Health Notes

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23411, 29 July 1939, Page 7 (Supplement)

Health Notes

Are You an Acid Person?

How to Prevent the Resultant Ills

I T3ERNARD SHAW is probably one of the very few unacid people; and that is because, although he is over 80, ho has lived on a simple light diet all his life, with a fair quota of fresh air and exercise, and no nicotine and alcohol. Nowadays every other person is either:—Acid by heredity; acid through overwork; acid because their life is sedentary; acid because they have too little to do. « Now to tackle tho problem. If you are suffering from acidity, shown in one of its many forms as indigestion, lassitude, rheumatism (gout and similar ailments), heartburn, thick skin, obesity, rashes, or scurfy scalp, the first step toward a cure is to discover what is generating the poison. Call on your dentist and have an X-ray of your teeth. Remember that bad teeth will cause acidity and acidity bad teeth, all in a vicious circle. Anyway, a visit to the dentist first is essential. Next consider your family history. If your forbears drank or worked too hard, you are sure to have been born acid. The first will show in gout or rheumatism, also rashes; the second in an easily upset digestion. Treating Rheumatism There is no doubt that "family acidity" is the hardest to cure, particularly in the case of rheumatism. It demands a systematically and rigidly controlled diet, and the absolute avoidance of provocative foods. Are you boltvjg your food and feeding at irregular intervals? Do try to keep to a definite meal-time and eat very little if you are in a hurry. Don't bolt. Food that is not chewed forms acidity. Are you over-eating? Unless you are taking tremendous physical exercise, the following is ample for any man or woman a day: Five ounces meat (or Boz. fish —fresh fish, not salt), 3 pints . milk, 21k. vegetables (not including potatoes), lib. fruit, half a loaf bread, 2oz. butter, 3oz. cream or other cheese, 1 egg and at least 3 pints of water. Over-eating leads to acidity. Breakfast should be light, and preferably of fruit. Lunch should bo light, if you arc the breadwinner and can only snatch a half-hour or so. Dinner, when work is behind you, should be the heaviest meal of the day. What is your ration of fresh air and exercise? It should be at least one hour a day. And that is not counting running for buses on the way to the olfice, but running on a tennis court, swimming, rowing or walking. Even gardening doesn't count in exorcise, unless you aro mowing a lawn, for it is uurhythmic and too slow. Cultivate a healthy regard for draughts; and do air your sheets. Damp and draughts foster colds —in the joints, in a nerve, in the head or in the stomach. Colds engender acids. Lastly, worry and strain make more acid than all the rest put together, but no one can tell you how to settle that but yourself. Just /•emember that, however bad the situation, making yourself ill won't do any good. Value of Vegetable Juices Carrots are one of the most valuable vegetables for eliminating poisons; but tho customary boiling of this vegetable destroys many of its remarkable qualities. Carrots, raw and grated in salads, are excellent, but even then their properties are not as easily assimilated as through the direct juice. Carrot juice purifies tho entire digestive tract; clears the complexion antl improves the hair; alleviates nettlerash and shingles; is invaluable in

anaemia, asthma, and also in the treatment of tuberculosis. It can bo used with cucumber juice for clearing tho skin, and with celery juice for rashes and shingles. Again, there is scarcely an acid dieorder in which garlic is not effective. It influences the entire digestive system, acting as a thorough cleanser, dispelling gases, waste matter, and parasites. There is no blood-restorer to compare with garlic; pyorrhoea is effectively reduced by it owing to a purer blood-stream. It loosens thick phlegm and cures boils. The Raw Food Cure The most successful cure of rheumatism, and one that is really lasting, seems to have been found by the late Dr. Bircher Benner, at his hospital in Zurich. Ho discovered that a diet, consisting largely of raw food, with tho maximum of fruits, vegetables and

salads (therefore rich in vitamins and mineral salts), made for healthy people who died only of old age, and were not easily attacked by any kind of illness. He also found that animals fed on the normal diet, including a great deal of cooked food, with a high protein and groat deal of starch, were puny, and produced puny young, which, in their turn, were an easy prey to any illness, and never in really good condition. 1 Dr. Birehor Benner maintained that anyone who was in good health should have 50 per cent raw food; anyone who was ill should have 100 per cent. He practised this himself with an amazing renewal of hitherto lost health, and increased ability in every form. He used the raw food diet at _ first on a few chosen patients, but with such encouraging results that it has now become world known. There is a hospital in London that now takes rheumatic patients, and puts them straight away on to a diet consisting of raw foods, for a fortnight; no protein or starch, but fresh and dried fruits, and root and green salads, nuts and cream. Tho improvement is amazing; patients who on admittance could hardly walk upstairs, needed two sticks, and were in constant pain, have been discharged to return to work within six months.