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IN FORMER times, nutrition was traditionally developed by the conditions of the particular country and historic events. It was controlled by religion or states, and materially adapted to the finances of families or individuals. The modifications in our culture and the progress in science and technique are altering our food constantly by its production in agriculture, by preservation and distribution, and also by adaptation to the improvements of living conditions. These problems22 must be disregarded here, since I can give only the essential general directions.
To describe the fundamentals of a general nutrition for healthy people which guarantees an uninterrupted daily flux of energy, strength and reserves for work and other duties, is a responsible task and difficult to formulate in a comprehensive form without many tables, literature and explanations. The way in which the fundamentals are described here is derived from many long years of experience with people rejected from military service or denied life insurance.
They were made acceptable by following these directions. Thousands of patients were given this advice after their recovery from chronic sicknesses, and most of them included their families in this pattern of nutrition for many years. The results were satisfactory. The majority remained in good health, were acceptable for life insurance and other services and increased their strength and working power. My family and I, too, have followed these directions for more than thirty years.
This outline permits sufficient margin for personal living habits, family feasts and holidays, as one-quarter of all of the food should be to one's choice; the remainder should be taken for the purpose of protecting the functions of the highly essential organs - liver, kidneys, brain, heart, etc. - by storing reserves and avoiding an unnecessary burden on these vital organs. To save our body from extra work in the disposal of excessive food, especially fats which are difficult to digest, the destruction of poisons, etc., is a precaution that may prevent many kinds of early degeneration, premature old age, and all kinds of acute and chronic sickness in organs somewhat weaker in origin and development or previously damaged. That this outline is written to prevent sickness, not to cure it, must be stressed beforehand. The purpose of healing demands a much deeper dietetic encroachment and a medication directed to the pathology of the body's chemistry after a diagnosis is established.
The fundamentals will not be presented as an enumeration of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, hormones and enzymes as they are described in physiology textbooks, together with the necessary amount of grams or calories. These old textbook arrangements meet only the needs of a metabolism based largely on the entire amount of elimination, taking into account only some less essential requirements. As science is not yet developed to the point of knowing all the enzymes, vitamins and many biological functions of hormones and minerals, it is safer to use foods in the most natural form, combined and mixed by nature and raised, if possible, by an organic gardening process, thus obeying the laws of nature. This observation helped the human race for thousands of years before any science was developed. In this way we bring in all known vitamins and enzymes, both the discovered and the undiscovered ones, and especially the unknown, to quote Professor Kollath, "life stimulating substances", given best as fresh as possible and not damaged by refining or preserving processes, such as canned food. These contain all of the necessary substances in their proper quantity, mixture and composition, and are regulated by instinct, hunger, taste, smell, sight and other factors.
Three-quarters of the food which should be consumed include the following:
All kinds of fruits, mostly fresh and some prepared in different ways; freshly prepared fruit juices (orange, grapefruit, grape, etc.); fruit salads; cold fruit soups; mashed bananas, raw grated apples, applesauce, etc.
All vegetables freshly prepared, some stewed in their own juices and others either raw or finely grated, such as carrots, cauliflower or celery; vegetable salads, soups, etc.; some dried fruits and vegetables are permitted but not frozen ones.
Potatoes are best when baked; the contents may be mashed with milk or soup; they should seldom be fried and preferably boiled in their jackets.
Salads of green leaves or mixed with tomatoes, fruits, vegetables, etc.
Bread may contain whole rye or whole wheat flour, or these may be mixed; it should be refined as little as possible. Oatmeal should be used freely. Buckwheat cakes and potato pancakes are optional, as are brown sugar, honey, maple sugar and maple candy.
Milk and milk products, such as pot cheese and other kinds of cheese which are not greatly salted or spiced, buttermilk, yoghurt and butter. Cream and ice cream should be reduced to a minimum or restricted to holidays (ice cream is "poison" for children).
The remaining one-fourth of the dietary regime, which allows for personal choice, may consist of meat, fish, eggs, nuts, candies, cakes, or whatever one likes best. Nicotine should be avoided; liquors, wine and beer should be reduced to a minimum in favor of fresh fruit juices; coffee and tea should be cut to a minimum with the exception of the following teas: peppermint, camomile, linden flower, orange flower, and a few others.
Salt, bicarbonate of soda, smoked fish and sausage should be avoided as much as possible, as should sharp condiments such as pepper and ginger, but fresh garden herbs should be used - onions, parsley leaves, chives, celery and even some horseradish.
As for vegetables and fruits, they should, I repeat, be stewed in their own juices to avoid the loss of minerals easily dissolved in water during cooking. It seems that these valuable minerals are not so well absorbed when they are out of their colloidal state.
All vegetables may be used. Especially recommended for their mineral content are carrots, peas, tomatoes, Swiss chard, spinach, string beans, Brussels sprouts, artichokes, beets cooked with apples, cauliflower with tomatoes, red cabbage with apples, raisins, etc.
The best way to prepare vegetables is to cook them slowly for one and one-half to two hours, without water. To prevent burning, place an asbestos mat under the saucepan. You may also use some stock of soup (see Diet: special soup) or else sliced tomatoes may be added to the vegetables. This also will improve the taste. Spinach water is too bitter for use; it generally is not liked and should be drained off. Onions, leeks and tomatoes have enough liquid of their own to keep them moist while cooking. (Beets should be cooked like potatoes, in their jackets and with water.) Wash and scrub vegetables thoroughly, but do not peel or scrape them. Saucepans must be tightly covered to prevent steam from escaping. Covers must be heavy or close fitting. Cooked vegetables may be kept in the refrigerator overnight. To warm them, heat slowly with a little soup or fresh tomato juice.
An explanation for the importance of the absorption of these minerals was propounded by V. Bunge, who said that there must be more K or potassium in the organs in general than Na or sodium, and that a certain relationship between K and Na must be maintained.
K has to be predominant chiefly within the cells (called, therefore, intracellular) while Na has to stay outside the cells in serum, lymph, connective tissue (therefore called extracellular). Later observations led to the opinion that the minerals do not react singly but in groups. As a consequence, Dr. Rudolph Keller established the doctrine of two mineral groups, the intracellular (potassium) or anodic group traveling to the anode, and the extracellular (sodium) or cathodic group traveling to the cathode under biological conditions. A further consequence was the discovery that hormones, vitamins and enzymes obey the same rule as the two mineral groups; this means that their function depends upon the prevalence of the K-group within the cells of the organs and tissues such as the liver, muscles, brain, heart, kidney cortex, etc., whereas the Na-group remains outside of them. The Na-group is stationed in fluids and tissues: serum, lymph, connective tissue, thyroid, bile ducts, etc. Here are also the cathodic or negative vitamins and enzymes, of which the main functions, metabolism and storage, are confined to this extracellular group.
It is impossible to visualize a metabolism without the mentioning of hormones, vitamins and enzymes; their particular functions shall not be itemized. Generally hormones give individuality to tissues and cells; vitamins, or co-enzymes, help metabolic differentiation and vitality, and enzymes bring about, step by step, metabolic activity and specific digestive processes (general dehydrogenation and oxidation), prevent intermedial metabolites of which some are poisonous and may lead to cataract, stone formation or chronic inflammations. The normal metabolism depends upon the combined function of all of them, even if each of them possesses various ways and means of functioning.
To the K-group belong about 60 per cent of body tissues and to the Na-group 30 per cent; 10 per cent are on the borderline. All of them are kept in their proper place, probably by means of their electrical potentials. During the day, some Na penetrates the potassium tissues, and this is followed by chloride and water, a process which brings on fatigue, a little heaviness or swelling. At night, it is reabsorbed and in the morning it is eliminated in urine, and the person feels refreshed.
TABLE I - Mineral Content per Kilogram of the Whole Body of Differant Ages23
| Extracellular | |||||
| Na | Cl | Water | |||
| Whole Body | Gm | mEq | Gm | mEq | % |
| Fetus, 3-4 months | ___ | ___ | 2.7 | 76 | 93 |
| Fetus, 5 " | 2.58 | 112 | 2.5 | 70 | 91 |
| Fetus, 6 " | 2.16 | 94 | 2.5 | 70 | 87 |
| Fetus, 7 " | 2.14 | 93 | 2.6 | 73 | 86 |
| Premature, 7 " | 2.42 | 105 | 2.7 | 75 | 85 |
| New-born | 1.78 | 78 | 2.0 | 56 | 80 |
| Adult | 1.09 | 48 | 1.56 | 42 | 72 |
| Intracellular | |||||
| K | P | Fat | |||
| Whole Body | Gm | mEq | Gm | mM | % |
| Fetus, 3-4 months | ___ | ___ | 2.14 | 69 | 0.5 |
| Fetus, 5 " | 2.00 | 51 | 3.58 | 115 | 1.2 |
| Fetus, 6 " | 1.62 | 41 | 3.82 | 123 | 2.5 |
| Fetus, 7 " | 1.88 | 43 | 3.82 | 123 | 2.5 |
| Premature, 7 " | 1.71 | 44 | 3.82 | 123 | 3.0 |
| New-born | 1.90 | 49 | 3.40 | 174 | 12.0 |
| Adult | 2.65 | 68 | 11.60 | 374 | 18.0 |
These biological rules are vital for the maintenance of health inasmuch as a deficiency, defect or change means sickness. Almost all acute and chronic sicknesses begin with an invasion by Na, chloride and water of the anodic organs, causing the so-called edema produced by poisons, infections, trauma, etc. It seems to me, therefore, that some tables with short explanations are indispensable to mark how deeply the functions of the minerals are implanted in the animal's body.
Table 1 represents the mineral groups in the development of the body from fetus to adult, proving that the fetus, taken as a whole, is first an animal prevalent in Na-group but later Na, chloride and water decrease from 112 milliequivalents Na to 48, while from the K-group, K increased from 51 meq. to 68; phosphorous increases from 69 to 374, etc. This relationship has to be maintained throughout our life because, as mentioned above, the function of the essential hormones, vitamins, and enzymes is adapted and based on that [K/Na] relationship or better, on the two groups of K and Na, the pH content, co-enzymes, etc.
Table 2 indicates the great importance of the [(K)/(Na)] relationship in woman's milk compared with the milk of rats and cows:
TABLE II - Comparison of K/Na Ratio of Rat's, Cow's and Woman's Milks24
| Rat's Milk | Cow's Milk | Woman's Milk | |
| mEq./L | mEq./L | mEq./L | |
| [(K)/(Na)] | [43/33]=1.30 | [39.5/26.5]=1.49 | [12.2/5.0]=2.44 |
TABLE III - Retention of Na and K in Daily Mineral Balance of Artificially Fed Infant25
| Intake | Excretion | Retention | ||||||
| Urine | Feces | |||||||
| mg. | meq. | mg. | meq. | mg. | meq. | mg. | meq. | |
| From extracellular | ||||||||
| Sodium | 422 | 18 | 300 | 13 | 78 | 3 | 43 | 2 |
| Chloride | 788 | 22 | 651 | 18 | 13 | 1 | 123 | 3 |
| From intracellular | ||||||||
| Potassium | 1182 | 30 | 785 | 20 | 104 | 3 | 293 | 7 |
| Phosphorous | 804 | 42 | 457 | 26 | 210 | 10 | 137 | 8 |
Tables 4 and 526 may prove that this relationship is reversed in sickness. While the tissues lost the power to retain the K-minerals and glycogen, these decreased (see Table 4) from 20.6 to 5.08, then sodium chloride and water invade the tissue cells from extracellular fluids, thus causing an increasing rise in the milk of Na from 18.02 to 42.87:
| TABLE IV | ||||
| K-Group | ||||
| K2O | P2O3 | MgO | CaO | |
| Normal Milk | 20.60 | 26.40 | 2.72 | 21.55 |
| "Salzige Milch" | ||||
| Bofold and Stein | ||||
| (pathological) | 10.96 | 15.63 | 2.16 | 11.70 |
| Hashimoto | 8.94 | 17.38 | 1.74 | 7.44 |
| Udder Catarrh | ||||
| Schrodt | 10.56 | 24.56 | 2.70 | 16.77 |
| Tuberculous Cows | ||||
| Storch | 10.87 | 7.10 | 1.27 | 4.34 |
| a) Normal udder | 12.64 | 22.22 | 2.10 | |
| b) Tuberculous udder | 5.08 | 8.76 | 0.79 | |
| Na-Group | |||
| Na2O | Cl | SO3 | |
| Normal Milk | 13.02 | 15.58 | 3.66 |
| "Salzige Milch" | |||
| Bofold and Stein | |||
| (pathological) | 33.77 | 25.23 | 6.73 |
| Hashimoto | 36.54 | 33.63 | 1.34 |
| Udder Catarrh | |||
| Schrodt | 24.92 | 24.52 | 1.56 |
| Tuberculous Cows | |||
| Storch | 40.60 | ___ | 5.08 |
| a) Normal udder | 21.79 | 27.99 | ___ |
| b) Tuberculous udder | 42.37 | 44.64 | ___ |
| TABLE V25 | ||
| from intracellular | Normal Lens | Cataract Lens |
| K | 5.1 | 0.6 |
| P | 2.0 | 1.1 |
| from extracellular | ||
| Ca | 0.25 | 1.0 |
| Na | 5.5 | 12.0 |
| 25 E. P. Fischer, Ophthalmologica. 114:1, 1947. | ||
The human body has a wonderful reserve power and many possibilities of adjustment, but the best defense apparatus is a 100 per cent functioning metabolism and reabsorption in the intestinal tract in combination with a healthy liver. People may conclude, needlessly, that it is not important to place so much emphasis on nutrition. This may be so under normal conditions and if these persons are not damaged through heredity, civilization, sickness, trauma or other accumulations (nicotine and other poisons).
Civilization has partially taken away this natural bestowal. Experiments on test groups to produce different vitamin-deficiencies by omitting food containing these vitamins showed that one third can be made deficient in about four months and two thirds in six months; only five to six per cent resisted ten months of deficient feeding here in the United States. These nutritional experiments and others show that only a minority possesses a complete intact reabsorption apparatus and at the same time enough adjustment and reserve power for healthy and unhealthy periods in their lives.
It is not necessary for healthy persons to care so much about enough or too many carbohydrates and proteins, and their caloric value should be ignored. However, one cannot ignore the absolutely necessary minerals, vitamins and enzymes in their most natural composition and in sufficient amounts for a relatively long term and remain unpunished. The minerals have to be in the tissues where they belong, as they are the carriers of the electrical potentials in the cells; and there they enable the hormones, vitamins and enzymes to function properly. This gives the body the best working power and reserves for a sound metabolism and life.
The best advice is to use fresh vegetables and fruit organically grown as much as possible. Mothers should pay more attention to their children and their kitchen. One's own garden would be a great help in summertime.
Valuable and practical information can be found in the following publications: