A Pioneer of Food Remedies

The pioneer, in England, of the treatment of all sorts and conditions of disease by means of a vegetable (chiefly fruit) dietary was Dr. Lambe, a contemporary of the poet Shelley. His last book appeared in 1815, and in it and the one preceding are recorded some wonderful cures, especially in cases of cancer. It is only fair to add here that in Dr. Lambe's opinion no system of cure is completely efficacious so long as the patient is allowed to drink the ordinary tap or well water. Distilled water was the only drink he advised. But he held it better still not to drink at all if the necessary liquid could be supplied to the body by means of fresh, juicy fruits. He contended that man is not naturally a drinking animal; that his thirst is a morbid symptom, the outcome of a carnivorous diet and other unwholesome habits. And I think that anyone may prove the truth of this for him or herself if he or she will adopt a fruitarian dietary and abstain from the use of salt and other condiments.

I have cited so out-of-date a personage as Dr. Lambe for two reasons. The first is that I know many of the so-called new and unorthodox ideas are more likely to appeal to some readers, if it can be shown that they originated with a duly qualified medical practitioner who recorded the results of his observations and experiments in black and white. The second is that the principles and practices of Dr. Lambe are incorporated with those of the Physical Regeneration Society, a large and ever-increasing body of enthusiasts having its head-quarters in London, to whose annals I must refer those readers who desire up-to-date instances of the efficacy of the use of fruit in disease. Lack of space will not allow me to quote them here.

Florence Daniel

Objections to Fruit

Some vegetarians object that it is possible to eat too much fruit, and recommend caution in the use of it to people of nervous temperament, or those who seem predisposed to skin ailments. It is true that the consumption of large quantities of fruit may appear to render the nervous person more irritable, and to increase the external manifestations of a skin disease. But in the latter event the fruit is merely assisting Nature to throw the disease out and off more quickly, while in the former case the real cause lies not in the fruit but in some nerve irritant, tea, for example, the effects of which are more acutely felt under the new "régime". The nervous system tends to become much more sensitive upon a vegetarian, especially fruitarian, diet, and people often attribute their increased nervousness and irritability to the diet when it is simply that they now react more quickly to poisons. This is not a bad thing, on the contrary, it shows that the system has become more alert. Under the old "régime" we tend to store up poisons and impurities in the body, but the effect of a vegetable diet, especially when united with the use of distilled water, is to cause all our diseases and impurities to be expelled outwards and downwards. Tea is a slow poison, and so is coffee except under exceptional conditions
when it is used as a medicine, and then it should always be pale-roasted.

Fruit should always be eaten at the beginning of a meal. Again, when the diet consists of a mixture of cooked and uncooked foods, the uncooked should always be eaten first. Also when the meal consists of two courses, a sweet and a savoury dish, sufferers from indigestion should try taking the sweet course first. I have known several cases where this simple expedient has resulted in a complete cessation of the discomfort of which the patient complained.

Florence Daniel

While there is Fruit there is Hope

by Florence Daniel

While there is life--and fruit--there is hope. When this truth is realised by the laity nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand professors of the healing art will be obliged to abandon their profession and take to fruit-growing for a living.

Many people have heard vaguely of the "grape cure" for diseases arising from over-feeding, and the lemon cure for rheumatism, but for the most part these "cures" remain mere names. Nevertheless it is almost incredible to the uninitiated what may be accomplished by the abandonment for a time of every kind of food in favour of fruit. Of course, such a proceeding should not be entered upon in a careless or random fashion. Too sudden changes of habit are apt to be attended with disturbances that discourage the patient, and cause him to lose patience and abandon the treatment without giving it a fair trial. In countries where the "grape cure" is practised the patient starts by taking one pound of grapes each day, which quantity is gradually increased until he can consume six pounds. As the quantity of grapes is increased that of the ordinary food is decreased, until at last the patient lives on nothing but grapes.[1] I have not visited a "grape cure" centre in person, but I have read that it is not only persons suffering from the effects of over-feeding who find salvation in the "grape cure," but that consumptive patients thrive and even put on weight under it.

The Herald of Health stated, some few years back, that in the South of France where the "grape cure" is practised consumptive patients are fed on grapes alone, and become quite strong and well in a year or two. And I have myself known wonderful cures to follow on the adoption of a fruitarian dietary in cases of cancer, tumour, gout, eczema, all kinds of inflammatory complaints, and wounds that refused to heal.

H. Benjafield, M.B., writing in the Herald of Health, says: "Garrod, the great London authority on gout, advises his patients to take oranges, lemons, strawberries, grapes, apples, pears, etc. Tardieu, the great French authority, maintains that the salts of potash found so plentifully in fruits are the chief agents in purifying the blood from these rheumatic and gouty poisons.... Dr. Buzzard advises the scorbutic to take fruit morning, noon, and night. Fresh lemon juice in the form of lemonade is to be his ordinary drink; the existence of diarrhoea should be no reason for withholding it." The writer goes on to show that headache, indigestion, constipation, and all other complaints that result from the sluggish action of bowels and liver can never be cured by the use of artificial fruit salts and drugs.

Salts and acids as found in organised forms are quite different in their effects to the products of the laboratory, notwithstanding that the chemical composition may be shown to be the same. The chemist may be able to manufacture a "fruit juice," but he cannot, as yet, manufacture the actual fruit. The mysterious life force always evades him. Fruit is a vital food, it supplies the body with something over and above the mere elements that the chemist succeeds in isolating by analysis. The vegetable kingdom possesses the power of directly utilising minerals, and it is only in this "live" form that they are fit for the consumption of man. In the consumption of sodium chloride (common table salt), baking powders, and the whole army of mineral drugs and essences, we violate that decree of Nature which ordains that the animal kingdom shall feed upon the vegetable and the vegetable upon the mineral.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] This was the original treatment; now other food is added, although excellent results were obtained under the old régime.