Food Remedies | Page 5

the fresh, ripe fruit.
Apples periodically appear upon the tables of carnivorous feeders in the
form of apple sauce. This accompanies bilious dishes like roast pork
and roast goose. The cook who set this fashion was evidently
acquainted with the action of the fruit upon the liver. All sufferers from
sluggish livers should eat apples.
Apples will afford much relief to sufferers from gout. The malic acid
contained in them neutralises the chalky matter which causes the gouty
patient's sufferings.
Apples, when eaten ripe and without the addition of sugar, diminish
acidity in the stomach. Certain vegetable salts are converted into
alkaline carbonates, and thus correct the acidity.
An old remedy for weak or inflamed eyes is an apple poultice. I am told
that in Lancashire they use rotten apples for this purpose, but
personally I should prefer them sound.
A good remedy for a sore or relaxed throat is to take a raw ripe apple
and scrape it to a fine pulp with a silver teaspoon. Eat this pulp by the
spoonful, very slowly, holding it against the back of the throat as long
as possible before swallowing.
A diet consisting chiefly of apples has been found an excellent cure for
inebriety. Health and strength may be fully maintained upon fine
wholemeal unleavened bread, pure dairy or nut butter, and apples.
Apple water or apple tea is an excellent drink for fever patients.

Apples possess tonic properties and provoke appetite for food. Hence
the old-fashioned custom of eating an apple before dinner.
Apple Tea.
The following are two good recipes for apple tea:-- (1) Take 2 sound
apples, wash, but do not peel, and cut into thin slices. Add some strips
of lemon rind. Pour on 1 pint of boiling water (distilled). Strain when
cold. (2) Bake 2 apples. Pour over them 1 pint boiling water. Strain
when cold.
Asparagus.
Asparagus is said to strengthen and develop the artistic faculties. It also
calms palpitation of the heart. It is very helpful to rheumatic patients on
account of its salts of potash. It should be steamed, not boiled,
otherwise part of the valuable salts are lost.
Banana.
The banana is invaluable in inflammation of all kinds. For this reason it
is very useful in cases of typhoid fever, gastritis, peritonitis, etc., and
may constitute the only food allowed for a time.
Not only does it actually subdue the inflammation of the intestines, but,
in the opinion of at least one authority, as it consists of 95 per cent.
nutriment, it does not possess sufficient waste matter to irritate the
inflamed spots.
But great care should be taken in its administration. The banana should
be thoroughly sound and ripe, and all the stringy portion carefully
removed. It should then be mashed and beaten to a cream. In severe
cases I think it is better to give this neat, but if not liked by the patient a
little lemon juice, well mixed in, may render it more acceptable. It may
also be taken with fresh cream.
A friend who has had a very wide experience in illness told me that she
was once hurriedly sent for at night to a girl suffering from peritonitis.

Not knowing what she might, or might not, find in the way of remedies
when she arrived at her destination, my friend took with her some
strong barley water, bananas, and an enema syringe. She found the girl
lying across the bed screaming, obviously in agony. First of all my
friend administered a warm water enema. A pint of plain warm water
was injected first, and after this had come away as much warm water as
could be got in was injected and then allowed to come away. The
object of this was to thoroughly wash out the bowels. Then the barley
water was warmed, the bananas mashed, beaten to cream, and mixed in
with the barley water. A soothing nutrient lotion was thus prepared, and
as much as the patient could bear comfortably was injected in the
bowel and retained as long as possible. The effect was magical. The
pain subsided, and the patient ultimately recovered.
In the absence of perfectly ripe bananas, baked bananas may be used.
But, although better than no fruit at all, cooked fruit is never so
valuable as the fresh fruit, if only the latter be perfectly ripe. Bananas
should be baked in their skins, and the stringy pieces carefully removed
before eating. From twenty minutes to half an hour's slow cooking is
required.
Bananas are excellent food for anæmic persons on account of the iron
they contain. A very palatable way of taking them is with fresh orange
juice.
A comparatively old-fashioned remedy, for sprained or bruised places
that show a tendency to become inflamed is to apply a plaster of banana
skin.