The Natural Cure of Consumption, Constipation, Bright's Disease, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, "Colds" (Fevers), Etc.: How Sickness Originates, and How to Prevent It. A Health Manual for the People.Page, C. E. (Charles Edward)
Science
The Natural Cure of Consumption, Constipation, Bright's Disease, Neuralgia, Rheumatism, "Colds" (Fevers), Etc.: How Sickness Originates, and How to Prevent It. A Health Manual for the People.
Page, C. E. (Charles Edward)
Hygiene -- Popular works; Medicine, Popular
Without doubt, certain brands of “whole-wheat flour,” so called, are a
great improvement over the article in universal demand among poor and rich
alike, the white flour of commerce, in this: they are, when made by honest
manufacturers, less impoverished than the white flours. In public and in
private, I have advised their use instead of white flour, but solely upon
the ground that the wheat is _less_ robbed of certain of its invaluable
constituents in the former; but I can not conceive it possible to separate
the hull from the kernel without real loss, even if the hull were, in
itself, objectionable, which, so far from being true, is, in my opinion, a
mistake and a very serious one. The theory upon which the objection to the
outside coat of the grain rests, is that this coat is composed of woody
fiber, entirely indigestible and devoid of nutritive matters, and, worst
of all, say these honest objectors, the hulls are coarse, sharp-edged, and
irritating to the stomach and intestines, and therefore injurious in their
action, especially in the case of “sensitive and delicately organized
individuals.” I will not stop to discuss the question as to the propriety
of the phrase _sensitive and delicately organized_, as applied to the
class of poor, suffering wretches who by reason of their gross habits——and
I mean simply the dietetic habits of the people, not the mechanic, the
artisan, the small trader, nor yet the factory hand, nor the wretched
poor, but the _human race_, from the kings, queens, and presidents all
along the line——who by reason, I repeat, of the universal system of diet,
have become dyspeptic. I can not, however, forbear the remark, that the
most sensitive and delicately organized individuals, among the most noble
of all animals next to man,——and in some aspects far superior to him,——the
horse, in his finest and most delicate state, finds a perfect food in the
whole grain, chewing it himself. I may be, in the minds of some, weakening
my argument by comparing the digestive apparatus of man with that of the
horse, but I am desirous of impressing upon the minds of my readers the
well-known but imperfectly considered fact, that our horse-fanciers,——who
dote on their hundred-thousand-dollar animals, and who would place before
them the most costly and complicated dishes, certainly would feed them on
the finest and whitest of flour,——“Imperial Granum” even, at drug-store
prices, if it were desirable, or even not pernicious in a health point of
view,——really keep their dearest pets on _bread and water_; and that,
because of this, and the absence of all the hot, stimulating articles,
solid or fluid, indulged in by their owners, and their regular and
moderate diet of _uncooked_ food, and their superior hygiene in certain
essential matters, our thorough-bred horses are generally saved from
becoming fat, sick, mean, wheezy, or dyspeptic, like their masters and
mistresses, men, women, and children.
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