The symptoms of which L.B.F. complains are in all probability due to flatulence and to general disturbances of the digestive process.
Perhaps it would be a good plan to make the diet lighter. The nuts could be omitted and cheese or eggs subst.i.tuted. An evening meal would be helpful.
As to the bowels, some senna and camomile tea at bedtime would help to clear them. Unless there is distinct evidence of faecal retention in the colon it is better not to use the enema as a regular thing.
_On rising._--A tumblerful of Sanum Tonic Tea made with hot, preferably distilled, water.
_Breakfast._--An all-fruit meal consisting of nothing but apples, bananas, grapes, or orange, or any fresh ripe fruit that is in season.
_Dinner at 12.30._--A cooked meal consisting of two ca.s.serole-cooked vegetables, with grated cheese as a sauce dressing, with some twice-baked or well toasted bakers" bread, followed by a baked apple and cream. (Omit nut meat pie and apple pie.)
_Tea meal at 5._--2 oz. of cottage cheese or cream cheese, wholemeal bread and b.u.t.ter, small plateful of finely grated raw roots with an appetising dressing containing some "Protoid Fruit-Oil."
_Bedtime._--Tumblerful of hot water (preferably distilled) to which senna leaves and German camomile flowers (very little) have been steeped to infuse; or a cupful of dandelion coffee could be taken if the bowels are regularly acting.
LONG-STANDING GASTRIC TROUBLE.
W.T. writes:--Having tried a diet, recommended in _The Healthy Life_, for a month I find the nuts and cheese are far too heavy for the apparent weak condition of my stomach, also that the salads and ca.s.serole-baked vegetables are too irritating to the membrane of the stomach. I have no desire to return to flesh food and ordinary feeding, which I feel would not be good for me. From eggs I cannot obtain any good results. The continuance of loss of weight is worrying me, being down to eight stone from eleven stone in twelve months. I feel satisfied it is only a question of diet, if I could only strike the correct one. I am naturally most anxious to regain some of my lost strength and weight. I am at present taking bread and b.u.t.ter, cooked fruit, and occasionally an egg, boiled rice, vegetables and a little dried fruit. No matter how light I make my diet I still suffer after every meal with dilated stomach and irregular working of the heart. Blood circulation is still bad and constipation is gradually getting worse. As before stated, I am anxious to succeed with the reformed diet, but I am really at a loss to know which way to proceed to make any progress. As I was in South Africa twenty years, and only returned to England just before this catarrh set in, is the climate here against my progress, do you think? I am so sorry to take up so much of your time, but shall be grateful for any help you can give me which will be greatly appreciated.
It is difficult to advise how best to proceed in this case as our correspondent really ought to seek medical advice. Only in this way can he obtain really satisfactory guidance. For without knowing the state of his blood and the organs generally it is impossible to advise correctly. Speaking generally, until salads and ca.s.serole-cooked vegetables can be taken freely there can be no possible permanent cure.
In many such cases the best way to train the digestive organs into a healthy state is to keep to a diet consisting chiefly of dextrinised cereals, which must be eaten dry, with some vegetables and as little fresh fruit as possible. This to be continued until little by little the raw salad vegetables are found to agree; then the rest is easy.
A diet on the following lines would probably be a good temporary measure:--
_Breakfast._--One egg lightly boiled, poached or baked, with two Granose biscuits and fresh b.u.t.ter, eaten dry.
_Dinner._--Brusson Jeune bread (one or two rolls) with b.u.t.ter, and small helping of vegetables, cooked at _first_ in the orthodox way.
_Supper._--Plateful of boiled rice (cooked dry in the Indian fashion[4]) with a tablespoonful of good malt extract.
No sugar, honey, stewed fruit, or dried fruit should be taken until improvement has set in. As little fluid as possible should be taken until the stomach has regained more tone and become more normal in size.
[4] See _The Healthy Life Cook Book_. 1s. net (post free, 1s. 1+1/2d.).
SEVERE DIGESTIVE CATARRH.
Miss S.L.P. writes:--I should like a little help as to diet. I have just had an attack of epidemic influenza with throat trouble, so that I feel very much run down and unfit for a diet too depleting in character. For over four years I have adopted a non-flesh diet on account of a tendency to chronic catarrh of the whole alimentary tract, due to rheumatic tendencies which affect me internally rather than externally. The continuous damp weather has produced much gastric irritation, and frequent acidity.
I cannot discover a diet that is convenient and at the same time sufficiently nourishing. I lose flesh on what I take, and I have none to spare, though at one time I was inclined to be stout. My age is forty-eight.
I take three meals a day. A light breakfast either of "Maltweat"
bread or "P.R." Cracker biscuits and b.u.t.ter, with tomato or fresh fruit or occasionally an egg. For midday meal an egg or milled cheese, or nuts or cream cheese, with a baked potato and a conservatively cooked vegetable. Occasionally I have a little salad and grated carrot, but unless I am better than usual I cannot digest these. The evening meal consists of "Maltweat"
bread or "P.R." Cracker biscuits or Granose flakes, with cream cheese. As a child I suffered constantly from colds in the head, but now my troubles are oftener internal.
The action of the bowels is irregular. I depend chiefly upon an enema of warm water when constipation is present.
I never drink tea, only hot water, or Emprote and water, or occasionally vegetable juices or fruit juices. I find I am better without much fluid.
So far as it is possible to judge from this letter, this correspondent is suffering not only from stomach and bowel catarrh, but her condition as a whole is unsatisfactory. The vital force is depleted and the nervous system is not doing efficient work.
She needs suitable treatment to remove the acid and toxins with which the system is evidently clogged. This is not an easy task, for as soon as elimination begins trouble arises in the form of influenza or other similar derangements. These are probably little else but attempts on the part of nature to rouse the vital force of the body into action with a view to clearing out the clogging poisons.
Waste clearing should be done gradually. The skin should be made to act better by means of home Turkish baths, or by wet-sheet packs. Then mustard poultices can be applied _along the course of the spine_ and ma.s.sage with suitable manipulations can be applied to the muscles and bones which make up the spine. The daily practising of the excellent and simple breathing and bending exercises described in Muller"s _My System for Ladies_[5] will be very helpful. By means such as these the body will be gradually cleared of its poisons, and so the nervous system will be made to do better work.
The diet specified can be continued.
H. VALENTINE KNAGGS.
[5] 2s. 8d. post free from the office of _The Healthy Life_, 3 Amen Corner, London, E.C.
* * * * *
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H. BARTHOLOMEW, Knebworth.
THE
HEALTHY
LIFE
The Independent Health Magazine.
3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.
VOL. V AUGUST No. 25. 1913
_There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.
AN INDICATION.