Barley Water

When using pearl barley for making barley water it must be well washed.
The fine white dust that adheres to it is most unwholesome. For this
reason the cook is generally directed to first boil the barley for five
minutes, and throw this water away. But in this way some of the valuable
properties are thrown away with the dirt. The best results are obtained
by well washing it in cold water, but this must be done over and over
again. Half-a-dozen waters will not be too many. After the last washing
the water should be perfectly clear.

When barley water is being used for curative purposes it should be
strong. The following recipe is an excellent one. A 1/2 pint of barley
to 21/2 pints water (distilled if possible). Boil for three hours, or
until reduced to 2 pints. Strain and add 4 teaspoonfuls fresh lemon
juice. Sweeten to taste with pure cane sugar.

Fine Scotch barley is to be preferred to the pearl barley if it can be
obtained.

Barley

Barley is excellent food for the anaemic and nervous on account of its
richness in iron and phosphoric acid. It is also useful in fevers and
all inflammatory diseases, on account of its soothing properties. From
the earliest times barley water has been the recognised drink of the
sick.

Banana

The banana is invaluable in inflammation of all kinds. For this reason
it is very useful in cases of typhoid fever, gastritis, peritonitis,
etc., and may constitute the only food allowed for a time.

Not only does it actually subdue the inflammation of the intestines,
but, in the opinion of at least one authority, as it consists of 95 per
cent. nutriment, it does not possess sufficient waste matter to irritate
the inflamed spots.

But great care should be taken in its administration. The banana should
be _thoroughly sound and ripe_, and all the stringy portion carefully
removed. It should then be mashed and beaten to a cream. In severe cases
I think it is better to give this neat, but if not liked by the patient
a little lemon juice, well mixed in, may render it more acceptable. It
may also be taken with fresh cream.

A friend who has had a very wide experience in illness told me that she
was once hurriedly sent for at night to a girl suffering from
peritonitis. Not knowing what she might, or might not, find in the way
of remedies when she arrived at her destination, my friend took with her
some strong barley water, bananas, and an enema syringe. She found the
girl lying across the bed screaming, obviously in agony. First of all my
friend administered a warm water enema. A pint of plain warm water was
injected first, and after this had come away as much warm water as could
be got in was injected and then allowed to come away. The object of this
was to thoroughly wash out the bowels. Then the barley water was warmed,
the bananas mashed, beaten to cream, and mixed in with the barley water.
A soothing nutrient lotion was thus prepared, and as much as the patient
could bear comfortably was injected in the bowel and retained as long as
possible. The effect was magical. The pain subsided, and the patient
ultimately recovered.

In the absence of _perfectly_ ripe bananas, baked bananas may be used.
But, although better than no fruit at all, cooked fruit is never so
valuable as the fresh fruit, if only the latter be perfectly ripe.
Bananas should be baked in their skins, and the stringy pieces carefully
removed before eating. From twenty minutes to half an hour's slow
cooking is required.

Bananas are excellent food for anaemic persons on account of the iron
they contain. A very palatable way of taking them is with fresh orange
juice.

A comparatively old-fashioned remedy, for sprained or bruised places
that show a tendency to become inflamed is to apply a plaster of banana
skin.

Asparagus

Asparagus is said to strengthen and develop the artistic faculties. It
also calms palpitation of the heart. It is very helpful to rheumatic
patients on account of its salts of potash. It should be steamed, not
boiled, otherwise part of the valuable salts are lost.

Apple Tea

The following are two good recipes for apple tea:-- (1) Take 2 sound
apples, wash, but do not peel, and cut into thin slices. Add some strips
of lemon rind. Pour on 1 pint of boiling water (distilled). Strain when
cold. (2) Bake 2 apples. Pour over them 1 pint boiling water. Strain
when cold.

Apple

It is hardly possible to take up any newspaper or magazine now a days
without happening on advertisements of patent medicines whose chief
recommendation is that they "contain phosphorus." They are generally
very expensive, but the reader is assured that they are worth ten times
the price asked on account of their wonderful properties as nerve and
brain foods. The proprietors of these concoctions seemingly flourish
like green bay trees and spend many thousands of pounds per annum in
advertising. From which it may be deduced that sufferers from nervous
exhaustion and brain fag number millions. And surely only a sufferer
from brain fag would suffer himself to be led blindly into wasting his
money, and still further injuring his health, by buying and swallowing
drugs about whose properties and effects he knows absolutely nothing.
How much simpler, cheaper, and more enjoyable to eat apples!

The apple contains a larger percentage of phosphorus than any other
fruit or vegetable. For this reason it is an invaluable nerve and brain
food. Sufferers from nerve and brain exhaustion should eat at least two
apples _at the beginning of each meal_. At the same time they should
avoid tea and coffee, and supply their place with barley water or bran
tea flavoured with lemon juice, or even apple tea.

Apples are also invaluable to sufferers from the stone or calculus. It
has been observed that in cider countries where the natural unsweetened
cider is the common beverage, cases of stone are practically unknown.
Food-reformers do not deduce from this that the drinking of cider is to
be recommended, but that even better results may be obtained from eating
the fresh, ripe fruit.

Apples periodically appear upon the tables of carnivorous feeders in the
form of apple sauce. This accompanies bilious dishes like roast pork and
roast goose. The cook who set this fashion was evidently acquainted with
the action of the fruit upon the liver. All sufferers from sluggish
livers should eat apples.

Apples will afford much relief to sufferers from gout. The malic acid
contained in them neutralises the chalky matter which causes the gouty
patient's sufferings.

Apples, when eaten ripe and without the addition of sugar, diminish
acidity in the stomach. Certain vegetable salts are converted into
alkaline carbonates, and thus correct the acidity.

An old remedy for weak or inflamed eyes is an apple poultice. I am told
that in Lancashire they use rotten apples for this purpose, but
personally I should prefer them sound.

A good remedy for a sore or relaxed throat is to take a raw ripe apple
and scrape it to a fine pulp with a silver teaspoon. Eat this pulp by
the spoonful, very slowly, holding it against the back of the throat as
long as possible before swallowing.

A diet consisting chiefly of apples has been found an excellent cure for
inebriety. Health and strength may be fully maintained upon fine
wholemeal unleavened bread, pure dairy or nut butter, and apples.

Apple water or apple tea is an excellent drink for fever patients.

Apples possess tonic properties and provoke appetite for food. Hence the
old-fashioned custom of eating an apple before dinner.

Almond

Almond soup is an excellent substitute for beef-tea for convalescents.
It is made by simply blanching and pounding a quarter of a pound of
sweet almonds with half a pint of milk, or vegetable stock. Another pint
of milk or stock is then to be added and the whole warmed. After this
add another pint and a half of stock if the soup is to be a vegetable
one, or rice water if milk has been used.

An emulsion of almonds is useful in chest affections. It is made by well
macerating the nuts in a nut butter machine, and mixing with orange or
lemon juice.

Almonds should always be blanched, that is, skinned by pouring boiling
water on the nuts and allowing them to soak for one minute, after which
the skins are easily removed. The latter possess irritating properties.

Bitter almonds should not be used as a food. They contain a poison
identical with prussic acid.

Fruit or Fasting

Treatment of disease by fasting has come into fashion of late, and there
is really no lack of proof as to the benefits to be obtained from
abstaining entirely from food for a short period. I know of an elderly
man who fasts for a fortnight every spring, and gains, not loses, weight
during the process! He accounts for this by explaining that certain
stored up, undigested food particles come out and are digested while he
fasts. Whether this is the correct explanation I do not know, but the
fact remains, and it is not by any means a solitary case. Of course, the
majority of people lose weight when fasting, but this is very quickly
recovered. Now I do not think fasting should be undertaken recklessly,
but only under competent direction. But an excellent and safe substitute
for a fast is an exclusive fruit diet.

Acute Illness

The simplest and quickest method of recovering from attacks of acute
illness, fevers, inflammatory diseases, etc., is to rest quietly in bed
in a warm but well-ventilated room, and to take three meals a day of
fresh ripe fruit, grapes by preference. If the grapes are grown out of
doors and ripened in the sun so much the better. I have found from two
to three pounds of grapes per day sufficient. If there is thirst, barley
water flavoured with lemon juice should be taken between the meals.

The Simple Life

We hear a great deal about the "Simple Life" and "Returning to Nature"
nowadays, but most of us are so situated that the proposed simplicity
simply spells increased complexity. The "vegetarian chop" costs the
housewife more than double the time and labour involved in preparing its
fleshly namesake. And when it comes to illness some of the systems of
bathing and exercising prescribed by the "naturopath" are infinitely
more troublesome to the patient and his friends than the simple
expedient of sending for the doctor and taking the prescribed doses. I
do not want to be misunderstood here. I am not condemning treatment
with water and exercises. On the contrary, I hope to pass on what I have
learnt about these methods of treatment. But so many people lack the
time, help, and conveniences necessary to carry them out successfully.
It is to these that I would say that the patient's cure may be effected
just as surely, if more slowly, by means of fruit alone.

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.

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 _regime_. 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 _regime_ 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.

Fruit is a Food

Until quite recently the majority of English-speaking people have been
accustomed to look upon fruit not as a food, but rather as a sweetmeat,
to be eaten merely for pleasure, and therefore very sparingly. It has
consequently been banished from its rightful place at the beginning of
meals. But fruit is not a "goody," it is a food, and, moreover, a
complete food. All vegetable foods (in their natural state) contain all
the elements necessary to form a complete food. At a pinch human life
might be supported on any one of them. I say "at a pinch" because if
the nuts cereals and pulses were ruled out of the dietary it would, for
most people, be deficient in fat and proteid (the flesh and
muscle-forming element). Nevertheless, fruit alone _will_ sustain life
if taken in large quantities with small output of energy on the part of
the person living upon it, as witness the "grape cure."[2] The
percentage of proteid in grapes is particularly high for fruit.

Those people who desire to make a fruitarian dietary their daily
_regime_ cannot do better than take the advice of O. Hashnu Hara, an
American writer. He says: "Every adult requires from twelve to sixteen
ounces of dry food, _free from water_, daily. To supply this a quarter
of a pound of _shelled_ nuts and three-quarters of a pound of any dried
fruit must be used. In addition to this, from two to three pounds of
any _fresh fruit_ in season goes to complete the day's allowance. These
quantities should be weighed out ... and will sustain a full-grown man
in perfect health and vitality. The quantity of ripe fresh fruit may be
slightly increased in summer, with a corresponding decrease in the dried
fruit."

Fruit and the Teeth

I mention the above because one of the objections that I have heard
cited against the free use of fruit is that "the acids act injuriously
upon the teeth." Until I became a vegetarian I used to visit a dentist
regularly every six months. I had done this for ten years, and nearly
every tooth in my gums had its gold filling. The last time I visited the
dentist I told him that I had become a vegetarian, and he replied that
he rather thought my teeth would decay quicker in future on account of
an increased consumption of vegetable acids. But from that day, now
nearly six years ago, to the present time, I have never been near a
dentist. My teeth seem to have taken a new lease of life. It is a fact
that the acids in fruit and vegetables so far from injuring the teeth
benefit them. Many of these acids are strongly antiseptic and actually
destroy the germs that cause the teeth to decay. On the other hand, they
do _not_ attack the enamel of the teeth, while inorganic acids do.
Nothing cleanses the teeth so effectually as to thoroughly chew a large
and juicy apple.

While there is Fruit there is hope

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 minera