The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1883-08-09
Fruit as Food and Medicine:

Fruit as Food and Medicine:
Now that the fruit season is
full upon us it will doubtless be
interesting and highly useful to our
readers to learn something of the
nutritiveness, digestibilito, whole
someness, medicinal action and
proper use of the fruits and yegeta-
bles with which God has so abun-
dainty blessed our earth. But
while they are blessings, they, like
blessings, have been con-
verted into curses through the ig
norance and perversity of mankind.
Yet the fruit kingdom affords an
almost endless variety of delicious
and wholesome food, and, in many
cases, the best of medicines, when
properly used.
DR.. Paris truly says: "Were we
to form an opinion of their value
from their abuse, we should certain
ly be rather disposed to class them
under the head of poisons than of
ailments
Now let us inquire why this is so.
Is it because most fruits are I'M
wholesome in themselves? or is it
because they are improperly used?
Evidently the latter is the true rea-
son. A beneficent Providence new
er intended to iniict, but to bless,
the human family by giving thsm
hountiful supply of fruit pleasant to
the eye and sweet to the taste
What, then, is the trouble? How
comes it that such blessings are
perverted till they be compared
with the
"Fruit of that forbidden tree,
Whose mortal taste brought
Death into our World,
And all our woeI'
The great error in the use Of
fruits consist in crowding the stom-
ach with them when it is already
full; in eating them at all times be
tween meals when there is no natu-
raj demand nor desire for them
When, taken aloug at times, as
food, in moderation, or rs q des-
sert, when the stomach is not over
full, they are highly conducive to
health; and, as the writer quoted
above very truly says ''they appear
to be providently sent at n season
when the body requires that cooling
and antiseptic ailment which they
are SO we'll calculated to afford. The
correct rule for the use of fruit is
to use them moderately between
meals, and at meals, as part ofthe
meal, or as n dessert, when the
stomach is not overloaded with 9th
err food. Though desserts aye, as a
general thing, Objectionable, be
cause when the stomach is already
full, fruits mnch more wholesome,
when taken in this way, when ia
ken in this way, than the pastries,
cakes, ETC., generally used as des-
serte.
Let us now briefly pass in review
the different kinds of fruits, consid-
ering them in relation to nutritive-
ness, digestibility, etc.
OF all the fruits with which we
are blessed, the peach is the most
delicious and digestible. There is
nothing more palatable, wholesome
and medicinal than good ripe
peaches. They should be ripe, but
not over-rIpe and half rotten; and
of this kind they may make a part
of either meal, or be eaten between
meals; but it is better to make them
part Of the regular meals. 1t is
a mistaken idea that no fruits
should be eaten at breakfast, or be-
fore breakfast. 1t would be far bet
ter if our people would eat less ba
con and grease and more fruit. In
the morning there is an acrid state
of the secretions, and nothing is so
we'll calculated to correct this as
cooling acid fruits, such as APP
pies, peach es, etc. Still, most of us
have been taught that eating fruit
before breakfast is highly danger
Gus. How the idea originated 1
know not; but it is certainly a
great error, contrary both to reason
and fact.
Plums are less digestible than
peaches, on account of their pulp;
and all pulpy stone fruits are more
or less indigestible, in proportion
to the quantity of this pulp, which
is likely to cause fermentation, re-
sultlng in diarrhoea. This is fire.
quent trouble in children, who of
ten eat them half ripe, and who
swallow them-pulp, !
seeds and all. The juice alone |
should be taken into the stomach,
and this is wholesome.
The apple is one of the best
Of fruits. Baked or stewed apples
will generally agree with the most !
delicate stomach, and are an eX-
cellent medicine in many cases of
sickness. Green or half-ripe APP
pies, stewed and sweetened, are
pleasant to the taste, nourishing,
cooling and laxative, being far pref
erable, in many cases, to the abom
nable doses of salts and oil usually
given in levers and other diseases.
Raw apples, and dried apples stcwed,
ire better for constipation than
most liver pills.
Oranges are very acceptable to
most stomachs, having all the adj
7antages of the acid alluded to; but
he juice alone should be taken, re
Getting the pulp.
The same may be said of lemons,
,omegranates, and all that class.
is the best drink in te-
-ers; and whenthickened with SUI
,ar, is better than syrup of squills
md other nauseous drugs, in many
;ases of cough.
Tomatoes act on the liver and
bowels, and are much more pleas
mt and safe than blue mass and
H.: ,.ocr,,la+0ro Tho iuiaa