Chapter X Diet

Sunday, August 31, 2025 03:46PM

CHAPTER 10

DIET

A true diet is not based on calories but on the organic elements that sustain and give life. Our most common and serious diseases are caused by wrong eating and drinking. This has been proven by numerous scientific experiments in recent years. Food is a substance which when absorbed by the blood stream will nourish, repair, and furnish life force and heat to the body, but if in its preparation and refining, the life-giving elements are taken away, it cannot furnish life force, but it will clog the functional activity of the body and will result in many disorders.

Many diseases are nature’s effort to free our system from poisons and congestions resulting from wrong eating and drinking. But always when we assist nature to expel impurities and re-establish right conditions in the system, we can overcome diseases.

The whole nation needs more vitamins, better cooks, more care exercised in the preparation of our food, and less spacious hospitals.

Since Eve first surrendered to appetite, man has been growing more and more self-indulgent, until health is being sacrificed on the altar of appetite. God gave our first parents the food he designed the human race to eat. Only after he had destroyed the world by flood did he give permission to eat of flesh foods as all vegetation was dead, but then only of clean animals as given in the Bible, Lev., 11; but animal foods are not the most healthful for man; recent scientific research and experiments have proven this beyond doubt. The diet given in the beginning did not include flesh meats.

LEARN HOW TO AVOID AND OVERCOME SICKNESS BY CORRECT EATING AND LIVING.

Oatmeal

The common oatmeal, which we can get in every grocery in the land, is a most wonderful food, but is not properly prepared by many and terribly abused by the majority of people. It is one of the finest foods for growing children that we have, but the way the oats are eaten many times spoils the real quality of the oats. When milk and sugar are put on the oats, it causes it to ferment in the stomach and thus you lose the benefit of the oats. There is a great misunderstanding with many of the people about the steel-cut oats and the finely flaked oats. There is not a hair’s breadth difference in the steel-cut oats and the finely flaked oats as far as food value is concerned or the life-giving properties.

“The chemical analysis of rolled oats and steel-cut oats is identically the same, because quick-cooking, rolled oats is nothing more than steel-cut oats run through heavy rolls revolving at a great rate of speed. We guarantee a minimum of 15 per cent protein, and a minimum of 7.5 per cent fat, a maximum of 1.9 per cent fiber, 66 per cent nitrogen free extract, and 77 per cent carbohydrate. “Rolled oats is one of the few-if not the only one- cereal food that carries the germ of the grain, and that is important.”

The above is quoted from a letter from G.M. Hidding, General Manager of the Purity Oats Co., of Keokuk, IA, May 27, 1936.

This is the analysis of the finely flaked oats: Water 7.8; protein 16.1; fat 7.3; carbohydrates 68; potassium 13.1; sodium 3; calcium 2.8; magnesium 5.2; iron .3; phosphorus 18.2; sulphur .3; silicon 24; chlorine 7; fluorine; iodine .01; ash 2.

The flake oats is so much easier handled by the most of the people because it digests much quicker, and it takes much less time to cook. The steel-cut oats ought to cook at least four hours in a double boiler, while the finely flaked oats takes only three minutes-a great saving in fuel, and further a great saving to our old weak stomachs. Many stomachs cannot handle the steel-cut oats very well because it is too coarsely granulated, and takes so much longer to digest and often will sour in the stomach before it is digested. A fine way to prepare oats is just the way it is given on the package. I myself eat it just that way with some zwieback and some nice soybean butter on the zwieback. I enjoy it very much, more so than many years ago when I used milk and sugar on it. Something dry should be eaten with it so you get plenty of saliva mixed with it, like zwieback or some whole wheat crackers.

An excellent way in which to use steel-cut oats is the following: Combine equal parts of steel-cut oats and sterilized bran. Cook six to ten minutes, then set aside five minutes before serving. A considerable part of this will be imperfectly cooked; therefore it is not readily acted upon by the saliva and intestinal juices, but passes on into the colon, where it will aid in the destroying of putrefactive poisons caused from the decomposition of proteins and other poisons.

Oatmeal can be used in many ways. When oatmeal is not spoiled in the preparation or used in wrong combinations, it is one of the finest foods we have to prevent disease. I read in a daily paper many years ago that the Great Northern Railroad had a very urgent piece of road to make. They hired a big crew of men and worked them fourteen hours a day. Instead of giving them ordinary water to drink, they gave them oatmeal water to drink, and the paper stated that not one man was laid off on account of sickness, and it stated that never before has there been such a wonderful experience in the history of railroads. I could tell some wonderful experiences along that line, but space will not permit.

Oatmeal water should be more frequently used than it is. It is a very good medicine for the sick. Take the finely flaked oats and put two heaping tablespoonfuls to a quart of water. You can make it stronger or weaker to suit your taste. Let it simmer for half an hour and then beat it up with a spoon or egg beater, and strain it through a fine sieve. This makes an excellent drink for anybody and especially the sick. If desired, you can add just a pinch of salt and a little soybean milk. Another recipe for making oatmeal water is: Take a heaping tablespoonful of oatmeal to a quart of water and let it simmer for two or two and a half hours in a tightly covered pan, and then strain it. This makes a very refreshing, cooling drink when it is cooled off in the ice-box.

I quote the following from Diet a Key to Health by R. Swinburne Clymer, MD. “Oats, steel-cut or Scotch. Silicon 24.0; phosphorus 18.2; potassium 13.6; magnesium 5.2. One of the riches silicon carriers known and if properly combined with fruit or vegetable eliminants, is the ideal basic food for children during the winter months to prevent infection from all zymotic diseases.”

It is not too much to say that oatmeal, if combined with other foods so as to prevent congestions and the formations of toxins and acids due to the acid reaction, would do more to prevent contagious diseases than all the serums thus far invented or that ever will be. Oatmeal is neither artificial nor a substitute. It is a natural agent for the supply of those elements which by their antiseptic properties make contagious infections impossible.

Besides this antiseptic quality, oats are rich in the phosphorus required by the child for the formation of brain and nerve and elements required by the mind in study.

Wherever a large amount of silicon is required, prescribe oatmeal, or, if this is not practical, due to digestive disturbances, then the extract, “Aven Sativa.”

The following are extracts from a letter dated April 21, 1936, which I received from FL Gunderson, Biochemist, Nutrition Laboratory of the Quaker Oats Co., Chicago, IL:

“We are very glad to enclose a description of the manufacturing process for both standard and

quick type of rolled oat flakes. Many people have the erroneous idea that the hulls of the oat

grain are comparable to the bran of wheat. That is not correct. The hulls (or flowering glumes)

of the wheat grain envelope the wheat kernel rather loosely and consequently go into the straw

stack at threshing time. In contrast, the glumes of the oat grain are wrapped a bit more securely

around the kernel, and remain on the oat kernel as an individual wrapper until they are removed

in the rolled oats mill. After removing the hull from the oats, the kernel from which rolled oats are made possesses all of the bran, middlings, endosperm, and germ portion natural to the grain.

Whole oat kernels (oat groats), steel-cut oats, large or ‘standard’ type rolled oat flakes, and small or ‘quick’ type rolled oat flakes are all whole grain products. In the sense that refined is sometimes used as an antonym for whole-grain, there are no refined oat foods. The very

botanical and physical structure of the oat grain, together with the universal oat milling processes are such that all oat foods are whole-grain products. The composition of steel-cut oats, large flaked oats, and small flaked rolled oats is identical if made from the same type of grain.

With regard to the vitamins of oats, our own tests, as well as those of other well-known research

people, indicate that there is no destruction in the manufacturing process.”

Quaker Oats, Mother’s Oats, Quick Quaker Oats or Quick Mother’s Oats

Description: flaked oats made from the best quality of large oats with the hulls removed.

Method of manufacture: The oats go through an extensive cleaning process in which corn, wheat, barley chaff, and weed seeds are removed. The oats are then carefully sized to uniform diameter by grading in special machines, the light oats, double oats, and pin oats being removed to feed. The oats are again graded to uniform length, about five grades being obtained. Only the plump sound oats of good size go into either of these four products. The clean graded oats are roasted and partially dried, after which they are cooled and passed to a large burr stone where the Hulls are torn from e groats. The oats mixture is next bolted to remove any flour, and the hulls are then removed in special air separators. Any unhulled oats are removed in cell machines and the cleaning process is continued until the groats are free of hulls and unhulled oats. For production of the two brands of “Quick” rolled oats the groats are at this stage steel cut. The clean groats pass to the steaming chamber where they are partially cooked with live steam and from which they pass to the rolls where the groats are formed into flakes. The rolled oats flakes are cooled in a current of air to about 110 degrees F., following which the product is immediately weighed and packed by automatic mechanical equipment.

Foods, Devitalized Cause Diseases

Many people suffer almost continually from hidden ailments, the cause of which they are unable to determine. They know they feel very miserable, and are subject to frequent headaches, indigestion, poor appetite, and many other troubles.

There is a cause for all such disturbances. Deficiency of necessary elements in the body is usually the cause of many such troubles. The human body is composed of sixteen or more elements, and a shortage of any one or more of these elements impairs the functioning of the entire system. There is no real definite organic breakdown in such cases generally, but the body is not functioning properly. An insufficient supply of any of these important elements is the major cause of a great many ailments. These minerals are supplied from properly prepared foods, but the American diet is very deficient in many of these important elements.

The refined, degerminated, demineralized, and devitalized foods are a curse to humanity. The miller in making white flour takes out the vital portion, or the part that makes a new plant—the wheat germ, also the bran, or part that contains the minerals and vitamins which supply our bodies with blood-making material. Many other of the daily foods upon which we live from youth up, likewise have been treated in the same manner.’

Foods that are improperly prepared lose much of their food value. It is very essential that foods be eaten in the natural state as much as possible. Too much cooking injures foods. There are certain food elements that are destroyed by even a small amount of heat, and for that reason such foods as can be eaten raw should be served often. Green leafy vegetables, such as cabbage, spinach, romaine, dandelion, carrots, lettuce, endive, celery, and many others contain those substances that the human body must have to function properly. A lack of such elements in the daily food is a species of starvation and will end disastrously.

Such vegetables as carrots, tender beets, parsnips, cucumbers, potatoes, young turnips and others like them should not be peeled. A stiff brush,or wire doughnut, is excellent to clean such vegetables so they need not be peeled. The highest mineral content of such foods lies just under the skins; therefore, this is lost if they are peeled.

Neither should any of the water from vegetables be thrown away. It contains valuable mineral salts and should be used. In cooking leafy vegetables, just enough water should be added to keep them from burning, and they should not be cooked longer than is absolutely necessary. Spinach or beet tops should never be cooked over eight or ten minutes. If beets are cooked with tops, it takes much longer to cook the beets than the tops, so the beets should be diced fine and put only enough water to keep them from burning. Use the st4ems, but cut them in quarter-inch lengths and add to the beets after they are about half done (about thirty minutes). Cut the leaves fine, and when the beets are about done, ad the leaves, for it takes only a few minutes (about ten) to cook them. The sale should be added after the stems have come to a boil, and a little of Kloss Soybean Butter diluted with water to the consistency of cream should be added just as the fire is cut out, or it can be added when they are served. It takes about forty-five minutes to cook beets in this manner.

Never put soda in your vegetables to tender them. Neither should it be used in cooking dried peas, beans, corn, etc., even if it does shorten the length of time to cook them. The common use of soda biscuits and corn bread made with baking powder and soda is largely the cause of pellagra and other deficiency diseases, because it destroys much of the vitamin content of foods. Disease cannot get a foothold when the body is in the best condition.

The following is a list of the devitaminized foods, quoted from a bulletin put out by the Department of Agriculture, and which was reprinted from Cereal Chemistry, Vol. XII, No. 5, September 1935, compiled by Dr. J. A. LeClerc, Senior Chemist, and his associates. The consumption of devitaminized foods is astounding, and everyone should avoid the use of these commonplace, devitaminized foods:

Refined sugar

Corn Starch

Polished rice

White Flour

Corn Syrup

Corn Sugar

Candy

Hominy and grits

Rye flour

Corn meal

Corn breakfast food

Macaroni and water noodles

Corn and cottonseed oil

Poultry

Beef, veal

Mutton and lamb

Lard and lard substitutes