Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-17
CHAPTER 46

ShaHIEfS 10
Animals fed on the abundance of
food from which the mineral salts
arc removed die sooner than if they
receive no food at alI-ignoring this
significant fact, man continues to re-
move the mineral elements from the
food upon which the future stamina,
endurance, strength, health. energy,
and efficiency of America depend.
Man can starve in the presence of
an abundance of food. A diet of pure
protein, pure fat, pure starch, and
pure sugar, from which the mineral
matter has been removed by refining
processes, will produce disease and
death.
The calorie value of such food, as
estimated by the modern scientist
occupies the highest place in the table
of calories, as it is accepted in the
hospitals of the United States.
Such FOODS, nevertheless, will bring
about the death of the animal feeding
upon them in shorter time than would
be the case if no food were fed at all.
The word starvation usually con-
veys picture of an unfortunate crea-
ture dying of neglect in an abandoned
garret or of a shipwrecked marine
showly perishing on an uninhabited
and desert island. The word is never
associated with an abundance of food.
Yet the commonest disorder of Amer
lean life is mineral starvation asso-
ciated with what is apparently an
oversupply of good things to eat
Herman Hille, who has contributed
to the literature of mineral metabol-
ism its most valuable data concerning
the relation of mineral salts and col
loids to medicine, declares: From
purely physical standpoint mineral
starvation is usually the primary
cause of disease. Organic minerals
are more easily utilized than inorganic
forms. Loss of mineral bodies impair
the food value of foodstuffs, and
moreover, tends to make them poison
Gus.
Mineral starvation, regardless of
the calorie value of the food ingested,
is followed by disturbances in the
vital processes and activities of the
human organism, a reduced supply
of vital energy, pollution of the blood,
body juices and tissues, and the prep
aration of a tissue-soil in which para
sites thrive and multiply without him
drance. Applying these facts and con-
clusions, we find that the food min
erals can no longer be ignored by ra-
tional therapeutics. A rational scien-
tific estimation of the value of food
stuffs must include the mineral bodies.
"One of the most important duties
Oh Dl-CneH1lStry Is ndIlOnal QlHer-
entiation between inorganic and or
ganic forms of matter"
These statements of Hille were
made in Chicago, November Z, 1918,
at the fifth annual meeting of the
American Association of Clinical Re-
search, in which body it is my privi-
lege TO enjoy membership.
Nearly three years have past since
that memorable meeting, yet, so slow
moving is truth that no scientific in
stitution or hospital in America has to
this day attempted, even in a feeble
manner, to apply its life-saving prin-
ciples or to give to them, by any
sign of recognition, however belated,
the dignity TO which they are en-
titled.
Strangely enough, scientists are all
agreed concerning well-establ blished
laws of nutrition. 1t has been proved
for instance, that in the digestion of
protein, (meat, cheese, beans, etc. i,
free sulphuric and free phosphoric
acids are elaborated from the sui
phur bodies and lecithin compounds
of such foods.
1t is also we'll known that these
acids, unless neutralized by the base
forming elements of the food INCEST
ed, act as tissue destroyers through
their abstraction of the alkaline salts
of the tissue such as calcium, mag
nesium, and potassium, with which
they unite to form the neutral sui
pilates and phosphates eXcreted in the
urine.
In the presence of these well-estab-
lished facts the scientist with singular