For the next twenty years I suffered from the effects of my time in the Navy with ulcers, obesity, and stomach trouble. It wasn't until I started reading and gardening again that I regained my health. This was more than twenty-five years ago, and I haven't been sick or taken any medications since. Based on my experiences, I see that many illnesses are caused by malnutrition or poor nutrition and that poor nutrition is caused by ignorance. This means that the solution to many of our health problems is simple.
Good nutrition is needed for good health, and the key to good nutrition is good food.
We began by digging out all the grass and planting vegetables, especially papaya trees and bananas. Because we live in Florida, we have to feed the soil that feeds us with lots of compost and sea products. Good soil is essential to successful gardening, and Florida soil leaves a lot to be desired. We add wood ashes from our cook stove and fireplace, bone meal, cottonseed meal, oyster meal, granite dust, soybean meal, alfalfa meal, manure, and some soft phosphate and kelp meal for trace minerals. I find that our soil, like much of the soil in the U.S., is sulfur deficient and so needs treatment.