The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-06-11
IN THE MATTER OF HEALTH.

HI d DFlcl UOlS d correspondence,
touching the matter of suitable foods,
asks the Advertiser why it calls bread
..the staff of death?" We answer that
it is not because Rowbotham does, but
because that eminent authority has a
scientific reason for saying so. The
physical phenomena of old age, let us
explain. are due to the deposit of earth
salts in the arteries, deposit which
clogs them, adiminishes their size and at
last prevents the brain from getting
Its necessary supply of food. Bread,
like all cereals, contains earth salts in
abundance, and life is threatened by
every loaf we eat" Sooner or later the
starch tells on the arterial system.
There are kinds of bread made especial
1y for those who wish to avoid starch.
These are of various degrees of excel
lence. but the bread we speak of here
Is the common table variety.
Ordinary water, from its great per-
centage of earth salts, is also dan
gerous. A diet of bread and water is
the surest ally of the undertaken. But
fortunately for mankind, pure water,
that which has been distilled, not only
deposits no earth salts in the system.
but 1t absorbs some of those already
there, and passes them off. There is
no fountain of perpetual youth, such
as Ponce de Leon sought, but the
nearest thing to 1t is chemically pure
water, such as any one with hand dis
tillery may produce on the kitchen
stove. If one would drink nothing else
he would naturally find himself at sew
enty, unless he had ruined his constitu-
ton by excuses or by too great an in
fusion of earth salts in foods. possessed
of the strength and vigor of man of
fifty.
And speaking of drinks, what habitual
beer-drinker in warm climate ever
reached the age of seventy? We do not
say there is none; but look over your
list of acquaintance and see how small
the number of old men who have made
beer their common beverage. Beer
drinkers in the tropics die young; dis
titled water-drinkers ought to live long.
Those who prefer light wines at their
meals strike a sort of balance between
the two and do better, as we said yes
terday. than If they deluged themselves
with iced drinks-better, perhaps, than
if they had committed themselves ire
trievably to tea or coffee. That was the
gospel of Kate Field Wine, after all,
is nothing but water distilled by ma
ture It's dietetic function is to give
zest to appetite, check the activity of
destructive assimilation and avert the
loss of substance. The apostle knew
what he was talking about when he
advised Timothy to drink no longer
water, but little wine, for the
stomach's sake and thine often infirmi-
ties
OF course everything depends on the
quantity consumed. Paul said "a little'
wine. Too much would have added
new infirmities to Timothy's old ones.
The use Of fruits in the tropics, which
the Advertiser. touched upon yesterday
deserves further remark. The natural
food of mankind is fruit. The writer
recalls something like this from the elo-
quent lips of John Bonner, seer Of
journalistic philosophers: Fruits are
the food which man should live on more
than any other If he desires his days
should be long In the land. They are
sparingly supplied with earth salts.
They contain little or no lime to adult
terate the chyme, the chyle and the
blood. and to produce Justification and
rightly, inactivity and decrepitude. A
large portion Of all kinds Of fruits are
carbonaceous. All are good, the apple.
the pear, the grape, the strawberry, the
melon. the peach, the apricot: but rich
est of all In the carbonaceous element
the banana These fruits contain all
the nourishfng elements found in bread;
they are easily digested and leave no