The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1908-12-26
SIXTY DAYS ON PEA
NUTS AND LEMONADE.

On October Is. 1907. began an ex-
elusive diet of peanuts and lemon
ade and subsisted on that alone for
so days.
What did you do it for? Do you
still Hive on peanuts? How should
peanuts be taken? Have you changed
your mind about their food value?
These are some OF the questions that
/ am frequently asked.
Such was the novelty Of my expert
ment, which was undertaken as a
scientific demonstration, that the av-
erage person refused to consider 1t
seriously. The newspapers treated 1t
largely as joke-except that many Of
them reported toward the end OF the
time that l had died-a result which
many were expecting.
Eor several years / had been test
Ing the relative values Of foods by
living for a time on one alone and
recording the results. incidentally /
had reached the conclusion, for rea-
sons which shall give in later ar
ticle, that cereal starch is the only
element of vegetable food improved
by cooking and that cereal starch is
unnecessary In our diet, and fire.
quently Injurious, particularly in the
case Of infants and children. l had
found that cooking Injuries the most
important element of food, albumen,
from which the cells of brain and
Drawn are built, and precipitates, to
large extent. the mineral elements,
sulphur. phosphorus. nagnesia, potash.
ETC.. 30 essential to vigorous. healthy
life. 50 that they cannot be absorbed
into the blood had come to believe
also after much investigation that
fruit should form large part Of our
Diet and had been prescribing in
certain cases q diet of uncooked pea
nuts and gluten. uncooked. in small
quantities with fruits. eaten separate
", and had seen remarkable improve
ment In some cases.
One day It was reported in an
Aurora GILL paper Il lived In Aurora,
that q girl had died from eating pea
nuts and at the same time the chair
man Of the local board Of health at
6ibuted . case Of poisoning to eating
peanut candy.
10 prevent an undesirable counter
Guggestion on the minds Of those who
we're eating peanuts by my advice.
more than to defend my own theories.
I stated my view Of these cases. call
ing attention to the great difference
between cooked and uncooked pea
nuts, and to show the firmness Of my |
bolief IN the correctness Of my con |
eznsions, l said that would b win
he to live for so days on uncooked |
PEANUTS and have the results care
fully recorded daily by the board Of |
health, and give my body for dissec-
don aud analysis, IL l failed to survive |
The experiment
had lived for several days on pea
nuts. on apples, on prunes, on starch,
On nothing and knew that by fasting
for few days. when the indications /
required It, should have no DIM
Guilty In performing the feat. But my |
friends begged me to desist, urging |
that was losing my professional dig
nifty and many Of them accused me |
of insanity, which was, they said,
deliberately fostering by this strange
freak! / had studied on my theories
Of feeding till was half gone and |
now was going to finish the job!
The outcome, however. fully justi-
Ned the confidence with which the en-
pertinent was undertaken lost II |
pounds in weight but continued my
usual work throughout the entire
period. and In fact did a greatly in
creased amount OF mental labor, neces-
STATED by the increase in my CORE
spondence, interviews, ETC.. and on
the evening of the sixtieth day gave
IN address In the g. A. r. hall Of
Aurora on diet and morality, speak
ing for three-quarters of an hour.
and followed that with . Commute
talk to an audience at the Coliseum
On the relation Of diet to strenuous
endurance
OF course the peanut Is not q COM
pIete diet and to keep in good condi-
don ] tasted at intervals throughout
the SO days total Of about eight
days. Probably the extension of the
experiment to 100 days would not /
have reduced my weight to the point
Of physical collapse, Ny height isl
feet 111s inches and my weight !
when began was 165 pounds.
Se.n ,sts
We live nv what xz,o no<.s ga fho
character OF oSr living depends upon |
the kind of food we eat and the way |
re eat II. you can make man good
" bad" says Bishop Fallows. accord |
Ing to the way you feed him." 1.-The
building Of brain-cell and mind
Etuh," says DR.. Alexander Haig, the
English authority on
liet. lies at the root of all the
Drublems Of life.s