MEDICINE IN FOOD

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXXII, Issue 4228, 14 February 1921, Page 1

MEDICINE IN FOOD

(By Walter M. Gallichan.) Many of the common disorders that afflict humanity can be alleviated, and in some instances banished, by a specific diet. The main object is eating is nutrition, but certain food substances serve as preventives of disease or as curative agents in the case of ailments! Diet will sometimes provide a remedy when drugs have failed, and physicians nowadays are giving more attention to the medicinal value of food. One of the most prevalent de A rangements of function is constipation. This condition is frequently amenable to a suitable diet, and may be prevented in many cases by such simple hygienic measures as increasing the amount of fluid consumed each day and eating more fresh fruit and vegetables. Bread made from j fine white flour induces constipation in many persons. The remedy is to eat wholemeal bread containing a proportion of bran. The mere mention of uric acid is apt to arouse anxiety in those persons who have been* told that most of our physical suffering is caused by this acid mingling in the blood. No one has yet discovered a perfect acid free diet. The vegetarians who discard flesh, fish and fowl rejoiced when doctors began to prescribe a diet which was supposed to eliminate uric acid producing foods. It has been proved, however, that uric acid is derived frQ.ni as well as from meat. ""* It is very doubtful whether the dreaded acid can induce any other disorder than gout. Most people probably produce about 12 grains of uric acid daily. Some foods appear to cause a larger production in certain persons. Btit only in some cases is the amount 'of uric acid retained sufficient to cause gout. The main rule of health is to aid nature in.the expulsion of uric acid and other disease provoking elements. Diet can assist in this process and most of the evidence' up to the present shows that a mixed diet of flesh and vegetable substances is the best for the average man and woman. The avoidance of constipation is one of our greatest -safeguards against the toxic effect of the billions of micro-organisms that are found in the body of the healthiest man. Self poisoning nay be kept at bay by attention to diet, open air exercise,, and the cultivation of skin activity. ' Headaches, rheumatism, and skin diseases can be prevented, and often cured, by a rational diet. The neglect of vegetable foods, such as cabbage, spinach,, and lettuce, during the winter deprives many persons of the benefit derived from the valuable mineral salts that "green food" contains. Apples, will counteract the uric acid tendency. ' Buttermilk has been found invaluable in chronic indigestion. A pint of hot milk daily is good physic- for thin, nervous people with poor appetites.