I am strongly convinced that nothing is to be derived from wheat or similar grains and cereals that cannot be derived equally well or better from fruits and nuts of various kinds. And this applies to all other grains—rye, barley, oats, etc.—as well as to wheat. They are all objectionable for the same reason; and a properly balanced diet of fruits and nuts is superior to any diet of grains and cereals. [34] It is important to note, in this connection, that but a small percentage of the starch is ever converted into sugar, even by the most thorough mastication. I say this on the authority of Dr John Goodfellow, F.R.C.S., author of “The Dietetic Value of Bread,” etc., who conducted a number of careful experiments on this very point. (See his letter to Dr Densmore, in “How Nature Cures,” pp. 237-239.) In raw cereals, only about one per cent. was converted! As this process of conversion cannot go forward in an acid medium—_i.e._ in the stomach—it is evident that the bowels must be called upon to effect this conversion—a useless tax upon them, and a cause of constipation as well. It is well known that toast is more wholesome than ordinary bread: it is given to invalids, when bread is debarred. The reason for this—which comparatively few persons know—is that a portion of the starch contained in the flour is converted into dextrine, by this process of toasting. In this manner, a portion of the original starch contained in the bread is “predigested,” and hence saves the vital energies so much tax—when it comes to the digestion of this starch. But would it not be better to give the patient fruits, in which _all_ these processes of conversion have already been performed by nature—and hence save far more of the bodily energies than even the giving of toast? It must be remembered that starch contains nothing that is useful to the system except this grape-sugar, which can also be obtained from fruits of all kinds, in a natural and appropriable form. This being so, why not give fruits in the first place—thus saving all this useless expenditure of energy? There is also the additional argument that fruits of all kinds are cleansing and slightly laxative—instead of being constipating—and have also powerful germicidal properties. However, I shall consider this question more at length in the chapter devoted to the fruitarian diet.