False Notions About Eating*

Otago Witness, Issue 1911, 6 July 1888, Page 37

False Notions About Eating*

It has been an old wives' notion from way back that certain kinds of food must be avoided because they tend to produce certain kinds of disease. This notion has been fostered by alleged physicians who publish health journals, and are always laying down rules about living which, if anyone undertook' to follow literally and " scrupulously, would nfiike life a burden from the cradle to the grave. Some years ago Dr Dio Lewis, who was regarded as somewhat of a health expert, announced that tomatoes were unhealthy, were the cause of cancer, loosened and destroyed the teeth, &c. For generations boys and girls had been warned not to eat so much butter or their faces would break out with •' butter sores." It is an old time tradition that buckwheat* cakes are productive of skin diseases,' and the Scotch are said to be cursed with the itch because they eat so much oatmeal. Dr James O. White, professor of dermatology in Harvard University, in a recent article on cutaneous diseases, pricks some of these annoying traditional bubbles. He says thai uncooked butter is perfectly harmless food so far as the skin is concerned, and it is difficult to conceive how anyone could haVe thought otherwise unless, possibly £he nse of bad butter in food otherwise indigestible may have disturbed the stomach and produced impure blood. Buckwheat cakes dp not produce cutaneous diseases, unless improperly cooked arid eaten hot with too much syrup, they upset the digestion. Oatmeal is perfectly harmless food, and the idea that tomatoes cause cancer is ridiculous. Dr White says that the eating of fruits, nats, and fish may lead to irritation of the skin in certain individuals, but this arises from some cause peculiar to the individual. The notion that certain kinds df food are detrimental to the complexion is a false one. A good digestion and a healthy appetite will take care of the skin, and it matters little what one eats, if the stomach is allowed to do its work properly and furnish/ good material for pure blood.— Springfleld Union. ■ '