St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-06-24
2S22
Home Health
| Club |
D. DAVID q. REEDER. Ph. D.. ND,
La Porte, Ind.
Is

/ nave UceA dSheU d uumD0r o
times to tell the Home Health Clul
| readers about raw foods. 1 have hest
tated to do this for several reasons
the chief of which is that the Hom
Health Club avoids, as far as possible
any kind of fad Or fancy and tries t.
keep to its regular work of helpin.
the sick and suffering by teaching tn
natural laws OF health.
| The raw food idea has found man.
| disciples, and one young man has ever
| gone SO far as to confine himself, Xix,
a certain king of which the Bible tell
| us, to an exclusive diet of grass. Now
! like the idea of the simple life, bu
| this l call silly. l recently heard O
| a tramp who wished to excite the sym
pathy of farmers wife by appearing
almost famished. He ran into thu
yard and began to eat ravenously O
the blue grass which grew there. Tit
wise little wife was equal to the oc
casion, and said: poor man, come
around to the back door, the grass i!
much better there"
There are men to be found in many
communities who would be benefited
by being turned out to grass" for {
few months. They are the kind tha
weigh over $50 pounds and are usually
found near a saloon. Their diet il
mostly meat and their drink is coffee
and beer.
While man is so constituted that II
Is possible for him to live upon raw
food for considerable length of time
1t is proven by thousands of years ex
perience that the larger portion of his
food is better adapted to his needs by
cooking. There are many articles OF
good and wholesome food that cannot
be used for any length of time without
being cooked. Moreover, there are
many dangerous diseases that are
avoided by cooking. There are nc
savage races known who do I OF prac-
tice the art of cooking to some extent
All progress in the scale Of develop
menc and civilization is always accom-
panied by development in the art OF
cooking.
Nearly all fruits are both palatable
and easily digested in the raw state.
This is also true Of nuts, but it is not
true of cereals, nor of roots and vege-
tables. Neither is it true of meats.
It is because of our knowledge of
cooking that the dietary of humanity
is SO greatly enlarged, because by
cooking there are many articles of
wholesome, nutritious and palatable
fool which in their raw state are not
only unpalatable but wholly indigesti-
BILE.
Generally speaking, all foods, ex-
cepting fruits, having organized struc-
ture, require cooking Some vegetables
are eaten raw by preference, such as
lettuce, celery, radish, young onions,
etc., and but little, if any, advantage
is to be gained by cooking them. Raw
meat soon becomes wearisome, and if
eaten exclusively will even excite dis
gust. Milk, eggs and some shellfsh
are an exception to this rule.
The starches found in cereals are
very difficult to digest unless ground
very fine or cooked until changed into
dexterine and grape sugar by the heat
The use of raw wheat may for a time
appear to be very beneficial, as the
organs Of digestion are aroused into
greater activity and the mucous lining
of the intestines are irritated by the
hard, woody fiber Of the husks, and in
that way peristaltic action is increased
and constipation is for the time re-
lieved, but the continued use of these
Irritating particles will either set up
an Inflammation in the intestines or
they will become toughened and hab-
ituated to it and the effect is no longer
beneficial.
Cooking develops certain favors.
especially in meats. Most food is al
tered and made softer and is there
fore more easily masticated and mixed
with the digestive elements. By cook
ing. many varieties of parasites and
disease germs are destroyed and some
articles of food which might otherwise
be highly injurious are rendered not
only harmless but nutritious. The APP
ford gustatory enjoyment is an impor-
tant factor developed by cooking, and
while I advocate the plant, Get Back
to Nature" yet I believe that Nature
intended that man should so develop
his mental powers as to take adyaa-
tage of all of the forces which she SO
bountifully supplied, and by the use of
fire in the preparation of his food,
comply with the laws of Nature and
live long and we'll.