T.B.W. writes:—Is it inadvisable for a dyspeptic (and sufferer from constipation) to eat salad, or cooked vegetables, and stewed fruit at the same meal; also, do I do right in eating bread and butter (preferably crust) or hard biscuits with stewed fruit or soft vegetables, etc.? Would you please inform me the best Still that I can obtain—preferably one that does not require much attention, and is fairly portable, and that does not cost much to work?
I do not believe that it is right to mix salads or cooked vegetables with stewed fruits. It is better to take them at separate meals.
It is, in my view, equally bad to take cereals (i.e. bread, biscuits, etc.) with stewed fruits. The reason is that cereals call for an alkaline form of digestion in the mouth which the acid fruits or the added sugar greatly retard.
I believe strongly in the all-fruit breakfast or all-fruit supper, when fresh, dried, or even stewed dried fruits (possibly with some fresh cream) can be taken alone, without either cereals or vegetables.
Cereals go best with salads and cooked vegetables, because of the alkalinity of the latter which harmonises with the salivary secretion intended for the digestion of grains.
The Gem Still is the best to buy. It is well made and does not need much attention. The large automatic commercial size is, however, the best if any quantity is needed, as it works throughout the day with practically no attention when properly adjusted.
F.C.W. writes:—I shall be glad if you will inform me from your experience whether, after one has broken from the customary meat diet and adopted a “reform” diet, there is any real difficulty in reverting to the former state. I have seen it stated that vegetarian diet did not call into action all the natural powers of the digestive organs, and, this being so, the tendency was for them to become weakened so that the food reformer eventually found himself unable to digest meat. I believe some health culturists make practice of taking meat twice a week. I have been about seven or eight weeks on reform diet, and though better in some ways have to confess to a feeling of deficient energy and nerve power. I was once told by a doctor that I could not afford to do without the stimulating effect derived from meat. I propose making a test of the two methods, but should like to hear from you in reply to the above query. Another new feature I have noticed on the new diet is a thinness of the teeth and a feeling of weakness in them generally.
This correspondent omitted to supply his amended diet, so this was asked for and is as follows:—
On rising (6.40).—Cup of cold water.
Breakfast (8 a.m.).—Porridge, boiled egg or white fish done in oven. Turog brown bread and butter; a banana; cup of coffee.
Lunch (12.45, at The Home Restaurant)—Nut or cheese savoury and one vegetable, a sweet dish, a few dates or a nut and fruit cake.
Tea meal (in office at 5).—Bread and butter, piece of cake, large cup of cocoa.
Supper.—One of following:—
(a) “Force” with stewed prunes and junket; small piece of cheese with wholemeal biscuit.
(b) Milk pudding and stewed fruit; small piece of cheese and biscuit.
(c) Vegetable soup with toast.
(d) Bread and milk and fruit cake.
On retiring (10 p.m.).—Cup of hot milk.
The correspondent adds further:—
I have only been about eight weeks on food reform and the general result, so far, is less susceptibility to draughts and ability to sleep with windows open top and bottom, which I could not do before, and a feeling of lightness and freshness. On the other hand, I have not the same nerve force or power. I am of a highly sensitive nervous disposition, and the latest trouble is with my teeth. I was told yesterday by a dentist that a non-flesh diet is harmful to them and that were one to eat meat only, there would be no trouble! Perhaps it is owing to the dates and nut-and-fruit cakes which I have been eating, or to a general weakened condition due to want of finding my natural diet. I have a friend who is a fine specimen of physical development, and on his going on to food reform he had to have his teeth seen to. I suppose it would not be the softer diet giving his teeth less to do. I am at a disadvantage as I can get nothing specially prepared at home and can only add to my diet articles which I can prepare myself. I like my liquids fairly sweet and I like liquid foods. I am a catarrhal subject and when this starts at the back of the nose the hearing is affected.
Whenever a person changes from a meat diet to one that is of the non-flesh order the digestive organs have to learn how to adjust their secretions to the altered diet. This applies just as forcibly when a food reformer wishes to return to the “flesh-pots.” After a long course of abstinence from meat the food reformer does find it difficult to return to it. This is due not so much to the difficulty in digesting it as to the violent stimulation and grossening of the body which it induces.
I have never heard of any food reformer who discarded meat for ethical or humane reasons who willingly returned to meat so that he could if necessary be in a position to digest it.
With regard to the loss of energy and nerve power the correspondent must distinguish between real weakness and absence of stimulation. The first effects of discarding meat show a deficient energy due to the absence of stimulation. When this has passed it gives place to a feeling of buoyancy and energy which is permanent.
The dental weakness is aggravated, if indeed it is not actually caused, by the milk puddings, porridge, cake and sugared beverages which are a feature of this correspondent's diet, and to the absence of salad vegetables. If he amended his diet somewhat as follows he should make steady progress in energy and general fitness:—
On rising.—Tumblerful of cold water.
Breakfast (7.15).—One lightly boiled, baked or poached egg; Veda bread and butter, a little watercress or other salad. A small cup of Hygiama in place of the sugared cocoa.
Lunch (12.45).—Nut or cheese savoury and one vegetable; baked pudding by preference for second course, or simply a nut and fruit cake; no dates.
Or salad with grated cheese or cream cheese, or flaked pine nuts; followed by a piece of the excellent wholemeal cake supplied at the restaurant this correspondent frequents.
Tea meal.—One cup of Salfon cocoa (unsweetened), preferably without other food.
Supper (6 to 7) (This meal is at present far too mushy).—Cream cheese, Veda bread with fresh butter or nut butter, salad, tomatoes, cucumber, etc., with dressing of pure oil and lemon juice.
Or simply fresh ripe fruit, with dried fruit and cream; no cereals.
On retiring.—Cupful of hot unsweetened lemon water, or weak barley water; no milk.
H. Valentine Knaggs.
All Correspondence should be addressed (and all contributions submitted) to the Editors, The Healthy Life, 3 Tudor Street, London, E.C.
Wilderton, Bournemouth.
Bournemouth.To the Editors,
Dear Sirs,
Re Mrs C.E.J.'s letter and the reply thereto: I should be inclined to doubt the wisdom of making this from unboiled or uncooked milk unless one had it from one's own cows and could supervise the dairy oneself. The average milk that comes into towns from country farms is—well, it's unthinkable. There's a saying that what the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over, but that doesn't alter the fact that the average cow is none too clean, the average milker's hands and clothes (to say nothing of his face, hat and head) none too clean, the milking-place none too clean, and the circumstances of transit such as don't make for cleanliness. I have put it very moderately, as those who know country dairy farms will admit. Those who particularly want clean cheese from uncooked milk should buy it from a County Council dairy farm or similar institution. Yours truly,
B.C. Forder.
Mrs E. Bumpus writes (7th October 1913):—
I am ordering two copies each month from my local newsagent.... I thought he might be induced to show copies of your publication in his window.
[An attractive blue poster is supplied each month free by the Publishers to all genuine agents who apply for the same.—Eds.]
Mr C.H. Grinling writes (25th October 1913):—
I note the suggestion on p. 580 of the October number of The Healthy Life. A friend enables me to ask you to send The Healthy Life regularly for one year to the Woolwich Public Library, William Street, Woolwich. I enclose 2s. The librarian will see that it appears on the magazine-room table regularly.
[There is every reason why The Healthy Life should be known and read in every public library in the United Kingdom. In this we are entirely dependent upon those readers who are ready to follow the excellent example of the above and other correspondents. A year's subscription—2s.—is a very small price to pay for bringing the message of this magazine before the public in this way. We should like to hear from readers in all parts.—Eds.]
Westcliff-on-Sea, 22nd Oct. 1913.
To the Editors,
Sirs,
With reference to the last paragraph of “Phosphorus and the Nerves” on p. 579 of the October number, I should be obliged if I could be informed through your correspondence columns (1) what are the “fruit oils” recommended therein and (2) how they are to be taken. (3) Is olive oil good to take? (4) Is it good for children? If so how is it to be administered? (5) What nuts are richest in phosphorus? I enclose my card, and remain, yours truly,
W.W.
(1) Any olive oil that bears a thorough guarantee of purity (such as “Minerva” Olive Oil, “Crême d'Or” Olive Oil, etc.); also any pure nut oil (such as supplied by Mapleton's or The London Nut Food Co.); also the pure blended oil sold as “Protoid Fruit Oil.” Our advertisement pages should be studied for further details.
(2) Suggestions were given on pp. xxxiii and xxxv of the November number.
(3) Yes, excellent.
(4) Yes, they usually take it more readily than adults, for the latters' palates are generally spoilt. For its use see Right Diet for Children, by Edgar J. Saxon, 1s. net.
(5) Almonds and walnuts. If the nuts are found difficult to digest try them in a finely prepared form, as in Mapleton's Almond Cream, “P.R.” Walnut Butter, or “Protoid” Almond Butter.—[Eds.]
Lady Cheylesmore was wearing a magnificent cock pheasant's plume. The eagle eye of the customs official caught sight of it and handed her a pair of scissors to help her detach it.—Daily News.
Now we know what a really well-trained eagle eye can do.
Perhaps the only remnant of the awful sameness characteristic of the typically English kitchen is the bacon and egg breakfast to which the average Briton clings with wonderful tenacity. The mere possibility of infidelity to that national dish is enough to make one shudder. No one could be such an iconoclast as to suggest a variant from the traditional breakfast; it would be table-treason of the worst kind.—Daily Telegraph.
Silver-fox furs are rapidly becoming more and more rare, and this fact lends a special interest to the wonderful collection of these skins now being shown this week by Revillon Frères at 180 Regent Street. These beautiful silver foxes, to the number of over a hundred, are grouped in eight large showcases on the ground floor, and represent the latest arrivals from Revillon's Canadian outposts, where they have special facilities for securing these rare skins.—Daily Chronicle.
A ninth large showcase containing specimens of the steel traps in which “these beautiful silver foxes” are caught, and in which they remain till “collected,” would give added interest to the collection at 180 Regent Street.
Sixty-six persons banqueted at Gorleston on a single “sea-pie,” which weighed 200 lbs. Prepared by an old smack skipper, it was built in three stories. The foundation consisted of beef bones, and inside were six large rabbits, half-a-dozen kidneys, thirty pounds of beef steak.—Daily Chronicle.
Not to be confused with the Gorleston Mausoleum.
Peter Piper.