The Virginia enterprise., 1909-02-05
DIET AND |
/ HEALTH
By DIR. J. T. ALLEN |
Food Spoeial;s&
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copyright. by Joseph B. Bowlea)
THE RAW FOOD FAD.
There was a time before the discov-
cry Of fire, when all food was eaten
uncooked. And extreme advocates of
naturalism hold that we err seriously
In cooking our food to-day. The ami
mails, they say, are perfectly healthy
without cooks. There is. they insist,
peculiar vital force in the natural
food which cooking destroys. We can
methods, says the raw food advocate.
1t is claimed that raw food cures
disease. especially digestive diff
culties. Much credible testimony is
offered in support of this claim, and
at least two physicians in New York
announce uncooked food as their prin-
c1pal therapeutic agency.
Can it be true that cooking is mis-
take? The logical answer is, in the
light of all facts, yes and no.
To the argument that cooking is un-
natural, and therefore wrong, the re-
ply is, that all the means of civiliza-
t1on are unnatural, artificial. Soap is
unnatural. Electric light is unnatural.
Steam heat is unnatural. Houses are
unnatural. Only savagery is natural
and even the savage does not live
altogether naturally, like the ami
mails.
In the last analysis, the only natural
acts are the sub-conscious-thos
things that we do without premedita-
ton, without knowing why we do
them; such as breathing, pulsating, di.
gesting, sleeping. These may be
termed the vegetative acts, the funda-
mental means by which life is main
tained-they are, jim a word, nutrition,
life. A plant performs all of these
acts, and others implied. All ami
mails perform them. Man only knows
that he performs them. Man is con-
scious. He has another life, the OBJ
jective or conscious
know that the process of digestion
is going on in me now. know, OBJ
jectively, consciously, that that proc
ess is vegetative. 1 know that in be-
coming conscious Of it, I am in dan
ger of injuring it. I would not make
a child OF three as conscious of it's
processes of digestion as I am; that
would certainly be possibly fatal
Now, man is superior to the lowest
animal, to the plant, indeed, only in
proportion as he lives more, not mere
ly vegetatively, sub-consciously, for all
plants and animals do that, but in pro.
portion as he knows, reasons and
wills. The mind, the conscious mind,
the knowing power-that is the meas
ure of the man.
The means by which we live the
conscious, the objective life, are the
means Of civilization. The plant, the
animal, may enjoy the light of the
sun, subjectively, as well as I, but 1
know-to degree, for only God
knows ALL know what the sun is;
and when it sets, I call it back-I
turn on the electric light, which is
yesterdays sunlight, stored in the
plant, turned into coal, which is
transmitted into electric energy, and
that into light. Electric light is arti-
ticial, but it is good. To-day l ad-
vised the use of an electric therapeu-
tic lamp, in a case of anemia, with
proper feeding to furnish iron, and
vibratOry treatment. These are all
artificial" means of cure. The elec-
trio light is substitute for sunlight;
vibration is artificial exercise, and the
scientific knowing or objective as
distinct from subjective or naturaD-
the scientific choice of food is artif1-
cial, but these artificial means are
natural-they are the same means in
concentrated form that nature uses.
Therefore, We may say that the artifi.
cial is natural.
have already shown in articles on
bread why cereal starch requires cook
ing to be digestible. Fruits may also
be benefited by cooking in one re-
spect, while injured in others; fruit
ferments easily, and a single fer
mented prune, for instance, will cause
the fermentation of an entire meal, Sc
riously interfering with digestion,
whereas, if the prunes had been
cooked, fermentation would have been
arrested. This applies also to meat,
especially pork, containing disease
germs. Advocates of the uncooked or
natural food, have insistently main
tanned that raw food cures disease, in
creases happiness and lengthens life.
To this they make no qualification,
and therefore they have been largely
discredited. Nobody would eat raw
pork, raw beans or raw potatoes
starch and germs are better boiled.
1t is urged by the advocates of the
omnivorous diet that the human sys-
tam has acquired wonderful power
OF adaptation, that it. has become
adapted to the diet we now follow, and
that, therefore, return to the simple
diet would be injurious; that the sys-
TEN is adapted to cooked food and
that, therefore, uncooked food would
be harmful.
1t is true that we are temporarily
adapted to an irregular diet, not per-
manently. Experiments made under
my direction and by myself show that
the system quickly re-adjusts itself
to monodiet, and that improved
health and working capacity result in
every case. The same has invariably
been the result Of living on uncooked
food, except cereals or spoiled fruit
or meat. OF course sudden changes