Beginning the Natural Diet

It is only human to follow custom. We break II away from the pathway of precedent now and then because we are compelled to; because some­thing happens that makes us think; because our life, lib­erty or happiness is thrown into jeopardy and it be­comes necessary to do something unusual to make things right.

Nearly every housewife feels that she is held per­sonally responsible for the table. She has inherited the idea that it takes a large number of things to con­stitute a good meal. She has also inherited the con­viction that meat is the substantial and principal thing, and that everything else is merely prepared to go with and make meat taste better.

She has become convinced that, next to meat, cereals and cereal products occupy the most important place in the dietary.

With the exception of a few candy caramel and pink tea recipes the average woman goes through life selecting and preparing food according to precedent and custom.

It is only when some member of the family is stricken with disease and a life is in jeopardy and the trouble can be directly traced to the food that any thought is given to this great question.

A very limited amount of time devoted to the study of the chemistry of food would reveal the fact to any intelligent person that meat is wholly unnecessary, that it contains absolutely nothing that cannot be sup­plied from other things, but that it does contain much poison, that other things do not contain, which is re­sponsible for a great deal of physical trouble. This study would convince the housewife and mother that every chemical element of which the body is com­posed can be supplied in their best form from the vegetable world. A few exceptions, however, may be made now and then by the use of such animal prod­ucts as milk, eggs, fish and the bloodless tribe of shell fish.

While it is possible to live and enjoy perfect health without taking the life of any living thing, yet, rather than battle against the tyranny of appetite, it is some­times better for the beginner to partake now and then of the animal products above named.

In beginning the natural diet a very sharp distinction should be drawn between appetite and hunger. Appe­tite is the craving for something that has been forced upon the body against its demands; having accepted it, however, the penalty is tyranny of appetite and slavery of the body.

Hurried, nervous eating, overeating and exhibition of temper when meals are late are all expressions of appetite similar to, and often as serious as coffee, cocaine or tobacco slavery. Most of these habits can be controlled and the causes removed by gradually normalizing and naturalizing the diet.

In adopting the natural diet the change should be made gradually, increasing the number of uncooked while decreasing the cooked articles at the same ratio. If the family has been in the habit of using meat every day, it might be omitted twice or three times a week and some article rich in proteids served as a substitute. It will be remembered that the only nutritive elements in meat are fats and proteids.

These elements can be supplied by a great variety of delicious foods, many of which can be taken in their natural state.

The staple and most available fat foods are butter, cream, olive oil and nuts.

The most available proteid foods are milk, eggs, nuts and all legumes, whole wheat and rye.

It is a matter of common knowledge no longer dis­puted by scientists that meat is not only an unnecessary article of food, but in a great many cases actually harmful, and that it is the most expensive form in which proteids and fats can be secured.

It is impossible to take any kind of flesh food with­out partaking of the uric acid that is residual in the body of the animal and also the toxic poisons that were in process of elimination when arrested by death.

The adoption of a natural diet, therefore, has a tendency toward the abolition of meat, condiments, pas­tries, tea, coffee, tobacco and all sedative and narcotic stimulants.

It is said by.those who have adopted a diet of natural foods that they did not have to quit tea, coffee, tobacco, meat, etc., but that these things quit them.

All uncooked articles should be served very daintily, for the very obvious reason that food in its natural state contains all its nutrition and therefore the quan­tity one can partake of is reduced perhaps 50 per cent.

The advantages and virtues of the natural diet might be summed up as follows:

First, it is less expensive.

Second, it abolishes the use of meat, and with it abolishes the most prolific cause of uric acid and toxic poisoning.

Third, it abolishes condiments and pastries, two of the most potent factors in stomach and intestinal trouble.

Fourth, it abolishes the habit of over-eating, which is the primary cause of a vast amount of digestive trouble.

Fifth, it trains one in the habit of thorough masti­cation. When the cell structure of all vegetable foods has been completely torn down and made soft by grinding, mushing up and cooking, the primary reason for mastication, which is thorough pulverization, has been disposed of; therefore the habit of bolting food, swallowing it without the necessary insalivation, has become a fixed habit with most civilized people. This is one of the principal causes of stomach and intestinal trouble.

The natural diet, or at least a sufficient quantity of natural foods taken with every meal, will compel enough time devoted to mastication to properly insali­vate the whole and therefore insure good or fair diges­tion. Natural food is the natural mother of Fletcher-ism.

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