It is not sufficient to eliminate the foods to be avoided. To reduce the quantity of food is also necessary; yet this must be watched as the diet should not be so rigid as to cause a lowering of vitality. Eating between meals should not be allowed. In an acute attack the diet should be confined to milk, vegetables, and fruits. [Sidenote: Diabetes] This is the result of a serious disturbance of nutrition. Since its presence is made manifest by the appearance of sugar in the urine, it is considered among the derangements of the kidneys. However, one should not be apprehensive of diabetes if the urine test for a day shows sugar. This may be due to an excess of carbohydrates, particularly of sugar, in the diet a day or two previous and all trace of it may disappear in a day or two. If continued tests show an excess, nutritional disturbances are indicated. The treatment is almost entirely dietetic. The most usual form of diabetes is _diabetes mellitus_. It is supposed to be due to a disturbance in the metabolism of sugar. It may be aided by defective pancreatic ferments, the lack throwing more work on the liver in the metabolism of sugar. The difficulty which confronts the dietitian is to prescribe a diet restricting the carbohydrates which will keep up the body weight and not disturb the nutritive equilibrium. The patient has a craving for sugars and starches, but the system cannot make use of them, and the heat and energy must be supplied by fats. The diet must consist largely of protein and fat. One danger lies in the tendency of acetic and other acids to accumulate in the blood, which affects the nervous system. While, as a rule, the craving for certain foods is an indication that the system needs the elements contained in them, the desire of the diabetic patient for sugars and starches _must not_ be indulged more than absolutely necessary, because of the inability of the system to utilize them. There is often a distaste for fat, but its use is imperative when it is well borne, because the weight and general vitality must be maintained. If all carbohydrates are eliminated from the diet, the system will often suffer severely. Therefore the dietitian must determine the diet suited to the individual case, since complicated conditions may exist and the diet for one patient will work harm to another. The fleshy patient can stand a rigid diet, eliminating sugars and starches, much better than one who is thin and emaciated. A thin, weak patient often cannot endure too rigid a diet. The following list of foods contain least carbohydrates: clear soup of meat without vegetables, all acid fruits, eggs, clams, and lobsters, fresh fish of all kinds, fresh meat of all kinds, and most smoked meat, olive oil, butter, peas, beans, all fresh vegetables (except carrots, parsnips, squash), onions, artichokes, cauliflower, cabbage, and asparagus.