Food Remedies | Page 3

daily. To supply this a quarter of a pound of
shelled nuts and three-quarters of a pound of any dried fruit must be
used. In addition to this, from two to three pounds of any fresh fruit in
season goes to complete the day's allowance. These quantities should
be weighed out ... and will sustain a full-grown man in perfect health
and vitality. The quantity of ripe fresh fruit may be slightly increased in
summer, with a corresponding decrease in the dried fruit."
FOOTNOTE:
[2] Recent years have witnessed a modification of the original cure.
Other food is now included, but I have not heard that the results are
better.
Objections to Fruit.
Some vegetarians object that it is possible to eat too much fruit, and
recommend caution in the use of it to people of nervous temperament,

or those who seem predisposed to skin ailments. It is true that the
consumption of large quantities of fruit may appear to render the
nervous person more irritable, and to increase the external
manifestations of a skin disease. But in the latter event the fruit is
merely assisting Nature to throw the disease out and off more quickly,
while in the former case the real cause lies not in the fruit but in some
nerve irritant, tea, for example, the effects of which are more acutely
felt under the new régime. The nervous system tends to become much
more sensitive upon a vegetarian, especially fruitarian, diet, and people
often attribute their increased nervousness and irritability to the diet
when it is simply that they now react more quickly to poisons. This is
not a bad thing, on the contrary, it shows that the system has become
more alert. Under the old régime we tend to store up poisons and
impurities in the body, but the effect of a vegetable diet, especially
when united with the use of distilled water, is to cause all our diseases
and impurities to be expelled outwards and downwards. Tea is a slow
poison, and so is coffee except under exceptional conditions when it is
used as a medicine, and then it should always be pale-roasted.
Fruit should always be eaten at the beginning of a meal. Again, when
the diet consists of a mixture of cooked and uncooked foods, the
uncooked should always be eaten first. Also when the meal consists of
two courses, a sweet and a savoury dish, sufferers from indigestion
should try taking the sweet course first. I have known several cases
where this simple expedient has resulted in a complete cessation of the
discomfort of which the patient complained.
A Pioneer of Food Remedies.
The pioneer, in England, of the treatment of all sorts and conditions of
disease by means of a vegetable (chiefly fruit) dietary was Dr. Lambe,
a contemporary of the poet Shelley. His last book appeared in 1815,
and in it and the one preceding are recorded some wonderful cures,
especially in cases of cancer. It is only fair to add here that in Dr.
Lambe's opinion no system of cure is completely efficacious so long as
the patient is allowed to drink the ordinary tap or well water. Distilled
water was the only drink he advised. But he held it better still not to

drink at all if the necessary liquid could be supplied to the body by
means of fresh, juicy fruits. He contended that man is not naturally a
drinking animal; that his thirst is a morbid symptom, the outcome of a
carnivorous diet and other unwholesome habits. And I think that
anyone may prove the truth of this for him or herself if he or she will
adopt a fruitarian dietary and abstain from the use of salt and other
condiments.
I have cited so out-of-date a personage as Dr. Lambe for two reasons.
The first is that I know many of the so-called new and unorthodox
ideas are more likely to appeal to some readers, if it can be shown that
they originated with a duly qualified medical practitioner who recorded
the results of his observations and experiments in black and white. The
second is that the principles and practices of Dr. Lambe are
incorporated with those of the Physical Regeneration Society, a large
and ever-increasing body of enthusiasts having its head-quarters in
London, to whose annals I must refer those readers who desire
up-to-date instances of the efficacy of the use of fruit in disease. Lack
of space will not allow me to quote them here.
The Simple Life.
We hear a great deal about the "Simple Life" and "Returning to Nature"
nowadays, but most of us are so situated that the proposed simplicity
simply spells increased complexity. The "vegetarian chop" costs the
housewife more than double the time and labour involved in preparing
its fleshly