The Colorado statesman., 1909-01-30

uncooRed. 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
not improve upon natures sun-cooking
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-
cipal 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 tho means of civiliza-
tion are unnatural, artificial Soap is
unnatural. Electric light ic 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-those
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, in 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.
l know that the process of digestion
is going on in me now. | know, OBJ
jectively, consciously, that that proc
ess is vegetative. | know that in be-
coming conscious OF il, l am in dan
ger of injuring it. / would not make
child OF three as conscious of it's
processes of digestion as l am; that
I~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, subjectiyely, as well as l, but |
know-to a degree, for only God
knows ALL know what the sun is;
and when it sets, l 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
fetal, but it is good. To-day | ad
-;sed 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-
tric light is a 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 artifi-
cial, but these artificial means are
natrral-they are the same means in
concentrated form that nature uses.
Therefore, we may say that the artifi-
cial is natural
II is urged by the advocates of the
omniyorous diet that the human sys-
TEN 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
may work temporary injury and an In
complete ration can never be salts
factory.
The fact that uncooked cereals are
indigestible agrees with the theory
that nuts are the natural staple diet
for nuts contain little or no starch, but
much fat as milk does. Wheat is a
substitute for nuts; its starch needs
cooking and it lacks fat.
The essential element of food, of al
animals, is albumen. Flesh is chiefly
albumen. The food of the amoeba
the one-celled animal, which is typica