The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-09-16
EATING FRUIT IN SUMMER.

| Who May Consume Fruit to the Benefit
of Their General HeaIth-A Warning.
-Lightness is the first essential alike in
the food and drink taken in warm
weather. There is then less work to be
done, less waste of tissue, less need of
prominently muscle-forming and heat
| producing substances, meat and bread;
and fruit, as being both palatable and
easily obtainable, is much in use. Its adj
vantages are that it provides a seasonable
change of diet, light and wholesome if
well chosen, and a palatable tonic and
stimulant of digestion with aperient
properties. There are few who can not
enjoy it in one form or another. For
diabetes, the only least desirable kinds,
as certain nuts and almonds, are availa-
bic, all others as containing sugar being
forbidden.
Sufferers from acid dyspepsia must Sc
lect carefully and limit their consump-
ton to the least irritating-a few straw
berries or a few grapes. Diarrhoea and
dysentery preclude the use of all fruit.
On the other hand, for constipated per
sons it is sometimes the only reliable
remedy which they can use continuously
with comfort. It is also of benefit in
renal diseases by its action on the bowels.
AS tonic persons generally takeit well,
and feel the better for its digestive prop
erty. Those in normal health may
eat almost any ripe fruit. The bland
varieties are the most wholesome
and nutritious = strawberries, apples,
pears, grapes, and gooseberries. The
last named, however, with curraRts and
and raspberries, and less wholesome
than others. Stone fruits are apt TO dis
agree with the stomach. But the more
watery, as peaches and large pluns, are
better than the smaller and drier, as
apricots and damsens. The pulp of
oranges renders them heavy. Among
other foreign fruits, bananas are whole
some. Dried fruits, and the skin of
fruits in general, are indigestible. Nuts,
the edible part of which is really the
seed, contain much albumen and some
fat in condensed form, and are particu-
larly difficult of digestion.
Fruit may be taken with a meal or on
an empty stomach. In the former case
it promotes digestion by its gently irri- !
tating effect on the mucous membrane !
of the stomach and intestines. If am |
aperient effect be desired it had better |
be taken in the morning before break !
fast or between meals. A succulent and |
pleasant acid variety is best for both ]
purposes, while it is also a food. The |
quantity of fruit which should be taken !
depends on the kind. If it belong to the |
bland nutritious class, a healthy person
may now and then partake of it as freely |
as any other wholesome food. But he |
will gain more benefit if he will take
only little and take it regularly. The
same may be said of the invalid with
whom fruit agrees.
Cooking removes much of the acidity
from crude fruit and renders it lighter
as well as more palatable. So treated it
is productive of good and no harm. But
it is fundamental principle that what
ever fruit is eaten uncool1ed must be
fully ripe, and not over-ripe. This may
sound trite, and, indeed, the principle is
commonly admitted, but not, it would
seem by all, for we still find people, and
not few, who will themselves deliber-
ately take, and worse, will give to their
green goOseberries, green APP
pies, etc, the very hardness of which,
apart from their acid pungency, suggests
the unfitness for digestion. Such peO-
pie use as food an acid, irritant poison,
whose necessary action causes excessive
intestinal secretion, with more or less
Of Inflammation. Hence arises diar-
rhoea. On the other hand, fruit which
is over-ripe, in which fermentation has
begun, is frequent cause of this disor-
Ter, and equally to be avoided, and per-
maps also more difficult to avoid because
he insidious beginning of decay is not
easily recognized.
1t should never be forgotten by any
who incline to follow the season in
heir feeding, that the want of such pre-
cautions as the above may produce that
lysenteric form of diarrhoea, British
cholera" which is occasionally as rap
dly fatal as the more dreaded Asiatic
ype of that disease.-Boston Medical
JournaI