DIETETIC REFORM

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1636, 8 July 1903, Page 17

DIETETIC REFORM

MADAME SOPHIE LEPPEL AND HER SYSTEM. To live for at least 150 years, and to maintain unimpaired during the whole of that long period her bod.iy and mental activity—such is the task set herself by Madame Sophie Leppel, the premier apostle of dietetic reform. Will she succeed? Madame Eeppel answers the query with a barely qualified affirmative; to which, however, must people will probably return a not at all qualified negative. Meanwhile the fact remains that, at the moment of writing, Madame Leppel. although not much under fifty, looks something under thirty, and feels—so she avers—as strong, as hopeful, and as buoyant as a girl of twenty. And this she attributes solely to the care and attention she habitually bestows upon the choice and preparation of her food.. At first this question of dietary was a Jurely private and personal one with her. n the quiet seclusion of her father’s farm in Hanover, she noted how care»fully"the diet o-f all the inferior animals whether bred for show or for profit, was regulated. “Why,” she reflected, “should such strict attention bo paid to the feeding of cattle and sheep, while man, the highest animal of all, is systematically neglected ?’* Tire result of these and other similar cogitations wag a series of carefully thought-out dietetic experiments, carried out at first upon herself, and afterwards on her friends and neighbours. The results were as ■satisfactory as they were startling. She found that by careful attention to diet, not only the actual physical appearance of any given man or woman but his or her veiy moral nature, as it were could be modified and improved almost beyond recognition. So far so good; but she felt instinctively that something more was needed. Experiments of the kind indicated, if they were to be of any real value, had to be carried pn under varying conditions, among different races of people, and by and for the sick and ailing as well as the strong and healthy. Eventually, this was actually done; but it involved year's of incessant travel and almost incessant work. And throughout her j ourneyings, which extended nearly all ove.r the world, she. everywhere, found humanity feeding itself at haphazard. while bestowing the most careful attention on the DIETING OE DOMESTIC ANIMALS.

Onoe, and once only, did she light on a community whose members practised a rational diet. And they did it not from choice, but because they were compelled to. The habitat of the community in question was at San Paulo, in Brazil, where, on a large coffee plantation, about 100 slaves were employed. These men worked from five in the morning till six at night in a climate which in summer was nearly always soorching. and in winter frequently bitterly cold. Their food consisted of cooked maize, rice, brown beans, oranges, lemons, and a few bananas —not a specially liberal liet, according to European ideas. Nevertheless, the recipients thereof were exceptionally wel 1 formed and exceedingly muscular, possessing perfect teeth and clear, bright eyes, and in disposition they were kindly, tractable and intelligent. Madame Leppel stayed among them for four years conducting experiments and observations, and during the whole of that long period there was absolutely no sickness among them, and but ouo death, which was caused by carelessness. “As a dietetic specialist/'’ she remarks, “I was greatly impressed by the fact that the planter had instinctively fed his slaves, on just the foods calculated to enable him to get the greatest possible amount of work out of them, and incidentally to maintain them in PERFECT HEALTH. “But what impressed me even morel was, that while not only these poor slaves, but even the very animals and plants ot the estate, -were deemed worthy of the greatest consideration in ibis respect, their owners or masters allowed themselves to become stout and u-gly on fattening food ill-tempered on irritants, or dull and lethargic on rich diets wholly unsuited to the climate and the country/’ It was in Melbourne that Madame Leppel first advocated and put in practice jn public the theories she had formed and * the lessons she had learnt. Her views, so entirely strange and novel, at first "aroused the curiosity, and afterwards engaged the earnest attention, of the colonials.

Sfi© urged, among other things, that disease was, for the most part, not so much a misfortune as a fault, brought about through careless living and overindulgence in eating and drinking, and the sufferers therefrom should, therefore, be reprobated rather than pitied; that ugliness was the hall-mark of sensuality, just as beauty was of spirituality. She contended that by eating on scientific lines, instead/ of at haphazard, the human race could easily increase by from fifty to seventy per cent., not only its vitality and thereby its efficiency for work and for play, but its beauty and attractiveness.

Her converts and foll'oavers among all classes were soon numbered! by thousands, and among 1 them were many enthusiastic ones, who took up and carried on the work she had inaugurated. Then ifc was that Madame Leppel, feeling her mission in the Antipodes was accomplished came to London to try and break down and through the innate conservatism of Englishmen and Englishwomen. This was ini 1894. She has made much progress. She hopes to make much more in the near future. But she admits herself that it is uphill work. - And yet, from her point of view, how self-evident is the truth she is working to inculcate. To tiy to get intelligent men and women to pay as much attention to their own diet as they do to that of thedr horses, their cattle, tlxeir dogs. That is all. Nor must it be imagined that her

teaching aims at the establishment of any hard and fast set of dietetic rules. Neither vegetarianism, nor, for the matter of that, aDy other dietetic “ism/' has part or lot in HER CURRICULUM.

Her theory is that each individual is the best judge of wliat foods suit best his or her particular individuality. So far as she herself jiersonally, is concerned she takes a mixed diet of meat (exocp!. bef), fi h, green vegetables, tomatoes fresh fruits and starchy foods, the proportions of the different classes yaryin" according to her physical condition, and the mental or other kind, of work upon which she is for the time being engaged. ... She never drinks either at or between meals; but, like Tolstoy, substitutes for water or other liquids the ju’-ce of oranges, grapes or other fruit. On this dietary, besides a walk of from four to sixteen miles daily, shei easily manages to maintain herself in absolutely perfect health, and has done for many years past.

■Sleep, for instance, she can command at will, and at any moment, by day as well as night; while, if necessary, she can work uninterruptedly and without feeling the slightest ill effects, for 24 hours at a stretch.

Change or recreation s*he has never felt tho want of. Her mission, hobby, call it Wliat you will, is to her her all in all. “This one thing I do,” is the suggestive motto above her study door.

For the rest her life is. in a sense, the life 'Of an achorite. Tlialfc is to say, her rooms are bare, containing only her library and the necessary furniture for utility and comfort—comfort, that is, as she understands the term. Of course/, she docs her own cooking. Many people might call her a faddist, but who shall venture to deny that she may not be the pioneer of a cxilt that shall have effects more far-reaching and more vital than has had, siay, that inaugurated by Voltaire, by Darwin, or by Spencer. Tho food of the future is the life of the future. At present three-fourths of what we eat is bought, cooked and digested to no purpose. To- suppose that this monstrous waste will continue indefinitely, now it lias once been pointed out, is to suppose the race incapable either of assimilating facts or of utilising them.