Madeira to the United States has demonstrated that
it can be shipped without difficulty. No doubt there will be an
increasing demand for this wonderful fruit when a regular supply
is available. Mark Twain characterized the cherimoya as “deli-
ciousness itself.” Wilson Poponoe in his “Manual of Tropical
and Sub-tropical Fruits” describes it as follows:
“The fruit is of the kind known technically as a syncarpium.
It is formed of numerous carpels fused with the fleshy receptacle.
It may be heart shaped, conical, oval or somewhat irregular in form.
In weight it ranges from a few ounces to five pounds. The surface
of the fruit in some instances is smooth; in others, it is covered
with small, conical protuberances. It is light green in color. The
skin is very thin and delicate, making it necessary to handle the
ripe fruit with care to avoid bruising it. The flesh is white, tender
in texture, and moderately juicy. Numerous brown seeds, the size
and shape of a bean, are imbedded in it. The flavor is sub-acid
and delicate, suggestive of the pineapple and the banana.”
The cherimoya seems to be indigenous to Central America and
tropical South America. It is now found in many parts of Mexico,
where it grows most abundantly at elevations of 3,000 to 6,000 feet,
where the climate is cool and dry. The climate of Southern Cali-
fornia in protected places, where no heavy frosts occur, is also
suitable for its cultivation. In Montecito, near Santa Barbara, a
number of trees are doing well and producing fruit. The cherimoya
contains about 20 per cent of fruit sugar and is especially rich
in potassium salts, making the fruit strongly alkaline. The acid
content is very low, amounting to only 0.13 malic acid.
THE COW TREE
A rather peculiar tree may be mentioned here—the cowtree
(brosimum galactodendron), indigenous to tropical America, where
it is known as “palo de vaca.” It grows abundantly in the﻿208
RATIONAL DIET
Cauca Valley in the South American Republic of Colombia.
It belongs to a genus of eight species of fruit-bearing trees
(brosimum) and derives its name from a rather thick milky sub-
stance which exudes from the tree after an incision is made.
This milk, which is slightly acid in reaction, resembles milk, or
rather cream, more than any other substance derived from the
vegetable kingdom. According to Boussingault, a French chemist,
the chemical analysis of the milk is as follows:
Water	58.0 per cent
Fat (wax and other substances, liquify-
ing at	120 degrees F.)	35.2	“	“
Sugar	2.8	“	“
Casein	1.7	“	“
Mineral matter	and	organic acids	2.3	“	“
The mineral matter includes a considerable amount of lime and
magnesia. The milk, which is used largely by the Indians of South
America, is a most palatable and nourishing food.
THE FIG
The original home of the cultivated fig (ficus carica) corre-
sponds closely to that of the olive. The fig family is one of the
largest in the vegetable world. Botanists have identified and
described more than 600 species, but very few of these produce
edible fruits. The extreme ease with which it can be cultivated
from cuttings, its resistance to heat and drought, its early bearing,
its value as human food, had in the early ages much to do with its
wide dissemination.
The fig occupies a unique and peculiar position among the fruits.
It is really what is known to botanists as a receptacle, upon the
inner surface of which are arranged hundreds of flowers, which
are, therefore, hidden from the outer world. In the case of the
Smyrna fig, these flowers are unisexual, and the female flowers
depend for pollination on the fig wasp (blastoplioga). As it is
necessary to shelter the fig insect the whole year round, nature
has wisely provided that the capri fig trees bear through the winter
on their leafless branches the so-called winter generation, or mamme
capri figs, from which the fig insects issue forth in early spring.
The fig, like nearly all the semi-tropical fruits which are now
cultivated in Europe and America, appears to have originated﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
209
somewhere in western Asia. Almonds, nuts, apricots, peaches,
olives, Asiatic grapes, dates, figs, prunes, etc., all seem to have
been brought to great perfection in Asia, several thousand years
before the Christian era. Traces of a very ancient and re-
markable civilization have been found existing about ten thousand
years ago in the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris. Here appear
to have originated all our best fruits, nuts, vegetables and cereals,
on which the western world now depends so much for its sus-
tenance.
From Asia the fig was carried to the shores and the large
islands of the Mediterranean Sea. Toward the end of the Roman
Empire, at the close of the fifth century, the fig was well distribu-
ted as far as the Atlantic Coast, the Channel Islands, and perhaps
over some favorable places of southern England. But nowhere
else had the cultivation and drying of figs reached so high a
degree of development as in Syria, and some parts of western
Asia Minor.
Through the far East the fig is supposed to have reached China
during the reign of the Emperor Tschang-Kien, who fitted out an
expedition to Turan in the year 127 A. D. The fig has been men-
tioned by Chinese writers in the eighth century.
With the discovery of the New World, the edible fig obtained
a foothold in all the countries visited by the Spanish and Portu-
guese missionaries. Figs of different and distinct species were
found by them, growing in the tropical parts of Mexico, Central
America, and South America, but these native figs were inferior
to those brought, over the Atlantic. It is to these Spanish mission-
aries that we owe the introduction of figs into California, and the
Black Mission Fig is still one of the most important and widely
distributed varieties in all the American countries visited by the
missionaries from Spain. The Black Mission fig, which was origi-
nally planted in an isolated way as a shade tree near farm houses,
is now cultivated in large commercial orchards, principally in the
interior valleys of California. The tree is a very prolific bearer,
and its fruit is becoming more popular every year. Indeed, few
fruits are so well balanced in food principles, so rich in blood build-
ing elements as are black figs. Chemical analysis shows a remark-
able similarity between the composition of human milk and the
fresh fig, especially in regard to the proportion of the organic salts.﻿210
RATIONAL DIET
The Smyrna Fig was first introduced into California in the
winter of 1881, when 14,000 cuttings, including several of the best
varieties, were imported by the San Francisco Bulletin Company.
A large number of the cuttings was distributed to 3,000 country
subscribers of the Bulletin, while individual shares went to the
different partners in the enterprise, notably Governor Stanford.
Most of his cuttings are on his ranch near Vina, California, now the
property of Stanford University. Large trees of both types are still
growing on the place, and have furnished the source of supply for
thousands of cuttings distributed by the Department of Agriculture.
The Smyrna Fig orchards of the San Joaquin Valley are made
up mostly of varieties introduced by G. C. Roeding of Fresno, in
1888, when an orchard of sixty acres was planted. On account of
the lack of capri figs furnishing Wasps, this orchard was main-
tained at a loss for several years, the first commercial crop being har-
vested in 1900, following the successful introduction of fig wasps the
previous year. Since then, large orchards have been established in
the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. Solid plantings of sev-
eral thousand acres have been made between Fresno and the San
Joaquin river. Large acreages have also been planted in Tulare,
Merced, and Stanislaus counties.
Before the Smyrna fig was established in California, the White
Adriatic Fig was the most common variety. It was usually planted
as a border tree along the roadsides, seldom in orchard form, and
was the only commercial fig before the virtues of the Black Mission
fig became better known. The Adriatic fig is smaller than the
Smyrna, and contains less sugar. The fruit flesh has a light straw-
berry color, while the skin is greenish, turning into light yellow
and brown during the drying process. Like most of the common
figs, the Adriatic can be caprified, which increases its weight and
sweetness. Many varieties of Adriatic figs are already cultivated
successfully throughout the Gulf states, chiefly for home con-
sumption, preserving and canning. The home fruit garden in these
states usually contains a thrifty tree, which provides for the family
a liberal supply of fresh figs during the summer months. The
varieties in most general cultivation are the Celeste, Magnolia,
Ischia, Brunswick, and Brown Turkey. The Celeste fig is the
favorite in Louisiana, especially in the vicinity of New Orleans.
Another variety of figs that has lately come into prominence in﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
211
California, is the Kadota Fig. Honor and credit for the discovery
of this remarkable fig, which is distinctly a California creation,
belongs to the late Stephen H. Taft, of Sawtelle, a member of the
Centenary Club of Southern California. The original tree of this
variety, then unknown, discovered and named by Mr. Taft, and
afterward distributed by him, first appeared in an orchard grown
by Mr. Cyrus Way of Whittier, near Los Angeles. In the orchard
of Dottato figs grown by Mr. Way, was one tree of most remark-
able vigor, growth and early production, and in every respect
superior to the balance of the orchard surrounding it. The dis-
criminating judgment of Mr. Taft immediately recognized in this
stranger, the very qualities and virtues so long sought by all
progressive fig growers the world over. The advent of this fig has
revolutionized the planting and pruning of fig orchards, and
created a new department of labor—the skilled picking of fresh
figs. While the Kadota fig is to a large extent canned at present,
it can also be successfully dried, if proper precautions are taken.
The dry fig of the future will be hand picked from low-crowned,
modern grown orchards and the full sugared jelly-ripe fruit cleaned
and dehydrated by methods superior to sulphuring and sun drying.
The finished product, semi-transparent, retaining full weight, flavor
and delicacy, will be offered to the trade in tasteful and attractive
cartons. Improved methods in production of all commodities
have always turned out to be cheaper than crude methods, and
the fig production will be no exception.
The United States annually imports from the Mediterranean
countries about 10,000 tons of dried figs, valued at over one million
dollars; the larger portion of these figs comes from the Smyrna
district in Asia Minor. In 1920 the total production of dried figs
in California amounted to about 9,000 tons, which is very small
as compared with the amount of dried prunes and raisins annually
produced in the state. About one-third of the California figs are
of the Smyrna type, and the remainder chiefly Black Mission and
Adriatic. The decrease of the importation of figs during several
years of the World War, has greatly stimulated the planting of the
fruit in California. When these large plantings commence to bear,
this country will be independent of fig importations, especially
since better methods of preparing and packing the figs for market
are being constantly devised.﻿212
RATIONAL DIET
The fig tree, under proper care and cultivation, gives excellent
returns. A ten year old black fig orchard produces as much as
5,000 pounds of dried figs per acre. A full grown Kadota fig tree
produces over one hundred pounds of figs during the season.
The dried fig, if free from chemical preservatives, is one of the
most wholesome and nutritious fruits for children, in place of
candy, confectionery and starchy foods. It preserves the teeth,
is easily digested, and prevents constipation. It is food and
medicine alike, and should, therefore, be used freely in every
household.
The following table shows the great nutritive and hygienic
value of the black fig, compared with human milk, whole wheat and
lite flour.					Whole
		Human	Black Figs		Wheat
		Milk	Fresh	Dried	Bread
Water	per cent	87.75	79.00	20.00	38.40
Protein	tt a	1.00	1.50	5.50	9.70
Fat	a a	3.95	0.20	1.00	0.90
Starch	a a				53.20
Sugar	a a	6.25	18.70	63.00	
Cellulose	(t it			7.30	1.60
Organic Salts	a a	0.45	0.60	3.00	1.50
Organic Salts in WOO Parts of Water-Free Substance
	Human	Black	Whole	White
	Milk	Figs	Wheat	Flour
Potassium	per cent 11.73	10.50	7.20	1.82
Sodium	H 1 3.16	9.60	0.50	0.08
Calcium	5 1 5.80	3.50	0.75	0.43
Magnesium	1 “ 0.75	3.40	2.80	0.44
Iron	“ “ 0.07	0.60	0.30	0.03
Phosphorus	“ “ 7.84	6.30	10.00	2.80
Sulphur	M “ 0.33	2.70	0.09	
Silicon	“ “ 0.07	2.40	0.46	
Chlorine	“ “ 6.38	1.00	0.07	
Total	“ “ 34.70	40.00	23.10	5.70
These figures	show the remarkable similarity		in the	chemical
composition of human milk and the fresh fig, especially in regard to
the proportion of organic salts. While the percentage of fat in
mother’s milk is higher, the fig contains more fruit sugar, thus fur-
nishing the same amount of heat units per ounce. It will also be
noticed that the important elements of sodium, iron and sulphur﻿KADOTA FIG TREE IN FULL BEARING
THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LOQUAT (sec page 224)
(One-third Natural Size)﻿﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES	213
are contained even in larger proportion in the fig than in milk and
wheat.
The growing child, on account of increasing muscular and
mental activity, needs more of these elements to carry on the pro-
cess of oxidation and elimination. These elements must be more
frequently renewed than others, and a sufficient supply of them in
our food is a matter of great importance. In all cases of physical
and mental exhaustion the fig is, therefore, of exceptional value
in replenishing the vital forces of the body.
THE DATE
What the cocoanut is to the inhabitants of the South Seas, the
date (phoenix dactylifera) is to the dwellers of the deserts of south-
western Asia and northern Africa. It is but recently that oriental
methods of date culture have been examined and tested by western
horticulturists, especially by the United States Department of
Agriculture.
In 1902 Professor Walter T. Swingle of the Bureau of Plant
Industry visited the great date producing regions of Asia and
Africa and secured numerous offshoots from native trees of the
finer varieties. These were transplanted in the Coachella Valley,
Southern California, and when the trees were large enough new
offshoots were obtained for additional plantings. Professor Swingle
has the result of his investigations published in an interesting
Bulletin entitled “The Date Palm,” from which some of the
following data are taken.
The cultivation of the date is almost as old as the history of
civilization. It is fully described on the clay tablets of the ancient
Assyrians. It was undoubtedly one of their most important food
plants and every detail of its culture, the operation of pollinating
the flowers, and even the serving of the fruit at the tables of the
wealthy were delineated with great accuracy in their paintings and
wall sculptures.
The origin of the date palm is not known, but everything points
to its being native of some of the ravines bordering the deserts of
northern Africa or Arabia. It is probable that it was first culti-
vated by the Assyrians, afterwards by the Egyptians, and that very
early its culture became almost a national industry with the Arabs.
During the seventh century, when the Arabs first invaded North﻿214
RATIONAL DIET
Africa, and at various intervals until the twelfth century, they
introduced the use of the camel and thereby rendered it possible for
the inhabitants of the oases to satisfy all their wants. By growing
an abundance of dates, which the camels could carry to the more
fertile regions of the Mediterranean coast countries, the Arabs
could exchange their surplus product for wheat and barley needed
in the Sahara for making bread. Thus the cultivation of the date
palm became of great importance throughout the Sahara desert.
The Arabs consider their date palms sacred and devote as
much care to them as they do to their own children. Families which
own date palms are considered fortunate. The date palm is their
main food supply. In fact, dates and camel’s milk form the sole
diet of many tribes in northern Africa and western Asia. These
people have a wonderful physique and endurance, which is seldom
found among the meat-eating Europeans.
The Moors undoubtedly introduced the date palm into Spain,
where, in spite of the unfavorable climate, it was extensively
planted during the Saracen domination. The first date palms in
the New "World were grown from seeds carried from Spain by the
missionaries who accompanied the Spaniards on their voyages
of discovery and conquest.
The possibilities of date culture in the United States were sug-
gested by the presence of date palms in Palm Canyon, Coachella
Valley, about one hundred miles southeast of Los Angeles, the
only place in the country where palms grow wild. In 1922, the
U. S. Government set apart Palm Canyon as a national reservation.
A number of experiment stations have now been established in
Southern California, Arizona, North Africa, Egypt, India and in
the dry portions of Brazil, with the result that the culture of the
date palm has been materially improved.
Unlike most fruit trees, the date palm has the male and female
flower on separate trees. If grown from seed, about half of the
resulting palms are male and half female. If such trees are allowed
to grow to maturity in this proportion, enough pollen is blown by
the wind to properly fertilize all the flowers. It would be, however,
a very expensive method of culture to irrigate and cultivate such
a large proportion of male trees. The Arabs—and before them the
Assyrians—learned to pollinate the palm artificially, and with a
small proportion of male trees to fertilize the flowers of a very﻿AN EIGHT YEAR OLD DATE PALM OF COACHELLA VALLEY,
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.﻿﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
215
great number of female trees. At the present time the proportion
followed in commercial planting is that of about one male tree to
a hundred female trees.
In all regions, however, where date culture is an important in-
dustry, the date palm is invariably propagated by removing and
planting the off-shoots or suckers which spring up around the
base of the trunk. These offshoots reproduce the parent variety
exactly, and have the great advantage of coming into bearing sooner
than the seedlings. Offshoots are produced abundantly by young
date palms, but cease to form when the trees reach the age of ten
to fifteen years. Usually three or four are left attached to the
parent plant, any in excess of this number being cut off as fast
as they form. One offshoot can be removed every year until the
production has ceased. They are cut away from the parent trunk
when they are from three to six years old, that is, after they have
begun to develop individual roots. The leaves are removed, leaving
only the bud in the center, protected by the leafstalks. No roots
are left attached to the offshoot, which, when thus reduced to a
mere stump, can stand much exposure.
The best time to plant offshoots is late in spring or early in
summer when the ground is thoroughly warm and when there is
a long hot season after planting, permitting the young palms to be-
come well established before winter. While it is not necessary to
shade the young offshoots, the ground must be kept constantly
wet about their bases. The Arabs water the offshoots every day
for the first forty days after planting, and then twice a week until
winter. Even the older trees require a great deal of water, despite
the fact that date palms are commonly associated with arid sub-
tropical countries. In the Coachella Valley, the water is supplied
from wells by electric pumps, or from artesian wells, as in the
lower part of the district, and while a full crop of fruit is not
produced until the palms are ten or twelve years old, they often
begin bearing after they are three years old.
As the dates ripen, they pass through a series of beautiful color
transformations, turning from green to reddish, then to amber or
brown. The different established varieties considerably vary in this
kaleidoscopic change of color; especially do the seedling dates
present most delightful variations from the tones of rose and
cherry, deepening to maroon and ebony black. When dates are﻿216
RATIONAL DIET
beginning to ripen, generally indicated by the appearance of a
reddish color, the growers cover the clusters with paper bags or
light cloth to protect the fruit from wasps and moths, and also
to insure an even ripening and equal distribution of heat. The
texture of the bags and the heaviness or lightness of the material
is selected according to the type of date. The softer and juicier
dates require a light material, while for the harder dates, bags of
heavy crepe paper are used. These are so made that they can be
opened, if desired, at the bottom to admit more air.
In the Coachella Valley, dates begin to ripen in September, and
the harvest season extends to the first of December. The gardens
are picked over once every week, eight or ten times in all. This is
essential to ensure an even ripening of the dates in the same cluster.
If the fruit were left on the tree, many dates would shrivel and
become less marketable; and unripe dates are lacking in sweetness
and flavor. The successful establishment of the date industry in
Southern California and Arizona made it possible to supply de-
licious fresh dates, which formerly could be found very seldom out-
side of the growing districts.
The commercial value of the California date crop has been much
increased by modern processing and packing the dates, so that they
will keep as well as other dried fruits. The greatest demand for
California dates is during the holiday season in November and De-
cember. Therefore, most of the fruit must be kept in storage for
several months before being shipped. As a result of careful studies
and experiments, the California date growers, assisted by horticul-
tural experts of the government and of several western universities,
are able to serve the American people with a new sort of cured
date, far superior to the imported varieties in natural succulence,
quality, purity and appearance. For this purpose new methods
of curing and packing were put into practice, totally different
from those practiced with the fruit of the Arabian deserts and
Mesopotamia.
The imported varieties of dates, generally known as Golden
Dates, are grown along the Shat-el-Arab River and are exported
from Bassorah to America and Europe in enormous quantities.
The principal varieties grown for export in this region are the
Halawi, Ehadrawi, and the Sayer. Of these the Halawi is doubt-
less the best; it is a medium-sized, rather light colored, sticky date,﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
217
and forms the best grade of the ordinary dates imported into
America. From the region of Maskat, on the Gulf of Oman, comes
the Fard Date of which about 1,000 tons a year are exported,
mostly to America. It is darker colored and smaller than the
Halawi, but brings a higher price.
The Saidy Date of Egypt is a variety of the first rank, adapted
to commercial culture in Southern California.
The excellent and very large Tafilet Dates come from Morocco,
where they grow in the oases east of the Atlas mountains. They
are found in the markets of England, but are seen very seldom in
the United States.
The Deglet Noor is a very late variety which requires an enor-
mous amount of heat in order to mature properly. It does best in
the interior of the Sahara, where the summers are exceedingly hot.
It is mostly exported to France. Large plantings of Deglet Noors
have been made in the Coachella Valley and at the Cooperative Date
Gardens at Tempe, Arizona, in the famous Salt River Valley.
There are now numbers of different kinds of dates grown and
packed in the California and Arizona date districts. They vary in
degrees of moisture, shape and size, with a wide range of colors
from light amber to glossy black to suit every taste. The date
industry in the Coachella Valley and Salt River Valley has excel-
lent prospects. Before the World War the annual importation of
dates was about 20,000 tons, representing an annual per capita con-
sumption of six ounces. This is a very small amount for a fruit
with such a high food value, which furnishes a natural sweet in
place of manufactured sugar and candy. There is no reason why
the date should not become an integral part of our diet, since large
areas in the arid southwest are well adapted to its cultivation.
Dates in their dry state consist mainly of sugar and cellulose.
Analysis shows the following average composition:
Supplemented by a few nuts and lettuce leaves, dates make
a well-balanced ration. The sap of the plant provides a mild
Water
Protein
Fat
14.0	per	cent
2.0	“	“
2.5	“	“
70.0	“	“
10.0	“	“
1.2	“	“
Sugar
Cellulose
Mineral Matter﻿218
RATIONAL DIET
drink, resembling cocoanut milk, which, when fermented, is known
under the name of “palm wine.” Date palms usually begin to
bear the third or fourth year after planting, and yield a consider-
able return the fifth year. After the fifth, sixth, or seventh year,
about 100 pounds per tree can be obtained from most varieties
without difficulty. 'A date orchard, in full bearing, with fifty palms
to the acre will yield about 5,000 pounds of fruit each year.
Growers in the Coachella valley have been able to sell all the
good dates they produce at from 25e to 75c per pound. Naturally,
with the rapid increase of production, these prices cannot be main-
tained, but even at 20c per pound, a gross revenue of $1000 per
acre represents a profitable investment. Offshoots of good varieties
are bringing five dollars and more, and are valuable in helping to
repay the initial cost of starting a plantation.
Experienced growers figure that it takes at least $1,700 to start
an acre of dates and $800 more to bring it to five years of age,
when the first substantial crop may be harvested.
While the best grades of dates, when in full bearing, can be
made to pay as much as $2,000 per acre, even the growing of
ordinary dates, such as those sold in bulk at the fruit stands,
may prove a paying enterprise if done on an extensive scale where
land and irrigation are cheap.
THE DURIAN
The Durian tree (durius zibethinus) is a native of the Malay
region. It is a large and lofty forest tree, somewhat resembling
an elm in its general character, but with a scaly though smoother
bark. It has oblong leaves 6 to 7 inches long, leathery in texture,
shining on the upper surface and scaly on the lower. The fruit
is round or slightly oval, about the size of a large cocoanut, of a
green color, and covered all over with short stout spines, the bases
of which touch each other, and are consequently somewhat hexag-
onal, while the points are very strong and sharp. It is so com-
pletely armed, that if the stalk is broken off, it is a difficult matter
to lift one from the ground. The outer rind is so thick and tough,
that from whatever height of the tree it may fall, it is never
broken. Alfred Russel Wallace gives in his description of the
Malay Archipelago an excellent idea of this remarkable fruit,
which may be divided with a heavy knife and a strong hand:﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
219
“The five cells which make up the fruit are satiny white within,
and each filled with an oval mass of cream colored pulp imbedded
in which are two or three seeds, about the size of chestnuts. This
pulp is the eatable part, and its consistency and flavor are inde-
scribable. A rich butterlike custard, highly flavored with almonds,
gives the best general idea of it, but intermingled with it come wafts
of flavor that call to mind cream cheese, onion sauce, brown sherry,
and other incongruities. There is a rich glutinous smoothness in
the pulp, which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its deli-
cacy. It is neither acid, nor sweet, for it is perfect as it is. In
fact, to eat Durians is a new sensation, worth a voyage to the East
to experience.
“It would not, perhaps, he correct to say that the Durian is the
best of all fruits, because it cannot supply the place of the subacid
juicy kinds, such as the orange, grape, mango or mangosteen, whose
refreshing and cooling qualities are so wholesome and grateful;
but as producing a food of the most exquisite flavor the durian
tree is unsurpassed.”
An analysis made in the Philippines by W. E. Pratt shows
the fruit to contain:
Water
Total solids
Protein
Invert sugar
Sucrose
Starch
Mineral matter
Acids
55.5	per cent
44.5	“	“
2.3	“	“
4.8	“	“
7.9	“	“
11.0	“	“
1.2	“	“
0.1	“	“
The chemical body, which is responsible for the very pro-
nounced odor, is probably one of the sulphur compounds with
6ome base perhaps related to butyric acid.
THE FEIJOA
The Feijoa (feijoa sellowania), a native of the wilds of southern
Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and parts of Argentine, was intro-
duced into southern France in 1890 by E. André, a French horti-
culturist, where it succeeded remarkably well. About 1900 it was
introduced into California, where its cultivation has attracted
much attention. The feijoa, on account of its small and soft seeds,
abundance of flesh, and deliciously perfumed flavor, will no doubt
find a favored place among the sub-tropical fruits now being in-
troduced into Southern California and Florida. The shrub often﻿220
RATIONAL DIET
reaches a height of fifteen feet, or more. The leaves are similar
in form and appearance to those of the olive. The upper surface
is glossy green, the lower, silver gray. The flowers are 1 Yu inches
in breadth, very gay and handsome. The fruit is round, oval or
oblong in shape, one to three inches long, dull green in color,
covered with a white bloom, and sometimes dull red on one side.
The pulp of the fruit, which is surrounded by a layer of granular
flesh, is translucent, jelly-like, with twenty or thirty small seeds
imbedded. The flavor is suggestive of pineapple and strawberry,
and, when properly ripened, the fruit has a penetrating and de-
lightful aroma. The pulp is frequently made into jam or jelly.
The feijoa is hardier than many other sub-tropical fruits. It
has, with little injury, withstood temperatures as low as 15 de-
grees above zero. It does well in a dry climate, if free from ex-
tremely high temperatures. If fully ripened the fruit contains:
Water About 85.00 per cent	
Sugar	10.00 “ “
Protein	0.80 “ “
Fat	0.25 “ |
Min. matter “	0.55 “ “
Crude Fiber “	3.40 fj B
THE GUAVA
The Guava (psidium guajava), like the feijoa, comes to us from
tropical America, but it also does well in sub-tropical countries,
like southern Spain, Florida and Southern California. The guava
is a tree-like shrub. The leaves are oblong, elliptic to oval in
outline, three to six inches long. Flowers are produced on
branches of recent growth. They are white and about an inch
broad. The fruit is round, one to four inches long, commonly yel-
low in color, with flesh varying from white to deep pink or sal-
mon-red, containing numerous small hard seeds. The flavor is
sweet, musky and distinctive in character, and the ripe fruit is
aromatic to a high degree.
According to an analysis made by the University of California
the ripe fruit contains:
Water	84.00	per	cent
Protein	0.76	“	“
Fat	0.95	“	“
Mineral matter 0.67	“	“
Fiber	5.57	“	U﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
221
TEE STRAWBERRY GRAVA
The Strawberry guava (psidium cattleianum) originated in
southern Brazil. It was probably introduced into southern China
by the Portuguese. From there it was taken to the shores of the
Mediterranean sea, where it now thrives in southern France,
Spain and Algeria. In the United States it has been successfully
cultivated in both Florida and California. The strawberry guava
is ordinarily a bushy shrub, but sometimes becomes a small tree
from 20 to 25 feet high. The leaves are elliptical, from two to
three inches long, thick and leathery in texture, somewhat glossy,
and deep green in color. The flowers are white and nearly an
inch broad. The fruit is round, one to 1% inches in diameter,
purplish red in color, with a thin skin, containing numerous hard
seeds. The flavor is sweet and aromatic, suggesting that of the
strawberry. The fruit is often used for jelly-making. An analy-
sis made by the University of California shows the following con-
tents :
The plants come into bearing early and should produce a few
fruits the second or third year after planting. The season of
ripening in California is from August to October. The mature
plant withstands severe frosts without injury. Temperatures of
22 degrees F. have not killed it.
The Jack Fruit (artocarpus integrifola) which is one of the
largest fruits grown in the world, often reaching a weight of from
40 to 50 pounds, belongs to the same genus of trees as the bread
fruit. The tree is less exacting in regard to climatic requirements
than the bread fruit tree, as it resists cool weather much better,
and is, therefore, better adapted to cultivation over a wider area.
The trunk of the tree attains a height of 60 to 70 feet. The leaves
are oblong, oval, deep green in color, and from four to six inches
in length. The flowers, which resemble those of the bread fruit
Water
Protein
Fat
Fiber
Starch
Total sugar
Mineral matter
79.42 per cent
0.88 I I
0.80
6.58
6.49
5.06
0.77
THE JACK FRUIT﻿222
RATIONAL DIET
tree, are commonly produced directly on the back of the trunk
and larger limbs. The surface of the fruit, which resembles in
shape that of a very large water melon, and sometimes attains a
length of two feet, projects directly from the trunk, and the
thickest branches of the tree are studded with short hard points.
The fruit is pale green in its immature state, becoming yellow
and then brownish when fully ripe. Inside, the fruit is divided
into many small cavities, each containing a seed surrounded by
the soft pulp which is of a pungent odor and aromatic, spicy
flavor, resembling that of the banana. The seeds are frequently
boiled or roasted, then pulverized and used in making biscuit.
An analysis of the fruit made in Hawaii shows:
Water	76.80	per	cent
Protein	5.44	“	“
Sugar	15.15	“	“
Fat	0.45	“	“
Acids	0.27	“	“
Fiber	1.30	“	“
The seeds were found to contain:
Water	about 15.00
Sugar	15.15
Fat	0.24
Fiber	1.80
Protein	5.44
Carbo-hydrate	
(starch)	23.53
Acids	0.16
The tree grows wild in the mountains of India and Ceylon. It
was introduced into Brazil in the seventeenth century and is now
found in abundance in the region of Bahia. In the latter part of
the eighteenth century, Jack Fruit trees were planted in Jamaica
and are now common all over the island. To a smaller extent the
tree is now grown in the Hawaiian Islands and in southern
Florida. The California climate has proved unfavorable to the
fi*AA
THE L1TCH1
The litchi (litchi chinensis) is the favorite fruit of the Chinese.
In southern China its cultivation dates back more than two
thousand years. It is now grown extensively, and is familiar to
millions of people, many of whom prefer it to the orange and
peach, two of the finest fruits of southern China. The region﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
223
around Canton is considered the most favorable portion of China
for litchi culture.
The tree grows to an ultimate height of thirty to forty feet,
and forms a broad round-topped crown, with glossy, light green
foliage. The fruit, which grows in loose clusters of from two to
twenty, or more, has the appearance of a large strawberry, reach-
ing a diameter of 1% inches in the better varieties. The outer
covering, which is hard and brittle, changes in color from deep
rose to dark brown, as the fruit dries on the trees. When fresh
the pulp of the fruit is white, translucent, firm and juicy, and has
a sub-acid flavor. The litchi nut, as it is generally called in its
dried state, is really a dried fruit, surrounded by a thin nut-like
shell, and resembles the Muscat raisin in flavor. It is a favorite
in China and has become well known in this country since its in-
troduction by the Chinese.
When fresh the litchi contains:
Water
Protein
Fat
Sugar
Mineral
79.00 per cent
1.15	“	“
0.20	“	“
15.30	“	“
5.40	“	“
When dry this fruit contains f
Water
Protein
Fat
Sugar
Mineral matter
16.00	per cent
2.90	“	“
0.80	“	“
78.00	“	“
1.90	1	“
The fruit has an acid content of over 1 per cent. No dinner in
China is complete without some of these little fruits.
Experiments have been made to introduce the litchi into
Florida and Southern California. Although it has taken many
years to demonstrate the possibilities of the litchi’s fruiting in
Florida, it is now hoped that with suitable varieties the litchi
may become the basis of an industry. The first litchi tree to be
introduced into California is said to have come from Florida and
was planted by Mr. E. W. Hadley in Santa Barbara about 1897.
This tree was obtained as a small plant from the nursery of Rea-
soner Brothers, Oneca, Florida. Mr. E. N. Reasoner states that
this California tree was originally imported from Saharanpur,
India. It first fruited in 1913. It is possible that hardy varieties﻿224
RATIONAL DIET
from the hill country of India may prove best adapted to Cali-
fornia and Florida.
The jujube (zizyphus jujuba), like the litchi, is one of the prin-
cipal fruits of China, and has been cultivated for at least 4,000
years. The jujube is a small, spiny tree, reaching a height of
twenty to thirty feet. The fruit resembles the date in size and
form, often reaching a length of two inches, and is covered with
a thin, dark brown skin. The flesh is whitish, of crisp, or mealy
texture, and of sweetyagreeable flavor, enclosing, like the date,
a hard elliptic stone.
The jujube tree can be cultivated in the interior valleys of
California, if sufficiently irrigated. While a long, warm summer
is necessary for the perfect ripening of the fruit, the tree has
withstood temperatures of 22 degrees F.
The chemical composition of the jujube is given by the Bureau
of Chemistry at Washington, as follows:
The late Frank N. Meyer, to whom we are indebted for many
fine Chinese varieties of this fruit, observed, during his explora-
tions in China, that the jujube could be used in several different
ways. The fruits of some varieties are excellent to eat when they
are fresh. Dried, they resemble dates in character; they are often
called Chinese dates. Jujubes are sometimes boiled with millet and
rice. They may be stewed or baked in the oven. They are used,
like raisins to make jujube bread, and they are made into glace
fruits by boiling them in honey or sugar syrup.
The loquat (eriobotrya japonica) is one of the sub-tropical
fruits that has been recently introduced into the United States. It
is a true prune fruit and is closely related to the apple, pear,
quince and medlar. It has the size of a small pear, and the better
varieties contain three or four large seeds. When quite ripe
THE JUJUBE
Total solids
Sugar
Protein
Fat
Mineral matter
Fiber
31.90 per cent
21.66	“	“
1.44	“	“
0.21	1	“
0.73	“	“
1.28	“	I
THE LOQUAT﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
225
the fruit is of deep yellow, and a very pleasant, acid flavor. The
amount of fruit acid in the loquat is about 1 per cent, mostly
malic.
The loquat has been cultivated in Japan for more than a thou-
sand years, and grows in every district, except the northeastern
part. It was introduced into California, the Gulf States, and
Florida about 1880, and since that time has been grown commer-
cially in several counties of Southern California. The tree is a
very heavy bearer, and in one instance a fourteen acre orchard
in Orange county, California, produced eighty tons of good fruit.
The analysis of the edible portion of the best varieties shows:
Water	85.00	per	cent
Protein	0.32	“	“
Fat	0.03	“	“
Sugar	12.00	“	“
Mineral matter 0.36	“	“
Crude fiber	0.37	“	“
To people living in the temperate zones and travelers in tropi-
cal and sub-tropical countries, the loquat should possess an espe-
cial attraction for it is similar in flavor and character to the
fruits of the North, as it contains a good deal more fruit acid
than the average tropical fruits.
Because of its ornamental appearance alone, the loquat is often
planted in parks and gardens. It is a small evergreen tree, rarely
more than 30 feet high, commonly not exceeding 20 or 25 feet.
THE MANGO
The mango (mangifera indica) is one of the oldest fruits cul-
tivated by man in the tropical zones. The tree, being evergreen,
often attains a very large spread and an age of one hundred years
and more. The fruit, which is shaped like a plum, varies in size
from a few ounces to several pounds in weight. The skin is
smooth, and thicker than that of the nectarine, which it resembles
in color. The flesh is yellow, or orange, and juicy, tasting somewhat
like a combination of apricot and pineapple. The seeds are large
and flattened, enclosing a white kernel.
The average chemical analysis of the mango shows:
Water	80.0	per	cent	Fat	0.1	per	cent
Coarse fiber	5.0	“	“	Ash	0.4	“	g
Sugar	13.3	“	“	Acid	(malic	and tar-
Protein	0.7 “	“ taric)	0.5 “	“﻿226
RATIONAL DIET
In the United States mangos can be grown in some of the
favored foothill sections of Southern California, and in the south-
ern part of Florida. The largest commercial plantings have been
made in the vicinity of Miami, Palm Beach, and Fort Myers,
where, during the winter heavy frosts seldom occur.
The horticultural varieties of the mango are numerous,
amounting to several hundred. Many of these, however, are of
limited distribution and little importance. The cultivated mangos
are usually considered of a single species, mangifera indica.
THE MANGOSTEEN
The mangosteen (garcinia mangostana) is a delicious fruit
about the size of a mandarin orange, round and slightly flattened
at each end with a smooth, thick rind of rich red-purple color,
with here and there a bright, hardened drop of the yellow juice,
resulting from some injury to the rind when immature. It has
been termed “the finest fruit in the world,” on account of its
beautiful coloring, combined with a most delicate and luscious
flavor. It is extensively grown in the East Indies, particularly
in Java and Sumatra, but a number of trees have now been plant-
ed in Cuba, Porto Rico, the Canal zone, and lately in some of the
Central American countries. Like the bread fruit, and a few
other strictly tropical species, it does not thrive in places where the
temperature falls below 40 degrees F.
It contains about 12 per cent sugar, and is rich in alkaline ele-
ments. The rind, or the entire fruit, dried, is used medicinally in
India. It contains some tannin, and a crystallizable substance
known as “mangostin.”
Although the mangosteen is a very delicate fruit, it has an
exceedingly tough, thick rind, and on this account it is likely to
be good for shipping. Fruits which were sent to Washington
from Trinidad, were excellent when eaten twenty-one days later,
even though they had been out of cold storage over a week. It
requires a circular cut with a sharp knife to lift the top off like
a cap, exposing the white segments, five, six, or seven in number
lying loose in the cup. Professor Fairchild, a noted explorer
says of the qualities of the fruit:
“The texture of the mangosteen pulp much resembles that of a
well ripened plum, only it is so delicate that it melts in the mouth
like a bit of ice cream. The flavor is quite indescribably
delicious.”﻿THE WHITE
SAPOTE (see page 235)
THE MANGO (see page 225)﻿﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES	227
THE MAMET
The mamey tree (mammea americana), •which is related to the
mangosteen, is one of the most beautiful and conspicuous in the
West Indies, reaching a height of sixty feet. Its trunk sometimes
attains a diameter of 3 or 4 feet, while the crown is of a deeper
and richer green than that of most other trees. The leaves are
oblong in form, rounded or blunt at the apex, 4 to 8 inches long
and thick and glossy. The white flowers, which are solitary and
clustered in the axils of the young shoots, are fragrant and
about an inch broad. The fruit is oblate or round in form and
commonly 4 to 6 inches in diameter. It has a slightly roughened
russet surface and a leathery skin about % inch thick. Surround-
ing the one to four large seeds, and often adhering to them, is
the bright, yellow, juicy flesh with a subacid and pleasant flavor,
resembling that of the peach.
Outside of its native region, it is grown in Mexico and Cen-
tral America. It is also successfully cultivated in Florida as
far north as Palm Beach, but the mamey is strictly tropical in
its requirements, and cannot be grown in regions which com-
monly experience frost. The ripening season is in the summer.
TEE OLIVE
The cultivation of the olive (olea europaea) goes back into the
beginning of ancient history. Olives were grown by the Egyp-
tians four thousand years ago. It was a favorite fruit with the
ancient Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans.
It was first introduced into California from Mexico in 1769
by an expedition of Franciscan monks, sent to take charge of the
Jesuit missions. The first seeds of the olive are said to have
been planted at the Mission San Diego, where they grew and
prospered. As the Fathers built new missions, the olive was
always among the trees first planted, cuttings having been sup-
plied from the San Diego Mission. The Mission orchards were
small, but they laid the foundation of the present olive industry
of California, which represents about forty thousand acres, or
nearly two million trees, averaging about fifty trees per acre.
The principal varieties grown are the Mission, Columbella,
Manzanillo, Nevadillo, Picholine, Sevillano and Ascolano. The
last two named are the largest varieties grown.﻿228
RATIONAL DIET
The large sized olives are used for pickling, and the smaller
ones for oil extraction. In both cases some of the nutritive ele-
ments of the natural ripe olives are lost. Only in the fully ripened
sun-dried olives are all the nutritive principles of the olive pre-
served, and, although they still retain some of the bitter taste,
which is very pronounced in the matured olives while on the
tree, they are undoubtedly more wholesome than the pickled
olives. In the pickled product the bitterness is neutralized by
the application of lye solution.
At the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University of
California, Berkeley, the following process for pickling ripe
olives is generally used:
1.	Place the olives in a solution composed of two ounces of
potash lye to one gallon of water for four hours. Repeat this
once or twice, if necessary, sufficiently to remove the tartness.
2.	Rinse the olives thoroughly and replace the lye solution
with fresh water. Change the water twice daily, or until the pot-
ash has been removed from the fruit, as judged by the taste.
3.	Replace the water with brine composed of four ounces of
salt to a gallon of water, and allow to stand two days.
4.	Put in brine of six ounces of salt to a gallon of water for
seven days.
5.	Put in brine of ten ounces of salt to a gallon of water for
two weeks.
6.	Finally put into a brine containing fourteen ounces of salt
to the gallon.
The best pickled olives are made without the use of lye, but
this process is practicable only with varieties such as the Ascolano
and Columbella, the tartness of which is more easily removed,
especially when the water is soft and plentiful. Even then it
is a very slow and tedious process. It differs from the former
method quoted only in an elimination of the lye. The olives at
the outset are put in pure water, which is changed twice a day
until the bitterness is sufficiently extracted. This requires from
forty to sixty days, or more.
The best oil is made by crushing the carefully picked olives
as soon as possible after they are gathered, and while they are still
perfectly fresh. If they are bruised, or in the slightest degree
moldy when crushed, the resulting oil will be of correspondingly
inferior quality.﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
229
The extraction of oil from fresh olives, however, is somewhat
troublesome, and in order to facilitate the work it is customary to
deprive them of a certain portion of their water before crushing.
This partial drying is also useful when it is necessary to keep the
fruit for some time before crushing, or to ship it long dis-
tances. In order to hasten the process dehydraters are some-
times used. The olives are placed in a single layer on trays, and
the dehydrater is kept for about twenty-four hours at a tempera-
ture of about 125 degrees F. The olives must be crushed immedi-
ately upon removal from the dehydrater.
Ripe olives are composed on an average of:
The mineral matter is very rich in the basic elements of potash,
lime, magnesia and iron.
Dried olives contain as much as 5 per cent protein and 50 per
cent fat, and are equal to nuts in nutritive value. If combined
with sweet fruits, they make a palatable, wholesome combination.
The papaya (carica papaya), often called tree melon, is a giant
herbaceous plant rather than a tree, and grows to a height of
25 feet, without lateral branches, but producing deeply lobed
leaves at the top. The fruit strongly resembles a melon, and at-
tains a length of from three to eighteen inches, sometimes weigh-
ing as much as 20 pounds. The skin is thin and smooth/ orange
yellow to deep orange in color. The flesh is from one to two
inches thick, of a somewhat deeper color than the skin, en-
closing a large cavity, to the walls of which numerous round,
blackish seeds are attached. The taste is rather sweet, with a
slightly musky flavor. In nearly all parts of tropical America
it is one of the common fruits. It is extensively cultivated in
Hawaii, and is also successfully grown in the southern part of
Florida.
Water
Fat
Mineral matter
Protein
Carbohydrates
96.6 per cent
21.0 “	“
3.4 “	“
2.0 “	“
4.0 “	I
THE PAPAYA﻿230
RATIONAL DIET
A composition of the papaya, grown near Honolulu, shows:
Sugar	10.29	per	cent
Protein	0.50	“	“
Fat	0.50	“	“
Acid	0.07	“	"
Mineral matter 0.56	“	“
Fiber	0.76	“	“
TEE POMEGRANATE
The pomegranate (punica granatum), like the fig, vine and
olive, has been grown since the earliest times. It is mentioned
in ancient Grecian history, antedating the founding of Rome.
Later on, frequent mention is made of it by Roman writers. Gra-
nada, in Spain, owes its name to its excellent pomegranates. Sub-
sequent to the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards, all the
fruits from old missions in Mexico were carried northward and
planted in the new mission gardens of California. Since 1850
new varieties have been introduced, mainly from European coun-
tries and China.
The pomegranate is also valued as an ornamental tree on ac-
count of its bright, glossy, green leaves and the profusion of its
beautiful blossoms. The ripe fruit measures from three to six
inches in diameter, and contains a variable number of small, an-
gular, berry-like fruit bodies, the angularity being caused by
their large number packed closely together. Each of these fruit
bodies is covered with a membrane, enclosing a fruity mass, very
rich in juice. The rind, enclosing the fruit bodies, is tough and
leathery and varies in color from pale yellow to deep, purplish
red.
Analysis of the fruit by the California and Hawaiian Agricul-
tural Experiment Stations show the composition of the edible
portion as follows:
Water	76.8	per	cent
Protein	1.5	“	“
Fat	3.0	“	“
Sugar 14.0 to 16.0 “	“
Crude fiber	3.0	to 4.0	“	“
Mineral matter	0.6	“	“
The acid content, chiefly citric, ranges from 0.6 to 1 per cent,
or similar to that of sweet strawberries. The sweet pomegranate﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
231
possesses a delicate fresh crispness of flavor, almost unrivaled
among fruits. As yet the demand for pomegranates is not very
large, due to a lack of knowledge on the part of the public as to
the merits of the fruit.
THE PERSIMMON
This delicious fruit comes to us from China and Japan, where
several hundred varieties are cultivated. Persimmons belong to
the Ebony family, and to the genus diospyros, from the Greek
words, dios and pyros, suggestive of the life-giving principles of
the fruit. The Japanese consider it to be one of their best fruits,
while the Chinese also value it highly and devote large areas to
its production. The first trees were brought to the United States
in 1870, and at present there are a number of commercial orchards
in Southern and Central California, besides many trees found in
home orchards. There is no doubt that it will soon assume an im-
portant position among the orchard fruits of California and the
Gulf States.
The fruit in size and color somewhat resembles the tomato. It
has a thin, membranous skin, enclosing a soft, reddish pulp of
very sweet and pleasant flavor, in which are imbedded from four
to eight elliptic, soft, flattened, dark brown seeds, although seed-
less fruits are found frequently. The astringency of the unripe
persimmon is due to the presence of soluble tannin, which disap-
pears in the ripening process.
The season of the persimmon extends from October to Janu-
ary. Chemical analysis shows that the edible portion of the fruit
contains on an average:
Water	80.21 per cent
Protein	1.36 “ “
Sugar	15.13 “ “
Fat	0.57 “ “
Crude fiber	2.08 * “
Mineral matter	0.65 “ 1
In Japan certain varieties are used extensively for drying.
The finished product somewhat resembles the dried fig in char-
acter and is almost as delicious. They are picked with a bit of
stem attached, peeled, tied together by the stems with string and
hung up to dry, a process requiring about three weeks. After
this they are sweated for a few days. This causes a heavy coat-﻿232
RATIONAL DIET
ing of sugar to crystallize on the surface, the resultant product
being a pleasing sweetmeat and a wholesome confection. The
fresh fruit has brought so high a return in California that
growers have not bothered to dry it. With the increase in plant-
ings, it is probable that this practice will become a lucrative one.
The Northern California fruit is practically all shipped out,
there being no local demand. Hawaii, San Francisco and New
York consume all that is produced. In Southern California, the
local markets in Los Angeles and neighboring cities take all the
fruit that is grown.
Based on the experience of growers, mature, bearing orchards
will yield, under good care and management, from twelve to
fifteen tons of fresh fruit per acre a year, depending upon
variety and the distance apart the trees are set in the orchard.
A forty-year-old Maru tree on the property of J. B. Adams at
Newcastle, California, has borne as much as 800 pounds of fruit in
one year, an exceptional figure not to be taken as a basis for nor-
mal orchard returns. Two acres on the same place, at about ten
years of age, have yielded as high as $1,380. The price received
for persimmons has been uniformly good for many years, averag-
ing from 6 to 7 cents per pound. For extra fine Hachiya fruit, a
grower in Orange county, Southern California, has received 12^
cents per pound on the ranch.
THE PINEAPPLE
The pineapple (ananas sativus) is a multiple fruit, an aggre-
gate of many small individual fruits, the number of which deter-
mines the size of the pineapple. At a certain period of the
growth of the plant, the center, or the last-formed leaves, as-
sumes a bright red color, and instead of forming more leaves, the
flowerhead appears on a stalk, which is a direct elongation of the
plant stem. The flowers, which are small, are of a violet or
purple color. In the further growth the flowerhead loses its
bright red color, and the terminal leaves form the rosette, or
crown, that is on top of the fruit. Later, buds may appear on the
stem below the fruit which develop into slips. The plant bears
but one fruit, and the next crop must be produced by a new set of
plants. The leaf of the pineapple plant, which attains a length
of about two feet, in some varieties is nearly smooth, while in﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
233
others the margins are covered with spines, evidently intended
by nature as a protection against insects. For cultivation, how-
ever, the spineless is far preferable.
About 10,000 plants can be grown on a well cultivated acre of
land, which will on an average yield 9,000 fruits, from 3^ to 5
inches in diameter, and from 6 to 8 inches long, weighing from 2
to 4 pounds each.
Most of the fruit is picked quite green for canning purposes,
but the more nearly ripe the pineapple is allowed to become be-
fore gathering, the better its flavor and the higher its sugar con-
tent will be. Some of the fruit cut when immature may ripen,
but the quality will not improve.
Ripe pineapples contain on an average:
Water	85.00	per	cent
Protein	0.50	“	“
Sugar	13.00	“	“
Mineral matter 0.30	“	“
In the latter the elements of potassium, calcium and magnesium
predominate.
THE SAPODILLA
The sapodilla (achras sapota) is one of the best of tropical
fruits. It is grown abundantly in the lowlands of Southern Mex-
ico, Tabasco, Chiapas, also in Guatemala, San Salvador and
Honduras. It is also found on the western coast of India, in Ben-
gal and Ceylon. In the most southern part of Florida and on the
Florida Keys many trees have been cultivated successfully.
The fruit is variable in form, commonly round, and is from
2 to 3y2 inches in diameter. It has a rather thick skin, is brown
to greenish brown in color, granular in texture, and very juicy. It
has a characteristic odor and flavor, and is very sweet. The seeds
are from nine to ten, or twelve, in number, and are hard and
black and about three quarters of an inch in length. They are
easily separated from the flesh.
A chemical analysis of the fruit gives the following figures:
Water
Protein
Fat
Sugar
Mineral matter
Fiber
75.00	per cent
0.87	“	“
0.55	<~ft	“
20.00	“	“
1.00	“	“
1.60	“	I﻿234
RATIONAL DIET
The sugar is composed of saccharose, dextrose and levulose.
The sapodilla is rich in potash, lime and chlorine; it also contains
a small amount of acid.
The common name sapodilla, by which the fruit is known in
Florida, is taken from the Spanish zapotillo, meaning small zap-
ote. In Mexico the usual name is chicozapote, often abbreviated
to chico.
Experiments have shown that the fruit can be shipped suc-
cessfully, if properly packed. The skin is thin and delicate and
the fully ripe fruit is injured very easily; but if picked while
still firm in texture, it does not begin to soften for several days.
THE SAPOTE
The sapote (calocarpum mammosum) is another of the impor-
tant fruits of Central American lowlands. It is this fruit that is
said to have kept Cortez with his army alive on his famous march
from Mexico City to Honduras. The tree often attains a height of
60 feet and more, with a thick trunk and short branches. The fruit
is oval in form, from three to six inches long, and has a thick and
woody skin of russet brown color. The flesh is firm, salmon pink
to reddish-brown in color, and finely granular in texture. The
large elliptic seed can be removed as easily as that of a free stone
peach or avocado.
In chemical analysis it resembles the sapodilla, but it is sweeter,
and lacks acid.
Outside of its native area, the sapote is grown in the West
Indies, South America, and in the Philippines. In Cuba it is
particularly abundant and the fruit is highly esteemed. Experi-
ments in cultivating the sapote is southeastern Florida have not
been successful. In the different districts the fruit is known under
various names. In the French West Indies it is known as grosse
sapote, in Cuba as mamey Colorado, in southern Mexico and Cen-
tral America as zapote, (derived from the Aztec name, tzapotl)
and in the Philippines as chico-mamey.
The Green Sapote (calocarpum viride), common in the Guate-
malan highlands, is also found in Honduras and Costa Rica.
It is superior in flavor to its congener the sapote, but it is much more
limited in its distribution.﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
235
THE WHITE SAPOTE
The white sapote (casimiroa edulis) is a common fruit of the
Mexican and Central American highlands where it ranks among
the principal cultivated fruits. Outside of this region it is not
well known, although, in recent years, it has to a small extent been
cultivated in Southern California and Florida.
The tree is medium-sized, erect or spreading, having palmately
compound leaves, small inconspicuous flowers and yellowish-green
fruits, the size of an orange. The fruits have a thin membraneous
skin, yellowish flesh of soft melting texture, sweet or slightly
bitter flavor, and one to five large oval elliptic seeds.
An analysis of the fruit made at the University of California
shows it to contain:
The sour-sop (annona muricata), Spanish guanábana, is a
small tree, slender in growth and rarely more than 20 feet high.
It is strictly tropical and succeeds best in the tropical lowlands.
The leaves are elliptic in form, commonly 3 to 6 inches long, leath-
ery in texture and glossy. The fruit is the largest of the annonas,
varying from 3x/2 to 12 inches in length. Specimens weighing five
pounds are not uncommon, and much larger ones have been re-
ported. It is heart-shaped or oblong conical in form, deep green
in color, with numerous short spines on the surface. The skin
has a very bitter flavor. The flesh is white, having the appearance
of wet cotton, but very juicy and highly aromatic. Numerous
brown seeds, much like those of the cherimoya, are embedded in
it. The flavor suggests that of the pineapple and the mango. The
fruit is highly esteemed for making cooling summer beverages.
In the West Indies a very popular drink Champola de Guanábana,
is made by macerating the fruit with sugar, diluting with water,
and straining off the pulp.
Water
Protein
74.74	per	cent
0.87	“	P
21.75	“	“
0.55 “
1.62	V	«
0.47	“	“
Total sugars
Fat
Starch
Mineral matter
THE SOUB-SOP﻿236
RATIONAL DIET
The chemical analysis of the edible portion of the fruit shows
on an average:
Water	80.00	per t i
Protein	1.65	
Fat	0.50	t <
Sugar	14.00	< i
Fiber	1.50	< <
Mineral matter	0.86	i i
Acid	0.50	
The sour-sop is indigenous to the West Indies, as well as to the
mainland of South America. At present it is more popular in
Cuba than in any other part of the tropics. In the United States,
it can be grown only in southern Florida, where with the proper
protection it thrives at Miami and even as far north as Palin Beach.
The tree, if grown from seed comes into bearing when three to four
years old.
THE SWEET-SOP
The sweet-sop (annona squamosa), also called sugar-apple,
does not attain the size of either the sour-sop or the cherimoya.
The tree is also smaller than that of most other species of the an-
nonas, its maximum height being 15 to 20 feet. The fruit is round,
heart-shaped, ovate or conical, 2 to 3 inches in diameter, and yellow-
ish in color. The surface is tuberculated and covered with a whit-
ish bloom. The pulp is white, custard-like, sweet and slightly acid-
ulous in flavor, but it is not equal to the cherimoya in delicious-
ness. The carpels, each of which normally contains a brown seed,
the size of a small bean, cohere loosely or not at all, differing in
that respect from the cherimoya, in which it is difficult to distin-
guish earpellary divisions in the flesh.
The chemical composition of the sweet-sop is similar to that of
the cherimoya. Alice R. Thompson, who has analyzed the fruit in
Hawaii, has found it to contain:
Water	75.12 per cent
Protein	1.53 “ “
Fat	0.54 “ “
Total sugars	18.15 “ “
Fiber	1.22 “ “
Mineral matter	0.80 “ “
Fruit acids	0.12 1 1
The sweet-sop is indigenous to tropical America. It also grows
abundantly in India. It is a popular fruit in the lowlands of Mexi-﻿FRUITS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
237
co. It is likewise found in the Philippines and Hawaii. In Austra-
lia it is grown throughout a considerable part of coastal Queens-
land. It has been grown successfully in southern Florida, from
Punta Gorda on the west coast and Palm Beach on the east to Key
West.
TEE STAR-APPLE
The Star-apple (chrysophyllum cainoto) is a common door-
yard tree in the West Indies. It is popular in Cuba where it is
also cultivated for its ornamental value. On the deep, rich soils
of the Island, the tree sometimes reaches 50 feet in height, although
in southern Florida, it rarely exceeds 30 feet. The leaves are oval
about four inches in length, deep green and glossy above, and
golden brown, with a sheen like that of satin, beneath. The small
flowers are purplish-white in color. The fruit attains the size of
a small apple, averaging 7 ounces in weight. The surface is smooth,
somewhat glossy, dull purple in some varieties, light green in oth-
ers. It has two distinct kinds of pulp; the inner one, a white
gelatinous mass containing the small black seeds, is the edible por-
tion, constituting only one-third of the fruit, the outer fibrous pur-
ple portion not being very palatable. When the fruit is cut in
halves, the segments present a star-like appearance, hence the
name. Both kinds of pulp are sweet, but are lacking in acidity.
An analysis made by Alice R. Thompson in Hawaii shows the
ripe fruit to contain:
Water	88.50 per	cent
Protein	2.35 “	< <
Fat	1.38 fl	l C
Total sugars	4.40 “	t (
Fiber	0.85 “	( l
Mineral matter	0.40 “	i (
Acids	0.12 1	( <
The tree grows wild throughout the West Indies and in
Central America. It is also cultivated in these countries, as well
as in South America, Mexico, southern Florida, and to a limited
extent, in Hawaii.
THE TAMARIND
The tamarind (tamarindus indica), like the carob, is the fruit
of a leguminous tree. The fruit is a dark brown pod, from one
to six inches long and from three-quarters to one inch in width.
Small indentations on the pod roughly mark the location of the﻿238
KATIONAL DIET
seeds within. The exterior skin is thin and very brittle. Within
there is a thick, dark-colored pasty material closely surrounding
the seed sacks and joined to the stem of the pod by several coarse
fibers. This paste constitutes the edible portion of the fruit, and
is so intensely sour in taste that the 30 per cent or more of sugar
it contains is entirely masked and can be detected only by a slightly
sweet after-taste. In fact, the tamarind is remarkable in that it
contains a very high content of both acid and sugar. The com-
position, according to Dr. Wiley, is as follows:
Water	47.70	per	cent
Protein	1.36	“	“
Sugars	31.43	“	“
Mineral matter 1.56	“	“
Acids	6.03	“	“
The content of silicon is especially high.
The fruit is imported mostly from the East and West Indies,
and is used in making refreshing summer beverages. Tamarind
whey is made by mixing one ounce of the pulp with one and one-
half pints of warm milk, and is a palatable and nourishing bever-
age.
The tamarind is a native of tropical Africa and Southern Asia.
It has long been cultivated in India and was easily introduced into
tropical America. It has been successfully grown in southern Flor-
ida, and as far north as the bay region of Tampa.﻿CHAPTER III
NUTS
Next to fruits, nuts are the most essential foods in a well-
balanced and wholesome diet. Nuts are highly nutritious, in
fact, they are the most concentrated foods of nature, in their
dry state containing on an average:
With the exception of the chestnut, nuts contain but a small
percentage of starch. As in all seeds, the mineral matter of nuts
contains a large amount of phosphoric acid, potash and magnesia,
while they are deficient in sodium, lime and chlorine. They should,
therefore, always be eaten with fruits or green leaf vegetables to
make up for this deficiency.
Nuts are often used as a dessert after a heavy meal. In this
case they are harmful, as they require the full action of the
digestive juices. Combined with fruits or vegetable salads, nuts
make a complete meal in themselves, and their indigestibility in
most cases must be attributed to lack of wisdom in the choice of
food eaten with them. If nuts are thoroughly masticated and used
in small quantities, and well combined, they are easily digested and
utilized by the human body.
Attention has been directed to some interesting experiments
of Professor Myer E. Jaffa, of the University of California. The
nutritive value of the fruit and nut diet was demonstrated
most clearly with a young University student, who, though
entirely unaccustomed to such fare, gradually changed from an
ordinary mixed diet to one of fruit and nuts, without apparent
loss of health or strength. He was then able for eight days to
perform his usual college duties, and during a part of the time to
perform heavy physical work on exclusive fruitarian diet, with-
out material loss of weight.
It should also be mentioned here that in all cases w'here the
Water
Protein
Fat
Mineral matter
5. per cent
20. 0
50. “	“
2. “	I
239﻿240
RATIONAL DIET
diet was limited in variety, consisting of combinations of only one
or two fruits with one kind of nuts, the subject complained of a
constant craving for something else such as green vegetables or
cereals. At such times it was found that the coefficients of digesti-
bility were lower than those recorded when he ate vegetables,
or cereals, which made the diet more appetizing.
Scientific investigations prove that all the nuts, especially in
the form of unroasted nut butter, furnish a relatively high amount
of basic amino acids, and that nut proteins are of a high biological
value. The investigators observed normal growth and sleek appear-
ance of young rats on diets in which the coeoanut and peanut
furnished the sole source of protein. Osborne and Mendel have
maintained rats for long periods, in which the protein of the diet-
ary was derived from the Brazil nut.
Professor F. A. Cajori, who conducted a number of experiments
at the Sheffield laboratory, Tale University, observed satisfactory
growth in young rats on diets in which the almond, English wal-
nut, filbert, and pine nut, respectively, furnished the essential
source of protein in the ration.
Normal growth can be secured when rats are fed upon other-
wise adequate diets, containing the almond, English walnut, black
walnut, Brazil nut, chestnut, or pecan, as the sole source of water
soluble vitamin. Animals that have declined on a diet devoid of
water soluble vitamin, promptly recover when the almond, English
walnut, filbert, hickory nut, pine nut, chestnut and pecan were in-
troduced. These observations indicate that nuts are sources of
abundant quantities of water soluble vitamin. The protein of the
almond, English walnut, pine nut, or filbert, furnishes the necessary
nitrogenous compounds for the elaboration of milk in female rats.
Likewise, Professor Hoobler has concluded from his experi-
ments that diets containing almonds, English walnuts, pecans and
peanut butter as a source of protein, are as suitable for milk pro-
duction as diets which furnish protein from animal sources. In
other words, nuts seem to furnish the nitrogenous compounds nec-
essary for milk elaboration as effectively as any other type of pro-
tein. Furthermore, nuts or nut butter, made from the unroasted
whole nut, furnish us the necessary proteins and fats combined
with organic salts in the purest form, and, therefore, are superior﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES	241
to the extracted or isolated fats, whether of animal or vegetable
origin.
These conclusions are confirmed by Professor Cajori, who found
in his metabolic experiments on a number of men, that the proteins
and fats of nuts were generally absorbed to a large extent. In no
case did the quantity of nitrogen or carbohydrates in the
feces indicate that these nuts are especially resistant to the di-
gestive functions of the alimentary canal when the nuts were
eaten in an emulsified form, as nut butters.
Emulsification of nuts is artificially obtained by machinery to
a degree reached only by the most careful mastication. As most
people have more or less defective teeth, it is seldom that the en-
tire edible nut is reduced by mere mastication to such a state
as to contain no hard particles when it enters the stomach. Even
small particles of such concentrated foods as nuts are not easily
penetrated by the digestive juices, and, consequently, delayed
cleavage of these particles, which often pass undigested through
the alimentary canal. Experiments have proved that the coefifi-
ciency of digestibility is from 5 per cent to 10 per cent higher in
nut butter than in whole nuts, even if well masticated.
While people who have defective teeth should use nuts in the
form of nut butter, in which the fats are brought into a state of
emulsion, attention should be paid to the fact that nut butters are
frequently made from highly roasted nuts, which contain free
fatty acids and are often heavily salted. Such preparations are
not wholesome, as they overtax the liver and kidneys. Nuts that
enter into the preparation of nut butters should be dried, or evapo-
rated, at a temperature of not more than 160° F. to preserve
the vitamins and to remove sufficient moisture to make the nuts
crisp. In this condition the nuts can, by means of a nut mill, be
converted into a smooth butter, which is easily assimilated and is
superior in nutritive value to flesh food and dairy butter.
Recently there have been put on the market different varieties
of salted nuts. There appears to exist a popular belief that salt
with nuts prevents the digestive disturbances often arising from
eating them at inopportune times. To those who have acquired
the salt eating habit, nothing seems palatable without the addition
of this condiment, but no proofs have been forthcoming which dem-
onstrate that the digestibility of nuts is improved by the use of salt.﻿242
RATIONAL DIET
On the contrary, salt retards the digestion of nuts or, indeed, any
food.
The real nut butters, manufactured from the entire nut, must
be always distinguished from the so-called margarine butters
made of vegetable oils, such as eocoanut, peanut and cottonseed
oils, which are extracted and purified fats with the addition of
some skim milk and about three per cent of salt, and sold under
various trade names. Such products may be used occasionally in
culinary ways, but they can by no means take the place of the
tissue-building nut butters, made from the entire nuts and con-
taining the organic salts and vitamins necessary to promote growth.
The total amount spent for nuts by the inhabitants of the
United States is still very small compared with the amounts spent
for meats, cereals and dairy products, owing largely to the fact
that people have not yet learned the proper use of these most con-
centrated food products of nature. Of the fifty million dollars
paid annually for nuts, about thirty-five million dollars’ worth are
imported, and only fifteen million dollars’ worth grown in the
United States. There are great possibilities for the extension of
nut culture in the United States, especially for the walnut, chest-
nut, filbert and hickory nut. "When people realize the great nutri-
tive and hygienic value of nuts and learn to combine them properly
with less concentrated foods, they will find their place as a part
of our regular diet, and not serve merely as an ornament of the
table during the holiday season. With our varied climatic and
soil conditions in the United States we should certainly provide not
only for our present needs, but also take care of the increase of pop-
ulation.
Between 1900 and 1910 the American production of nuts in-
creased two and a half times as quickly as the population, yet
in addition to this larger home production there was a large in-
crease in nut imports. In 1910 the imports amounted to over sixty
million pounds, valued at over twelve million dollars, while in 1920
the nut imports rose to over fifty million dollars, although the yield
of American nuts increased largely since 1910. Compared with
the enormous amount the American people pay annually for meat—
nearly three billion dollars—the sum paid for nuts seems very
small. For every dollar that goes to the purchase of meat, only﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VAKIETIES
243
two cents are spent for nuts. The time will surely come when
these figures will be reversed, much to the benefit of the health and
longevity of man.
In the following pages the different varieties of nuts, their
origin, cultivation and nutritive value will be fully described.
THE ACORN
The acorn (quercus), the fruit of various species of the oak
tree, has been used as food for a long time by the Indians of the
Pacific Coast, from Puget Sound down to old Mexico. They had a
process of removing the excess tannin, similar to that used in
treating olives. The bitterness can also be removed by a slight
process of fermentation, for which purpose the acorns are ground
into a powder, and mixed with water or milk. This method sac-
rifices less of the nutritive value than that of leaching.
While the acorn has less protein than cereals, it has a larger
per cent of fat, and acorn meal is, therefore, often used in combi-
nation with corn meal or Avheat flour.
In the August, 1918, issue of the National Geographic Maga-
zine, Mr. C. Hart Merriam, ex-chief of the U. S. Biological Survey,
says that one part acorn to four parts corn, or wheat, makes pala-
table bread and muffins, adding the fat of the acorns to the cereals.
John Muir, “the poet of the Sierras,” during his arduous tramps
in the mountains of California, often carried the hard dry acorn
bread of the Indians, and considered it a most compact and strength
producing food.
On some parts of the Mediterranean coast occasional species
of the oak tree produce acorns as edible and nutritious as chest-
nuts. Such oak trees are often grown in grafted orchards, espe-
cially on the Spanish island of Majorca and adjacent portions of the
mainland, where as large a proportion as twenty per cent of the
food of the poor people consists of sweet acorns. A coffee substi-
tute is also made from the roasted and ground acorns.
Although the acorn may not become popular as a food product
in the United States, at least in the immediate future, the fact re-
mains that the oak tree is one of the heaviest producers of a fruit
rich in starch and fat.﻿244
KATIONAL DIET
An analysis of the unbleached acorn meal shows:
"Water
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Fiber
Mineral matter
8.70	per	cent
5.70	“	“
10.60	“	“
65.00	“	“
6.63	“	“
2.00	I	“
The mineral matter consists mostly of phosphate of potash, mag-
nesia and an appreciable amount of iron.
According to Dr. Merriam, there are in the United States
more than 50 species of oaks, of which 30 grow in the Eastern
States, and about 15 in the State of California. To the native
Indians of the Golden State, the acorn is, and always has been,
the staff of life, furnishing the material for their daily mush and
breads, and when it is remembered that the Indian population of
California at the time of the establishment of the missions num-
bered not less than 300,000, and that acorns were universally eaten,
and in most cases were the principal article of diet, some idea
may be had of the vast quantity and high food value of those an-
nually consumed.
The almond (prunus communis) is supposed to be native of
Persia. It is cultivated throughout the countries bordering the
Mediterranean Sea, which now supply the bulk of the world’s de-
mand. California is now the leading almond growing state of the
United States, where the total acreage, bearing and non-bearing,
is 100,000 acres.
The importation of both shelled and unshelled almonds from
Europe in 1919-1920 amounted to over 33 million pounds, while
the California production of the same years was about 10 million
pounds. The average production of almonds is about 1,000 pounds
per acre. Intensive, intelligent cultivation would doubtless in-
crease the production after a few years to 1,500 pounds per acre.
By 1925 California should be able to supply all the almonds con-
sumed in this country.
The almond resembles the peach somewhat in manner of growth
and character of blossoms and leaves, but the wood is much harder
and the tree is longer lived under equally favorable conditions.
The fruit, instead of having a thick fleshy pericarp, or hull, as in
THE ALMOND﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
245
the ease of the peach, has a thin, leathery pericarp, which splits
on ripening, and generally opens when dry, exposing the nut in
the shell. The principal varieties grown in California are:
The California Papershell, a light bearing variety in most
locations. This defect is partially offset by the fact that the waste
in shelling the nuts is only about 30 per cent. The nut has a good
flavor and is moderately sweet.
The Drake was originated by H. C. Drake, Suisun, California,
on his home place, forty years ago. The tree is a heavy producer.
The nuts are of medium size and have a thick, but soft shell. The
pits are rather small, but numerous, two small kernels often being
found in one shell.
The I. X. L. Almond, originated by A. T. Hatch, of Suisun,
California, is one of the best for marketing in the shell because of
its attractive appearance and uniform size and shape. It is a soft
shell variety, light colored, which has a tendency to break open at
the pointed end. The kernels are large, ovate, very broad and flat-
tened, and of fair quality.
The Languedoc, one of the oldest varieties propagated in Cal-
ifornia, is now largely displaced by other varieties. The shell is
hard and the kernels angular, plump, smooth, or slightly wrinkled.
The Ne Plus Ultra, another variety originated by A. T. Hatch,
is chiefly valuable because of its attractive outside appearance and
general large size. The shell is thick, corky or crumbly, sometimes
very ragged. The kernel is reddish brown, oblong, flattened, some-
what wrinkled, and has a mild sweet flavor.
The Nonpareil, the most valuable of the commercially grown
varieties of California, is the best known of the three “Hatch
varieties.’' It is chiefly valuable because of its excellence for
shelling purposes, and its uniform bearing qualities from year to
year, while it is comparatively hardy and resistant to unfavorable
conditions. It has a so-called paper shell, containing an oval, broad,
flattened kernel of large size, of an oily, sweet flavor and excellent
quality.
The Jordan, a European variety, grown in Spain, is imported
to the United States in large quantities. This variety cannot be
recommended for commercial growth in California, because of the
great difficulty in shelling, which has to be done mostly by hand,
and in which we are unable to compete with European labor. An-﻿246
RATIONAL DIET
other objection is the early blooming habit of the tree and its sus-
ceptibility to frost. The shell is hard, thick and bony; the kernel
is large, completely filling the shell cavity. The flavor is rich, oily,
and sweet, and the meat of very excellent quality, all of which
makes it one of the highest priced nuts on the market. At present
the Jordan can be recommended only for home orchards.
The Bitter Almond, which is chiefly grown in Morocco, Sic-
ily and Southern France, is not very injurious when fresh, hut
it has a disagreeable taste, and this, in addition to the fact that one
of the products of its decomposition is hydrocyanic or prussic acid,
renders it undesirable. The bitter almond is used in large quanti-
ties in the manufacture of ‘ ‘ bitter almond oil. ’ ’ Much of the prus-
sic acid is removed in the process of cooking, and small quantities
of this oil may be used for flavoring.
There are about fifty more varieties cultivated throughout the
southern part of the United States, but at present California sup-
plies by far the largest percentage of the home grown almonds,
since its soil and climatic conditions are best adapted to commercial
production. The sweet almond from a dietetic and hygienic point
of view, is one of the best nuts. It contains no starch. The fat is
composed of olein, with some palmitin and stearin. The average
protein content is about 20 per cent; fat content, 50 to 55 per cent.
The carbohydrates are made up of about 6 per cent sugar, 3
per cent gum, and from 6 to 8 per cent of fiber and cellulose.
The mineral matter is rich in phosphate of potash, lime, magnesia,
and iron, but deficient in sodium and chlorine.
The composition of the almond is given in the following tables,
in figures of per cent:
	Eubopean	California	Blanched
Water	4.42	6.90	4.00
Protein	17.28	24.00	17.68
Fat	54.30	54.00	54.75
Carbohydrates	18.64	10.00	19.19
Cellulose	2.58	3.00	1.60
Mineral matter	2.78	3.00	2.70
Almonds in the form of almond cream (almond butter diluted
with water) make an excellent dressing for vegetables and fruit
salads, and provide a most wholesome, delicious, and well-balanced
combination, easily digested and assimilated. Almond milk, made﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
247
from almond cream by adding water and a little honey, may oc-
casionally be given to infants and invalids.
To improve their appearance and increase their commercial
value, almonds are frequently sulphured. They are spread out
on wooden trays and put into air tight compartments, which are
connected by pipes with a boiler. Steam is first turned on for a
period of twenty minutes. This opens the pores of the shells,
making them more susceptible to the bleaching effect of the sulphur.
Then about one pound of sulphur is placed below each set of trays
and ignited. For another twenty minutes the almonds are treated
by sulphur fumes which combine with the moisture of the almonds
into sulphurous acid. As in the case of sulphured fruits, this
process is mainly employed to please the eye of the American
public, at the cost of the hygienic value of the product.
THE BEECHNUT
The beechnut (fagus ferruginea) belongs to the oak family.
The genus comprises about fifteen species of handsome deciduous
and evergreen trees, or shrubs, very widely distributed throughout
the temperate and colder regions of the Northern and Southern
Hemispheres, but the nut has never been a commercial article in the
United States. The beechnut is a small triangular kernel, which
resembles the chestnut in shape. It contains about 20 per cent pro-
tein, 50 per cent fat and 20 per cent carbohydrates, mostly in the
form of starch and cellulose; and 3.7 per cent mineral matter, con-
sisting of a large amount of lime, magnesia, iron, and more sodium
and chlorine than any of the other nuts. Like the chestnuts the
beechnuts are rendered more digestible if slightly roasted or boiled.
THE CASTANOPSIS
The Castanopsis (castanea sempervirens), also called golden
chinkapin and California Chestnut, is a genus of evergreen trees,
intermediate between the oak and the chestnut. This handsome
broad-leaved tree is indigenous to the elevated regions, from Mon-
terey, California, northward to the Columbia River in Oregon. It
is also common in the Sierra Nevadas at elevations of six thousand
feet, but in its southern limits rarely below ten thousand feet
elevation. In the warmer and drier regions of California it is a﻿248
RATIONAL DIET
mere shrub two to six feet high, and these dwarf forms have, in
some instances, been described as varieties.
The small, conical nut is slightly triangular, with a rather firm,
brittle shell, not fibrous as with the acorn and chestnut. The burrs
are usually produced singly but sometimes there are several on
a twig, and wThen mature, instead of opening by valves, as in the
true chestnut, they break up irregularly. The kernels are sweet
and of excellent flavor, and are sought after by birds and squirrels.
The castanopsis remains during winter in a partly developed stage,
usually ripening the second year in midsummer.
THE CHESTNUT
The European chestnut (castanea sativa) is supposed to be in-
digenous to Asia Minor, Caucasus and northern Africa, and from
these countries it was introduced and became naturalized through-
out the greater portion of temperate Europe, where it has been
cultivated from time immemorial. The Romans are supposed to
have distributed it northward through France and Great Britain,
and in the latter country there were trees centuries ago of so
large size that many of the English authors claimed they were
indigenous. All the early Roman writers who deal with rural
affairs, mention the chestnut as one of their valuable trees.
At present the cultivation of the chestnut consists largely in
grafting good varieties upon trees that produce inferior fruit,
for which purpose the single kernel variety is preferred to the
wild species, which contains two or three kernels. The chestnut
is not yet produced in large quantities, and a certain amount is an-
nually imported from Italy and Spain. There are but few chest-
nuts grown in California.
In the south of France and in Corsica a large portion of the
population during the winter live chiefly on chestnuts and foods
made from chestnut flour, and show remarkable health and vigor.
There is probably no other country where chestnut trees are more
plentiful than on the island of Corsica. The amount of wealth
represented by these trees in that comparatively poor island is
shown by the fact that a few years ago chestnuts aggregating in
value one million dollars wrere exported from there.
The chestnut is also an important crop in Italy, where the yield
in 1916 was 696,244 tons, and forms one of the chief food stuffs﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
249
of the working class. Chestnuts also figure largely in the food
resources of the farming population of Spain, Switzerland and
Germany. They are eaten raw or roasted, or ground into flour.
The Corsican mountaineer eats his chestnuts fresh, boiled, roasted,
made into mush, baked on the griddle, or in a loaf. They take the
place, to a large extent, of cereals.
The tree is prolific; it is claimed that the average annual yield
of good mature chestnut orchard land is from two to three thou-
sand pounds per acre.
Aside from its desirability as an orchard tree, the chestnut
may be commended as suitable for hillsides, or as a shade tree for
highways, and should be more widely planted in the western por-
tion of the United States where the climatic conditions are favor-
able. Trees that were planted in the Sierra Nevada foot hills
about twenty years ago and are now fifteen inches in diameter at
the base of the trunk and forty feet high, are reported to bear a
barrel of nuts per tree regularly.
An analysis of the dried chestnut shows on an average:
This proves that chestnuts surpass the best of cereals in nutri-
tive value, also in the yield per acre. Moreover, the trees can be
grown on the hillsides, where the cultivation of cereals would be
unprofitable.
The chestnut differs widely from the other common nuts, as it
contains much less oil and protein, and much more of the carbo-
hydrates, especially starch, which is almost entirely wanting in
many nuts. The mineral matter of the chestnut consists largely
of phosphate of potash, magnesia, with an appreciable amount of
sodium and iron.
Mention has already been made of chestnut flour which is for
sale in many of the Italian grocery stores of the United States,
and is largely used for culinary purposes. In some parts of Italy
it is used extensively for making bread and cake.
The whole nuts are eaten in a variety of ways, boiled in water
Cellulose
Mineral matter
Water
Fat
Protein
Water
6.0	per	cent
8.0	“	“
10.0	“	“
70.0	“	“
3.0	“	“
2.4	“	I﻿250
RATIONAL DIET
without hulling; hulled and boiled, or roasted. The first method
is undoubtedly the best, as it preserves the organic salts. Some-
times dough made from chestnut flour and water is spread between
chestnut leaves and baked in an oven or between hot stones.
Extensive experiments have been made in regard to the digest-
ibility of cooked chestnuts, showing a high digestion coefficient;
but the raw chestnut starch, which is found to be comparatively
indigestible, suggests the desirability of boiling or roasting the nut
in its hull, thus rendering it more palatable. Boiled chestnuts with
green leaf vegetables constitute a nourishing and satisfying meal,
and, in many ways, take the place of cereals.
Several other species of the chestnut may be briefly men-
tioned here:
The American Chestnut (castanea dentata) is a very large
and common tree in the middle and northern states, living to a
great age. The leaves are oblong, lanceolate, with rather coarse
teeth, each terminating with a feeble prickle or spine, smooth on
both sides. The burrs are thickly covered with sharp, branching
spines a half inch long or less, opening by four valves or divi-
sions when mature. There are usually three nuts in each burr, con-
taining sweet and fine grained kernels.
The Chinkapin Chestnut (castanea pumita) is a medium-sized
tree twenty to forty feet high, growing in rich soils in New Jersey,
Southern Pennsylvania and southward to Georgia and sparingly
westward to Arkansas. The leaves are similar in shape to those of
the American chestnut but they are green above and covered
with a fine hair beneath. The burrs which are generally two-valved,
grow in clusters. The nuts are solitary, ovid, pointed, with a dark
brown, polished shell. The kernels are fine grained, sweet and of
excellent flavor. The chinkapin is resistant to blight, and some of
the hybrids retain this resistant quality while bearing nuts of good
size and high quality.
The Japanese Chestnut (castanea japónica) is a tree of mod-
erate height, rarely exceeding fifty feet in Japan. The growth is
slender in comparison to the European or American chestnut, and
the habit is decidedly bushy, the new growth of the season usually
producing a number of lateral twigs late in summer. The nuts are
large, usually three in a burr. The shell is thin, and of a light
brown color. The inner skin is thin, fibrous, but not as bitter as in﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES	251
European varieties, while the kernel is somewhat finer grained
and sweeter.
The Water Chestnut, or horn chestnut (trapa bispinosa) may
also be mentioned here. The tubers, or corms, of this plant are
widely used in China and Japan, and they are also for sale at Chi-
nese shops in the United States. They usually grow wild in moist
places and are not cultivated. They are sweet and juicy when
fresh, and resemble the chestnut in size and flavor, having a brown
skin and white interior. The carbohydrates are made up of equal
parts of starch and sugar, which give them a sweet taste and
make them valuable as a raw food. The composition of the fresh
water chestnut is as follows:
Water	77.30 per
Fat	0.15 “
Protein	1.53 “
Sugar	8.40 “
Starch	7.34 “
Fibre	0.94 “
Mineral matter	1.20 “
The Water Chinquapin (nelumbium luteum), frequently
called “water chestnut,’’ is the seed of the large yellow water
lily, a very common plant in small ponds in the southern and east-
ern part of the United States. The seeds are about the size and
shape of small acorns and are produced in a large top-shaped, fleshy
receptacle. They are edible, and are supposed to have been ex-
tensively used as food by the Indians. Another variety is the
nelumbo nucifera with rose colored flowers, the Egyptian bean
of Pythagoras, or the lotus held sacred by the Hindus. It has
been used as a food by the Egyptians from remote antiquity, and
is much esteemed where it is cultivated, especially in China, for its
edible seeds, roots, leaf-stalks and flower-stalks. The seeds re-
semble large acorns in size and shape and are said to have a more
delicate flavor than almonds. The root contains much starch and
Chinese arrowroot is said to be obtained from it.
THE HAZELNUT
The hazelnut, or filbert (corylus) is found wild in most Euro-
pean countries, and is cultivated in all temperate regions of the
earth, especially in Asiatic countries, bordering on the Black Sea.
In the United States the native hazel bushes produce a considerable﻿1
252	RATIONAL DIET
quantity of hazel nuts, but a larger variety of the same species,
known as the filbert, is imported from Spain and from the port of
Trebizond, on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea. Another
variety, known as the cob-nut, which is broader and shorter than
the filbert, but not so fine in quality, is grown in Kent and Sussex,
England.
On the Pacific Coast, the most favorable sections for the culti-
vation of the filbert are the slopes of the Coast ranges, from Santa
Cruz northward as far as the Canadian border, where sufficient
moisture is assured without irrigation.
The edible portion of the dried filbert has the following average
composition:
Water
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Mineral matter
5.0	per	cent
15.0	“
64.0	“	“
13.0	“	“
2.4	“	“
The latter is especially rich in lime, magnesia, and iron.
THE PISTACHIO
The pistachio (pistacio vera) a native of Syria, has long been
cultivated in the Mediterranean countries, whence comes the bulk
of these nuts used in the United States. The pistachio was intro-
duced into the Southern States during the middle of the last
century, hut thus far has not been grown extensively. Small
quantities of this nut have been grown successfully in the warm
interior valleys of California.
The fruiting of the pistachio depends upon pollination, and
one male tree is necessary to six or seven bearing trees.
The kernel, which has the shape of a small almond, is greenish
in color and has a mild, individual flavor, not altogether unlike
that of almonds. In the United States it finds its largest use in
the manufacture of confectionery, for which purpose it is valued
for flavor and color. The composition of the nut is as follows:
Water
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Mineral matter
4.2 per cent
22.6	‘‘	“
54.5	“	‘2
15.6	“	“
3.1	“	I﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
THE HICKORY NUT
253
The hickory nut (carya) is one of the finest wild nuts of the
United States. The early white settlers of the Atlantic States
found the nuts in common use among the Indians, who gathered
and stored them in large quantities in the fall for food during the
winter months. It is a deplorable fact that those settlers lacked
appreciation for such choice gifts of nature, and in their desire to
secure land for the cultivation of cereals, ruthlessly destroyed the
splendid forests, without thinking of preserving trees that would
furnish food for themselves and succeeding generations. Indeed,
as hickories yield superior timber for various agricultural and
other implements, as well as for fuel, they were often utilized in
advance of the general clearing of woodlands. It is to be greatly
deprecated that with the many millions of dollars expended by the
U. S. government to encourage the planting, preservation and cul-
tivation of forest trees, no special appropriation has been made for
the nut bearing trees, which are really the great food producers
of nature.
Professor C. S. Sargent, a well known horticulturist, describes
sixteen species of hickory nuts, and, in addition, a large number
of varieties due to environment and others due to hybridization.
Another species of hickory has been found in Mexico making seven-
teen species for the North American Continent. Of the two bo-
tanical names suggested for the hickory, “hickoria” and “carya”
the latter has been finally adopted. The name “Hickory,” there-
fore, is collective and generally applies to different species found in
the different parts of the United States. In the northeast it applies
to the shagbark (carya ovata), in Missouri it means the “shell
bark” (carya laciniosa). Then there are a number of hickories
which have nuts with a bitter skin, such as the bitternut (carya
cordiformis), bitter pecan hickory (c. texana) and water hickory
(c. aquatica). The name “pignuts” is generally applied to two
species (c. glabra and c. ovalis). The species which has come into
great prominence lately is the pecan (carya pecan) which will be
described under a separate heading.
The shagbark hickory derives its name from the peculiar shape
of rough, shaggy bark which peels off in strips as the tree advances
in age. The nuts of this tree were highly esteemed by the Indians.
William Bartram, in the account of his travels through the South-﻿254
RATIONAL DIET
era Atlantic States, from 1773 to 1778, published in Philadelphia
in 1791, says, in referring to these nuts:
“They are held in great estimation by the present generation
of Indians. I have seen above a hundred bushels of these nuts be-
longing to one family. They pound them to pieces, and then cast
them into boiling water, which, after passing through fine strainers,
preserves the most oily part of the liquid, this they call by a
name which signifies hickory milk. It is as sweet and rich as fresh
cream, and is an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially in
hominy and corn cakes.”
The shagbark hickory has a natural range from the Atlantic
coast to the Mississippi River, although it is at its best north of
Tennessee and the Carolinas.
The shell bark hickory produces large nuts with a kernel equal
to that of the shagbark in quality. Since the nuts have, as a rule,
a very thick shell, the extraction of the meats offers some diffi-
culties. There has been but little accomplished in the improvement
of the shell bark or in perpetuating the superior varieties discov-
ered, on account of their great variation when grown from seed,
and the difficulty of propagating them by budding and grafting.
The meat of the shell bark hickory is largely used by con-
fectioners and a large trade is done in the kernels, an important
feature of the nuts being their “cracking quality.” In this re-
spect, the kernels are equal, if not superior, to those of the Persian
walnut.
One of the soft shell varieties of the shell bark hickory is
known as Hale’s Paper Shell. It originated on the farm of Mr.
Henry Hale, of Ridgewood, New Jersey, and the first tree is now
over one hundred years old. It is about seventy-five feet high and
nearly two feet in diameter. The nuts are very large, while the
shell is very thin, in fact, much thinner than many pecans that
come to the northern markets. The kernels are full, plump, rich,
and delicious, with the rare feature of retaining their excellent
quality for two or more years without becoming rancid. So far
but few varieties of shell bark hickory have been dignified with a
name. Probably the first to be named was Hale’s Paper Shell.
The edible portion of the hickory contains on an average:
Water 3.7 per cent	Carbohydrates 11.4 per cent
Protein 15.4 “	“	Mineral matter 2.1 “	“
Fat 67.4 “	“﻿255
NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
TEE PECAN
The pecan (carya pecan) belongs to the species of hickory nuts
and is a native of America, being found from Indiana to Iowa in
the North, and from Tennessee to Texas in the South. It thrives
best in the rich, moist soils along the river banks. It is the hardiest
of all nut trees, being free from all ordinary tree pests and diseases
because it is of the hickory group. The lack of surface moisture,
the great enemy of most trees, is not a disadvantage to the pecan,
for it has a remarkably long tap root, which goes down so deeply
into the ground that it draws moisture from the sub-soil. Since
the blooming is late in the spring, the buds are not injured by frost.
There are three different classes of pecans: the ordinary wild
pecan, the seedling pecan, and the paper shell pecan, now being
cultivated extensively in Georgia by Elam G. Hess, Manheim,
Pennsylvania, to whom I am indebted for some of the following
data.
The ordinary wild pecan is a native to America. The earliest
French explorers found that one of the staple foods of the Indians
was this palatable nut, which grew in the forests of the South and
in northeastern Mexico. Pecan trees in the Gulf States have been
found which were over five hundred and seven hundred years old,
still yielding large crops of nuts. There are in the Southern
States wild pecan trees of which the records go back to the earliest
civilization of this continent.
The seedling pecan is the next step toward pecan perfection.
Larger than the wild pecan, and thinner shelled, it equals or sur-
passes it in flavor, depending upon the variety of seedling under
consideration. Selling at an average price of 35 to 45 cents per
pound, which is double the cost of the wild pecan, it has so much
more meat and it is so much more accessible that it is always a better
paying purchase and will gradually supplant the thick shelled,
wild pecan, which is generally brightly tinted and polished to dis-
guise its inferiority.
The paper shell pecan was developed from budded trees. It has
an air-tight shell so thin that it is easily broken in one hand by
gentle pressure. Its kernel is large, easily removed, its flavor so
much finer that anyone can immediately distinguish it from other
pecans by taste alone.
Instead of a bitter partition wall which imbeds itself in the nut﻿256
RATIONAL DIET
when it is cracked, as in the wild pecan, the paper shell pecan has
a thin, tissne-like membrane which is easily removed. In fact, in
the paper shell pecan a larger portion of the total weight of the
nnt is meat than in any other nut, with the possible exception
of the finest almond.
The only disadvantage of the paper shell pecan is the limited
supply, for there is but a small territory in which climatic and soil
conditions are right. While the walnut is raised in countries
throughout the temperate zones, the paper shell pecan seems to
flourish best within a forty mile radius around Albany, in south-
west Georgia, about one hundred miles south of Atlanta. Of the
half million budded trees in the world, two hundred forty thousand,
or practically half, are in this forty mile radius. The pecan in
this belt is one of the most dependable crops in this country, and
will doubtless: produce profitable crops for centuries to come. A
fifteen-year-old pecan orchard will yield about 2,500 pounds of
nuts per acre, worth at least $1,000, or $50 per tree. Some growers
report from 465 pounds to over 600 pounds of pecans from trees
over twenty years old.
The pecan tree is a great producer of concentrated food and
one of the most profitable and permanent investments.
While the protein content of the pecan is less than that of
other nuts, it has the highest percentage of fat of all nuts. The
composition of the edible portion is as follows:
Water	3.4 per cent
Protein	12.1 “ “
Fat	70.7 “ “
Starch and Sugar	8.5 “ “
Cellulose	3.7 “ “
Mineral matter	1.6 “ |
One pound of pecans has more than three times as much
nutritive value as the average cuts of meat. One full grown
pecan tree can easily keep an adult man constantly supplied with
more protein and fat than he needs.
At present Texas is the leading pecan producing state, with
over one million trees, mostly wild pecans. Georgia with 450,000
trees comes next, followed by Oklahoma with over 400,000 trees.
The total amount of pecan trees in all the Southern States is over
2,500,000 trees, producing more than thirty million pounds annu-
ally.﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
257
THE PINE NUT
The name “pine” (pinus) is applied to many different species
of pine trees, growing in both hemispheres. In southern Europe,
especially in Italy and southern France, the seeds of the stone-pine
(pinus pinea) have been extensively used as food from the earliest
timei. Many ancient writers refer to them as among the most
valuable products of the country. The pine nuts are called
pinocchi in Italy and Sicily, from which they are exported shelled,
in considerable quantities into the United States under the name of
pignolias. These nubs have a very soft texture and agreeable
flavor, but have a slight taste of turpentine, which can be removed
by heating the nuts for a short time, without roasting them.
In this country we have several species, bearing large, edible
seeds, known under the general name of pinons or pines. They
grow especially in the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona,
and Mexico, and are usually gathered by the Indians for commercial
purposes. They are sold in a large number of fruit stores on
the Pacific Coast. The pine-nut ha#, a rich, marrowy kernel in a
shell that varies in thickness from that of a chestnut to that of a
hard shell hazel nut.
The imported pignolias have the highest percentage of protein
of any natural food, and while the protein content of the native
pine-nut is lower, its fat content is higher than that of the im-
ported nuts.
The following table gives the chemical composition of the
pignolias, pinons and sabin pine-nuts:
Analysis op the Edible Portion in Per Cent :
	Pignolias	Pinons	Sabin
	(Imported)		Pine Nuts
Water	6.4 per cent	3.4 per	cent 5.1 per cent “ 28.1 “
Protein	33.9 “ “	14.6 “	
Fat	49.4 “ “	61.9 “	“ 53.7 “ “
Carbohydrates	6.9 “ “	17.3 “	“ 8.4 “ “
Mineral Matter	3.4 “	2.8 “	“ 4.7 “ “
The pine nuts contain a larger amount of lime than any of the
other nuts. They also contain an appreciable quantity of magnesia
and iron.
The Sabin pine (pinus sabina), a European species, seems﻿258
RATIONAL DIET
quite at home in the northeastern part of the United States, and
so does the Swiss pine (pinus cembra). The Italian stone pine
(pinus pinea) favors a little warmer climate, especially hillsides
with southern exposure, and also needs some degree of wind break
protection. There are about thirty different species of conifers of
the nut-bearing group which are to be tried out more extensively
between the Canadian border and Florida. Nut bearing conifers,
for the most part, belong to the warmer parts of the temperate
zones. They grow slowly when transplanted north of 40 degrees
latitude. The country west of the Rocky Mountains, with its mild-
er climate, seems to be especially adapted for their growth. The
sugar pine (pinus Lambertiana), for example, one of the most
magnificent forest trees of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, has rich
sugary and oily nuts, furnishing also a solid sugar from its evapo-
rated sap. The common pinon (pinus edulis) is the one principal
forest tree in Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico.
THE WALNUT
The walnut comprises about eight species, and three or four of
these are indigenous to the United States. The Latin name juglans,
first used by Pliny, is an abbreviation of Jovis glans, the nut of
Jove or Jupiter.
The best known species is the Persian walnut (juglans regia),
commonly called English walnut, although it was brought here
from Spain and France by missionaries, and most of the European
imports come from France and Italy. The different varieties of
this nut are now believed to have descended from trees native to
the southern shores of the Caspian Sea and northern Persia. It
was introduced into the Mediterranean coimtries early in the Chris-
tian era, and later into northern France, southern Germany and
England.
The wild form of this famous nut is doubtless quite different
from the varieties with which we are familiar. Two thousand
years of continuous cultivation and selection have greatly changed
the character of these nuts, as well as their habits. The nuts from
the wild trees are said to have a rather thick shell, and to be much
smaller than the improved cultivated varieties. While some old
productive English walnut trees are found throughout the East-
ern and Middle States, this variety seems to have succeeded better﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
259
in California, especially in Southern California and the coast
countries, where large commercial orchards have now been planted.
Oregon is following California rapidly as a nut growing state.
The California black walnut (juglans Californica) is now chief-
ly used as a resistant stock for the English walnut, and either
grafting or budding is resorted to. The best known varieties of
English walnut are the Santa Barbara, Soft Shell, Placentia, Per-
fection, (sold as budded walnuts), Eureka and the Franquette,
the last a very large elongated oval nut with rather thick shell,
but containing meat of high quality.
Unfortunately, the general market in the United States seems
to call for bleached walnuts, which are more attractive to the eye.
Sulphuring, however, depreciates the aroma of the nut and leaves
the kernel with a lowered quality. Most of the California growers
are using now harmless cleansing materials and for that reason
will hold the discriminating trade. It is certain that English
walnuts of highest quality sent to the Eastern market unbleached,
will eventually command a higher price than sulphured nuts.
Walnut orchards in full bearing should produce from 1,000
to 1,200 pounds of nuts per acre, while extraordinary yields are
as high as 2,000 pounds. The California Walnut Growers’ Associ-
ation announced for 1922 a walnut crop estimated at 48 million
pounds, valued at $15,000,000. In addition, 50 million pounds
were imported into the United States during the nine months pre-
ceding this report.
The black walnut (juglans nigra) grows wild over a large por-
tion of the American continent, especially along the Ohio and
Mississippi Valley. The nut has a thick, hard shell, but contains a
well-flavored meat.
The butternut (juglans cinerea), sometimes called “white wal-
nut,” which grows abundantly in the United States and Canada,
also belongs to the walnut family. The fruit is oblong, two or more
inches in length, with a clammy husk, not opening when ripe, but
closely adhering to the deeply corrugated thick shell. It is also
a valuable timber tree, with soft white wood, much used for furni-
ture.﻿260
RATIONAL DIET
The chemical analysis of the edible portion of the three follow-
ing varieties is:
English Walnut Black Walnut Butternut
Water	2.5 per cent	2.5 per cent	4.5 per
Protein	18.4 “ “	27.6 “ “	27.9 “
Fat	64.4 “ “	56.3 “ “	61.2 “
Carbohydrate	13.0 “ “	11.7 “ “	3.4 “
Cellulose	1.4 “	1.7 “ “	
Mineral matter	1.7 “	1.9 1‘ “	3.0 “
The English walnut is rich in lime, magnesia and iron salts,
but like all nuts, is deficient in sodium and chlorine. The walnut
is more difficult to blanch than the almond, hence not so well adapt-
ed for making nut butter. Finely grated and sprinkled over
vegetables and fruit salads, it makes an ideal combination, taking
the place of salad oil.
The Chinese walnut (juglans sinensis) is also a common variety
of the Persian walnut. It is very hardy and in China grows in
much colder regions than those in which Persian walnuts of Euro-
pean origin will thrive. Nuts of the Chinese tree have a rather
thick shell and the kernel is rich, but not well flavored. This vari-
ety would be best for the North Atlantic States where the climate
conditions are similar to those of the northeastern Orient. Chi-
nese walnuts have been imported in fairly large quantities by the
Pacific Coast States.
The Japanese walnut (juglans cordiformis) comes from the
Island of Pezo, the most northern portion of the Japanese Empire.
This nut should grow successfully throughout the United States,
as it has withstood a cold of several degrees below zero at Parry,
N. J., without the slightest injury. The nut is of peculiar heart-
shape, hence its botanical name. The kernel is full and plump,
equalling in flavor the Persian walnut, while its cracking quali-
ties are superior to any other known varieties, for by boiling the
nuts for five minutes and cracking them by a slight tap while still
hot, the thin shells readily part and the kernels can be extracted
whole.
When the tree is in blossom with catkins of male flowers five
or six inches in length and bright red spikes of female flowers
glowing amidst the foliage we have a very attractive object, worthy
of attention for beauty alone. The Japanese walnut, even as a
seedling tree, may begin to bear -when only five or six years of age.﻿261
NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
THE PEANUT
Although in a strictly botanical sense the peanut (arachis hy-
pogoea) is not a nut, but a legume, it is here included among the;
nuts, whose chemical composition it closely resembles. Since the
close of the Civil War the peanut has come gradually into promi-
nence in the United States until over two million acres are now
devoted to its cultivation, yielding an average of thirty to forty
bushels per acre.
The peanut, probably a native of Brazil, was introduced soon
after the discovery of that country into Africa and other tropical
portions of the Eastern Hemisphere, where it has become a staple
food. In the United States the climate of the Atlantic seaboard
and the Mississippi Valley has proved most congenial to this plant,
which needs an early and warm spring, followed by a hot and moist
summer, with but little rain in the harvesting season, for rain
injures the mature crop.
The peanut, often called “earth nut” or “ground nut,” derives
these names from the peculiarity of the development of its pods.
Its blossom is at the end of a long pedicel-like calyx tube, the ovary
being at the base. After the fall of the flower the peduncle, or
“spike” elongates and bends downward, pushing several inches
into the ground, where the ovary at its extremity begins to en-
large, and develops into slightly curved pods, containing from one
to three seeds.
In some of the Southern States, the annual yield of the pea-
nut plant has been greatly reduced, chiefly owing to the contin-
ued annual planting of nuts on the same land, lack of proper ro-
tation of crops, the removal of nearly all vegetation from the land,
and failure to replenish the soil by means of proper fertilizers.
Like other leguminous plants the peanut is rich in nitrogen and
contains considerable amounts of phosphoric acid and potash.
The mineral matter in the dried vines amounts to over 15 per
cent. These vines should be plowed under, and mineral fertilizers
applied.
The principal varieties of peanuts grown in this country are
the Virginia and the Spanish peanut. In Costa Rica there is a
variety with long undivided pods, containing four or five seeds,
while in the Argentine Republic a large size variety with a deep﻿262
KATIONAL DIET
orange colored shell is grown. Considerable quantities of peanuts
are raised in India and West Africa, principally for the oil that
is contained in the kernels.
The chemical analysis of the various kinds of peanuts grown
in different districts naturally shows a wide divergence, especially
in the amounts of protein and fat, the former ranging from
25 to 35 per cent, the latter from 41 to 55 per cent. The aver-
age composition of the peanut, as a result of over two thousand
analyses is as follows:
Water 7.8 per cent Starch and
Protein 29.4 “	“	Cellulose 11.0 per cent
Pat 49.0 “	“ Mineral matter 2.8 “	“
Like all seeds, the mineral matter consists chiefly of phosphoric
acid, and, according to Koenig’s analyses, the peanut has the
largest amount of iron of all the nuts analyzed, while it is de-
ficient in sodium and chlorine. It should, therefore, be eaten with
discrimination, as it is a highly acid-forming food.
While in Europe the peanut is mostly used in the production
of edible oil, in the United States it is consumed in various ways,
roasted and salted, in peanut candies, peanut butter, and to a less-
er extent, the seed is used for its oil. About 26,000,000 pounds of
peanut oil were produced in 1916. The U. S. Department of
Agriculture has recently recommended the use of peanut meal,
mixed with corn meal and wheat flour, for biscuits, muffins, cakes,
puddings and soups. The ordinary peanut butter, made from
heavily roasted peanuts and salted, is not wholesome. An ex-
cellent butter can be made from blanched nuts, but slightly heated
to remove the earthy flavor and surplus of moisture. If diluted
and mixed with water to the consistency of cream, the butter
makes an excellent salad dressing.
During the past ten years peanut oil has come into competi-
tion with cotton-seed oil, but there are some fundamental differ-
ences between these two oils. The proportion of hull to meat is
less in the peanut than in cotton-seed, and as the shell of the pea-
nut is more absorbent than cotton-seed hulls, the loss of oil in press-
ing unshelled peanuts is greater than with cotton seed. On the
other hand, shelling can be accomplished much more readily with
the peanut than with cotton-seed. The really important difference
between these two seeds, however, is in the oil itself. Cotton-seed﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
263
oil belongs to that class of vegetable glycerids which have to be
refined before they are edible, whereas peanut oil, if properly
pressed from sound stock, has a good color, a sweet, nutty flavor,
and is a thoroughly satisfactory table oil just as it runs from the
press. Naturally, there is more or less insoluble matter—fine
particles of the nut—which have to be removed in order to prevent
a rapid deterioration of the oil, but this is easily done by filtering.
In this respect, peanut oil is like olive oil, the best grade of which
appears on the table just as it comes from the fruit, in fact, just
as it existed in the olives themselves. In former yeari» good deal
of the imported olive oil was adulterated with peanut oil.
Those who have tried prime, cold pressed peanut oil, consider
it equal to olive oil, but the flavors are quite dissimilar. Refined
peanut oils, however, are not superior to cotton-seed or corn oils,
from a hygenic point of view. At present the United States is
importing about 1,500,000 gallons of peanut oil, annually.
A bushel of good Spanish peanuts will yield from one and one
eighth to one and one-quarter gallons of oil, and any fairly suc-
cessful farmer can produce from 40 to 60 bushels per acre. Yields
of 75 to 100 bushels are not uncommon.
China is probably the leading peanut growing country of the
world, with an annual production of 365,000 tons, about twice as
large as that of the United States.
THE CHUFA
The Chufa, earth almond or earth chestnut (cyperus rotundus),
is a perennial plant that spreads extensively by its undei’-ground
root stocks. It bears numerous small edible tubers about the
size of peanuts. Like the latter, the chufa belongs to the vegetable
family but as its chemical composition also resembles that of nuts,
it may be mentioned here. The tubers, when dehydrated or slight-
ly parched have a fine flavor. Chufas grow well upon light sandy
soils and produce large crops, but, so far, they have not been large-
ly cultivated. A very delicious oil is manufactured from the
dried chufa.
The chemical analysis of the chufa is as follows:
Water	2.2	per	cent	Carbohydrates	50.2	per	cent
Protein	3.5	“	“	Crude fiber	10.5	“	“
Fat	31.6	“	“	Mineral matter	2.0	“	“﻿264
RATIONAL DIET
Tropical Nuts
TEE BRAZIL NUT
The Brazil nut, or guvia (Bertholletia excelsa), is grown chief-
ly in Brazil and surrounding countries. It is one of the most re-
markable fruits of South America, and was first made familiar
to us principally through the descriptions of Alexander von Hum-
boldt. The fruit consists of a globular formation as large as an in-
fant’s head, and when ripe the seeds fall out. These seeds are
nuts about one and one-half inches long and triangular. The meats
are mild, yellowish white^ and have a fine creamy flavor. They
contain but little starch and sugar. The importation of these nuts
into the United States amounts annually to about one thousand
tons.
The tree that produces the Brazil nut is only two or three feet
in diameter, but reaches a height of 120 feet. It is one of the
wonders of vegetable life in the tropics. In fifty or sixty days
a shell is formed, half an inch in thickness, which is rather difficult
to open. The grains which this shell contain have two distinct
envelopes. Pour or five, and sometimes as many as eight, of these
grains are attached to a central membrane. The wreight of the
entire fruit is so heavy that at the period when it falls the savages
dare not enter the forests without covering head and shoulders
with a strong protection made from wood. The gathering of the
nuts is always an occasion of great celebration among the natives,
so highly do they appreciate their value. They are very rich in
lime and magnesia. The Brazil nut contains:
The candle nut (aleurites triloba) comes from a small ever-
green tree, a native of Malay, southern Japan, and nearly all the
tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. In some instances the tree
is mainly cultivated for the fruit, which is about two inches in
diameter. In the center there is a hard nut, very oily, with the
"Water
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Cellulose
Mineral matter
4.7	per	cent
17.4	“	“
65.0	“	“
5.7	“	“
3.9	“	“
3.3	“	“
TEE CANDLE NUT﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
265
flavor of the walnut. The oil obtained from these nuts is in com-
mon use among the natives of the South Sea Islands. In the Ha-
waiian group the kernels are strung on a small dry stick, which
serves the purpose of a wick, and then one end is lighted, as with
an ordinary tallow or wax candle, hence probably the common name
of “candle nut.” Large quantities of oil are also made from
the nuts and used for various purposes.
The chemical analysis of the edible portion of the candle nut
shows the following constituents:
Water	5.9 per cent
Protein	21.4 “ “
Fat	61.7 “ “
Sugar and starch	4.9 “ “
Crude fiber	2.8 “ “
Mineral matter	3.3 1 “
THE CASHEW
The cashew (anarcardium occidentale) is a spreading, evergreen
tropical tree, often attaining a height of forty feet. It is indige-
nous to tropical South America, whence it was carried to Asia, Af-
rica, and the West Indies, where it grows in abundance. In the
United States the culture of this tree is limited to the coast of Flor-
ida south of Palm Beach and Punta Gorda. Experiments to in-
troduce the tree into California have not been successful.
The fruit is peculiar. The part that appears to be the fruit
is in reality the swollen peduncle and disk, while the fruit proper
is the kidney-shaped cashew nut, attached to its lower end. The
fleshy part differs in size, being from two to three and one-half
inches in length. The surface is commonly brittle and yellow, or
flame-scarlet in color. The skin is very delicate, easily broken;
the flesh, light yellow in color, and very juicy. The kidney-shaped
nut, which is attached to the lower end of the fruit, contains the
single oblong seed.
The cashew apple, as the fruit may be called, is soft, juicy, acid,
and having before maturity a high degree of astringency, of which
a sufficient quantity is retained in the ripe fruit to lend it zest.
Owing to its remarkable penetrating, almost pungent, aroma, the
jam or sweet meat made from the fruit possesses a characteristic
and highly pleasing quality.
The cashew nut is kidney-shaped, and about an inch in length.﻿266
EATIONAL DIET
The soft, thick, cellular shell, incloses a slightly curved white
kernel of fine texture and delicate flavor. The nuts should be
roasted before being eaten. The shell contains cardol and anacar-
dic acid, which burns the mouth and lips, if one attempts to
bite into the fresh nut. Since these acids are decomposed by heat,
the roasted nuts are more palatable.
THE COCOANVT
The cocoanut (cocos nucifera) is one of the most widely known
and largest of edible nuts. It is indigenous to nearly all the tropi-
cal seashores.
There is perhaps no other food product that serves so many
purposes as the cocoanut. An investigator has enumerated eighty-
four distinct uses for the products derived from the cocoanut
tree, the most important of which are identified with food stuffs.
Natives have always grown the tree primarily for their own
use, rather than trading purposes, and it is only during the last
fifty years that European and American capital has taken hold of
the cocoanut industry on a large scale.
It is estimated that on an average a native consumes about sixty
cocoanuts a month, these furnishing him both meat and drink
that require neither cooking nor artificial preparation. In fact, he
may be said to derive his entire livelihood from this remarkable
tree, since it provides him with food, shelter, and even clothing.
As a rule, the native figures his wealth by the number of cocoa-
nut trees he possesses; and twenty of them in full bearing, occupy-
ing a space of less than half an acre, are considered sufficient to
keep a man comfortable throughout the year.
Before the cocoanut shell becomes hard in the ripening process,
the meat is found as a creamy substance, from which the milk has
not yet separated. In this state the nut contents may be eaten with
a spoon. If slightly sweetened with honey or fruit juice, they are
palatable and refreshing. On the seacoast of Venezuela the people
to a large extent live on cocoanuts and cassava, a starchy root which
serves as a substitute for bread. In some parts of the West Indies
the natives prepare a cocoanut butter by grating the meat and
boiling it in water. The oil gradually rises to the surface and is﻿COCO PALMS IX SOUTHERN FLORIDA﻿I
«﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
267
skimmed off and allowed to stand for a few hours and then churned,
making a quite palatable white fat, resembling cow’s butter.
Four nuts are generally required to make one pound of this fat.
A good size cocoanut, with the husk, weighs about 5 pounds and
contains about 1*4 pounds of meat and 1 pint of milk.
According to recent data, there are at least 3% million acres
planted in cocoanuts in various parts of the tropics, the annual
production aggregating about eight billion nuts. It is estimated
that an acre of full grown cocoanut trees produces about fifty nuts
per tree or 2400 nuts per year. On an average, three cocoanuts are
required to make one pound of copra (dried cocoanut), or one
pound of desiccated cocoanut. The latter is manufactured chiefly
in the large cocoanut growing centers, like Ceylon and the Philip-
pine Islands, while the copra is shipped to American and Euro-
pean ports for the manufacture of fat, which is often churned
with some peanut oil and milk into a butter and given different
trade names. These butters, sold as oleomargarines, more or less
heavily salted and treated with preservatives, are practically devoid
of mineral elements and vitamins, and cannot compare in nutritive
and hygienic value to butter made from the desiccated cocoanut,
which, in addition to fat, contains the tissue building elements.
Two analyses of desiccated cocoanut show an average:
Water	3.5	per	cent
Protein	6.3	“	“
Fat	57.4	“	“
Carbohydrates, in-
cluding	fibre	31.5	“	“
Mineral	matter	1.3	“	“
The latter contains a considerable quantity of potash and phos-
phoric acid, also small amounts of sodium, calcium, manganese and
iron. In combination with fruits, the cocoanut in its various forms,
if properly prepared, makes a well-balanced diet.
THE QUEENSLAND NUT
The Queensland nut (macadamia ternifolia) is an evergreen
tree or tall shrub indigenous to eastern Australia. It has been
cultivated successfully in Southern California. Aside from the
value of its fruits, the tree is desirable for its ornamental value
in gardens as well as on streets and avenues. For this purpose its﻿268
RATIONAL DIET
drought-resisting qualities make it particularly useful. Its dark
green, serrated leaves greatly resemble those of the holly.
The nuts are abundantly produced in clusters of from three
to fourteen, enclosed by a hull similar to that of the hickory nut.
They are round, smooth, light brown in color and about an inch
in diameter. The shell is thick, and encloses a round kernel, sim-
ilar to the filbert, but larger. The flavor resembles that of the
Brazil-nut, but is greatly superior to it.
The tree comes into bearing when seven or eight years of age,
and thrives best on a heavy soil. It requires but little care and
for that reason is desirable for door yard planting. Trees have
been bearing in California for a number of years, and are as per-
fectly at home there as in their native country.
TEE PIL1NUT
The pilinut (carnarium ovatum), or Javanese almond, another
tropical nut highly appreciated in the Orient, has recently been
introduced into the United States from the Philippine®, and by
immigrants from Asia and the East Indies. The tree is a native
of the East Indies. The nuts are spindle-shaped, with a triangular
shell which is very thick and hard, and encloses a white, oily ker-
nel of soft texture, almost melting in the mouth. On account of the
heavy shell, the meat forms a small percentage of the fruit.
THE SAPUCAIA or PARADISE NUT
The sapucaia, or paradise nut (lecythis zabucajo), is borne
by a tree similar to that of the Brazil nut, though a little larger.
It has a rough shell, about two inches long, not so curved as the
Brazil nut. It is of fine quality and texture and has a delicate
flavor, but has not yet become common in the United States.
' The sapucaia, like the Brazil nut, is produced in an urn-shaped,
woody capsule, which has received the name of “monkey pot,”
for the reason that when these capsules ripen, the lid at the top is
suddenly liberated, emitting a sharp sound, which notifies the mon-
keys that the nuts are falling and that the first on the ground
becomes the fortunate possessor of the largest number. In New
York City these nuts are sold under the name of “Paradise nuts,”
and are very much appreciated for their rich, creamy flavor.﻿NUTS, VALUE AND VARIETIES
TEE SOUARI
269
The souari, or tropical butternut (caryocar nuciferum), is a
native of British Guiana, but is very seldom found in the markets
of the United States. It is seen more frequently in European sea-
ports.
The shell of the nut is of a deep brown color, embossed, as it
were, with smooth tubercles. They are from two to two and a half
inches, or more, in their broadest diameter. The kernel, or meat,
is pure white, soft, rich and oily, with a pleasant flavor.
There are many more varieties of delicious nuts growing in the
immense tropical forests covering the valleys of the Amazon and
Orinoco Rivers, and their tributaries. The nuts imported so far
come only from points near the seashore, as there are no transpor-
tation facilities established from interior points. The production
of nuts in this vast territory, as large as the entire Mississippi
Valley, must be enormous. Future generations undoubtedly will
find there an inexhaustible supply of nature’s most concentrated
food products, far surpassing all animal food products in nutri-
tive and hygienic value.﻿CHAPTER IV
VEGETABLES
Vegetables, especially the green leaf varieties, also play an im-
portant part in the nutrition of man, because they furnish the
necessary vitamins and alkaline elements. In all instances where
the diet consist^ largely of cereal foods, or flesh meat, a liberal
supply of green vegetables and succulent plants is absolutely
necessary to prevent acidity of the blood. In places where fruits
cannot be grown succeppfully and in sufficient quantities, vegetables
are indispensable to a properly balanced diet.
It is interesting to note the polaric distribution of the mineral
elements during the various stages of plant growth, and the won-
derful synthetic processes which characterize the vegetable king-
dom as the laboratory of nature.
The roots, which are rich in carbohydrates, contain a well pro-
portioned amount of all the mineral elements necessary to growth,
although we often find that phosphate potash, sodium chloride,
magnesia and silica predominate. An analysis of the stems of
leaves shows a considerable amount of lime and iron, which give
them stability and color. Iron plays an important part in vege-
table life, as chlorophyl granules cannot be formed without its
presence. If plants are allowed to grow in solutions free from
iron, the leaves are colorless, but become green as soon as iron is
added to the fluid in which the roots are immersed. The importance
of iron in the human body has been referred to in a preceding
chapter.
The seeds of plants contain a large amount of phosphoric acid,
potash and magnesia. These elements stimulate the growth of
young plants until their roots and leaves are sufficiently developed
to extract nourishment direct from the soil and air.
The leaves and tender stems of vegetables, containing the larg-
est percentage of alkaline bases, are absolutely essential, not mere-
ly as garnishes, but as a substantial feature of our dietary, es-
pecially if the latter consists of more or less demineralized cere-
als, meat, fish, eggs and artificial sweets.
270﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
271
That the great dietetic and hygienic value of vegetables is not
yet fully appreciated by the American people is shown by the fact
that of the total expenditure for food, only seven per cent goes
to the purchase of vegetables of all kinds. Furthermore, a large
part of their nutritive value is lost by irrational preparation.
Although it may almost appear like an insult to the intelligence
of people to suggest that the organic salts should be retained, yet
in this so-called advanced age it is amazing to see how compara-
tively few give proper attention to this matter. The average
housewife generally cooks her vegetables with too much water, and
then drains them, not realizing that the organic salts are dissolved
in the water, thereby leaving little nutrition and mostly bulk. In
addition to this, in order to satisfy the craving excited by the loss
of the organic salts, table salt and spices are used.
The best way to insure a liberal supply of alkaline bases and
vitamins is to eat a large dish of salad every day, consisting of
lettuce, cress, cabbage, cucumbers, grated carrots, celery, sliced
tomatoes, or whatever suitable vegetables are available. Lemon
juice, instead of vinegar, should be used as a condiment.
As has been pointed out in Chapter XV, the hygienic value
of the vegetables depends on the kind of fertilizers that have been
applied, on various chemical compositions of the soil, and the con-
sequent effect upon the growth of the plant. Heretofore to di-
etitians a vegetable has been merely a vegetable, regardless of the
character of the soil that nurtured it. Only virgin soil, or its equiv-
alent, can produce food rich in the necessary mineral elements,
while manures and other animal fertilizers deteriorate rather than
renovate the soil. Such fertilizers, carrying a large amount of ni-
trogen in the form of ammonia, produce plants composed chiefly
of ammoniacal albumen, lacking in alkaline bases. And human
tissue built from such plants, or their fruits, is abnormally con-
stituted and subject to rapid decay. Nearly all the commercial
fertilizers contain a surplus of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric
acid which induce a rank and rapid growth of vegetation, at the
cost of quality of the product. Unfortunately, it is almost im-
possible for the average city dweller to know the source of his
vegetable supply, hence a tentative solution of this important
problem is the family garden.
In order to better distinguish the characteristics and chemical﻿272
RATIONAL DIET
composition of the vegetables generally grown for human con-
sumption, they may be divided into four classes:
Class A, Fruit hearing vegetables,	chiefly grown for
fruits, while their stems and leaves are	used as fertilizers.
include the following varieties :	
Chayóte	Peppers
Cucumbers	Pumpkins
Eggplant	Squashes
Melons	Tomatoes
Okra or Gumbo	Vegetable marrow
Class B, Green Vegetables:	
Artichokes	Kale
Beet leaves	Kohlrabi
Broccoli	Lettuce
Brussels sprouts	Mustard
Cabbage	Parsley
Cauliflower	Rhubarb
Celery	Sorrel
Chard	Spinach
Dandelion	Watercress
Endive Class C, Hoots, Tubers and Bulbs	
Succulent Roots and Bulbs:	
Beets	Rutabagas
Carrots	Turnips (white)
Celery root	Kohlrabi
Chives	Leek
Parsnips	Onions
Salsify (oyster plant)	Garlic
Black salsify	Asparagus
Radishes	Horseradish
Starchy Roots and Tubers :	
Potato	Dasheen
Sweet potato	Taro
Jerusalem artichoke	Yam
Arrowroot	Yautia
Cassava	
Class D, Mushrooms, fungi, lichens, algae.﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
THE CHAYOTE
273
The chayote (sechium edule) a vigorous, climbing, perennial
plant of the cucumber family, is native to Mexico and Central
America, but is now cultivated as a garden vegetable in warm re-
gions in many other parts of the world. The fruit has a mild,
but agreeable flavor, and, in the best varieties, an excellent fibre-
free texture. It has a single, large, flat seed, which ia without a
hard seed coat, and, unless desired for use as a table delicacy,
the seed is not removed, but is cooked or baked with the rest
of the vegetable. Chemical analysis shows the fruit to contain
from 5 to 8 per cent carbohydrates, and from 1 to 2 per cent of
protein. The fruits may be eaten when immature, but the quality
improves as they approach maturity, indicated by firmness of the
flesh, as it hardens during the ripening process.
The chayote can be grown much further north as an annual
than as a perennial, since even the roots are easily killed by freez-
ing. It has been grown and fruited as far north as the State of
Washington, and as many as fifty fruits have been produced on a
single vine when the first frosts did not appear until late in No-
vember.
THE CUCUMBER
The cucumber (cucumis sativus) appears to be indigenous to
southern India, but has been cultivated from the earliest historic
times in Syria and Egypt. While the food value of the cucumber
is low, containing as it does 95 per cent water, it is nevertheless
very refreshing and rich in organic salts, especially potash, lime,
magnesia, and iron. To get the benefit of these valuable alkaline
elements, it should be eaten frequently, like a melon, without the
addition of table salt. Recently a number of very delicious vari-
eties of the cucumber have been developed.
The gherkin is a small size variety of cucumber, used principally
for pickling, a process which, of course, destroys its hygienic value.
THE EGG PLANT
The egg plant (solanum melongena) is a native of the East
Indies, but is now a common fruit in the West Indies, southern
Europe, and throughout the United States. The fruit is egg-﻿274
RATIONAL DIET
shaped, deep purple, and often reaches the size of a cocoanut. It
grows like a melon on a vine, and is usually prepared for eating
by cutting it in slices which are broiled or fried. Its composition is :
Melons (cucumis melo) were originally found wild both in In-
dia and Africa. They were introduced into southern Europe
about the beginning of the Christian era. Numerous varieties are
now grown in North America, including the Musk Melon, Casaha,
(or Winter Melon), and the Cantaloupe, named from Cantaloupe,
Italy.
The Watermelon (cucumis citrullus) is a native of tropical
Africa, and was first cultivated by the ancient Egyptians. From
the valley of the Nile its cultivation spread over all the continents.
It still constitutes a large portion of the food of the natives of
Egypt during the hot months of the year.
The watermelon is one of the largest of our fruits, often weigh-
ing from thirty to forty pounds. Melons of 90 to 100 pounds have
been reported from regions that make a specialty of this fruit.
The fruit has a hard, green rind, enclosing a rich, delicious
rose-colored pulp, of sweetish taste, for which it is highly prized.
The vines, whieh make good fertilizers, often cover the entire field
at the time of fruiting. They grow best on a sandy, well-fertilized
soil, in countries that have an abundance of sunshine during the
summer months. Many varieties of watermelon are now offered
by seed men, among which are: the Cuban Queen, the Iceberg, the
Ice Cream, the Excel, and the Klondike.
The Musk-Melon, (or cantaloupe), has been grown in the
hot Eastern countries from time immemorial. It is a large, yellow,
or yellowish-green fruit, with a highly flavored, sweet pulp, of
delicate taste and odor. The best known varieties in the United
States are the Rocky Ford, upon which the Colorado cantaloupe
industry was established (also now grown extensively in Califor-
Water
Protein
Fat
Fiber
Carbohydrates
Mineral matter
93.00	per	cent
1.13	“	“
0.30	“	“
0.70 “	“
4.27	“	“
0.60	1	I
MELONS﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE	275
nia), the Tip Top, the California Large Nutmeg and the Persian
Melon.
The Casaba (or winter melon), comprising several types, such
as Honey Dew and Golden Beauty, is one of the most interesting
and promising of melons grown in California. On irrigated land,
in comparatively frostless places, these melons can be sowed in
May or June and find ample autumn heat and freedom from frost
to reach perfection. The ripe fruit remains in good condition for
months, without cold storage. They can be conveniently stored in
a shed, or in a cellar. Although the exterior portion of the rind
may show signs of withering, the flesh usually remains sound.
The average composition of the edible portions of the cantaloupe
and watermelon is given in the following table:
Cantaloupe	Watermelon
Water	89.50 per cent 92.40 per cent
Protein	0.60 “ “	0.40
Fat		0.20
Carbohydrate (sugar)	7.20 “ “	6.70
Fiber	2.10 “	
Mineral matter	0.60 “ 1	0.30
The alkaline elements predominate, potash, lime and iron con-
stituting a large percentage. Melons, containing about 90 per
cent water, furnish food and drink combined. They are much
more refreshing and wholesome than the artificial soft drinks
now offered for sale everywhere. Melons supply the purest kind
of water sweetened with natural fruit sugar, and enriched by
the valuable organic salts and vitamins. Use more melons instead
of soft drinks to keep cool in hot weather.
OKRA, or GUMBO
Like the melon, okra (allium cepa) was first cultivated by the
ancient Egyptians, and for many years has been in constant use
in the Mediterranean countries. Gumbo is its Spanish name. The
parts used are the pyramidal seed pods which are gathered while
green. They contain a large proportion of a mucilaginous sub-
stance, which forms a jelly when boiled in water.
Okra is mostly used for vegetable soup, but it may be eaten
raw by those who prefer uncooked food. It is grown from the﻿276
RATIONAL DIET
seed, planted in rows, or hills, like corn. In appearance it re-
sembles the cotton plant. Its composition is as follows:
The mineral matter shows a large portion of soda and lime.
PEPPERS OR CAPSICUMS
Peppers are the fruits of several species of capsicum,, belonging
to the class of nightshades. The best known varieties are the
Bell Peppers, a West Indian species, bearing a large green capsule;
and the Chillies, having small pods % to % of an inch wide and
from three to five inches long, of deep orange-red color. The name
“chillie” is of Mexican origin. Although peppers are natives of
the tropics, they are grown extensively in the warmer climates of
the United States, and are chiefly used in combination with other
vegetables, or as a pickling spice. Green peppers promote the
secretion of gastric and pancreatic juices, and when used moderate-
ly, prevent flatulence.
The active principle in peppers is a volatile alkaloid, called
“capsicine.” In hot climates peppers are extensively used as a
stimulation to the appetite.
The Perfection Pimiento is the popular variety now grown in
Orange County, Southern California, and Georgia. It is about
four or five inches long and about three inches in diameter
through the cove end. It is grown from seed sowed directly in the
fields during the latter part of March. Later the plants are thinned
out twenty inches apart in rows, the latter being spaced three feet
apart. The seed of the pimiento was introduced from Spain. The
pimiento is harvested in October and November, a part of the
crop being canned and part dried. It bears prolifically, yielding
from five to eight tons per acre.
On account of their alkaloid contents, peppers should be used
very sparingly and only in their fresh state. Canned and pickled
foods, prepared with peppers, should be strictly avoided.
Water
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Fiber
Mineral matter
90.0	per	cent
1.6	“	“
0.2	“	“
7.4	“	“
3.4	“	“
0.6	S	B﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE	277
THE PUMPKIN, SQUASH, AND VEGETABLE MARROW
Pumpkins, squashes and vegetable marrow belong to the nat-
ural order of cucurbita, or gourds. There are over fifty varieties
grown, all of similar chemical composition.
Pumpkins often grow to a large size and are chiefly used for
feeding stock. A considerable quantity is canned or evaporated.
Pumpkin flour, used extensively in making pies, is manufactured
from the evaporated pumpkin, which is ground into a powder.
Pumpkins are preferable when baked.
The word “squash” is adapted from an American-Indian word,
and, in an indefinite way, is generally applied to various mem-
bers of the cucurbita family. The so-called “summer squashes”
include the following varieties: Summer Crookneck, Patty Pan,
Grant Summer, Bush Ford TIook, Mammoth White Bush, Early
Yellow Bush, Early Golden Bush, Summer Bergen, Pineapple, Tür-
ken, etc.
The principal varieties of winter squash are the Gregory De-
licious, the sweetest and finest flavored squash in cultivation; the
Hubbard, a curiously shaped sort with dark green skin and rich
orange-yellow flesh; the Warted Hubbard, the Boston Marrow,
popular throughout the New England states, and the Winter, or
Canada Crookneck squash.
Vegetable Marrow (cucurbita ovifera), resembling the cu-
cumber in shape, is more commonly grown as a garden vegetable
in England than in the United States. One variety grown here,
known as the Crown Gourd, or Custard Marrow, hears a flattened
fruit with scalloped edges, and is sweeter than the true marrow.
The average chemical composition of these three vegetable fruits
is as follows:
	Pumpkin	Squash	Vegetable Marrow
Water	93.10 per cent	88.30 per cent	91.90 per cent
Protein	1.00 “ “	1.40 “ “	1.00 “ “
Fat	0.15 “ “	0.50 “ “	0.10 “ “
Carbohydrate	5.20 “ “	9.00 “ “	5.20 “ “
Fiber	1.10 “ “	0.80 “ “	0.70 “ “
Mineral matter 0.60 “ “		0.80 “ “	0.50 “ “
The alkaline	elements of potash, soda and		lime make up a
large percentage of the mineral matter.﻿278
KATIONAL DIET
TEE TOMATO
The tomato (lycopersicum esculentum) is the fruit of the
tomato vine, which is a member of the nightshade family. It
probably comes to us from Central America or Peru. It was
formerly known as the “love apple” and first grown mainly for
ornamental purposes. It was brought to Europe in the sixteenth
century, and is now grown extensively on the shores of the Medi-
terranean Sea, where the climate is admirably adapted to its
propagation.
It is now extensively cultivated in nearly all portions of the
United States. In order to allow sufficient time for the tomato to
fully ripen, the harvest is usually hastened by sowing the seed in a
hotbed, and setting out the young plants as soon as danger from
frost is past. In southern, frost-free countries, the tomato is
perennial, and can be grown at any time of the year.
The average chemical composition of the tomato is as follows:
Water	93.0	per < i
Protein	1.0	
Pat	0.3	C i
Carbohydrates (in- cluding sucrose, dextrose and		
levulose)	4.0	
Fiber	0.7	t <
Mineral matter	0.6	< (
The mineral matter is strongly alkaline, containing a large
proportion of the salts of potash, lime, magnSia and iron.
Many vegetables and fruits, including the tomato, owing to
the presence of citric acid and other similar acids, are not alkaline
when eaten, but are potentially alkaline, as these acids, after being
burned in the body, leave behind an alkaline salt. The acid of
the tomato, about 0.5 per cent, is mostly malic, combined with a
small amount of citric, and a trace of oxalic and other organic
acids.
It is a mistake to exclude the tomato from the diet of people
suffering from gout and rheumatism because of the oxalic acid it
contains. The amount is too small to have any effect upon the
system. Besides, this acid always occurs in connection with alkaline
bases. The tomato eaten in its natural state, especially in the﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
279
form of combination salads, is highly beneficial in reducing the
acidity of the blood and removing uric acid from the system.
A large proportion of the tomato crop in the United States
is canned, and is also used in the manufacture of tomato catsup.
GREEN LEAF VEGETABLES
The green vegetables contain only a small percentage of solid
nourishment, hut they are rich in alkaline salts, especially soda,
lime, and iron, and, therefore, from a hygienic point of view are
highly important. The leaves, consisting of a frame work of
fibrous tissue, upon which the protoplasmic cells are spread out,
serve principally for the respiration and nutrition of the plant,
by exposing the chlorophyll-bearing cells to the air and light.
Besides, the leaves contain an appreciable amount of organic acids
and vitamins, which are important factors in promoting the per-
formance of the physiological functions of the body. The salts
enter the vegetables by their roots in the form of “ions,” or
electrically charged molecules, and circulate as such through their
fluids and tissues. It is here that the great importance of organic
salts becomes apparent, as the function of food is not merely to be
burned up, and to furnish calories, but to supply vital electricity
in the form of negatively and positively charged ions. The calories
of food are really but of secondary importance. Digestion, assim-
ilation, and elimination—in fact, all processes of life and growth—
depend upon the presence of electrolytes, or electrically charged
ions. A constant osmotic pressure between the cells is maintained
by the organic salts, which are just as important for the life of
the cells as proteins and vitamins.
In dried vegetables the organic salts are no longer found in their
ionized form, and have lost some of their physiological value.
Again, when vegetables are boiled, they lose a large amount of
soluble nutrients—5 to 10 per cent protein; 30 to 50 per cent of
the carbohydrates; and about 50 per cent of the organic salts.
They should, therefore, be steamed or baked, or at least stewed in
their own juices, if they are not eaten raw.
Fresh vegetable juice, made by grinding the vegetables in a
food chopper, and pressing the pulp through cheese cloth, have a
great therapeutic value and may often be used in infant feeding.
Owing to their high content of alkaline salts and mild organic﻿280
RATIONAL DIET
Vegetable steamers with perforated metal containers or wire baskets for
preparing one or several kinds of vegetables, with the least possible impair-
ment of their nutritive value.
acids, fresh vegetable juices, when absorbed, exert a salutary in-
fluence on the composition of the blood by increasing its alkalinity.
The protein in green vegetables is small comparatively, but the
smaller and younger the leaves, the richer they are in this food
principle.
Complete analyses of most vegetables are to be found in the
general tables (in the appendix).
The principal varieties of green leaf vegetables are briefly de-
scribed here.
The Artichoke (cynara scolymus), which belongs to the thistle
family, is cultivated for the sake of its immature flower heads,
which are served chiefly either steamed, or cooked in water or
milk. When the leaf stalks are blanched by tying them up, the
term “chard” is applied to the white and tender leaves.
Cabbage (brassica oleracea) and its varietieSj/in which may be
included broccoli, brussels sprouts, red cabbage, savoy cabbage,
cauliflower, chard, kale, kohlrabi, have been mostly cultivated from
the wild cabbage, or colewort. They all contain a considerable
amount of sulphur, lime and iron. The chemical analysis shows
on an average of about 90 per cent water; from 2 to 4 per cent
protein; 5 to 10 per cent carbohydrates; 0.5 to 1.5 per cent fiber;
and from 0.5 to 2.5 per cent mineral matter. These properties vary
greatly in different kinds of soil.
Celery (apium graveolens) which grows wild in damp and
marshy places throughout Europe and Asia, has been cultivated
since the time of ancient Greece. There are now about forty va-﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
281
rieties, and many more sub-varieties. The tender blanching leaf
stalks are the result of long years of cultivation. On the continent
of Europe, a variety, known as “celeriac” is cultivated, to which
reference will be made under “Succulent Roots and Bulbs.’'
Celery is rich in potash, lime, sulphur and chlorine, while celeriac
is especially rich in sodium, iron and chlorine.
Dandelion (leontodon taraxacum) leaves when young and ten-
der are very valuable for salads on account of their richness in
alkaline elements. They are especially recommended for cleansing
the kidneys.
The Endive (chicorium endivia), sometimes called “winter let-
tuce,” belongs to the same family as the dandelion. It was culti-
vated at an early date in the Orient, and is found wild in all coun-
tries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The green tops make
excellent salad.
The Chicory (chicorium intybus) is closely related to the
endive and dandelion. The leaves are rather bitter, but are used
in salads. Under cultivation a large root is developed, which is
used as a coffee substitute.
Lettuce (lactuca capitata) is the most important of the succu-
lent vegetables. It was cultivated by the ancient Greeks and
Romans, and used as a salad plant. There are several species and
about one hundred varieties, of which cos lettuce and cabbage let-
tuce are the most widely used. The former has large upright leaves,
while the latter has round leaves of a more spreading character,
which grow nearer to the ground. The juice of the leaf is milky and
possesses mild, soporific properties, on account of the presence of a
small amount of lactuarium, or lettuce opium. Lettuce on an aver-
age contains:
It is strongly alkaline, being especially rich in potash, lime
and iron. A few crisp leaves of lettuce should be eaten daily.
Mustard Greens (sinapis), the leaves of the wild mustard plant,
may be used as salads, or cooked alone or in combination with
other vegetables. They contain some of the essential oil of mustard,
which gives them a pungent taste.
Water
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Mineral matter
94.00	per	cent
1.30	“	“
0.40	“	“
2.70	“	“
1.00	I	“﻿282
RATIONAL DIET
Parsley (apium petroselinum) is another herb which is mostly
used for flavoring in salads and soups. All parts of the plant
contain an oil, to which its flavor and other properties are due.
Rhubarb or Pie Plant (rheum rhaponticum) is a valuable ar-
ticle of diet, rich in organic salts and fruit acids, which include
about 2.5 per cent oxalic acid. The stems are generally cooked
and used for sauces and pies. As a sweetening, honey, raisins, or
dates should be used instead of refined sugar.
Sorrel (rume&acetosa) is generally used as a salad, in com-
bination with endive, lettuce and similar vegetables. It contains
much free acid, especially tartaric and oxalic—of the latter, be-
tween three and four per mille, mostly in the form of oxalate
of calcium and potassium. It is exceedingly rich in iron.
Spinach (spinacea oleracea) comes to us from northern Asia,
and was even common in Biblical times. It was introduced into
Europe during the sixteenth century. It is rich in sodium, calcium,
and iron, and, therefore, an excellent blood builder, especially if
eaten uncooked, as a salad. It is usually boiled in water, but
steaming is to be preferred, as the salts may thereby be preserved.
Spinach, if grown in well fertilized soil is one of the most excellent
sources of the vitamins and iron.
Two varieties of the plant are grown: the winter or perpetual
spinach, having small prickly leaves; and the smooth leaf variety,
having thick, fleshy and crumpled leaves.
New Zealand Spinach (tetragonia expansa) is a hardy peren-
nial in sub-tropical countries, and a native of Australia. It is
now grown in many parts of the United States and England. It
is capable of bearing drought better than ordinary spinach, often
replacing the latter where its growth fails.
Watercress (nasturtium officinale) is the most important of
the cresses. It grows near ditches and ponds, and is also widely
cultivated. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste, but are
most valuable for combination salads, on account of their anti-
scorbutic properties. Watercress contains all the essential vita-
mins. It is rich in the alkaline elements, especially potassium,
calcium and magnesium; also in sodium and chlorine. The sharp
taste of watercress is probably due to the large amount of sulphur
found in the leaves.﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE	283
BEA
SUCCULENT BOOTS AND BULBS
The succulent roots are so designated on account of their com-
paratively large percentage of water, which ranges from 75 to 90
per cent. They are not as rich in alkaline elements as the green
vegetables, but they contain a sufficient amount to be most valuable
adjuncts of a dietary, if properly prepared. Beets, carrots and
some of the radishes come nearest to the green vegetables in
alkaline properties.
Beets (beta vulgaris) are cultivated in many varieties through-
out the temperate and sub-tropical zones. The most common are
the white, or yellow, and the red beets. The sugar beet is largely
grown in France, Germany, Belgium, America, and other countries,
for the manufacture of sugar. A considerable portion of the
carbohydrates contained in beets is chemically known as cane sugar,
which in the best varieties often amounts to 20 and even 30 per
cent. Sugar beets, if cut into small pieces and boiled in just enough
water to cover them, resemble very much stewed apples, and the
water in which they are boiled makes a wholesome, nutritious
drink, if sufficiently cooled. Here one has the natural sugar
(sucrose) of the beet and most of the alkaline elements, which are
completely removed in the refining procesL* .
Finely-grated white or red beets are often used uncooked for
salads, in combination with other vegetables. They may also be
baked, like potatoes* which is the best way to prepare them for those
whose digestive organs are impaired. If bwts are cooked in water,
the latter should always be carefully preserved, as it contains a
large portion of sugar and organic salts. As previously mentioned,
beet tops and stems, especially those of the red variety, resemble
in beneficial qualities those of the green vegetables, and they
should, therefore, be always used while fresh.
Carrots (daucus carota) have been cultivated for more than
two thousand years in Europe and western Asia. By persistent
cultivation the root of the wild plant, which is white, slender and
hard, with an acrid taste, has been transformed into a thick,
fleshy, succulent root of orange color, with a sweet and agreeable
taste. There are now about thirty varieties. Young carrots are
more satisfactory than old ones, as the latter have a tendency to
become woody, especially at the core. As in beets, the carbohy-
drates of the carrot consist of a large percentage of sugar, often﻿284
RATIONAL DIET
as much as 12 per cent, although 6 to 7 per cent constitutes an
average. The mineral matter is rich in all the alkaline elements—
potash, soda, lime, magnesia and iron—making up about 75 per
cent of the total amount. If carrots are finely grated, a process
which breaks up the cells, a rich, juicy and sweet pulp will be ob-
tained, which is easily digested even by the weakest of stomachs.
If the pulp is pressed through cheese cloth and carefully strained,
it may occasionally he given to infants. Like beets, carrots are
best steamed or baked, in order to avoid appreciable loss in
organic salts. With due care they may also be boiled or stewed.
Radishes (raphanus sativus) are grown in over forty varieties,
in all kinds of shapes and colors. The most commonly known in
the United States are the small ones with red exterior and white
flesh. The roots have a very fine flavor and when young are
crisp, juicy and tender; but when old, they contain much woody
fiber, and are difficult to digest. The pungent flavor of radishes is
due to organic compounds, containing sulphur, similar to the
essential oil in mustard.
In addition to the small pink and red radishes, there are some
large varieties cultivated, among which the Japanese white radish
and the black radish are best known. Radishes are preferably
eaten in their natural state or grated in combination salads. The
mineral matter of the larger radishes especially abounds in potash,
lime, iron and sulphur. Radish leaves can be used for greens, or
if very tender, added to salads.
Turnips (crassica napus). Innumerable varieties of turnips
are grown throughout the temperate zones, of which the most
common are the white and yellow turnip, and the Swedish turnip,
or rutabaga. In summer the early white varieties are usually pre-
ferred, while during winter the yellow turnips are more frequently
consumed. The flavor of the turnip, like that of the cabbage and
radishes, is primarily due to compounds of sulphur. In cooking,
these pungent substances are broken down to some extent and pass
off into the air. The carbohydrates of turnips are made up of
glucose, sugar, pectose, pentosans and crude fiber. The mineral
matter is rich in potash, soda and magnesia.
Kohlrabi (brassica caulorapa) or turnip-rooted cabbage, is
another variety of the turnip and cabbage family, in which the
reserve food of the plant is stored up in a tuber-like enlargement﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
285
of the stem, just above the ground. In flavor it is more delicate
than either the turnip or cabbage. It can he either baked or cooked
with other vegetables, to which some of the kohlrabi leaves may be
added.
Parsnips (pastinaca sativa) were quite familiar to the Romans,
as they appear in ancient frescoes at Pompeii. They belong to the
same botanical order as carrots, and resemble them in form and
general habit of growth, but the flesh is of a light cream color,
while the flavor is quite distinctive and very pronounced. The
carbohydrates which make up about twelve per cent of the solid
nourishment consist of 5 to 7 per ¿tent of starch in exceedingly
fine granules. The sugars vary from 3 to 7 per cent; gummy sub-
stances, 5 to 6 per cent; protein, 1 to 1.5 per cent; cellulose, 1.5 to
2.5 per cent; mineral matter averages 1.4 per cent, in which potash,
lime and magnesia predominate.
Celeriac (apium graveoleus) is the name applied to one variety
of celery, which is chiefly grown for its roots. In Europe it is by
far the most common form of celery, but it has never been exten-
sively cultivated in the United States. The roots resemble the
parsnip in color, but are more or less globular in shape, like turnips.
For this reason the vegetable is often called turnip-rooted celery.
The composition is very much like that of the other succulent
roots. Potash, sodium and chlorine predominate in the mineral
matter. Celeriac has a pronounced celery flavor, due to an essential
oil, like that found in the seed, which is rather strong in the raw
root. If baked and sliced, it makes a wholesome and delicious
addition to salad.
Salsify (trapagon sorrifolius) is the name generally given to
three different kinds of vegetables: the common white salsify, known
also as oyster plant, or vegetable oyster; thet i,black salsify, the
Schwarz Wurzel of the German, and the Spanish salsify. Both
common and black salsify resemble the other succulent roots in
general character. The principal carbohydrate stored in black
salsify is inulin, which is transformed into sugar by the action of
hydrochloric acid in the stomach. Inulin replaces starch in many
plants as reserve carbohydrate, and from a physiological point of
view it serves the same purpose in the body. The leaves of salsify,
if young and crisp, may be eaten as a salad. In the mineral matter﻿286
RATIONAL DIET
of this vegetable, potash, lime, magnesia and iron constitute the
larger portion.
Onions, Garlic, Leek and Chives are all members of the large
onion family (allium) and are characterized by the presence of an
acrid volatile principle, an oil-like organic compound of sulphur,
which gives them very valuable purifying properties. They form
an important class of vegetables, whether used in the cooked or
raw state. The onion (allium cepa) was cultivated for thousands of
years by the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews. It was said that the
onion was worshiped in Egypt before the Christian era, and that
nine tons of gold were spent in buying onions for the workmen
during the building of the pyramids.
Onions grown in warm countries have a mild flavor, owing to
a smaller amount of the acrid principle than is contained in those
of colder countries.
In the United States the onion holds third place among the
truck crops. About 15 million bushels are raised annually. Large
quantities are also imported from southern Europe, Bermuda,
and the West Indies. Onions, like lettuce, have a soporific effect.
Chives and leeks, two other varieties of the onion family,
develop very small bulbs and are usually grown for their leaves;
leeks being used as a green vegetable, or pot herb, and chives mostly
for seasoning.
Garlic (allium sativum) is the most strongly flavored of the
plants of the allium family. It is grown extensively, and is much
esteemed in southern Europe. It produces a collection of small
bulbs, called cloves, in place of one large bulb. Some of the mixed
varieties grown in the Mediterranean region are eaten as vegetables,
but in this country garlic is generally used for flavoring. Rightly
used, it may add to the palatability of salads and many other dishes!
The chemical composition of onions varies according to the
stage of growth and variety, but is similar to that of the other
succulent roots. Onions, if stored for awhile, lose some of their
water and consequently change the proportion of their solid con-
tents. The average composition of onions is as follows:
Water
Protein
Fat
60.0	to	90.0	per	cent
1.0	to	5.0	“	“
0.1	to	0.8	“	“
5.0	to	25.0	“	“
0.5	to	1.2	I	B
Carbohydrates
Mineral matter﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
287
On account of their large contents of lime and iron, onions
and leeks are especially beneficial to anemic and diabetic people.
Asparagus (asparagus officinalis) was cultivated from the ear-
liest Roman times and is grown throughout the temperate zones.
It is valued for its young and tender shoots, which are generally
boiled, but which may be also used uncooked in combination salads.
Asparagus is especially rich in sodium, calcium, iron and sulphur.
It also contains a nitrogenous principle called “asparagin, ” which
has diuretic properties. The strong odor of the urine after eating
asparagus is caused by a volatile sulphur compound.
Horseradish (cochlearia armorada) is a plant of the mustard
family, which is cultivated throughout the north temperate zone;
it is also frequently found wild in the United States. The root is
long, rather slender, and has a sharp, peppery flavor owing to the
presence of an essential oil, which is dissipated by drying. It
resembles in general character the oils in the radish and other
members of the mustard family. Horseradish is generally used
grated, taking the place of a condiment rather than a food in diet.
Taken moderately in salads, »and without vinegar, it promotes
the flow of the digestive juices. It may also be cooked with other
vegetables.
Chemical analysis shows:
Water	86.4 per
Protein	1.4 ,£
Fat	0.2 “
Total Carbohy-	
drates (mostly	
starch)	10.5 “
Mineral matter	1.5 “
The mineral matter consists chiefly of potash, lime, magnesia
and sulphur. Containing as it does a very large amount of sulphur
in an organized form, horseradish is one of the most valuable anti-
scorbutic vegetables, besides being of value in chronic rheumatism
and dropsical conditions.
Ginger (zingiber officinale) is the underground root stock of the
ginger plant, which is a native of India, China and the Moluccas,
but is now cultivated to a very large extent in the West Indies.
Jamaica ginger is probably the best known variety. The plants
are set out in March or April, flower in September; the seeds are﻿288
RATIONAL DIET
formed in January, after which the leaves wither. The roots are
then dug up and trimmed, washed and treated with boiling water
to prevent germination, and rapidly dried. Thus prepared, they
constitute the unbleached, or black ginger White ginger is pre-
pared from the best peeled roots, which are carefully dried in the
sun.
Ginger is a stimulating aromatic spice, much used in baking.
The ginger root consists of :
Of the total fat, about half consists of the ethereal oil which,
together with a pungent, non-volatile constituent, called gingerol,
gives to ginger its characteristic flavor.
Ginger may he used occasionally in very small quantities as a
spice in bread, but confections and beverages made from ginger
should be avoided.
Sassafras (sassafras variifolium) is a small tree growing along
the Atlantic Coast, and in the interior of the United States. The
bark of the small stems, and especially the root, yields a flavoring
extract valued in the preparation of beverages and confectionery.
A tea made from the roots, once known as “saloop,” is still used to
some extent in the home, and commercially.
The Potato (solatium tuberosum) is a member of the night-
shade family, which includes the tomato and eggplant, and also
tobacco. Its tubers constitute a staple food for millions of people
all over the globe; and at present, next to cereals, it is probably
the most important food product of the human race. It is a
native of the elevated valleys of Chili, Peru, and Mexico. It was
brought to Europe between 1580 and 1585, first by the Spaniards,
and later by the English, at the time of Sir Walter Raleigh’s
voyages to Virginia. Raleigh first cultivated it in Ireland, where
he had large estates, but the potato did not come into general use
on the continent until the middle of the eighteenth century. As
the potato yields twenty to thirty times the weight of wheat,
Water
Protein
Fat
Sugar and starch
Crude Fiber
Mineral matter
85.6 per cent
1.0 “ “
0.6 “
11.4 “
1.0 I “
1.4 M
STARCHY ROOTS﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE	289
barley or oats, its great value as an almost indispensable staple
food becomes apparent. In 1915, the potato crop of the United
States amounted to about 360 million bushels, valued at 220
million dollars, or about 60c per bushel. Part of the annual crop
is used for stock food and manufacturing purposes, but by far
the largest portion finds its way in various forms to our tables.
The relatively large yield of the potato in the United States
is shown by the following figures, giving a ten years’ average:
Potatoes, 92 bushels per acre; corn, 26 bushels per acre; wheat,
14.3 bushels per acre. These figures are far exceeded by European
statistics, which report an average yield of 190 bushels in Germany;
216 bushels in Denmark; 295 bushels in Holland, and 305 bushels
in Belgium. Germany, however, leads all European countries in
the total amount of potatoes produced, in the percentage of acreage
devoted to their cultivation, as well as in the annual per capita
consumption. About sixty million bushels of an inferior variety
of the potato are railpd annually for distillation into alcohol in
Germany for industrial purposes.
The potato, strictly speaking, is not a root, but a modified stem,
shortened and thickened to form a storehouse for material held
in reserve for the propagation of young plants. By making a cross
section through a potato, four distinct divisions may be seen: first,
the skin; second, the cortical layer, which varies in thickness from
one-eighth to one-half an inch and contains a higher percentage of
the mineral matter and other nutrients than the tuber as a whole.
The interior of the potato is made up of the outer and inner
medullary, or pithyareas. The outer one forms the main bulk, and
contains the greater portion of carbohydrates, varying with the
state of growth; while the inner area, appearing in a cross section
like a star, sometimes called the core, contains slightly more
cellulose and water than the outer portion. According to a French
investigator the different parts of the potato are made up as
follows: skin, 8.8 per cent; cortical layer, 36.2 per cent; outer
medullary area, 34 per cent, and inner medullary area, 15 per cent.
The skin of the potato contains a small proportion of an alkaloid,
called solanin, which is removed with the peel, or destroyed by heat,
when the tubers are baked or boiled.
According to Dr. William Tibbies, an English authority, who﻿290
RATIONAL DIET
collected over thirty analyses of the potato, its average composition
is as follows:
Water	75.66	per	cent
Protein	2.05	“	“
Carbohydrates	19.94	“	“
Fiber	1.02	“	“
Mineral	matter	1.08	“	“
Phosphate of potash, magnesia and chlorine constitute the
larger portion of the organic salts. The percentage of iron and
lime is rather small in the potato, and it should, therefore, be
eaten in combination with green leaf vegetables to make up for
the deficiency. Several organic acids, such as citric and tartaric,
are also found in the potato.
In preparing the potato for the table a large part of its
nutriment is lost. In paring raw potatoes by hand the average
loss is about 20 per cent, and not only includes all the skin and
cortical layer, hut also ten per cent of the flesh. The mechanical
potato peeler usually removes the skin with little loss of edible
material. A further loss of nearly 20 per cent occurs by boiling
peeled potatoes. Boiling them in the skin, steaming them, or best
of all baking them, are therefore the methods to be recommended
from an economic and hygienic point of view.
During the process of boiling, the temperature of the interior
of the potato is perhaps a trifle lower than that of the water. When
baked, the temperature of the interior of the potato reaches 212
degrees F., hut does not exceed this, if cooked only until tender.
To prevent overbaking, a dish of water may be placed in the oven
with the potatoes. The heat and steam break up the cell walls and
release the starch, which is partially changed into dextrin, and
is very readily assimilated. If the uncooked potato is sufficiently
masticated, or finely grated, so that the cell walls are ruptured,
the raw starch will be dissolved by the digestive juices, and at the
same time the action of vitamins found in the potato will he
assured.
During the World War enormous quantities of potatoes were
desiccated and used in various forms by the fighting armies, es-
pecially those of the Central Powers. The dried potato is equal
in nutritive value to some of the cereal flours. Potato starch,
often sold under the name of potato flour, cannot well he recoin-﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
291
mended as an article of diet, as during the process of manufacture
the organic salts are removed.
The Sweet Potato (convolvulus batatas) is also extensively
grown, but unlike the white potato, is chiefly a product of the
warmer temperate zones, or sub-tropical countries. It constitutes
an important food crop in the Gulf States, California, West Indies,
Hawaii and the Philippines. It is said that Columbus on his return
to Spain presented a sweet potato to Queen Isabella. Since that
time it has become an important root crop in Spain, and is one
of the principal root crops of the Madeira Islands. Portuguese sea-
men took it to Japan, where it is now one of the leading crops
on the upland fields of the southwestern part of the mainland.
The sweet potato is a true root, and not a tuber. It also
differs from the white potato in that its carbohydrates contain con-
siderable quantities of sugar in the form of cane sugar, and invert
sugar, or glucose. The proportion of sugar is greater in roots
grown in warmer countries, and in tropical sweet potatoes sugar
and starch are found in almost equal quantities. Those grown in
the Middle Atlantic states do not average more than 5 or 6 per
cent sugar, or about 20 per cent of their total carbohydrates.
During their storage, however, some of the starch is converted
into sucrose, or cane sugar, and in this respect the sweet potato
resembles the banana, whose starch is also converted into sugar
(mostly glucose) if stored in a moderately warm place. The aver-
age of a large number of analyses made by the U. S. Department
of Agriculture is as follows:
Like the white potato, the sweet potato contains a considerable
amount of phosphate of potash, but is richer in lime and chlorine.
Sweet potatoes are best when boiled in the skin, or baked like
white potatoes. They should be cooked slowly and for quite a long
time. An hour in the oven at a low heat serves to develop the best
flavor. Sweet potatoes, like the white potatoes, are often desiccated,
and in this form they will keep for a long time.
Water
Protein
Pat
Carbohydrates
Fiber
Mineral matter
69.00	per	cent
1.80	“	“
0.70	“	“
27.40	“	“
1.30	“	“
1.10	I	I﻿292
KATIONAL DIET
Arrowroot is the commercial name of a starchy food derived
from the root stock of several tropical plants, natives of both the
East and West Indies. The principal varieties used are maranta
arundinaca, canna edulis and tacca pinnatifidia; the latter is
known as Madagascar Arrowroot, as it is chiefly grown on this
island.
The preparation of arrowroot starch consists in washing, peel-
ing, grinding or grating the roots of the plants and straining
the pulp through cloth. The strained liquid, resembling milk, is
placed in a container, where the starch settles at the bottom. The
liquid on top which has most of the protein and organic salts is
then drained off. The residue, after it is dried, contains over
eighty per cent starch and has an insipid taste. Although it is
easily digested and often prescribed for invalids and convales-
cents, it is of little hygienic value, as it is almost entirely deficient
in blood and tissue building elements.
The Jerusalem Artichoke (helianthus tuberosus) is a tuber
of a variety of the sunflower family. It is indigenous to Canada
and the upper Mississippi Valley, and was cultivated by the
American Indians. It was introduced into Europe early in the
seventeenth century. The name “Jerusalem” is a corruption of
the Italian gerasole, whereas “artichoke” alludes to the artichoke
flavor of the tuber.
In Europe, and to a certain extent, in the United States, it
is considered a valuable plant; the bright yellow flowers at the top
of the tall stalks no doubt help to make the plant attractive. It
is often grown on the edge of a garden and the tubers are dug
for home use. They contain on an average:
The carbohydrates in the Jerusalem artichoke contain no starch,
but inulin and levulin, which are closely related to starch, hut are
inverted into levulose. The tubers do not, like potatoes, become
mealy in boiling, as there are no starch globules to swell up and
absorb moisture, resulting in an expanded condition after cooking.
Like the potato, the Jerusalem artichoke contains a large amount of
Water
Protein
Carbohydrates
Fat
Mineral matter
78.7	per	cent
2.5	“	“
17.5	“	“
0.2	“	“
1.1	“	“﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
293
phosphate of potash, but a larger amount of lime and iron than
the former.
The Cassava (manihot utilissima) is one of the tropical rivals
of the sweet potato, and extensively used for human food. A
dried starch product is also prepared from the cassava, which is
brought into the markets of the temperate zone under the name of
tapioca. The cassava plant, which is a bushy shrub, reaches a
height of eight or ten feet and develops roots about two inches thick
and about four feet long, often weighing from ten to thirty pounds.
The plant is a native of America, but is now extensively grown
in India, South and Central America, Africa and the West Indies.
In the United States the cassava may be grown successfully near
the Gulf Coast. In some of the tropical countries the cassava fur-
nishes the material for bread. The raw root contains some prus-
sic acid, which is destroyed in the boiling process. The native
dries and grates the boiled roots, which are then made into cassa-
va cakes. Sometimes the roots are baked like potatoes. In the
Congo the natives eat the cassava in place of bread. It often
requires fully nine months for the cassava to mature, which is
quite as long as wheat and longer than many of our other cereal
foods. It is more productive than the potato of the temperate zone.
Tapioca, or cassava starch, is made chiefly of the cassava plant
from the grated roots, (manihot utilissima), which are mixed with
water and then filtered through cloth to remove the cellulose.
The starch settles in the liquid, and while moist, is gradually
heated until the starch granules are broken up, and the mass be-
comes agglutinated and rather firm. It is prepared for the market
in three forms, viz., pearl tapioca, tapioca flake, and tapioca flour.
It is evident that these products are deficient in mineral matter,
which is largely lost in the water, as shown by the following table,
according to analyses made by Drs. Wiley and Atwater:
Sweet Cassava			Sweet Cassava	Tapioca
	Fresh		Dried	Average
Water	60.72 per 0.64 “	cent	8.26 per cent 1.66 “ “	11.40 per cent
Protein		< t		0.40 “ 1
Fat	0.17 “	“	0.44 U 1	0.10 M 1
Starch and sugar	30.89 “	t C	80.06 |‘ B	88.00 “ 1
Fiber	0.85 1	“	4.30 “	1 1
Mineral matter	0.74 “	t (	3.28 “ “	0.10 1 1
Tapioca is generally prepared from the bitter cassava root. No﻿294
RATIONAL DIET
special analysis of the mineral matter has been made, but the chief
elements present are probably phosphate of potash and magnesia.
Yams (dioscorea batatas) belong to a group of about two hun-
dred species of tropical and semi-tropical climbing plants, culti-
vated for their edible starch-yielding roots. They are native to
southeastern Asia, and but little known in the United States. They
are staple foods in Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. The
roots vary greatly in size, some being no larger than potatoes,
while others attain a length of several feet, and a weight of forty
to fifty pounds. The common method of growing the yam is to
let the vines run on poles, carefully removing the big fleshy roots
from time to time without disturbing the plant.
In appearance yams look like sweet potatoes of medium size,
while in flavor and chemical composition they closely resemble po-
tatoes. They are not as suitable as the potato for shipping, as
they lack keeping qualities. For this reason they are usually left
in the ground until required for use. The yam may be called the
potato of the tropics, and it is prepared in much the same way.
Starch and flour are also made from yams and used in tropical
countries as bread making material. Yams contain:
Water	73.0 per cent
Protein	1.8 V “
Fat	0.2 “ “
Carbohydrates	23.3 y “
Crude Fiber	0.6 “ “
Mineral matter	0.9 ■ “
Dasheen, Taro and Yautia are closely related, botanically, be-
longing to the Arum family, which includes also the caladium,
an ornamental plant, known as “elephant’s ear,” as well as the
calla lily and the Indian turnip. The three varieties all form large
underground root stocks, or corms, of spherical shape, but slightly
pointed toward the top, sometimes weighing over five pounds.
The root of the dasheen (caladium esculentum) consists of a
large central root stock from which tubers branch out on all sides.
They grow well in wet lands, and make a profitable root crop in
soils too moist to be adapted to the growth of potatoes or sweet
potatoes.
The root of Taro (colocasia esculenta) is a staple food through-
out the South Sea Islands. “Poi,” the cooked and slightly fer-
mented paste of the grated taro, is a favorite dish of the Hawaiians.﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE
295
The color of the roots varies from white, or cream color, to
orange, brown, or lavender. The starch granules are very much
smaller than those of potatoes and other starchy roots. The chemi-
cal composition of the three varieties is very much alike, as shown
in the following table:
	Dasheen		Taro		Yautia
Water	65.7 per 3.0 “	cent	70.9	per	cent 70.0 per cent
Protein		Í l	1.8		“ 2.2 “ “
Fat	0.2 “	6 C	0.2	( t	“ 0.2 “ “
Starch, sugar, etc.	28.8 “	t t	23.2	< (	“ 26.1 “ “
Crude fiber	0.7 “	11	0.8	c c	“ 0.6 “ “
Mineral matter	1.3 “	iC	1.2	( 6	“ 0.9 U d
Sago, generally known as pearl sago, is an extracted starch
prepared from a deposit in the trunk of several palms, the prin-
cipal source being the sago palm, (rhapis flabelliformis), a native
of the East Indian Archipelago. The trees flourish only in the low
marshy lands of the tropics. They attain maturity as starch yield-
ing plants at the age of about fifteen years, when the stem becomes
filled with a large mass oijppongy, medullary matter, around which
is an outer rind consisting of a hard, dense, woody wall about two
inches thick. When the fruit is allowed to form and ripen, the
whole of this starchy core disappears, leaving the stem a mere
hollow shell. When ripe the palms are cut down, the stems di-
vided into sections and split up, and the starch pith extracted
and grated into powder. The latter is then kneaded in water over a
strainer, through which the starch passei leaving the woody fiber
behind. The starch settles in the bottom of the trough, in which
it is floated, and, after one or two washings, is fit for use by the
natives for cakes and soups. The sago intended for export is mixed
into a paste with water, and rubbed thoroughly through sieves into
small grains.
Sago is a demineralized product and has no more nutritive
value than white flour products.
FUNGI and ALGAE
Edible Fungi may be divided into mushrooms (agaricus cam-
pestris), morels (morchella escalenta) and truffles (tuber libar-
ium) to which may be added the lichens, of which the most im-
portant is Iceland moss (cetraria islándica), and algae (fucus,﻿296
RATIONAL DIET
alva, etc.), which are plants of a very simple structure, living in
water or upon moist surfaces, including agar-agar and Irish moss
(fucus crispus).
The general composition of the various fungi shows that they
have not a high nutritive value. The average amount of pro-
tein they contain is 3.5 per cent. The mineral matter consists
mostly of phosphoric acid and potash, and in the case of truffles,
an appreciable amount of soda. They may he eaten occasionally
for their flavor. The recognition of poisonous fungi is a matter of
great importance. They have as a rule a cup or sac-like envelope
near the base of the stem. Their taste is burning, bitter, astrin-
gent, or otherwise disagreeable. Their color, with a few excep-
tions, is red, pink or orange. They generally grow in decaying
wood and vegetation. In order to determine the character of the
fungi, cooks often use a silver fork or spoon, as the metal is not
affected by edible fungi, while it turns black if brought into con-
tact, while cooking, with the poisonous varieties.
The commercial cultivation of mushrooms has also been devel-
oped in France, England and later in the United States, and this
will gradually diminish the danger of eating poisonous varieties.
Iceland Moss is the most important of the edible lichens. It
grows abundantly in the Arctic regions, where it serves as an im-
portant food for the Laplanders and their reindeer. The bitter
principle of the moss is removed to some extent by washing it in
water, or in a weak alkali solution. Jellies are made from it by
boiling it in water, or milk, with sugar or honey. A five per cent
decoction will gelatinize on cooling. Considering the fact that in
the inclement climate where Iceland moss grows most abundantly
it serves as one of the principal food materials for the reindeer,
upon which the natives to a large extent depend for milk and meat,
it must have an appreciable nutritive value. Chemical analyses
give the following composition of Iceland moss, partially dried:
Water	25.0 per cent
Protein	3 to 6.0 “	“
Fat	1.2	“	“
Carbohydrates	60.0	“	“
Fiber	5.3	“	“
Mineral matter	2.2	“	“
The carbohydrates are in the form of lichenin, or moss-starch,
which is not deposited in granules, as in the cereals and root, but is﻿VEGETABLES, ORDERS AND VALUE	297
uniformly distributed throughout the cells. Like ordinary starch,
it is readily converted into dextrose and maltose. No special analy-
sis has been made of the mineral matter. Algae includes sever-
al varieties of seaweed used as food for men and animals. The
most important of these plants is Irish moss, or carrageen, which
is very abundant on rocky shores, especially those of Ireland, and
grows from three quarter tide to below low water mark. Another
seaweed, known as dulse or dillisk, is found in Scotland and Ire-
land. If eaten raw, unwashed, the flavor is brought out by thorough
mastication. The weeds are often prepared in various ways and,
combined with oatmeal, are sometimes made into cakes. Accord-
ing to Church, the composition of dried moss is as follows:
Water	18.8	per	cent
Nitrogenous matter 9.4 “	“
Carbohydrates, etc. 55.4 “	“
Mineral matter 14.2 “	“
Cellulose	2.2	“	“
The carbohydrates are made up chiefly of a starchy substance
called carrageenin, resembling the lichenin of Iceland moss.
Agar-Agar, known also under the name of Japanese gelatin, or
seagrass, occurs in thin, transparent strips of the thickness of
straw, which dissolve almost entirely in hot water, forming a gela-
tinous, tasteless and odorless jelly. It consists chiefly of a carbo-
hydrate, called gelose, which is insoluble in cold water or alco-
hol, but soluble in hot water, one part in 500 forming a jelly on
cooling. Dried agar-agar in granular form is recommended for
the relief of constipation, because of its mechanical action on the
bowels, through the expansion of the cellulose.
The “edible birds’ nests” which are highly valued as a deli-
cacy in China are made of gelatinous seaweeds. They are eaten and
disgorged hy the swallows and then used in the construction of their
nests. They are generally utilized in the preparation of soups.﻿CHAPTEE V
Cereals, Legumes and Miscellaneous Food Products
The cereals used for human consumption belong to the grass
family, and are the seeds of the matured plants in which na-
ture has stored the elements for the germination and growth of
the embryo, such as gluten, fat, starch, organic salts and vitamins.
The primary object of nature in developing the seed is evidently
to provide sufficient organized food material, readily assimilable
by the future plant, until its roots, stems and leaves have grown
strong enough to absorb nourishment directly from the soil and air.
Although it is evident that cereals were cultivated as staple
foods for man before the dawn of recorded history, yet in the
light of modern physiological chemistry they do not deserve the
term “staff of life,” which is often accorded them, for the reason
that even if eaten in their natural state, man cannot for an in-
definite length of time live exclusively on cereals and retain the
best of health.
All cereals have a tendency to acidify the blood, since they
carry a large amount of protein, carbohydrates and phosphoric
acid. These compounds act as a natural stimulus for the embryo
plant, but are detrimental to man if taken to excess. This condi-
tion is naturally intensified in artificially prepared cereals that
have been robbed of the larger portion of their alkaline content.
This point cannot be too strongly emphasized, because at present
cereals form the larger portion of man’s food supply. Cereals,
even in their natural state, are deficient in lime, soda and chlorine,
and therefore they do not supply enough of the elements for build-
ing sound and healthy teeth and bones. Wherever cereals are used
as staple foods, they should always be supplemented by a liberal
amount of green leaf vegetables, to supply the necessary alkaline
elements.
The principal cereals cultivated are wheat, com, oats, barley,
rye, rice, and to a smaller extent, buckwheat, millet, sorghum and
flaxseed.
298﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
299
Wheat, oats, barley, and rye are chiefly grown in temperate
zones, while corn and rice are more extensively grown in tropical
and snb-tropical countries. Rice is the staple food for the teem-
ing millions of southeastern Asia. The following table gives
an idea of the immense production of cereals in the United States,
and throughout the world:
Production of Cereals in the United States in 1920
Acres	Bushels
Corn	106,000,000
Oats	41,032,000
Winter Wheat 34,165,000
Spring Wheat 19,487,000
Barley	7,437,000
Rye	5,470,000
Grain Sorghums 4,000,000
Rice	1,200,000
Buckwheat	750,000
Total	219,541,000
3.232.367.000
1.444.362.000
532.641.000
218.007.000
191.387.000
77.893.000
150,000,000
42,000,000
13.789.000
5.902.446.000
World’s Production of the Principal Cereals
(Approximate Figures in Millions of Bushels)
Rice	4,200
Corn	4,000
Wheat	3,000
Oats	3,000
Barley	1,200
Rye	600
Total	16,000 million bushels
The wheat of the world in 1922 was produced chiefly by the
following countries:	Percentage of Total	
Country	Bushels	Production
United States	810,000,000	26.8
Canada	389,000,000	12.9
India	366,000,000	12.0
France	235,000,000	7.8
Argentina	181,000,000	6.0
Italy	162,000,000	5.3
Australia	132,000,000	4.3
Spain	126,000,000	4.1
Roumania	77,000,000	2.5
Germany	70,000,000	2.3
All Others	464,000,000	16.0
Total	3,012,000,000	100.0﻿300
RATIONAL DIET
Of the total amount of cereals produced in the United States,
nearly 6,000 million bushels, the American people eat about 550
million bushels, and 200 million bushels of other grains, while 350
million bushels are exported. The remainder—about 4,800 million
bushels, or 80 per cent—is mostly used for stock feed, to be con-
verted into milk and meat.
The average per capita consumption of cereals by the Ameri-
can people is about 350 pounds, or about one pound per day for
each man, woman and child. The reasons for this enormous con-
sumption are primarily because of the cheapness of the cereals,
and the comparative ease with which they can be harvested, shipped
and stored, especially by the aid of modern machinery.
The cultivation of cereals very likely began when man led a
more or less nomadic existence, to which the raising of the annu-
al grains was better suited than the planting of trees. In addi-
tion, the grains furnished him food for his dray animals. During
the course of centuries the various cereals have gradually assumed
a leading place in the human dietary. When man, however, comes
to realize the tremendous advantage that scientific and intensive
horticulture has over the cultivation of the annual grasses, he
will resort more and more to tree culture, wherever soil and climate
are suitable. With the increasing knowledge of scientific plant
breeding, fruit and nut culture will gradually expand into even
the northern and mountainous countries.
The chemical composition of the principal cereals is similar in
water content, which on an average is about 13 per cent; and
also in starch or carbohydrates, which range from 55 per cent
in buckwheat to 71 per cent in rye. The greatest relative differ-
ences are shown in the amount of fat, which is lowest in rice, about
0.5 per cent, and in the amount of protein, which again is lowest in
rice, about 7 per cent, and highest in some of the Russian and Si-
berian wheats, in which the protein content often reaches 17 per
cent. The mineral matter varies from less than 1 per cent in rice
to over 3 per cent in oats.
While it has been shown that cereals do not constitute an ideal
food for man, it is to be deprecated that his foolish attempts to
improve upon nature reduce their value to an appreciable degree.
Modern milling processes remove from 50 to 75 per cent of the
organic salts, while poisonous gases are often employed in order to﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
301
produce snow white flours. Considering the enormous consump-
tion of cereals and cereal products throughout the world, these
wasteful methods are most tragic in their ultimate effect upon the
health and vitality of people whose diet consists largely of devital-
ized foods, such as white flour products, degerminated corn meal,
polished rice, etc.
A large number of children’s diseases, such as adenoids, swol-
len tonsils, caries, rickets, and in later years, osteo-malacia, pel-
lagra and beri-beri are the result of the continuous consumption of
demineralized starchy foods, and lack of fresh fruits and vege-
tables.
WHEAT
Wheat (triticum sativum), the great staple food of the Cau-
casian race, is usually grown in all regions where the annual
rainfall is less than thirty inches. In fact, some wheat is grown
where the rainfall is annually less than ten inches. Frequent
summer rains are not favorable to wheat growing, and the warm
regions of heavy summer precipitation preclude its cultivation.
The ideal wheat climate is found in countries of rainy winters
and dry summers which prevail in most regions facing the Medi-
terranean Sea, some parts of Persia, India, Siberia and America.
Wheat lands also border the cooler edges of the deserts of South
Africa and Australia. New Zealand has an average wheat yield of
thirty bushels per acre, in contrast to the ten or twelve bushels
of southern Australia. In South America the principal wheat
growing country is the Argentine Republic. The most important
wheat growing belt of North America reaches from Texas north
through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Minnesota
into Canada. The Pacific Coast States have excellent wheat yields
in portions that have sufficient rainfall during the winter. Parts
of California at one time developed an important winter wheat
crop, which continued throughout several decades following
settlement by Americans. In fact, the wheat crops of the great
valleys of California were once world famous, but now they have
been largely superseded by more profitable orchard products.
In the northern portion of the Mississippi Valley, above 45 de-
grees latitude, the winters are too cold for fall-sown or winter
wheat, especially as there is no heavy snowfall to cover the ground﻿302
RATIONAL DIET
for protection against heavy frosts; but the equally distributed
rainfall from March to June permits the planting of wheat in the
spring, and promotes the grassy growth of the spring wheat which
ripens in the later and drier part of the summer.
Europe has a climatic distribution similar to that of the United
States. Near the Atlantic where the climate is mild and the pre-
cipitation abundant, winter wheat prevails. In the drier interior
countries that have summer rainsMspring wheat is grown. The
great spring wheat belt of the Eastern Hemisphere begins in Rou-
mania and stretches through Southern Russia, northeastward
across the basin of the Volga to the Ural mountains, and beyond
them across Siberia to the rough mountainous country east of
Lake Baikal. Southeastern Russia, north of the Caucasus and
East of the Caspian Sea, again, has a winter wheat belt.
The winter wheat varieties of western Europe and of east-
ern United States and California are starchy and soft. The spring
wheat of central North America, especially the Durum and Red
Fyfe, is so hard and brittle that the outer layers of the kernel
break into little particles, so that for many years, and until steel
roller milling was perfected, the flour had a mixture of brown
bran particles and was therefore yellowish in color. This flour
was not popular, on account of the preference of the ignorant
consumer for snow white, or bleached flours. Few people realize
that at present wheat flour is extensively bleached simply for the
purpose of making more attractive and salable articles, regardless
of its lessened nutritive value. By bleaching, a greater percentage
of the flour produced can be rated as being of first quality, which
means, naturally, superfine, or “ snowwhite. ’ ’ Ozone and oxides
of nitrogen developed by electrical discharges are the principal
bleaching agents employed. Bleached flours should be labeled as
such.	v ; * ¡I
Winter wheats are poorer in gluten and richer in starch than
spring wheats, which often show gluten contents of 16 per cent,
and are, therefore, valued in the manufacture of macaroni and
semolina. There is also a difference in the chemical composition
of mineral matter of winter and spring wheat. A large number
of analyses have been made by Dr. E. Wolff, a German chemist.﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
303
The average percentages of winter and spring wheat are given in
the following table:
	Winter Wheat	Spring Wheat
Potash	31.16 per cent	30.51 per cent.
Soda	3.07 “ “	1.74 “ “
Lime	3.25 “ “	2.82 “ “
Magnesia	12.06 “ “	11.96 | “
Iron	1.28 “ “	0.51 “ “
Phosphoric Acid	47.22 “ “	48.94 “ “
Silica	1.96 T “	1.46 “ “
Sulphuric Acid	0.39 “ “	1.32 “ “
Chlorine	0.32 1 1	0.47 1 “
The mineral matter of both varieties is almost entii*ely com-
posed of phosphate of potash and phosphate of magnesia with
very small proportions of soda, chlorine, and lime. It always
shows a decidedly acid reaction.
About seventy per cent of the phosphates and iron are contained
in the outer layers and germ of the kernel; and in these parts are
also found the vitamins. The following diagrams, very much en-
larged, show the cellular construction of a wheat kernel, which
is typical for all cereals:
“A” is the bran coat, rich in silica, lime and iron; “b” is com-
posed of several protective layers, containing a ceraline substance,
most of the phosphates and other organic salts; “c” is the germ;
“d” the white interior, consists chiefly of starch grains mixed
with gluten (see illustration in Chapter 8); “e” and “f” eon-﻿304
RATIONAL DIET
tain the gluten cells, fat and organic salts, deposited by nature as
food material for the first stages of germination.
By modern milling processes the important blood and bone
building elements, calcium, magnesium, iron, silicon, and fluorine,
are largely removed, as shown in the following table:
	Total Salts	Potassium 1 (K20)	gq G cj 0¿ CÆ w	Calcium (CaO)	Magnesium (MgO)	z<| O o	Phosphorus (P2O»)	SULPHUR (SO.)	Silicon (SiO.)	Chlorine (Cl)
Whole Wheat	 White Flour 		23.10 5.70	7.20 1.82	0.50 0.08	0.75 0.43	2.80 0.44	0.30 0.03	10.90 2.80	0.09	0.46	0.07
Rye, whole grain....	21.30	6.84	0.31	0.61	2.39	0.25	10.16	0.28	Ò.3Ò	0.01
Barley, whole grain. Oats, whole grain...	31.30	5.10	1.28	0.02	3.92	0.53	10.27	0.93	8.98	
	34.50	6.18	0.59	1.24	2.45	0.41	8.83	0.62	13.52	0.03
Corn, whole grain... Corn, degerminated.	18.50 6.85	¡5.50 ,2.07	0.02 0.24	0.04 0.43	2.87 1.02	0.15 0.10	8.44 3.08	0.15	0.39	0.35
Whole Rice		16.00	.3.60	0.67	0.59	1.78	0.22	8.60	0.08	0.42	0.02
Rice, polished		4.00	¿0.87	0.22	0.13	0.45	0.05	2.15	0.03	0.11	0.01
The supposed benefit derived from gluten flour, often recom-
mended in cases of diabetes, is a delusion, as in the manufactur-
ing process nearly all the alkaline elements are washed out, leav-
ing a product that is detrimental rather than beneficial. Dia-
betes indicates high acidity of the blood, which is unable to oxi-
dize the carbohydrates in food and, therefore, requires as a remedy
a diet rich in alkaline elements.
Other wheat products, such as macaroni, spaghetti, noodles,
etc., although rich in gluten, are lacking in organic salts, and
should be used sparingly and always combined with foods rich
in these elements.
Well baked bread or crackers, made from finely ground, entire
grains, requiring thorough mastication, are by all means preferable
to the many artificial bakery products and widely advertised
breakfast foods.
Recently a process has been developed in Europe, by which
bread can be made directly from wheat. The method, which is
termed the Pointe Navarre system, was perfected by a French
engineer named Navarre. This system consists of three stages of
operation. The first of these is washing the wheat with quantities
of running water, thus freeing the grain from dust and other
impurities much more thoroughly than by the dry cleansing com-﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
305
monly employed by the mills. After washing, the wheat is soaked
in pure warm water of 95 degrees F. in which one per cent of
sea salt has been dissolved. This process continues for fifteen to
twenty hours, according to the hardness of the grain. At the end
of this time the latter has absorbed an amount of water equal to
two thirds of its original weight.
The grain is now ready for the third stage of operation which
consists in passing it through an apparatus devised by Navarre.
The machine is operated on a principle similar to that of the
mechanical colanders or pulpers employed by modern canning com-
panies in making preserves or jams, in order to separate the pulp of
the fruit from the skin, tips and sctds. The apparatus consists of a
horizontal separator, pierced with small holes like an ordinary
kitchen colander and lined inside with fine meshed wire cloth.
Inside this are revolving cylinders alternating with movable strips
of iron. The humidified grain is fed into the machine by a funnel at
one side and is pressed between the sieve and the cylinders and thus
crushed against the wire cloth. The pulp thus produced passes
through the drum and is scraped off by a stationary knife, falling
into a vessel beneath the mechanism while the bran, which is
carried forward by the cylinders and the strips of iron, drops into
another receptacle. The pulp or paste is then worked into a dough
in the usual manner. The bran is made into cakes for fodder,
while still damp, or dried in an oven and employed in the same
manner as bran obtained from the milling of grain. It seems that
by soaking the wheat for twenty-four hours most of the organic
salts and vitamins pass into the dough, so that little nutritive
value is left in the bran.
It is stated that the bread produced from this material is of
excellent flavor, while a saving of about 20 per cent of the grain
is achieved. By the old methods of milling, 100 pounds of wheat
yield only 70 pounds of flour, from which 94 pounds of bread are
produced, while by the Pointe Navarre process 100 pounds of
wheat produce from 110 to 120 pounds of bread. Moreover, the
bread produced by this process is far more nourishing and likewise
more easily digested than bread made from white flour. There is no
doubt that an excellent unleavened bread can also be made from the
wheat paste, especially with the addition of some nut butter or﻿306
RATIONAL DIET
vegetable oil. This process certainly has many advantages over the
usual methods of bread-making.
BYE
Rye (secale cereale), contains considerably less gluten than
wheat but is richer in silicon and fluorine, which are important in
the formation of the enamel of the teeth. For this reason in all
countries where chiefly whole rye bread is eaten, dentists are con-
spicuous by their absence. Rye is a product of the northern temper-
ate zone and will thrive in many soils and climates where wheat will
not grow so well. It will endure cold winters, wet, sandy and poor
soils, and will even thrive in rough and hilly countries.
Rye is only grown to a small extent in the United States. The
chief rye producing districts are eastern New York and Pennsyl-
vania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In Germany, Austria
and Russia are grown the chief breadstuff's of the poorer classes,
Russia producing more than half of the world’s rye crop, while
Germany produces more than one-fourth.
An excellent health bread can be made by mixing equal parts
of whole wheat and rye flour. The so-called Swedish “Ry-Krisp”
is a most palatable and wholesome cereal product which has be-
come quite popular in the United States.
BABLEY
Barley (hordeum vulgare) is the hardiest of the cereals. It can
be grown in semi-arid, sub-tropical countries, as well as in far
northern countries. Like rye, it has less gluten than wheat, and
is therefore not so well suited for bread-making. It has a short
growing season and is especially adapted to the Antarctic summers.
Barley does well even in northern Scandinavia and in Lapland,
ripening there at 70 degrees latitude, beyond the Arctic circle. On
the other hand, it is grown as far south as Egypt and Abyssinia,
and waPone of the staple foods of the ancient Hebrews, Greeks,
and Romans. It constitutes an important crop in Spain and
Algeria. In Germany and Britain it is almost equal in importance
to wheat.
California, with annual crops of forty million bushels, is the
leading barley territory in the United States. Barley is also grown
on the high plateaus of the Rocky Mountains. It is cultivated to﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
307
a large extent in the Dakotas, Minnesota and eastern Wisconsin,
where it is mostly used for making “near-beer” by Milwaukee
breweries. The average yield of barley in the United States is 26
bushels per acre, exceeding that of both wheat and rye.
While a great deal of barley is used for stock feed, it is
extensively used as a human food, mostly in the shape of pearled
barley, which is another demineralized food. A wholesome flour
may be made from the plain hulled barley and used for baking
purposes in combination with whole wheat and rye flour. Coarse
ground unpearled barley meal is largely used as “porridge” in
Scotland.
OATS
Oats (avena sativa) is the cereal richest in fat and organic salts,
while the gluten content is about equal to that of rye and barley.
Like the latter, it requires a shorter growing season, and for that
reason can be grown further north than spring wheat.
The oat grain has a thick, close fitting husk, which has to be
removed by special machinery, if the grain is utilized for human
food. Oat meal and flaked oats are the chief manufactured prod-
ucts, and as they contain the larger portion of the mineral salts,
they are the least objectionable of all cereal foods sold in the
markets. The United States and Russia are the largest producers
of oats, while Germany takes third place. As a food, it is best
adapted to the inhabitants of cool countries, just as rice is a
suitable food for the tropical and sub-tropical regions.
BUCKWHEAT
Buckwheat (fagopyrum esculentum) is the least important of
the cereals, and is cultivated only in the eastern portions of the
United States and northwest Europe. It is also grown in the moun-
tainous districts of Japan, where it displaces rice. It is a summer
cereal and can thrive on poorer and rougher land than wheat. It is
generally placed upon the market for making thé well-known buck-
wheat cakes. There is probably no bread or cake-making material
that is subjected to more extensive adulteration than buckwheat
flour, most of that which is sold under the name being merely imita-
tions of that substance. Mixtures of rye flour, Indian corn flour,
wheat flour, and other ground cereals are used as a substitute for
buckwheat. From a hygienic point of view there is no objection﻿308
RATIONAL DIET
to the flours substituted, but the use of these mixtures under the
name of buckwheat can he regarded in no other light than as an
unpardonable fraud.
CORN
Corn, maize or Indian corn (zea mays), constitutes the leading
cereal crop of the United States today. It is a native of the
American continent, and was extensively used by the Indians when
the first American settlers landed at Plymouth Rock. Corn shows
less protein than wheat, but nearly equals oats in the amount of fat,
which is mostly contained in the germ.
Corn requires a long and moist summer and will fully mature,
if the weather conditions are favorable. The annual yield depends
much upon the rainfall and irrigation, and varies from 30 to 38
bushels per acre.
The United States produces about three-quarters of the world’s
corn crop. The leading corn growing states, composing the so-
called corn belt, are Illinois and Iowa, with over eleven million
acres each; Kansas and Nebraska, with over nine million acres
each; and Missouri with over seven million acres. Next to cotton,
corn is the most important crop of the Gulf States. It is also grown
to a lesser extent in the Atlantic Coast States, as far north as New
York.
A very small percentage of the corn grown in the Mississippi
Valley goes directly to the market as grain. In all of the Central
States by far the larger portion of the corn crop is fed to farm
animals; and it is often preserved for this purpose in silos, while
in Illinois nearly half of the corn crop is shipped out of the state.
Over fifty million bushels of corn are shipped to mills for the
manufacture of corn starch and corn starch syrup, known as the
glucose of commerce, and used extensively in the manufacture of
candies, as well as in the preservation of food products. Under
special names glucose is also used as a table syrup. It is made
by means of diluted acids from corn starch, and, needless to say,
its use cannot be recommended as it is a denatured and demineral-
ized product. The annual consumption of glucose in the United
States is over 500,000,000 pounds, chiefly manufactured in Illinois
and Iowa.
An oil is pressed from the germ of the corn, known as com oil
or maize oil, and is refined under high steam pressure to remove﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
309
the raw, disagreeable taste. This oil is, therefore, not as wholesome
as the cold pressed peanut or olive oil.
From one to two hundred million bushels of corn are annually
shipped from the American corn belt to northwestern Europe,
where they are used for stock feed. Although during the World
War efforts were made to introduce corn in various forms as human
staple food, the consumption in Europe is still very small. It is
an unimportant crop in southeastern Europe, in the countries
bordering on the Black Sea, but is raised only for home consump-
tion, chiefly for cattle feed.
Corn is the leading cereal in nearly all the Latin American
countries, from Mexico down to Argentina. Tortillas, the corn
cakes of the Mexican, combined with frijoles and a few vegetables
constitute the principal diet of the poorer classes throughout Mexico
and Central America. The Mexican always uses the whole corn,
whereas the corn meal sold in the U. S. is, as a rule, degerminated
and devitalized. The same deficiencies exist in the polenta of
the Italians. The hookworm disease of the Southern States and
pelagra in Europe are the result of a diet consisting largely of
such impoverished corn, deficient in lime, magnesia, iron and silicon,
and are not caused by a specific germ. Corn flour, if made from the
entire corn, is a wholesome food, and in combination with alkaline
vegetables makes a well-balanced meal. During the summer season,
when the corn is young, and the carbohydrates in soluble form, it
may be eaten without further preparation.
Hominy, which is corn thoroughly boiled after the outer layer
has been removed by means of a weak lye solution, is a demineral-
ized food.
Popcorn, made by breaking open the cells of a special kind
of corn and dextrinizing the starch over a slow fire, is preferable to
many artificial corn preparations.
MILLET
Millet, or grain sorghum (sorghum vulgare), produces small,
round seeds, resembling corn in chemical composition. They con-
tain on an average:
Water	11.0	per	cent	Carbohydrates	72.5	per	cent
Protein	9.0	“	“	Crude fiber	2.0	“	“
Fat	3.5	“	I	Mineral matter	2.0	“	3﻿310
RATIONAL DIET
The grain sorghums comprise three varieties: the Durras, in-
cluding Dwarf and White milo; the Kafirs, and the Kaolings. Many
varieties of these corn substitutes have been grown for ages in
the Eastern Hemisphere. Some varieties have been selected to
produce grain for both men and animals, while others have been
specialized to produce stalks for feeding animals only.
Millet is grown mostly for forage in the Mediterranean region
and western Russia, but is also used there to a small extent for
human consumption. As a cereal staple food for man, it is of
greatest importance in eastern Russia and China.
It is estimated that one-third of the human race includes the
small millet in its daily diet, and records in China show that millet
has been cultivated for over five thousand years. In India the
consumption of millet is greater than that of wheat; it often sup-
plements rice in Japan, while it is grown for forage only in nearly
all parts of the United States.
The first introduction of grain sorghums into the United States
occurred in 1874 when they were brought from Egypt to California,
where they do well, as they can withstand more drought than most
other field crops grown. Dwarf millet is the best variety for
grain, while for forage purposes the Kafir, because of its juicy
stems, is preferable. In the Imperial Valley, in Southern Cali-
fornia, 150,000 acres of milo maize were cultivated in 1918.
The grains of the sorghum more nearly resemble buckwheat
flour in flavor than either corn or wheat. If the grains are used
unpolished, they are wholesome and nutritious, and their flavor
is usually regarded as agreeable. They have served as a staple food
in southern Egypt for many centuries. The average yield of grains
per acre in the United States is nearly one tonlH
Sweet Sorghum is now used extensively for making sorghum
syrup, which is more wholesome than corn starch syrup, especially
if it is concentrated at a low temperature in vacuum pans. One
acre of sorghum will yield about twelve tons of stripped cane, which
will make 132 gallons of syrup that can be used as a substitute for
sugar in baking and canning.
BICE
Rice (oryza sativa) is the most important and most productive
food cereal in the Orient, where it has been cultivated since time
immemorial, and where still 97 per cent of the world’s rice crop﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
311
is produced. According to historians, a ceremonial ordinance was
established in China by the Emperor Chinung, 2,800 B. C., in ac-
cordance with which the emperor sowed rice himself while the seeds
of four other cereals might be sowed by the princes of his family.
In some parts of the Orient, where it is grown in large quantities,
rice was, and is still, a medium of exchange. Moreover, necessity
has taught the people in these densely populated countries to use
every part of the rice plant. Rice straw is used in China and
Japan for making paper, matting, sandals, brooms, hats, and many
other useful articles.
Rice was not known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. It
was introduced into Europe by the Arabs in the fifteenth century.
It was first cultivated in the Valley of the Po, near Pisa, while in
America cultivation was begun in Colonial days. It has now
achieved commercial importance in the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisi-
ana, Texas, Arkansas and the Sacramento Valley in California.
The emigration of East Indian laborers has introduced rice growing
in Jamaica, Trinidad, Honduras and Guiana.
Rice is distinctly a cereal of tropical and sub-tropical coun-
tries with their wet summers, or of places having plenty of water
for irrigation, as in the valleys of the Sacramento in California,
and the Po, in northern Italy. The countries, however, with fre-
quent warm summer rains are the principal rice growing territories
of the world. Southeastern China has probably the largest rice
growing districts, followed by the lower Ganges Valley and its ad-
joining territory, with its wide stretches of alluvial soil and nearly
one hundred inches of summer rains. Other rice areas of south-
eastern Asia are the deltas of the Irawadi in Burmah, the Menam
in Siam, and the Mekong in Cochin-China. The cities of Bangkok,
Rangoon and Saigon are the greatest rice ports of the world, where
in the mills of English, French, and Chinese firms the paddy, or
rough grain, is cleaned in the wasteful manner demanded by
European and American consumers. Japan has more than half
of all her arable lands laid out in rice fields, with a per capita
consumption of 170 pounds annually. Japan has lately been im-
porting rice from California.
The varieties of rice grown in the United States are the Carolina
Gold and White, best adapted to the Atlantic coast; the Honduras,
and several Japanese types of rice, to the Gulf States; and the﻿312
RATIONAL DIET
Japanese types only, to California. The Japanese varieties with
tlieir short round kernels are preferred because they can be milled
at less cost.
California has the most remarkable rice growing area in the
United States. The acreage in the Sacramento Valley has now
increased to over 80,000 acres, with an astonishing yield of seventy
bushels per acre, as compared with 36 bushels per acre in Louisiana.
In harvesting the rice, it is first threshed to separate the straw
from the paddy, which must be milled before it can be used as a
food. The paddy consists of a tough fibrous hull and a bran coat,
inside of which are the germ and the main part of the grain, known
as the ‘ ‘ endosperm. I ’ The primitive manner of milling rice was to
pound it by hand in a stone or wooden mortar with a pestle until
the husk and cuticle cracked, rubbed off and could be winnowed out.
Machinery has now for the most part displaced the old hand way
of cleaning, but in this country still more elaborate methods are
used. The rough rice is first screened and fanned to remove par-
ticles of dust, straw and other foreign matter, and then passed be-
tween milling stones set sufficiently close together to break the hulls,
without crushing the grains. The light chaff is blown out by fans,
and a device, known as the paddy machine, sorts out the grains that
were not hulled the first time, so that they can be transferred to
another set of stones adjusted to hull the smaller grains.
This first milling produces the unpolished or brown rice, con-
taining the germ and the outer layers of the kernel, which is now
in the very best state to be used as food. But in order to satisfy the
perverted taste of a people that commercialism has educated to
sacrifice quality for attractiveness, the rice is put through a series
of machines that scour, polish and in some cases coat it with
glucose and talc. As in the case c# white flour, peeled and polished
rice has lost its vitamins and the greater portion of the organic salts,
like lime, magnesia, iron and silica, and its continuous use causes
beri-beri and similar diseases of the nervous system.
Pellagra and hookworm diseases, following a corn diet, find
their counterpart in the beri-beri diseases of the Orient, where
peeled rice has displaced the natural brown rice as a staple food.
In all Oriental ports where American and European methods of
rice milling have devitalked this cereal, nutrition diseases are on﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.	313
the increase. The death rate in Manila due to beri-beri for children
under one year of age is 430 per 1000. Professor Philip Andrews
who recently published a number of articles on this subject in the
“Science Magazine,” found that an autopsy on 219 infants under
one year old wrho had been diagnosed by physicians as having died
from acute meningitis, congenital debility, convulsions, acute bron-
chitis, or enteritis, showed that 126 or 56.6 per cent actually died
of a condition which Andrews called beri-beri. These infants
appeared to be well-nourished to the superficial diagnostician, but
they had symptoms that this authority described as characteristic
beri-beri, i. e., labored breathing, high pulse rate, etc.
As children one year old are seldom fed on polished rice, An-
drews accounted for these deplorable conditions by the fact that in
most cases the mothers reveal symptoms of beri-beri; and that
their diet is usually white rice and fish, or meat, and rarely vege-
tables or fruit. "While polished rice is deficient in vitamin “B”,
the fundamental cause of beri-beri is mineral starvation, and not
the lack of protein, as has often been assumed. The remedy is
natural brown rice with plenty of green leaf vegetables and fresh
fruits, to supply an abundance of alkaline salts.
WILD RICE
In various parts of the North American continent, especially
the northern Mississippi Valley and southern Canada, a water
plant generally known as wild rice (zizania aquatica) and often
as Indian or Canadian rice is frequently found along the edges of
small lakes and streams. It is not true rice, but belongs to a dif-
ferent botanical group, although it resembles rice in nutritive value.
At one time this wild rice was one of the staple foods of the Indians,
ranking next to corn. The grains of wild rice are longer and less
rounded than those of the true rice, and the husk is dark brown in
color. The Indian women parch the rice in kettles over an open
fire, as the heat not only improves the flavor and keeping qualities
of the grain, but also makes the rough husk easier to remove. Re-
cently, the harvesting of wild rice has been undertaken in a com-
mercial way, especially in northern Minnesota, and machinery is
being developed to replace the crude Indian method of threshing.﻿314
RATIONAL DIET
SUGAR CANE
Sugar cane (saccharum officinarum) is a species of grass which
was probably first cultivated in southeastern Asia, hut is now grown
in large quantities in all tropical countries. Of the Western Hemi-
sphere, the West Indies, Hawaii, and Brazil are now the principal
sugar cane countries. It is used by the natives in its natural state
as a staple food. Its sweet acidulous juice, which is released by
thorough mastication, is very nourishing. Native children are es-
pecially fond of the sweet, ripe cane. Judging from the Splendid
condition of their teeth, and their sleek, well-proportioned bodies,
the natural juice of the cane must contain the blood and bone build-
ing elements that are lacking in the refined sugar of commerce.
Sugar cane is propagated by slips taken from the upper part of
the canes, which are planted at intervals of five feet apart. As
the joints ripen, the leaves wither and fall awayfcand the stem
becomes externally smooth and hard, containing much silica. The
stalks, or canes of the plant, reach a height of from eight to fifteen
feet, and attain a diameter of 1% to two inches. The average
composition of the four most common varieties is as follows:
As soon as the cane is ripe the stalks are cut close to the ground,
then removed to the crushing machines, which extract the juice. In
order to clarify the liquid, bi-sulphate of lime is added, liberating
sulphurous acid, which coagulates the albumen. The latter grad-
ually settles at the bottom of the vessel, taking along small particles
of cellulose particles floating in the juice, which is then drawn off
and boiled down over a direct fire. The scum of the boiling juice
is collected and distilled into rum, and the remaining condensed
liquid removed into shallow coolers. The sugary crystals that soon
form, constitute the muscovada or raw sugar, while the remaining
heavy dark brown liquid is the molasses, in which a large propor-
tion of sulphurous acid is retained.
From a hygienic point of view, the refining of sugar is a
wasteful process, as it destroys all the organic salts and vitamins
Water
Protein
Sugar
71.0	per cent
1.0	“	“
18.0 Q	U
Pectin and
woody fiber
Mineral matter
9.5 “	“
0.5 I	E*﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
315
contained in sugar cane. The natives, who prefer to eat the cane
in its natural state, are very much benefited by its liberal consump-
tion, as mentioned above. The natural juice of the sugar cane, if
condensed in vacuum pans at a low temperature, is the best known
method of retaining all its valuable constituents, and in the con-
centrated form it can be shipped rasily and used instead of the
devitalized, refined sugar of commerce.
Legumes
Legumes (or pulses) are, next to cereals, the most extensively
used plant food. They include one-eelled, two-valved seed pods,
containing one or more seeds, such as the bean, pea and lentil.
The peanut, which also belongs to this class, has been described in
Chapter III.
Legumes in their dry state have a very high percentage of pro-
tein—over 20 per cent—resembling in this respect the nuts; from
1.5 to 16 per cent fat; and from 50 to 60 per cent of carbohydrates,
mostly starch. The composition of the mineral matter resembles
that of cereals, showing a large amount of phosphate of potash and
magnesia. Legumes are, therefore, decidedly acid-forming—in
fact, in their ripened seeds are stored small amounts of purin bodies.
Beans and peas are especially valuable, and they may be used
at different stages of their growth: (1) as tender pods (string beans
and sugar peas) which can be gathered when the seeds are less
than half grown—in this form, if eaten with the pods, they have an
alkaline reaction, as they contain more lime and less phosphoric
acid; (2) as the nearly grown, but unripened shell beans and green
peas; (3) as fully ripened seeds—dried beans, peas and lentils; and
(4), as flours made from the perfectly dried seeds.
A distinguishing feature of the legumes and a contributing
factor in the support of plant life is their ability to produce upon
their roots nodules that contain colonies of nitrogen gathering
bacteria. These small organisms take up nitrogen freely from the
air, and thus enable the legumes, upon which they live, to store it
up, especially in their seeds. By the aid of these bacteria, the
legumes can grow in poor soil and enrich it with nitrogen, be-
cause of the nodules on the roots which remain in the ground after
the harvesting of the crop.
Experiments have demonstrated that in mixed stands of legumes﻿316
RATIONAL DIET
and other plants the latter are richer in nitrogen because they are
supplied with that element by coming in contact with legumes.
Perhaps no single agricultural crop is of greater importance in
this respect than cow-peas, which are rapidly growing in favor in
this country as a most valuable forage crop, and a great soil reno-
vator. The seeds are valuable as grain; the hay is equaled only by
alfalfa, and as a producer of organic matter for green manure,
it is unsurpassed.
The Americans, being heavy meat eaters, use far less of the
legumes than do the inhabitants of Europe, especially those of the
Mediterranean countries. In China and Japan the soy bean has
been an important article of diet for many thousands of years.
With the Bedouins and other Asiatic people the porridge of lentils
has been in constant use since ancient times. The birthright that
Esau sold to Jacob for a “mess of pottage” is supposed to have
been made of lentils. A Hindoo proverb says: “Rice is good, but
lentils are my life.” The Arabs feed their horses ground beans
to prepare them for extraordinary exertion.
BEANS
Under the general term “bean” (faba vulgaris) we include a
large variety of closely related plants, such as the lima, pink, the
bayo, cranberry, Lady Washington and the small white (navy),
natives of South America; the black eye, garbanzo (chick-pea or
gram), the horse bean, from the Orient; the white tepary and red
Mexican, natives of Mexico; the blue pod bean, originated in
Lompoc Yalley, California; and the red kidney bean, first cultivated
in the Eastern States.
There are about one million acres devoted to bean culture in
the United States. Three states—Michigan, California, and New
York—are leading all others. In 1917, California had planted
538,000 acres to beans, producing 15,701,000 bushels.
The garbanzo or chick-pea (cicer arietinum) containing over
6 per cent fat, is the leading protein food in Spain and northern
Africa. England exports chick-peas especially for making soup,
while France, before the war, imported about 35,000 tons from
northern India.
As previously mentioned, in eastern Asia the soy bean (dolichos﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
317
soya) is one of the chief providers of protein and fat, and is second
only to rice in importance as a food crop. It contains more than
four times as much protein as rice, also 16 per cent fat; it is manu-
factured into a great variety of products, all having a high per-
centage of protein.
Soy beans, when about three-fourths grown, make a most palat-
able and nutritious green vegetable, like the green pea or the lima
bean. A vegetable milk is made from the dried beans. They are
finely ground into flour, then thoroughly mixed with three parts of
water and boiled for half an hour. The milky emulsion obtained
is similar in appearance to cow’s milk, but naturally of a different
chemical composition, especially in mineral elements, as it is lacking
in calcium, sodium and chlorine. Thi* soy bean milk is frequently
used in making bread, cake, and in creaming vegetables. If left
in a warm place it will turn sour like animal milk. In Japan a
condensed milk is obtained by evaporating soy bean milk in a
vacuum. A cheese is also made there, by adding about one per cent
of magnesium or calcium salts to the soy bean milk, which precipi-
tates the proteins into a grayish white curd, leaving a yellowish
liquid. The curd after being thoroughly drained and pressed is
called “tofu,” which forms the basis of numerous unfermented,
smoked and dried cheeses in China and Japan. However, these
bean cheeses, although nutritious, are lacking in the flavor and pala-
tability of those made from cow’s or goat’s milk.
Soya sauce is a heavy, dark brown liquid prepared from a mix-
ture of cooked and ground soy beans, roasted and pulverized wheat
or barley, salt and water. The mixture is inoculated with a culture
known as rice ferment and left in casks to slowly ferment for six
months or more. This sauce, which is salty and pungent, not un-
like meat extract, is generally used as a condiment for boiled rice
or vegetables. The yearly production of soya sauce in Japan alone
is nearly two million barrels. It takes the place of salt in the Jap-
anese and Chinese diet and is occasionally used by Americans in
the Pacific Coast States. The fat or oil of the soy bean is of ex-
cellent flavor and is used for culinary purposes throughout the
Orient. It is more easily digested than animal fats and is equal
in nutritive value to peanut oil.﻿318
RATIONAL DIET
PEAS
Peas (pisum sativum) are natives of Europe, where they were
cultivated long before the dawn of the Christian era. While they
are usually grown for their seed, there are several varieties with
thick soft green edible pods that may be eaten with the seed. Peas
may be classified as climbing; half dwarf, or showing a tendency to
climb and doing best when supported; and dwarf peas that re-
quire no support. Peas are among the earliest garden vegeta-
bles and are grown in endless varieties, often as purely ornamental
plants. They are much more hardy than beans and can withstand
cold and light frosts.
Sugar Peas, which are comparatively little known in this coun-
try, are largely grown in Europe. They are characterized by more
,*r less fleshy and often distorted or dwarfed pods, which may he
cooked when in the same state of maturity and in the same man-
ner as string beans.
TEE LENTIL
The lentil (ervum lens), as previously mentioned, is one of the
most ancient of food plants, probably one of the first to be brought
under cultivation by man. It has been used in Egypt and in the
Mediterranean countries for thousands of years. Until recent
years, the lentil was little known in the United States, although
small quantities of it have been imported every year. The red
lentil comes from Egypt, and the large purplish-green lentils from
central Europe. There is grown in New Mexico and Arizona, as
well as in Mexico, a small variety of lentil, the seed of which was
doubtless brought from Spain centuries ago.
Lentils, flavored with green leaf vegetables, make excellent
soups and stews. In addition to phosphate of potash and mag-
nesia, they contain an appreciable amount of sodium, chlorine
and iron. Lentils are much richer in iron than any other of the
legumes.
The preparation of the legumes, especially in their dry state,
is one of great importance in order to insure their digestion and
assimilation. They should be cooked in soft or, better still, dis-
tilled water, if available. If the water which is used for cook-
ing is hard, due to the presence of calcium carbonate, one tea-
spoonful of baking-soda per gallon may be added, and then boiled﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
319
and cooled before using, in order that the calcium carbonate may
precipitate. It is advisable to soak lentils and beans over night
in water, in order to soften them. Experiments have demonstrated
that the digestibility of legumes is facilitated by using distilled
water in cooking; they can be made still more palatable if served
in the form of puree by pressing the boiled seeds through a sieve.
Flours made from dried peas/Jbeans and lentils are excellent for
making soups and purees, but a double boiler should always be
employed for this purpose, to prevent scorching. They should
always be cooked (simmered) very slowly.
If used moderately and with discrimination, preferably com-
bined with vegetable salads, legumes may be used as a substitute
for animal food products without the usual disagreeable symptoms
occurring during the process of digestion. If eaten often and to
excess, they produce acidity of the blood, on account of their
large amount of nitrogenous matter and acid-forming elements.
Outdoor workers can digest legumes better than sedentary work-
ers, who should eat them not oftener than once or twice a week.
OILY SEEDS
Flaxseed is the product of the common flax plant (linum usit-
atissimum) which is indigenous to southern Europe and northern
Africa, also to some parts of Asia. It is now raised quite ex-
tensively in the United States and Canada. While flax is culti-
vated moiily for the bark and the inner portion of the stem, from
which linen thread and cloth are made, the oil seeds yield the
drying fluid called “linseed oil.” Flaxseed is frequently used for
medical purposes as an emollient and demulcent in irritations of
the mucous membranes, also as an ingredient of many cereal prepa-
rations to give them a slightly laxative effect.
Sesame (sesamum indicum) is one of a dozen species of annual
hairy herbs, indigenous to Africa and India. Since ancient times
it has been cultivated in eastern Asia and many tropical and sub-
tropical countries. The oil obtained from the seeds, sesame oil,
resembles olive oil. In the Orient it is mixed with honey and pre-
served citron and sold as a luxury. In some parts of Africa the
seeds are used for making pudding. The leaves of sesame abound
in a mucilaginous substance, which readily passes into water, mak-
ing a rich demulcent drink used in the Southern States. Sesame﻿320
RATIONAL DIET
oil is not produced in the United States and is imported to some
extent by those who have become accustomed to its use in other
countries.
Cottonseed, a product of the cotton-plant (gossypium hirsu-
tum), is used extensively for the production of cottonseed-oil in
the United States. Cottonseed-oil is usually hydrogenated.
Rape-seed, coming from the rape plant (brassica napus), is
manufactured into rape-oil throughout Europe and eastern Asia.
Sunflower seeds are derived from the sunflower (helianthus
annuus) which is grown largely in Hungary, southern Russia,
India and China, for the purpose of making sunflower oil.
The seeds of the poppy (papaver somniferum) are also fre-
quently used for the production of table oil. The best grades of
these oils are obtained from the first pressings without heating and
are preferable to the refined oils.
HONEY
Honey has been used as a food from the earliest times, and con-
stituted one of the principal sweetening materials up to about
fifty years ago when sugar became a commercial product and was
more or less available for all classes of people. It is still appre-
ciated by those who prefer a natural sweet to refined sugar, or
corn syrup. We should bear in mind that honey is manufactured
by the bees primarily for the purpose of supplying themselves with
food during the winter months, and man often obtains his sup-
ply by taking from the bees their natural food and substituting
artificial sweets. A liberal supply of honey should always be left
for the bees instead of giving them refined sugar, as it is quite
probable that the frequently recurring bee diseases that have proved
such a menace to bee keeping, are attributable to the fact that
a large number of greedy people have forced the busy little work-
ers to depend upon demineralized food.
Bees perform a valuable service in fertilizing flowers and blos-
soms, and the intelligent orchardist will see to it that he has a
few hives of bees in or near his orchard, as they will effect a ma-
terial increase in the fruit crop.
Prior to the passage of the Federal Pure Food Law, in 1906,
strained honey was frequently adulterated with glucose, or cane﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
321
syrup, but the practice has since become unsafe and has therefore
been almost entirely abandoned.
Honey is a concentrated food and should be used sparingly.
It contains about 75 per cent of carbohydrates made up of equal
parts of dextrose and levulose; about 2 per cent sucrose; 18 per
cent water, and 0.23 per cent of mineral matter. In addition,
honey contains a small amount of formic acid.
The flavor of honey is due to volatile bodies in the flowers from
which it is obtained, such as the blossoms of orange, sage, clover,
alfalfa, thistle, eucalyptus and many others. Honey is often a
compound of many different flowers and, therefore, lacks any dis-
tinctive flavor.
It was formerly assumed that the composition of honey was
practically the same as that of the nectar gathered by the bees,
but it has been found that the nectar undergoes [certain changes
in the honey-sac of the bee and that the chemical properties of
the honey are somewhat different from those of the nectar. Al-
most all pure honey when exposed to light and cold becomes more
or less granular in consistency.
Owing to the presence of impurities so generally introduced
by the bees, much difficulty is found in attempting to set up a suit-
able standard of purity for honey as found in commerce. The
difficulty is increased by the common practice of artificially feed-
ing bees.
The nectar of flowers contains from 70 to 80 per cent of water,
but honey contains only about 20 per cent. The reduction is
effected partly by the bees exposing the nectar in thin layers to
the action of a current of air produced by the fanning of their
wings and partly by a process of regurgitation, the nectar being
continually thrown out from the honey-sac on the partially doubled
tongue and then drawn in again until, by the movement of the
air and the heat of the hive, the nectar is sufficiently concen-
trated to be deposited in the cells of the comb. Another change
of considerable importance, which takes place while the nectar is in
the honey-sac of the bee and also probably during evaporation and
storage in the comb, is the conversion of over 85 per cent of the su-
crose originally present in the nectar through the action of an en-
zyme secreted by the bee. The nectar is further modified by the
bee by the introduction of a minute quantity of formic acid which﻿322
RATIONAL DIET
is not present in the original nectar. This acid is supposed to act
as a preservative and to prevent fermentation.
In an article describing his experiences in bee keeping, Dallas
Lore Sharp in Harper’s Magazine of September, 1922, writes in-
terestingly about the transmutation of nectar into honey.
“All flowers do not yield honey, or any flower indeed. Only
bees yield honey. Flowers yield sweet water—those that flow for
the bees—a sweet water which may be ravishingly perfumed
and tinctured with distillations as of attar and frankincense and
myrrh, but whose sweet taste is that of cane sugar only. This
sweet water the bees suck from the flower tubes and carry home
in their abdominal honey sacs, and on the journey in the body of
the bee the sweet secretion of the flower, to which has been added
a minute drop of acid secretion of the bee, undergoes a chemical
change, resulting in a new compound called honey.
“As the drop of nectar is sucked from the flower tubes it re-
ceives in passing certain glands at the root of the bee’s tongue an
infinitely small drop of formic acid, and the change into honey be-
gins. The bee hurries home with her load, but instead of running
to the empty cell with her sac of sweets, she is met by a home
worker who, mouth to mouth, drinks from her sister’s sac, emptying
itsBontents into her own honey sac and adding her own portion
of acid, thus doubly charging the nectar, as we charge the fruit
juice at the fountain with a dash of acid phosphate; and the sweet
water, which had been sweet with cane sugar, is now, from out of
this second bee’s abdominal sac, poured into the cell of the comb as
real honey, sweet with grape sugar, not cane sugar, a different
product, the joint chemical compound of many blossoms and at
least of two bees.”
MAPLE SUGAR AND SYRUP
Maple sugar and syrup are the products of the condensed sap
of the sugar maple (acer saccharinum). The North American In-
dians were probably the first manufacturers of maple syrup. In
order to obtain the sap, a hole about half an inch in diameter is
bored in the trunk of the tree to a depth of two or three inches. A
metal spout is then driven into the tree just below the opening. A
pail is attached to the spout to collect the sap which contains about
three to six per cent sugar. The impurities are removed during
the boiling process. The tapping of the trees begins in February
and sometimes lasts until the middle of May.
The manufacture of maple sugar which is made by further
concentration of the syrup, is mostly carried on in the northeast-﻿CEREALS, LEGUMES, ETC.
323
ern part of the United States, wherever maple trees are abundant.
New York and Vermont lead in the production of maple sugar
and syrup, which totalled nearly thirty-four million pounds in
1922. The production of maple sugar amounted to over four mil-
lion pounds. In the early history of the American Colonies, honey
and maple sugar were the chief sweetening substances, and they
are certainly more wholesome than the refined sugar of the cane
or beet.﻿CHAPTER VI
Milk and Dairy Products
Milk, and the many products made from it, were among the last
articles added to the diet of primitive man, who was forced by
circumstances to supplement at times his meagre diet with foods
derived from the living animal. Milk is taken from various ani-
mals, such as cows, ¡Camels, mares, goats, sheep, reindeer and even
the buffalo. After years of careful selective breeding, the cow
and the goat have become especially adapted to the process of
milking, and in some instances certain types of these animals, like
the Holstein cow and the Toggenburg goat, produce at intervals
enormous quantities of milk, especially during the season when
plenty of green fodder is available. There are now over twelve
million milch cows in the United States; Wisconsin, New York,
Iowa and Minnesota are the leading dairy states, having nearly
as many milch cows as the rest of the states combined. The large
extension of the dairy industry in the United States is illustrated
by the fact that over $1,000,000,000 is spent for milk and butter
every year; about as much as the expenditure for cereal products.
Natural history shows that milk is supplied by nature only for
the nourishment of newly born mammals, and the supply is cut
off automatically after the period of lactation, which varies for
different species from one month to about one year. We cannot,
therefore, say that milk is in any sense a natural food, or is in-
dispensable to the healthy growth and nutrition of the young
after weaning. The young mammal is absolutely dependent for
its normal development on its mother’s milk, but the suckling pe-
riod is comparatively short with all species of mammals, and the
transition period to the food assigned to them by nature according
to their anatomical structures is very rapid.
In a natural state the lactiferous glands of mammals are only
active until the teeth of the young have grown sufficiently to enable
them to take solid food. The milk glands of the mother would
naturally dry up again, if the artificial milking of the animal
were not increased by special breeding. In making milk a product
324﻿DAIRY PRODUCTS
325
of commerce we interfere with the order of nature, as it is quite
obvious that this complete food was intended only for the suckling
of the young, and should not come in contact with the air. There
are certain electric and magnetic properties in milk that dissipate
rapidly when exposed, and which cannot be determined by chemi-
cal analysis. Furthermore, milk in every instance contains a cer-
tain amount of solid substances, which includes the nutritive ele-
ments in such proportions as are necessary to build up the tissues,
bones, and different organs of the new-born animal. Nature pro-
vides in milk the kind of food needed by the young of the different
species for their growth and development, according to the ana-
tomical structure of their bodies. It is evident, therefore, that the
chemical composition of milk in the various species of mammals
must differ as widely as do their anatomical peculiarities.
There is another distinguishing feature in milk that is seldom
recognized. Only a small quantity of iron is derived from milk
during lactation. Nature has provided for this contingency by stor-
ing up a suffiment amount of this important element in a readily
assimilable form in the liver of the young during pregnancy, to
protect the growing organism against any deficiency. In milk this
element is often deficient and not so readily available as the iron
compound of the liver, which can enter directly into the circulation.
This important fact has been explained at length in Chapter
XII and should certainly be given due consideration in feeding
infants.
Calcium is another element that varies greatly in the chemi-
cal composition of milk, especially in the case of milch cows. The
constant removal of phosphate of lime by milking exerts a great
strain upon the organism of the animal, which often draws a
supply of this element from her own skeleton. In fact, the loss of
calcium from the body appears to be a prominent factor in the nu-
tritive depletion and functional derangement of the overtaxed
milch cow, resulting frequently in tuberculosis. The ability of
a cow to assimilate calcium is much more definitely limited than
its ability to assimilate nitrogen.
While milk produced under ideal conditions is perhaps better
than many of the artificial and demineralized foods of commerce,
especially if supplemented with green leaf vegetables and fruits
to supply organic iron, we are not justified in recommending its﻿326
RATIONAL DIET
indiscriminate use. For it is far from being indispensable for the
maintenance of the health and vigor of the race. Milking of ani-
mals is an unnatural process since it lowers their vitality and makes
them often victims of disease, while it gradually impairs the quality
of the milk.
The Japanese are a healthy, virile, and progressive race, yet
they use hardly any milk. In fact, they are averse to it. Arti-
ficial milk substitutes for bringing up children are unknown in
Japan, except perhaps in the coast cities. The densely populated
area of the country requires intensive agriculture and does not
permit cattle raising. This is still more significant when we con-
sider the fact that the land necessary for the feeding of a milch
cow can under intensive cultivation support at least five people,
if they live directly on the products of the soil. Greece and Rome
at the time of their ascendancy consumed practically no milk, and
dairy products were used only in limited quantities. Caesar’s
legions conquered the world on a diet consisting mostly of wheat
and dried fruits; and they began to mutiny when meat was substi-
tuted for cereals.
The tables in the appendix giving the analyses of human milk
and the milk of various mammals, show the following differences in
their respective chemical composition:
Water content varies	from 70.00 to 90.00 per cent
Milk sugar (highest in human milk) “	2.00 to 6.25 “	“
The highest percentages of protein, fat and mineral matter are
found in the milk of the rabbit, one of the most rapidly growing
mammals. There is also, naturally, a great variation in the amount
of the different organic salts.
The principal nitrogenous compounds of milk are casein and
albumin in varying proportions. Human milk contains 1 per cent
casein, and 1.2 per cent albumin; cow’s milk, 3 per cent and 0.5
per cent; and goat’s milk 3.2 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.
When milk is drawn from the cow the casein is in a form called
“caseinogin,” and is changed by the action of the air into casein.
The albumin is similar to that contained in blood, and in the whites
of eggs. Besides, there are traces of other nitrogenous substances
present.
Protein
Fat
“	1.30 to 15.30 “ “
I	1.20 to 10.50 I 1
Mineral matter
“	0.40 to 2.60 ■ I﻿DAIRY PRODUCTS
327
The fat of milk is commercially the most important of its con-
stituents, since it is the source of butter, and enters largely into
the composition of cheese. Milk fat consists of several different
kinds of fat, chiefly stearin, palmitin and olein. The total amount
of fat in cow’s milk should not fall below 3 per cent and does not
generally exceed 4 per cent. A good average is about 4 per cent,
or about 30 per cent of the water free contents of milk.
The carbohydrates of milk exist in the form of lactose or
milk sugar, which is similar in composition to cane sugar, but not
nearly so sweet. Its amount ranges from 4 to 6 per cent, but on
the average is about 5 per cent in cow’s milk. Human milk is the
richest in sugar. In regard to the percentage of organic salts,
mare’s milk appears to resemble human milk more than any other.
Goat’s milk shows the largest amount of iron, while the amount
of calcium is largest in rabbit’s milk and smallest in human milk,
which corresponds to the time necessary for the respective animals
to mature.
The vitamin contents of milk vary greatly, perhaps more than
in any other food product. As early as 1914 Casimir Funk, sum-
ming up the findings of various investigators, stated that vita-
mins were not found in milk in constant quantities, that they might
be almost completely lacking, if the diet of the mother contained
too small an amount of them. He found that in winter, when
green fodder is scarce, cows produce a milk which is very deficient
in vitamins, as compared with summer milk, when the animals are
on pasture. In 1916 McCollum likewise found that vitamins pass
into the milk only when they are present in the diet of the mother,
and that milks may vary in their growth-promoting power accord-
ing to the diets of the lactating animals. It has been shown that
vitamin “A” in milk and butter always varies with the amount
of this substance in the ration of the cow. In the summer when
the pasturage was dried up, vitamin “A” was materially dimin-
ished in milk and butter. Further experiments clearly proved the
relation between the quality of mills: and the feed. Two cows, a Jer-
sey and a Holstein, both fresh in December, were fed on a ration
deficient in vitamins from January until June. They were then
given the same combination of grains, but had constant access to
grass. The milk was fed to guinea pigs to test its nutritive value.﻿328
RATIONAL DIET
Judging from the growth of the animals, the summer milk was
three times richer in food content and antiscorbutic potency than
the winter milk. It was but natural that the amount of alkaline
elements had been likewise increased. Children’s diseases, which
occur most frequently in the early spring months, are most likely
caused by milk from cows which have been fed poorly during the
winter months.
Mother’s milk, again, shows a great variance in its composition,
according to the quantity and quality of food taken. The aver-
age composition shows the following proportions in 1000 parts:
	Average normal	In cases of
	composition:	faulty nutrition
Water	874.0	901.1
Casein	10.3	7.3
Albumin	12.6	8.7
Fat	37.8	28.3
Milk Sugar	62.1	52.7
Mineral matter	3.1	1.7
In Chapter VI, Part I, it has been shown that towards the end
of the lactation period the percentage of protein in mother’s milk
gradually diminishes, as the growth of the infant is fastest during
the early months, when large amounts of casein and albumin are
required.
The mammary glands of the nursing mother secrete, between
the third and sixth month after child birth, from 2*4 to 3 pints
of milk per day, the amount gradually increasing up to end of the
first year, when the child’s teeth are sufficiently developed. Through
the milk the mother secretes a part of the constituents of the blood
plasma. If this is rich in phosphates, or in lecithins, the milk
will also show large amounts of these constituents. Mother’s milk
is readily affected by the use of alcoholic beverages, strong coffee,
tea, narcotics, drugs, all of which should be especially avoided
during pregnancy and lactation.
The milk of tubercular cows presents, under the microscope,
agglutinated globules like mucus. The leucocytes are distinguish-
able by their insolubility in ether. Sterilization of milk, as a means
of protecting the child, destroys the soluble ferments and vitamins
of the milk, and alters the taste and organic composition, while a
portion of the casein is coagulated. Boiled milk, so often recom-
mended, is therefore less nutritious than raw milk, which is always﻿DAIRY PRODUCTS
329
preferable for infant feeding, provided it comes from a properly
fed and cared for animal.
Various formulae intended to replace human milk by modi-
fied cow’s milk have been extolled, but they can never imitate the
highly organized compounds which nature has evolved during the
long processes of evolution and which are best adapted for the
healthy growth of the new-born infant. So-called modified cow’s
milk may appear to the analytical chemist to be a good imitation
of human milk, because its proportion of proteids, fats, and sug-
ars are similar, but the fact remains that the discrepancy is very
great, especially in regard to the quality of the casein and pro-
portion of the organic salts. Indeed, modifying milk for infant
feeding is one of the greatest and most tragic blunders of so-called
medical science.
Likewise the much advertised infant foods can only produce
injurious results in the course of time. Although they may effect
an immediate gain of weight and fatten the infant, it is usually
at the expense of its vitality.
Cow’s milk is an entirely different chemical composition and
organic structure from mother’s milk, and is, therefore, very dif-
ferent in its effect on the infant. It contains too large a percentage
of casein and not enough albumin and milk sugar. Furthermore!
the fat globules of cow’s milk are sometimes so large that, instead
of passing through the mesh-like lining of the delicate intestinal
wall of the child and thence into the circulation as nourishment,
they form a greasy, adhesive coating, and thereby interfere with
the proper functioning of the mucus membranes. While chil-
dren apparently may thrive on cow’s milk, the tissue formation re-
sulting from such a diet is not normal, the digestive power is over-
taxed and the vitality is reduced.
Another point cannot be too strongly emphasized here. Milk
is of value to growth and development only to the extent that it
can maintain a perfect balance and integrity of its elements. Its
normal temperature when drawn from the mammary glands is
97 degrees F. At that moment it is charged with animal magnet-
ism and vital electricity which are quickly dissipated as soon as
the milk is chilled by refrigeration or heated by pasteurization.
Furthermore, since milk is often taken from diseased cows, its
daily use is not recommended unqualifiedly. Its merits are often ex-﻿330
RATIONAL DIET
aggerated by those whose chief interest is the promotion of the
sale of dairy products.
The digestion and growth of a calf differ materially from that
of an infant. The chief characteristiBof cow’s milk is its ready
coagulation into large curds, which are only with difficulty di-
gested by the infant, whereas human milk coagulates into fine
soft curds containing much less fat, and easily acted upon by the
gastric juice. At the end of forty-five minutes, following a feed
of cow’s milk, the stomach contents of a child reveal casein clots
still undigested; furthermore, the mineral elements or organic
salts of qow’s milk, chiefly lime, are not properly assimilated by
the child, fully one-third being lost in the bowel discharges. The
mineral salts of cow’s milk are more than twice as abundant as in
human milk and in different organic combination. In contradis-
tinction to the organic salts in human milk, they frequently act
as an irritant in the human organism, even when artificially re-
duced to the same or lower percentage found in breast milk.
Some people labor under the delusion that regardless of how
filthy cow’s milk may be, or how many germs it may contain, pas-
teurization or sterilization renders it a fit food for children. As a
matter of fact, prolonged boiling does not kill the spores of all
bacteria, nor are the chemical poisons produced by certain germs
altered by the temperature of boiling milk. The first noticeable
effect of using sterilized milk is that the child becomes constipated,
and for this reason alone it is decidedly objectionable. The
same objections may be urged against condensed milk, which prob-
ably does more harm than any other infant foods.
Cow’s milk, if used at all, should come from clean and healthy
animals that live in the open. It should be handled in scrupulously
clean vessels and used as soon as possible. As a rule the feeding
of the cow is far from ideal. There is a tendency to use many
by-products of breweries, oil factories, and even a product made
from chemically treated sawdust!
Alfred McCann in his excellent book, “The Science of Eating,”
mentions a case where one of the largest meat packing houses of
New York City was compelled to discontinue the slaughter of
dairy cows, because of the tremendous losses sustained through
the excessive number of condemnations resulting from generalized
tuberculosis. On the killing floor these cows could be milked, dem-﻿DAIRY PRODUCTS
331
onstrating that they had been producing up to the time of slaugh-
ter. The carcasses frequently contained well-developed embryos,
known to the trade as “bob veal.”
In one certified herd in New York State, 124 out of 125 cows
were found to be in a state of malnutrition, clearly indicative of
the unfitness of their flesh for human consumption. The daily
food supply of these cows consisted of: ten pounds of beet pulp
(the exhausted residue of sugar beets) ; two to ten pounds of
degerminated corn-meal and brewer’s mash (exhausted refuse
of alcoholic fermentation) ; ten pounds of alfalfa (the only good
food used). To this mixture was added from one-half to one pint
of oil meal or gluten feed. Oil meal is the residue of cottonseed
after the oil is extracted. Gluten feed is the residue in the pro-
duction of glucose from corn.
Many cattle feeds are impoverished and demineralized although
they appear in the formulas of certified dairies, because they satis-
fy the modern dietitian’s erroneous idea of scientific calories and
a balanced ration. Besides, the feeding of cattle with artificially
manufactured foods is always favored because of its cheapness.
A new artificial cattle feed has been lately recommended in
the shape of chemically treated white pine sawdust. If treated
with dilute sulphuric acid, and cooked under pressure with steam,
this sawdust undergoes a chemical change and is partially con-
verted into glucose, of which the resultant mixture contains from
14 to 18 per cent. The mixture is then neutralized by lime, the
sugar dissolved, and the solution filtered and boiled down under
pressure to the consistency of molasses. This mixture is then add-
ed to the partially dried sawdust residue, and a product closely
resembling bran is obtained. It is needless to say that such food
material will lead to a rapid deterioration in the quality of milk,
and, by lowering the vital resistance of the animal, make tuber-
culosis a possibility.
Pasteurization or sterilization, still advocated by some physi-
cians, in order to destroy germs and bacteria, impairs the nutritive
value of the milk. Dr. E. M. Still, New York, says:
“It has been my fortune for a number of years to oversee the
feeding of many hundred babies on pasteurized milk, and after
numerous and careful experiments, I am forced to believe that in
the vast majority of cases it produces rickets and scurvy, or﻿332
RATIONAL DIET
scrofulosis, and kindred diseases, if given continuously; all these
diseases being cured by the use of raw milk, with no other treat-
ment. Several years ago when there was so much talk of the vir-
tue of pasteurized milk for babies, I examined several hundred
babies so fed and found that 97 per cent of them showed signs of
rickets, scurvy and scrofulosis, and it was only after these careful
observations that the fallacy of heated milk in infant feeding
was made known to me.”
Pasteurization of milk so changes its organic ingredients that
it is no longer fit food for the proper nourishment of an infant.
That commercially pasteurized milk is more unsafe than ordinary
milk is abundantly proved by the investigations of Pennington and
McClintock of Philadelphia and many other investigators. Experi-
ments on the germicidal action of cow’s milk have demonstrated
that the relative increase of bacteria in milk is more pronounced
if heated to 75 degrees C. or 100 degrees C. (167 degrees F. to 210
degrees F.) than in raw milk or milk heated to 56 degrees C. (132
degrees F.) proving that the heating of milk destroys or greatly
impairs its germicidal action.
The disadvantages of cow’s milk can be to some extent avoided
by the use of goat’s milk, which is far richer, more nutritious and
more easily digested than cow’s milk. The statement has been
made that infantile paralysis does not exist where children are fed
on goat’s milk. "While for ages people in all lands have thought
that healthy goat’s milk is good for well babies and excellent for
ailing ones, the reasons were not fully understood and appreciated
until a scientific study of the properties of goat’s milk was made.
The fat globules of goat’s milk are very small and resemble
those of mother’s milk, while the casein also forms smaller curds
that are more easily digested than cow’s milk. Moreover, it is
known that the goat is the only dairy animal that has proved so far
to be immune to tuberculosis. Thousands of children could not
only be saved, but could also be well nourished by goat’s milk,
instead of cow’s milk, especially where the supply is very liable to
be contaminated, or is subject to wide variation, even though it may
be obtained continuously from the same herd.
A diet of fresh cow’s or goat’s milk is best supplemented by
small quantities of fresh fruit juice, preferably orange juice. The
general opinion is that children should not be given fruit until
the period of infancy is well passed. While this may be true of﻿DAIRY PRODUCTS
333
fruits in general, the giving of strained juices of certain fruits is
not only very beneficial, but actually essential to the baby when
deprived of mother’s milk. A teaspoonful of orange juice
three times each day has been found to be very beneficial, espe-
cially in cases of rickets and other disorders caused by malnu-
trition. In giving fruit juices to infants several points have to be
observed. The juices must be secured from perfectly ripe fruit,
and carefully strained; they should be administered about two
hours after feeding, and half an hour before the next feeding of
milk. In nearly all cases the infants greatly enjoy this pleasant
modification of their diet. While it is not necessary to give fruit
juices to normal breast-fed infants, since healthful mother’s milk
is free from the deleterious qualities of artificial foods, it will
be found most advantageous if the mothers themselves partake
freely of fresh fruit. Fresh fruit juices are the best preventives
of infantile diarrhoea, because their mild acid and alkaline salts
are natural disinfectants of the alimentary canal.
Overfeeding is the most frequent mistake in the rearing of
infants. Nearly all cases of colic and diarrhoea are due to this
cause. A large number of infantile diseases can be overcome by
regulating the hours of feeding. The child is not always hungry
when it cries, and a few sips of water, especially during the night,
will often produce good sleep, and give the stomach a needed
rest.
Infant mortality remains one of the biggest problems that con-
front society. For years it has been the object of serious con-
cern to governments and municipalities, not only in this country,
but also in France, Germany and England. In spite of all that
has been done, however, the total number of deaths among infants
has not appreciably decreased. About 150 babies out of every
1000 die under one year from causes that are preventable. During
the hot weather the rate in congested quarters is probably from
200 to 400 per thousand births.
The much dreaded and now frequently recurring infantile
paralysis is a functional disease of the spinal cord, which, accord-
ing to medical authorities, like any other endemic or epidemic
disease, is caused by a specific germ. We may safely say, however,
that indiscriminate feeding is at the root of nearly all children’s
diseases. Indeed so appalling is the ignorance of the majority of﻿334
RATIONAL DIET
people in regard to feeding and educating their children, that if
nature had not endowed the growing organism with wonderful pow-
ers of resistance, the percentage of infantile paralysis, and other
so-called infantile diseases, would he infinitely greater than it is.
In almost every instance the death of a child is traceable to paren-
tal ignorance. Though many children survive despite irrational
feeding, drug medication, vaccinations and serum therapy, they
are handicapped for the remainder of their lives, since the infant’s
body loses a large amount of vitality in excreting these inoculated
poisons.
While infantile paralysis appears to be epidemic, when we con-
sider the fact that children—especially those reared in cities—are
all more or less exposed to the same devitalizing influences, such
as impure and pasteurized milk, as well as faulty nutrition, we
shall come a step nearer to the origin of the fatal sickness. There
is no doubt that the fundamental cause of all so-called contagious
diseases is to be found in an impoverished condition of the blood
and lowered vital resistance, resulting from the almost universal
use of emasculated foods, deficient in the essential alkaline ele-
ments.
It is self-evident that an infant nursed by a mother whose diet
is limited to devitalized cereals and vegetables, combined with meat,
coffee or tea, will suffer in its own nutritional processes. The
quantity of milk becomes insufficient and the quality defective,
and the nursing period must be shortened for the sake of the poor-
ly nourished mother, much to the detriment of the child. It is
here that ignorance of the fundamental principles of nutrition
becomes most fatal and far-reaching in its consequences.
It is impossible to over-emphasize the fact that the foundation
of a strong and healthy body and power of resistance, must be
laid by the mother long before the child is conceived and born, by
a regulation of diet to insure a sufficiency of vitamins and blood
and bone building elements, during pregnancy and lactation.
The changes to which milk can be artificially submitted are nu-
merous. The principal one—skimming—consists in taking the but-
ter fats from the milk either by spontaneous separation, or by
centrifugal action.﻿DAIRY PRODUCTS
335
The composition of the separated products are given in the fol-
lowing table:	NOBMAL MILK	Skim Milk	Cbbam
Water	87.25 per cent	89.70 per cent	58.63 per cent 35.99 “ “
Fat	3.50 “ “	0.77 “ “	
Protein	3.90 “ “	4.02 “ “	2.75 “ “
Milk sugar	4.60 “ “	4.74 “ “	3.12 “ “
Mineral matter	0.75 “ “	0.77 I “	0.50 “ “
Skim Milk as	a rule is more	easily digested	than ordinary
milk, and sours less readily. Most of the skim milk produced
in the United States is used for stock feed. It contains about one-
fifth of the fatty matters of the original milk, but almost the whole
of the other substances. But skim milk, even with the addition of
other fattening materials, can never produce the normal growth of
the calf, as some of the vitamins and other elements are lacking.
Cream contains, besides fat, vitamins, lecithins and albumin,
and a large part of substances that remain in suspension in milk,
drawn along by the rising of the fatty globules. It is rather diffi-
cult to digest and easily sours because of the microbes which it
collects from the milk. Large quantities of cream are consumed
by the American people in the form of ice cream, a mixture of
cream, sugar, gelatine, fruit or flavoring extracts, frozen in cans,
which are rapidly turned in a mixture of ice and salt. Ice cream
is certainly not a good mixture from a hygienic point of view, and
should be eaten with discrimination, or dispensed with altogether.
Its cooling effect is but of brief duration on account of its large
fat and sugar content.
Whey is the clear or opalescent liquid that separates and remains
when milk is coagulated by exposure to the air, or under the action
of the special ferment of rennet, which transforms the casein into
cheese. Whey contains about one per cent of the albumin; also
some very small quantities of other organic matters (lactic acid,
lecithins, etc.) and nearly all of the sugar and organic salts of
milk, except the phosphates, the greater portion of which are carried
away by the cream, or left in the coagulated casein. Whey is there-
fore more acid-binding than the whole milk.
Buttermilk is the liquid left by the churning of the cream of
milk or the milk itself when the butter has been extracted from it,
but in either case, it has nearly the same chemical composition.
Buttermilk is richer in albumin than whey.﻿336
RATIONAL DIET
The following table gives an analysis of both whey and butter-
milk:
	Whet From Cow's Milk	Whet From Goat’s Milk	Buttermilk
Water	93.3 per cent	93.7 per cent	91.0 per cent
Albumin	1.1 “ “	0.60“	3.5 “ “
Fats	0.1 ■“ “	0.02“ “	1.0 “ “
Milk, sugar and lactic acid	4.7 “ “	5.00“ “	3.8 “ “
Mineral matter	0.8 B 1	0.70“ 1	0.7 “ “
Koumiss is the product of alcoholic fermentation of mare’s milk,
and has long been used by the Tartars on the steppes of southern
Russia and Siberia. It takes several days to complete its process of
fermentation, after which a foaming, emulsioned liquid is obtained,
of a taste at once acid and sweet, resembling almond milk. It
contains alcohol in the same degree as light beer—about three per
cent—and is, therefore, slightly intoxicating. In new koumiss the
casein is in very thin flakes and dissolves readily if water is added.
Kephir is another alcoholic and sparkling preparation of milk,
similar to koumiss. It is made by the inhabitants of the Caucasian
mountains from the milk of their cows and sheep. The fermenta-
tion of this milk is induced by a specific agent, called kephir, and
is said to have been handed down by Mahomet. The milk is
poured into bottles of leather; the kephir powder diluted with luke-
warm water is added, and the mixture stirred from time to time.
After one or two days the liquid is ready for consumption. It
contains much less alcohol than koumiss—only about 0.7 per cent.
Yogurt, another preparation of the Orient, is made of curdled
milk of cows, goats or sheep, by boiling the milk over an open fire,
concentrating it to about one-third of its volume. The remaining
liquid is then poured into bowls, and, after it has sufficiently
cooled, a little of the yogurt of the previous day’s making is added.
Four or five hours later a creamy curd is secured, which becomes
solid and can be turned over without breaking apart. It can be
kept for four or five days, after which it turns sour rapidly. In the
East it is generally used in combination with a number of other
foods.
Cheese in its numerous varieties is the product of curdled milk,
more or less skimmed. It is formed mostly by the casein, which
passes into an insoluble state by the action of rennet, retaining a﻿DAIRY PRODUCTS
337
part of the lecithins, fats and organic salts. Cheese may be divided
into fresh and cooked cheese, and in its turn may be fermented,
salted or non-salted, containing more or less fat according to the
quality of the milk from which it is made. Goat’s and sheep’s
milk are also used in manufacturing cheese. The famous Brie
cheese (frontage de Brie) is made from cow’s milk, submitted to
rennet at 95 degrees F.; Mont-Dore from goat’s milk, and Roquefort
from a mixture of the very fat milk of the sheep and goat, heavily
salted. Fresh, unfermented cheeses are made from cow’s milk. The
best known are the Savoy, Swiss or Neufchatel varieties, which are
the richest in fats.
In the process of ripening cheese, a portion of the casein is
peptonized, while at the same time some odoriferous substances
are formed, which give to each variety of cheese its peculiar aroma
and flavor. These vary according to the nature of the micro-
organisms, which slowly bring about the ripening of the curd.
All cheeses are concentrated foods, rich in casein, fat, lime,
phosphoric and sulphuric acids, besides containing from 3 to 4 per
cent of table salt. They are, therefore, highly acid-forming foods,
and if used at all, should be eaten in small quantities combined
with fruit or vegetables. So-called cottage cheese, made from
whole milk, unsalted, is the most wholesome form of cheese. Analy-
ses of three kinds of cheese is herewith given.
	Cottage Cheese	Swiss Cheese	Parmesan Cheese
Water	72.00 per cent	38.00 per cent	31.80 per cent
Casein and albumin	20.90 “ “	25.35 “	38.60 i 1
Lactose and lactic acid	1.00 “ “	1.40 “	2.00 “ “
Fat	4.30 “	30.25 “ 1	21.30 “ “
Mineral matter,
including table
salt in Swiss
and Parmesan
cheese	1.80 “	“	5.00 “	“	6.30 “	“
The American people spend about 50 million dollars, annually,
for cheese, of which over 5 million pounds are imported. The
leading cheese producing countries of the world are Canada and﻿338
KATIONAL DIET
Holland, with an annual export of nearly 150 million pounds each;
Switzerland, Italy and New Zealand each export at least 70 million
pounds annually. Denmark, which exports 200 million pounds of
butter annually, leads all other countries in this respect.
The World War has given the dairy industry of the U. S. a
great impetus, as imports were practically cut off for several
years, and consequently many of the European types of cheese are
now manufactured here.
EGGS
Eggs constitute another large item in man’s food supply. The
American people pay about 500 million dollars for various kinds
of eggs every year. The annual consumption of hen’s eggs—the
kind most commonly used—amounts to about 16 dozen per capita.
In addition, eggs of the guinea fowl, turkey, duck and goose are
frequently used, while in South Africa ostrich eggs are considered
as being of excellent quality for culinary purposes. The demand
for eggs of wild birds has decreased in proportion to the domesti-
cation of barnyard fowls. Turtle eggs also occasionally adorn the
American bill of fare.
Like the seeds of cereals and legumes, each fertile egg contains
a germ, or embryo. This embryo is a storehouse of material for the
growth of the young bird until it has reached such a stage in its
development that life outside the confinement of the shell becomes
possible. The embryo is in close relationship with the yolk, which
furnishes the material for its early development, the white being
used later. The yolk and white of the egg must naturally differ in
chemical composition, according to the purpose subserved. The
analyses of the different parts of the domestic hen’s egg given below
is typical for all other varieties of eggs:
Water
Protein
Fat
Carbohydrates
Mineral matter
Whole eog
WITHOUT SHELL
73.70	per	cent
12.55	“	“
12.10	“	“
0.55	“	“
1.10	I	I
WHITE OP
EGO
85.75	per	cent
12.70	H	“
0.25	“	“
0.70	“	“
0.60	I	I
Volk
50.80	per	cent
16.20	“	“
31.95	“	“
0.10	“	“
1.10	J	t﻿DAIRY PRODUCTS
339
Composition of mineral matter in 1000 parts of water free substance.
WnOLE EGG	WHIT»	YOI.K
Potash	6.27	per	cent	13.21	per cent	2.70 per	cent
Soda	9.56	11	£ £	13.30	£ l £ £	1.44 “	£ (
Lime	4.56	i (	£ t	1.18	£ £ £ £	3.17 “	
Magnesia	0.46	( c	£ £	1.18	£ £ £ £	0.51 “	£ £
Iron	0.17	c c	i £	0.25	£ £ £ £	0.40 “	£ £
Phosphorus	15.72	( i	£ £	1.85	£ £ £ £	15.22 “	£ £
Sulphur	0.13	i i	£ £	0.88	£ £ £ £		
Silica	0.13	£ c	( £	0.45	£ £ £ £	0.21 I	
Chlorine	3.72	£ £	£ £	12.08	£ £ £ £	0.45 U	£ £
These figures show that eggs, containing as they do an excess
of nitrogen and phosphoric acid, are a highly acid-forming food.
For this reason eggs should be used in moderation, if used at all,
and always combined with vegetables or fruits which are strongly
alkaline, preferably salads made of green leaf vegetables.
The shells of hens’ eggs, which are porous, are made up very
largely of mineral matter, containing 93.7 per cent calcium car-
bonate, 1.3 per cent magnesium carbonate, 0.8 per cent calcium
phosphate, and 4.2 per cent organic matter. The egg shells of other
birds are of similar composition.
The albumen, or white of the egg, is essentially formed of oval-
bumin, mixed with small amounts of ovoglobulin and fibrinogen.
These three substances, mixed with water, are contained in little
cells formed by the small membranes that divide and enclose the
albumen. In boiling or frying the egg, the albumen begins to
coagulate at a temperature of 160 degrees F. becoming white,
opaque, and insoluble in water. One of the constituents of egg
albumen is sulphur, and the egg albumen is readily decomposed by
the liberation of hydrogen. The bad odor of decayed eggs is due to
sulphuretted hydrogen. A large quantity of spoiled eggs is still
surreptitiously used for baking purposes, despite the pure food law.
Egg yolk is made up of the following substances: about 30 per
cent of fat in the form of palmitin, stearin, olein and lecithin, one
of its highly important constituents; and 16 per cent of protein,
mostly in the form of vitellin and albumin. The mineral matter is
largely composed of phosphoric acid, calcium, magnesium and iron.
Eggs are occasionally eaten raw, or beaten with vegetable
juices, but as a rule they are cooked and served in various ways,﻿340
RATIONAL DIET
each being merely a more or less elaborate modification of a few
simple methods. Hard boiled eggs are more difficult to digest than
soft boiled, unless they are very thoroughly masticated.
Coincident with the extension of poultry farming, the pres-
ervation of eggs has become a matter of importance. Among the
various methods used with more or less success for the purpose of
closing the pores are: burying the eggs in oats, bran or salt; dip-
ping them in melted paraffin; covering them with a varnish or
shellac; or immersing them in lime water or in a solution of water
glass (silicate). The latter method is considered the most suc-
cessful. The solution is prepared by dissolving one part of silicate
with 10 parts, by measure, of pure water. The commercial preser-
vation of eggs by means of cold storage is an industry which has
developed greatly in recent years.
Preserving eggs by drying them is a common and often very
satisfactory method. In China, where the poultry industry is of
large proportions, millions of dozens of eggs are annually converted
into dried form, dried yolks, and dried albumen (white of egg).
By this method 100 dozen eggs may be reduced to a weight of 26
pounds.
Considering the fact that thirty-two eggs are required to make
one pound of water-free food material, the nutritive value of the
eggs is not as great as is generally supposed.﻿CHAPTER VII
Flesh Foods
In one of the preceding chapters it has been shown that meat
eating is one of man’s dietetic habits acquired comparatively late
in the evolution of the human race. It appears that this deviation
from natural diet was by no means voluntary, but caused by extreme
want and necessity. It was either a question of eating what could
be found near at hand, or perishing. During the thousands of
years subsequent to great geological changes, the meat-eating habit
established itself more or less firmly, except among those whose
religious teachings proscribed the use of flesh foods and the
slaughter of animals.
Many persons believe that one of the contributing factors to the
superiority of the Caucasian race has been the large consumption
of fleah foods. This, however, is merely a coincidence. The inhabi-
tants of the temperate zones had a more severe struggle for exis-
tence than those living in tropical climates, and consequently de-
veloped their mental and physical qualities to a higher degree.
Caucasians are foremost among the races of the world not because
they are more or less meat eaters, but because during thousands of
jrears they have possessed the advantage of a cold, yet salubrious
and invigorating climate, in which they could develop their prowess
and skill by constantly coping with the adversities of nature. While
food has played an important part in the evolution of man, there
can be little doubt but that the most potent factor in the great in-
crease of his cranial development and thought force has been the
severe struggle for existence. It is apparent that in the course of
evolution man gained ascendency, not so much by his physical
strength, but by the development of his higher mental faculties,
which enabled him to successfully cope with the adversities of
nature. The growth of man’s spiritual forces will finally lead him
out of the age of barbarism in which he is still living.
Perhaps no word in the English language has suffered from so
many false interpretations as “vegetarianism.” This is due mainly
to a confusion of the words, “vegetarian” and “vegetables.” To
341﻿342
RATIONAL DIET
the average man a “vegetarian” signifies a vegetable eater—one
who lives on vegetables exclusively. The word vegetarian is de-
rived from the Latin word, “vegetus,” which means strong and
vigorous. Again, many who criticize vegetarianism, frequently
point to the teeming millions of eastern Asia as examples of those
that abstain more or less from the eating of flesh food, and are
dominated by the European nations. These people are the victims
of unfavorable social and economic conditions, and the majority
of them lead an almost hopeless life of slavery. That the meat
eaters have conquered the world is so generally believed as to have
become an aphorism. The Anglo-Saxon race without question has
been successful in bringing under subjection innocent people whose
religion, for the most part, forbids the shedding of blood, but the
conquest has been effected by brute force and by the power of guns
rather than by bringing into play any higher mental faculties. The
conquests of ancient Mexico, Peru, India and Africa, have to all
appearances been complete, yet recitals of these predatory wars
constitute dark pages in the history of civilization and are examples
that should not be emulated.
An exhaustive investigation of the subject of flesh foods leads
every unprejudiced thinker to the inevitable conclusion that from a
purely scientific viewpoint their use cannot be justified. Of course,
there are those who are influenced by habit, fashion, or commercial-
ism, or who are forced to live mostly on meat in the absence of other
foods, such as the natives of the North. Attention, however, should
be called to the fact, that the Eskimo does not subsist entirely on
meat. Many green herbs and weeds, also salmon berries are eaten
during the short summer season. A seaweed common in the north is
eaten quite largely. We must also remember that the Eskimo eats
his meat raw without the addition of salt or condiments, that he
preserves the blood and partakes frequently of the animal’s organs,
which contain some vitamins and mineral elements lacking in the
muscular tissues. If the arguments of those who declare meat essen-
tial for the development of a superior mentality were true, the
Eskimos should be the most intelligent race on the globe.
In all cases where due attention is paid to a well-balanced sup-
ply of organic salts in food, the vegetarian diet is successful and
increases one’s powers of endurance both physically and mentally.﻿FLESH FOODS
343
Abstinence from flesh foods alone, however, by no means insures
health. In fact, unless accompanied by an otherwise rational diet,
vegetarianism is often a retrogressive step. This is especially true
if white flour products, concentrated sweets and badly prepared
vegetables are used.
As a rule, journalistic writers on the diet question appear to be
mainly concerned in justifying the prevailing habits of the com-
munities in which they live, and for the sake of popularity are
disposed to condone human frailties. It is largely because of the
pernicious activity of these people that prejudice against vege-
tarianism in this country is so general and the subject is so be-
littled and misunderstood. While a large number of individuals
have profited by adopting a sensible meatless diet, there are at
present very few communities that are strictly vegetarian; and
these for the most part are made up of people whose religion de-
bars them from killing animals for food. The inhabitants of north-
western Europe, the United States, Canada, Argentine Republic,
Australia, New Zealand, and the Arctic zones may be termed meat
eaters, as their diet contains a large part of flesh food. The in-
habitants of the Mediterranean countries of eastern and south-
eastern Asia are practically vegetarians, as they eat fleshfoods only
occasionally, and then only in moderation. From this point of view
about one-fourth of the earth’s population use meat as a daily food,
whereas three-fourths are living on a more or less meatless diet.
In all European cities the per capita consumption of meat is much
higher than in the country, while in the United States, Canada,
and perhaps the Argentine Republic, the consumption is about
equally divided between city and country.
The following table shows the estimated per capita consumption
of meat in the U. S., in pounds, from 1907 to 1921:
Kind	1907	1908	1909	1910	1911	1912	1913	1914
Beef	79.7	72.4	76.2 71.8		68.4	61.7	60.8	58.9
Veal	7.1	6.8	7.5	7.4	7.0	7.0	5.0	4.4
Mutton and Lamb 6.4		6.2	6.6	6.5	7.8	8.2	7.5	7.5
Pork	74.1	85.4	68.6	60.3	75.1	70.6	72.5	69.9
Goat	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.2
167.4 170.9 159.0 146.2 158.4 147.7 145.9 140.9
(Continued on page 344)
Total﻿344
RATIONAL DIET
(Continued from page 343)
Kind	1915	1916	1917	1918	1919	1920	1921
Beef	55.7	58.1	62.0	64.8	57.3	61.1	57.7
Veal	4.3	5.3	6.5	7.6	8.2	8.9	8.3
Mutton and	Lamb 6.4	6.2	4.7	4.7	5.8	5.0	6.1
Pork	72.0	75.7	58.4	68.9	67.1	68.9	72.8
Goat	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.1	
Total	138.6	145.5	131.8	146.1	138.5	144.0	Ï4Â9
The total quantity of meat consumed year by year shows only
a limited variation. But the steadily increasing population has
brought about a considerable decline in the per capita consumption.
For the first five years in the table, from 1907 to 1911, the per
capita consumption averaged 160.4 pounds while for the last five
years, from 1917 to 1921 the average was 141.1 pounds. Thus in
about ten years there has been a decrease of 19.3 pounds, or 12 per
cent, in the per capita consumption.
The year 1908 shows the highest per capita consumption with
170.9 pounds, and the lowest was 1917 with 131.8 pounds. It will
be remembered, however, that this was the year when war was de-
clared against the Central Powers of Europe and the marketing
of meat was consequently restricted. Fifty per cent of the meat
consumed in 1908 was pork, and the average price paid for hogs
that year in Chicago was $5.70 per hundred pounds, while in 1917
the proportion of pork to total meat had fallen to 44 per cent,
and the average price paid for hogs in Chicago had risen to $15.10
per hundred pounds.
For comparison with the United States, the meat consumption in
other countries is given in the following table. The figures in each
case cover pre-war periods and are an approximation of the normal
yearly per capita	consumption in	the various countries:		
Argentina	281 lbs.	Belgium	70	lbs.
Australia	263 “	Netherlands	70	‘ 1
New Zealand	212 “	Greece	68	4 4
United States (10		Austria Hungary	64	4 i
year av.)	142.4 “	Norway	62	4 (
Canada	137 “	Sweden	62	4 4
Cuba	124 “	Poland	62	4 4
United Kingdom	120 “	Russia	50	4 4
Germany	115 “	Spain	49	4 4
France	80 “	Italy	46.4	4 4
Denmark	76 “	Japan, meat	1.5	4 4
Switzerland	75 “	Japan, fish	25	4 4﻿FLESH FOODS
145
Only three countries have a larger per capita consumption than
the United States, and these countries having a very sparse popu-
lation are now the great sources of the world’s supply of beef and
mutton. In six countries statistics are available in regard to the
proportion of each kind of meat. These figures indicate that Ar-
gentina consumes the most beef; the British meat dietary has the
closest balance of beef, mutton and pork, while the Germans are
relatively the greatest pork consumers.
The great meat-packers of the United States are becoming
aware of the fact that the consumption of meat is gradually de-
clining, and although there is no immediate danger that the people
will cease eating meat, the packers realize that they must do some-
thing to protect their industry which represents a gigantic invest-
ment of many million dollars. They have recently inaugurated an
“Eat more meat” campaign, and it is a deplorable fact that the
United States Department of Agriculture is very much interested
in helping the cause of the meat-packers by publishing a number
of posters which encourage the use of meat. Of course doctors and
chemists in the employ of the packers are trying by all means to
increase the consumption of flesh foods by publishing misleading
arguments in order to extol the nutritive value of meat, but the
Department of Agriculture should at least refrain from such activ-
ity.
At the seventeenth annual convention of the Institute of
American Meat Packers, October, 1922, in Chicago, Dr. W. D. Rich-
ardson, Chairman of the Committee on Nutrition said:
“It must be apparent to all of you, that in order to overcome
the falling off in the per capita consumption of meat, which has
been emphasized upon more than one occasion, you and all the in-
terests and individuals whom you represent must believe in meat
as a fundamentally desirable human food-stuff, and not only that,
but you must know the scientific and clinical facts in regard to
the nutritional value of meat, and its proper place in the diet of
the child, the adolescent, the adult, the old, the laboring man, and
the brain-worker, in order to meet any arguments which may be
put to you.”
Dr. Richardson called attention to the dearth of literature on
the nutritive value of meat and took up the question of proteins
in meat. He pointed out the high percentage of protein in meat﻿346
RATIONAL DIET
as compared with other foodstuffs and also called attention to the
phosphorus and iron that are contained in meat. Said Dr. Rich-
ardson :
“A few members of the medical profession, lacking complete
knowledge of their subject, have given out the idea that there is
possibly something harmful about meat, that there is a possibility
that one might eat too much meat and that if it is not harmful
in small quantities, it may be harmful in large quantities; natur-
ally, many people have believed what has been told them by these
misinformed physicians and have taken up the cry that there may
be something harmful in the eating of meat, certainly in excessive
meat eating. This committee stands for the mixed diet, the so-
called balanced diet in which meat has a prominent place. It does
not recommend an exclusive diet of meat, but, nevertheless, the
fact is true and should be emphasized that when meat and meat
products make up the entire supply the diet is a perfectly satis-
factory one as shown by various tribes of Eskimos.'’
Dr. E. B. Forbes, specialist in nutrition, of the Institute of
American Meat Packers, in an address delivered before the Chi-
cago Housewives’ League, at their meeting in the Fine Arts Build-
ing, March 13, 1922, brought out the following arguments in favor
of meat:
“Meat proteins have a superior nutritive value because they
more closely resemble the tissues which are to be nourished than
do other proteins, and can be transformed with less loss.
“An especially marked superiority of meat as food is in its rela-
tion to the nourishment of the blood. Whipple and associates at
the University of California Medical College found that beef mus-
cle, heart and liver were much superior to bread and skim milk for
restoring the blood to normal in simple anemia. They also found
that Bland’s pills and other iron containing drugs were quite with-
out value for purposes of blood regeneration. Their best results
were obtained with heart and liver.
“As a matter of practical dietetics no nutritive consideration
compares, as a motive for eating meat, with the fact that we like
it.
“Meat also has a capacity, recognized by all physiologists, to
stimulate the vital processes, which contributes a feeling of vigor
and physical well-being that makes it virtually an essential in the
diet of working men, athletes and soldiers.
“Meat in the diet also has value in connection with the devel-
opment of the teeth. Children reared on soft foods which require
little mastication often suffer from lack of development of the jaw
bones and alveolar processes, so that the teeth come through crowd-﻿FLESH FOODS
347
ed, projecting, crooked. Spare the meat grinder, and save the
teeth by teaching the child to use them. The aboriginal baby cut
his teeth on a bone, and ate meat as soon as he could chew it. The
child of two years has two teeth all the way around, back of the
front set of four, above and below; and the United States Public
Health Service advises the feeding of some meat to a child begin-
ning at two years of age.
“In relation to disease, meat cures pellagra, and anemia, and,
under appropriate dietary conditions, scurvy and beriberi as well.
Phenomenal results were obtained in the Japanese navy in the cure
of beriberi by substituting meat for white rice in the ration.
“The leading pathologists of the United States agree that meat
eaten in moderation, during health, is not known to cause any dis-
ease. Stefansson has shown that it is possible to live year in and
year out on meat alone, provided it is not so thoroughly cooked as
to injure the scurvy-preventing vitamin.
‘ ‘ The gist of this whole matter is that we have new reasons for
regarding meat highly, and we have no reason for departing from
those habits as to meat eating which our own practical experience
has led us to adopt.”
While most of the statements of Dr. Forbes are refuted else-
where, a few may be briefly answered here.
Meat does contain a large amount of protein, an average of
twenty per cent, but its contents of iron are very small. Physi-
ologists consider the iron compounds contained in the blood and
tissues of the dead animal of less nutritive value than those con-
tained in fresh fruits and green leaf vegetables. Proteins derived
from the vegetable kingdom are free from the waste products of
animal life. It is not necessary to eat meat in order to build up
healthy muscular tissues, any more than it is required to eat calves’
brain in order to form brain cells. Each tissue receives its protein
material in the form of amino acids from which the particular kind
of protein characteristic of the tissue can be synthesized. In other
words, each tissue makes its own proteins from the amino acids
brought by the blood. All the amino acids necessary for building
a strong and healthy body can be derived from fruits, nuts and veg-
etables. The daily amount of protein needed is far less than that
stated in the old physiological text books.
It is preposterous to recommend heart and liver, an organ
teeming with waste products (nearly 20 grains of purins per
pound) for their nutritive contents when the purest and most﻿348
RATIONAL DIET
prolific sources of the same elements are fruits and green leaf
vegetables.
To encourage meat-eating because people have learned to like
it, is on par with promoting the consumption of alcoholic beverages,
artificial sweets, stimulants and narcotics, because many people
have become addicted to the use of them. The perverted taste
of civilized man is very unreliable as a criterion for judging the
necessity for flesh foods in human nutrition.
Meat is stimulating according to the amount of waste products
(purins) it contains. In athletic contests in Europe, where en-
durance is the main factor, vegetarians have been as a rule the
victors. Carbohydrates, especially in the form of natural sugars,
and not proteins, are the main sources of physical energy.
The lime content of meat is also low. It is one of the poorest
materials for building teeth. Almost all the lime is contained in
the animal bones, and in this form it is not available for human
nutrition.
It has been found that if the Japanese soldiers are fed on nat-
ural brown rice, onions and green leaf vegetables, beriberi and scur-
vy disappear. These diseases are caused by a deficiency of alka-
line elements which are best supplied by fresh fruit and vegeta-
bles.
A vigorous man can live on a more or less exclusive meat diet for
a time in an arctic climate, but he will overwork his kidneys and
shorten his life. One of the reasons why the Eskimos manage to
live on a more or less exclusive meat diet is that they preserve
the blood of the animal, in order to have some of the necessary min-
eral elements, especially iron. As already stated, the Eskimo
supplements his meat diet with vegetable products whenever he
can do so.
Meat can at best be termed a second class food and is by no
means essential for the acquisition or maintenance of physical or
mental strength. In the muscular tissues of the dead animal the
vibratory forces of nature are in the descendency. They have been
lost in the production of animal heat, energy, electricity and mag-
netism. In the products of the vegetable kingdom, if used in their
natural state, the vibratory forces are in ascendency, and exert﻿FLESH FOODS
349
their full and beneficial influence on the physiological functions of
the body.
The word “meat” is generally applied to the muscular tissues
of the animal, deprived of blood, bone and rolls of adipose tissue.
On an average, lean meat contains about 72 per cent water, 20 per
cent protein, 5 per cent fat, 2 per cent extraction matter, and 1 per
cent mineral matter. The protein is made up of a number of am-
ino acids, but not sufficient to be conducive to growth. Lean meat
is deficient in vitamins “A” and “B,” and contains only a small
amount of vitamin “C.” It has, therefore, little antiscorbutic
value. Tinned and pickled meats are practically valueless in this
respect. The extractive matters contain most of the waste poisons
(purins) ammoniacal salts, urea, uric acid and other xanthic bod-
ies, which give meat some stimulating effects, generally mistaken
for strength-giving properties.
The mineral	matter in	1,000 parts water-free	meat is com
posed as follows			
Potash	16.52	parts Phosphoric acid	17.00 parts
Soda	1.44	‘ ‘ Sulphuric	0.64 “
Lime	1.12	Silica	0.44 “
Magnesia	1.28	1 ‘ Chlorine	1.56 “
Iron	0.15	( <	
Phosphoric acid, which is chiefly contained in the nucleins, is
combined to the extent of two-thirds with potash; another part
not finding sufficient bases, renders the mineral matter acid. The
sulphuric acid comes from the sulphur of the albuminoids. Meat,
besides containing a number of xanthic bodies, forms additional
waste poisons and acids in the digestive process.
The following table shows the amount of purin bodies in flesh-
foods and other food products; also the chemical composition of the
principal xanthins and alkaloids. Attention must be called to the
fact that if the meat comes from diseased animals the amount of
poisonous waste products is very much increased.
Purin
Hypoxanthin
Xanthin
Uric acid
c5h4n4
c6h4n4o
c6h4n4o2
c5h4n4o3
Adenin
Guanin
Caffein
Theobromin
C5H5N5
c6h5n8o
CjHjN.Oj
C5H2N40,﻿350
RATIONAL DIET
Amount of Purin bodies in grains, per pound:
Sweetbread	70.43	Beans	4.16
Beef Extract	45.00	Lentils	4.16
Liver	19.26	Oatmeal	3.45
Beefsteak	14.45	Peas	1.26
Sirloin of beef	9.13	Asparagus	1.05
Chicken	9.06	Onions	0.06
Loin of pork	8.48	Porter	1.35
Veal	8.13	Ale	1.27
Ham	8.08	Lager beer	1.09
Mutton	6.75	Coffee	1.70
Salmon	8.15	Ceylon tea	1.21
Halibut	7.14	Indian tea	1.05
Plaice	5.56	China tea	0.75
Cod	4.07	Cacao	0.50
Oysters	2.03		
As already stated, there is a marked physiological difference
between the products of the vegetable kingdom and flesh foods.
Plants are constructive. Their activity consists mainly of tissue
building; while activity of the animal organism is two-fold—tissue
destroying and tissue building. The animal body may be likened
to a structure in which two opposite forces are at work; one tear-
ing down, the other building up new tissues. Normal growth is
the result of proper equalization of these forces. In the growth
of the plant no destructive process has been discovered. If it
exists at all, it must be very trifling in comparison. Protoplasm
is taken from the older parts of the plant, and while these parts
die, the protoplasm does not decompose, but is used again in tissue
building. In the final analysis, flesh proteins are of less nutri-
tional value to the human organism than plant proteins, because
the former are always combined with a large number of substances
that have undergone the various stages of catabolism and have
lost their electric and magnetic tension in the performance of
the various physiological functions of the body. While the living
animal cell reaches a higher stage of evolution than that of the
plant, the life of the former depends upon the continuous removal
of the waste poisons, which remain and rapidly increase in the
decomposing carcass of the animal. With every piece of flesh,
therefore, the excretory organs, especially the liver and kidneys,
are over-taxed by the additional poisons created in the tissues of
the animal.﻿FLESH FOODS
351
It has been found that in man the liver destroys only about
one-half of the uric acid circulating in the blood, whether de-
rived from external sources in the form of meat, or generated with-
in the body by its own tissue changes. This is due to the fact that
the liver and kidneys receive equal quantities of blood. In car-
nivorous animals, however, the liver is much more active, receiv-
ing a much larger food supply in proportion to that received by_
the kidneys. In fact, the liver of carnivorous animals is able to
destroy from ten to fifteen times as much uric acid as the liver
of a man, a fact which clearly indicates that the human constitu-
tion is not physiologically adapted to the proper digestion of flesh
foods.
The meat of diseased animals—a large number of stable fed
cattle suffer from various diseases—often contains poisons to a
dangerous degree, and alarming quantities of such food are con-
sumed throughout the country. Despite the fact that millions of
pounds of meat, totally unfit for use, are confiscated every year,
it is quite certain that, especially in the poorer districts of all our
larger cities, immense quantities of objectionable meat that escape
investigation are sold and thus endanger public health and life.
The once widely advertised “Liebig’s Beef Extract,” really
concentrated beef broth, must be considered rather as a poisonous
stimulant than a food. The small amount of nitrogenous matter
it contains is more than offset by the large amount of creatin, cre-
atinin, carnin and xanthin to be found in it, and also by the pre-
dominance of acid-forming elements. In every case where these
extractives cause a temporary stimulating effect by increasing the
action of the heart and arterial tension, they are followed by a de-
cided reaction. Intelligent physicians, therefore, refuse to pre-
scribe them and recommend alkaline fruit juices instead.
Some of the organs of the animal, such as the sweetbread, liver
and kidneys, which are frequently used as food, contain toxic
waste products to a much higher degree than the muscular tis-
sues, especially when the animal has been in a diseased condition.
The animal most subject to disease is the domesticated hog, especial-
ly if fed on decaying garbage, as is so often the case. Hogs are
frequently infected with trichinae, which renders their meat par-
ticularly objectionable. Trichinae are also found in fresh water
fish, such as the pike and salmon. On account of their rapid﻿352
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putrefaction fish are especially likely to develop the highly poison-
ous ptomaines. This is also the case with oysters and Crustacea
that live near the mouths of rivers, or near harbors, into which
drainage is discharged.
Another point may be mentioned here: carnivorous animals
have atrophied inactive sweat glands, whereas in man, and frugiv-
orous and herbivorous animals, they are well-developed. While in
the course of evolution these glands were retained by the former
as rudimentary organs, they have completely lost the habit of
sweating, a circumstance that protects the carnivora against a sud-
den loss of water through the skin, and consequent retention and
precipitation of waste poison in the system. We know that uric
acid and its salts dissolve easily in warm water, but with difficulty
in cold water—fifteen grains of uric acid requires one gallon of
water at the body temperature for their solution. The fluid that
keeps the uric acid and its salts dissolved in the body is the water
contained in the blood and tissues. If the fluids of the body are
suddenly diminished and cooled, as in the case of sweating, a pre-
cipitation of uric and crystals in the system will occur, causing seri-
ous disturbances.
Animals whose food constantly adds large quantities of waste
products to those already in the body, must be provided with
means to keep these substances in solution. This protection is given
to the carnivorous animals by the atrophied sweat glands, which
prevent a sudden loss of tissue fluids.
As man is subject to sweating, it is evident that he was not
intended to live on meat and highly acid-forming foods, and while
he may eat with comparative immunity a limited amount of these,
it is well to remember that they should never constitute the prin-
cipal portion of his diet.
The statement that animal protein is more easily digested than
vegetable protein, is contradicted by the fact that in the actual
rebuilding of the tissues of the body, the former has less biological
value than the vegetable protein, which is free from the waste
products of animal life, and, moreover, has a stronger vibratory
force, as a result of having been developed from the soil under the
direct influence of waterSair, and sunlight. Furthermore, “the
great protein delusion” that the adult human being needs from
three to four ounces of protein per day has been exploded long﻿FLESH FOODS
353
ago. The average man or woman has no use for more protein than
about one ounce per day. What is furnished above this amount is
made into sugar and starch and often into fat. The extra amount
of protein means overwork for the liver and kidneys and increased
blood pressure.
The temporary sensation of strength following a meal of flesh
foods, experienwid also in a similar degree after using alcoholic
beverages, tobacco, coffee, and tea, is for the most part due to the
stimulating effects of its various/xanthin bodies, which the system
seeks to remove by means of increased circulation, at the expense
of latent vitality.
These circumstances frequently furnish ground for the state-
ment that the use of meat is more conducive to brain work than
a vegetarian diet. Herbert Spencer once said: “I tried vegetarian-
ism for three months and found I was obliged to destroy every-
thing I wrote during that period because of lack of meat.” Spen-
cer was a lifelong invalid and a chronic dyspeptic, and he
had accustomed himself to the stimulating effects of meat. His
diet was evidently, not well chosen and was probably deficient in
some of the organic salts. The inference is that he simply discard-
ed flesh foods without otherwise improving his diet, and he was,
therefore, by no means justified in condemning vegetarianism.
Without doubt many others who have depended upon a meatless
diet for a brief period, and who at the same time have persisted in
consuming devitalized cereals and vegetables, will agree with Spen-
cer.
The testimony of two celebrated ancient philosophers and
writers, who lived in an age when wholesale food adulteration
was practically unknown, furnishes a more reasonable and con-
vincing basis of argument. Writing to his friend Firmus, who
had abandoned the Pythagorean doctrine in order to eat meat,
the philosopher Porphyry, living in the third century, said:
‘‘I cannot believe that your change of diet is due to reasons
of health, for you yourself have constantly affirmed that a vege-
table diet is much more suitable than any other, not only to give
perfect health, but even a philosophic and balanced judgment, as
a long experience had taught you.”
And Seneca, who, after studying the problem of nutrition for
many years, had adopted vegetarianism, wrote:
“Struck by such arguments, I also have given up the use of﻿354
RATIONAL DIET
flesh of animals, and at the end of a year my new habits have be-
come not only easy to me, but most agreeable; and it even seems
to me that my intellectual aptitudes have become more and more
developed. ’ *
Isaac Newton adhered strictly to a vegetarian regimen while
performing the prodigious intellectual work which made his name
immortal.
Among the modern philosophers and artists who have fol-
lowed or advocated a rational vegetarian regimen may he men-
tioned: Shelley, Byron, Thoreau, Tolstoi, Richard Wagner, Tagore,
Maeterlinck, Alexander Pope, and George Bernard Shaw.
It is often asserted that fish, because of the phosphoric acid
it contains, is particularly conducive to brain work. This assump-
tion is largely based on Moleschott’s saying: 1 ‘ Without phosphorus,
no thought. ’ ’ While it is undeniable that phosphorus is an impor-
tant constituent of the brain, it still remains to be demonstrated
in what manner this element is connected with mental activity.
The proper functioning of the brain depends on the purity and
proper circulation of the blood, and not on the presence of a single-
element. Oxygen is certainly more important than any other
known element and its supply depends upon the presence of iron,
which is deficient in the muscular tissues of fish. Mark Twain
once wrote to a young writer of mediocre capability who asked the
humorist’s opinion about some of his writings, and incidentally
concerning the value of fish as a brain food, that he would do well
to eat a whale every day and thereby become a celebrated author,
since it was said that a fish diet had a stimulating effect upon the
mental activities!
A famous editorial writer who indulges occasionally in fanati-
cal attacks on vegetarianism, some time ago treated his readers to
the following bit of absurdity:
“The grass grows, and man can’t eat that; he hasn’t time to
digest it. The ox eats the grass and man eats the ox. A meat diet
is simply a time saving device. In an hour a man with a meat diet
can restore his wasted tissues, using up very little vitality in the
digestive process, living longer by so doing, and devoting his time
to more important work than digesting.’’
The idea that fleshfoods are in some manner pre-digested plant
food, ready to be swallowed down and assimilated, is entirely er-
roneous both from a chemical as well as a physiological standpoint.﻿FLESH FOODS
355
Meat, which is composed of the muscular tissues of the animal, is
deficient in the important blood and bone building elements, and
a man living principally on lean meat would slowly starve him-
self.
Carnivorous animals devour all of the blood and bones of their
prey, and thus secure a sufficient supply of the elements to main-
tain life. In captivity, these animals, if fed mostly on lean meat,
as in zoos, rapidly fail, and by degrees lose their reproductive pow-
ers. Their young show all the symptoms of rickets, but recover if
fed frequently on whole rabbits or chicken, containing the blood
and entrails.
The arguments against meat eating from the standpoint of
physical strength and endurance are equally strong. Medical
science is still suffering from Liebig’s old theory that the human
or animal muscle works on proteins, whereas as a matter of fact
nearly all heat and energy are produced by fats and carbohydrates.
It is now an established fact that the adult body cannot make use
of more than about five per cent protein, of the total amount of
solid food needed daily. A man, even at strenuous work, and
consuming per day about twenty ounces of water free food, has
no need for any excessive amount of protein, as it is not used as
tissue building material, but is broken up into carbohydrates and
burned up as such in the body. A diet containing a surplus of pro-
tein has, therefore, no advantage whatsoever. In fact, a surplus
of protein overloads the system with waste poisons, and has only
a temporary stimulating effect. Two ounces of protein per day,
making allowance for incomplete digestion, amply covers the re-
quirements of the most strenuous worker. (See table in the appen-
dix, giving the amounts of various foods necessary to supply two
ounces of protein.)
The most severe and conclusive tests of physical endurance
and strength have been performed on a judiciously selected flesh-
less diet. The athletes of ancient Greece were trained entirely on
a fruitarian diet. In nearly all modern athletic and endurance con-
tests of Europe, the vegetarians have carried off the laurels. The
boatmen of Constantinople who live on bread, figs and olives,
possess wonderful physical development. The powers of endurance
of the Japanese have been commented upon by many writers. In
the Boxer Kebellion the Japanese outdistanced the allied troops in﻿356
RATIONAL DIET
marching, while during the Russian-Japanese War the recuper-
ative powers of Japanese soldiers were often commented upon.
Lately the use of flesh foods has been introduced into the Japanese
army, and it will eventually lead to a deterioration in their general
health and physique, and an increased liability to disease.
The Japanese themselves attribute their high average of phy-
sical strength to a plain and frugal diet, and to a system of gym-
nastics called “jiu-jitsu,” which includes a knowledge of anatomy
and the internal and external use of water. According to the
British Medical Journal, in 1899 a commission was appointed by
Japan to consider whether by a meat-diet, or by other means, the
stature of the race could be raised, but the conclusion arrived at
was, that seeing their feats of strength and powers of endurance
were superior to races much taller than themselve^ their small
stature did not matter.
The annual per capita consumption of beef and mutton in
Japan is surprisingly low, amounting to about l1^ pounds per cap-
ita as against about 142 pounds consumed in the United States.
The per rapita consumption of fish in Japan amounts to about 25
pounds. Most, if not all, of the meat used in Japan is consumed by
well-to-do people in large cities. The greater part of the fish, also,
is consumed by people in comfortable circumstances, especially in
the coast regions. Methods of preserving fish are not yet highly
developed. Moreover, among the rural population, the high price
of fish prohibits its regular use.
The rural population of the interior depends very largely, or
almost entirely, upon a vegetable diet. And this, it may be ob-
served, practically means vegetarianism. The so-called lacto-vege-
tarianism is unknown in Japan. Cows are scarce, and milk and
other dairy products are expensive, and such as are available
are consumed entirely by the wealthier people in the cities. Pro-
fessor Oshima says that the peasants in the rural districts of Japan,
living largely on vegetable food, are really healthier and stronger
than the people of the better classes, who live on a mixed diet.
Among strict vegetarians we also find examples of untiring
capacity for work, as, for instance, the people of a Hindoo tribe
who carry tourists to the top of the Himalaya Mountains, an ascent
of 17,000 feet in three and a half hours. Their food consists of
dates, rice, chapiti (a food made of chick peas), and a small amount﻿FLESH FOODS
357
of butter (ghee). These people are very lean, but are so inde-
fatigable on the march that they allow themselves but a very short
time for taking their scanty meals. Despite the cool air in the high
altitudes, they go about with little more than a loin cloth.
As previously mentioned, the nutrition diseases, frequently
occurring in Oriental countries, are due to a deficiency of the es-
sential organic salts and vitamines in diet, and not to the absence
of meat. Wherever the peeled or polished rice is replaced by the
natural whole rice, supplemented by green leaf vegetables and
vegetable proteins, health is quickly restored.
In all cases where mental and physical endurance have been put
to a severe test, it was found that a well selected, meatless diet,
shows far better results than a mixed diet, other contributing cir-
cumstances being equal. Prize fighters, who are generally heavy
meat eaters, decline in health before they reach middle age, whereas
the most long lived and healthy people are found among
those nations that consume the smallest amount of meat.
Bernard Auzimour, a French army officer, who studied the
Arabs for many years, gave the following information about their
habits of living in his treatise La Remptance des Arabes:
“The Arabs are slim and wiry; their limbs are lithe and strong.
They live in tents made of camel’s hair, which are of such a na-
ture that the wind blows right through them. Their frugality is
just as far famed as that of the camel. Men often go on long
journeys into the desert with only a bag of meal, some figs and
dates and a skin of water. With the meal the Arab makes some
little cakes, each about the size of an ordinary walnut, which he
dries in the sun or bakes in his fire. These cakes, with some dried
figs or dates, are his provision for the day. The fare is nearly al-
ways vegetable plus a little milk, and, very rarely, a little meat.
“Alcohol—the ‘sea of sin’ as the Arabs call it—is strictly
forbidden them by their creed, for their prophet was well aware
of its dangerous influence.
“The Arabs are very hardy and very resistant to disease. Ab-
dominal wounds, with perforation of the intestines, heal without
the use of antiseptics when the injured parts have been put back
into place. Wounds, healing in such circumstances and without
consequent blood poisoning, are a source of wonder to surgeons
acquainted only with meat-eating Europeans.
“The Arabs are almost entirely immune to typhus. There are
many French physicians in Tunis who have never encountered
a case of disease among these people. The following statistics
from L’Hopital de Mustapha are very striking. It was found﻿358
RATIONAL DIET
there were 659 cases of typhus among 28,251 European patients,
which is 2.3 per cent, and among 9,147 Arab patients there were
but thirteen cases of typhus, which is 0.1 per cent.
“According to these figures 23 meat-eating and wine-drinking
Europeans developed typhus to one of the abstemious, practically
vegetarian Arabs, despite the fact that the former live under
far better sanitary conditions.
“Diseases of nutrition are almost unknown; ulcers and cancer
of the stomach are very seldom met with, and if one comes across
a case of summer diarrhoea, it is generally because the sufferer has
been eating too many melons. Appendicitis is very rare among
the Arabs, and is entirely unknown among the vegetarian nomads.
Gout and kidney gravel are also quite unknown.
“That this immunity against disease is by no means a racial
peculiarity is shown by the fact that wherever the wealthier
classes of Arabs have adopted European methods of eating, their re-
sistance against diseases is decreasing. This is but natural, as the
putrefaction arising from a heavy meat diet is at the root of most
intestinal disorders.”
In his book “Protein and Nutrition,” Dr. M. Hindhede gives
some interesting and instructive statistics about mortality in dif-
ferent occupations in England, taken from Tatham’s 65th annual
Report (1900-1902). For the sake of comparison he puts the ratio
of mortality of farm laborers, who as a rule lead a simple and
frugal life in the open air, at one per cent, and makes the follow-
ing divisions:
1.	Farm laborers, who are not able to afford much meat as a
rule.
2.	Workmen in towns, representing the urban lower class.
3.	Tradesmen (building trade), representing the urban middle
class.
4,5. Commercial travelers and butchers, representing the
heavy-living (meat eating) classes.
6. Physicians, representing the well-to-do intelligent classes.
Tatham’s 65th Annual Report
	Tubercu- losis	Bright’s Disease	. Diseases of the Diseases of Digestive, the Liver System		Diabetes	Gout
Farm Laborers	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Industrial “	6.30	4.79	5.25	2.09	1.67	1.00
Building Trades Commercial	2.11	2.79	2.62	1.20	1.17	3.00
Travelers	1.87	2.92	7.50	1.40	2.50	4.00
Butchers	2.02	3.23	7.50	1.45	3.33	5.00
Doctors	0.72	3.14	6.75	2.30	4.00	3.00﻿FLESH FOODS
359
Dr. Hindhede makes the following comment:
“There are many interesting things to be learned from this
table. But one lesson it does not teach. It is not able to persuade
us to believe that meat imparts health and energy I Diseased
stomachs, livers and kidneys are not calculated to increase mental
power.” (The italics are mine.)
“As a doctor, I am glad to see how my professional brothers
are able to avoid tuberculosis; but it grieves me to see my English
colleagues dying of diseases of nutrition at a higher rate, as a
rule, than men of other occupations. They appear to have been
martyrs to the mistakes of science.
“That meat-eating does not prevent tuberculosis is proven by
the fact that the death-rate from tuberculosis is very high among
butchers and commercial travelers.
“That deaths from tuberculosis are higher in towns than in
the country is easily understood; but it is, according to old views,
difficult to understand why the mortality from Bright’s disease
and from liver and digestion diseases, should be so high in the cities,
where people eat ‘easily digestible’ foods, in contrast to the coarse
foods used in the country.
“I have heard many authorities speak about meat as an energy-
food, but I have never yet encountered any proof of it. I will
not deny that after eating a large beefsteak there may be a feeling
of bodily warmth. Meat is able to increase combustion (Rubner),
but this feeling is not energy. After such a beefsteak there is
more inclination for sleep than for hard work. Meat is a fiercely
burning fuel, but it seems to burn out the oven itself in the long run.
‘ ‘ Thus, it will be seen that it is very misleading to write: * The
more energetic races of the world have been meat-eaters.’ The
truth is that the energetic races eat but little meat; but with
increasing wealth and culture, meat-eating also increases, while the
national energy decreases. Once the reserve of healthy, plain livers
is exhausted (rural populations are at present decreasing) there is
nothing to prevent the invasion of some energetic barbarian race,
which may conquer and rule for a time until the conquerors also
degenerate, spoiled by contact with the two greatest dangers that
exist for human beings: wealth and modern culture. Every student
of history must know that wealth, gluttony and drunkenness are
the three great destroyers of energy.’’
Another, and perhaps the most important argument, in favor
of the vegetarian or fruitarian diet, is that man can derive his
nourishment from a much smaller area when living on the products
of the soil, for he is receiving them directly from nature, instead
of feeding them first to cattle and living on their flesh. As the
population of the earth steadily increases, man will have to content﻿360
RATIONAL DIET
himself with a smaller space on which to raise his food supply. The
land that now serves for hunting grounds or cattle raising will be
much more economically utilized for the cultivation of fruits, nuts,
vegetables and cereals. It has been estimated that an area of well
cultivated land can sustain at least twenty times more people by its
crops than can be nourished on the meat of cattle that feed on its
spontaneous grasses.
The following table shows the average amount of different
products now raised on an acre of land. Better cultivation of
the soil, combined with proper knowledge and care will in every
instance increase the output, while the productivity of tropical soil
under systematic cultivation is simply astounding.
Food Products
Average yield water Free
Per acre	Substance
Bananas	24,000 pounds	6,000 pounds	
Avocados (trees in full bearing)	10,000 “	3,000	< t
Dates (trees in full bearing)	5,000 “	4,000	l i
Cocoanuts (trees in full bearing)	5,000 “	1,500	l t
Grapes (vines in full bearing)	8,000 “	2,000	t l
Pigs (trees in full bearing)	6,000 “	1,200	( <
Oranges (trees in full bearing)	14,000 “	1,800	< i
Pecans (trees in full bearing)	2,500 “	2,000	t l
Chestnuts (trees in full bearing)	2,500 “	2,000	< t
Almonds (trees in full bearing)	1,400 “	1,200	i t
Walnuts (trees in full bearing)	1,200 “	1,000	t <
Corn	1,960 “	1,695	i i
Sweet Potatoes	5,940 “	1,782	i t
Irish Potatoes	6,000 “	1,500	( (
Rye	1,200 “	1,050	( t
Wheat	1,200 “	1,050	( (
Rice	1,154 “	1,000	i (
Soy Beans	960 “	850	i (
Peanuts	524 “	500	l (
Oats (hulled)	784 “	720	i i
Beans	840 “	800	< <
Cow Peas	600 “	520	i <
Dairy Products			
Milk	2,190 pounds	285 pounds	
Cheese	219 “	160	< (
Butter Fat	98.5 “	90	t (﻿FLESH FOODS
361
Poultry (raised for meat and eggs)
	Average Yield Per Acre	Water Free Substance
Meat (dressed)	66 pounds	20 pounds
Eggs	110.7 “	80 “
Poultry raised for meat alone	171 “	48 “
Poultry raised for eggs alone	183 “	51 “
Meat		
Pork (dressed)	273 pounds	70 pounds
Mutton (dressed)	113 “	30 “
Beef (dressed)	125 “	35 “
Most of the foregoing figures have been prepared by the United
States Department of Agriculture. The production of live stock
products per acre was calculated by assuming the acre to be
devoted to crops suitable for feeding the kind of animal under
consideration, and in the proper proportion to give a balanced
ration. In cases where it was not practicable to do this because of
the necessity of using some food not produced on the farm, it was
assumed that a suitable proportion of the acre product was ex-
changed for whatever else was needed.
It is a surprising fact that in most parts of North America,
but especially in the United States (and in portions of Australia
and South America) the chief object of agriculture is not to feed
men, but to feed animals. The American farmer grows corn and
alfalfa, feeds it to cattle, and then in turn eats the cattle ; but the
ox, used as the standard in the preceding table, ate daily 15.64
pounds of corn; 1.66 pounds of cottonseed meal; 20.5 pounds of
corn silage; 2.74 pounds of clover hay, and 7.29 pounds of com
fodder. On such ration a gain of about 2^4 pounds per day is
made, and of this a considerable proportion—more than a third—
disappears as inedible waste in the process of slaughter. It is safe
to assume that the land necessary for feeding one ox could, under
intensive cultivation, produce enough fruits and vegetables to sup-
port ten people.
The wastefulness of meat production from the standpoint of
national resources is well stated by Professor Armsby, a leading
authority on animal nutrition :
“It may be roughly estimated that about 24 per cent of the
energy of grain is recovered for consumption in pork, about 18 per
cent in milk, and only about 3.5 per cent in beef and mutton. In﻿1
362	RATIONAL DIET
other words, the farmer who feeds bread grains to his stock, is
burning up 75 to 97 per cent of them in order to produce for us
a small residue of roast pig; and so is diminishing the total stock
of human food.
“At any fate, it is clear that at the present time the enthusi-
astic but ill considered booming of live stock production may do
more harm than good. If it is desirable to prohibit the production
of alcohol from grain or potatoes, on the ground that it involves
a waste of food value, the same reason calls for a restriction of
the burning up of these materials to produce roast pig. This
means, of course, a limited meat supply. To some of us this
may seem a hardship. Meat, however, is by no means the essential
that we have been wont to suppose, and partial deprivation of it is
not inconsistent with high bodily efficiency.”
"We may also briefly consider vegetarianism from a sociological
standpoint. Plato in his dialogue, “The Republic,” represents
Socrates as describing an ideal city whose inhabitants subsist on
a simple vegetarian dietary. Glaukon objects to the simplicity of
the fare and Socrates replies as follows:
“ ‘Now it appears to me that the city which we have described is
the genuine, and, so to speak, healthy city. But if you wish us also
to contemplate a city that is suffering from inflammation, there is
nothing to hinder us. Some people will not be satisfied, it seems,
with the fare or the mode of life which we have described, but
must have, in addition, couches and tables and every other article
of furniture, as well as viands .... Swineherds again are among
the additions we shall require—a class of persons not to be found,
because not wanted, in our healthy city, but needed among the rest
of the addition. We shall also need great quantities of all kinds
of cattle for those who wish to eat them, shall we nott’
“ ‘ Of course we shall, ’ replies Glaukon.
“ ‘Then shall we not experience the need of medical men also
to a much greater extent under this than under the former regime ?'
“ ‘Yes, indeed.’
“ ‘The country, too, I presume, which was formerly adequate
to the support of all its inhabitants, will be now too small, and
adequate no longer. Shall we say so?’
“ ‘Certainly.’
“ ‘Then must we not cut ourselves a slice of our neighbors’ ter-
ritory, if we are to have land enough for both pasture and tillage;
while they will do the same to ours, if they, like us, permit them-
selves to overstep the limit of necessaries and plunge into the un-
bounded acquisition of wealth?’
“ ‘It must be inevitably so, Socrates.’﻿FLESH FOODS
363
“ ‘Will our next step be to go to war, Glaukon, or bow will it
be?’
“ ‘As you say.’ ”
It will be observed that, over two thousand years ago, one of the
greatest philosophers clearly saw the evil and far-reaching effects
of flesh eating. And yet there are even now comparatively few
people who realize that the degeneration of man is largely the out-
come of perverted dietetic and hygienic habits, and that the
slaughter-house is a never ending source of immorality, brutality
and crime. As a matter of fact, it is impossible for a man to
remain a criminal after he has once begun to live in perfect har-
mony with nature, which is the only way to restore harmony
within himself and amiable relationship with his fellowmen.
The perverted sexual instincts of man and the dreadful
maladies for which they are responsible are likewise but the conse-
quences of his unnatural methods of living. Despite the numerous
books that have been written on this important subject, and all the
well meaning information that they may contain, thousands still
suffer from these most fatal violations of nature’s laws, making not
only their own lives, but also those of their children, a hopeless fight
with misery and disease.
The ethical aspect of vegetarianism is beautifully elucidated by
one of America’s most famous authors and naturalists, Henry
David Thoreau. He says in his book “Walden” in the chapter
“Higher Laws”:
“I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to pre-
serve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been
particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much
food of any kind................
“It is hard to provide so simple and clean a diet as will not
offend the imagination; but this, I think, is to be fed when we
feed the body; they should both sit down at the same table. Yet
perhaps this may be done. The fruits eaten temperately need not
make us ashamed of our appetites, nor interrupt the worthiest
pursuits. But put an extra condiment into your dish, and it will
poison you. It is not worth the while to live by rich cookery. Most
men would feel shame if caught preparing with their own hands
precisely such a dinner, whether of animal or vegetable food, as
is every day prepared for them by others. Yet till this is other-
wise we are not civilized, and, if gentlemen and ladies, are not
true men and women. This certainly suggests what change is to﻿364
RATIONAL DIET
be made. It may be vain to ask why the imagination will not be
reconciled to flesh and fat. I am satisfied that it is not. Is it not
a reproach that man is a carnivorous animal? True, he can and
does live, in a great measure, by preying on other animals; but
this is a miserable way—as anyone who will go to snaring rabbits,
or slaughtering lambs, may learn—and he will be regarded as a
benefactor of his race who shall teach man to confine himself to a
more innocent diet. Whatever my own practice may be, I have no
doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its
gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the
savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in
contact with the more civilized.”﻿CHAPTER VIII
Dehydration op Foods
Ever since man began agriculture in the temperate zones, even
before the dawn of written language, the preservation of food prod-
ucts for the winter months, or for the purpose of providing nourish-
ment during periods of famine, has been a very important problem.
The various grains and nuts offered but little difficulty in this
respect, as they were already fairly well dried by the sun when
harvested. Throughout the arid sub-tropical regions, such fruits
as grapes, figs, and dates could be easily preserved by exposing
them to the rays of the sun as is still done today.
Sun drying is probably the oldest method of food preservation
which the human race employed. On the North American Conti-
nent it was used in the early colonial days for both vegetable and
animal foods. New England colonists dried corn after it had been
cooked, the product being known as samp, while along the coast
the drying of fish became an important industry. It is only since
the beginning of the nineteenth century that the canning of foods
was introduced in Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The first
patent for the preservation of food in air-tight containers was
granted in 1910 to a Frenchman, Appert, who discovered the method
and first utilized it in France.
Food canning was first introduced in America by William Un-
derwood, who established a company for the exploitation of his proc-
ess in Boston. Canned goods, especially after the introduction of
tin cans, soon became popular, and canning, in many places, super-
seded the simpler process of drying. The Civil War gave an added
impetus to the canning industry, and later improvements in the
methods of sterilization and in the manufacture of cans greatly in-
creased the possibilities of canning, until we have now an enormous
industry. In 1922, in California alone, 500,000,000 cans of fruits
and vegetables were packed and are now being distributed through-
out the entire world. California canners are packing approxi-
mately 20,000 carloads worth $125,000,000 annually.
At the same time, there has also been a tremendous development
365﻿366
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in methods of preserving foods by cold storage, and other means
such as pasteurization, condensation, etc. Although these processes
require a large investment of capital and elaborate machinery,
the less expensive process of drying was practically forgotten,
except in the interior valleys of California, where fruits could be
dried in a comparatively moisture free atmosphere.
Drying of foods was revived again in the United States after
the discovery of gold in Alaska in 1896. The rush of miners to
the Klondike districts created a demand for foods which were light
and could be easily transported. At that time considerable quan-
tities of dried potatoes were imported from Germany and shipped
to Alaska, and while they were not very palatable, they supplied
a quickly prepared, energy-giving ration. The migration to the
Alaskan goldfields also encouraged the drying of vegetables along
the Pacific Coast, and many crude evaporating plants were built to
supply demand for foods which contained a good deal of nourish-
ment in a condensed form, suitable for transportation over the snow
covered mountains.
The Boer War likewise stimulated the drying industry in west-
ern Canada, and the British Army was supplied with many tons of
dried vegetables mixed so as to form the basis for a quickly pre-
pared soup. Much of this material was manufactured in British
Columbia and shipped from Canadian and American points to
South Africa.
The advantage of evaporated vegetables and fruits as com-
pared with the heavy canned goods, in reducing the cost of produc-
tion and transportation, caused the establishment of a number of
small plants for the manufacture of dehydrated vegetables and so-
called soup mixtures. At first these products were not satisfactory,
but the soundness of the principles involved was soon recognized,
and more scientific methods were gradually applied and many de-
tails perfected.
Again, the World War brought an increasing demand for dried
vegetables and thousands of tons were shipped to Europe. In
Germany where the potato is the great staple food, the progress
of the drying industry has been more rapid than elsewhere. In
1898 there were in Germany only three small drying plants with
a capacity scarcely large enough to be worthy of mention. The
method of dehydration then used was evidently successful, for in﻿DEHYDRATION OF FOODS
367
1906 the number of plants had increased to 39, in 1909 to 199, and
in 1916 to 841. In addition, 2,000 breweries were utilizing a part of
their equipment for the drying of food materials. So rapid was
the increase of this industry on account of the food blockade, that
about 1900 drying plants were either in operation or under con-
struction in 1917. The fact that the total quantity of potatoes
dried in Germany alone was more than three times the total crop
of the United States, explains one of the reasons why Germany could
hold out so long in her desperate struggle, when all food supplies
from the outside were practically cut off.
In France as early as 1850 a great number of vegetables and
fruits were subjected to hydraulic pressure, producing a highly
concentrated food product. Somewhat similar mixtures of green
leaf vegetables and legumes were used in the German army during
the Franeo-Prussian War in 1870.
In the United States the industry of drying food products did
not assume any large proportions until the beginning of the World
War. After the first year of the war, it was found impossible to
supply fresh and canned vegetables in adequate quantities to the
British forces, and those of the Colonies. Canada and the United
States, therefore, were called upon to furnish dehydrated vegetables
in very large quantities. To supply this demand the owners of the
already established apple kiln dryers in New York and Pennsyl-
vania took up the drying of vegetables, but as little was known of
the proper methods of preparation and drying, much of the finished
product was of poor quality.
After the United States entered into the World War, the de-
mand for dried fruits and vegetables increased still more, and, when
the first American troops landed in France, several large orders for
dried food products were placed with the numerous evaporating
plants, which had just been established.
The United States Department of Agriculture detailed chemists
and food experts to aid in investigations for the benefit of the in-
dustry, and a number of experimental stations were established
and the study of scientific dehydration of fruits and vegetables
was begun. As a result of these efforts, much progress was made in
the practical knowledge of the best methods to prepare foods, of
temperatures of drying, and air and humidity control. While the﻿368
RATIONAL DIET
evaporation of apples and berries has long been an established
industry in certain sections of the United States, especially in
western New York, and the evaporation of prunes has been an
important business in the Pacific Northwest since 1890, it was only
with the rapid increase of the California fruit industry that dried
fruits of the Pacific Coast became an important factor in the world’s
commerce.
From small beginnings, the production of dried fruits in
California has grown enormously during the last twenty years,
especially since the growers have organized for the packing and
distribution of their products and new markets have been opened.
The total production of dried fruits rose from approximately
185,000 tons in 1910 to approximately 360,000 tons in 1920. Since
then, orchard and vineyard acreage has increased rapidly. In 1919
and 1920 alone about 275,000 acres were planted, and nurseries
were unable to supply the demand for trees and vines. We should
therefore expect a very much increased output of fruit by 1925,
when most of the newly planted orchards and vineyards come into
bearing.
The difficulty of shipping fresh fruit to great distances and the
frequent car shortage through the harvest season, must necessitate
a larger production of dried fruits, as it will be almost impossible
for the canneries to take care of an increase over 100,000 tons of
fresh fruit. The markets and the consumption of dried fruits,
must also be increased, if fruit growing is to continue to be
profitable. This can be done by improving the quality of dried
fruits, doing away with all the objectionable features of the old
fashioned drying processes and by educating the public to the great
nutritive and hygienic value of properly dried fruits.
Except for a few years at the beginning of the California fruit
industry, nearly all fruits have been dried in the sun, especially
in the hot and dry interior valleys where the conditions for sun
drying are excellent. One of the most objectionable adjuncts of
sun drying is the sulphuring of such fruits as apricots, figs, nec-
tarines, peaches, pears, silver prunes, etc., to prevent their dis-
coloration while exposed for a week or more to the open air.
Under the able guidance of Professors W. Y. Cruess and A. W.
Christie of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the University
of California in Berkeley, methods of dehydration have been im-﻿DEHYDRATION OF FOODS
369
proved recently and much credit is due them for the fact that
scientific methods of foods preservation have become better under-
stood throughout the Pacific Coast regions. The University of
California has published their investigations and experiments in a
number of bulletins, which show that properly dehydrated products
are equal or even superior to the sun dried fruits, and that dehy-
dration possesses many advantages over sun drying, both from the
sanitary and the economical point of view, with the exception of
the California raisin and fig, as the curing of these fruits in the
dry and hot climate of the San Joaquin Valley has proved satis-
factory.
It is only during unusual climatic conditions, such as early fall
rains, that the artificial drying of raisins has to be resorted to.
This was the case in 1918 when, in the first part of September, a
heavy rainstorm lasting several days drenched California and
ruined millions of dollars worth of fruit, lying on trays in the
orchards, throughout the leading fruit districts. This unfortunate
occurrence caused the erection of many improvised evaporators,
to save as much as possible of the fruit crop intended for drying.
But this great and sudden loss of a year’s effort and toil brought
the subject of dehydration of fruits even more forcibly to the front
than the war.
So far, the terms “drying” “evaporating” “dehydrating,”
have been used more or less indiscriminately. In 1920 Professors
Cruess and Christie published their views upon the terminology of
fruit drying processes in Agricultural Bulletin No. 322 of the
University of California. At that time it was stated that the term
“dried” should apply to all dried fruits, whether sun dried or
dried by artificial heat, and that “evaporated” should be used to
designate fruits dried by artificial heat. “Dehydrated” and
“evaporated” have exactly the same meaning, only one is derived
from the Latin and the other from the Greek. The fruit-drying
industry itself, however, has definitely favored the word “de-
hydrated” in preference to “evaporated” to designate artificially
dried food products of superior quality. It appears, therefore,
that commercial usage may cause the adoption of the former term
in the dried fruit trade.﻿370
RATIONAL DIET
In order to avoid confusion, the following definitions are now
generally used.
1.	Drier: A general term, applicable to all machines used for
drying fruits or other materials. Examples: hot drier, cement
drier, lumber drier, etc.
2.	Evaporator: A drying machine without any forced draft
which does not permit accurate control of temperature, humidity,
or air velocity.
3.	Dehydrater: A drying machine with forced draft and in
which the temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity can be
accurately controlled.
The advantages claimed for the process of dehydration are:
1.	That the dehydrated fruits, when prepared for the table,
more nearly resemble the fresh fruit in color and flavor.
2.	That dehydrated fruits are produced under more sanitary
conditions.
3.	That dehydration permits more exact control of quality
and yield.
4.	That less land and fewer trays are required to dehydrate a
given tonnage of fruit.
5.	That dehydration makes it possible to combine all the
steps of drying and packing in one building.
Besides providing against rain damage, dehydraters are useful
in fruit-growing sections in which there is, even in normal years,
insufficient sunshine to permit successful sun drying.
The evolution of the modern process of dehydrating from the
earliest kiln driers to the present highly efficient system, is a record
of one attempt after another to secure air circulation upon which
the effectiveness of the drying process depends.
In the further development of drying processes from natural or
gravity circulation, by convection, to mechanically forced circula-
tion by means of fans or blowers, it became apparent that the mois-
ture content of the air, and its vapor pressure, as well as the tem-
perature, must be carefully studied and controlled. The circulation
of the air must not only be uniform throughout the entire interior
of the dryer, but the velocity of such circulation must be high
enough to insure effective action. This relatively high velocity is﻿DEHYDRATION OF FOODS
371
necessary, because the material, as soon as it begins to dry, be-
comes surrounded with a heavy, sluggish strata of saturated air
and the velocity of impact of the air in circulation within the
drier must be sufficient to constantly disperse this air.
Fruits and vegetables cannot be dehydrated satisfactorily in
very dry air, and in order to process them successfully, we must
surround them with moist air. To the uninitiated it may seem para-
doxical, that in order to make fresh foods dry, we must surround
them with moist air, which will dry them quickly and uniformly,
whereas dry air will not dry them at all, or at least very poorly.
In dehydrating, the temperatures used vary, usually from 75
degrees to 180 degrees F. and the relative humidity from 15 per
cent to 80 per cent. As the temperature increases, the moisture
carrying capacity also increases, but at a much faster ratio. This
is indicated by the following table, showing how much moisture
air at a given temperature can absorb to bring it to the point of
saturation or 100 per cent relative humidity.	Grains of moisture 1 cubic foot of air point of saturation
70 Degrees of Fahrenheit to	7.94
85	12.43
105	22.00
110	25.00
115	30.00
130 “ <[ “ cy \	42.50
141	58.00
157			85.00
170 “ “ “	112.00
179	138.00
188	166.00
195	194.00
212	265.00
(Weight of 1 cubic foot of air approximately 550 grains or 1*4 oz.)
At 141 degrees F. the moisture carrying capacity of the air is
more than seven times greater than at 70 degrees F., while at
170 degrees F. it is 14 times greater than at 70 degrees F.; in
other words, a rise in temperature of 100 degrees, has increased the
moisture carrying capacity of the air fourteen times. 1,000 cubic
feet of air at 170 degrees F. can carry 16 pounds of moisture, or
about % °f the weight of the air.
The expansion of air with increasing temperature is very small,﻿372
RATIONAL DIET
amounting to only 1 /490th of the volume for each degree in the
rise of temperature; while the amount of water vapor which can
be absorbed is practically doubled at each 27 degrees F. rise in
temperature. At the beginning of the dehydrating process when the
free, or non-hygroscopie moisture is being removed, the relative
humidity is comparatively high, usually 80 per cent or more.
This high relative humidity must be maintained in order to pre-
vent the material from “case-hardening” or surface-drying. Sur-
face drying causes surface ruptures and spoils the product. Fur-
thermore, surface-drying encases the fruit in a layer of dried
material through which it is difficult, and sometimes practically
impossible to induce further drying. At a relative humidity of
about 80 per cent most hygroscopic substances possess their max-
imum elasticity or plasticity, and this is, therefore, the relative
humidity most desirable at the beginning of the process.
Rapid heating in dry air of freshly cut slices of a succulent
fruit or vegetable causes bursting of the cell membranes by ex-
pansion of their contents and permits the escape of water, which
carries with it dissolved sugars, organic salts, and flavoring sub-
stances, thus reducing both the palatability and the food value of
the product. Consequently, only moderate temperatures can be
employed at the beginning of the drying process, otherwise bursting
of cells and dripping will occur. It is evident, therefore, that rapid
drying cannot be secured by the employment of high temperatures
with fresh fruits or vegetables, without depreciating the quality.
Nor can materials already partially dry be subjected to high
temperatures without injuring the products or making them almost
valueless from the standpoint of rational nutrition.
After the free moisture has been absorbed and carried off, it
is best to retain only part of the hygroscopic moisture, because the
removal of all this moisture usually effects a physical change in
the material which reduces its value. The regulation of the final
or residual hygroscopic moisture content is accomplished by main-
taining in the dehydrater, at the end of the process, such a degree
of relative humidity as corresponds with the final moisture content
desired in the finished product. For instance, if evaporated fruits
with 20 per cent moisture are wanted, the relative humidity at the
end of the dehydrater should show approximately the same per-
centage.﻿DEHYDRATION OF FOODS
373
Successful dehydrating depends upon proper arrangements
for preventing the series of changes which begin as soon as the
material is cut into pieces and exposed to the air. This entails the
employment of a temperature high enough to prevent the growth of
micro-organisms, hut not too high to cause bursting of the cells in
the fresh material or the scorching of the parts which have lost
most of their water.
Fruits and vegetables are composed of millions of cells filled
with water and surrounded by a network of delicate fiber and
connecting tissue. If the water is removed from the cells without
damaging the cell walls or the surrounding fiber, the cells will
retain their elasticity and absorb moisture again at the first oppor-
tunity. This can be best accomplished by first subjecting the fruit
to a current of humid air of moderate heat and gradually increas-
ing the temperature until the fruit has lost about fifty per cent of
its moisture.
A Convenient and Accurate Form of Hygrometer for the Determination
of the Relative Humidity of Air in Dehydraters
The hygrometer is a very necessary instrument for the proper
control of the moisture content of the air, which has been shown﻿374
RATIONAL DIET
to be one of the most impotant factors in the correct dehydration
of fruits. It is a simple instrument, and anyone can easily operate
it after a few minutes’ instruction. It indicates the absolute and
relative humidity of the air.
Absolute Humidity is the actual weight of water vapor contained
in a given amount of air, the weight being expressed in grains per
cubic foot of air.
Relative Humidity, on the other hand, is the ratio of the amount
of moisture in the air to the amount contained when saturated at
the same temperature. It is, therefore, expressed in per cent.
The ordinary temperature of the air, without any relation to its
moisture content, is known as the dry bulb temperature. The wet
bulb temperature, read on a thermometer having its bulb wound
with a moistened wick, is the temperature at which the air would
become saturated if moisture were added to it without the addition
or subtraction of any degree of heat.
The difference between the wet and dry bulb temperature is a
measure of the amount of moisture in the air. The humidity of the
air is determined by this relation; the humidity being read from
the chart on the hygrometer.
In the old style evaporators, very little attention is paid to the
moisture content of the air. The chief use of the kiln evaporator
in New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Virginia, is for drying
sliced apples. The drying room of a kiln has a floor made of narrow
pieces of slate laid at intervals of one-fourth or three-eighths of
an inch apart, and the fruit to be dried is spread upon the floor
in a uniform layer of four to six inches in depth. The heat is
furnished by pipes from a furnace below.
The tunnel evaporator, as generally used for prunes in Oregon,
Washington, and Idaho, has been gradually perfected by modi-
fying the “Allen Evaporator,” manufactured and patented by
W. K. Allen of Newberg, Oregon. In its essential feature this tun-
nel evaporator consists of a long narrow room, with the floor and
ceiling inclined uniformly from end to end, and with a furnace
below the floor. The room is cut into a series of narrow chambers
or “tunnels,” by parallel partitions, which may be solid or merely
an open frame work of slats. In some of the larger and more elab-
orate plants the trays upon which the fruit is spread are loaded
upon trucks fitted with an open framework to support and separate﻿DEHYDRATION OF FOODS
375
them, and these trucks are rolled in one behind another at the upper
end of the tunnel until it is filled. The dry fruit is removed at the
lower end by withdrawing the truck carrying it, and then the
others are moved down by force of gravity, permitting a new truck
to be rolled in at the upper end.
The heated air is admitted at the lower end of the tunnel from
a furnace placed in the room beneath, and rises through the suc-
cessive series of trays, and then passes off, loaded with moisture
through a ventilator shaft at the opposite, higher end. The air-
movement is secured by an arrangement of air intakes in the fire
room.
The Stack Evaporator is used commonly in California for apple
drying. The heating system is the same as that used for the kiln
and tunnel operators. The drying cabinets JSr “stacks” are on
the second floor. The drying takes place on trays which slide into
a drying chamber situated directly above the heating flues. The
bottom of the stack is open; the top consists of an inverted hopper
which ends in a tall ventilator.
Like the kiln drier and the Oregon tunnel evaporator, this stack
evaporator has no forced draft or humidity control, and conse-
quently does not turn out the highest quality of evaporated fruit.
The Air Blast Evaporator if properly operated, is a vast im-
provement over the Oregon Tunnel Evaporator. It is now used
by many California fruit growers as a matter of crop insur-
ance. This evaporator consists of a long horizontal, or nearly hori-
zontal chamber or tunnel, in which the fruit is placed for drying.
A fan blows or draws air through a heating system at one end of the
tunnel and forces the heated air through the drying chamber. The
fan may be of the positive blower type, in which case the air heater
and the fan are located at the same end of the evaporator; or it may
be the exhaust or suction type, in which case the air is drawn
through the evaporator and the air heating system is located at the
end opposite the fan. The exhaust fan is believed to produce a
more uniform current of air throughout the length of the evaporat-
or. Ventilators as a rule are connected with the tunnels to regulate
the flow of air, also to permit the whole or partial re-circulation of
the air, as this helps to regulate temperature and moisture, especial-
ly at the beginning of the process. Re-circulation of a large part of
the air in the drying, conserves fuel and makes possible the regula-﻿376
RATIONAL DIET
tion of the humidity of the air, which is a factor of great importance
in fruits which tend to case-harden. Under average conditions,
from five to eight times as much air is required for heat transfer
as for moisture removal. It is often possible to return as much as
75 per cent of the air to the heating chamber. Re-circulation has
been successfully used in many dehydraters since 1920.
The air heating system is often composed of steam coils over
which the air is drawn or blown by a fan. The temperature of
the air can be closely regulated by controlling the pressure or
the amount of steam used. Another system in common use con-
sists of a furnace and large flues enclosed in a fire-proof room,
through which the air is drawn by a fan. This type of construc-
tion is cheaper than that employing steam coils, but the steam-
heating system has certain advantages, as the heat can be dis-
tributed more evenly in the tunnels by means of steam pipes.
Vacuum Evaporators are used in drying certain chemicals and
substances easily injured by heat or air. Under a vacuum, evap-
oration goes on at a lower temperature than under normal atmos-
pheric pressure; fruit can be evaporated very rapidly at 100° F.
in a vacuum evaporator. Oxidation by air, which takes place in
ordinary evaporators, is very greatly reduced by this process; and
consequently, a product of fresh flavor and appearance is made
possible. This type of evaporator is not in general use because of
the high cost of installation and the greater skill and experience
that are necessary for its successful operation.
The improved air blast tunnel dehydrater is the most practical
and economical for fruit drying now used. In the process of
dehydrating, two different systems of operation are generally util-
ized.
In the so-called “counter current system,” the fruit is intro-
duced into moderately warm moist air (100° F. to 130° F.)
and moved toward a region of warmer, drier air until the dry-
ness is completed at 160° F. to 180° F. This system has its
disadvantages, because, in finishing fruit with a low moisture con-
tent at a high temperature, there is danger of caramelizing the
sugars. For example, prunes and pears can be subjected to high
temperature, when they still contain from 45 to 50 per cent of
moisture, but when the moisture approaches within 20 per cent﻿DEHYDKATION OF FOODS
377
or less of the finished prunes the temperature cannot be safely
over 150° F.
In the so-called “parallel current system,” the fruit enters
the air intake end of the drying compartment and is taken from
the dehydrater at the air exhaust end. In other words, the dry-
ing process is started in hot, dry air and is completed in warm
moist air. The advantages of this system are found in the possi-
bility of finishing the fruit at a low temperature (approximately
150°F) to obtain a high degree of dehydrating efficiency without
injury to the fruit. But this would mean that the temperature at
the intake of the tunnel is 185° F. to 190° F., there being a fall
of from 35 to 40 degrees in temperature of the air as it passes
through the tunnel, due to the heat given off to the fruit and the
absorption of moisture. This system works better in dehydrating
small fruits like grapes, cherries, sliced or cubed apples, than
prune», apricots, pears and peaches. Prunes, especially, cannot
be safely introduced at the high-temperature end of the tunnel
if efficiency in drying is desired. If the cool fruit is suddenly
subjected to a high temperature, the skin is hardened and rendered
less permeable by the moisture from within, a circumstance which
greatly retards evaporation.
Charles C. Moore of San Francisco, formerly with the U. S.
Department of Agriculture, has combined the two systems in the
Duplex Tunnel System, taking advantage of the good features in
each, while avoiding their disadvantages.
The Duplex-Tunnel Dehydrater is simply a double-tunnel
drier in which the hot air blast moves in the same direction in﻿378
RATIONAL DIET
each tunnel, with an arrangement for transferring the cars of fruit
from one tunnel to the other when at the high-temperature end
of the drier. The cars of fruit are entered at the low-temperature
end of one of the tunnels and moved toward the air blast, which
is in effect, the “counter current system.” And when these same
cars come to the high temperature end of the drier, while the fruit
has yet a moisture content of about 50 per cent, they are trans-
ferred to the adjoining tunnel, and returning through it, are moved
toward the hot air blast and then toward the low-temperature end
of the drier, as in the “parallel-current system.”
In the Duplex-Tunnel system, the air is saturated with moisture
in the in-going tunnel because the air flow is adjusted to provide
for a complete saturation in this tunnel; the adjustable deflector,
that divides the air blast as it leaves the blower, being set in a po-
sition to allow more air to go into one tunnel than goes into the
other.
This principle of circulating the cars of fruit toward and
away from the high-temperature end of the drier, means that the
Duplex-Tunnel system admits the use of a higher temperature
than can be employed, with safety, in any other tunnel system;
and a basic principle in dehydration is that the higher the tempera-
ture that can he safely used, the more economical is the operation,
in respect to fuel consumption, per ton of fruit.
In the Duplex-Tunnel system there is a larger percentage of
the air recirculated than in any other system. This is due to the
initial high temperature that is used, and to the saturation of the
air in the tunnels, which may be as long as eighty feet. The
cars loaded with fruit are moved by an endless cable operated by
motor power and controlled by a lever at the entrance of the drier.
By means of this cable, the cars are moved forward, transferred
from one tunnel to the other, and brought back into the second
tunnel; this brings a car of finished fruit from the drier at proper
intervals of time, the intervals being at the rate of the drying
period for a car of fruit. The operating expense per ton of fruit
is no more than the cost of sun-drying the fruit, with the ad-
vantage of making fruit drying independent of weather condi-
tions, thus saving the fruit grower a great deal of worry and loss.﻿DEHYDRATION OF FOODS
379
The following illustration shows a small dehydrater constructed
by the author, for the purpose of dehydrating small quantities of
fruit and nuts for making nut butters, without subjecting them to
a high temperature. The air can be recirculated wholly or partly
and the temperature and moisture content regulated. The cost
of operation is small. This dehydrater which can hold as much as
500 pounds of fresh fruit is suitable for small fruit farms where the
growers want to preserve fruits and vegetables for their own use.
Although the sun-drying of fruits is a large and well-established
industry in California, it is apparent to all who have seriously
considered the matter, that dehydration offers a means of producing
inexpensive dried fruits of new forms and in many cases of better
quality than the usual sundried fruits. That this fact is being
realized now by the fruit growers is shown by the increase of the
dehydrating industry. In California alone over 200 dehydraters of
various designs have been built since 1918.
The time required for dehydrating fruits is only a small frac-
tion of that required for sun-drying. Most of the fruits can be
dehydrated in from eight to thirty hours, according to kind and
size, while sun-drying requires from one to two weeks and often
more, if weather conditions are unfavorable.
Another great advantage of dehydration becomes apparent when
it is compared with other methods of food preparation, such as
canning and refrigeration. Not only can dehydrated fruits be
produced and sold at a lower price than an equivalent quantity
of canned fruits, but the great decrease in bulk and weight effects
a tremendous saving in containers and warehouse charges.
The difference between canned fruits, and dehydrated fruits,
both from an economic and hygienic point of view, is seldom real-
ized. For instance, a can of apricots retailing at 25 cents con-
tains one pound of fruit and twelve ounces of syrup made from
refined sugar. One pound of the best dehydrated apricots requires
nearly seven pounds of fresh fruit and retails for about fifty cents.
It furnishes, therefore, almost as much nutritive value as seven
cans of apricots. The syrup, which is added in canned fruits
contains about equal parts of refined sugar and water and is
devoid of organic salts and vitamins, and adds nothing to the
hygienic value of the fruit, but rather detracts from it. The proc-﻿380
KATIONAL DIET
ess of sterilization disorganizes a part of the organic salts and
destroys some of the vitamins.
In six cans of apricots, exclusive of the syrup, there is no more
real food value than in one pound of dehydrated apricots. Be-
sides, the consumer has to pay for the cost of the syrup and can-
ning, and also for the increased cost of transportation.
Fruits and vegetables contain from 65 to 95 per cent water,
which is increased by the liquid added in the canning process. One
ton of apricots canned and cased weighs about 3,500 pounds, while
a ton of apricots dehydrated and packed weights only 350 pounds.
In other words canned apricots weigh ten times more than the
same quantity of dehydrated apricots. The same ratio applies
to most of the varieties of canned fruit. The great reduction in
weight of dehydrated food products is of special importance in
California because of its distance from both eastern and foreign
markets.
Despite these obvious advantages of dehydrated products, their
sale is still restricted on account of their unattractive appearance
and inferior quality, often the result of overheating. However,
with the knowledge of scientific dehydration, food products can
be made as attractive as the sundried article. Properly packed
dehydrated products will keep well for years and are not susceptible
to the spoilage, sometimes poisonous in nature, which occasionally
occurs in canned and refrigerated foods.
The greatest advantage of modern dehydration appears in the
stabilization of crops and the conservation of food products. Under
the present economic system, the farmer is frequently confronted
with either a surplus or a famine. In years of plentiful crops
the prices are low and there is not enough demand for the products.
By proper dehydration the excess of the years of plenty can be
stored up and sold later, when market conditions have improved.
Dehydration reduces fresh vegetables and fruits from one
fifth to one tenth of their original weight, and from one third to
one half of their original bulk. Dehydration also solves the prob-
lem of procuring inexpensive containers, for dehydrated products
keep well in paraffined or parchment-lined pasteboard cartons,
that is, if they are packed as soon as possible after they come from
the dehydrator to prevent infection by insects. The following﻿SMALL MODERN DEHYDRATE!?, DESIGNED BY TIIE AUTHOR
Built of galvanized sheet iron and insulated by asbestos. Capacdtv,
thirty trays; size, 24x3(5 inches; holding about 500 lbs. fresh fruit. Heated
by means of a gas radiator. Distribution and recirculation of air carried
on by means of a multiple fan, driven by % horse power electric motor.
TIIE r iPROGRESSIVE EVAPORATOR,’* now successfully used in the
leading fruit growing districts of California, is an improved tunnel type plant
with perfect regulation of temperature, air flow and humidity.﻿
﻿DEHYDRATION OF FOODS
381
table furnished by Professor Caldwell shows the yields of de-
hydrated products per hundred pounds of fresh material.
Apples, late autumn
and winter	vari-			
eties	12	to	15	lbs.
Apples, summer				
varieties	10	to	12	( (
Apricots	16	to	18	e (
Blackberries	16	to	20	* *
Beets	14	to	17	< (
Cabbage	8	to	9	( i
Carrots	10	to	12	( (
Celery	8	to	9	11
Cherries, pie	17	to	21	( (
Cherries, sweet	22	to	26	i i
Corn, sweet	22	to	33	< <
Figs	18	to	23	< «
Logan black-
berries	17	to	22	lbs.
Onions	9	to	11	( C
Parsnips	20	to	22	( (
Peaches	13	to	16	( (
Pears Peas, garden (mature)	18	to	22	( t
	22	to	25	t t
Potatoes, sweet	30	to	35	( Í
Potatoes, white	20	to	23	( (
Prunes	30	to	33	( (
Pumpkin	6	to	8	( (
Raspberries	17	to	23	( i
Squash	7	to	9	( (
Tomatoes	6y2	to	9	( i
Turnips	7	to	8	( (
Dehydration will also be a most important factor in the con-
servation of foods. It is estimated that over fifty per cent of the
fruit and vegetables grown in the United States never reach the
consumer, because of inadequate shipping facilities. It is re-
ported, for instance, that in 1911 approximately 750,000 bushels
of apples were wasted in the orchards of Oregon and Washington;
and these could have been saved by dehydration. Frequently
thousands of tons of vegetables are destroyed in order to keep up
the price. There is no reason why these materials should not be pre-
served by drying, thus making them available as human food. This
destruction of surplus products is especially lamentable when
millions are suffering for want of proper food.
Furthermore, dehydration will make it possible for the farm-
er to grow a better diversity of crops, and consequently there will
be a good variety of the dehydrated vegetables and fruit, which
are nearly equal in value to fresh foods, available to all classes of
people throughout the year.
Dehydration will also make the products of the tropics more
accessible. Dehydrated bananas found much favor and a ready
market in Central Europe under the name of banana figs. In
fact, the demand exceeded the supply so long as the right quality
was produced. If a perfect product is desired, selection of the﻿382
RATIONAL DIET
right material is of the utmost importance. The small sweet ba-
nanas are best suited for dehydration. They must be allowed to
ripen thoroughly in the storage room until they have turned to
golden yellow color. This is necessary as various layers of the
same bunch ripen at different times. It is also important that
bananas are picked at the right time and are not bruised. Over-
ripe or unripe bananas will produce a poorly finished product.
Copra, which is the commercial name for dried or dehydrated
cocoanut, is already a great article of export from South America,
the South Sea Islands, the Philippines and East India, and there
is no reason why scientific dehydration and proper protection
against insects should not bring many delicious tropical fruits
within the reach of the inhabitants of the temperate zones, espe-
cially since transportation facilities by means of fast steamers have
also been improved.
There is no doubt that dehydration, if done carefully accord-
ing to well-established principles, is the best method of food con-
servation, and, while dehydrated foods may not be equal in all
particulars to fresh foods, they help to round out man’s dietary
at times when the latter are not procurable.﻿CHAPTER IX
The New Agriculture
Before the World War it was generally assumed that, because
of our extended areas of agriculture and improved means of pro-
duction and distribution, the world was practically immune from
famine. Despite this belief, in the winter of 1921 twenty million
human beings were dying of starvation in the Volga district.
Within the last few years famine, war and disease have reduced
the population of Armenia from six millions to two millions; the
city of Petrograd, from two millions to three-quarters of a million;
Poland has lost half her population, while a hundred million Chi-
nese have suffered for lack of food. During the first quarter of the
twentieth century, throughout Europe and Asia more than three
hundred million people have approached the point of starvation.
Is it not rather strange that in a world where within a gener-
ation man has learned to talk on waves of ether through 10,000
miles of space; to harness the power of air and water; to measure
and analyze the stars a million light-years away, the leading au-
thorities of the world’s universities have not yet advanced beyond
the speculative period concerning how to protect mankind against
famine ?
Up to the present time man has scarcely begun to utilize the
tremendous treasures stored in the deeper layers of the earth’s
sub-soil.1 Most of the arable land is devoted to the superficial cul-
ture of cereals, and in some countries, like the United States and
Canada, by far the largest portion of the cultivated area is used
not to feed man, but cattle. It has been shown in another chapter
how costly and wasteful it is to live on the meat of animals which
we have to feed, instead of deriving our sustenance directly from
the products of the soil; and how, in the long run, the cultivation of
cereals for human food alone is less profitable than scientific fruit
culture.
Eighty per cent of all cereals raised are needed for the main-
tenance of live stock. Even in densely populated Germany 70 per
cent of all the land under tillage is devoted to raising cereals; about
383﻿RATIONAL DIET
384
15 per cent to potatoes; 12 per cent to other kinds of vegetables,
and only 3 per cent to fruit culture. In Great Britain, of the total
area under tillage, cereals constitute 67 per cent; vegetables and
legumes, 26 per cent; potatoes, 5 per cent, and fruit culture only
2 per cent. In addition, these two countries have a very large pro-
portion of their acreage in grass used for pasture grounds. Even
now, in the United States, after the displacement of a large num-
ber of farm animals by the automobile, the cultivation of fruit
trees does not cover over two per cent of the area that is given over
to the raising of cereals.
Japan with an average population of 350 people per square mile
is perhaps the best example of a country that has developed its agri-
cultural resources, utilizing every arable acre. On an average,
about five people, or a medium-sized family, gain their sustenance
from the intensive culture of one acre. And yet in Japan rice and
millet, soy beans, and vegetables are the main crops, while fruit
culture is only of secondary importance.
In his highly instructive book, “Farmers of Forty Centuries,”
Professor F. H. King explains the mystery of China’s support of
her millions, by giving an account of a visit to the farms of the
densely populated province of Shantung. There every scrap of
vegetable matter and excrement is saved and returned to the fields,
which yield a harvest of wheat or barley in June, and later, aided
by midsummer monsoon rains, a second crop, consisting principally
of millet, corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts or soy beans, is harvested.
One of the farmers in this province had a family of twelve people
that he was maintaining on 2y2 acres of good farm land, keeping
besides one milch cow (also used as a work animal), one donkey
and two pigs. But not all of China is so densely populated, and
the Chinese have by no means availed themselves of the resources
at their disposal.
In many parts of Belgium and France the market gardeners
are at present demonstrating what intelligent and intensive horti-
culture can produce. The small province of Flanders, in Belgium,
where so many bloody battles were fought during the World War,
is again becoming the market garden of England. Prior to the war
one small community exported over 5,000 tons of first-class pota-
toes and $20,000 worth of pears, while another supplied north-
ern France and Brussels with strawberries. However, there is al-﻿THE NEW AGRICULTURE
385
ways a tendency to employ too much stable manure and animal fer-
tilizers to force the growth of fruits and vegetables, which make
the work of the gardeners disagreeable and detracts very much
from the nutritive and hygienic value of the products.
In the immediate vicinity of Paris over 75,000 acres are used
for the intense cultivation of vegetables, bringing returns as high
as $1,200 per acre; while fruit culture is rapidly attaining an
equally high state of development. About 1,250 acres are traversed
at regular intervals with stone walls, especially erected for the
growing of espalier, or wall fruits. On account of their southern
exposure these walls, having an aggregate length of 400 miles,
hasten the ripening of the fruit through increased solar heat
by means of reflection of the heat waves from the stones. The av-
erage yield from this acreage is about 3,000 tons. Several hundred
acres are covered with pear trees, which yield three to four tons
per acre. Likewise the city of Lyons, with a population of over
half a million, is entirely supplied with vegetables and fruits by
suburban gardeners.
Through the erection of glass houses many gardeners defy the
seasons by making their own climate. On the island of Jersey, in
the English Channel, there is one establishment of greenhouses cov-
ering thirteen acres that makes a specialty of raising grapes which
ripen continuously from May to October; besides these, many vari-
eties of vegetables are grown. The financial returns from these
thirteen acres are equal to what an ordinary farmer by superficial
culture of the soil would obtain from 1,300 acres. The island of
Guernsey is equally famous for its greenhouses and its wonderful
returns from a relatively small acreage.
There are cases on record where enormous crops have been pro-
duced by truck gardeners in tracts adjacent to large cities like
Chicago and New York. In the market gardens of Florida 450 to
600 bushels of onions, 400 bushels of tomatoes, and 700 bushels of
sweet potatoes to the acre are frequently raised. D. L. Hartman,
a Florida grower, a few years ago published the following facts
and figures in the “Rural New Yorker”:
“During one season the sales from one acre of early tomatoes
amounted to $454; and from a trifle more than two and a half
acres, including an acre of ‘earlies,’ the remainder mid-season and﻿386
RATIONAL DIET
late plantings, the total sales amounted to over $900. From a little
less than one acre and a half, $555 worth of strawberries were sold. ’ ’
In the city of San Jose, California, Calvin Miller has two Con-
cord grape vines, planted in 1910, which now cover 5,000 square
feet, forming a most beautiful arbor. The average yield from these
two vines is about 2,000 pounds, which sell readily at 8# per pound
—equivalent to $1,300 per acre.
Notwithstanding all this, the American farmer still appears to
have a preference for cultivating large acreages for cereals, and
cattle raising, rather than the intensive cultivation of a small
acreage. It is now over three hundred years since the Pilgrims
landed in North America. Subsequent to their advent the immi-
grants who followed them have been assiduously engaged in fell-
ing the forests to make room for surface agriculture, until now
we have over 80 million acres of idle unproductive forest land,—
an acreage equal to the combined states of New York and Pennsyl-
vania, or to that of England, Scotland and Wales.
It is evident that cereals, which with flesh foods form the prin-
cipal staple foods throughout the temperate zones, can only feed
on the soil surface, leaving the deeper strata untouched. Figured
acre per acre, cereal crops are much smaller than tree crops, and
it remains for horticulturists and wise, farseeing law-makers to en-
courage not only the replanting of the devastated forests with suit-
able nut and fruit bearing trees, but also to reclaim over 600 mil-
lion acres of swamp land by drainage, and 400 million acres of arid
lands by irrigation, thereby making them suitable for the plant-
ing of profitable trees—nature’s greatest food producers.
From this point of view it is obvious that there is still suffi-
cient room in America for many millions of intelligent immigrants
who are willing to devote themselves to modern horticulture, under
the guidance and with the financial assistance of the government.
Unfortunately our present legislators do not take this point of
view. During the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1921, we expended
for the army and navy nearly two billion dollars, while only six
per cent of this enormous amount, was appropriated for the De-
partment of Agriculture. Think what could be done for capable
and industrious settlers, if the nation would expend in agricultural
development what is wasted on war preparations. The words of
the Swedish statesman, Count Oxenstierna, who lived three cen-﻿THE NEW AGRICULTURE
387
turies ago, “The world does not know with how little wisdom it
is ruled!" are equally true today.
The planting of trees is also of great importance as a natural
protection against the extreme changes of atmospheric tempera-
ture and pressure. It is a well-established fact that trees purify
the air and render the climate more equable, making it cooler in
summer and warmer in winter. Thus in wooded districts, the rain-
fall is more evenly distributed throughout the year than in other
places, and storms, hurricanes and tornadoes are less frequent and
less violent. The science of forestry clearly shows that we are di-
rectly dependent upon forests for necessary rainfall, and that
their destruction over a great portion of the earth has been fol-
lowed by injurious consequences, such as floods and tornadoes.
Fertility can be drawn from greater depths by the planting
of trees than by any other crop, so that their culture is equivalent
to gaining a larger area, and less artificial drainage is necessary.
The roots of the trees are more capable than those of the smaller
plants of utilizing the invisible compounds of the soil.
Many plants and fruit trees unfortunately suffer from want of
proper elements in the soil, and this accounts for frequent poor
yields. Moreover, insufficiently nourished plants and trees fall a
prey to diseases more quickly than the well fertilized and stronger
specimens. Exhaustion of the soil is probably the cause of more
failures in fruit crops than all other causes combined. Sweet and
wholesome fruits of good keeping quality can be produced only
from a soil that contains all the necessary elements for promoting
the normal growth of all parts of the tree. In the production of
the eight million tons of fertilizer that are used in the United
States every year, special attention is given to only three constit-
uents—nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid—elements that un-
duly stimulate the growth of certain parts of the plants to the det-
riment of others. Soda, lime, magnesia, iron and fluorine are
equally important for the healthy growth of the plant or tree.
During the first decade of the present century we witnessed
the strange spectacle of thousands of American farmers crossing
our northern border line and seeking cheap wheat lands in the
bleak Canadian Northwest. Three outstanding causes appear to be
responsible for this emigration from a land which was hardly set-
tled, and whose immense areas are possessed of ideal climatic con-﻿388
RATIONAL DIET
ditions: First, the speculative abuses of our land laws; second,
the exhaustion of the soil by unintelligent farming; and, third,
the waste by floods due to forest destruction.
Farm life has become more or less unprofitable in the New
England states, and the process of deterioration is affecting the farm
lands of New York, Ohio, Indiana, Maryland and Virginia. It
is said that in one of these states when a man sells his farm he
gives away either the value of the building, or the value of the
land, since the price is often less than would be required to replace
the building. Very few farmers appear to be interested in the in-
tensive, intelligent cultivation of land.
Referring to this situation of American agriculture, and com-
paring it with conditions in Europe, Professor J. Russell Smith,
of Columbia University, has published an interesting article in the
Review of Reviews, from which the following paragraphs are taken:
E f The Anglo-Saxon, with the level-land plow agriculture,
brought from England, a land of gentle rain, entered the moun-
tains, felled the fine trees of the rich forest, scratched the sloping
earth -with a plow and planted corn—corn, the great king crop
of the level country,—the poorest crop of the hills. Before this
mountain corn crop can ripen, it must be subjected to many rains.
Unfortunately, the typical summer rain of the mountains is a
tearing, pouring thunderstorm which lets loose on an acre of
ground, one, two, three, and even four hundred tons of rushing
water in a single hour. It is therefore natural that the earth
should be washed away. After the earth has been deprived of its
protection of forest and roots, the gashing and loosening by the
plow and hoe seem to be a special preparation for its complete
removal by the rushing waters. The light loamy soil which, if
properly cared for, might nourish a thousand or ten thousand
crops, is gone in a few seasons, and merely serves to choke the mead-
ows below and to hinder navigation in the valley streams.
“This hideous, frightful, bootless, ruthless waste does not
seem to have even the excuse of enriching one generation of men.
The process of corn growing is so laborious on this steep, stumpy,
and often rocky new ground that the poor mountaineer gets only
a meager crop. In the effort to get much money for little corn,
he turns to the distillery to make corn whiskey.
“Great is the contrast between these poor, uncomfortable whis-
key cursed, law-breaking mountaineers of Appalachia and the com-
fortable, prosperous inhabitants of similar, but less favored slopes
in Corsica. I have traversed miles of mountain slopes in Corsica
having the angle of a house roof. The slope was steep, but a good﻿THE NEW AGRICULTURE
389
road wound in and out along its face. At intervals we passed
through villages of substantial stone houses, with well built
churches, well stocked stores, and often comfortable inns. The
people were farmers who made their living from these slopes despite
the house roof steepness. A genuine mountain agriculture has been
developed there, a tree agriculture which prospers without the
plow and its attendant erosion. The tree can utilize the heat, light,
moisture, and fertility of the mountain without imposing upon man
the fearful and destructive task of plowing a place that was never
meant for the plow. If, perchance, the mountain is so rocky that
plowing is impossible, it makes no difference to the tree. It sticks
its roots between the rocks and thrives, perhaps even the better,
as rocks on the surface check evaporation and keep the moisture
in the earth.
“I recall a region in northeastern Corsica where, except for a
few breaks not over 100 yards each, I passed for fifteen miles
through an open forest of chestnut trees, and every tree was grafted
to a heavy yielding variety. These forests are really orchards,
the sustenance of the people in the many villages. The chestnut
is to them what corn is to the Appalachian mountaineer, and more,
for does not a chestnut tree once established outlast two or three
generations of men? There is always, so I was told, a crop, a
large crop succeeding a smaller one, as is the case with many crop
yielding trees. Time and again I was told in Corsica and France,
by growers, merchants and government officials, that the average
yield of a good mature chestnut orchard was from 2,000 to 3,000
pounds of nuts per acre.
“It is easy to see that a high value should attach to a tree that
lives for a century or two, produces regularly of valuable crops
without labor, and sells for much good money when it is finally
felled. I was repeatedly told by reliable Corsicans in 1913 that
while unplanted land has practically no value, these orchards are
worth from $150 to $250 per acre.”
Equally enlightening is what Professor Smith writes about
another island, situated a little west of Corsica. The article from
which the following paragraphs are taken is entitled “Two Story
Agriculture” and was published in The Century Magazine several
years ago:
“Approximately nine-tenths of the arable area of Majorca, one
of the Spanish islands in the Mediterranean, is planted out to crop-
yielding trees. That makes one-story agriculture. Then beneath
the trees grain is grown. That makes the second story. For miles
and miles in every direction that beautiful island is covered with
continuous orchards of almonds, olive, figs and carobs, with oc-
casional grafted oak-trees, the sweet acorns of which are prized as﻿390
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highly as the chestnut. This tree agriculture is nothing new, for
many of these orchards are of unknown age, and some of them give
evidence of having seen generations of men rise, dig awhile and die
before Columbus sailed past on the way from Genoa to Gibraltar;
and throughout all the years that the white man has striven in
America, these same old olive and carob trees have been standing
there, handing down their harvests of fruit and beans to the men
who raised other crops at their feet—crops of wheat, oats, barley,
beans and peas.
“In the average case it works out that the grain crops pay
the cost of the operation, and the tree crops come along and make
the profits. The failure of the almonds, or the off years with the
carobs or olives, therefore leave no deficitSj and the years of good
tree harvests are the years of a profit. If, as is at times the case
in the best regulated lands, there is a shortage in the grain crop,
it has more than an even chance of being equalized that same sea-
son by the tree harvest.
“The farmers of southwestern France annually send to the
United States millions of pounds of choice Persian (so-called
English) walnuts, and yet there are not ten orchards in the whole
region. A French farmer gave me this explanation: ‘ If we planted
the trees in regular rows, close together, we could grow nothing be-
tween them, for they cast a dense shade; but if we scatter them
about the fields, there is plenty of light, and wheat will grow close
to the trees.’
“One exceedingly intelligent French proprietor whose place
I visited had applied this theory by planting all his fields with
walnut trees ninety feet apart. Thirty years hence it will look
like a great park that has been planted to grain, and as they ap-
proach maturity, every one of his walnut trees will be making more
human food than will be furnished by the meat from an acre of
pasture. For years (before the war) the selling price of this
French walnut tree’s harvest was more than the value of the meat
produced by the acre of pasture, but no one can predict what prices
will be during the one or two centuries that elapse while those
walnut trees continue to shed their autumn nuggets of nutrition.”
If the early settlers of the New England and Atlantic States
had taken a lesson from their former neighbors in southern Europe,
they would have planted walnut and chestnut trees in place of the
American elm and maple. In this way they would have planted not
only equally beautiful trees for shade and ornament, but the nu-
tritious nuts would have furnished a regular source of excellent
food, and, very frequently, a good income, not only for themselves
but also for their descendants. "We boast so much of our natural
resources and advantages—and we are justified in doing so—﻿THE NEW AGRICULTURE
391
and yet we have failed to avail ourselves of scarcely more than
a small fraction of what we might possess; and the larger portion
of our domains still await intelligent attention. There are millions
of acres of mountain land within our borders unsuitable for cereals
and yet adapted for different varieties of nut-hearing trees.
Our roadsides could be planted as conveniently to nut hearing
trees as to other kinds that do not produce any kind of food. A
road ten miles long, planted to walnut and chestnut trees on each
side, at intervals of forty feet, would furnish room for more than
26,000 trees, as many as could be planted on 100 acres of land. In
addition to eventually yielding a handsome yearly income, the
valuable by-product of wood, of which there is an increasing
scarcity, would he furnished. "We are spending millions for im-
ported foods that might easily and with larger profit be produced at
home. To he sure the raising of tree crops involves a considerable
expenditure of time in which no immediate financial returns are
realized; and it is here that a wise government should give assis-
tance, if it really has the welfare of the country at heart.
A great initial step in the right direction was taken by the
United States government in passing the Reclamation Act, June 17,
1902. A national movement was organized and about one hundred
million dollars invested by the Reclamation Service. The reclaim-
able area west of the Rocky Mountains is estimated at 30 million
acres, which in time, under intensive cultivation, will provide
homes for several million families. The principal irrigation proj-
ects west of the Rocky Mountains so far completed are; the Or-
land project, in northern California; the Klamath project in south-
ern Oregon; the Truckee-Carson project in Nevada; the Boise-
Idaho project; the Salt River and Yuma projects in Arizona; to
which may be added the privately irrigated Imperial Valley of
Southern California, fitly called the “American Valley of the
Nile.” More irrigation projects are still pending, of which the
most important ever attempted is the Boulder project of the
Colorado River.
During the last thirty years California, through the develop-
ment of her water resources, supplied by the eternal snows of the
High Sierras, has become the leading fruit growing state of the
world, and yet, considering her immense area of one hundred mil-
lion acres, the proportion of land devoted to fruit culture does﻿39:
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not exceed one per cent. California furnishes a fit illustration
of how a state at first chiefly devoted to cattle raising, passes into
cereal farming, and then, finally, to the more profitable cultiva-
tion of fruits—all within the period of the memory of man.
Both the Spanish and Mexican governments formerly made
large land grants to encourage settlement. These were exclusively
used as cattle ranches up to the time of the American occupation,
when the exports consisted entirely of hides and tallows. Cali-
fornia, once the Mecca of gold-seekers, has now become world-fa-
mous for her orchards, whose annual products far outrank in value
all the precious yellow metal ever taken from her soil. And still
there are millions of acres now suitable for fruit growing, awaiting
the arrival of intelligent settlers to supply the increasing demand
for the most wholesome and nutritious products of the soil. The
cultivation of cereals and the livestock and dairy industries are
prominent, but the area devoted to them is gradually becoming
smaller. Barley, wheat, oats and corn occupy less than two million
acres; alfalfa, beets, hay, potatoes, etc., about two and a half mil-
lion acres, which are necessary to feed the still numerous cattle.
California, because of her natural climatic advantages, fertil-
ity of soil and abundant water for irrigation, was favored by na-
ture for fruit growing, as against the enormous climatic handicap
imposed upon the fruit grower of every other state in the Union.
It is not, therefore, too much to assume, that California will eventu-
ally supply the fruit of the United States in ever increasing quan-
tities, and, to a large degree, of those countries whose climatic
conditions preclude successful fruit growing.
Statistics reveal the surprising fact that within ten years the
number of orchard trees in the United States, outside of California
and Florida, has decreased about 40 per cent. According to the
census of 1910 there were in orchards in the United States, outside
of California, over 500 million trees, while the census of 1920
showed less than 300 million trees. At the same time there is every
indication that the people in the United States will give fruits
a more prominent place in their dietary than ever before, as the
nutritive and hygienic value of fruit is becoming more and more
appreciated. This condition, will, in years to come, require every
acre of land in California adapted to fruit growing.
Despite these circumstances, many California fruit growers﻿THE NEW AGRICULTURE
393
are fearing the possibility of over-production, especially with the
unprecedented planting of trees during the last few years. As soon
as the people begin to more fully realize the injuriousness of arti-
ficial sweets, and the fact that the daily use of fruits is essential
for the attainment of health, the consumption will increase enor-
mously and disperse every fear of over-production, especially as the
population of the United States is constantly increasing.
California’s area is about 7,000 square miles larger than that
of Japan, yet her population is less than four millions, whereas
the “Flowery Kingdom’’ sustains a population of nearly sixty
millions. Under intensive cultivation, California could support fif-
ty million people, or at least ten times more than it does now,
besides supplying the larger part of the United States with fresh
and dried fruits.
The world’s population has tripled within the last 150 years,
and, considering the present rate of increase, there should be more
than 3,000 million people living on this planet at the end of the
twentieth century. By employing modern methods of agricul-
ture, and horticulture, this large number would be able even now
to find more than ample room and sustenance in the temperate
zones. And then there remains the tropical area, a source of almost
fabulous wealth, in comparison to which the resources of the tem-
perate zones sink into insignificance.
One of the remarkable examples of what can be raised on well
cultivated soil, even in a cold climate, is furnished by the fruit-col-
ony “Eden’’ near Oranienburg, in the Province of Brandenburg
(Prussia). There in the course of a few years, under the most un-
favorable conditions, by a small number of energetic and intelli-
gent men, a sandy desert has been converted into valuable fruit land
which now produces enough, not only to furnish the colony with am-
ple nourishment, but also to supply a number of stores in Berlin,
while the members and their families enjoy health and independence.
In 1798 Malthus published his famous essay on “Principles of
Population,’’ at the end of a century of devastating wars for the
possession of land, when production and distribution of foods
were still carried on in a very primitive way. The Malthusian
theory was based upon the theory that population, when unchecked,
multiplies more rapidly than the means of subsistence. Malthus
of course had no vision of the coming age of steam and electricity;﻿394
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of the wonderful progress of our means of production and distri-
bution by steamships, railways, automobiles and aeroplanes; of
the great advancement of agricultural chemistry and the science
of nutrition—in other words, Malthus derived his ideas from the
appalling stupidity of men, who have to go through famine and
war in order to establish a balance between food supply and pop-
ulation.
Even as late as December, 1920, two years after the World
War, the New York Times published the following item:
*4 Boston, December, 1920.—The United States will have a popu-
lation of 197,000,000 people (the maximum which its continental
territory can sustain), about the year 2100, Professor Raymond
Pearl, of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health,
estimated in a Lowell Institute lecture last night.
‘ * ‘ To support such a population, ’ he said, ‘ 260 trillion calories
of food a year would be needed, and judging from production of the
last seven years when the maximum population was reached, it
would be necessary to import about half the calories necessary for
sustenance.’ ”
Of course, this estimate is based on our present wasteful meth-
ods of agriculture and on irrational theories of nutrition. Even
with the intensive culture of a mere fraction of the total area
now under cultivation the United States could comfortably sup-
port several hundred millions more people.
If the cultivation of cereals were abandoned, nut crops with
their large yield per acre, at less expenditure of labor, would fur-
nish more of the food essentials than are now obtained from grain
crops. Famine occurs in grain growing rather than in fruit and
nut growing districts. Nut trees may be grown upon almost every
habitable acre in temperate and tropical zones and their distribu-
tion is made easy by the fact that nuts are not perishable like
flesh foods and vegetables, and there is plenty of time for gathering
the crop.
It has been estimated that the total amount of solar energy
stored in plants each year is twenty-two times greater than the
amount of energy represented by the coal consumed during the same
period of time. About 67 per cent of this plant energy is taken
up by the forests; 24 per cent by cultivated plants; 7 per cent by
grass of the steppes and prairies, and 2 per cent by the plants of
desert lands. The energy received by forests yearly is fourteen﻿THE NEW AGRICULTURE
395
times greater than the energy of coal used during the same period.
Unfortunately, the largest forests are mainly in the tropics. In
temperate regions the forests are being depleted in about the same
proportion as the coal supply is being exhausted.
While we have made such great strides in industry, in many
civilized countries intensive agriculture and horticulture, and above
all, the scientific nutrition of man have not yet received the serious
study which they deserve.
In his interesting and instructive book on “Nut Growing”
Robert T. Morris very pointedly says, in part:
‘ ‘ Our agriculture in North America represents a tradition from
level lands and dating back to the days of savages when men had
to devote most all of their time to killing each other along with
other large and small game, while women raised small annual
crops of grains. In those days the kaleidoscopic shifting of tribes
was inimical to tree culture but fitted better into the cultivation
of annual plants........Tradition in agriculture has meant wicked
waste of opportunity in America and it is now time for us to
awaken to the situation and teach the old world what may he done
with our new agriculture upon nut tree crops. (The italics are
mine.)
“japan appears to be crowded because of agricultural thought-
habit. Japanese chestnuts, heartnuts and pinenuts would furnish
a better balanced food ration than common rice diet. The physical
strength of the people would be increased in the course of a single
generation on a nut diet. North American nut trees and nut bear-
ing annual plants would thrive in Japan, furnishing a luxurious
range in qualities of food besides supporting a population many
times greater than that of Japan today. This country might in-
crease its national wealth by exporting nut crops to other countries.
“Japanese scientists, ranking among the highest in the world,
know very well how Japan might set an example for all civilization
if battleship money were to be turned over to agricultural educa-
tional institutions. Thus would a proud people have justification
for a pride based upon pragmatic results of application of keen
intelligence to the food question.
“It is said that a machine victory is the only possible victory
over the land in these days when there is an increasing tendency
for men to leave the land and go to the cities, but the tree is a
machine. So is the annual plant a machine, for that matter, but
the tree is a machine that is working day and night with less at-
tention required from man than the annual plant requires. (The
italics are mine.)
“Agricultural experts in our colleges can make people believe
that we have enough land to supply food, but the question is one﻿396
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of distribution of knowledge which should be a function of the
state. Not only may abandoned farms be made more profitable
tomorrow than they were when at their best yesterday, but many
of the so-called waste lands may be made to produce more food than
has been commonly produced by soil of first choice. Even the
swamp lands hold out an attractive feature for the producer who
finds joy in new fields calling for a wider range of his keen interest
and knowledge.
“According to the 1914 report from our Department of Agri-
culture, forty per cent of the land in the United States is non-
tillable. Aside from the non-tillable land which consists of swamps
in which food might be raised profitably, a very large percentage of
the entire acreage on higher ground already carries tree or brush
crops for which we may substitute food-bearing nut trees and
shrubs. There is but a small percentage of this untillable land,
excepting that on bleak, barren mountain tops, which cannot be
made to raise nut crops more valuable than most of the crops which
are raised upon the tillable land in the State. Only twenty-seven
per cent of the land in the United States is actually under culti-
vation, but if we follow the same (wasteful) methods of plant and
stock raising in the future it will not be long before one hundred per
cent is occupied. As a matter of fact, intensive cultivation of
twenty per cent of the tillable land now occupied could be made
to produce so much more than it does under present methods that
we need have very little anxiety about the need for bringing one
more acre of tillable land under cultivation with ordinary crops
for some time to come. (The italics are mine.)
“One may ride for mile after mile upon the railroads through
old settled parts of New York and New England and see on every
side wornout sheep pastures supporting many woodchucks and
grasshoppers, that could be made to yield good income. On some
of the western prairies one may look clear to the horizon and see
only French weed, thistles and wild mustard, where oncBwas corn
and waving grain—the land now practically abandoned because
farmers would not change their ierops or do subsoil plowing.
While this state of things remains it is all wrong to open up more
unimproved land. We are simply increasing competition between
men engaged in the lower planes of agriculture. .	. .
“Is there a deserted hillside sheep-pasture in the east or a mus-
tard prairie in the middle west that cannot be made to grow one
hundred dollars’ worth of nuts per acre annually? Probably not.
“The attempt to raise corn and other grain crops on the Appa-
lachian hillsides has been extremely destructive because of soil
erosion following in localities, whereas nut tree crops would have
given much larger incomes from the same land, with the avoidance
of erosion and exhaustion of the soil. The deserted farmlands of
the eastern states would not be deserted, but would be yielding﻿THE NEW AGRICULTURE
397
larger permanent incomes if tree crops of grafted acorns, hicko-
ries, beeches, hazels and black walnuts had been planted where
now the ground is occupied by chipmunks and sumac.
“Thousands of square miles of hilly land that are now being
gullied as a result of raising meagre crops of annual plants may be
put into tree-crops and saved. Lands that are level or moderately
rolling are the only ones in this country that we can afford to devote
to crops of annual plants. The loss of land in hilly districts con-
cerns not only the people of today, but the generations Of tomorrow
as well......
“A great development of cereals took place as a result of experi-
mental work during the nineteenth century, but the twentieth
century is signalized by the sudden emergence of nut culture.
There are several reasons for this unexpected event:
“1. Shortage of farm labor due to decreasing birthrate and
increase of movement toward urban life came acutely to our at-
tention in the early years of 1900.
“2. Nut trees produce more food essentials in proteins, oils,
and starches per acre than are furnished by ordinary field crops.
“3. Nut crops require less labor in cultivation, or for har-
vesting the crops. The trees may live and bear for more than a
century, sometimes without apparent reduction of the fertility of
the soil in which they grow. Difficulties which formerly stood in
the way of successful propagation of nut trees have been done away
with to such an extent that almost any boy or girl may do grafting
work of the sort which defeated the efforts of expert horticulturists
two or three years ago.
“Nut cultivation belongs to what has been called permanent
agriculture. The meaning of the expression is clear. Transitory
agriculture might be the opposite term as applied to rotation of
annual plants. A tree does not exhaust the soil as a rule, while
transitory agriculture regularly exhausts the soil unless fertilizers
and methods of cultivation are employed with a higher degree of
intelligence than is commonly in evidence. The profitable employ-
ment of fertilizers in crop rotation demands knowledge of such
high order that comparatively few farmers are prepared to avail
themselves of what is known on the subject. Permanent agricul-
ture on the other hand will allow a very much larger number of
people to furnish foodstuffs with a comparatively Tpiall equip-
ment of information.
“An acre of land devoted to wheat may produce nearly ten
times as much protein as the same acre devoted to pasturage for
beef cattle. An acre of land devoted to nuts may be made to pro-
duce a still larger amount of food protein than is to be obtained
from this wheat which in turn, had excelled the beef acre........
The average number of food units per pound furnished by the more﻿RATIONAL DIET
398
common varieties of nuts is three thousand and thirty-one calories,
while the average of the same number of varieties of cereals is six-
teen hundred and fifty-four calories. The average value of the
six principal flesh foods is eight hundred and ten calories per
pound, or one-fourth that of the nuts.
“Although we are prone to speak of protein as a unit food sub-
stance, proteins from different food products vary largely in char-
acter. Nuts furnish proteins of such fine quality that they supply
the elements necessary to render more complete the proteins of
cereals and other vegetable foods. They are free from waste
products such as uric acid, urea and creatinin which are contained
in flesh foods. Furthermore, nuts are nearly aseptic and free from
bacteria of putrefaction which abound in meat.
“From an economic standpoint the raising of nuts has a great
advantage over the raising of meat. One hundred pounds of food
fed into a steer produce less than three pounds of food in the form
of flesh. We must feed the steer thirty-three pounds of corn in
order to get back one pound in the form of steak. (The italics are
mine.)
“Milk and eggs furnish much the same protein as that furnished
by meat, hut milk and eggs are rapidly increasing in price. Every
pound of food in the form of milk requires feeding a cow five
pounds of food. For every pound in the form of eggs we must
supply nearly twenty pounds of food. At the present time the
price of nuts is also high, but that is because the demand has not
been met by the supply. Looking into the future we may state that
the possibilities of raising food more cheaply by the cultivation of
nuts are greater than the possibilities of raising food more cheaply
by dairy farming. In this connection it is interesting to note that
one pound of walnut meats equals in food value five pounds of
eggs (40); nine and a half pounds (or pints) of milk, or four
pounds of beef loin. Each acre of walnut trees in good bearing
will produce every year food approximating twenty-five hundred
pounds of beef, thirty-five hundred quarts of milk and one and a
half tons of mutton.
‘ ‘ Aside from such prosaic considerations as those of food supply,
interest in trees belongs to a higher order than interest in potatoes,
oats and hay. There is more inspiration in a tree than in an annual
plant because the tree is an object lesson of highly orgauized forces,
more stable and permanent than those of annual plants. The larger
love which men seem to have instinctively for trees will elevate
standards of agriculturalists who deal with them.”
Agriculture and horticulture are yet in their infancy; the
small farmer is portrayed as “the man with a hoe” or bending
dejectedly over a plough, the epitome of drudgery and toil. In
the not far distant future, we shall enjoy the inspiration of an﻿THE NEW AGRICULTURE
399
entirely different picture. The cultivator of the soil will stand
erect with head unbowed. A few hours’ devotion each day to the
prosecution of rational farming will furnish sufficient food for
the nourishment of his family, and an ample surplus for the
market. The man who merely toils never makes much progress.
He must combine love of nature with a desire to make the very
best of his opportunities—to live the simple and useful life, and
yet enjoy, by cooperating with his fellow men, all the advantages
of modern civilization. This is the spirit of the New Agriculture,
the initial stepping-stone to a better civilization that assumes
the health and happiness of the individual to be paramount to all
other considerations.
Sampson Morgan, the English pioneer of the New Agriculture,
writes in his book “New Soil Science”:
“I contend that by living the simple life in the fruit field, a
man can fully depend on satisfying every reasonable want
through an acre of land if needs he. With a few acres, comparative
comfort can be secured. It should not he forgotten that from the
area occupied by twelve dwarf trees alone, twelve bushels of fruit
can be procured each year. There is thus ample space left for
producing sufficient products for sale even if only one acre of land
is taken in hand. From a few trees of really good eating apples
and other kinds, a full supply of these fruits can be assured almost
all the year round. Fresh fruits can readily be grown and enjoyed
in this country (England) from one year’s end to another. By
the improved system, giant fruits and berries, which will command
a limitless sale at good profits, can be produced by anyone having a
liking for the work after a little experience.
“Perfect fruit alone can meet the demands of the human sys-
tem; perfect fruit alone can stimulate the intellect; perfect fruit
alone can control the feverish activity of the arterial pulsations
which, aided by the consumption of inflammatory foods and drinks,
wear out the human machine long before its natural time. Physi-
cally and intellectually, the coming race can best be perfected by
being moulded under the magical influences which exist in the
fruit field and in the fruit field alone.”
For health and delight, the garden and the orchard are the
universal and supreme ideal of man. In every normal human being
there is the constant yearning for the day when he may own an acre
of land and plant it with trees that blossom and bear fruit. This
love of country and orchard is the one abiding memory of an almost
forgotten paradise. How beautiful is the sight of an orchard with﻿400
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its blooming trees sending their roots deep down into the soil,
drinking in the heavenly light, with its millions of blossoms, bring-
ing forth the luscious fruits in which the hidden treasures of the
earth and the life-giving forces of the sun are so wonderfully com-
bined!
Man, after all, will cling to the land, he will see that it is
the earth which nourishes him best, and like the giant Antaeus, he
will ever have need to touch it, to feel it beneath his feet, in order
to renew his strength. The time must surely come when science
and the cooperation of mankind will have cultivated the earth to
such a degree of perfection that it will bring happiness and
contentment to all. Then the shadows of disease, famine, murder
and war will disappear from our planet like the mists of dawn
before the radiant light of the rising sun.﻿CHAPTER X
Stimulants, Narcotics and Condiments
It is a most significant fact that hand in hand with the increas-
ing consumption of devitalized and demineralized foods, the use
of stimulants and narcotics, such as alcohol, spices, tobacco, coffee,
tea, cacao, coca, kola, etc., has assumed such proportions that it
may well he considered one of the most serious sociological prob-
lems. If through lack of the important organic salts, the body is
undernourished, it becomes easily fatigued because of insufficient
oxidation and elimination, and a craving for something to stim-
ulate the declining vital forces is easily acquired.
While our modern system of commercialism with its highly
improved methods of production and distribution has accomplished
much good, it has also brought within the reach of the masses
the thousands of varieties of artificially jjrepared foods and stim-
ulants whose exponents, through the medium of shrewd adver-
tising, have been untiring in their efforts to establish belief in
their efficiency and usefulness.
The indiscriminate and habitual use of stimulants and narcotics
gradually deadens the natural sensations, induces the retention
of waste matter in the system, awakens a false desire for food,
and finally ruins all power of discrimination. The craving of
the nerves becomes abnormal, while natural food flavors appear
insipid or are even despised. Modern cookery, in its attempt to
satisfy perverted appetite, is responsible to a large degree for these
deplorable conditions.
The amount spent for stimulants and narcotics throughout the
world every year probably equals the sum that the World War
cost the United States—about twenty-four billion dollars. How-
ever, the most appalling and irreparable loss induced by these
nerve poisons, comes through impaired health, which reveals itself
in enervation, lessened physical and mental efficiency, diseases
of the heart and respiratory system, and premature death.
401﻿402
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ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
Alcohol, per se, has no place in the vital economy of the body,
and the theory that it has food value has been exploded for some
time. During the process of the fermentation of fruit or vege-
table juices, their sugar is converted into about equal parts of
alcohol and carbonic acid. Alcohol being a product of decompo-
sition cannot impart any actual force or energy to the body,
but on the contrary, is a poisonous substance, a destroyer of the
life protoplasm, and a dangerous stimulant to the nervous system.
Naturally, the higher the percentage of alcohol in a beverage the
more injurious it is to the life of the vegetable or animal cell.
Distilled liquors, containing 50 per cent or more of alcohol,
are prescribed in small quantities as a medicine, but with no
more justification than the recommendation of other drugs. It
has been demonstrated by a series of experiments that alcohol
does not burn up in our organs, but merely passes through the
system, lodging for the time being in the nerve centers, where it
creates excitement or intoxication, and is in turn slowly eliminated
by the skin, lungs or kidneys, or at the most, only oxidized in a
very small proportion in the form of aldehyde.
From an economic point of view, the manufacture of alcoholic
beverages is a most tremendous waste of good food material,
especially of wholesome fruits. In the wine producing countries,
notably around the Mediterranean Sea, an enormous quantity of
grapes is practically destroyed every year by fermentation in the
production of wine and brandy. According to statistics, the
world’s annual output of the fermented and distilled juice of the
grape averages 5,000 million gallons, which contain 8 to 12 per
cent alcohol. The volume of the latter in one gallon is about
one pint, which involves the destruction of two pounds of fruit
sugar. Thus the total amount of natural wholesome sugar lost
in the making of wine alone is ten billion pounds, or nearly five
million tons every year.
The world’s annual output of commercial sugar is constantly
increasing, and now amounts to about twenty million tons, while
about half of this amount is turned into alcohol by the production
of fermented and distilled liquors. How preposterous it is, then,
1.o destroy the natural fruit sugar by fermentation, and at the﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
403
same time, by chemical and mechanical processes, to extract from
beets and sugar cane an artificial and demineralized product!
The destruction of cereals in the breweries and distilleries is
equally enormous, and the waste of food material can only be
imagined by those who have closely studied the subject. Up to
1919 in the United States alone, more than 100 million bushels
of cereals and potatoes were annually used in the production of
alcoholic beverages. On the banks of the Ohio and Illinois rivers
numerous distilleries were engaged in converting into whisky suf-
ficient cereals to supply at least three such cities as Greater New
York with bread, and give a feast to all the needy on earth. In
Europe immense droves of swine are still fed and fattened on the
offal of such establishments, and the scrofulous pork resulting
therefrom is sent into cities to engender disease.
There are still many who advocate the use of light alcoholic
beverages in place of the stronger ones, claiming that civilized
man must have a stimulant, and that wine and beer have been
used for thousands of years. Taking into account only historically
established facts, we have good reason to believe that the use of
alcoholic beverages originated comparatively late in the evolu-
tionary march of the human race, and that it hardly extends over
6,000 years. The ancient civilization whose poets have chanted
the praises of wine and worshipped at the shrine of Bacchus, have
crumbled into dust and their descendants are but shadows of
their early progenitors who before founding their empires led a
natural life. The fact that a custom is time honored, does not
justify its continued existence. Acquired and ingrained habits
are hard to give up, and the victim readily finds an excuse for
his persistence in using them.
Alcoholic stimulants so permeate all phases of social life, espe-
cially in Europe, that one can scarcely conceive of a festive affair
devoid of them in one form or another. Upon entering an eating
house in Europe the guest is first presented with a wine card,
and interrogated as to what he will have to drink. A negative
reply evokes surprise and even disdain, as it is the custom to spend
at least as much for alcoholic beverages as for food. In France—
the wine-drinking country par excellence—a bottle of wine is gen-
erally included in the price of a dinner, which would not be con-
sidered perfect without it. Indeed, so strongly has the wine﻿404
RATIONAL DIET
drinking habit taken possession of the French people that the aver-
age per capita consumption is forty gallons per year. About one-
sixth of the population of France is engaged in the cultivation of
the grape and the manufacture of wine, so that the commercial
prosperity of that country depends upon the sale of the products
of its millions of acres of vineyards.
Italy, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Southern Russia, Algeria,
South Africa, Chili and Argentina produce enormous quantities
of wine, which has become a national drink in many of these
countries and supplies a large percentage of the internal revenues.
In fact, most civilized countries depend upon the manufacture and
sale of alcoholic beverages as one of the principal revenues.
Considering these conditions in the light of human welfare
and progress, we cannot deny that one of the most important prob-
lems confronting human society today is the increasing consump-
tion of intoxicating liquors, which is one of the fundamental causes
of the mental and physical degeneration of man. Statistics show
that before the World War the United States, Great Britain,
France, Germany and Russia, each spent annually an average of
one billion dollars for alcoholic beverages.
There must be some deeper cause for these deplorable condi-
tions than merely acquired customs and habits, and we must look
for this in the irrational and impoverished diet of the majority of
people. It has been truly said that cooks make more drunkards
than brewers, wine makers, and distillers. The relation of diet
to intemperance is well worth our most careful and earnest con-
sideration. Temperance reformers should bear in mind that the
craving for alcoholic beverages, or other stimulants, goes hand in
hand with the increasing consumption of devitalized foods, spices,
condiments, table salt, and consequent overeating, which lowers
vitality and causes the retention of toxins. This abnormal con-
dition, intensified by the enervating struggle imposed on all civil-
ized nations by modern commercialism, lays the foundation for
habitual craving for stimulants and narcotics in one form or
another. The prohibitionists are prone to make alcohol the scape-
goat of all evils, but they will never achieve any permanent suc-
cess with their one-sided efforts without removing the real causes.
Since the passing of the Yolstead Act in the United States the drug-
stores do an increasing business in all kinds of preparations that﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
405
contain a “nerve tonic” in the form of alcoholic beverages. In the
manufacture of a well known patent medicine 250 barrels of
alcohol are used weekly, and most of the nostrums constantly ad-
vertised all over the country contain from 20 to 25 per cent of
alcohol, in addition to nerve deadening drugs.
True temperance reform must go hand in hand with diet reform.
A simple and frugal diet, combined with regular exercise in the
open air will gradually purify the system from waste poisons and,
to a large degree, lessen the craving for alcoholic beverages.
COFFEE
Coffee, next to alcohol, is one of the most universally used stim-
ulants. Since the seventeenth century, when the Dutch traders
brought coffee from Arabia, Upper Egypt and Abyssinia into the
East Indian colonies, then to western Europe, the use of coffee
has spread over the entire world. The consumption has increased
continuously, especially during the nineteenth century. The three
countries, England, France, and Germany, now consume about
500 million pounds annually.
The coffee plant (coffea arabica) is an evergreen tropical shrub.
The leaves bear at their axil the berry-shaped and elongated red
fruits, containing two seeds. These seeds or berries are separated
from the endocarp, and after they are washed and sun-dried,
form the green coffee beans of commerce. In this shape the ber-
ries are of a hard consistency, almost tasteless, but after being
roasted at a temperature of about 450° degrees F., essences develop
from the destruction of the soluble principles and dissolve in the
oily bodies which impregnate the caramelized cellulose and sac-
charine matter. The chemical analysis of unroasted coffee shows
an avei’age of 12 per cent water; 14 per cent nitrogenous matter;
14 per cent fat and oils; 33 per cent cellulose; 10 per cent sac-
charine matter and dextrin; 4 per cent mineral matter; traces of
fragrant oil, and 1 to 2 per cent of caffein, partly combined with
a special tannic acid. Caffein, which is the active alkaloid prin-
ciple of the berry, is not appreciably modified by roasting. It
temporarily increases the temperature of the internal organs, while
at the same time it reduces the temperature of the skin. In moderate
doses it stimulates the heart’s action, and causes a rise of the
arterial pressure by contraction of the little peripheral vessels.﻿406
RATIONAL DIET
In stronger doses it depresses the nervous system and cerebral
centers. In its stimulating effects caffein therefore resembles al-
cohol, and its abuse leads to serious troubles of the circulatory
system and muscular enervation.
It is not surprising that under the strain of the present com-
petitive system, the consumption of coffee and tea has rapidly in-
creased within the last ten years, and although these drinks are
not quite so injurious as alcoholic liquors, if taken only occasion-
ally and in moderate quantities, nevertheless they exert an in-
jurious influence upon the nervous system, due to the amount of
alkaloids present.
According to the American Food Journal, the per capita con-
sumption of coffee in the United States has steadily increased for
many years. The average consumption in 1921 was about 12%
pounds per capita against an average of slightly less than five
pounds per capita in the decade ending with 1870; 8% pounds
per capita in the period 1891-5; 9% pounds per capita in the
period of 1906-1913; and coffee consumption has averaged since
the beginning of the World War over 10 pounds per capita, advanc-
ing to 12% pounds in 1921. Approximately one-half of the coffee
produced in the world is consumed in the United States. In fact,
coffee has become our national beverage.
Taking into consideration the large number of infants and
children that drink little or no coffee, it seems reasonable to sup-
pose that the coffee consumption by adults is fully double the
amount named, or not less than 25 pounds per year. Now, assum-
ing that average coffee contains 1 per cent of caffein (some coffee
contains more) this would give to each coffee drinker an average
of 5 grains of caffein per day (more than two medicinal doses
such as surgeons give to patients suffering from shock, to raise
the blood pressure), certainly an adequate cause for the increase
in the number of persons suffering from high blood pressure, and
diseases of heart and arteries.
If the use of coffee continues to increase at the present ratio,
it will, in the not distant future, become as great a source of
injury to the American people as alcohol. Many drinks dis-
pensed at soda fountains contain a considerable amount of caf-
fein.﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
407
TEA
Tea, like coffee, is now used to a greater or lesser extent in
most countries. It is an infusion of the rolled and dried leaves of
the thea sinensis, a shrub that has been cultivated in China and
Japan for thousands of years. The stimulating principle of tea is
thein, an alkaloid, resembling caffein. The quality of the various
kinds of tea depends upon the time the leaves are picked and on
the treatment to which they are afterward subjected. Tea gathered
in the spring is considered the best. Green tea is made from the
first leaves of the year which are dried and slightly heated soon
after they are picked. Black tea is submitted to a slight fer-
mentation before being dried. Then it is re-heated several times
upon metal plates.
Green teas generally contain more thein than black teas, which
have about two per cent. According to Dr. Koenig the average
composition of tea is as follows in per cent of the total:
Water	9.51	Gum and Dextrin	6.45
Nitrogenous matter	34.50	Tannin	15.65
Thein	3.58	Pectins	16.02
Essential oil	0.68	Cellulose	11.58
Resines, chlorophyll and fats	6.39	Mineral matter	5.65
An infusion of tea made with boiling water, standing about five
minutes, contains about one-third of the soluble matters of the
leaves.
The consumption of tea in the United States is much less than
that of coffee, being a little more than one pound per capita
yearly. The consumption of the beverage is much larger in Eng-
land, where it amounts to about 6 pounds per capita. Tea is the
national beverage in all oriental countries.
A cup of tea of about 4 ounces does not contain more than
6 grains of soluble substances, and one-half grain of thein; also
traces of xanthin. Tea leaves contain a considerable amount of
tannin which is partly combined with thein. The organic salts
consist chiefly of phosphate of potash, lime, magnesia and man-
ganese.
While tea and coffee are not as injurious as alcoholic beverages,
their habitual use will affect the heart and blood vessels and
increase blood pressure. The danger of caffein and thein lies in﻿408
RATIONAL DIET
the fact that they destroy the sense of fatigue, without imparting
any vital energy, thus gradually leading to enervation.
KOLA
Kola is a stimulating beverage made from the seeds of the
kolanut, the product of a tropical tree (cola acuminata). The nut
itself is highly prized as a condiment by the natives of Africa, the
West Indies, and Brazil. The average composition of ten vari-
eties of kolanuts is as follows:
Water	13.50 per cent	Cellulose	7.00 per cent
Nitrogenous		Tannin	3.79 “ “
matter	1.53 “ “	Other non-nitrog-	
Caffein	2.08 “ “	enous matter	18.21 “ “
Fat	1.35 “ “	Mineral matter	2.90 “ “
Starch	45.40 “ 1		
The other alkaloid in kolanut besides caffein is kolanin. The
fresh, undried nuts contain very little kolanin, which is developed
by fermentation under the influence of an enzyme. A beverage is
made by adding a teaspoonful of the powdered nut to one-half
pint of water and boiling it for five minutes. Opinion is divided
as to whether the after effects of kolanin are as injurious as those
of many other narcotics.
The properties of the kola nut as an agent for the relief of
fatigue have been unduly exaggerated, mainly for commercial pur-
poses. For some time it was assumed that this nut contained a
peculiar property which increased endurance, but careful investi-
gation revealed the fact that its chief active principle is caffein,
and to this the temporary exhilarating effect of the drug must be
attributed. Shrewd and unscrupulous manufacturers at the pres-
ent time use mixtures of caffein and burnt sugar, instead of kola-
nuts, in the preparation of various drinks. As the alleged virtues
of both coca leaves and kolanuts have been exaggerated, it is but
natural that a number of preparations are manufactured with
misleading names which suggest the presence of both products.
Some of the widely advertised soft drinks generally contain, in
addition to caffein, the habit forming drug, cocaine. Many people
become addicted to the use of medicated soft drinks as others do
to alcoholic beverages. It is also quite probable that the extensive
use of the kola nut by the natives of tropical Africa is one of the﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
409
contributing causes of sleeping sickness, which is believed to be
caused by the bite of the tsetse fly.
MATÉ
Maté, or Paraguay tea, consists of the leaves of a species of
holly, the ilex paraguayensis, which grows in the forests of Para-
guay, southern Brazil, and in the Argentine Republic. Maté has
been used in South America for centuries, in the same way that
the Chinese prepare tea. The plant is now extensively cultivated
but the production is not yet equal to the increasing demand. The
consumption is eight million pounds yearly in its native countries;
the dried and powdered leaves smelling slightly of tan form the
basis of the decoction, which has an aromatic but somewhat bitter
and astringent taste.
The tonic and stimulating properties of maté are chiefly due to
thein, of which the leaves contain from 0.5 to 1.8 per cent. It is
imported in small quantities to the United States, and appears to
find favor with many people, since on account of its smaller amount
of thein, it is less stimulating than tea and coffee. The leaves are
very rich in alkaline elements.
COCOA AND CHOCOLATE
The cocoa tree (theobroma cacao) was cultivated, and its prod-
ucts highly esteemed in Mexico and Peru previous to the dis-
covery of the American Continent by Columbus, who brought the
first cacao (or cocoa) beans to Spain. Cacao was introduced in
England in the middle of the seventeenth century, from which
its use spread throughout continental Europe, together with coffee
and tea, but the higher price of cacao kept it a long time among
the luxuries of the wealthy.
The botanical name of the tree “theobroma” is derived from
the Greek and means “Food of the Gods” while the word “choc-
olate” is of Aztec origin, composed of choco (cocoa) and
latl (water), and refers particularly to the drink made from
the roasted and ground beans.
Cacao is now commercially grown throughout tropical America.
The tree is of low stature, reaching from 16 to 18 feet in height.
The leaves are large, smooth and glossy, of elliptic shape, growing
principally at the ends of branches, but sometimes springing﻿410
RATIONAL DIET
directly from the main trunk. The flowers are small and grow in
numerous clusters on the main branches and the trunk, a very
marked peculiarity which gives the matured fruit the appearance
of being artificially attached to the tree. When ripe the fruit or
“pod” is somewhat like a cucumber in shape, from 7 to 10 inches
in length, and from 3 to 4% inches in diameter. It has a hard,
thick, leathery rind of rich purplish yellow color, externally rough
and marked with ten very distinct longitudinal ribs or elevations.
The interior of the fruit has five segments, each containing a row of
from 5 to 10 seeds, which constitute the raw cacao or “cocoa
beans” of commerce. The pulp of the fruit has a sweetish, but
not unpleasant taste, and is frequently eaten in the countries in
which the tree grows.
When the fruit is gathered, the seed is removed from the pod
and subjected to from two to seven days’ fermentation in tins,
earthen vessels, or in heaps on the ground till the pulp is decom-
posed. After the process of fermentation, the beans are carefully
dried under uniform conditions of warmth and moisture. In the
manufacturing process the seeds are screened, roasted, and shelled,
the kernels being known as cacao nibs. The hulls are often used as
a cheap substitute for cacao. About sixty per cent of the fat is
removed and placed on the market in cakes known as cacao butter.
The residue of the cacao nibs is ground, boxed, and sold as solid
“cocoa” or is pressed into cakes after being sweetened, and is
known as chocolate.
The shelled cacao beans with their fat show the following com-
position, which varies according to the locality where they are
grown.
Water	4.5 to 8 per cent
Protein	11.0	“	15	“	“
Fats	40.0	“	51	“	“
Coloring matter and tannin 2.0	“	3	“	“
Starch	3.0	“	4	N	“
Crude fiber	5.0 “10 “	“
Theobromine	1.0	“	3	“	“
Mineral matter	3.0	“	4	“	“
The organic salts consist largely of phosphate of potash, phos-
phate of magnesia and sulphuric acid. Iron and lime are found
only in small quantities.
Cacao, after it has been partly deprived of its fat, contains﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
411
about six per cent water, 17 per cent protein, 12 per cent carbo-
hydrates, 1.3 per cent theobromine. It is frequently adulterated
Avith rice meal, oatmeal, flour, potato starch, roasted nuts, etc.
Chocolate is prepared by grinding finely 4 to 5 parts of sugar
with six parts of cacao, with a little vanilla extract. The stimu-
lating action of cocoa and chocolate is due to the alkaloid theo-
bromine, but its effect is not so pronounced as in tea and coffee.
Although the products of cacao have considerable food value
they should be used but sparingly, as they are highly acid forming.
Chocolate in its various forms, containing as it does over fifty per
cent cane sugar and about 25 per cent fat, is a highly concentrated
food, but deficient in vitamins and alkaline salts.
The world’s annual production of cacao is about 500 million
pounds, of which 25 per cent are consumed in the United States.
A large part is used in the manufacture of chocolate candies,
which have become quite a favorite with the American people,
who eat them in excessive quantities. While the occasional use
of these products may not do much harm, there is danger that they
will create a morbid craving for artificial sweets, and over-indul-
gence will soon produce acidity of the blood, followed by severe
catarrhal conditions, adenoids and functional diseases.
OPIUM
Opium is one of the strongest narcotics known. It is prepared
from the dried juice of the opium poppy (papaver somniferum).
It is chiefly grown in southeastern Europe, western Asia, and
India. Its activity is principally due to the vegetable alkaloid
morphia, or morphine, of which good opium contains on an aver-
age about 10 per cent. Morphine was the first of the alkaloids
discovered by modern chemistry at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, although opium has been used as a drug since the begin-
ning of the Christian era. In the middle ages the various kinds
of opium prepared in Persia were known as “theriaka.” It was
introduced into China probably by the Arabs in the fourteenth
century, and was at first used as a remedy for dysentery, diar-
rhoea, and fevers, and was usually brought from India by the
Chinese as return cargo. Through its use for medicinal purposes,
opium eating and smoking soon became a firmly established habit
throughout the Orient. In that respect it resembles alcohol, a crav-﻿412
RATIONAL DIET
ing for which is often established by first using it when disguised
as a medicinal preparation.
Opium if taken in very small doses of less than a grain, pro-
duces an agreeable sensation stimulating the imagination by blunt-
ing reason and memory, followed by a desire to sleep. The awak-
ing is accompanied by a feeling of depression and dryness of the
mouth and throat. In large doses, as from two to four grains,
the stage of excitement is followed by mental and physical depres-
sion and irresistible sleepiness, nausea and headache. Opium is
frequently administered hypodermically with the same effect.
Opium eating is chiefly practiced in Asia Minor, Persia, and
India, and this method of taking the drug is generally considered
much more deleterious than opium smoking, which is a firmly es-
tablished habit in China, the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and
in the countries where Chinese labor is largely employed. Since
the East India Company began to monopolize the opium trade in
eastern Asia in 1757, the imports into China have enormously in-
creased in spite of the continuous protest of the Chinese govern-
ment.
In 1839 a proclamation was issued threatening hostile measures
if the English opium ships serving as depots were not sent away,
but the British continued to smuggle cargoes on shore. Outrages
committed on both sides led to the so-called opium war which was
ended by the treaty of Nanking in 1842. But so firmly had the
opium smoking habit taken hold of the Chinese, that in spite of all
further remonstrance of the Chinese government, the exporta-
tion of opium from India to China has continued, and in 1880
reached the enormous amount of thirteen million pounds! In 1858
it was estimated that about two million Chinese smoked opium, and
m 1878 from one-fourth to three-tenths of the entire population
of 400 millions used it. An especially prepared extract of opium
is used for smoking.
Realizing the seriousness of these conditions, in 1907 an agree-
ment was made between Great Britain and China by which the In-
dian government was to reduce annually the exportation of opium
into China, and the poppy raising industry in India was to be
correspondingly curtailed. This agreement, renewed in 1911, an-
ticipated the extinction of the opium trade by 1917. While this
agreement has not been strictly adhered to, partly because of﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
413
the laxity of the Chinese government, nevertheless, there has been a
decrease in the trade and in the opium habit.
The opium trade is characteristic of modern commercialism, in
that it endeavors to force its wares upon people for the mere sake
of private gain, irrespective of the injurious influences upon public
health. In every way opium smoking may be regarded in the
same light as the use of alcoholic stimulants. The use of the drug
is opposed by all thinking Chinese who are not pecuniarily inter-
ested in the opium trade. Among the reasons urged by the Chi-
nese against the consumption of opium are, that it drains money
from the country by spreading the drug habit; causes sterility;
increases the possibility of famine through cultivation of the poppy
where cereals and fruits should be grown, and leads to the corrup-
tion of state officials.
Twenty different kinds of opiates are derived from opium, of
which the most frequently used are morphine and heroin. Mor-
phine, which constitutes about one-tenth of crude opium, seldom
appears outside of chemical laboratories, unless it is combined with
some other drug. Heroin, a compound made artificially from mor-
phine, is the most poisonous opiate known. Four-fifths of 2,300
patients treated at the Riverside Hospital, New York, were ad-
dicted to heroin.
There are nine thousand tons of opium produced every year,
and only three and a half tons are needed for legitimate use! What
becomes of 8,996% tons that are not legitimately accounted for?
Three-fourths of the deadly stuff that spells ruin, degradation to
mind and soul and body, comes to the United States of America.
The narcotic drug traffic has almost trebled in America in the
past two years. In fact we now use seventeen times more per
capita than the Chinese, who have always been considered the
most drug-cursed nation of the world.
Austria uses one-half grain of opium, yearly, for each man,
woman and child; Italy 1 grain; Germany and Portugal, 2 grains;
France, 3 grains; Holland, 3% grains, and the United States, 36
grains per capita per year! The probability is, however, that
there are more than 1,000,000 victims in the United States who use
from 2% to 3 grains daily. The habit does not remain static in the
individual, but increases with appalling swiftness. It takes but
thirty days, at the most, to make a full-fledged addict, and even﻿414
RATIONAL DIET
the first dose is frequently habit-forming. As long as foreign
nations permit and encourage the growing of the poppy and the
manufacture of patent medicines- containing opium is going on,
America’s drug habit will seize more victims every year.
COCA AND COCAINE
Coca is made from the leaves of the coca shrub (erythroxylum
coca) which is extensively cultivated in Peru and Bolivia. The
natives chew the leaves which they claim appease hunger and
fatigue. For this purpose the leaves of commerce are by no
means as active as freshly dried leaves, though it appears that they
have been extensively exploited for commercial purposes. Its
stimulating effects are largely due to its alkaloid, cocaine, whose
properties resemble those of opium. It is one of the most insidious
and dangerous habit forming drugs known at present. Within re-
cent years it has been employed as an anaesthetic in major surgical
operations. If injected into the spinal canal, cocaine has the re-
markable effect of producing complete insensibility to pain in the
entire portion of the body below the point where it is injected, but
has no effect whatever above that point. Like opium, cocaine is used
in the manufacture of patent medicines, especially catarrhal reme-
dies. Cocaine is frequently obtained by drug addicts under false
pretenses, and the amount annually consumed at present in the
leading civilized countries is estimated approximately at 1,500 tons.
Only about 7 per cent of this amount is used in dental and
other legitimate practice. What becomes of the other 93 per cent?
Not only are the drug-traffickers enriched by smuggled dope,
but by an astounding proportion of that imported through regular
illegitimate media. Last year’s importations of narcotics amounted
to 292,971,000 grains.
“Of this amount,’’ says Colonel L. G. Nutt, chief of the nar-
cotic section, Bureau of Internal Revenue, “we estimate from 65
to 80 per cent found its way into illicit channels! ’ ’ Estimating the
amount of «muggled dope at approximately the amount brought
in openly, or from 275,000,000 to 300,000,000 grains, a total of at
least half a billion grains handled through illicit channels is de-
clared reasonable.
“Here is what this means in the way of profits to the dope
sellers. Morphine, at wholesale from the manufacturer, brings﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
415
from a cent to a cent and three-quarters a grain,” says Colonel
Nutt. “Our men are buying it from dope peddlers at from 5
cents to as high as $5.00 a grain. The average price to the dope
user, we find, is about $1 a grain. In many cities, however, it
brings $2.00 or more. I would place the average at least at $1.00
a grain, wThich means a ‘dope’ bill to users in this country of at
least $500,000,000 a year.”
HEMP
Hemp (canabis sativa) is grown for three products: the fibre
of its stem, its oily seeds, the resinous secretion which in hot coun-
tries is developed upon its leaves and flowering heads. It is this
last named product that closely resembles opium in its action upon
the nervous system. The intoxicating properties of hemp have
been recognized in Oriental countries from a very early period,
and during the Middle Ages a knowledge of its use spread through
India, Persia and Arabia, where it is known as “hashish.” It is
smoked with or without tobacco; it is also made into sweetmeats,
combined with honey, sugar and aromatic spices; or it is powdered
and infused in cold water, yielding a turbid drink. Generally the
first effect of a small dose is stimulating; larger doses produce
hallucinations, delirium, sleep, and sometimes catalepsy. During
the dreamy state, induced by an average dose of hashish, the
patient becomes obsessed with rapidly shifting ideas. Errors of
perception as to time and place are a conspicuous characteristic
of its effects on the mind. Assassination is historical in connection
with hashish, as during the rule of the Ismaelites in the eleventh
century, certain selected young men were made intoxicated by
hemp, in order to force a condition whereby they were liable to
commit any suggested cruelty or murder.
Hemp is still very largely used in Eastern countries as an
intoxicant and narcotic, probably by nearly 300 millions of the
human race, who are thereby kept practically in a state of slavery
by their European rulers.
TOBACCO
Tobacco has been used as a sedative or narcotic over a larger
area and among a greater number of people than any similar sub-
stance—opium ranking second, and hemp third.
Tobacco was used by the inhabitants of the West Indies long﻿416
RATIONAL DIET
before Columbus discovered the Western Continent. It belongs to
the family of deadly nightshade, and is now cultivated for its
leaves, which, when cured, are used for smoking, chewing, and as
snuff. Its generic name, nicotiana tdbacum, was given in honor
of Jean Nicot, who introduced tobacco into France from Spain in
the middle of the sixteenth century. From France it was taken
to England by Sir Francis Drake. Its use rapidly extended
throughout Europe and soon became extensively prevalent among
Oriental nations.
On the North American Continent the cultivation of tobacco
began shortly after the landing of the first immigrants. The first
plantings were made in Virginia in 1615, and rapidly extended
into Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, and later, Kentucky, where
tobacco has constituted one of the leading crops ever since. Wis-
consin, Ohio, Connecticut, Tennessee and Florida and other
Southern States also produce their share of tobacco now. Alto-
gether the United States of America produces more tobacco than
any other country—about 35 per cent of the world’s crop, one-
third of which is exported to European countries. About 1,600,000
acres are now devoted to tobacco culture in the United States,
which produces about one billion pounds, valued at one hun-
dred million dollars. In addition to being the largest producer
of tobacco, the United States is also the greatest exporter, importer
and consumer of tobacco. India is the second largest producer,
consuming most of its product; Russia is the third. Brazil leads
among the South American countries. Tobacco is also an im-
portant crop throughout central and southern Europe, Mexico,
Japan and the East and West Indies.
The most characteristic constituent of tobacco is nicotine, a
poisonous alkaloid, which is split up during the process of smok-
ing into pyridine and collodine.
Like alcohol, opium, coffee, tea, etc., tobacco must be ranked
as a nervous stimulant which seriously interferes with the oxidation
and formation of the living tissues, and is especially injurious to
the young, leading to impairment of growth, mental precocity, and
ultimately resulting in early physical and mental decline. It
affects the ganglionic cells, between the center of the sympathetic
nervous system and the heart, thereby inducing depression and
acceleration of the heart’s action, and constriction or dilation of﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
417
the blood vessels. The inveterate smoker is often afflicted with
what is known as a “tobacco heart.” Naturally, there are people
who have used tobacco more or less generously and at the same
time have attained a ripe old age, but in those instances it will be
found that they have inherited a large amount of vitality, and
were for the most part abstemious eaters, and seldom indulged
in excesses of other kinds. This, however, constitutes no valid
justification for the unrestricted use of tobacco. Besides we should
take into consideration the fact that several billions of dollars are
annually spent throughout the world for tobacco in its various
forms. Whatever may be said in its defense, its most ardent
advocates seldom, if ever, attribute constructive properties to the
narcotic. Of course a certain amount of temporary pleasure can
be obtained by the absorption of many substances which are
antagonistic to the principles of life, and this pleasurable feeling
lasts just as long as our constitution remains in a strong enough
condition to resist them, whether they are derived from alcohol,
opium or tobacco. As a matter of fact, these temporary, agree-
able sensations are really the reaction of the vital organs, the sud-
den quickening of organic functions, to call upon reserve forces,
and this undue stimulation is always followed by a period of
mental and physical lassitude.
It is but rational to preserve our vital forces as much as pos-
sible, and not dissipate them by indulging in injurious luxuries,
although there are many who claim that the use of tobacco has
become a comfort and a necessity.
It may be surprising to many to know that the consumption
of cigarettes has increased from 25 billions in 1916, to 50 billions
in 1921, an increase of 100 per cent in 5 years.
The cultivation of tobacco should not be encouraged from
another point of view. It exhausts the soil by depleting it of valu-
able mineral elements. Many fertile fields have been ruined
by tobacco culture. Every four pounds of perfectly dry tobacco
leaves contain one pound of mineral matter which we can easily
notice in the amount of ashes of burnt cigars and cigarettes. All
these substances have been derived from the soil in which the plant
has grown and which could have been far better utilized by the
cultivation of fruits and vegetables.﻿418
RATIONAL DIET
PEPPER AND CLOVES
Pepper (piper negrum) comprises a family of climbing shrubs
which are indigenous to the East Indies, but are now cultivated in
most tropical countries. Their fruit, especially the black pepper,
is the most common and largely used of all spices. Pepper was
known to the ancients, and Hippocrates used it as a medicine.
During the Middle Ages pepper was one of the most costly spices,
used only by the rich. Pepper depends for its properties chiefly
on an acrid resin and acrid volatile oil; it also contains a poison-
ous alkaloid, piperidin, and a crystalline substance, piperin. Pep-
per irritates the digestive and urinary tracts. The Hungarian Red
Pepper or paprika and the Cayenne Pepper are made from the
ground pods of various species of the capsicum plant. The cayenne
of commerce is derived from tropical spices, its peculiar pungent
taste is due to the presence of a large amount of alkaloid known as
capsicin, which makes it even more injurious than the black
pepper.
Another well-known spice frequently used is cloves, really the
dried undeveloped flowers of the evergreen clove tree, which is
cultivated in Brazil, Ceylon, India, the West Indies and other
tropical countries. When the green buds begin to turn red, they
are gathered in the sun. The strong, pungent odor is due to an
essential oil, of which 10 to 20 per cent is present. The astringent
taste is caused by a large amount of tannin.
CINNAMON AND CASSIA
Cinnamon is the bark of the cinnamon tree (cinnamomum
zeylcmicum), which is cultivated in the islands of Ceylon, Sumatra,
and Java, as wrell as in some parts of tropical Asia. The thin,
inner bark of the tree is used commercially in long cylindrical rolls
of a light brown color.
Cassia, which is often mixed with powdered cinnamon, is the
bark of a tree (cinnamomum cassia) which grows in tropical China
and India. As the outer bark is usually left on, this product is
thicker and darker than the Ceylon cinnamon.
The sweet flavor of cinnamon is due to the presence of from 1
to 2 per cent of volatile oil, while the bitter after-taste is caused
by a small amount of tannin contained in the bark.﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
419
NUTMEG AND MACE
Nutmeg and mace are products of the nutmeg tree (myristica
fragrans), which is a native of the East India Islands, but is also
cultivated in India and Central America. The nutmeg of commerce
is the kernel of the fruit of the tree. The kernel, which is sur-
rounded with a thick covering, is dried in the sun or by artificial
heat. In the drying process the outer covering separates and is
then ground up into powder. Nutmeg contains about 4 to 12 per
cent water, 55 per cent protein, 30 to 40 per cent starch, 30 to 37
per cent fat, 7 to 10 per cent crude fiber, 2.5 to 4 per cent of a
volatile oil, and 2 to 3 per cent of mineral water.
Mace is made from the second coat or aril covering the nutmeg,
which it resembles in quality.
ALLSPICE AND MUSTARD
Allspice or pimento, as distinguished from pimiento, is the dried
fruit of an evergreen tree (pimenta officinalis) which grows in the
West Indies, but is also cultivated in the East Indies. The berries
have a fragrant odor, supposed to resemble a mixture of cloves,
cinnamon and nutmegs, hence the name “allspice.” Its principal
constituents are protein, starch, tannin, crude fiber, mineral matter,
and a volatile oil, which produces its characteristic flavor.
Mustard (sinapis arvensis) is the seed of the mustard plant,
which is cultivated extensively throughout the United States and
Europe. There are two varieties known as yellow and brown
mustard, which are ground into flour after a considerable amount
of the fixed oil has been removed, while a volatile pungent oil,
giving this spice its peculiar properties, remains. The mineral
matter of the flour consists largely of phosphate of potash and
magnesia, lime, and sulphur.
SALT
Table salt (or chloride of sodium), as it is found in nature,
either in solid form or as a constituent of sea water, is an inorganic
compound containing about 60 per cent chlorine and 40 per cent
sodium. It is gained from sea water by solar evaporation, or ex-
tracted from the many salt deposits throughout the world. Its
consumption is continually increasing, and in the United States
about 90 pounds per capita is used annually, or about 4 ounces﻿420
RATIONAL DIET
per day for every man, woman and child. Salt is used extensively
in the meat packing business, the manufacture of dairy products,
in bread making, and in the preparation of nearly all cooked
dishes.
There is no doubt that salt has been used by man for thousands
of years, wherever it was obtainable, but the antiquity of a custom
—as previously stated—does not justify it by any means. The salt
eating habit was very likely acquired when man began to cook his
food, and then tried to restore its palatability. Nature provides
man in the natural raw foods with all the mineral elements in a
highly organized form, in which they are readily assimilated. Table
salt is an inorganic substance and cannot be utilized by the body in
the formation of blood or tissues, but is discharged again in the
same form, as salt, after having irritated the mucous membranes of
the digestive canal. The widespread opinion that salt is necessary
as an aid for digestion and the preservation of health, cannot stand
in the light of thorough scientific investigation. Experiments
have shown that table salt interferes with the absorption of the
chyme by the mucous membranes of the stomach and intestines;
that it is a strong diuretic, detracting from blood and lymph the
necessary water for its excretion through the kidneys; that it
unduly increases the solubility of protein, thus excreting in the
urine a considerable amount of tissue building material, a patholog-
ical condition known as “albuminuria.” The continued use of
much salt will cause a severe affliction of the kidneys—nephritis.
Salt likewise causes inflammatory swellings of the glands; scrofu-
lous conditions are generally observed with salt-eating children;
skin diseases (eczema), scurvy, are also common with those who
constantly use salt. Smoked meats, dried fish, butter and cheese
are especially heavily salted, and the increasing consumption of
alcoholic beverages may be largely attributed to this fact.
So depraved has the appetite of many people become that they
use salt on almost everything they eat. While very small quantities
of salt may not to any appreciable extent be harmful, there are
many people who use no salt at all and are much healthier for
having discarded it.
Commercialism has evidently a great deal to do with the in-
creasing consumption of salt, as it has been brought within the﻿STIMULANTS AND NARCOTICS
421
immediate reach of every one. It is found on every table, where
it is a constant temptation for many to use it excessively.
It is often pointed out that animals increase in weight if salt
is mixed with their feed. This, however, is due to an undue
stimulation of the appetite, which leads the animals to overeat.
The so-called salt-licks are often mentioned as an argument in
favor of the use of salt. Close observers found, however, that
herbivorous animals crave for salt only as a temporary physic, after
they have been deprived of their natural food during the long
winter months. As soon as they have a plentiful supply of green
foods they will abandon the licks. Likewise man, after adopting
a simple and natural diet, will gradually lose his unnatural
craving for salt.
VINEGAR
Vinegar is a liquid containing acetic acid in various degrees,
usually from 2 to 5 per cent. It is the result of acetic fermenta-
tion of alcoholic liquids, such as fermented malt liquors or fruit
juices, preferably cider. During the process of fermentation,
which is caused by bacteria and is accelerated at temperatures from
65° P. to 75° F., 100 parts of alcohol are converted into 120 parts
of acetic acid, which is chemically oxidized alcohol. Although vin-
egar is one of the oldest and most common condiments and house-
hold preservatives, it is, like alcoholic beverages, positively injuri-
ous to the digestive organs. It reduces the number of the red
blood corpuscles and retards digestion and assimilation. Besides
vinegar is apt to be adulterated with sulphuric and sulphurous
acids.
Condiments, such as salt, pepper and vinegar, are doing a great
deal of harm in the preparation of foods, causing indigestion, and
spoiling the taste for the delicate flavor of natural foods. The
natural fruit acids of the lemon and lime should always take the
place of vinegar, for these acids benefit health and vitality.﻿CHAPTER XI
Adultération of Food and Drink
It should be the highest aim of the farmer and manufacturer to
furnish to the consumer the best and most wholesome foods which
experience and skill can produce. Our present system of commer-
cialism, however, has developed the tendency to put the quick and
unscrupulous acquisition of wealth before public health, giving the
latter problem only secondary consideration or disregarding it
entirely.
There are many staple foods on the market, which, according
to prevailing standards are quite legitimate, such as white flour,
corn syrup, candies, crackers, various canned and preserved foods,
sulphured fruits, highly seasoned foods, and many other widely
advertised products which cannot be recommended from a hygienic
standpoint. Most of these foods are deficient in organic salts and
vitamins, while substances have been added which are more or less
detrimental to health. The only protection left to people against
the constantly increasing varieties of manufactured foods is to
inform themselves about the real nutritive and hygienic value of
what they eat and drink, and to disregard the exaggerated claims
made by imposing advertisements in magazines and newspapers.
The American people, metaphorically, have been educated “to eat
with their eyes.” Products that have been bleached until they have
lost all traces of their original color, or that have been colored with
brilliant dyes, are generally given the preference, irrespective of
their inferior nutritive value. To educate the people to a better
understanding of true food values should be the aim of all public
and domestic science schools, colleges and universities, but most of
the text books used in these institutions merely confirm belief
in the harmful methods applied at present to the manufacture
and preparation of foods.
Adulteration of foods and drinks, as generally understood, in-
cludes a number of injurious and deceptive practiced. According to
existing laws, food is regarded as adulterated if anything has
been mixed with it to reduce its quality or strength, if anything
422﻿ADULTERATION OF FOODS
423
inferior or cheaper has been substituted wholly or in part; if it
consists wholly or in part of a diseased, decomposed, or putrid
animal or vegetable substance; if by coloring, coating, or other-
wise, it is made to appear of greater value than it really is; if it
contains any added poisonous ingredients, which include coloring
matter, dyes, chemical preservatives and mineral substances. Mis-
branding, or mislabeling, also constitutes an adulteration.
All these practices are dealt with in the Federal Pure Food Law,
enacted by the Congress of the United States, June 30, 1906, and
amended August 23, 1912, and March 3, 1913.
Adulterations usually consist of the addition of cheaper, though
harmless ingredients, added for commercial profit, rather than of
actually poisonous or injurious substances, though occasional in-
stances of the latter have been found.
Before the passing of the Pure Food Law, the use of chemical
preservatives was quite extensive, because it was cheaper to use
them than to preserve foods by pasteurization and sterilization, or
by refrigeration. In the process of pasteurization, the liquid is sub-
jected to a temperature of about 160 degrees F. for 20 minutes in
order to destroy the bacteria of fermentation. Sterilization is em-
ployed chiefly in the preservation of canned foods, after the cans
have been hermetically sealed. The temperature reaches the boiling
point of water, or more, if the cans are sterilized in an air tight
cabinet under pressure. This method, however, detracts consider-
ably from the nutritive quality and digestibility of the food, as it
coagulates the protein and disorganizes the mineral elements.
Refrigeration, or cold storage, is now the most widely used
method of food preservation. The temperature is held constantly
below 40 degrees F. to prevent fermentation or putrefaction.
The most commonly used preservatives are sodium chloride, or
table salt, saltpetre, nitric acid, boron compounds (borax and boric
acid) formaldehyde, sulphurous acid and sulphites, salicylic and
benzoic acids, fluorine compounds, alum, copper-sulphate, sulphate
of lime, formic acid, saccharine, etc. Under the present laws the
use of some of these preservatives in small quantities is permitted,
provided the amount added is plainly indicated on the package.
The users of chemical preservatives have employed well known
experts to testify in favor of these products, in order to belittle
their injurious effects. The argument generally made that small﻿424
RATIONAL DIET
quantities of an injurious substance are not harmful, is wholly un-
tenable. It may be conceded that these minute quantities would not
be dangerous in so far as producing any immediate fatality is
concerned, but after continued use, they will certainly prove in-
jurious. As in the case of other poisons, because the injurious
effects of single doses or small quantities are not traceable at
once, affords no proof that the habitual use of preservatives is harm-
less. It is the constantly falling drop of water that finally disinte-
grates the rock.
It is evident that any substance which prevents chemical action
outside of the body, must naturally interfere also with the work
of the digestive juices in preparing food for assimilation. The U. S.
Department of Agriculture made a number of experiments to de-
termine the physiological action of some of the most widely used
preservatives. The work covered the effect of salicylic and boric
acids, saccharine and sulphate of lime upon the salivary digestion
of starch. The action of these substances was studied by leaving the
starch and saliva in contact wfith them for different lengths of
time, the periods being 1, 5, 15, 30 and 60 minutes.
The conclusion drawn from the results of the experiments are
as follows:
When the preservatives are present in the proportion of 1 part
to 210 parts of food, the entire action of the saliva is, without ex-
ception, suspended for five minutes. At fifteen and thirty minutes
borax still impedes the action; even at sixty minutes the digestive
action is still checked slightly by borax. At the end of sixty min-
utes in the experiments with salicylic acid and saccharine, not a
trace of sugar could be found. These results show that salicylic
acid is the most injurious of this groiip of preservatives. Saccharine
comes next, followed by borax and sulphate of lime.
Sodium chloride, or common salt, is one of the oldest preserva-
tives. Before the introduction of borax and boric acid it was
used in much larger quantities for this purpose than at present.
Butter often contained from 6 to 8 per cent of salt, while now from
2 to 3 per cent is used. The effect of salt on the human system
has been described in the preceding chapter.
Saltpetre (potassium nitrate) is largely used in salting meats.
It is apt to produce nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea, and, when
used in large doses tends to inflame the urinary passages, and to﻿ADULTERATION OF FOODS
425
irritate the epithelium of the mucous membranes. Like common
salt, saltpetre has been largely displaced by borax as a preservative.
Boron, in the form of borax and boric acid, or a mixture of the
two is probably now the most commonly used preservative, es-
pecially in the preservation of meat, fish, fats, and to some extent,
of fruit juices and condensed milk. All boric compounds have the
property of paralyzing fermentative action and thus securing im-
munity from decay. Borax has a stronger action than boric acid.
Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, former chief of the Bureau of Chemistry,
U. S. Department of Agriculture, who made some elaborate and ex-
tensive series of experiments with boron compounds, came to the
conclusion that both boric acid and borax, when continuously
administered in small doses for a long period, or when given in
larger quantities for a short period, create disturbance of appetite,
of digestion^
The Prussian Scientific Deputation on Medical Conditions, in a
written opinion, on the request of the President of the Berlin Police
Service, also decided against the use of boron preparations for the
preservation of foods, because it was found that these substances,
even when taken in small quantities, are injurious to the human
body. By the addition of these preservatives, the public is deceived
as to the inferior quality of adulterated foods. Decayed and wholly
unedible flesh products, for instance, take on a fresh appearance
as a result of the addition of borax compounds.
Salicylic Acid is a white, crystalline, strongly acid powder made
synthetically by treating carbolic acid with sodium hydroxide and
carbon dioxide; it is also procured by treating wintergreen oil with
strong potash lye. Salicylic acid is slightly soluble in cold water
(1 part in 450) and much more so in hot water. It is readily
soluble in ether, alcohol, and chloroform. It is also frequently
found in very diminutive amounts in grapes, strawberries, and
other fruits.
Salicylic acid prevents fermentation of fruit juices, if added in
the strength of one per mille. It is a powerful drug which acts as
an irritant in its passage through the kidneys, producing albumi-
nuria and even haematuria; it also exerts a depressing effect on the
heart. Its use in food products has been prohibited in France and
Germany.
Dr. Wiley’s investigations also show that the use of salicylic﻿426
RATIONAL DIET
acid and sylicates is injurious to the digestive processes and though
not always immediately apparent, must finally produce serious
effects upon health.
Benzoic Acid, which resembles salicylic acid in chemical compo-
sition, is produced by the oxidation of a large number of organic
substances, particularly resin, which exudes from the bark of
trees growing in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Siam. It is odor-
less when cold; and is soluble in 200 parts of cold and 25 parts of
boiling water, and readily dissolves in alcohol.
Sodium Benzoate is the salt most largely used in commercial
preservatives, being much more soluble than benzoic acid, into
which, however, it is converted when added to acid fruit prepara-
tions. Benzoate is a white amorphous substance, having a sweetish,
astringent taste, and is soluble in 1.8 parts of cold water, and in 45
parts of alcohol. It is largely used as a preservative of catsups,
fruit products, soft drinks, wines, fish, butter, and sometimes in
milk. Its use is permitted under the federal law, provided the
presence and amount are declared on the label. But since many
people are not acquainted with chemical terms, the notice does not
materially affect the sale of the product.
Dr. Harvey Wiley found, after a careful study of many indi-
vidual cases, that the administration of benzoic acid and benzoate
of soda was attended with a distinct loss of weight, indicative of
either a disturbance of assimilation or an increased activity in those
processes of the body which result in destruction of tissue. While
the administering of both these preservatives, therefore, is undoubt-
edly harmful, the injurious effects are produced more rapidly with
benzoic acid than they are with benzoate of soda. The final results,
however, show that the total harmful effect is practically the same
in both cases. There is no reason for assuming that the administra-
tion of the preservative in the form of benzoate of soda can have
any other than a deleterious effect upon the body. In the interests
of health, both benzoic acid and benzoate of soda should be excluded
from food products.
Fluorine Compounds possess marked preservative properties.
They are used to a small extent in the preservation of dairy prod-
ucts and beer. Experiments have proven that fluorides, even in
small quantities, have injurious action upon protoplasm. They re-
duce the force and frequency of pulsation and depress the temper-﻿ADULTEKATION OF FOODS
427
ature of the body. They also decrease the number of red blood
corpuscles.
Alum is not generally considered to be antiseptic, but it is a
constituent of certain preservatives sold for curing meats. It is
also used to harden vegetables for pickling, and in baking powders
to improve the appearance of bread. Although it may not do im-
mediate harm in minute quantities, it is dangerous, and its use
in foodstuffs should be entirely discontinued. In Germany, the use
of alum in the manufacturing of food products has been strictly for-
bidden for many years.
Copper Sulphate and salts of copper, are used more for coloring
purposes than for preserving. The copper forms with certain pro-
teids a compound possessing a dark green color, which adds to the
appearance of preserved peas, string beans, and other vegetables.
The copper salts also harden the exterior covering of peas, so that
when preserved in bottles or tins, the vegetable remains intact and
the surrounding fluid clear. The skin of peas not treated with cop-
per easily breaks apart, and the fluid becomes turbid although the
peas remain in good condition.
Sulphate of copper has been used in the United States for the
destruction of algae in water reservoirs, and according to experi-
ments the sulphate in dilutions of 1 in 10,000,000 to 1 in 50,000,000
was sufficient to kill the algae. Copper sulphate added to water in
this manner seems to disappear on standing, apparently it is pre-
cipitated as a carbonate, or as an organic compound which settles
on sedimentation. In any case, the quantity used for the prevention
of vegetable growth in water is exceedingly small as compared with
the amount contained in peas and other vegetables treated with
copper. As water, however, is used in large quantities every day,
the question whether traces of copper contained therein are likely to
endanger health is an important one.
Experiments with men and animals have shown that an amount
of copper sulphate of more than 2 grains per day, taken by an
adult man, is decidedly injurious to health, and where the above
quantity is exceeded, symptoms of poisoning appear. In some of
the European states, the use of copper salts is prohibited, while
in the United States they are permitted, provided the amount is
given on the label.﻿428
RATIONAL DIET
Formic Acid is a colorless liquid at temperatures above 50 de-
grees F. It boils at 214 degrees F., has a pungent odor and strong
caustic action when applied to the skin, causing pain and ulcera-
tion. It occurs naturally in the bodie$ of ants and bees and in
small quantities in various vegetable and animal substances. It is
closely allied to acetic acid, but seems to be more powerful as a
preservative. A water solution containing less than one per mille
will entirely prevent the growth of yeasts and bacteria. A 60 per
cent solution of formic acid is generally sold for preserving pur-
poses, but its use is objectionable, as even small doses continuously
used will produce irritation of the stomach.
Saccharine is a white powder, composed of irregular crystals
whose melting point is above 440 degrees F. It is soluble in 230
parts of cold water and 30 parts of alcohol. Its aqueous solution is
distinctly acid in reaction. Its antiseptic properties are about
equal to those of boric acid. The use of saccharine in foods is not
allowed under the federal law, as it has been found that quantities
over 0.3 grain or one grain per day used for a considerable time
were apt to produce digestive disturbances. While the use of
saccharine in foods is allowed in certain disease, like diabetes, there
is absolutely no reason to give such preparations to patients, as they
work irreparable injury. A faulty metabolism will not be corrected
by simply withholding the natural sugars and giving artificial
sweets instead, as only a sufficient supply of alkaline elements in
foods will aid in restoring the natural function of the digestive
organs.
Saccharine, besides being a preservative, belongs to the intensely
sweet coal-tar derivatives that in themselves possess no food value
whatsoever. This high sweetening power, in some cases several
hundred times that of cane sugar, makes it possible for minute
quantities of the substance to impart an appropriate degree of
sweetness to food products. Commercial glucose, which is con-
siderably less sweet than eane sugar, is often used instead of the
latter in the preparations of jellies, jams, preserves, etc., to which
a very small quantity of saccharine is added to increase the
sweetness of the product that would otherwise have a bland taste.
Canned vegetables, such as sweet corn and peas are occasionally
treated with saccharine, especially if their sweet, fresh taste was
partly lost before canning. The addition of one part of saccharine﻿ADULTERATION OF FOODS
429
to 1,000 parts of commercial glucose makes the latter as sweet as
cane sugar.
Formaldehyde, which in its pure state is a gas, is usually sold
under the name of “formalin,” which consists of a 40 per cent
solution in water or dilute alcohol. For the preservation of milk
it is frequently used in a wreaker solution, about one per cent. If
exposed to the air, it readily undergoes oxidation into formiBacid.
Some of its properties are its powrer to harden protein, and its
retarding action on the various digestive ferments. Even when
highly diluted, formalin has a more deleterious effect in the diges-
tive processes than boron compounds. Formalin is now used by
undertakers for embalming purposes.
Sulphurous Acid is chiefly employed as fumes of burning
sulphur, applied either to the food products themselves in the
course of manufacture or to the containers in which the food
products are held. When sulphurous acid is used as a preservative
for food products, it is usually employed in the form of bisulphite
of lime, or some similar preparation.
Despite all the efforts of Dr. Ilarvey W. Wiley to have the poison
prohibited, the advocates of food preservatives have been partially
successful, having secured permission to use sulphurous acid, upon
the condition that they print a notice to that effect on the labels
of products containing it. As a rule very small type is used, so
that the printed notice escapes the eye of the consumer, who, in
most instances, is ill informed about the real effect of preservatives.
Dr. Wiley, with the collaboration of W. D. Bigelow, F. C. Weber,
and others, has made very extensive and painstaking investigations
to determine the effects of sulphurous acid and sulphites on di-
gestion and health. The findings have been published in Bulletin
No. 84, Part 111, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of
Chemistry, from which the following data, in part, are taken:
In the technical use of sulphurous acid in the manufacture
of food products, only the fumes of burning sulphur are employed.
Fruits, pared or unpared, are subjected, after the removal of the
pit or core, to sulphur fumes in what is known as a “sulphur box”;
similarly in the manufacture of syrups and molasses it is not un-
usual to expose the freshly made juice of the sugar-cane to the
fumes of burning sulphur. The “sulphur box” used in this case
is so constructed that the juice falling over shelves by gravity﻿430
RATIONAL DIET
absorbs the fumes of the burning sulphur rising from the box, which
serves as a chimney. The sulphur dioxide becomes incorporate with
the components of the juice, forming more or less stable compounds
which are not entirely broken up by subsequent boiling. When
BUgar is made there is a concentration of the sulphur compounds
in the molasses and this concentration becomes greater in propor-
tion to the amount of sugar crystals removed. In the low grades
of molasses sulphur is found naturally in extraordinarily large
quantities. In the preparation of dried apples, apricots, peaches,
peas, raisins, figs and many other light-colored fruits, sulphuring is
practiced for the following reasons:
1.	To produce as clear and intense a yellow or whitish color
as possible.
2.	To conceal decayed portions of the fruit which have been
overlooked in the trimming.
3.	To prevent fermentation and decay during the drying of the
fruit.
4.	To protect the fruit during drying, from flies and other in-
sects, the larvae of which would otherwise develop after the fruit
was stored.
5.	To kill the cells of the fruit, and thus make the texture more
porous, which expedites drying.
It is a well-known fact that highly sulphured fruits are pre-
served with a lower degree of desiccation than those not sulphured,
because a greater weight of fruit is produced from a given weight
of the raw material when sulphur is used. It is not difficult to pre-
serve a water content of 30 per cent.
The only arguments of any force favoring the use of sulphurous
acid in food products are those which relate either to the preser-
vation of the fruit or to its color. As the proper preservation of the
produce can be easily secured with only aplight change in color,
these arguments cannot justify tha continued use of sulphurous acid
and sulphite, which never add anything to the flavor of foods, but
render both less palatable and le|s healthful. All sulphur com-
pounds produce an injurious influence on the metabolism of the
body. They add an immense burden to the already overworked
kidneys, which are called upon to remove nearly all of the added
sulphur previously converted, to an appreciable extent, into sul-
phuric acid.﻿ADULTERATION OF FOODS
431
Another effect which the use of sulphured foods produces, and
one of even more serious character, is found in the impoverishment
of the blood in respect to the number of red and white corpuscles
contained therein. The use of a substance which interferes with de-
velopment of these important component particles of the blood must
be regarded as being highly prejudicial to health. The evidence
all points to the fact that sulphur compounds are purely drugs,
exerting deleterious and harmful effects upon the metabolic proc-
esses.
With the improved methods of fruit and vegetable dehydration
in which temperature, moisture, and air currents can be perfectly
regulated, as shown in Chapter VIII, there remains no excuse for
the production of sulphured food products, except to satisfy an
artificially created demand for light colored foods and to comply
with falsely established commercial standards.
Unsulphured dehydrated fruits have a better flavor and are
sweeter than the highly sulphured products which should be avoided
both from the standpoint of health as well as economy.
Artificial Food Colors may be divided into animal, vegetable,
mineralf'and synthetic coal tar dyes. Their use has greatly in-
creased during recent years. Vegetable and mineral colors have
been largely displaced by coal tar or animal colors, which are now
used extensively in the preparation of foodstuffs and drinks. Here
again the consumer has been misled by the creation of -a false
standard. The attractive coloring of jellies, jamijJ ketchups, soft
drinks, etc., mislead the public into thinking that the genuine
products are inferior, and establish a demand for unnaturally col-
ored varieties. With a few exceptions, coloring matters in food are
used to deceive the public as to the true character of the articles
sold. The intelligent consumer should object to the use of coloring
matter in foods, not only from the standpoint of health, but also for
economic reasons, for the goods are made to appear of greater value
than they really are.
Various countries have enacted specific laws regulating the
use of coloring matters in foods, especially England, France, Ger-
many, Austria and Italy. In the United States no coloring matter
is to be used unless each package is marked ‘ * artificially colored. ’ ’
One of the principal animal colors employed is cochineal, con-
sisting of the dried bodies of insects living on the cochineal fig—﻿432
RATIONAL DIET
a species of cactus, cultivated in Mexico, Central and South Ameri-
ca, especially for the sake of the cochineal insect. It is used in
ketchups, cordials, confections and other food products.
The principal Vegetable dyes used are annatto, turmeric, cam-
wood, logwood, saffron, carrot juice, indigo and gamboge. Annatto
has been principally used by dairy farmers for butter. It is an
extract from the red pulp which covers the seeds of a South Ameri-
can tree, bexia orellana, is usually sold as aqueous extract, or dis-
solved in cottonseed oil, and has also been used for the coloring of
margarine.
Turmeric is extracted by alcohol from the root of rootstock of
an East Indian plant, curcuma-longa. It is of a brilliant yellow or
saffron color, has a slight aromatic odor, and a bitter, slightly acrid
taste.
Logwood is the heart-wood of a South American tree. It is a
red, heavy wood, containing a yellow, crystalline coloring matter;
camwood, which is similar to logwood, is the product of a West
African tree.
Saffron is a bulbous plant, whose deep yellow flowers are used
in the preparation of a yellow color of the same name. It is often
used for coloring cakes and pies to give them a richer appearance,
suggesting the plentiful use of eggs.
Carrot Juice is frequently employed for coloring butter and
margarine.
Indigo is a blue coloring matter obtained from the tropical plant
indigofera tincteria, and is formed by the decomposition of a pe-
culiar substance called indican, which exists in the juice of the
plant. Indigo is obtained by steeping the plant in water till the
indican is decomposed by fermentation, when the coloring matter is
precipitated in the form of a blue sediment which forms the indigo
of commerce. It assumes a coppery luster by friction with a hard
body, is lighter than water, and insoluble in it, and is, therefore,
suited only for solid foods. It has been used for coloring con-
fectionery, unroasted coffee and tea. With concentrated sulphuric
acid the dry material becomes yellowish, changing slowly to blue-
green.
Gamboge is a condensed juice, or gum resin, produced by
several species of trees growing in Siam, Ceylon and Malabar.
It is brought in bulk, or cylindrical rolls from Gambogia, whence its﻿ADULTEKATION OF FOODS
433
name. It is of a dense compact texture and a beautiful reddish-
yellow. Taken internally it acts like a strong cathartic.
Mineral dyes have been mostly replaced by anilin dyes, with
the exception of copper sulphate and oxides of iron, the former
being practically the sole substance used for preserving the color
of green vegetables, as none of the newly discovered dyes have been
found to produce the desired effect. Formerly the use of such
pigments as chromate of lead was common in coloring confectionery,
but their use has been almost entirely abandoned.
Other mineral substances unfit for use in food on account of
their poisonous effects are those which contain salts of arsenic,
mercury and lead. Chloride of tin was at one time extensively
used to neutralize the natural color of beet sugar, causing it to
resemble Demerara Sugar, thus fraudulently increasing the com-
mercial value of the former.
Ultramarine is a blue pigment originally obtained by powdering
an aluminous mineral (lazuli) of a rich blue color. It was so called
because the mineral was originally brought from Asia. Granulated
sugar is usually treated with a weak solution of ultramarine to
remove the natural yellow color.
Prussian Blue (cyanide of potassium and iron) is a salt of a
beautiful deep blue color, and is often used with ultramarine for
coloring tea. The Chinese and Japanese are careful not to color
the tea which they themselves consume, but only that intended for
export. In Europe, where a great deal of coffee is sold unroasted
to the consumer, most of the cheaper grades of coffee are colored
by putting the beans in a revolving drum and adding some finely
powdered coloring matter.
Coal Tar Dyes are the most extensively used for all artificial
colors, since their production has been perfected. They are practi-
cally unlimited in variety, and are chiefly sold in the form of
powders. The water soluble varieties are readily made into solu-
tions for food colors^' while the insoluble forms are mixed into
pastes. The soluble dyes are used in the manufacture of confec-
tionery, soft drinks, jellies, jams, meat, especially sausages, dairy
products and wines. Oil-solutions of coal-tar dyes are also employed
for coloring butter and margarine. Pastes made from insoluble
dyes are adapted mainly for exterior coatings of hard substances
such as candies. The quantity of dye is generally very small, rarely﻿434
RATIONAL DIET
exceeding 1 part in 1,000 and being often less than 1 part in 10,000.
Coal tar dyes are permitted under the Federal Law, but the use of
any dye, harmless or otherwise, to color food in a manner whereby
damage, or inferiority is concealed, is in violation of Sec. 7 of the
Foods and Drugs Act of June 30,1906. The addition of all mineral
or metallic dyes, and all coal-tar dyes, other than those specially
provided for, is also prohibited. Although it is claimed that some
of these dyes are added because of purely aesthetic consideration, it
should be every intelligent housekeeper’s duty to stop the practice
of coloring food, by refusing to buy such articles, for all artificial
dyes, if taken internally, are harmful.
Coal tar dyes are also largely used in the concoction of imita-
tion fruit juice beverages with which the market is flooded today,
and the consumption of these products has naturally increased very
greatly since the passing of the Volstead Act. According to W.
W. Skinner, Chief Chemist of the Water and Beverage Laboratory,
U. S. Bureau of Chemistry, there are over 12,000 bottlers of bev-
erages in the United States, doing an estimated annual business
of approximately $150,000,000, and this does not include soda
fountain beverages. The larger demand for real fruit juices has
led to the development and sale of many imitation products, fla-
vored either with essential oils, or extracts made from them, or
largely from synthetic products, but which, in order to take ad-
vantage of the growing popularity of fruit juice products, are
advertised in a very deceptive manner. These advertisements
either claim or imply on the label, or in the advertising matter of
bill boards, that the product is made from whole ripe fruit.
This deception has been practiced to such an extent that the
Bureau of Chemistry has issued the following new ruling in 1920:
“Terms, such as ‘ade,’ ‘squash,’ ‘punch,’ ‘crush’ and ‘smash’
can be applied properly only to beverages, either still or carbon-
ated, which contain the juice or edible portion of a fruit. These
terms should not be applied to products flavored only with es-
sential oils or essences unlew plainly labeled as imitations. . .	.
It is further held that any turbid or ‘cloudy’ orange or other fruit
flavored beverage, which does not contain either an appreciable
quantity of the juice or edible portion of orange or other fruit
named, should be labeled plainly as an imitation.”
Many of the so-called fruit drinks are made from concentrates
or syrups manufactured by producers in some of the large cities.﻿ADULTERATION OF FOODS
435
These concentrates or syrups may be made from fruit juice or
pulp—which may constitute as much as 50 per cent of the product
—but this syrup may he so fortified with essential oils or extracts
that when the bottler gets it he simply dilutes it with plain syrup to
such a degree that if it is added at the rate of one ounce to the
bottle of the finished beverage, the original fruit juice has been
so diluted that it has almost disappeared.
All so-called soft drinks containing cane sugar syrup and ar-
tificial coloring matter are decidedly unwholesome. Fresh or
pasteurized fruit juices should always be given the preference, but
they must be sipped slowly, as they are really liquid foods.
Metallic Impurities, especially the salts of lead and tin, are com-
monly found in varying amounts in nearly all classes of products
put up in tin. The quantity dissolved depends largely on the char-
acter of the tin plate used in the manufacture of the can, also
on the nature of the food product and its acidity. Although the
quantities of metal dissolved are small, yet the basic action of
even a diminutive amount of lead salts is well known. The uni-
versal use of tin cans has led health authorities to closely watch
for excess of tin and lead from careless soldering, with the result
that today only the b«pit quality of tin and lap solder on the out-
side are found on standard goods. The danger from the solution
of tin and lead is of course much greater when canned goods
are regularly used, as for instance in mining camps, or on board
sailing vessels. Unsulphured evaporated fruits or vegetables
should always be given the preference.
The bleaching of flour is done chiefly for the purpose of satisfy-
ing an unjustified demand for snow white flour. Bolted flour is bad
enough but by placing bleached flour before an unsuspecting
public, the millers have simply further lowered the value of their
product from a hygienic point of view. During the World War
people were compelled to live on all kinds of unbolted flours,
middlings, etc., in order that more of the supposedly more nutri-
tious white flour could be shipped to the armies in the field. At
that time many people found out, much to their surprise, how
much more satisfying and wholesome the darker looking whole
wheat products are.
However, the bleaching of flour is still practiced; evidently the
majority of consumers cannot yet adjust themselves to the darker﻿436
RATIONAL DIET
looking, but more nutritious unbolted kinds. According to present
standards, the grade or quality of flour is largely determined by
its appearance, odor, and color as well as by its fineness, as indi-
cated by rubbing it between the fingers. A very minute amount
of nitric peroxide will remove the yellow tint of an inferior grade
of flour, so that it can be sold as a much higher grade. The sale
of bleached flour is therefore generally held to be illegal.
Before the passage of the Federal Pure Food Law, the larger
part of flour produced in the United States was bleached by nitro-
gen peroxide, but as a result of a stricter enforcement of federal
regulations the practice has diminished. The millers still assert
that bleaching does not deteriorate the quality of the flour. The
gas used in bleaching is generated by electrical, chemical, or elec-
tro-chemical means, and is diluted with air before treatment of the
flour. In the so-called Alsop Process, which is most commonly
employed, it is formed by a flaming discharge of electricity, which
causes the nitrogen and oxygen of the air to combine. The yellow
tint of the flour is quickly destroyed by the gas, which also forms
nitrous and nitric acids with the flour. A considerable part of the
nitrous acid remains in yeast bread after baking and nearly all of
it in soda biscuit. There is no doubt that bleaching affects the
quality of gluten and injures the flavor of bread. It is really a pity
to contemplate how the wheat farmers are selling the natural whole
wheat to the millers and buying in return a very much devitalized
flour, which lays the foundation for many human ills. Small flour
mills, driven by electricity, could be easily established in every
community and supply the people with really good and whole-
some grain flours.
The bleaching of corn by artificial means before canning is
usually accomplished by boiling the corn with sodium sulphite,
thus giving the product an unnaturally white color. The practice
seems to have been more in vogue some years ago than at present,
the popular taste now apparently preferring the natural rich yel-
low corn.
Animal Glue is often used in foods. Americans spend about
$250,000,000 annually for ice cream. While some of the better
grades are legitimate, and contain the required amount of eight per
cent butter-fat, the cheaper grades are abominable concoctions,
which are prepared with gelatin or glue.﻿ADULTERATION OF FOODS
437
Alfred McCann, the well known writer, in “Physical Culture
Magazine,” recently investigated the finest ice cream plant in the
state of New Jersey. The ice cream was properly pasteurized and
actually contained a minimum of twelve per cent butter-fat instead
of the eight per cent required by law. The chocolate flavor was
made up of cocoa-powder, the fat of which had been saponified by
the chemical action of ammonium hydroxide. Among the fruit fla-
vors were combinations of oenanthic ether, nitrous ether, acetic
ether and many other synthetic “fruit essences.” While the cream
was apparently legal as far as the amount of butter fat was con-
cerned, yet it had, aside from the artificial flavor, another charac-
teristic which it shared with many other kinds of ice cream. It
could stand for hours in the sun without melting, because it was
“bodified” with glue.
In communicating with the manufacturer, McCann made the
following report:
“The stuff they (the packers) make is glue and is intended for
commercial purposes only. They declare its legitimate use should
be confined to paper box manufacturers, shoemakers, cabinet
makers, carpenters, etc. That it finds its way into human food
through the instrumentality of jobbers and brokers after it leaves
the Armour glue works is an unhappy state of facts for wffiich
Armour and Company declare they cannot hold themselves re-
sponsible.
“In New York when they receive an order for edible gelatine
they are obliged to treat it as a ‘re-sale’ and go out on the market
for it as an accommodation to their patronum^
“You can appreciate the rotten significance of this statement of
fact. Everywhere I go I find barrels of glue made by the packers^
The stuff is being used as ‘gelatine’ for the frozen dainties sold
to children, and in many instances a high price is paid for it, yet
packers themselves, when appealed to, denounce its use.
“I suggest that you take steps at once to secure a supply of
fool-proof, edible gelatine, free from sulphites, free from arsenic,
free from lead, free from zinc, free from gas-producing organisms
disclosing the presence of filth; free from gluey flavor and gluey
odor. The probability is that when you do this, you will be the
only ice cream manufacturer in the whole metropolitan district
decent enough to put gelatine instead of glue into your ice cream. ’ ’
The official records of the New York Health Department reveal
that in June, 1921, out of 1,400 samples of ice cream analyzed,
78 per cent were adulterated. Many of the adulterated products﻿438
RATIONAL DIET
contained as little as two per cent fat. Glue was used in almost
every instance.
Director Ole Salthe of the Food Inspection Bureau undertook
a series of prosecutions and by December, 1921, he had cut down
the adulterations from 78 per cent to 28 per cent. His disclosures
show how corrupt and indecent the situation was, while the public
had not the slightest suspicion of what was going on. It is said
that many of the chocolate covered ice cream bars, now widely ad-
vertised, contain a very inferior and deleterious filling.
There is no doubt that multitudes of people, even in the smaller
cities and towns, are suffering from impure food, and are looking
to the law-makers for protection. It never seems to occur to these
people that most of the food eaten should be of such nature, that
its wholesomeness should simply be a question of its hygienic
preparation from the time of production until it reaches the table.
The ideal way for the solution of this problem is for every
family, whenever possible, to have its own little garden and orchard
to preserve its own fruit and vegetables, and to use ready made
foods only in an emergency. Many of the commercially prepared
products may not be distinctly poisonous, but their nutrition and
hygienic value have been in most instances greatly diminished and
impaired.﻿CHAPTER XII
Faulty Nutrition and Disease
One of the surprising facts developed by the World War was
1he alarming condition of our national health. Pressed by the
exigenc|&of our commercial age, we never stopped long enough
to take a good look at ourselves, and to find out the real causes of
rapidly increasing diseases during childhood and middle age, when
the vitality should be at its maximum.
When war was declared by the United States against the
Central Powers in the early spring of that memorable year 1917,
the American people were given their first opportunity to take a
thorough inventory of their state of health. Nearly four millions
of men between the ages of eighteen and thirty years were in-
ducted into war |»rvice, and in order to secure this force, a very
much larger number had to be examined because an astonishing
proportion of those of draft age were rejected for serious physical
and mental defects. After the first million had passed examina-
tion, the large proportion of physically unfit aroused general con-
sternation, except perhapa* among the few who understood the
causes involved. Equally surprising was the vast number of il-
literates discovered.
The reports of Surgeon General Rupert Blue, in the American
Journal of Public Health, September, 1919; the Public Health Re-
port of the Treasury Department, March, 1918, and the Report of
the War Department, edited by Surgeon General Ireland, in 1920,
give some very significant facts.
General Ireland’s report is very exhaustive. It deals with
nearly three million men, from the ages of eighteen to thirty, the
majority approaching the latter age; and enumerates both the
defectives and the rejected with their classification. Each of the
recruited men passed through the hands of from four to twelve
examiners, so that errors and inequalities should be fairly well
balanced on the average. It must also be considered that the max-
imum age of the examined wras thirty years, while a larger pro-
portion of men in this country are between thirty and fifty years
of age, when the defective conditions of the body, often more or
439﻿440
RATIONAL DIET
less latent in early years, begin to reveal themselves.' Comparing
the cases of heart and kidney diseases of the drafted men with
the statistics of the life insurance companies, it appears that the
draft examiners found sixteen per cent affected with these diseases
while the percentage reported by the life insurance companies
was as high as fifty-six.
Of the nearly three million men drafted, about fifty per cent
had some serious defects, while a large number had multiple de-
fects, such as diseases of the principal vital organs—heart, lungs,
blood-vessels and brain—and diseases that are dependent on low-
ered resistance, such as tuberculosis.
Men coming from different portions of the United States showed
different defects, owing apparently to the habits of the regions
where they had lived. The government report summarized these
differences, as follows:
“The northeastern part of the country appears to be charac-
terized by congenital defects, and those of city life. The northwest
is characterized by deformities due to accidents, by goitre, and by
flat foot. The southeast is characterized by venereal diseases,
hookworm, and other similar complications, including blindness
of one eye, arthritis and ankylosis, underweight, mental defect,
emotional disturbance!#!" pellagra, hernia, loss of upper extremity,
and bullet or other wounds. The southwest is characterized by
tuberculosis, drug addiction, hypertrophied tonsils and hernia.
The northern central area is contrasted with the southern central
by having more goitre, less tuberculosis, much less venereal dis-
ease, more varicocele and more varico® veins, more diseases of
the heart and nervous system, and more deficient teeth. It is
characterized by more cases of defective eye-sight, diabetes and
curvature of the spine.”
Another fact has been revealed by the examinations. Certain
sections of the country, with occupational or racial peculiarities,
show vastly different proportions of defectiveness. In this re-
spect some of the oldest elements of our population have the high-
est number of defectives. For instance, the Anglo-Saxon coloni-
al type is slowly disappearing, as the result of a deficient birth
rate. The French Canadians have a high birth rate and an equally
high defective rate, while the Southern States with a large negro
population show the largest number of defectives.
California, strange as it may seem, ranks with the states show-
ing the highest percentage of rejected men. This may be ex-﻿FAULTY NUTRITION AND DISEASE
441
plained by the fact that California serves as a place of refuge for
invalids of all kinds. The excessive death rate in some of the
California cities is also to be attributed to this condition.
The examination of about thirty thousand school children in
San Francisco also revealed some startling facts: 26 per cent were
found to be under weight; 38 per cent showed postural defects;
91 per cent had defective teeth; 27 per cent had enlarged ton-
sils ; 25 per cent had adenoidsV7 per cent had anemia. It appears
that quite a number of the children were afflicted with several de-
fects. Among the defective children a great number of the wealth-
ier classes were represented, suffering mostly from mal-nutrition.
Coffee and toast constitute the breakfast for a large majority of
adults, and unfortunately it is also the fare of a lamentably
large number of children. This, too, occurs in a state where fresh
or dried fruit may be secured every month of the year, but owing
to a lack of true education on the part of parents, many of them
are afraid to permit their children to have the fruit they natur-
ally crave.
Dr. Clark of the Public Health Service, Washington, who has
examined many thousands of school children in different por-
tions of this country, reported that ninety per cent of the school
children have from one to eleven cavities in their teeth. It is
but natural that bad teeth are accompanied by other manifesta-
tions of physical inferiority.
Among nearly 100,000 children in New York City, about one-
third were found to have such defective eyesight as to require
glasses. In Philadelphia 60 per cent of the children examined
showed marked eye-strain or defective vision and 354 pupils
Avere discovered who could not read ordinary writing on the black-
board even at the distance of a few feet, and could only with dif-
ficulty make out the print in their books. In Massachusetts, out-
side of Boston, 20 per cent of the pupils were found defective in
vision.
The number of children Avith defective hearing or diseased
ears in our schools is large. Massachusetts reported 27,000 pupils
with defective hearing in the year 1907. Investigations in fifteen
different cities led to the estimate that nearly 50,000 children in
Pennsylvania are unable to reap the full advantage of instruction
given, because of defective hearing.﻿442
KATIONAL DIET
Many dull children are so because the eye or the ear, both ave-
nues for the reception of knowledge, is in a diseased condition.
The defects in the senses may and often do exert a baneful influ-
ence throughout life but they are not so likely to weaken physi-
cal vigor and invite diseases as defects in the teeth.
The reason that we are a nation of dyspeptics lies largely in the
fact that children are irrationally fed during school years, which
inevitably results, among other evils, in impaired teeth. An ex-
amination of 79,000 children in New York Schools showed that
29,386 possessed one or more decayed teeth. In Strassburg, the
first city in the world to adopt dental inspection, 971^ per cent
of the school children were found to have diseased teeth. Eighty
per cent of the children in Great Britain’s industrial schools suf-
fer from decayed teeth. In Germany, among 20,000 children be-
tween the ages of 6 and 16, 19,000 were found to have caries to a
marked degree.
In striking contrast with this pitiful condition of our rising
generation is that of the aboriginal tribes of the Pacific Coast
from Alaska down to Peru. In the National Museum at Washing-
ton there are about four hundred skulls of what we are pleased to
call “half-civilized” peoples, dating as far hack as the time of
discovery of this continent. These skulls exhibit no indication
of teeth decay. The teeth and jaws are well developed, and while
the teeth show an occasional mechanical injury, there are no signs
of caries.
On the other hand, thousands of the North American Indians
at present deprived of their hunting grounds and forests, and
forced to live on the products furnished by grocery stores, such as
canned meats, milled cereals, refined sugar and distilled liquors,
are plainly showing signs of physical deterioration. They are
gradually dying of tuberculosis, cancer and other diseases of
civilization.
It cannot be too strongly emphasized that proper diet in infan-
cy is the most important factor in the preservation of health, as
nearly all so-called “children’s diseases” are caused by improper
feeding. The period of early childhood is decisive for the remain-
der of one’s life, and the amount of vitality necessary to resist
injurious influences, aside from heredity, depends largely upon the
quality of nourishment the infant receives. “The child is father﻿FAULTY NUTEITION AND DISEASE
443
to the man," and as the formation of a strong and healthy body
is necessary for the development of a strong and healthy mind,
the importance of a sound foundation for the growing organism
is evident. It is here where prevention of disease must begin, and
not in the bacteriological laboratories.
There are about two million babies born in this country every
year, and of these approximately one-fourth die under five years
of age. About fifty per cent of these deaths occur before the age
of one year is reached. We are therefore compelled to acknowledge
the loss of one quarter million of newly born children every year,
while one-third of the children born do not attain the age of fif-
teen years.
Infant mortality remains one of the biggest problems that
confronts our wRtern civilization. For years it has been the
object of serious concern to governments and municipalities not
only of this country, but also of France^'Germany and England;
and yet despite everything that has been done to avert the peril,
the total mortality of infants has not appreciably decreased.
Indiscriminate feeding is at the root of this, as well as of
most children’s diseases. In fact, so appalling is the ignorance of
the majority of parents in regard to feeding their children, that
if nature had not endowed the growing organism with wonderful
powers of resistance, the percentage of deaths would be much
larger than it is. As a matter of fact, many children survive
despite parental ignorance.
According to statistics, the American people spend for food
materials annually about seven billion dollars which are distribu-
ted as follows:
Meat, poultry, and fish about	$2,800,000,000	40
Eggs	400,000,000	6
Milk	500,000,000	7
Cheese	50,000,000	%
Butter and other fats	500,000,000	7
Grain products	1,000,000,000	14
Sugar, molasses etc.	500,000,000	7
Vegetables, including canned goods 500,000,000		7
Fruits, including canned goods	300,000,000	4
Nuts	50,000,000	%
Miscellaneous, including spices, condiments, etc.	400,000,000	m
It should be noted that of	the whole list of	foods﻿444
RATIONAL DIET
items—fruit and vegetables—supply acid-binding or alkaline ele-
ments in sufficient quantity, and these two important items repre-
sent only eleven per cent of the total expenditure. Furthermore,
vegetables are generally prepared in such manner that they lose
a large proportion of their essential organic salts, while with
canned fruits,Byrup made from refined sugar is added, which im-
pairs the hygienic value of the fruit. Cow’s milk is a neutral
food, but becomeis acid-forming when boiled or sterilized. We
know that most of the cereals eaten are demineralized and defi-
cient in vitamins gflesh meat, which constitutes nearly half of the
ration of the American people, besides being highly acid-forming
contains a large quantity of the waste products of animal life,
which overtax the excretory organs and gradually undermine
health and vitality.
While the appalling results of these mistakes are often plainly
visible, even in early ^hildhood, they make themselves felt more
intensely past middle life, giving rise to constipation, gout, rheu-
matism, liver and kidney diseases, hardening of the arteries, cancer,
tuberculosis, etc. Surgical operations to “cure” the effects of
years of wrong-doing are not only futile but lay the foundations for
chronic disease.
It is but natural that the abnormal condition of the blood,
caused by irrational diet, creates a desire for stimulants and nar-
cotics to deaden the effect of the poisons and toxins that are con-
stantly accumulating in the system. Before the passage of the
prohibition amendment and the Volstead Act, the American people
spent about one billion dollars every year for alcoholic beverages.
Despite the efforts to enforce the law, the habits of the people
have not appreciably changed, as a similar amount is now prob-
ably invested in home brew materials, and other stimulants and
drugs. In fact, the grape growers who expected to be financially
ruined by prohibition are now receiving higher prices for their
grapes than ever before. So great is the demand for wine grapes
that the best qualities bring five times as much as the wineries
formerly paid.
Tobacco is another big item in our annual expenditures for
stimulants:
$800,000,000—for tobacco and snuff
800.000.	000—for cigarettes
500.000.	000—for cigars.﻿FAULTY NUTRITION AND DISEASE
445
In brief, over two billions are yearly going up in smoke. The
use of tobacco is unquestionably one of the causes of our increas-
ing enervation.
For ice cream and candy, over $500,000,000 are spent annually;
for coffee, tea and cocoa, $750,000,000; and for chewing gum, not
less than $50,000,000. The products represented by these enor-
mous amounts add nothing to our health and vitality, but could be
spent to far better advantage for educational purposes and for
bettering our social and economic conditions.
“Civilized” man is digging his grave with his teeth, and to
counteract the effects of his perverted dietetic habits he spends
millions of dollars for drugs, patent medicines, serums and vac-
cines. Unless we can change the mode of life that modern civ-
ilization has brought with it, and simultaneously alter our eco-
nomic system, mental and physical degeneration will increase.
The theory that germs cause diseases such as tuberculosis, can-
cer, etc., cannot stand in the light of reason. The human cell is
the result of millions of years of evolution, and has therefore
a much higher organization than the so-called germs of disease,
which are simply scavengers, feeding only on devitalized and dying
cells, the products of waste matter in the system, but never or
healthy, living cells, which are impervious to all kinds of bacteria.
It has been wisely said that if the germ theory of disease wer6
true, there would be nobody alive to believe it, since we cannot
sterilize the air we breathe. The only method for fighting disease
is to increase health and vitality by rational eating and living,
but unfortunately this viewpoint has not been given serious at-
tention in our medical colleges. Bacteriology and symptomology
still occupy the most prominent places in their curricula. We
frequently find that for which we are seeking, and if it happens
that we wish to prove a certain germ is responsible for a specific
disease, as a rule we find the germ and our discovery is heralded
as a great achievement to a credulous world.
The famous physiologist, Rudolf Virchow, once one of the fore-
most defenders of the germ theory, said in his later years:
“If | could live my life over again, I would devote it to prov-
ing that germs seek their natural habitat—diseased tissue—rather
than being the cause of diseased tissue.”
Despite these facts which should be obvious to every logical﻿446
RATIONAL DIET
thinker, the majority of medical men are still confounding effect
with cause, regarding germs as responsible for disease. They still
ignore the fact that pure blood and good circulation, the result of
right living, and a cheerful condition of mind—in other words,
sound health—are the greatest immunizing factors. Germs are pres-
ent everywhere and we could not exclude them from our body by
the most rigid system of disinfection or quarantine. If the germ of
a disease imported into a community were the cause of an epi-
demic it would never end. Professor Dr. Pettenkofer, of Munich,
once swallowed cholera germs before an excited audience without
suffering from the least indisposition.
Doctors believe that they can prevent epidemics by vaccina-
tion, but this is an assumption which is not based on biological
facts, but on very dubious statistics. Epidemics came and went
in times gone by, and doctors had nothing to do with their dis-
appearance. The influenza raged several times during the last ten
years and defied masks, quarantine, and every other measure that
busy Boards of Health could dictate. The germ of influenza has
been recently discovered by the Rockefeller Institute and soon
mankind will be presented with a new kind of vaccine. Those who
want to be vaccinated should follow their inclinations, but those
who want to protect themselves by rational living should not be
subjected to the dicta of ffeeudo^lcience. It goes without saying
that in all epidemics most of the disease is psychological—a frenzy
of fear resulting from the pernicious activities of interested peo-
ple.
To-day preventive medicine, as taught in colleges, is no further
advanced than it was in the time of the barber Jenner, who in
the year 1770, when nothing was known about physiological chem-
istry, studied surgery and pharmacy in London. Jenner, while
interested in the drug called “theriaca,” learned that it had been
prepared by King Mithridates VI, who, being of a suspicious turn
of mind lived in constant dread of being poisoned. He wanted
to counteract any attempt which might be made against his life
by systematically inuring himself to poison, and so compounded
“theriaca,” taking it regularly in increasing doses. Such a story
when once heard is never to be forgotten. Jenner did not forget
it. While he was earning his living in Berkeley, England, by
bleeding, by applying leeches, and by cupping, a farmer’s wife﻿FAULTY NUTRITION AND DISEASE
447
told him another story. She said to him that milking cows which
had cowpox on their udders was a good thing to prevent smallpox.
Her milkmaids after such milking had an eruption similar to
cowpox, but she maintained that they never afterward became
afflicted with smallpox.
These two stories suggested to Jenner the remarkable medical
system of inoculation with virulent poisons as a means of inuring
the body against infection, and today orthodox medicine is still
following in his footsteps. After a century and a half of mar-
velous advancement in chemistry and physiology, we still find
thousands of blind followers of a blind leader whose theories are
on a level with the proponents of witch burning in the middle ages.
Medical science, armed with microscopes and chests of re-agents,
discovers germs and bacilli, invents serums, vaccines and anti-tox-
ins, and still remains oblivious to the great truth that the real
and ultimate cause of disease is beyond the reach of the micro-
scope and scalpel.
The Vaccination Inquirer of London, England, recently pub-
lished the following significant statement:
“Cases of smallpox reported in the Philippines during 1918
total 47,369 of which 16,447 died. Manila, the most thoroughly
vaccinated place in the islands, had the highest mortality—65.3!
While Mindanao, the least vaccinated had the lowest—11.4 per cent.
“We have never before, on a large total of cases, heard of such
a fatality as 65.3 per cent. Considering that the sanitary engi-
neers had been busiest in Manila; considering that they had an
up-to-date ‘scientific’ medical staff, and considering the pre-Jenner
mortality of smallpox only averaged 18 per cent, it will tax even
medical ingenuity to explain away that shocking figure of 65.3.
Such an incidence and such a fatality in a sanitary town almost
force us to the conclusion that vaccination itself unusually
thorough and frequent, was responsible for evoking and prolong-
ing the outbreak.”
Chief Surgeon Lippincott reports from the Philippines as fol-
lows :
“I can say that no army was ever so thoroughly vaccinated as
ours. Yaccination and revaccination went on as systematically
as the drills of a well-regulated post, yet four thousand of these
same soldiers had smallpox, from which 200 of them died. For
the two years ending June 30, 1900, 13,811 were on the sick list as
the result of vaccination, many of whom died and many more were
permanently disabled. ’ ’﻿448
KATIONAL DIET
In Japan, from 1886 to 1905, the total vaccinations performed
numbered 91,351,407 in an average population of 43,027,661. With
all this vaccination between 1889 and 1908, Japan had 171,500
cases of smallpox with a total of 48,000 deaths, a mortality of 28
per cfcnt. If vaccination could prevent, smallpox, it certainly had
a chance to prove its efficacy in these two countries.
In this connection it should be mentioned that while much sani-
tary engineering has been done in Manila since the American oc-
cupation, diseases due to faulty nutrition among the natives are
on the increase.
Instead of drawing a lesson from these experiences, a few years
later the same practices were repeated during the World War.
Several millions of soldiers were vaccinated against smallpox and
typhoid fever with the result that, while about fifty thousand
died from the effects of bullets or poisonous gas, over two hundred
thousand died in homes or hospitals from so-called infectious dis-
eases, or rather medical malpractice.
American milling processes, the production of peeled and pol-
ished rice; the importation of white flour, canned goods, etc., are
largely responsible for the high percentage of infant mortality
and the prevalence of beriberi and other so-called tropical dis-
eases, caused by a deficiency of organic salts in food. The fre-
quent appearance of smallpox goes hand in hand with the dis-
eased condition of the blood and lymph, and vaccination always
aggravates this condition and still further lowers the vital resist-
ance of the body.
While in modern cities smallpox has decreased, a glance at the
deplorable state of our children’s health, as revealed by careful
examinations all over the country, suffices to convince us that it has
been replaced by other diseases. Smallpox is easily cured, if nat-
ural methods are employed, but the injurious effects of vaccine and
serum inoculations and of unnecessary operations can seldom be
remedied.
Vaccination has nothing whatever to do with the disappear-
ance of smallpox. If this disease is less frequent in modern com-
munities, it is entirely due to improved sanitary conditions and
better care of the human body in general, but it will always occur﻿FAULTY NUTRITION AND DISEASE
449
where people eat devitalized food and live under unsanitary con-
ditions, despite vaccinations and revaccinations.
Here are some of the extracts on the subject of contagion from
the late Prof. O. Rosenbach’s book, “Physician versus Bacteri-
ologist”:
“If the opportunity for infection were even approximately
as great as the adherents of modern bacteriology depict it, no
nurse or phftician would expose themselves to danger. But, as a
matter of fact, we observe that infection of those who are engaged
in nursing the sick, and of those connected with them, although
they usually do not and cannot act with great precaution in their
intercourse with the patients, occurs by no means more frequently
than is the case with people who have nothing to do with infectious
patientlj a fact which certainly furnishes proof that there is a
wide gulf between the possibility and the probability of infec-
tion. .	.	.
“If a shower of rain pours down and many persons are
drenched, may it then be said that one has been infected by the
other with moisture?
“The microorganisms cannot harm us so long as our organism
functions normally; they are harmless if the defensive measures of
our body are in good condition. .	.	.
“An unbiased investigation teaches more and more that what
was believed could be considered the cause of disease is in many
cases merely an unessential accompanying symptom. .	.	.
“To attempt to fight against an epidemic disease by quaran-
tine is about as foolish as to attempt to keep away evil spirits by
affixing a horseshoe over the door, or by beating tom-toms.......
Cleanliness, external and internal cleanliness, is the only remedy
for disease.”
The ancient astronomers undertook to solve the problems of
their science with the theory that the sun revolves around the
earth once in every twenty-four hours. Those of a wider vision
who at that time tried to proclaim the truth were ridiculed, im-
prisoned and burned at the stake. The old astronomers had the
evidence of their own senses in favor of their theory! Could they
not see with their own eyes that the sun rose in the east and set
in the west? And could they not feel that the earth in relation
to the sun stood still?
Their logic was good, but their premise was wrong. They had
taken their ingrained errors for established principles; they had
taken an optical illusion for a working principle of natural law.﻿450
RATIONAL DIET
A similar process of erroneous reasoning applies to the prac-
tice of orthodox medical science, especially to the drug and se-
rum treatment of disease. The cauBé of this error is a false theory
of disease itself. Different species of bacteria have been discovered,
and medical science claims that these tiny organisms, invisible to
the naked eye, are the direct cause of various diseases, whereas
their presence does not prove, by any means, that they create dis-
ease, but rather that they are there as a result of a morbid con-
dition of the body. Similarly does carrion attract vultures and
flies. These micro-organisms instead of being responsible for
specific diseases, are in most instances agents for neutralizing
and removing foreign matters in the body that might otherwise
prove harmful. Healthy and normal cells are absolutely imper-
vious to bacteria. The healthy body, as a result of rational care
and nutrition, has wonderful power of resistance.
Disease is a process of purification of the system—an effort of
nature to burn up and cast out quantities of waste matter and
poisons that have their origin in our perverted dietetic and unhy-
gienic habits. Nature does not provide any specific remedy for
disease. She inflicts penaltie"for every transgression of her
laws. When abnormal conditions arise in one’s system, the funda-
mental cause must be found and removed, which as a rule is the
accumulation of waste poisons, or toxemia.
Nature, who develops an invisible cell into an organism of the
highest perfection, knows how to restore normal conditions, if
she is not hampered in her wise, but too often misunderstood meth-
ods. She does not accept vicarious atonement in the shape of pills,
powders, serums or BraccinelJ although the medical profession is
as alert as ever to prove by statistics and other means, that it can
change the natural biological processes.
Suppression of disease is not cure, and nature cannot be
forced into submiÉtton by medical dicta. Despite man’s petty inter-
ference, she will continue building her great works even when the
feeble creations of mind and hand shall have sunk into the sea
of oblivion. The only way, therefore, that we can protect our-
selves against disease is by living in harmony with nature’s im-
mutable laws.
At a recent meeting of the Commonwealth Club in California
the problem of quarantine and vaccination of children against﻿FAULTY NUTRITION AND DISEASE
451
diphtheria was discussed. One of the attending physicians sar-
castically remarked:
^I'Of course, it is very comforting for a person who does not
believe in vaccination to live in a community that is vaccinated,
because, by virtue of the sacrifice, if it be such, that other people
have taken, one can be immune to smallpox. If everybody else but
himself is vaccinated, he does not then run the danger of infection
byJimallpox.”
In the further course of discussion, Mr. C. C. Boynton, of
Berkeley, a well known resident of that city, having a family of
eight most beautiful and healthy children, who were never vacci-
nated and were brought up entirely on natural, mostly uncooked
foods, made the following remarks:
“I have been informed by reliable medical authorities that
in any group of normal people twenty-five per cent at any time
are carriers of the diphtheria germ. TwTenty-five per cent of you
here are carriers of diphtheria germs; fifty per cent are carriers
of pneumonia. If you are going“ to isolate the carriers, what is
the outcome of it? The ordinary medical man is absolutely illogi-
cal.
“Now, I have known but one man who was absolutely logical
on this physical theory of contagion. This was Professor Loeb,
formerly of the University of California; and now by reason of
his great and remarkable works, he is in the Carnegie or Rocke-
feller Institute. He placed physical contagion on an absolutely
logical plane, and with what success ? He recognized the presence
of disease germs, and the result was that he realized that they were
everywhere, and he would not permit you to go into his house,
without first sterilizing your feet. He had no curtains on the
walls by reason of the fact that germs could there assemble. Every
room had its sterilization plant to destroy these germs. Yet, his
next door neighbor, a distinguished professor of the University
of California, told me that if a child’s disease came within forty
miles of Berkeley the four children of Professor Loeb invariably
got it.”
There is something radically wrong with an educational sys-
tem that fails to keep the growing generation in sound health.
To be sure, many are born with low vitality and lessened powers
of resistance, due to the ignorance of their parents, but even a
weak body can be restored gradually to normal condition, if care-
ful attention is paid to rational nutrition and all the other fac-
tors necessary to the attainment of health and strength.
In the present enervating struggle for existence man should﻿452
RATIONAL DIET
first of all be taught how to take proper care of himself, how to
develop mind and body in order that he may live a full and happy
life—useful to himself and others. The study and teaching of
rational nutrition should constitute an important part of every
common school curriculum, as we can hardly expect that people,
who know nothing about their bodily functions and the funda-
mental laws of health governing them, will be able to maintain
physical vigor in themselves and their offspring.
Disease is never inherited, although faulty organization or pre-
disposition to functional disease may be. If diseases appear in
children, they are due to the same causes that produced them in
the parents.
In a study he has made of rural health and national well
being, Dr. Irving Fisher, of Yale University, finds that only about
one per cent of the people are well and free from impairment. He
says:
“What would we think if 99 per cent of a dairy herd, or of a
flock of sheep were found impaired ? It means that we are losing
a large per cent of our rightful life, not only by death itself, which
cuts off many years we might have lived, but also from disease
and disabilities which are not fatal, but which cripple the power
to work and mar the joy of living. We may assume that on the
average for every death per annum there are two persons sick dur-
ing the year. This makes about 3,000,000 people constantly lying
on sick beds in the United States, of which on the most conserva-
tive estimate, at least half need not have been there. If we trans-
late these preventable losses into commercial terms, we find
that even by the most conservative reckoning, this country is los-
ing OArer $1,500,000,000 worth of wealth producing power every
year. ’ ’
But the economic waste does not stop here. We have to em-
ploy an army of physicians and nurses to look after these invalids;
we have to maintain hospitals and asylums,—in short, a like amount
is spent in trying to restore the health of those who are suffering
as a consequence of their ignorance and helplessnfggC We may
safely say that the American public spends annually over three
billion dollars for doctors’ fees, drugs, and proprietary medicines,
besides losing much valuable time and lowering vitality and power
of resistance.
The majority of people do not know what real health and effi-
ciency mean; their vitality is constantly below par on account of﻿FAULTY NUTEITION AND DISEASE
453
the neglect of personal hygiene. Indispositions are regarded as a
matter of course, caused by the weather, or other external con-
ditions. People have not as yet learned to look for the cause of
disease within themselves.
Bacteriology has led the medical profession in the wrong direc-
tion, and it will take some time before its mistakes are generally
recognized and publicly admitted. Commercialism and political
influence are now so interwoven with the teaching and practice
of medicine that it will need the combined efforts of all progres-
sive thinkers to change the trend of thought of suffering humanity
regarding the real cause of disease—enervation and lowered vitality
due to wrong living.﻿CHAPTER XIII
Medical Science and the Cure of Disease
Medical science has failed to solve the problem of health and
disease through the employment of materia medica and surgical
operations, because it has not yet mastered the great underlying
principles governing the phenomena of life. It has not awakened
to the fact that the body is an organic whole; that in the last
analysis diseases have one common source—diminished vital force
or enervation, resulting from the retention of waste poison; that
pain is but a logical symptom of general disorder; and that, finally,
if any real and permanent benefit is to be achieved, successful
treatment cannot consist in confining one’s efforts exclusively to
the organ or part affected, but the organism must be treated in its
entirety.
Cures, like fashions, have come and gone. Such dubious rem-
edies as anti-toxins, tuberculin, turtle’s blood, salvarsan, and a
hundred others have been heralded to a suffering world as wonder-
ful discoveries of medical science, only to be abandoned after a
brief period as unsatisfactory.
The tremendous growth of the drug industry in the United
States is positive proof of the inability of the medical profession
to treat their patients in a rational and efficient manner. During
the last thirty years over forty thousand new remedies have been
put on the market, and their number is constantly increasing. A
statement by the Department of Commerce shows that more than
four hundred million dollars’ worth of drug products were manu-
factured in the United States alone during 1921. A world wide
demand for laboratory examinations and surgical operations has
been created, and the modern doctor’s treatment rooms, equipped
with imposing apparatuses, are designed to convince the patient of
the progress of the medical profession. Here he is confronted with
X-ray machines, microscopes and other complicated parapher-
nalia, whose primary aim is to instill the belief that everything
worth knowing is beyond the ken of common minds; and that only
those who have diplomas from leading universities and a row of﻿NATURAL CURE OP DISEASE
455
titles affixed to their names have the key to the problems of life.
This atmosphere of mystery and awe has a most depressing effect
upon the mind of the patient, and tends to rob him of the last
vestige of confidence in nature’s healing forces. The mania for
looking everywhere for the cause of his ailment, except in his own
perverted dietetic and hygienic habits, is hereby confirmed, and
he gradually becomes resigned to a life of chronic ailment.
The honest and capable physician is compelled to contend
with ignorant and superficially educated men and women who are
searching for palliatives and not for permanent cures, which re-
quire perseverance and self-control. “Every disease,” said Dr.
E. H. Dewey, of fasting fame, “is an inherited possibility, which
every violation of the laws of life tends to develop. It is never
simply an attack on a well person, but rather a summing up of the
more or less life-long violation of health laws.”
The majority of people have yet to learn that lasting health
can only come through a true understanding of the normal func-
tions of the body, and an application of simple and rational meth-
ods for maintaining them in a healthy condition. Because a few
who have inherited a large amount of vitality are able with appar-
ent impunity to defy the laws of nature for some time, many are
disposed to sneer at rational methods of living. As a rule, how-
ever^ disease claims them as her own when they have attained
middle age, when man’s powers should be at the height of efficiency.
Vivisection is one of the fallacies of medical science, developed
through its endeavor to look for new methods of curing disease
by serum therapy. The newly discovered remedies are urged as
reasons for cruel experiments on animals. Even though, for the
sake of argument, it were admitted that germs cause disease, it
is a fact that no animal has ever suffered from precisely the same
disease as a human being. Human diseases cannot be inoculated
into them. As a rule only the concomitants of blood poisoning
are produced. For this reason medical science itself will never be
able to form any definite conclusions concerning the reliability
of the results of vivisection. In fact, many far seeing physicians
whose minds have not been biased by bacteriological fallacies, have
never looked to vivisection as a necessary adjunct to the cure of
disease.
Dr. Walter R. Iladwen, one of England’s leading physicians,﻿456
RATIONAL DIET
in a public lecture given at Los Angeles, California, June 16, 1921,
remarked :
“In my own country during the fifteen years after antitoxin
was introduced, tbe death rate from diphtheria rose 25 per cent
above the death rate fifteen years before, and bacteriologists can
only attempt to show a reduction in fatality by a scandalous
system of statistical jugglery, whereby large numbers of com-
mon sore throats are thrown into the count and called diphtheria
on the basis of the fallacious germ theory of disease. Diphtheria
serum has killed without a doubt thousands of children directly,
though it has never had the slightest effect in preventing or curing
diphtheria itself, and I challenge anybody to prove that it has
ever saved one single life. It is based on superstition; it is built
upon unscientific theories; it is manufactured at the expense and
torture of animal life, and is the greatest disgrace of the medical
profession that the world has witnessed in the course of the cen-
turies. ’ ’
It is really surprising to hear physicians who should know
better say that the use of living animals for experiments is nec-
essary for the conquest of some diseases, and for the intelligent
treatment of others. John D. Rockefeller, whose little grandson
died as a result of cerebro spinal meningitis, was so moved with a
desire to promote experimentation along these lines that he found-
ed the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in which vivi-
section is a prominent feature. With the proper knowledge, he
could have devoted his millions to far better advantage by giving
the people some really fundamental knowledge about the cause
and cure of disease.
Dr. S. Flexner, the leading spirit of the Rockefeller Institute,
in telling about his discovery of serum for the alleged cure of
meningitis, said some fifteen years ago :
“Once we have tried our remedies with satisfactory results
upon animals, there is very little risk to human beings; and of
course in treating the latter we shall proceed with the utmost
caution.
“Take my own serum for meningitis, for instance, without
monkeys we never could have discovered that. First, we had to
prove that the monkey really had meningitis, and then we could
go ahead with experiments for its cure. We injected the serum
into its spine, and found it did good—at any rate it did no harm.﻿NATURAL CURE OF DISEASE
457
So we could inject it into the spine of a human being with con-
fidence that we were not doing him any harm.”
It appears that Dr. Flexner’s statements are very much quali-
fied and that his experiments breathe the spirit of uncertainty.
To the analytical mind it seems unreasonable to make animals in
the abnormal state of pain the basis for medical research. In Dr.
Flexner’s experiments, the symptoms of the disea^ had been pro-
duced artificially in the monkeys by sub-cutaneous injections,
while in the human system the disease is caused by faulty nutri-
tion.
Spinal meningitis will continue its ravages so long as there are
mothers so misinformed as to make no effort by hygienic living
to properly nurse their children. Artificial feeding of infants
is at the root of many children’s diseases and must be regarded
as one of the stupendous errors of civilization.
It is deplorable that even those who are at the head of our lead-
ing educational institutions have not acquired a deeper understand-
ing of the cause of disease. Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, President of
Stanford University, in a recent attack against anti-vivisectionists,
said:
‘ ‘ Where do they think medical scientists learned to keep typhus
and typhoid and tuberculosis out of this country, except through
experimentation on animals?”
[ "We are able to progress only by such experimentation; we
have gained all our knowledge by means of it. Even in the dark
ages people learned to give way to medical science; yet those who
oppose vivisection, done under anaesthetics and humane in every
way, would take from doctors their only source of certain knowl-
edge. ’ ’
Vivisection is built on a false hypothesis, and nothing worth
while and of lasting benefit can be achieved by it. Vivisection
is not merely a question of cruelty to animals, but it involves in-
jury to human beings as well. There is no doubt that serums and
vaccines, administered as a result of animal experimentations,
have done a great deal of harm, even caused many premature
deaths as a result of blood poisoning. Man is so selfish that he
permits thousands of animals to be needlessly tortured, if he is
told that he may thereby prolong his own life a short time.
If medical colleges and universities would devote more time
to a study of the chemistry of food and nutrition, especially to the﻿458
RATIONAL DIET
organic salts in their relation to health and disease, and less time
to bacteriology and animal torture they would find a tangible basis
upon which to proceed intelligently in the treatment of disease,
and thereby perform a real service to mankind.
Contrast the allegations of Dr. Wilbur with the following state-
ments of Sir Charles Bell, a very eminent Scotch surgeon, taken
from his book “The Nervous System of the Human Body”:
“Experiments on animals have never been the means of dis-
covery, and a survey of what has been attempted of late years in
physiology will prove that the opening of living animals has done
more to perpetrate error than to confirm the just views taken
from the study of anatomy and natural motions.
“In a foreign review of my former papers the results of my
investigations have been considered as a further proof in favor of
vivisection. They are, on the contrary, deductions from anatomy,
and I have had recourse to experiments, not to form my own
opinions, hut to impress them upon others. It must he my apology
that my utmost efforts of persuasion were lost while I urged my
statements on the ground of anatomy alone.”
Here we have conclusive proof that Sir Charles Bell’s famous
discovery of the double action of the spinal nerves was a scientific
deduction from anatomical investigation and had nothing what-
ever to do with experiments on animals.
Many medical men, indeed, have confessed that vivisection,
far from benefiting science, is both detrimental and misleading.
To illustrate, during ten years, Dr. Schiff, a noted surgeon, vivi-
sected 14,000 dogs. It is estimated that he vivisected during the
same period 70,000 animals of various kinds; and for some time
he had been regularly torturing ten dogs each week. To prove
one hypothesis, over 9,000 dogs were vivisected, and the result was
then in doubt.
Serum therapy which has been mentioned as being responsible
for the torture of thousands of animals, is now a subject of con-
troversy even among members of the medical profession.
Dr. Tilden in “Philosophy of Health” quotes from an allo-
pathic physician who is frank and intelligent enough to admit the
failure of serum therapy:
‘ ‘ | The treatment of diseases, or their prevention, by antitoxins,
serums, and vaccines is still very largely in the experimental
stage, with grave doubts as to the value of the vast majority. Un-
fortunately much of our literature on these subjects, including
statistics, is furnished by the manufacturers who are interested,﻿NATURAL CURE OF DISEASE
459
above all things, in the financial aspects of their production. One of
the most prominent general practitioners in Ohio called my atten-
tion some months ago to the fact that even diphtheria antitoxin
acquired its reputation when the doses used were so small as would
now be regarded as entirely inadequate, and those doses given at
a stage of the disease in which their administration is now looked
upon as practically useless.
“ ‘A number of years ago there was a grave epidemic of diph-
theria in Philadelphia. The epidemic was proving disastrously
fatal when a firm of manufacturing pharmacists appeared and,
with the claim that the antitoxin had not been properly adminis-
tered, proposed to the officials that they would take charge of the
situation, would furnish antitoxin free of expense, and would su-
pervise its administration, provided merely that they should be
permitted to use the statistics which they would thus obtain. Their
proposition was promptly accepted; the antitoxin was used with
a free hand; but the statistics were never published! I refer to
this merely asj*m illustration of the purely commercial attitude of
the manufacturing firms. Statistics can be of no possible value
when unfavorable ones are suppressed and only the favorable ones
published. It is an old legal aphorism, Falsus in uno, falsus in
omMibus—false in one thing, false in all—and that maxim should
be rigidly applied to all such reports, statistical and otherwise.
“ ‘The treatment of pneumonia may be looked upon, as sug-
gested by Osier, as a sort of test of the serum type of therapy. It
is a disease that is always with us, has a frightful mortality, and
its lesson is always a lesson of humility. It is doubtful if the
death-rate today is any less than it was a thousand years ago. We
had hoped much from the “typing" of this disease which at-
tracted so much attention a few years ago; but my medical
friends assure me that the resulting treatment has been a distinct
disappointment, if not a complete failure. As Osier suggests, we
must accept the truth, however unpleasant, and, with this death-
rate before us, not be deceived with vain fancies.’ ”
Serum therapy ignores the ever-active vital force in all ani-
mated beings. No physician could ever explain the assumed
remedial action of antitoxin by the laws of physiological chemistry
and biology. The fewer fatalities since the introduction of anti-
toxin are explained by the fact that eiglity-five per cent recover
despite the serum treatment. Before the days of antitoxin the
great mortality in diphtheria cases was largely confined to the
regular school. Homeopaths, eclectics and the drugless healers
were more successful, as any physician would be who does not inter-
fere with nature’s eliminative processes.
There has been a general lowering of the severity of the type﻿460
RATIONAL DIET
of diphtheria and a decided fall in the death rate during the last
thirty years, but this cannot by any means he attributed to the
introduction of antitoxin. Antitoxin simply did less injury than
former drastic treatment with poisonous drugs Yet despite this
malpractice, twenty-five per cent of the afflicted children survived,
while following antitoxin treatment eighty to ninety per cent lived
through the disease. Antitoxin really killed fewer than the old
time treatment and the difference in the mortality seemed miracu-
lous to the profession, so much so, indeed, that they felt them-
selves entitled to enforce their doctrines of serum therapy by law.
Very likely those practicing the old treatment were satisfied that
by hard work and skill they had saved twenty-five per cent. The
thought never entered into their mind that the treatment itself had
been fatal to from sixty to sixty-five per cent of the total number
who died. Antitoxin being less destructive in its effects gave a
chance to vis medicatrix naturae (nature’s healing power) to
assert itself.
It is against all the laws of logic to assume that a dead or
inert substance taken from a diseased animal should in some
mysterious way impart vital force to a feverish body. Antitoxins
and serums always gravely impair the vitality of the system, which
has to eliminate these virulent poisons.
A rational System of healing must be constructed upon the
eternal foundations of truth, and upon the firm belief in nature’s
restorative power. Only such forces should be employed as really
replenish the waning vitality of the body: sunlight, air, water,
mechanical treatment, exercise, rest, a hopeful attitude of mind
and, last but not least, a carefully selected diet.
Rational diet is one of the greatest factors in Nature Cure, as
it tends to establish self-control and confidence in the healing power
of nature. All the branches of Nature Cure, hydrotherapy, physi-
cal culture, osteopathy, chiropractic and suggestion are important,
but in order to be of lasting value they must be combined with the
proper feeding of the patient.
Unfortunately, there is hardly a subject of which the average
physician knows less than that of rational nutrition, because the
medical colleges do not devote sufficient time to the study of this
most important factor in the successful treatment of disease. The﻿NATURAL CURE OP DISEASE
461
average physician is still blinded by his belief in drug and serum
treatment.
While food is a great factor in the restoration of health,
it can be of value only in so far as it is properly digested and
assimilated. In other words, in prescribing a diet it is necessary to
consider the condition and vitality of the patient. Even the best
food cannot make a dead man live, inasmuch as only the living
body can act upon food elements and change them into blood, on
which life depends. Poods must become an intrinsic part of the
body before they can be acted upon by its inherent vital force,
and utilized in the production of heat and energy or tissue build-
ing. Therefore, since serums and vaccines can never become an
integral part of the blood, their uselessness becomes evident. They
are acted upon by the vital force and thrown out of the system
as quickly as possible. The body’s reaction is often mistaken for
an improvement, and increased doses are prescribed until vitality
is exhausted and the patient dies.
The human body has been likened to a steam engine in which
the foods are burned up like so much coal or oil, giving out a
certain amount of calories or heat units. This is a mistaken idea;
food is not directly used as is the fuel of an engine, but it must be
digested and assimilated before it can be oxidized in the body and
transformed into muscular and mental energy. If the general
health is impaired, the power of the digestive organs is proportion-
ately lowered, and a temporary rest is needed. This can be best
accomplished by a short fast. It is the height of folly to feed a
patient during a case of fever, as the food will be actually turned
into poison. To give a sick person plenty of so-called "good, nour-
ishing food” is to overtax his weakened digestive organs and still
further lower his vitality, often with fatal results.
We must learn to judge the medicinal or remedial value of
foods chiefly by their contents of alkaline organic salts, which are
nature’s true antitoxins, when they have become a part of our body.
Fresh fruit juices sipped slowly and in moderate quantities should
be the only foods permissible in acute diseases.
Lasting health and the preservation of vital force can be
achieved only by self control and rational living. In eradicating
disease it is not necessary to fight germs or microbes, but rather
man’s ignorance, his violation of natural laws, lack of self con﻿462
RATIONAL DIET
trol and his overindulgence—in short, his ingrained thoughts and
habits.
It is not within the scope of this book to enter into lengthy de-
tails concerning the cause and cure of all acute and chronic dis-
eases. Only a general outline can be given. Much has to be
left to the skilled and experienced nature cure physician, who, for-
tunately, is now becoming more and more conspicuous in this
country, notwithstanding the untiring efforts of representatives
of the old schools of medicine to impede his progress and narrow
his field of activity.
Enlarged Tonsils and Adenoids are among the most frequently
occurring diseases of childhood, and medical science still relies
upon the knife of the surgeon as the only cure. The functions of
the adenoids and of the tonsils are closely related to each other,
as they neutralize poisons that are generated in the mouth and
upper respiratory tract, and assist in the functioning of the other
lymphatic glands. The diseased condition of the glands is a
result of an undue accumulation of waste poison in the system, due
to faulty diet. If we consider the fact that the majority of chil-
dren indulge in an excess of artificial sweets and starchy foods, de-
prived of the important organic salts and vitamins, we shall find
a rational explanation for these deplorable conditions. The de-
ficiency of iron, sodium and calcium in the blood leads to an ac-
cumulation of carbonic acid and other waste poison« overtaxing
all the lymphatic glands. Removal of the glands, while lending at
best only temporary relief, does notStrike at the root of the evil
which is irrational living. There is positively no need for such
operations, since natural foods, sleeping near open windows, and
the taking of sun baths, whenever convenient, will readily alleviate
all functional disorders, provided the vitality of the patient is
still strong enough to react properly.
Comparatively few parents understand how to feed and clothe
their children, and depend too much upon the advice of orthodox
physicians or surgeons. However, almost any apparently healthy
child, surrounded by artificial conditions of city life, is apt to
develop occasional disorders during the first ten years of its life, but
these reactions are due, as a rule, to nature’s efforts to eliminate
surplus waste matter, and are beneficial and necessary. Intelligent
physicians never attempt to suppress these symptoms by medicines﻿NATURAL CURE OF DISEASE
463
and operations, since such methods lower the vitality of the child
and lay the foundation for chronic diseases in after years. A diet
consisting exclusively of fruits or fresh fruit juices for a few
days, or longer, will alleviate the diseased condition and gradually
restore the normal functions of the body. In fact, fresh fruit
should always constitute a substantial part of the growing child’s
dietary, as in this way it will be protected against acquiring the
craving for artificial sweets.
Constipation, for the relief of which humanity is swamped with
remedies, would appear to be an almost universal ailment, and is
largely the result of the increasing consumption of devitalized and
demineralized foods. Shrewd advertising has made some of these
products almost household words, and the public has acquired
faith in their value.
There is nothing more conducive to constipation than the con-
tinuous use of white flour products, concentrated sweets, meat,
spices and condiments, since they increase the acidity of the blood
and weaken the chemical action of the mucous membranes of the
intestinal canal. Any drastic remedy will only serve to enervate
and leave the digestive organs in a still more weakened condition
than before. The gradual adoption of a diet consisting largely of
natural, uncooked foods, thoroughly masticated, combined with
plenty of outdoor exercise will bring permanent relief. We should
remember that constipation is an indication of a general lowered
vitality of the body and that we must bring all the natural reme-
dial factors into play in order to insure normal and healthy action
of the bowels, without having to take recourse to artificial means.
Cancer is a disease that is on the increase in all civilized coun-
tries, baffling the skill of the medical profession, though we should
bear in mind that the various forms of malignant growths are as
a rule included under the general name of cancer. Naturally, it is
assumed by the medical profession that a specific germ is responsi-
ble for this malady, and hundreds of medicines, in addition to
repeated surgical operations, have been offered as cures.
The proportion of cancer cases in a community appears to be in
direct ratio to its consumption of meat, alcohol, tobacco, spices and
condiments in general. There is no doubt that the cause of all﻿464
RATIONAL DIET
malignant growths of the body is the highly toxic condition of
the blood induced by years of irrational living. Not all abnormal
enlargements of the tissues are of a cancerous character, and in the
majority of cases a strictly regulated simple diet will prevent
serious consequences. But again, people as a rule are so frightened
by the appearance of even a slight protuberance on the body that
they aggravate the condition, and are easily influenced to submit to
an operation.
Besides the germ fallacy, many other theories have been ad-
vanced as the cause of this disease. Even tomatoes and potatoes
have been made responsible for it. The only rational explanation is
to be found in a highly acid-forming diet, which, during the course
of years, leads to degeneration of blood and tissues. Poods espe-
cially rich in nitrogen and phosphoric acid will always promote ab-
normal growths in parts of the body that are subject to frequent
exterior stimulation, since the lack of alkaline elements in the blood
prevents the removal of waste matter through the excretory organs.
Common sense should tell us that surgical operations for cancer, or
any other disease, can never remove the cause since the blood
will remain in the same depleted condition. On the other hand,
relief, if not cure, can be effected in most cases without an opera-
tion, through a radical change in diet.
These facts are beginning to be recognized even by those physi-
cians who have become world-famous for their skill in performing
surgical operations. Speaking before the Rhode Island Medical So-
ciety, Dr. William J. Mayo said:
“Cancer of the stomach forms nearly a third of all cancers of
the human body. So far as I know this is not true of the lower
animals, nor uncivilized man. Is it not possible, therefore, that
there is something in the habits of civilized man, in the cooking or
other preparation of his food, which acts to produce the pre-cancer-
ous condition ? Within the lot hundred years, four times as much
meat has been taken as before that time. If flesh foods are not
broken up, decomposition results and active poisons are thrown into
an organ not intended for their reception, which has not had time
to adapt itself to the new function. When cancer in the human
race is frequent, a close study of the habits of civilized man, as con-
trasted with primitive races and lower animals, where similar le-
sions are conspicuously rare, may be of value; and finally, the
prophylaxis (prevention) of cancer depends first on a change in
those cancer producing habits, and second, on early removal of all
precarious lesions and sources of chronic irritation.”﻿NATURAL CURE OF DISEASE
465
We must, however, take exception to the second suggestion re-
lating to surgical operations. A diet that supplies sufficient alka-
line elements, and at the same time diminishes the amount of
protein, will gradually reduce the acidity of the blood so that it
can assist in removing lesions by re-absorption, thereby obviating
the necessity for operations.
This view is confirmed by the late Dr. Willard Parker, a well
known New York surgeon, who said:
“Cancer is, to a great extent, one of the final results of a long
continued course of error in diet; and a strict dietetic regimen is
therefore the chief factor in the treatment, prevention and cure. .
.... In regard to the effect of abstemiousness in cancer, I speak
with great positiveness that vegetables, or at least a very bland
diet, does check the progress of the disease, and in some cases now
under treatment has been attended by an alleviation of symptoms,
and in a few instances by a recession of growth. ’ ’
The races that consume the smallest amount of meat, or are
practically vegetarians^are remarkably free from cancer. Dr.
Madden, of Cairo, says that cancer is never found among the black
races of Egypt who are Mohammedans and vegetarians. In Lagos,
during fourteen years, Dr. Johnson saw only five cases of cancer
among the natives, and in all of these five cases the afflicted were
meat-eaters. Brazil, with its abundance of fruits, has the lowest
death rate of any part of the western world, while in the Argentine
Republic, where the consumption of meat is the highest of all
countries, cancer is a very common disease.
In England where cancer is alarmingly on the increase, the
people consume over 130 pounds of meat to each person every year,
which is more than double what it was fifty years ago. At the same
time the cancer mortality has increased more than four times,
surpassing in this respect all other diseases. In other countries
the same thing has occurred, but wherever the consumption of toxic
drinks and of meat and tobacco has been small, the cancer rate has
kept comparatively low.
Alcoholic beverages also seem to bear a causal relation to cancer.
The beer and wine drinking countries, like France, Australia and
Germany, have a higher cancer mortality than most Oriental
countries; Munich, Stuttgart, Copenhagen, and Salzburg having
about the highest rate in the world. Beer is well known to produce
gouty and rheumatic poisons in the system.﻿466
RATIONAL DIET
The exemption of tribes of negroes and of other natives has
been described by medical observers. In the most recent report of
the Cancer Research Fund the general absence of cancer among
Papuan, Malaysian and Australian natives is confirmed. But they
do become afflicted when living like Europeans and adopting a
stimulating diet of highly seasoned dishes in place of their simple
and natural foods.
The common occurrence of cancer among the backwoodsmen of
North America and Norway is surprising considering their stren-
uous outdoor life. But it seems that their fare in North America
consists of very large quantities of pork, bacon, molasses, etc., and
of strong tea; while the Norwegians consume large amounts of
coffee. Such drinks are destructive to the nervous system and the
foods are highly acid-forming.
Cancer of the stomach and liver is common among both men and
women, and it is due to local irritation produced by perverted
dietetic habits. Pepper, mustard, and pickles, when eaten freely,
act as local irritants. The free use of sugar, jellies, fried foods,
pastry and confectionery favors fermentation and the formation of
acids which also irritate the mucous membrane.
In the study of the etiology of cancer we must never lose sight
of the fact that the integrity of each individual cell is dependent
upon a pure blood supply, which contains the organic salts suitable
to its physiological necessities. To retain the cellular tissue in a
healthy and vigorous condition, it is essential that it is provided
with foods which are rich in the alkaline elements. A diet devoid
of the vital principles of fruits and vegetables will always favor the
formation of cancerous growths. It is absurd to attribute the dis-
ease to cancer parasites.
The inability of the regular medical profession to cope with
cancer is illustrated by the fact that a few years ago Dr. William
T. Bull, a noted New York cancer-specialist, died of cancer himself.
Says the newspaper report:
“Cancer was one of the diseases in the treatment of which he
had been an eminent specialist, and he studied his own symptoms
and directed what should be done. A surgical operation was per-
formed according to his directions and serums then used.
“ It is a curious coincidence that the disease which he knew the
best was the one which struck him down. When the dread scourge
first made its appearance, he was having a bust of himself made﻿NATURAL CURE OF DISEASE
467
and knowing that he was doomed, he continued the sittings as
often as possible so that the work might he finished before the dis-
ease made it impossible. His death has been daily expected for
some time and it was only through the use of great will power that
he lived during the last three months.”
Like so many of his colleagues, Dr. Bull had an entirely wrong
conception of the disease which ended his life. How can a vitiated
blood stream be improved by surgical operations and serums? A
complete reform in the dietetic habits of the patient is one of the
first essentials for the cure of cancer, if it has not already progressed
too far.
So alarming has been the increase of cancer cases in the United
States since 1905, that the government has established a “cancer
week,” during which efforts will be made “to spread the facts re-
garding cancer, its causes, treatment and prevention.” It is cer-
tain that information based upon a wrong conception of disease
cannot prove helpful.
Nature’s universal cancer prevention is to be found in a simple,
non-stimulating diet, consisting mostly of fresh fruits and green
leaf vegetables, with a small amount of protein foods, avoiding all
flesh foods, salt, sugar, condiments, alcoholic beverages and tobacco.
Frequent sun and air baths are likewise great healing factors in
the cure of cancer. We cannot, however, expect that a disease which
is the result of a lifetime of wrong living will disappear in a few
weeks or months. But by self control, patience and perseverance
complete recovery will ultimately result, that is, if the vital forces
have not been vitiated by conventional treatment and the disease
advanced too far.
Dr. Frances Carter Wood, Director of the Columbia University
Institute of Cancer Research, gives the following statistics:
“Between the ages of 15 and 19 only one person in 250,000
dies of cancer. Between 20 and 24 only one person in 200,000.
Between 25 and 34 one man in 10,000 and one woman in 5,000
dies of cancer. And so the rate rises until between the ages of
65 and 75, one man in 200 and one woman in 150 dies of cancer.”
These figures clearly show that the deaths from cancer increase
with advancing age, as the accumulative effects of faulty nutrition.
Surgical operations can give at best only temporary relief, while
they ultimately retard nature’s healing process, and are often
followed by fatal results. In the treatment of no other disease﻿468
RATIONAL DIET
does the average physician show less understanding of the laws of
life and health than in the treatment of cancer.
Diabetes is a diseased state of the functions of nutrition, charac-
terized by an abnormal urinary excretion of sugar, amounting to
from one-half ounce to three ounces per day, and in serious cases
to even more. This condition is the result of a highly increased
acidity of the blood, which is deficient in iron, sodium, lime, and
sulphur, the elements necessary for the formation of red blood cor-
puscles. Overeating and the habitual use of alcoholic beverages,
even in moderate amounts, are the principal causes of this disease.
Although some of the diabetic patients may look well fed, they are
anemic and lack endurance. On account of lack of sodium, the
blood is surcharged with carbonic acid, and at the same time the
deficiency of iron, lime and sulphur prevents the intake of a suf-
ficient amount of oxygen into the lungs, so that an incomplete com-
bustion of the carbohydrates results. The proscription of sweet
and starchy foods may reduce the amount of sugar in the urine,
but will by no means constitute a permanent cure. Only by bring-
ing the blood back to its normal alkalinity will the natural com-
bustion of the carbohydrates be assured. It is not necessary to
avoid the natural foods that contain starch or sugar as long as a
sufficient amount of alkaline elements is provided. The so-called
gluten bread, often recommended to sufferers from diabetes, is worse
than useless, as gluten flour is deficient in the essential organic
salts that are washed out in the manufacturing process. Further-
more, a surplus of protein, such as is apt to result from a gluten
or meat diet is split into carbohydrates and uric acid. Diabetes is
frequently associated with anemic, scrofulous and gouty conditions,
which are all due to the same causes, and, therefore, can be pre-
vented only by the adoption of a diet which supplies alkaline ele-
ments necessary for the formation of normal blood. Naturally the
process of readjustment will be slow, as it often requires several
months or more of careful dieting to eliminate the poisons which
have accumulated during years of wrong living, and to restore the
healthy functioning of the digestive organs.
The occurrence of diabetes varies greatly with location and race.
On the island of Malta the diabetes mortality is 37.8 per 100,000, in
Bordeaux, 25.8; Berlin, 20; Paris, 17.6; in the United States the
mortality in Worcester is 27.3; Syracuse, 25.7; Boston, 17.9; New﻿NATURAL CURE OF DISEASE
469
York, 17.4. The disease is common in some parts of India, es-
pecially in the large centers of population under European in-
fluence. Few cases of diabetes occur among the poor Chinese,
though the rich suffer more. That the colored race suffers less
than the whites is shown by the fact that the mortality among ne-
groes is 8 per 100,000 and among the whites 16.3.
In western Europe and America the disease is increasing.
For instance, in England and Wales the mortality in 1886 was
5.9; in 1907, 19.7. In Paris in 1881 the mortality from diabetes
was 5.8; in 1890, 13; and in 1905, 17.6. An increasing mortality
from this disease has also been noted in Copenhagen, Berlin, and
Australia. In America the mortality has doubled in twelve years.
Diabetes will continue to increase as long as people persist in
excessive consumption of meat, white flour products, artificial
sweets and alcoholic beverages.
Gout and rheumatism are the result of a continuous over-in-
dulgence in concentrated foods, containing an excess of protein and
phosphoric acid. The system becomes unable to eliminate the
urates and phosphates, which settle in the joints in the form of
small crystals and cause painful inflammations. The regular use
of alcoholic beverages, coffee and tea are often contributory causes,
as they interfere with the elimination of waste poisons. When
larger quantities of these uric acid crystals accumulate, they will
form little lumps that gradually become hard and appear as gall,
bladder or kidney stones, causing frequent pains in these organs.
A diet rich in alkaline elements, especially sodium, will gradually
dissolve and excrete these poisons. Meat, cheese, legumes, spices
and condiments should be avoided, while nuts and cereals, except
whole rice, should be used sparingly. One meal each day should
consist of a combination salad, another one of fresh fruit. Relief
will often come slowly and pain will often reappear until all the
toxins are eliminated. Frequent sun and air baths are also bene-
ficial in improving the action of the skin. In the treatment of
chronic rheumatism it must always be remembered that a consider-
able amount of toxins is stored up in the tissues. As soon as the
eliminative treatment begins, these toxins re-enter into the cir-
culating blood and cause temporary pains:	This is the case es-
pecially after a diet of acid and subacid fruits, which are avoided﻿470
RATIONAL DIET
by many on account of tbis very eliminative action. The fact
cannot be too much emphasized that in the restoration of health
the body must pass through a succession of more or less severe
healing crises. Those who understand the laws of health will
therefore not deviate from natural healing methods because of
occasional pain which, in this instance, is but an indication of the
body’s gradual return to normal conditions.
Hardening of the Arteries (arteriosclerosis). “A man is as old
as his arteries” because the circulation of the blood depends upon
the arterial tension. The heart alone could not perform the tre-
mendous task of constantly forcing the blood through the arteries
and capillaries were it not for the arteries, which by means of
their muscular walls, assist in circulating the blood. If the arterial
walls gradually become encumbered with phosphates, urates and
other waste matter and thereby deprive the vessels of their natural
elasticity, additional work is thrown upon the heart, thus abnor-
mally increasing the blood pressure. The additional heart pulsa-
tions make a very appreciable strain upon the vital forces, often
causing hemorrhages.
In hardening of the arteries there is a gradual thickening of the
arterial wall. It may become two, three, four or even more times
thicker than normal. As the arteries become encumbered, they lose
their power of muscular contraction and extra work is thrown upon
the heart to force the same amount of blood through the narrow
openings. The function of the heart becomes more and more en-
feebled, the supply of blood to all the organs of the body is less-
ened and the signs of senility appear.
The cause of old age is not so much the presence of phosphate
of lime in the food, but rather the accumulation of waste matter in
the body. Under the influence of these poisons, nutrition is im-
paired, and the arteries, as well as other tissues, take on degenera-
tive changes resulting in a calcareous condition.
The constant use of alcoholic beverages, tobacco, spices and
condiments, coffee, tea, meat and even a too frequent consumption of
cereals and legumes are the principal causes of arteriosclerosis,
which can in its early stages he relieved by the adoption of a
non-stimulating diet, including the daily use of fresh fruits and
vegetable salads, with a small amount of protein food. Lack of﻿NATURAL CURE OP DISEASE
471
rresh air and exercise, in fact everything which retards and prevents
the elimination of waste matter, will favor the hardening of the
arterial vessels, often before middle age is reached.
The use of such drugs as strychnine, digitalis, etc., to stimulate
the action of the heart, may bring temporary relief, but at a fearful
cost to the vitality of the patient, who will require constantly in-
creasing doses as this artificial stimulation is continued.
Diseases of the Liver. The function of the liver, which is the
largest organ of the body, is to purify the blood by separating from
it the waste products, such as uric acid, ammonia, taurin, etc., and
to neutralize them so that they can be excreted through the kidneys.
The liver promotes the pancreatic digestion and the absorption of
fats by the bile which it pours into the intestines.
The liver is the chemical laboratory of the body whose perfect
working order depends on the sufficient supply of organic salts,
especially potassium, sodium, calcium, manganese, iron and chlorine.
The liver in its normal state is a masterpiece of nature’s economy.
It filters the waste poisons from the blood and transforms them into
bile, which is important for the proper digestion and assimila-
tion of fats and the regular movement of the bowels. It is a
storehouse for sugar and iron. The sugar is stored up in the liver
cells in the form of glycogen (liver-sugar), and is given to the
various tissues when they require their daily rations. When the
blood-making glands need more iron for replacing worn out blood
corpuscles, they have to make a requisition on the liver. And there
are still several other tasks that this busy organ has to perform.
We should not, therefore, be surprised if the liver goes on strike,
or even occasionally indulges in sympathetic strikes when other di-
gestive organs are seriously ailing through our dietetic mistakes.
As a sluggish and congested liver is caused by highly seasoned
meats, especially pork, also pastry, artificial sweets, spices, condi-
ments, alcoholic beverages, etc., these articles should be discarded
from the dietary if relief is desired. Eggs and nuts may be used
sparingly, and always in connection with green leaf vegetables.
Apples, oranges, grapefruit, and tomatoes are especially recom-
mended. A so-called “fruit fast” for a week will bring great relief.
Tuberculosis, commonly understood as a chronic disease of the
lungs, is usually the outcome of other diseases, such as anemia,﻿472
RATIONAL DIET
chlorosis, diabetes and scrofulosis, since all have the same origin—
impoverished blood. In many cases there may be predisposing
causes, such as inherited low vitality. Furthermore, as children
live under the same environment and partake of the same food as
their parents, they are apt to develop the d^ease sooner or later.
The increasing consumption of devitalized food, alcohol, and tobac-
co, sexual excesses, overwork, and worry, are the principal factors
in swelling the number of tubercular patients. There are in the
United States 160,000 deaths annually from tuberculosis. Nine per
cent of all deaths, and every third death that occurs between the
ages of sixteen and sixty are attributable to this disease. True to
their perverted bacteriological doctrines, the medical profession has
made an invisible germ responsible—the bacillus tuberculosis—dis-
covered by Dr. Koch about forty years ago. This germ has been
made the scapegoat for the dietetic omissions and commissions of
man, and since its discovery, relentless war has been waged upon it.
However, the attempts of orthodox medicine to stamp out the germ
and its disease have proved futile. The practice often resorted to
of stuffing the patient with “plenty of nourishing food” has killed
more patients than the disease itself. One of the weakest organs in
all sufferers from tuberculosis is the stomach, and to force into it
large quantities of meat, eggs and milk, only serves to increase the
acidity of the blood and fill the system with additional waste matter.
The common practice of sending patients to warmer climates only
serves to prolong the suffering, unless a radical change in the diet
is made. Naturally, fresh air and sunshine are important factors
in ultimate recovery, but too much stress cannot be laid on the
adoption of a simple, natural, non-stimulating diet. The best
localities for consumptive patients are places from 2,000 to 3,000
feet above sea level where the air is cool and free from dust. Drugs
and serums must be strictly avoided, and the diet adapted to the
vitality of the patient. Fresh fruit and fruit juices, and well pre-
pared vegetable salads should make up the principal portion of the
dietary, in order to increase the red corpuscles of the blood.
Pulmonary tuberculosis remains from economic point of view,
one of the most costly diseases. Carefully prepared data show that
the average cost of the 160,000 persons who die from this disease
each year in the United States, including the loss of time and ex-
pense incurred during three years of sickness, is not less than﻿NATURAL CURE OP DISEASE
473
$8,000 each, making a total of $1,280,000,000, or more than a billion
a year. Only a rational system of education, teaching the true con-
servation of vital forces can prevent this tremendous waste of life
and wealth.
Climatic Fevers (malaria, yellow fever, dysentery, etc.) are all
afflictions due to hot, moist air, poor in oxygen, and to dietetic
mistakes. Our dependence upon atmospheric conditions appears
under most varied conditions. For instance, malaria and yellow
fever seldom occur 3,000 feet above sea level, since the peculiar
electricity of air in motion is communicated to our bodies. We
are all healthier in a dry atmosphere on a sandy soil, which holds
the electricity, than we are in moist regions which carry off elec-
tricity from our bodies. It is a well known fact that moist air
absorbs much more heat than dry air, while the proportion of
oxygen in the former is considerably decreased.
The northerner who goes to the tropica, seldom makes a change
in his diet. He takes his canned meats and alcoholic beverages
along, which deprive the body of oxygen, removing at the same
time, by the increased secretion of urine, the important minerals
from the blood. Our immunity from the effects of unfavorable at-
mospheric conditions depends upon a sufficiency of red blood cor-
puscles, which absorb oxygen, and this necessitates the taking of
foods rich in calcium, iron, sodium and magnesium. Not enough
can be said against the use of quinine and other antipyretics, which
may suppress the feverish symptoms for the time being, but only at
the expense of future suffering. Even men of robust constitution
will become nervous wrecks through the constant use of these
poisonous alkaloids, which seriously interfere with the action of the
spleen and liver upon which the purification of the blood and the
invigorating of the nervous system depend. There is an idea extant
that the eating of certain fruits in tropical climates induces fever,
but in every instance the disease can be traced to other causes than
the partaking of wholesome and natural food.
It is not surprising that Europeans and Americans steadily suc-
cumb to tropical diseases, when they persist in the irrational diet
which outrages their organs of digestion and elimination, especially
in the hot, moist air of the tropical lowlands.
Most of the Europeans and Americans living in the tropics look
askance at fruit, because they do not understand its nutritive and﻿474
RATIONAL DIET
hygienic value. In a system which is overloaded with waste
poison, an exclusive fruit diet would naturally bring about an im-
mediate reaction, by increasing the activity of the eliminating or-
gans. But this cleansing effect of the fruit in bringing on a healing
crisis is looked upon as something to be carefully avoided, with
the result that the functions of liver, kidneys and lungs finally break
down altogether.
Those who desire to go to the tropics, should purify their blood
by a diet rich in alkaline salts, exercise in the open air and breathe
deeply, thus building up a large reserve of vital force to draw upon
in an emergency. The accumulation of waste matter in the system
breaks down our vital resistance which can never be fortified by
poisonous drugs but only by systemic cleansing.
The tropics produce an abundance of the most delicious fruits
and nuts, which should form the larger part of the daily diet, as
they supply all the elements of nutrition without overtaxing the
organs of digestion and elimination. There is no reason why a man
living hygienically should not keep well even in the tropical low-
lands, although he may not feel quite as energetic as in the tem-
perate zone.
Modern medical science is still engrossed in its mediaeval errors
and while many physicians have abandoned the old materia medica,
they still seem to lack a deeper understanding of the laws of life and
health, because our medical colleges and universities are ruled by
the spirit of conservatism. The teachings of the great pioneers of
Nature Cure who have lived during the nineteenth century are not
yet fully appreciated by the majority of people, but every year
thousands are losing faith in drug and serum methods of treating
disease and are looking for sane and natural methods of healing.
We cannot close this chapter more appropriately than by quoting
the words of the late Sir William Osier, considered one of the
greatest medical authorities both in America and Europe:
“Some physicians still cannot unlearn their old training. The
modern treatment of disease relies very greatly on the old so-called
natural methods, diet and exercise, bathing and massage—in other
words, giving the natural forces the fullest scope by easy and
rational nutrition, increased flow of blood, and the removal of ob-
structions to the excretory systems or the circulation in the tissues.
Experiences have shown us that most drugs had no effect whatever
on the diseases for which they were administered.”﻿CHAPTER XIV
Regeneration Through Diet
The reader who has given preceding chapters careful consid-
eration must come to the conclusion that in no other branch of
human activity is there such tremendous and unnecessary waste
as in the usual preparation of our daily food. If it were possible
to gather careful statistics in this respect, the figures would be
appalling. Despite the wonderful progress of science during
the last century, the majority of people still seem to be lament-
ably ignorant of the most important factors on which health and
happiness depend.
Most foods, even before they reach the consumer, have been
deprived of essential mineral elements, generally in order to im-
prove their outward appearance at the cost of their nutritive and
hygienic value. The constantly increasing consumption of white
flour, refined sugar, candy, confectionery, hydrogenated oils, the
use of canned goods, artificially colored and sweetened drinks, is
supplemented by the irrational preparation of vegetables, which de-
stroys much of the potentiality of the alkaline organic salts. We
cannot improve on nature, and all foods which we enjoy in their
natural state are best adapted for our nutrition and welfare. De-
vitalized and demineralized foods naturally lead to overeating, as
a large quantity must be consumed to satisfy the body. There are
many who eat three or four times more than would be necessary
if natural foods were consumed. Furthermore, a too great variety
of foods is eaten at the same meal, when two or three well selected
articles would be perfectly sufficient. As a result, man’s vitality
begins to decline at forty, when his real usefulness should last
for at least another forty years.
Simplicity in living must be the keynote in the attainment of
lasting mental and physical health; it is the greatest factor in the
conservation of vital force and in the prolongation of life.
In the undomesticated animal world, we find that all species
confine themselves to certain varieties of food, taken in their
natural state, and thereby enjoy health, strength and agility
475﻿476
RATIONAL DIET
throughout their allotted span of life. Man who takes his food from
every conceivable source and mostly artificially prepared, is sub-
ject to diseases and premature death.
We will now briefly consider the most prevalent dietetic systems.
The more or less exclusive meat diet is found among the inhab-
itants of the arctic zones, supplemented by reindeer milk and such
fresh vegetables and berries as are available during the short sum-
mer season. As already mentioned, the Eskimos use almost every
part of the animal, including the blood, thus insuring a supply of
alkaline salts, which are lacking in the muscular tissues. Further-
more, these people take their animal foods without cooking or arti-
ficial preparation; they do not use table salt, spices and condiments,
alcoholic beverages and other articles which make up the diet of
modern civilized man. Nevertheless, the Eskimos, although com-
paratively free from diseases, are short-lived. The digestion and
assimilation of meat requires a large expenditure of vital force, as
all the surplus of protein has to be converted into carbohydrates
before it can be utilized in the production of heat and energy.
The experiments of Dr. Max Rubner prove that the amount
of protein needed daily is very small and that in the utilization of
the surplus of the ingested protein about fifty per cent is lost, while
carbohydrates, especially in the form of fruit sugar, are almost
completely utilized. The waste resulting from the extensive use
of flesh foods by civilized man not only includes the losses inci-
dental to digestion and assimilation, but also the increased ex-
penditure of vital force in the elimination of the poisonous waste
products.
The greatest waste, however, arises from diseases which entail
loss of time and efficiency. Those who think they cannot dispense
with flesh foods altogether, or who are obliged by circumstances
to eat meat, should not take it oftener than three times a week, or
in daily amounts exceeding 4 or 5 ounces, combined with a liberal
supply of vegetable salads, and should exclude starch foods at
the same meal. This combination will, to a large extent, neutralize
the detrimental effects of meat, which frequently comes from
diseased animals.
It is not to be expected that meat eating will be entirely dis-
carded by civilized man for several hundred years, although its
use is slowly diminishing. There are three factors working con-﻿REGENERATION THROUGH DIET
477
stantly in this direction:	(1) the increasing population of the
earth and the concomitant increase of land values which will force
man to an extensive culture of the soil, precluding cattle raising on
a large scale; (2) the increasing knowledge of man’s actual posi-
tion in nature, a better understanding of the laws of life and
health, which will create a larger demand for natural foods, fruits]
nuts and vegetables; (3) the ethical aspect of the question, which
has been emphasized throughout the ages by the great thinkers
and philosophers. The slaughter house, despite all sanitary mea-
sures, cannot be reconciled with a higher civilization.
The most popular diet is the mixed diet, generally consisting
of a great variety of foods at the same meal, such as soup, meat,
potatoes, pie, coffee, etc. It is the most irrational of all diets. It
seems that most people classify themselves as omnivera, believing
that they should take food from every conceivable source and pre-
pared in every possible way. In countries where food is plentiful,
the inhabitants put on their tables at each meal enough variety for
several days, and it is customary, especially if people live on the
“American Plan,” to eat three “square” meals every day. Some
persons eat enough at the breakfast table to last them all day;
nevertheless they appear to have appetite enough for lunch and
dinner. Those who have inherited a strong digestion and a large
amount of vitality may be in apparently good physical condition
most of the time, but they are never one hundred per cent efficient.
Before they reach middle age they are afflicted with diseases of the
digestive organs, chronic catarrh, rheumatism, high blood pressure,
etc.
People who have been living on such a mixed diet and who dis-
card meat without improving the balance of their food supply wrill
receive no benefit at all from the change. With some vegetarians
the meal generally consists of more or less devitalized foods, such
as white flour products, badly prepared vegetables, jams, jellies,
with the liberal use of all kinds of condiments. Before a radical
change of diet is begun, people should undergo a several days’
fast, taking nothing but water and diluted fruit juices and clean
out their intestinal canal by enemas. They should then confine
themselves to no more than two or three varieties of foods at the
same meal. Fruits should be preferably eaten alone, to allow them
to impart to the body the full effect of their great vibratory forces.﻿478
KATIONAL DIET
Vegetables in the form of salads, or steamed green leaf vegetables,
may be combined with baked potatoes, or, in place of the latter, a
few slices of whole wheat bread. With the addition of an egg, a
glass of milk, or a dish of cottage cheese, this will make a very
substantial and well balanced meal. If cereal foods such as whole
rice make up the larger part of the meal, a few nuts or two ounces
of nut butter, in the form of nut cream, may be added. A small
quantity of subacid fruits, such as raisins or dates, and a few let-
tuce leaves may also be included in this meal. A dietetic regimen
of this kind will facilitate the change from a mixed diet to a more
rational one.
Those who discard meat from their diet, generally look for sub-
stitutes of all kinds. To fill this demand, a number of so-called
meat substitutes have been put on the market. They are generally
cooked and canned mixtures of peanuts and cereals, flavored with
aromatic herbs. While such foods may be taken occasionally, they
should never form a regular part of our diet. We must remember
that there is not so much necessity for additional protein foods in
a meatless dietary as for a liberal supply of organic salts. Vege-
tarians should not make the same mistakes of those living largely
on flesh foods, and take too much protein into their system. In
addition to fruits and vegetables a day’s ration of protein for the
adult performing manual work is amply supplied by either one of
the following items.
10 ounces of well prepared legumes (about 4 oz. dry weight).
5 ounces of cottage cheese.
3 to 4 ounces of unroasted nut butter.
The latter may be diluted to the consistency of cream. With
most children, two or three ounces of almond butter are sufficient.
With a liberal supply of fresh fruits and vegetables there is no
necessity for the regular use of milk.
As an intermediate diet between the ordinary mixed and the
strictly vegetarian or fruitarian regimen, the so-called lacto-vege-
tarian diet may be recommended, which includes the use of all
kinds of dairy products, such as milk, butter, cream, the various
kinds of cheese, and eggs. Millions are invested in the dairy in-
dustry, and while the annual consumption of dairy products only
amounts in money value to fifty per cent of that spent for meat,
still the use of milk and eggs eventually leads to the slaughter of﻿REGENERATION THROUGH DIET
479
the producing animals for foods. We should therefore not en-
courage the extensive use of dairy products, and wherever possible
take our supply of protein and fat from well-masticated nuts or
wholesome nut butters. Their digestibility, if taken in proper
proportions and combinations, has been discussed in Chapter III.
Almonds and many tropical nuts contain very little starch, and
if brought into a state of emulsion are far more economical sources
of fat and protein than meat and dairy products.
Grass fed cows cannot be artificially forced to yield large quan-
tities of milk for commercial purposes, except by the introduction
of highly concentrated foods, along with their natural food. The
production of milk may also be increased by the special breeding of
so-called milch cows. In a natural state the lactiferous glands of
the cow as well as those of any other mammal are only active till
teeth of the young have grown sufficiently to enable them to take
solid food.
The much advertised milk cure—although it has certain tem-
porary advantages, in so far as it is a mono-diet and taken without
pasteurizing the milk—will not be of lasting benefit. Six to eight
quarts of milk per day, as are often given, supply too much protein
and overwork the liver and kidneys. Milk taken occasionally and
in small quantities, when there is no other cooked food to be had,
is certainly better than artificially prepared foods. But, if chil-
dren were given more fresh and dried fruit and green leaf vege-
tables, there would be no necessity for large amounts of milk.
Milk should be sipped slowly and preferably not mixed with any
other foods except some dextrinized cereals. Eggs may be used
with vegetable salads or steamed vegetables but not more than
two, either raw or soft boiled, should be eaten per day.
The strictly vegetarian diet, excluding all animal products, will
only prove satisfactory when it consists largely of uncooked foods
to insure the full benefit derived from vitamines and organic
salts. No matter how carefully cooked, there is always a certain
amount of loss of the nutritive value of foods by heat exceeding
150° F. Nevertheless, those who have been subsisting mostly on
cooked foods for years, must make the transition to natural foods
gradual, until the muscular walls of the alimentary canal and
the digestive juices have been sufficiently strengthened to extract
the fullest amount of nourishing ingredients from the uncooked﻿480
RATIONAL DIET
foods. Another great advantage of natural foods is that they
require thorough mastication, which is itself a great aid in thorough
digestion and assimilation.
Mrs. W. S. Wilke of Los Angeles, California, a close student
of dietetics, pointedly remarks in an article “Live Foods for Live
People” in the Vitality Magazine:
‘ ‘ The idea of living exclusively on natural or raw foods does not
appeal to the average individual, mainly because he has never
fully sensed their wonderfully invigorating and life giving quality,
and also because he does not realize what a large variety of natural
foods there is to select from.
“I would not advise anyone who has lived entirely on cooked
foods to begin as I did and try to live exclusively on natural foods.
If the change is made in too radical a manner, it often leads to
complete failure. I would recommend to begin with, not more
than one meal of raw food a day. Before long you will develop a
desire for natural food, and your very desires will prompt you to
use it more exclusively. Nor would I recommend that you adhere
too strictly to the one-meal-a-day plan. If you find that your
desire for the other food becomes too strong, reduce your program
to a meal of raw food every other day or, better still, eat a meal
of cooked food on days when the natural food makes no appeal.
“It is possible to use the natural foods in combination with
cooked foods, but this is not particularly advisable for several
reasons. First, you are inclined to eat too little of the natural
and too much of the cooked food, and sooner or later revert to
an exclusively cooked food diet. But if the latter plan is resorted
to, let me recommend very strongly that you eat the natural food
first. This will give it an opportunity to digest more readily, for
it has been proven in the laboratories of our universities that
most raw foods digest in one-third or one-half the time re-
quired for the same food after cooking. Therefore, if you mix the
food in a natural state with the same or similar food in a cooked
state, it will not only produce gas, but the cooked food will retard
the digestion of natural food. A good plan is to make the first
half of your evening meal of the natural foods. Begin with green
vegetables, or a salad" without having preceded it with soup or
other appetizers or stimulants.
“It was two weeks after my baby was born when I first began
living exclusively on natural foods. While I was in the hospital
the food that was served me was such that I did not feel I could
eat it, so I gave it up and used milk exclusively. But this was
not practical, for using only milk made me sick as well as the
child. I would not advise mothers to live on milk while nursing
their children, for I do not believe that milk is a good milk-pro-﻿REGENERATION THROUGH DIET
481
ducer. Certainly it is not a food that produces the best kind of
milk.
“During my pregnancy I gave up meat and ate fruit in abun-
dance, but I really did not realize at that time the value of the
food I was eating. I was guided largely by my own desires in
choosing food. I also did not follow the fallacy of eating enough
for two, and from the time the child was two weeks old I lived
entirely on natural foods, fruits, vegetables and nuts. For break-
fast I usually ate two or three oranges. When melons were in sea-
son I made my breakfast of them. But whatever the fruit, I ate
only one kind in the morning. For lunch I had fruits and nuts.
I combined different fruits in a salad and followed it by a nut
course. My evening meal consisted of a combination salad of
carrots, turnips, parsnips, or lettuce, spinach, celery, etc. On the
salad I used a dressing made of lemon juice, honey and olive oil,
and finished the meal with nuts. During the time that I was
nursing my baby, I occasionally ate between meals, but always
fruits. In this way I had plenty of milk at all times.
‘ ‘ There are five in our family, and all have lived without cooked
food for the past three years. I have a little boy who has not tasted
cooked food during this time, and my little girl has never tasted
it.”
Cereals, which, next to animal products, are the most widely
used food products of the world, cannot be very well used in their
natural or raw state. Very few people have strong enough teeth
or the time necessary for perfect mastication of cereals in which the
starch exists in the raw state. Before starch can be utilized by the
organism, it must change into sugar or maltose. The process of
converting starch into maltose is a slow one; only a small part of
the starch is thus converted by the enzymic action of the
saliva, while most of the starch is made ready for assimilation in
the small intestine through pancreatic action. Bread still contains
a good deal of raw starch, especially in the interior of the loaf,
as the enzymic action is arrested by the heat of the oven. The
advantage of well-baked, whole wheat bread is that it is more easily
acted upon by the digestive juices, especially if the flour has been
ground fine enough. A small amount of yeast is always prefer-
able to baking powder for raising the dough. As the action of the
yeast is destroyed during the baking process, the loss by alcoholic
fermentation is very small. A new process of making bread
directly from the grain by a special machine, has been referred to
in Chapter V, Part II. A small amount of good, wholesome bread,﻿482
RATIONAL DIET
or whole wheat crackers, not exceeding 4 to 6 per day, according
to occupation, will be sufficient for those who feel that they cannot
abandon entirely the use of cereals.
The use of cereal foods has become almost universal and it
would be difficult to discard their use altogether, even in the course
of time. The teeming millions of eastern Asia, for instance, de-
pend on rice as their staple food, and if properly prepared from
the whole kernel, it is the least objectionable of the cereals, as it
is less acid-forming than other grains.
Starchy roots and tubers, the staple foods in many countries, are
seldom eaten raw, although it is claimed that the raw potato is
often used in cases of rheumatism, as its alkaline salts readily
neutralize urea and uric acid. To make starchy vegetables more
digestible and palatable they should be baked in the skins, and
always eaten with a liberal amount of green leaf vegetables, prefer-
ably in the form of salads. There is no doubt that in the course
of time, as fruit and nut culture receive more attention, the culti-
vation of cereals will decrease and fresh and dried fruits will grad-
ually take their place, and these foods will furnish the body with
carbohydrates in a soluble form, needing no further preparation.
The fruitarian diet, by which we understand a diet consisting
of fruits and nuts, supplemented by such vegetables as can be rel-
ished in their natural state, is the ideal diet of man. In the fruit
of trees, nature has created one of her greatest masterpieces. When
eating fruit, we enjoy the full potential energy stored up by sun-
light, air, water, and the elements of the soil. The electric cellular
vibrations or vital electric forces are most intense in fruits, ripened
in the golden sunshine, while in flesh foods, they are at their ebb,
having been consumed and lost in the life processes of the animal.
There are in fruits many subtle and indefinable qualities that
are not susceptible to chemical analysis, for they are too volatile
to survive the laboratory process of condensation and extraction.
We have a number of food extracts in which those ingredients have
been condensed, which the chemist, guided by his analysis, believes
to be essential. It is more than probable that such ingredients are
not the most valuable, but only the coarser part. For example,
how can a chemist artificially produce an apple? No amount of
analysis and subsequent synthesis will enable him to do so, for,
though he may be able to produce the elements in their correct﻿REGENERATION THROUGH DIET
483
proportions, and even imitating the more complex compounds,
still there is a bloom of life about the fruit that would defy his
efforts.
Fruits are considered by many people as mere food accessories
to be passed around the table after a regular meal. In this way
all their nutritive and medicinal qualities are lost. Fruits should
be regarded as true foods, able to sustain health and vigor by them-
selves alone. To those who are following the simple life, a meal
consisting of one or two kinds of fruit is perfectly satisfying.
During the seasons when fresh, ripe fruits are available, we should
make full use of our opportunity and partake of as many fresh
fruit meals as possible. Fresh fruits may be supplemented by un-
sulphured sun-dried or dehydrated fruits in preference to canned
fruits. Dried fruits contain on an average from 50 to 65 per cent
of fruit sugar, from 2 to 5 per cent of protein, besides an abundance
of the alkaline elements, and are therefore from every point of
view superior to cereals, whose place they should take as fre-
quently as possible. Their fat content is low, but they can be sup-
plemented by nuts or unroasted nut butters, which also furnish
an additional amount of protein. Some fruits, such as the avocado
and olive, contain a considerable amount of fat. Dried fruits
should not be boiled, but only softened in water, which may be
heated to 120° F., in cold weather.
While under present conditions we cannot live altogether ra-
tionally, still we are able, with the natural foods available all the
year round, to make up a wholesome dietary conducive to health,
efficiency and longevity.
In the following paragraphs a few food combinations are given,
which can be easily changed to suit personal taste, seasons or occu-
pation. Those who have to perform a large amount of physical
work may simply increase the amounts of carbohydrates and fats.
Those who become accustomed to the use of uncooked foods, will
find that they will be able to live on much less food than when
subsisting mostly on cooked foods or food mixtures containing
meats, refined sugar, white flour, condiments and spices.
In the fruitarian and uncooked dietary, unroasted nut butters
should take the place of meat and dairy products. Ideal salad-
dressing can be made from these pure nut butters, by thoroughly
mixing them with a sufficient amount of warm water to bring them﻿484
RATIONAL DIET
to the consistency of cream. Unroasted almond butter is the most
desirable, as it does not contain any starch and, if properly diluted,
can be given to infants and convalescents. Further diluted into
almond milk and sweetened with a little honey, it makes a most
delicious food drink.
BREAKFAST
One dozen dried black mission figs (about 5 oz.) softened in
water. In cold weather, one spoonful of nut cream may be added.
One sweet orange or apple.
In place of figs a similar amount of other dried fruits, such as
prunes, apricots, peaches, pears, or dates may be eaten.
During the fruit season about one pound of fresh fruit should
take the place of dried fruits. The fruit may be cut into slices
and the nut cream used as a dressing. Three or four ripe bananas
may occasionally take the place of other fruits.
DINNER—No. 1
Combination vegetable salad, consisting of
1/2 head of lettuce
2 tomatoes
2 stalks of celery
1 or 2 grated carrots
dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. To this salad may be added
either one of the following protein foods:
1	dish of cottage cheese, about 5 oz.
2	oz. of nut butter, reduced to the consistency of cream
1 or 2 soft boiled eggs
One or two slices of whole wheat bread may be taken with this
meal; or in place of the bread, one baked potato. Fresh water-
cress, mustard leaves, tender spinach leaves or dandelion leaves
may be used occasionally instead of lettuce.
DINNER—No. 2
Combination fruit salad, consisting of
2 ripe bananas, sliced
2 medium sized apples, sliced
1	sweet orange, sliced
2	oz. of seedless raisins
1% to 2 oz. of grated nuts
or 2 oz. of nut cream as dressing.﻿REGENERATION THROUGH DIET
485
No cereal foods should be taken with the fruit salad. During
the fruit season berries and other fresh fruits may take the place
of apples. For sweetening both vegetable and fruit salads a tea-
spoonful of honey may be used, if desired.
SUPPER—No. 1
One of two kinds of steamed green leaf vegetables (spinach,
swTiss chard, beet tops, cauliflower, mustard leaves, celery tops, cab-
bage, onions).
One or two baked potatoes with butter. One soft boiled egg
may be eaten with this meal.
SUPPER—No. 2
Boiled whole rice with raisins and nut cream, with the addition
of a few lettuce leaves, also make a good combination.
To prepare whole rice, take one cup of whole rice to three cups
of water and let it come to a boil on a slow fire. Let it simmer for
at least 45 minutes or more until the kernels have absorbed all the
water and become soft. The best way to prepare the rice is to put
it into a fireless cooker after it has been boiling for about ten min-
utes. In this way the rice may be left in the cooker for several
hours or until it is needed.
These few meals will give the beginner some idea how to pro-
ceed intelligently in making other combinations. During the
summer season when plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables are
available, very little cooking, if any, should be done.
The above combinations are chiefly intended as a transition diet
from the ordinary diet to a fruitarian regimen.
The following articles should be avoided, or used only when
others are not available:
Flesh foods of all kinds.
Refined sugar, candy and canned foods.
White flour products (white bread, crackers, biscuits, pastries
and pies).
Degerminated cereals (cornmeal, polished rice, rolled barley,
polished millet, etc.). Sago and tapioca starch.
Sulphured dried fruits (apples, apricots, peaches, pears, silver
prunes, etc.).﻿486
RATIONAL DIET
Fruit juices treated with preservatives (benzoate of soda, sali-
cylic acid, formalin, etc.).
Pickled foods, jams and jellies. Fried foods.
Oleomargarine, preserved with benzoate of soda.
Soft drinks (artificially colored and flavored).
Salt, spices and condiments.
Alcoholic beverages, tea and coffee, cocoa and chocolate.
According to their hygienic value human foods may be classified
as follows, beginning with the most desirable ones :
Fresh fruits of all kinds, in their season, if not mixed with any
other foods.
Green leaf vegetables, in the form of salads.
Sun-dried or dehydrated fruits (unsulphured).
Nuts, unroasted nut butters, and cold pressed vegetable oils.
Starchy vegetables, if properly prepared.
Whole grain products and legumes.
Milk and dairy products.
Flesh foods of all kinds, the least essential of all foods, which
have no place in a rational dietary.
Nature’s most wholesome foods need hardly any artificial prep-
aration. The exquisite flavors and palatableness of her luscious
fruits, her tasty nuts and cooling green leaf vegetables defy the
efforts of the most expert cook to improve on her incomparable
handiwork. The adoption of the fruitarian diet means the eman-
cipation of woman from kitchen slavery. It will enable her to
devote the time she now spends over the hot kitchen stove in the
preparation of sumptuous dinners, to the better education of her
children and to her own culture.
Diet reform, which in a larger sense means the mental and phy-
sical regeneration of the individual, will be one of the greatest
factors in establishing a new and better civilization, for it involves
beneficial reforms which everybody can at once begin to apply to
himself without waiting for the enactment of legislative measures.
We cannot rise to higher forms of life, so long as we live
ont of harmony with the laws of nature. To attempt to improve
mankind by sumptuary mandates has proved futile. We know﻿REGENERATION THROUGH DIET
487
that the prohibition of manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages
can never be really enforced while the people pursue their old ways
of living. Prohibitionists are well meaning, hut short-sighted;
they do not realize that food poisoning is just as detrimental as
alcohol poisoning. Many of them fall prey to disease and prema-
ture death because they overeat and indulge in strong coffee or
tea. They are trying to make alcohol the scapegoat of all evils.
There is no difference, except in degree, between the injurious con-
sequences arising from an excess of the consumption of flesh
foods, white flour, refined sugar, candy, etc., and that of alcohol.
However, nothing could be achieved by making laws prohibiting
the use of refined sugar, white flour, meat, coffee and tea. The
consumption of alcoholic liquors has probably not appreciably de-
creased in the United States, considering the enormous develop-
ment of “home brew” industry, and the flourishing illicit trade.
Prohibition of any article of food or drink will always cause a large
number of people addicted to its use to obtain it by illegitimate
ways.
Those who change from conventional eating habits to whole-
some living may, for a few weeks, feel that the plain natural foods
are not satisfying them. This is due to the fact that the whole-
some fare is lacking in artificial stimulating qualities. People
who are suddenly deprived of their stimulants lose strength and
weight. They are enervated. They do not realize that they were
already enervated before they gave up their stimulating foods,
which had slowly depleted their vitality.
Those who have for years lived on a mixed diet, largely meat,
and then quickly changed, for the sake of experimental purposes
to a vegetarian diet for a brief period, have been more or less dis-
appointed with the results. This is understandable, for a radical
change of this kind must necessarily provoke irregularities. Such
experiments are of little value as they really prove nothing unless
they are carried on for months or years after a careful study of
dietetics. By living mostly on cooked foods, people have eaten far
more than necessary, and naturally their stomach and intestines
have become more or less inflated, often leaving an artificial craving
for more food after their first simple and wholesome meals.
Overeating exists because such foods as bread, puddings,
pies and pastries, are tasty and attractive long after a sufficiency has﻿488
RATIONAL DIET
been eaten. This tendency to please the palate with sugar and
condiments not only induces overeating, but removes all desire for
natural foods. People who have given the subject of diet no at-
tention will inevitably drift into eating habits that create disease,
for they will eat less of foods which purify the system and more of
those which favor retention of waste and fail to furnish the vital
cell-building materials.
As long as we have no educational system which teaches the
importance of rational eating, the old dietetic evils will continue
and the old errors will be handed down from generation to genera-
tion because we ourselves have been educated in the old traditions
and are working under the same influences as our ancestors. But
the existing state of things, however discouraging, is not perma-
nent and the history of evolution shows that all nature works un-
ceasingly for progress.
Man’s lost instinct for natural foods will be replaced by a con-
scious knowledge, resulting from the study of the laws of biol-
ogy and physiological chemistry as well, as by practical experience.
The fact will be more and more realized that the vegetable kingdom
is the store house of all nutrition, giving us the greatest variety
of products from which to select our foods, enabling us to enjoy
them in their natural state, full of electrical vitality, unblemished
by the hand of man.
The continuous wholesale killing of animals for human food,
is not only a violation of a biological law, but one of the greatest
economic wastes. To be sure, this change in man’s attitude toward
the animal world, means a reversal of his habits of life. But the
human intellect, when exercised, is a power that will correct errors
of habit without serious physical disturbance.
It cannot be emphasized too often that many will at first ex-
perience a seeming change for the worse in adopting a rational
vegetarian or fruitarian diet. The various disagreeable symptoms
or crises, which will appear in most instances and cause so many
to quickly return to their old ways of living, are really a sign of
improvement. The body, which, by the old perverted dietetic
habits has been encumbered with morbid matter is gradually being
invigorated by the natural food and is beginning to eliminate the
poisons which have for years accumulated throughout the system.
This increased elimination will often be accompanied by a tem-﻿REGENERATION THROUGH DIET
489
porary feeling of depression and fatigue. But by perseverance in
the new dietary, these disagreeable symptoms will soon give way
to normal and healthy reactions.
There is no victory without struggle and those who do not
have the will and determination to carry out the once undertaken
work of self-reformation should rather not begin at all. We realize
that the physician who demands self-discipline from his patients
is not very popular.
“Nothing offends patients more,” writes Dr. Alexander Bryce,
“than to be asked to change their habits of life. Their desire is
to be able to break every known law of health; and when they are
called upon to pay the penalty, they accept complete absolution in
a bottle or two of medicine. They do not want to be cured, but are
content to be patched up sufficiently to continue their practice of
self-indulgence in various forms.”
To find the fountain of eternal youth and drink from it copi-
ously has been the dream for centuries of many who, feeling the
premature decline of health and vigor, desire to renew life’s forces
by some mysterious magic liquid. This desire is most typically
illustrated in Goethe’s Faust, who in his search to regain youthful-
ness, after a life of dissipation, asks Mephisto:
“Has neither nature nor a nobler mind
A balsam yet devised of any kind ? ’ ’
Mephisto answers:
I ‘ Here is my remedy, which cures
Without physician, gold or care i
Drop luxury, and to the fields repair
Begin to dig and cultivate thy square.
Thy senses and thyself confine
Within a small and happy sphere.
Support thyself upon a frugal fare
Like deer and birds, in woods and air.
This is the surest method, without fail,
At eighty to grow young again and hale.”
But Faust, who like so many others, does not want to make the
effort to follow Mephisto’s sound advice, indignantly replies:
“I cannot do this, nor can myself degrade
So far, to work with rake and hoe and spade.
This narrow life would suit me not at all.”
Mephisto, realizing his inability to persuade Faust, finally con-﻿490
KATIONAL DIET
eludes to resort to magic, as nothing else would act so quickly to
satisfy his impatient companion:
‘ ‘ The witch must then be summoned after all. ’ ’
If Faust had lived several hundred years later, Mephisto, in
all probability would have recommended to him a pair of new
monkey or goat glands to regain his sprightliness, and to revel
again in the pleasures of youth. Indeed, we see here in Faust a
true picture of over-civilized mankind, who lives in self-indulgence
and then prefers to get “cured” quickly by taking some myste-
rious pills or potions, or to undergo the knife of the surgeon rather
than deviate from ingrained habits, and acquire the practice of self
control and abstemiousness.
Diet reform is not as yet a very popular subject, and people
are apt to listen to those who advise them to “Eat what you like
or eat what agrees with you, ’ ’ and then feel satisfied to blame their
ills on some imaginary cause. To be sure, there are many who recog-
nize the necessity of rational nutrition, but find it difficult to change
suddenly their long established habits of life. To these we must
give stepping stones which will gradually lead to the adoption of a
natural diet.
Few people realize what a powerful influence upon our social
and economic life a change in dietetic habits would have. It would
mean a new and better system of agriculture and horticulture, im-
proved methods of production, transportation, and distribution of
the world’s most wholesome foods to bring them at reasonable prices
within reach of all. These may seem far removed ideals, whose
realization will require the intense work of many generations, but if
we consider, seriously, what enormous sums we spend for insane
warfare, which could be devoted to human progress and well-being,
we must admit that very much could be accomplished within the
present generation. With the cooperation of a few men like Bur-
bank, Edison, Steinmetz and Ford, and sane legislative measures
in regard to tenure and taxation of land, human life could be made
more wholesome, more useful and enjoyable for the toiling masses
than it is now.
True progress does not mean the production and consumption of
luxuries, but rather the living of a simple, wholesome life, helpful to
ourselves and our fellowmen. There is no necessity for living a
life of asceticism, but the more simply one lives in regard to his﻿REGENERATION THROUGH DIET
491
food, the more he will he satisfied with simplicity and frugality. As
man learns to enjoy the exquisite and inimitable flavor of natural
foods, the desire for all stimulants, condiments and artificially
prepared dishes to tempt the palate will vanish. It is a great mis-
take to regard sumptuous meals as an indication of a better civiliza-
tion. They really lay the foundation for individual and national
decadence. On the other hand, to the degree that a simple diet
becomes popular among all classes of people, the collective life of
the nation will be purer and cleaner, and disease, inebriety and
crime will decline.
By strictly conforming to nature’s laws, man should live at
least one hundred years. He should increase his physical and
mental powers until he is sixty years of age, and retain them for
another two score of years. Yet comparatively few instances are
on record of vigorous men past sixty years of age.
With the increasing knowledge of our position in nature and
the laws which govern our being, we may hopefully look forward
to the time when an age of temperance, an age of sanitary reform,
an age of plain living and high thinking shall have so regenerated
man that he will walk the earth a century and more, carrying out
the great law of evolution, which culminates in the physical and
mental perfection of the human race.﻿﻿APPENDIX
Explanations of the Periodic Table of Elements
The theory of the octave, as applied to the elements, later
known as the Periodic Theory, was first set forth by the Eussian
scientist, Ivanovitch Mendeleeff. He divided the elements by paral-
lel columns into vertical groups or octaves. The position of the
different elements in the column is determined by their atomic
weight, commencing with the lightest and gradually ascending the
column as the atomic weight increases.
The elements in Group 0, as far as has been ascertained, have
no known chemical combination with any other element. The
elements in Groups 1 and 2 are alkaline. The elements in 3 and 4
are either weakly alkaline, or weakly acid; the elements in Groups
5, 6 and 7, are strongly acid. By drawing parallel lines through
all of the columns, attention is directed to the similarity of the
elements on the parallel lines; they have similar properties and are
closely related. This similarity is usually noted in each octave,
but may be separated by two or more octaves. The electron makes
up the atoms of all matter, the only difference being in the number
of electrons, both positive and negative, that their atoms contain.
Two factors govern atomic vibration t first, the increasing number
of electrons contained in the atoms; and, second, the relative pre-
dominance of the negative electrons over the positive.
Explanation of the Tables of Analyses
The amounts of organic salts in 1000 parts of water free sub-
stance have been calculated by the author with the object of fur-
nishing a means of comparing them on an equal basis with the re-
spective amounts of total mineral matter contained in the solid
material. Where no figures are given no analysis is available.
Very few analyses have been made to determine the contents of
manganese, fluorine and iodine in foods. For this reason these
elements do not appear in the tables. Some analyses of iodine in
foods are given in Part I, Chapter XIII.
Analyses of mineral matter of different foods, grown in dif-
493﻿494
RATIONAL DIET
ferent localities should be made frequently, in order to determine
the variation of their mineral contents and the particular elements
needed for improving both soil and food products. This is highly
important, when we consider the fact that many plant diseases and
insect pests are traceable to impoverished or wrongly fertilized soils.
The analyses presented in these tables have been taken mostly
from the following sources:
Dr. J. Koenig, Chemie der Menschlichen Nahrungs und Genuss-
mittel (Chemistry of Human Foods and Food-Accessories).
Dr. E. Wolff, Aschen Analysen (Analyses of Mineral Matter
in Foods).
Dr. Ragnar Berg, Die Nahrungs und Genussmittel, ihre Zusam-
mensetzung und ihr Einfluss auf die Gesundheit mit besonderer
Berücksichtigung der Aschen Bestandteile. (Foods, their Compo-
sition and Influence upon Health, with Special Reference to their
Contents of Mineral Matter.)
Dr. Henry C. Sherman, Chemistry of Food and Nutrition.
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Chemistry, Bulletin
No. 87, Chemical Composition of some Tropical Fruits and their
Products.
Wilson Popenoe, Manual of Tropical and Subtropical Fruits.
EQUIVALENTS OE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
Avoirdupois	Metric
Lb.	Oz.	Grains	Grams
2	3	119.9	=	1,000
1	..	.... =	453.6
3	230.7	=	100
1	.... =	28.3
15.4	=	1
1 lb.=16 oz.=7,000 grains; 1 oz.=437.5 grains.
1 kilogram=l,000 grams=15,432 grains.
1 cubic foot of water=7.48 gallons; weighs 62.5 lbs.
1 gallon of water=4.54 litres; weighs 8.3 lbs.
1 cubic foot of air at sea level and 32° F. weighs about 1% oz.
1 bushel wheat=60 lbs.
1 bushel shelled corn=56 lbs.
1 bushel rye=56 lbs.
1 bushel buckwheat=52 lbs.
1 bushel oats (in the husk)=32 lbs.﻿MENDELEEFF’S PERIODIC TABLE OF ELEMENTS MODIFIED
APPENDIX
495
Osmium A. W. 191, E. 147070 Iridium A. W. 193, E. 148610 Platinum A. W. 194, E. 149380		Radium A.W. 257.8 E198506	Uranium A.W. 238 E183260	Thorium 1 A.W. 232 E178640					10
			Bismuth A.W. 208 E160160	Lead A.W. 206.1 E158697	Thallium A.W. 204 E157raM	Mercury A.W. 200 E154000	Gold A.W. 197 E151690		C5
		Tungsten A.W. 184 E141680	Tantalum A.W. 183 E140910	Ce-Yb A.W.140-173 E107800- 133210	Lanthanum A.W. 138.1 E1QCM7	Barium A.W. 137 E105490	Caesium A.W. 132.1 E101717	Xenon A.W. 1» E98560	00
Ruthenium 101, E. 77770 Rhodium 103, E. 79310 Palladium 106, E. 83160	*Iodine A.W. 127 E97790	Tellurium A.W. 127.1 E97867	Antimony A.W. 120 E92400	Tin A.W. 119 E91630	Indium A.W. 115 E88550	Cadmium A.W. 112 E86240	Silver A.W. 108 E83160		t-
		Molybdenum I A.W. 96 E73920	Niobium A.W. 94 E72380	Zirconium A.W. 90 E69300	Y ttrium A.W. 89 E68530	Strontium A.W. 87 E66990	Rubidium A.W. 85 E65450	Krypton A.W. 81.1 E62447	CD
»Iron A. W. 56 E. 43120 Nickel A. W. 58, E. 44660 Cobalt A. W. 59, E. 45430	Bromine A.W. 80 E61600	Selenium I A.W. 79 E60830	““Arsenic A.W. 75 E57750	Germanium A.W. 72 E55440	Gallium A.W. 70 E53900	Zinc A.W. 65 E50050	Copper A.W. 63.1 E48587		LO
	* Manganese A.W. 55 E48B50	Chromium A.W. 52 E40040	Vanadium A.W. 51 E39270	Titanium A.W. 48 E3Ç960	Scandium A.W. 44 E336g)	““Crilflium A.W. 40 E39800	““Potassium A.W. 39.1 E30107	Argon A.W. J9 E30030 |	
	““Chlorine A.W. 35.5 E27335	““Sulphur A.W. 32 E24640	““Phosphorus A.W. 31 E23870	““Silicon A.W. 28 E21560	““Aluminum A.W. 27 E20709	g .g_«CO	■ o .rH * ^	O f— 0^0 B >- 'O ^ T—I	CO
	"“Fluorine A.W. 19 E14630	* Oxygen A.W. 16 E12320	““Nitrogen A.W. 14 E10780	““Carbon A.W. 12 E9240	Boron A.W. 11 E8470	Glucinum A.W. 9 E6930	Lithium A.W. 7 E&90	Helium A.W. 4 E3080	
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Hydrogen, the lightest element, A. W. 1, E770 belongs to Group 1, Series 1.﻿496
RATIONAL DIET
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APPENDIX
307
PEAS 41 Analyses by Dr. Koenig	Mvapi	LO 05 CD 05 CD CD CO rH CD ^ CD t- 05 05 05 00 ^ CD 00 LO Cq (NOrPt^OtOCOOH CO
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	wnwiNipi	1.76 35.80 2.21 5.80 29.30 ....
POTATOEË® 53 Analyses by Dr. E. Wolff	Nvapi	t>* Cq t- 05 00 CO 05 CO rH 05 CO CD lO CD H CO H H Ö Ooioq^rHt^CDOqCO CD rH
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		Total Mineral-matter in Food, per cent	 Composition of Total Mineral matter, per cent: Potash	 Soda	 Lime	 Magnesia	 Oxide of Iron	 Phosphoric Acid	 Sulphuric Acid	 Silica	 Chlorine	
(Referring to Chapter XI, Part I.)﻿508
RATIONAL DIET
APPROXIMATE AMOUNT OF FOOD MATERIAL NECESSARY
TO SUPPLY TWO OUNCES (56 GRAMS) OF PROTEIN
Shelled Nuts			Fresh Fruits			Vegetables	
PlGNOLIAS		6	oz.	Paw Paws. ...	2 y2 lbs.		Kohlrabi ....	. 2^ lbs.
Black Walnuts 7		oz.	Avocados		4	lbs.	Salsify		. 2% lbs.
Butternuts...	. 7	oz.	Raspberries. .	7	lbs.	Spinach		. 3^1bs.
Peanuts		. 7	oz.	Apricots		8	lbs.	Turnips		. 3% lbs.
Almond Butter 8		oz.	Figs, average..	8	lbs.	Savoy Cabbage 3% lbs.	
Almonds		9	oz.	Blackberries.	10	lbs.	Green Corn. .	. 4 lbs.
Pistachios ....	9	oz.	Grapes, averagelO		lbs.	Cauliflower .	. 5 lbs.
Beechnuts. ...	10	oz.	Bananas		10	lbs.	Asparagus		. §Yi lbs.
Brazil Nuts . .	11	oz.	Guavas		10	lbs.	Potatoes		. 7 lbs.
English			Cherries		12	lbs.	Beets		. 8 lbs.
Walnuts		11	oz.	Strawberries.	12	lbs.	Onions		. 8 lbs.
Filberts		12 H	oz.	Plums		12	lbs.	Okra		. 8 lbs.
Pinons		14	oz.	Huckleberries15		lbs.	Lettuce		. 3}4 lbs.
Pecans		16	oz.	Peaches, ......	15	lbs.	Cucumbers. ..	. 10 lbs.
Chestnuts ....	20	oz.	Prunes		15	lbs.	Eggplant		. 10 lbs.
Cocoanuts, dried		30	oz.	Oranges		15	lbs.	Celery		.11 lbs.
			Pears		20	lbs.	Pumpkins		. 11 lbs.
Leaumes and Cereals			Gooseberries.	23	lbs.	Carrots		12H lbs.
			Apples, average	25	lbs.		
Soy Beans, dried 6		oz.					
Beans, dried...	8					Tomatoes. . ..	.13^ lbs.
		oz.					
Lentils, dried.	8	oz.	Dried Fruits			Animal Foods	
Peas, dried....	9	oz.	Raspberries. .	.IVa. lbs.		Human Milk	5 pints
			Apricots		.2	lbs.		
Lima Beans,							
dried		10	oz.	nApr>RPTlFllK	.2	lbs.	Cow’s Milk	3% pints
Green Peas. ..	30	oz.	Olives		.2	lbs.	8 Eggs		... 16 oz.
Whole Wheat.	14	oz.	Black Figs ....	,2V lbs.		American Cheese 7 oz.	
Rye		17	oz.				Swiss Cheese .	
Barley		18	oz.	Currants				... 7 oz.
Oats		19	oz.	Q^Zante)		.2^ lbs.		Lean Meat. .	... 9 oz.
Corn		20	oz.	Raisins		.3	lbs.	Cottage Cheese. .10 oz.	
Millet		21	oz.	Prunes		.3	lbs.	Meat, average	... 10 oz.
Rice		25	oz.	Pears		.3 lbs.		Sea Fish, average. 10 oz.	
Whole Wheat Bread		20	oz.	Peaches		.4	lbs.	Lobster		... 12 oz.
Rye Bread		21	oz.	Dates		.4	lbs.	Clams		.. .25 oz.
White		21	oz.	Litchi Nuts. ..	.4	lbs.	Oysters		...32 oz﻿APPENDIX
509
THE PROTEIN QUESTION
The protein question has been a point of controversy among dietitians
ever since the days of Baron von Liebig and Dr. Yoit who proclaimed the
daily protein requirement of the average man as 118 grams (over 4 ounces).
The careful invattigations of Dr. Max Rubner, Director of the Hygienic In-
stitute of the University of Berlin, have shown that only four per cent of
the entire amount of calories consumed in the body are required in the shape
of protein; while natural sugars and fats have to make up the balance. For
instance, if a man consumes 2,500 calories daily, 100 calories, or about one
ounce of protein, are sufficient. By living on a well balanced fruitarian diet,
insuring an adequate supply of organic salts and vitamins, 1% ounces of
protein daily are more than ample even during periods of muscular exertion.
For the average person doing light indoor work, on* ounce of protein is suf-
ficient, so that the amounts given in the accompanying table can be safely
reduced from 25 to 50 per cent.
The fact that meat protein often shows a higher coefficient of digestibility
than vegetable protein does not prove its superior value in the actual rebuild-
ing of the living tissues of the human body. In protein coming from the
tissues of the dead animal the vibratory forces of life are on the deseendency,
while in the living protoplasm of the natural products of the vegetable kingdom
they are on the ascendency. The excessive consumption of protein, es-
pecially in the form of meat, increases the acidity of blood, favors the accumu-
lation of toxins in the system and is laying the foundation of many diseases,
like constipation, diabetes, cancer, etc., which are built slowly and often im-
perceptibly in the course of years.﻿510
RATIONAL DIET
AVERAGE PERCENTAGE OF PROTEIN CONTAINED
IN WATER-FREE SUBSTANCES
Apples......... 2.60
Gooseberries... 3.50
Huckleberries... 3.70
Pears.......... 4.00
Prunes......... 4.40
Plums.......... 4.70
Pineapples..... 4.80
Cherries....... 5.00
Mango.......... 5.00
Watermelons.... 5.20
Muskmelons..... 5.80
Grapes......... 6.00
Oranges........ 6.10
Peaches........ 6.60
St. John’s Bread.. 6.80
Guavas......... 7.00
Raspberries.... 7.00
Watermelons.... 7.20
Figs........... 7.40
Olives......... 7.50
Carrots........ 7.70
Potatoes....... 8.00
Apricots....... 8.70
Blackberries... 8.80
Rice........... 9.00
Artichokes..... 9.00
Parsnips....... 9.00
Currants.......10.00
Raspberries, blacklO.OO
Rhubarb........10.00
Millets........10.00
Pumpkins.......11.00
Corn...........11.20
White Flour....11.60
Oats...........11.90
Rutabagas......12.00
COCOABEANS.....12.40
Pecans.........12.40
Green Corn.....12.60
Barley.........12.70
Beets..........12.80
Onions.........12.90
Rye............13.50
Whey...........14.00
White Bread....14.20
Radishes.......14.70
Whole Wheat. ... 15.70
Okra...........15.80
Tomatoes.......15.80
Eggplant.......17.00
Human Milk.....18.00
Brazil Nuts....18.30
Garlic.........19.00
Dandelions.....20.00
Celery.........20.00
Lima Beans.....20.00
Swiss Chard....20.40
Chives.........21.70
Almonds........22.50
Leeks..........22.60
Brussels Sprouts.23.80
Mushrooms......23.80
Lettuce........24.50
Cowpeas........24.60
Savoy Cabbage ... 26.00
Peas............26.90
Cow’s Milk......27.00
Cucumbers.......27.30
Cauliflower.....27.70
Beans...........28.60
Asparagus.......28.80
Lentils.........29.30
Salsify.........29.40
Butternuts......29.50
Spinach.........30.00
Nettles.........31.20
Yolk of Egg.....32.00
Peanuts.........32.20
Buttermilk......33.00
Collards........34.50
Turnips.........35.00
Kohlrabi........35.00
Skim Milk.......35.80
PlGNOLIAS.......36.10
Soy Beans.......38.10
Champignons.....42.00
Cottage Cheese . 174.50
Meat, average.... 80.00
Blood of
Bullocks......85.00
Blood Serum of
Man...........89.00
White of Egg. .. .89.00
Fish, average...90.00
Red Blood
Corpuscles....97.00﻿SODIUM (Na20)
Contained in 1000 parts of water-free substance
APPENDIX
511
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APPENDIX
513
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﻿BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Metabolism of the Milch Cow, Bulletin No. 330; The Utilization of Calcium
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delphia, Pa.
Macrobiotic, by Dr. Julius Hensel. Boericke and Tafel, Philadelphia,
Pa.
617﻿518
RATIONAL DIET
Pitysiological Pole of Mineral Nutrients in Plants, by Dr. Oscar Loew.
U. S. Dept, of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 45.
Iron in Food and its Functions in Nutrition, by Dr. H. C. Sherman.
U. S. Dept, of Agriculture, Office of Experiment Stations, Bulletin No. 185.
The Belation of Lime and Magnesia to Plant Growth. Bureau of Plant
Industry, Bulletin No. 1.
Plant Disease and its Delation to Animal Life, by Prof. E. F. Wright.
Swan Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd., London.
The Natural Food of Man, by Hereward Carrington. C. W. Daniel,
Ltd., London.
Thè Fruit of the Tree, by Charles W. Forward. Denny & Thomson,
Ltd., London.
Nutrition Investigations among Fruitarians and Chinese, by Prof. M. E.
Jaffa, University of California, Berkeley, Cal. Office of Exp. Stations, Bul-
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Further Investigations Among Fndtarians at the California Agricultural
Experiment Station, by Prof. M. E. Jaffa. Office of Exp. Station, Bulletin
No. 132.
Digest of Japanese Investigations on the Nutrition of Man, by Kintaro
Oshima. U. S. Dept, of Agriculture, Office of Exp. Station, Bulletin No. 159.
The Effect of Diet on Endurance, by Prof. Dr. Irving Fisher. (Pub-
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Smyrna Fig Culture, by G. P. Rexford. U. S. Dept, of Agriculture,
Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin No. 732.
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Bulletin No. 5.
Propagation and Culture of the Date Palm, U. S. Dept, of Agriculture,
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The Fig, Its History, Culture and Curing, by Gustav Eisen, Ph.D. U. S.
Dept, of Agriculture, Division of Pomology, Bulletin No. 91.
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RATIONAL DIET
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Iridiagnosis, by Dr. H. Lindlahr, Chicago, Ills.
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Pioneer Teachers, by T. H. Behnke, Elmhurst, 111.
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phia, Pa.
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Wolff, Germany.
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auf die Gesundheit mit besonderer Beruecksichtigung der Aschen Bestandteile
(Foods, Their Composition and Influence upon Health with Special Reference
to their Contents of Mineral Matter), by Dr. Ragnar Berg. Holze & Pahl,
Dresden, Germany.﻿INDEX
A
Acid,
acetic, 79, 421
amino, 45, 146
benzoic, 46, 423, 426
citric, 46, 79, 195-197
fatty, 63
formic, 321, 322, 423, 428
gallic, 80
hydrochloric, 142
lactic, 80
malic, 46, 80
organic, 45, 46, 79
oxalic, 80, 81
salicylic, 423, 425
sulphurous, 179, 180, 430
sulphuric, 111, 135
tannic, 80
tartaric, 46, 80
uric, 38, 350, 352
Acidosis, 444
Acorn, 243
analysis of, 243, 499
bread, 243
coffee substitute, 243
meal, 243
Adenoids, 440, 462
Adulteration of foods, 422-438
Agar-agar, 297
Agriculture, 102
the beginning of, 174
the new, 383-400
in Japan and China, 384
Air, 24, 30-33
Airbaths, 27
Albumen, 45, 49, 338
Albuminuria, 420
Alcohol, 39, 40, 54, 116
in patent medicines, 405
Alcoholic beverages, 402-404
Algae, 67
Alimentary canal, 21
Alligator Pear (see Avocado)
Allspice, 419
Alkaline elements, 83-110
Alkalinity of blood, 111
Almond
analysis of, 246, 499
butter, 246
cream, 246
milk, 246
oil, 246
varieties, 244
Aluminum, 4, 12, 47, 83, 131
Amino-acids, 45,347
Ammonia, 27, 28, 103
Ammonium salts, 45
Analyses of foods, 43, 496-507
Anemia, 25, 121, 440
Animal heat, 121
magnetism, 121
Ankylosis, 440
Antitoxin, 47, 102, 111, 447, 454, 460
Apes, anthropoid, 169
Apples, 181, 182, 496
analyses of, 183
annual production in the U. S.,
182
varieties, 182
yield per acre, 182
Apoplexy, 70
Apricots, 184
analysis of, 184, 496, 498
Arrowroot, 292
Chinese, 252
Arsenic, 12, 47, 83, 145
Arteries, 89-90, 116
hardening of, 116, 470
Arteriosclerosis, 36, 116, 440
cause of, 470
diet in, 470
drugs fatal in, 470
Arthritis, 440
521﻿522
RATIONAL DIET
Artichokes, 280
analysis of, 500
Asparagus, 288
analysis of, 500
Assimilation, 22, 42
Asthma, 117, 137
Atoms, 4, 5, 6, 13
Atomic Theory, 4, 5
Atomic weight of elements, 495
Autointoxication (Toxemia), 450-
454, 487
Auzimour Bernard, report on the
diet of Arabs, 357, 358
Avocado, 198-202
analysis of, 198, 497
in Florida, 199-202
in Guatemala, 199, 200
Southern California, 199, 202
B
Bacilli, 47, 98, 104, 445
Bacteria, 13, 35, 74, 88, 115, 315, 445
Bacteriology, 445
Bananas, 180, 202-204
analysis, 203, 204, 497
production of, 203
Banana Figs, 381
Banting cure, 111
Barley, 306
analysis of, 502
flour, 307
pearled, 307
Beans, 315, 316
analysis of, 504
Egyptian, 251
varieties, 315, 316
Beechnut, 246
analysis of, 499
Beef, analysis of, 506
Bees, 320, 321
Beets, 283
analysis of, 500
Bell, Sir Charles, 169
Bile, analysis of, 506
Benzoic acid, 44, 423, 426
Beri-beri, 60, 128, 137, 313
in the Philippines, 448
Berries, 192-194
Bile, 37, 109, 124
Bills of fare, rational, 484, 483
Biochemistry, 87
Biochemic “Tissue Salts," 87
Birds’ nests, edible, 297
Blackberries, 192
analysis of, 496
Bladderstones, 109
Blayton’s experiments with sun-
light, 25, 26
Bleaching of flour, 435, 436
Blood, 21, 39, 99, 109
analysis of, 560
acidity of, 104, 110, 111
alkalinity of, 104, 110, 111
Amount of, in body, 89, 90
arterial, 29
circulation of, 89, 90
venous, 29
Blood of bullock,
analysis of, 506
Blood of calf,
analysis of, 506
Blood of hog,
analysis of, 506
Blood of sheep,
analysis of, 506
Blood corpuscles, red, 31, 90
analysis of, 506
white, 25
Blood plasma,
analysis of, 506
Blood serum, 89
analysis of, 506
Blue, General Rupert,
report on state of health in the
U. 8., 439
Bobveal, 331
Body, human composition of, 83, 84
Bones, composition of, 51, 101
analysis of, 506
Brain, 15, 22
analysis of, 506
Brazil nut, 264
analysis of, 264, 499﻿INDEX
523
Bread, falsely called the staff of
life, 398
analysis of, 503
making, 304, 305, 481
Breakfast, rational, 484, 485
Bread fruit, 204
analysis of, 205, 497
Breathing, 31
Bright’s disease, 468, 469
Broccoli, 250
Bromine, 44
Brussels sprouts, 250
analysis of, 500
Bryce, Dr. Alexander
on rational living, 489
Buckwheat, 307
analysis of, 502
flour, 307
Bull, Dr. William T.,
on cancer, 466, 467
Bunge, Professor
on salt, 92
Butter,
analysis of, 505
Buttermilk, 335
analysis of, 336, 505
Butter nut, 258
analysis of, 499
O
Cabbage, 280
analysis of, 500
Cacao, 409-411
Cactus fruit, 206
analysis of, 206, 497
Caffein, 405
Cajori’s experiments on the digesti-
bility of nuts, 240, 241
Calcium, 4, 12, 47, 83, 99, 112-117
requirements of the body, 117
bicarbonate, 34, 35
spar, 112
sulphate of, 36
California, development of agricul-
tural resources, 391-393
Calories, 44, 94, 104, 461
Cancer, 98, 137, 463-468
a disease of modern civilization,
463, 464
of liver, 466
of stomach, 466
increasing in meat-eating coun-
tries, 465
in relation to alcohol consump-
tion, 465
remedial diet for, 467
unknown among vegetarians,
465, 466
Cancer Research Fund,
report of, 466
Cancer statistics, 467
Candlenut, 264
analysis, 265, 499
Candy, consumption of in the U. 8.,
94
Cane sugar, 67, 68
Canning of foods, 365
Canteloupe, 274
Capillaries, 90, 116
Capsicum, 276, 418
Capsicin, 418
Caraway seeds, analysis of, 503
Carbon, 4, 12, 13, 18, 45, 62
Carbonate of lime, 101
Carbohydrates, 45, 46, 52, 62, 67-78,
106, 110
inversion of, 67
Carbon dioxide, 12, 14, 18, 27, 28, 29,
30, 31, 34, 38, 46, 52, 69
Carnin, 351
Carob, 205, 206
analysis of, 206, 504
Carrageen, 297
Carpenter, William P., 169
Carrots, 283
analysis of, 500
Cartilage, 99, 101
Casein, 45, 49
Cashew Apple, 265
cashew nut, 265
Cassava, 293
analysis of, 293, 503
starch, 293﻿524
RATIONAL DIET
Cassia, 418
Castanopsis, 247
Castor bean, 64
Castor oil, 64
Catarrhal conditions, 40, 69
Cattle raising, wastefulness of, 360,
361, 476, 477
Cauliflower, 280
analysis of, 500
Celeriac, 285
analysis of, 500
Cells, 17
epithelial, 19, 20, 21
Celery, 280, 281
analysis of, 500
Cellulose, 46, 67, 77
digestibility of, 77
percentage in foods, 78
Cereals, 77, 92
analysis of, 298, 304
deficient in alkaline elements, 92,
95, 298
demineralized, 94, 95
too rich in nitrogen and phos-
phoric acid, 105
preparation and use of, 481, 482
production in the L'. S., 299
world’s production, 299
Chard, Swiss, 280
analysis of, 501
Chayote, 273
Cheese, 337, 338
analyses of, 505
cottage, 337
de Brie, 337
Mont Dore, 337
Neufchatel, 337
Parmesan, 338
Roquefort, 337
Savoy, 337
Swiss, 337
Cherimoya, 207
analysis of, 497
Cherries, 187
analysis of, 496
Chestnut, 248-250
analysis of, 299
American, 250
Chinkapin, 250
Japanese, 250
Chestnut flour, 249
Chewing gum,
consumption of, in the U. S., 94
Chyle, 20
Chick-pea, 316
analysis of, 504
Chicken meat,
analysis of, 506
Chicory, 281
Children’s diseases, 442, 451
Chinquapin, 251
Chittenden’s experiments, 54, 57
Chives, 286
analysis of, 500
Chloride of calcium, 36, 39
Chloride of potassium, 92, 141
Chloride of sodium, 88, 141, 143
Chlorine, 4, 12, 47, 109, 140-143
Chlorophyl, 62, 74, 87, 88, 114, 119
Chlorosis, 128, 129
Chocolate, 409, 411, 445
analysis of, 504
Cholera, 98
Cholesterins, 64, 65
Cholin, 64
Christie, Professor A. W.,
on dehydration, 368, 370
Chufa (earth almond), 263
analysis of, 263, 499
oil, 263
Cigarettes, consumption of, in the
U. S., 417
Cinnamon, 418
Citric acid, 46, 79, 195-197
Citron, 195
Clams, analysis of, 506
Cloves, 418
Coaltar dyes, 431, 433, 434
Coca, 413, 415
Cocaine, 414, 415
consumption of, 414
smuggling of, 414﻿INDEX
525
Cochineal, 431, 432
Cocoa, 409-411
alkaloids in, 410
analysis of, 410, 504
production of, 411
Cocoanut, 180, 266
analysis of, 267, 499
dried (copra) 267
Cocoanut butter, 266
Cocoanut oil, 267
Coffee, 39, 40, 405, 406
consumption of, 405, 406, 445
analysis of, 405
alkaloids in, 405
Colds, 30
Cold storage of foods, 366
Collagen, 51
Collards,
analysis of, 500
Compound, chemical definition of, 5
Condiments, 40, 401-421
Confectionery, consumption of, in
the U. 8., 69
Consciousness, theory of, 22
Constipation, 36, 40, 78, 110, 463
cause of, 465
Consumption, 98
Contagious diseases, 98
Copper, 4, 145
Copra, 267, 382
Corn, 308
analysis of, 502
green, 308
meal, 308
oil, 63, 308
starch, 308
syrup, 308
Corpulency, 117
Corpuscles, 6, 8, 16
Cottage cheese, 336, 478
analysis of, 505
Cottonseed, 320
oil, 63, 320
Cow’s feed, artificial, 331
Cow peas, 315
analysis of, 504
Cowtree, 207
analysis of its milky juice, 208
Crabs, analysis of, 505
Cranberries, 192
analysis of, 496
Cream, 335
analysis of, 335
Cream of tartar, 80
Creatin, 351
Creatinin, 351
Crisis, during a change of diet, 488
Cruess, Professor W. V., on dehy-
dration, 368-370
Cucumbers, 273
analysis of, 500
Curcubita, 277
Currants, 193
analyses of, 496
Currants, Zante, 189
Curvature of spine, 117, 440
Custard apple, 207
Cuvier, Baron, 169
D
Dairy products, 59, 61, 94, 324-328,
478
Dandelion, 281
analysis of, 500
Darwin, Charles, 169
Dasheen, 294
analysis of, 294
Dates, 214-217
analysis of, 217, 497
cultivation of, 214-216
history of, 213
varieties, 216, 217
Davis, Sir Humphrey,
on mineral fertilizers, 85
Deficiency diseases, 60, 69, 70
Degeneration, fatty, 70
Dehydration of foods, 179, 365, 382
advantages over canning, 380
reduction in weight by, 381
Dehydrators,
air blast types, 375
tunnel types, 374-380
recirculation of air in, 379﻿526
RATIONAL DIET
Dewberry, 193
Dewey, Dr. H. E.,
on the cause of disease, 455
Dextrin, 46, 67, 71, 76
Dextrose, 67, 68
Diabetes, 70, 137, 440
cause and natural cure, 468
statistics, 468, 469
Diarrhea,
Diastase, 68, 73
Diet,
of Arabs, 357, 358
of Eskimos, 342, 476
of Japanese, 60, 356
errors in, 42, 54, 94, 345, 346,
347, 455
low protein, 58-60
mixed, 477
mono-, 479
raw food, 480, 481
regeneration through, 475-491
in the tropics, 474
Digestion, process of, 22, 37, 39
Digestibility of food, 44
Digestive juices, 39
Dill, analysis of, 500
Disaccharides, 67
Disease, nature of, 450-454
prevention of, 98, 111, 475-490
Diseases, venereal, 440
Distilled liquors, 402
Distilled water, 35-37
Diphtheria, 109, 457
Drinks, artificially colored, 434
Drug industry,
growth in the United States, 454
Drunkenness, caused by modern cook-
ery, 404
Durian, 218-219
analysis of, 219, 497
Durras, 310
Durum wheat, 302
Dyes, mineral, 433
Dyes, vegetable, 432
annatto, 432
carrot juice, 432
gamboge, 432
Dyes, indigo, 432
logwood, 432
saffran, 432
turmeric, 432
Dysentery, 473
E
Eden, garden of, 175
Egg albumin, 50
Eggplant, 273
analysis of, 274, 500
Eggs, 338-340
analysis of, 338-339, 505
preparation of, 339
preservation of, 340
spoiled, 339
Elderberries, 193
Electricity, 7, 11
vital, 43, 48, 87, 95, 97, 99, 102
Electrons, 6-9, 493
Electronic theory, 6, 7, 12
Electro-magnetic properties of cells,
100
Elements, 4, 5, 6, 46, 48
acid-binding, 106-131
acid-forming, 132-145
periodicity of, 6
Elimination of waste matter, 36-39
Elixirs of life, 102, 489
Emotions, 15
Emulsions of fats, 65, 241
Endive, 281
Energy,
of cohesion, 3
chemical, 3-14
of elasticity, 3
electrical, 3
of gravitation, 3
of heat, 3
magnetic, 3
radiant, 3
vital, 3
Energy, the only reality, 7
kinetic, 12, 13, 14, 44
potential, 12, 13, 14, 44
law of conservation, U﻿INDEX
527
Energy, laws of consumption in
nutrition, 14
Enzymes, 73-75
Enzymic action, 67, 73-74
Epidemics, 446
Espalier fruits, 385
yield of, 385
Evaporators, 380
Essential oils, 64
Evolution, doctrine of, 22, 100
Ewe’s milk,
analysis of, 505
F
Farm life in the New England
States, 389
Fat, percentage in foods, 65, 66
Fats, 45, 46, 48, 52, 62, 101
animal, 62, 63
composition, 62
emulsification, 109
formation, 62
free, 64, 65
neutral, 65
saponification of, 65, 109
vegetable, 62-65
Fatty acids, 63
Feijoa, 219, 220
analysis of, 220, 497
Feldspar, 106
Fermentation, 70
Fertilizers, nitrogenous, 102, 103
Fertilization, 153-165, 387
faulty, 154-156, 159-164
Fevers, climatic, 472
Fibers, muscular, 20
Fibrin, 25, 95
Figs, 208-213
analyses of, 212, 497
history of, 209
Adriatic, 209
Black Mission, 209
Kadota, 210
Smyrna, 209, 210
Filberts, 252
analysis of, 252, 499
Fish,
analysis of, 506
as food in Japan, 59, 344, 345
Fisher, Dr. Irving
Health Report, 452
Flaxseed, 319
analysis of, 503
oil, 63
Flesh foods, 341-361
analysis of, 506
proteins in, 51
consumption of, in the U. S.,
341, 343, 344
consumption of, in the leading
countries, 343, 344
Flexner, Dr. S. on vivisection, 458
Flour, 302
analysis of, 502
bleaching of, 302
Fluoride of calcium, 143
Fluorine, 4, 12, 47, 83, 90, 96, 142, 143
Food,
adulteration, 422-438
artificial coloring of, 431
artificial preparation of, 90
constituents of, 41, 42
consumption of in the U. S., 443,
444
contents of sodium, 511
contents of calcium, 512
contents of iron, 513
contents of phosphorus, 514
contents of protein, 510
contents of chlorine, 515
functions of, 42, 90
poisoning, 487
preservation, 366, 367, 381
principles, 42-48
salts (see organic salts)
uncooked, 54, 96, 480, 481
Forest land,
devastated areas, 386
Forestry, science of, 387
Formaldehyde, 423, 429
Fossils, 100
Frijoles, 309﻿528
RATIONAL DIET
Fruits, 176-238
canned, 365
citrus, 194, 198
classification, 177
consumption, of, 178, 179
deciduous, 181-190
dehydration of, 179, 365, 382
dietetic value of, 116, 178
espalier, 385
hygienic value of, 176, 178
sulphuring of, 179, 180
sundrying of, 179, 180
subtropical and tropical, 194-238
Fruit diet, exclusive, 40
Fruit fast, 471
Fruit juices, unfermented, 40
Fruit trees,
increased food production by,
387
yield of, compared with that of
cereals, 397
Fruit colony, “Eden,”
Oranienburg, Germany, 393
Fruitarian Diet, 54, 55
ideal diet of man, 482, 483
Fruitose, 67
Fruit sugar, 67, 177, 178
Fungi, 25, 85, 88, 115
Fungi, edible, 295, 296
champignons, 295, 296
mushrooms, 295, 296
truffles, 295, 296
analyses of, 503
G
Galactans, 67
Galactose, 67
Gallstones, 109
Garbanzo, 316
analysis of, 504
Garlic, 286
analysis of, 500
Gastric juice, 142
Gelatin, 45, 48, 49, 51, 116
Geological periods, 170-174
Germs of disease, 47, 85, 98, 101, 102,
104
Germ theory, fallacy of, 445, 446,
449
Gherkins, 273
Ginger, 287
analysis of, 288
Glacial periods, 171-174
Glands, activity of, 21
mammary, 21, 324, 328, 329
Glandular secretions, 40
Glimmer, 96
Globulin, 49, 50, 96
Glucose, 67, 68, 69, 107
Glue in foods, 436, 437
Gluten, 45, 49, 73
Glutenin, 49
Glycerin, 63
Glycogen, 67, 70, 71, 107
Goats, milk, 332
digestibility of, 332
Goethe, on natural living, 489, 490
Goitre, cause of, 144, 440
Gold, 4
Gooseberries, 193
analysis of, 496
Gourds, 277
Gout, cause and cure, 469
Granules of starch, in grains, 73
Grape, 187-190
analysis of, 189, 190, 496
cure, 189
juice, 188-189
origin of, 187
production in California, 189
sugar, 167
varieties, 189
Grape fruit, 196
analysis of, 196, 497
Green leaf vegetables, 280, 282
Ground nut (see peanut)
Guava, 220
analysis of, 497
Gum, arabic, 46
chewing, 94
Gumbo (see okra)﻿INDEX
529
H
Hadwen, Dr. W. R.,
on antitoxin, 450, 455
Haeckel, Dr. Ernst, 169
Hazelnuts, 251, 252
analysis of, 499
Heart diseases, 470, 471
Heat, animal, 121
Hemoglobin, 50, 51, 90, 118, 119, 124,
125
analysis of, 90
Hemorrhoids, 137
Hemp, 415
Hensel, Julius,
on mineral fertilizers, 86
Hempseed oil, 64
Hernia, 440
Heroin, 413
Hickory nut, 252
Hale’s paper shell, 254
species of, 253
Hickory nut milk, 253
Hindhede, Dr., on meat eating, 359
Hominy, 309
Honey, 68, 320-322
analysis of, 320-322
nectar of flowers, 321
formic acid in, 321, 322
Hookworm disease, 309, 440
Horn chestnut, 257
Horticulture, intensive,
in Belgium and France, 384, 385
Horseradish, 287
analysis of, 287, 500
Huckleberries, 194
analysis of, 496
Human body, constituents of, 83, 84,
506
Humus, 157
Humic acid, 157
Hydrotherapy, 460
Hydrogen, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, 18, 45, 62
Hygrometer, 373
Hyperacidity, 110, 111
Huxley,
definition of protoplasm, 17
I
Ice cream,
adulteration of, 436, 437
consumption of, 94
Iceland moss, 296, 297
analysis of, 296
Indians, North American,
state of health of, 442
Infant feeding, 103, 332, 333, 334,
480, 481
Infants, mortality of, 103, 333, 442
Infantile paralysis,
due to wrong feeding, 333, 334
Influenza, 446
Inulin, 292
Invertin, 68
Iodine, 12, 47, 83, 143, 144
Ions, 6, 7, 8
Ireland, Surgeon General, health
report, 439
Irish moss, 297
Iron, 4, 5, 12, 47, 79, 88, 99, 104, 118,
129
in blood, 88, 89, 119, 121
in cereals, 97
deficiency of, 62, 69, 124
fatal to fungi, 124
in foods, 91, 118, 119, 126, 129
in liver, 104, 120
in milk, 104, 126, 127
in spleen, 104, 120, 127
inorganic, 88, 89
Irrigation projects in the U. S., 391
J
Jackfruit, 221
analysis of, 222
Jaffa’s nutrition experiments, 54,
55, 56
Jenner, Dr.,
originator of vaccination against
smallpox, 446
Jerusalem artichoke, 292
analysis of, 500
Jujube, 224
analysis of, 224, 497﻿530
RATIONAL DIET
K
Kafir corn, 308
Kale, 280
analysis of, 500
Kephir, 336
Kidneys, 11, 29, 36, 37, 52
Kidney diseases, 70, 468, 469
Kiln drier, 375
King, Professor, on Chinese agricul-
ture, 384
Kohlrabi, 284
analysis of, 500
Kola nut, 408
analysis of, 408
caffein in kolanut, 408
Kolin, 408
Koumiss, 336
Kumquat, 196
L
Lactation, diet during, 334, 480, 481
Lacteals, 20, 39
Lactic acid, 70
Lacto-vegetarianism, 58, 355, 478
Lactose, 67
Lamarck, 169
Lard, amount of fat in, 65
Laxative diet, 77, 78
foods, 78
Lead poisoning, 35
Leeks, 286
analysis of, 501
Lecithin, 64, 65, 132-134, 136
Legumes, 315-319, 478
boiling of, 36
purin bodies in, 316
Legumin, 45, 49
Lemuria, 171
Lemon, 194
analysis of, 195, 497
medicinal value, 194
yield per acre, 194
Lentils, 316-318
analysis of, 504
Leprosy, cause of, 117, 130, 137
Lettuce, 287
analysis of, 500
Levulin, 292
Levulose, 67, 68
Lichenin, 296
Lichens, 81, 296, 297
Liebig’s dietary standards, 54
ideas of fertilization, 86
ideas on diet, 355
Life, origin of, 23, 170
principle, 43
problem of, 23, 24
prolongation of, 32, 489, 490
Ligaments, 51
Lima Beans, 317
analysis of, 504
Lime (calcium) in foods, 512
in leaves, 114
water, 35, 36
carbonate of, 88
phosphate of, 88, 89
Limes, 195
analysis of, 497
Lime juice, 35
Lindlahr, Dr., on fertilization of
soil, 163, 164
Linseed oil, 64, 319
Lippincott, Dr., Chief Surgeon,
report on Vaccination in the
Philippines, 447
Litchi nut, 222
analysis of, 223, 497
Liver, 52, 107
analysis of, 506
diseases of, 70, 471
functions of, 351, 471
function in carnivorous animals,
351
Lobster, analysis of, 506
Loganberry, 193
Loquat, 224, 225
analysis of, 225, 497
Lotus, 251
Lungs, 28, 29, 30, 39
constituents of, 506
Lymph, 21, 40, 109
constituents of, 506﻿INDEX
531
M
Macaroni, 304
McCollum,
experiments with vitamins, 146
Mace, 419
Magnesium, 4, 47, 83, 99, 113, 114,
115
properties of, 113, 114
in bones, 101
in foods, 117
Magnetism, 44, 48
vital, 94, 99, 102, 104
Maize, 308
Malaria, 473
Malic acid, 46, 80
amount in foods, 81
Malpighian corpuscles, 123, 124
Maltose, 67, 68
Malt sugar, 68
Mammalia, orders of, 169
Mammey, 227
Man, anatomical structure of, 174
descent of, 172, 173
natural diet of, 169-175
normal age of, 490
Mandarin orange (see tangerine)
Manganese, 4, 47, 83, 130
as fertilizer, 131
Mango, 225
analysis of, 225, 497
Mangosteen, 226
Maple,
sap, 322, 323
sugar, 322, 323
syrup, 322, 323
analysis of, 504
Mare’s milk,
analysis of, 505
Margarine butters, 65, 242, 267
Market gardeners,
near Paris, 385
on the Channel Islands, 385
near Chicago and New York,
385
Mastication, importance of, 77
Maté (Paraguay tea), 409
Materia medica, failure of, 454
McCann, A., on dairy cows, 330
on adulteration, 437
Mayo, Dr. William J.,
on cause of cancer, 464
Meat,
acid forming, 92, 94, 444
analysis of, 349, 506
consumption of, 54, 94
consumption in Japan, 59
consumption in U. S., 343, 344
consumption in the leading coun-
tries, 345
consumption decreasing, 476, 477
deficient in alkaline elements,
92, 94
extracts, 351
injurious to health, 54, 476
lean, a starvation food, 148, 355
pickled, 349
purin bodies in, 349, 350, 351
tinned, 349
trichinae in, 351
value of iron in, 347
Meat-eating,
misleading arguments in favor
of, 345, 346, 347
on the decrease, 476, 477
man not adapted to, 349, 351
Socrates on, 362
Medlar, 183
analysis of, 496
Melon, 274
casaba, 274
musk, 274
Persian, 275
Mucus, 20
Menus, simple and wholesome, 484,
485
Metabolism, 52
Metallic impurities in food, 435
lead salts, 435
tin salts, 435
Microbes, 28, 445, 446, 449
Milch cows, 324
Milk, 324-338
analysis of, 97, 102, 104, 335,
336, 505﻿582
RATIONAL DIET
Milk, boiling of, 95, 96, 328, 330
casein in, 326
cure, 479
digestibility of, 329, 330
fat in, 326
fermented, 336
in Japan, 326
lecithin in, 328
modified, 329
mother’s, changes in composi-
tion during nursing, 59
analysis of, 505
pasteurized, 102, 332
raw, 95, 328, 332
skimmed, 335
analysis of, 335
sterilized, 95
sugar, 46, 67, 70
vitamins in, 327
Millet, 309
analysis of, 502
Mineral elements, 42, 43, 97, 98
inorganic, 42
polario distribution of, 98, 99,
103
organic, 42, 43, 47
variation in foods, 97, 98, 507
Milo,
dwarf, 310
white, 310
analysis of, 502
Mirabelles, analysis of, 496
Mithridates VI, King, 446, and the-
riaca, 446
Moisture carrying capacity of air,
372
control of, in dehydration, 373
Molasses, 314
Molecules, 4, 5, 17
Molecular theory, 4
Moleschott,
on phosphorus, 133, 354
Mollusea, 112
Monera, 16
Mono diet, 479
Mono saccharides, 67, 68
Morels, 295, 296
Morgan, Sampson,
on fertilization, 160-163, 399
Morphine, 411, 413
Morris, Bobert T., on nut growing,
395
Moss (carrageen),
Iceland, 296, 297
Irish, 297
analyses of, 296, 297
Mother’s milk, 332
digestibility of, 332
Mulberry, 193
analysis of, 496
leaves, 100
Muscular contraction, 15
Muscular tissues, 99
analysis of, 506
Mushrooms, 295, 296
poisonous, 295, 296
analysis of, 503
Muskmelon, 274
analysis of, 496
Mustard, 419
greens, 281
seeds, 419
analysis of, 503
Mutton,
consumption of, 343, 344
Myosin, 49
N
Narcotics, 401-421
Nectarines, 186
analysis of, 496
Nervous system, 15
Nicotin, 416
Nitrogen, 12, 13, 18, 27, 30, 33
compounds, 45
equilibrium in the human body,
56, 57
properties of, 13
Noodles, 304
Nucleo proteins, 49, 51, 52, 88, 99,
114, 137
Nucleus, 17
formation in protoplasm, 17
Nutmeg, 419﻿INDEX
533
Nutrition, 20, 21, 22, 41, 42
faulty and disease, 439-452
Nutritive functions, 20, 21, 22
Nuts, 239, 269, 419
composition of, 239
consumption of, 242
digestibility of, 241
digestion experiments with, con-
ducted by Professors Ca-
jori, Huber and Jaffa, 240,
241
production of in the TJ. S., 242
Nut butters, 61, 241, 242
Nut proteins, 398
Nut trees,
importance of, 395, 398
O
Oats, 307
analysis of, 502
Obesity, 137
Oil,
almond, 246
cocoanut, 267
cottonseed, 63, 320
lemon, 194
olive, 63, 228
rape, 320
peanut, 63, 262, 265
sesame, 64, 319
soy bean, 317
Oils, cold pressed, 63
hydrogenated, 63
essential, 64
volatile, 64
Okra, 275
analysis of, 276, 501
Oleic acid, 63
Olein., 63
Olive, 227-229
analysis of, 229, 497
oil, 63, 228
pickling process of, 228
Onions, 286
analysis of, 286, 501
Operations, surgical, 94, 462
Opium, 411-413
consumption in the U. 8., 413
consumption in Asia, 413
consumption in Europe, 413
eating habits, 411, 412
effects of, on the nervous sys-
tem, 412
history of, 412
war, 412
Orange, 196-198
analysis of, 197, 198, 497
juice, value during nursing pe-
riod, 332
Orange orchards,
yield per acre, 197
Organic acids, 45, 46, 79, 80, 81, 82
Organic compounds, 42
Organic salts, 15, 47, 48, 57, 85, 93
acid binding, 106-132
acid forming, 133-145
electro-magnetic properties of,
48
variation of, in foods, 97, 98, 507
Organism,
unicellular, 19, 22
Oshima’s dietary studies, 58, 59, 60
report on the diet of Japanese,
356
Osier, Sir William,
on rational diet versus drugs,
474
Osmosis, 21, 84, 93
Osteomalacia, 113
Osteopathy, 460
Owen, Sir Richard, 169
Oxalic acid, 80, 81
Oxaluria, 80, 81
Oxenstierna, Count,
criticism of governments, 386
Oxygen, 4, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 27, 29-
34, 43-45, 52, 62
consumption of, 31, 32, 33
Oysters,
analysis of, 506
Oyster plant (see salsify)﻿534
RATIONAL DIET
p
Palmitic acid, 63
Palmitin, 63
Pancreatic juice, 68
Papaya, 229, 230
analysis of, 230, 497
Paradise nuts, 265
Paralysis, 70
Parasites, 106
Parker, Dr. Willard, on cancer, 464
Parsley, 288
analysis of, 501
Parsnips, 285
analysis of, 501
Pasteurization of milk, 329, 331, 332,
366
Pastry, 69
Pathology,
simplified physiological chemis-
try, 98
Pawpaw, 190
analysis of, 191
Peas, 315, 316, 318
analysis of, 97, 504
chick, 316
cow, 315
sugar, 315, 318
Peaches, 185-187
analysis of, 186, 187, 496, 498
production in the U. S., 185
varieties, 186
Peanuts, 26
analysis of, 262, 499
Spanish, 261
Virginia, 261
yield per acre, 261
Peanut butter, 262
Peanut oil, 63, 262, 265
Pears, 183
varieties of, 183
analysis of, 496
Pecan, 255, 256
analysis of, 256, 499
papershell, 255
production in the U. S., 256
yield per aere, 256
Pectin, 46, 78
composition, 78
Pellagra, 137, 312, 440
Pentosans, 67
Pepper, green, 276
analysis of, 501
capsicum, 418
cayenne, 418
Peptones, 107
Periodicity of elements, 7
Periodic table of elements, 495
Peristaltic movements, 77
Persimmons, 230-232
history, 230
analysis of, 231, 498
Pettenkofer, Dr., on the germ the-
ory, 446
Phosphates, 96, 101
Phosphate of,
ammonia, 134
calcium, 101, 116, 132
magnesium, 101
potassium, 101, 104, 135-139
sodium, 101
Phosphorus, 4, 12, 47, 83
property of, 132-135 '
Phosphoric acid, 65, 111, 132-133,
298, 339
Phylloxera, cause of, 160
Pignolias, 257
analysis of, 499
Pike, analysis of, 506
Pie plant (see rhubarb)
Pilinut, 268
Pimiento, 276
Pineapple, 180, 232
analysis of, 233, 497
Pine-nuts (pinons), 257, 258 7
analysis of, 257, 499
varieties of, 258
Pistachio, 252
analysis of, 252, 499
Pithecanthropus erectus (erect ape
man), 172
Plants, activity of, 350
Plant diseases, 106, 107
Plant, embryonic, 87﻿INDEX
535
Plant foods, 102, 103
Plant growth, normal, 108
Plato’s “Republic”
discourse of Socrates on whole-
some living, 362
Plum, 186
analysis of, 496
Plumcot, 187
Plutarch, on man’s natural diet, 169
Poi, 294
Pointe Navarre system of making
bread direct from grain,
304, 305
Polenta, 309
Polishing of rice, 311, 312
Polysaccharids, 67
Pomegranate, 230
analysis of, 498
Pomelo, 196
analysis of, 196, 497
Popcorn, 309
analysis of, 502
Popenoe, Wilson
on the avocado in Guatemala,
199, 200
Poppy seed, 320
analysis of, 503
oil, 64, 320
Pork, analysis of, 506
Porphyry, ancient philosopher,
on vegetarianism, 353
Potash, 60
Potash salts, 92, 106, 107
Potassium, 4, 12, 83, 92, 99, 106, 107
Potatoes, 77, 92
analyses of, 97, 290, 501
dehydration of, 290
preparation of, 290
sweet, 77, 290
Potato starch, 76, 77
Preservatives, injurious,
alum, 423, 427
benzoic acid, 423, 426
benzoate of soda, 426
boron compounds, 423, 425
copper sulphate, 423, 427
fluorine compounds, 423, 426
Preservatives, formaldehyde, 423, 429
formic acid, 423, 428
nitric acid, 423
saccharine, 423, 428
salieyclic acid, 423, 425
salt, 423, 424
saltpetre, 423, 424
sulphate of lime, 423
sulphites, 423
sulphurous acid, 423, 429
Preservatives, effect upon the sys-
tem, 424
Prickly pear (cactus fruit), 206
analysis of, 497
Prohibition in the United States,
404, 405
Protein, 18, 39, 45, 48, 61
classification of, 49
composition, of, 49, 50
diet, high, 53-61
diet, low, 53-61
amount in foods, 46, 51, 508, 510
over-consumption of, 94, 509
requirement, 52-61, 509
Protoplasm, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 45, 89
Protozoa, 16
Prunes, 186
analyses of, 186, 496, 498
Prussian blue, 433
Psychical conditions,
their influence upon the body, 15
Pulses, 315-319
Pumpernickel (rye-bread), 306
analysis of, 503
Pumpkins, 277
analysis of, 277, 501
Pure Food Law, federal, 423
Purin bodies,
in beer, 350
in cacao, 350
in coffee, 350
in entrails, 350
in meat, 350
in vegetables, 350
in tea, 350
Pythagoras, on man’s natural diet,
169﻿536
RATIONAL DIET
Q
Quarantine, 446
Queensland nut, 267, 268
Quince, 184
analysis of, 184
R
Rachitis, cause of, 117, 127, 128, 332
Radishes, 284
analysis of, 501
Radium, 4, 8, 9, 152
Radio-activity, 9
Rainfall, 34
Raisins, 189
varieties of, 189
analysis of, 496
Rape seed, 320
oil, 320
Raspberries, 193
analysis of, 496
Raw food, 480, 481
Reclamation Act of 1902, 391
Reindeer’s milk, 342
Rennet, 336, 337
Respiration, 30, 31
Respiratory organs, 28
Rheumatism, 117
cause and cure, 469
Rhubarb, 282
analysis of, 501
Rice, 310-313
analysis of, 311, 502
consumption of, in Japan, 311
cultivation of, 311
diet in Japan, 59, 60
history of, 310
milling of, 312
varieties of, 311, 312
wild, 312
Ricin, 64
Ricin olein, 64
Rickets, 117, 127, 128, 332
Rockefeller Institute, 446, 456
Roman Lettuce,
analysis of, 501
Roquefort Cheese, 337
Rosenbach, Dr. O.,
on bacteriology, 446
Rubner, Dr. Max,
experiments on amount protein
needed, 60, 476, 509
Rutabagas, 284,
analysis of, 501
Rye, 306, 307
analysis of, 502
Ry-Krisp, 306
analysis of, 503
S
Saccharin, 423, 428
Saccharose, 67
Sago, 295
manufacture of, 296
analysis of, 503
St. John’s Bread (see carob)
Salads, 484, 485
Salmon, 111
analysis of, 506
Salsify, 285
analysis of, 501
Salt, 419-421
composition of, 419
consumption of, 93, 419
injurious effects of, 39, 91, 92,
93, 420, 421
inorganic, 88, 91, 92, 93
Salt-licks, 91-92, 421
Sapodilla, 181, 233
analysis of, 233, 498
Saponification of fats, 65
Sapote, 234
white, 234
analysis of, 235, 498
Sapucaia nuts, 268
Saurians, 100
School children,
defective eyesight of, 441
defective teeth of, 441
diet of, 441
examination of, 441
Schuessler’s “tissue salts,” 89
Scrofulosis, 26, 117
Scurvy, cause of, 130﻿INDEX
537
Seafoods, analyses of, 505, 500
Self-control, 461
Seneca, 169
on vegetarianism, 353
Serum, 49, 461
Serums, 47, 111, 447
Serum therapy, 334
Sesame seed, 319
analysis of, 503
oil, 64, 319
Sexual instincts, perverted
due to irrational living, 363
Shagbark Hickory, 253, 254
Shellbark Hickory, 253, 254
Sorghum, 68, 310
analysis of, 502
Silicates, 139
Silicon, 12, 47, 83, 99, 139, 141
Silkworm, 100
Silver, 4
Simplicity of living, the keynote to
health, 475
Skim milk, 335
analysis of, 335, 505
Skin, 11, 29, 37
elimination through, 29, 37, 352
Smallpox, 98, 448
in the Philippines, 447
Smith, Professor J. Russell
on agriculture, 388-390
on agriculture on the island of
Corsica, 389, 390
on agriculture in Prance, 389,
390
on agriculture on the island of
Majorca, 389, 390
Socrates, 169
on the simple and wholesome
life, 362
Sodium, 12, 39, 60, 91, 92, 107
amount in foods, 112, 511
deficiency of, 62, 69, 110
salts, 63
Sodium chloride, 11, 89-91, 109
phosphate, 101, 106, 116
sulphate, 101, 109
Soft drinks, 39
artificially colored, 434
consumption of, 94
Soil, fertilization, 102, 103, 106, 107,
108, 155-165
its relation to health and dis-
ease, 153-165
impoverished, 103
importance of organic matter in,
159
preservation in Japan and
China, 155, 156
Soil-culture, rational, 160-165
intensive, 396
Solar energy, stored in plants and
trees, 394, 395
Sorrel, 282
analysis of, 501
Souari nuts, 269
Sour Sop
analysis of, 235, 498
Soya Sauce, 318
Soy bean, 316
analysis of, 504
cheese (tofu), 817
oil, 317
Suggestion, 460
Sweet Sop, 236
analysis of, 236, 498
Specialists,
treatment of disease by, 98
Spermatozoon, 23
Spaghetti, 304
Spencer, Herbert, on Vegetarianism,
353
Spices, 40, 418-321
Spinach, 282
analysis of, 501
New Zealand, 282
Spleen, electric power station of sys-
tem, 122-123
composition of, 506
Spring wheat, 302
analysis of, 302
Squash, 277
analysis of, 277
Stack-evaporator, 374﻿538
RATIONAL DIET
Star Apple, 237
analysis of, 237, 498
Starch, 67, 71
microscopic examination of
starch grains, 71-73
raw, 71, 74
changes during baking and cook-
ing, 74, 75, 76
digestibility of, 74, 77, 481, 482
Starchy roots and tubers, 288-294
Stearic acid, 63
Stearin, 63
Sterilization of milk, 328, 331, 332,
334
Stimulants, 401-421
Strawberries, 194
analysis of, 496
Strawberry-guava, 221
analysis of, 497
String beans, 315
analysis of, 504
Sucrose, 67, 68, 76
Sugar,
beets, analysis of, 501
cane, 67, 68, 69, 314, 315
fruit, 67, 177
grape, 67
invert, 76
malt, 67
maple, 68
milk, 67
raw, 67
analysis of, 304
refined, 68-94
consumption, 69, 70, 94
production, 69, 70
Sugar cane, 314, 315
analysis of, 504
Sulphate of calcium, 35, 36, 101
sodium, 101
Sulphur, 4, 5, 12, 45, 47, 83, 99, 134-
139
in blood plasma, 136
Sulphurous acid,
in fruits, 179, 180
Sulphuric acid, 38, 111
Sun bath, 26, 27
Sun drying of foods, 365
Sunflower seed, 32
analysis of, 503
oil, 320
Sunlight, 24, 25
effects on plant growth, 25, 26,
87
ultraviolet rays of, 25
Swamp land, reclamation of, 386
Sweat glands in man, 352
atrophied in carnivorous ani-
mals, 352
T
Tamarinds, 237
analysis of, 238, 498
Tangerine, 198
Tannic acid, 80
Tannin, 80
Tapioca, 293
analysis of, 503
Taro, 294
analysis of, 294, 513
Tartaric acid, 46, 80
Tea, analysis of, 407
alkaloids in, 407
consumption of, 407, 445
cultivation of, 407
Paraguay (maté), 409
physiological action, 407
Teeth, cause of premature decay, 116
Tendons, 51
Theine, 407
Theobromine, 410
Therapeutics, 98
Theriaca, 446
Thirst, 39, 40, 41
Tissues,
oxidation of, 48
Tissue salts (inorganic), 88
Thoracic duct, 39
Thoreau, on Vegetarianism, 361
Thyroid gland, 144
Toasting, changes effected by, 76
Tobacco, 415-417
alkaloid in, 416﻿INDEX
539
Tobacco, consumption of, 417,
444, 445
cultivation of, 416
heart, 416
consumption of, 417
Tomatoes, 278
analysis, 208, 501
Tonsils, enlarged, 462
cause of, 462
Tortillas, 309
Toxemia, 450-454
Tree planting on road sides, 391
Trichites, in the formation of starch
grains, 71, 72
Trituration, 87
Tuberculosis, 26, 471-473
diet in, 472
economic loss through, 472
not a germ disease, 471
statistics, 472
Tuberculin, failure of, 454
Tumors, 137
Tuna, or prickly pear, 206
Turmeric, 432
Turnips, 284
analysis, 501
Turtle’s blood,
failure of, in. the cure of tuber-
culosis, 454
U
Ultramarine, 433
Unhulled rice, 312
Uric acid, 38, 350, 352
V
Vaccines, 47, 111, 447, 461
Vaccination,
a fundamental fallacy, 449
not based on biological laws,
450, 451
in Japan, 448
in the Philippines, 448
during the world war, 448
Dr. Lippincott’s report on, 447
Vacuum Evaporator, 376
Varicocele, 440
Varicose veins, 440
V egetables,
analysis of, 500-501
classification of, 272
fertilization of, 271
properties of, 270, 271
vitamins in, 279
Vegetable fruits, 270-278
green leaf, 65, 93, 94, 279
roots and bulbs, 283-288
starchy roots, 288-295
fungi, 295-297
juices, 279
oils, 62-65
salads, 484, 485
steamer, 280
Vegetable Kingdom, the storehouse
of nutrition, 488
Vegetable marrow, 277
analysis of, 277
Vegetarianism, 478, 479
criticisms of, 342
economical aspects of, 360, 361
ethical aspects of, 363
sociological aspects, 363
Herbert Spencer on, 353
leading exponents of, 353, 354
among Turks, Japanese and
Hindoos, 355, 356
Vegetarians, mistakes .of, 343, 477
Ventilation, 28, 29	______
Vibration, 7
atomic, 10, 11
cell, 10, 11
electronic, 7, 10
law of, 7-10
therapeutics of, 10
Villi, 10
VinegaT, 116, 421
Via medicatrix naturae, 460
Vivisection, 102
futility of, 455, 456
Vitality, 88
electric, 90
magnetic, 90
Vitamins, 146-152
composition of, 146
in milk, 151﻿540
RATIONAL DIET
Vitamins, source of, 152
Vitamin foods,
artificially prepared, 149, 151
Voit’s dietary standards, 54
Volatile oils, 64
Volcanic ashes, as fertilizers, 160
Volstead Act, its effect on wine mak-
ing, 444
W
Walnuts, 258-260
analysis of, 259, 499
Black, 258
Chinese, 260
English, 258
Eureka, 258
Franquette, 258
Japanese, 260
Soft Shell, 258
Waste products, of metabolism, 102,
104
Water, 11, 14, 24, 25, 34, 45
amount necessary, 38, 39, 41
boiled, 35
distilled, 35, 36, 37
in foods, 38
in human body, 37, 38, 101
hard and soft, 34, 36
lime in, 35, 36
minerals in, 34, 36, 40
purification of, 35, 36
rain, 35
spring, 35
vapor, 27
Water chestnut, 251
Water Chinquapin, 251
Watercress, 282
analysis of, 501
Watermelon, 274
analysis of, 275, 496
Wheat, 301-306
analysis of, 298, 302, 304, 502
bran, analysis of, 502
Wheat, durum, 302
flour, 302
germ, analysis of, 502
spring, 302
starch, 303
varieties, 302, 303
winter, 302
world’s production, 299, 300
Whey, 335
analysis of, 336
Whortleberry (see huckleberry)
Wiley, Dr. H. W.,
on sulphuring fruits, 180
experiments with preservatives,
425, 429, 430, 431
Wilke, Mrs. W. 8.,
exponent of raw foods, 480, 481
Wine,
consumption of, 402-403
history of, 403
loss of sugar by fermentation,
403
production in California, 189
X
X-ray machines, 454
Xanthins, 351
Y
Yams, 294
analysis of, 294, 503
Yantia, 294
analysis of, 294, 503
Yeast, 76
Yellow Fever, 473
Yoghurt, 336
Yolk of Eggs, 338, 339
Z
Zante, currants,
analysis of, 498
Zea Mays (Corn), 308
Zinc poisoning, 35﻿﻿﻿


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