In all of our writings and teachings in the past we have tried to lay particular stress on a certain element in the food which science had failed to isolate, and we named this the active principle because if this is lacking in the articles used in the diet there appears to be missing the incentive to growth, to activity and the coordination of the forces. For instance, when the child or young animal is fed with milk or substitute minus this elusive element, there is failure of proper, normal or natural growth or development.

Our contention has always been that food is not always food, i.e., an agency that supplies the actual requirements of the various parts of the body, but frequently proves to be destructive rather than constructive, though it does serve the purpose of satisfying the appetite or call for food, and pleases the palate. We are gradually being vindicated by the investigators now active in this important field of research.

When Nature is not interfered with, she creates each article used as a food complete in its respective elements. It is only when man interferes with her in some manner or by some method, such as separating certain parts from other portions - as for instance, by removing the outer coating and the heart of the wheat and other grains, the skin of potatoes, boiling vegetables in water and discarding the water, that he denatures or unbalances these foods and destroys a great part of their value. Especially when he destroys that portion wherein is contained this active principle, he lays himself open to the invasion of disease because of the weakness within, the direct result of the withdrawal of important elements in the food.

Within comparatively recent years almost all that we have dared to claim has been verified, first, through the research of Dr. Casimier Funk, the Russian scientist, who has given this active element in food, the name of vitamin.

We know through experimentation, that if this food accessory is missing, there cannot long be maintained a state of health, well-being or physical equilibrium, call it what you will; nor can lost health be restored by the use of those food substances which do not contain at least a certain amount of these necessary elements.

It is now generally conceded that these vitamins are a non-protein, nitrogenous compound, that through their action on the organic mineral elements, hold the bodily forces in balance.

It is due to a deficiency in the vitamin content in the food we eat, and a lack of the organic mineral elements, that we become afflicted with the various physical weaknesses and diseases. We mention the organic mineral elements in connection with the vitamins for the reason that health is impossible if either is missing in the food, except in connection or conjunction with these organic mineral elements and the associated amino acids. Moreover, in the natural or primitive state, wherever vitamins are found, there also will be located the associated organic mineral elements in harmonious proportion and the amino acids to connect the two and hold them in equilibrium.

While these substances or principles, which we have always recognized under the generic term of the spirit of food, loomed up suddenly before the scientific world as "vitamin," the dynamic force it in part represents, was known long ago. We, on our part, have always made it a point to teach that aside from food as a food, there was, or should be something as an essential essence in it which we called the life or vital principle, i.e., the spirit of the food, an absolute necessity in the maintenance of health: and that this vital element is to be found most abundantly in vegetables, fruits, nuts legumes, whole potatoes, and in many of the tubers and roots used as food.

The vitamins are fairly abundant in some fruits, while in others there is less vitamin but an abundance of the organic mineral element. In the orange, for instance, there is a considerable amount of vitamin and not so much of the organic mineral element because the peel is not usually used. In the apple and pear both the vitamins and the organic mineral elements abound, the latter being mostly present in the skins of these fruits. In addition it may be said as a truism that whenever the skin of a fruit or tuber is edible then it is rich in the organic mineral element.

Although both of these extremely valuable elements are found in rich proportion in all of the vegetables, they are readily lost by a wrong process of preparation, as for instance, by boiling them and then discarding the water in which they were boiled. To avoid such loss, they should be cooked in as little water as possible, and this juice, extract, or residue, which is a decidedly valuable building material, if it cannot be used with the vegetables, should be added to soups or made into dressings for vegetables or salads.

That the substance now called vitamin is "elusive" and "sensitive," is unquestionable; it is the very life of food just as fragrance is the soul of the flower. Boil or otherwise superheat a flower - its fragrance takes flight and is lost forever. In like manner, if certain of our fruits and vegetables be boiled or baked, the vitamin or life-principle is lost and the article rendered practically valueless as food.

It is agreed that there are vitamins which promote growth, others which prevent scurvy, others again which are essential in establishing health and a normal bone structure in the rickety baby - and so on, indefinitely. By the proper combination of food substances we are able to "cure" scurvy, rickets, anemia, and other diseases(1) because these invasions of weakness are a result of a definite deficiency of these vital elements in the food consumed by the sufferer whether he be child or adult.
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(1) If man were supplied with the correct proportion of vitamins, organic mineral elements, and associated amino acids through the combination of the foods he eats, then other things being normal, the invasion of disease, weakness, and premature old age to a great degree would be made impossible. All weakness and disease are the result either of a deficiency or a congestion, unless due to accident, number of years, or a depression of the spirit. ------------------------------------------------------

It is as yet impossible to describe in an intelligible or understandable manner just what a vitamin is but we can illustrate clearly its potency by what we know of the changes it will bring about. The orange, as readily conceded, is one of the best known, best liked and most tasty of the fruits. We have long prescribed it as practically a specific when a person is afflicted with boils and carbuncles. We have had patients with as many as fifteen boils who were instructed to eat a dozen or more oranges a day, at the same time eliminating inharmonious combinations of other food, as well as such as poison the blood and congest the system. In each instance the result was relief from the distressing ailment. In all conditions where a fruit diet predominating in oranges is indicated and the liver is either torpid or there is biliousness, it is necessary to reduce the number of oranges and combine an almost equal portion of grapefruit with them.(2)
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(2) In a great portion of the United States the "weed" dandelion is well known and is made into a delicious salad or prepared in some other form. The vegetable dandelion is a blood purifier as well as a stimulant to the liver. What is generally unknown is the fact that the dandelion root is one of the very best natural agents to normalize the activity of the liver and may be used in practically all cases where there is torpidity or biliousness of the liver. It should be dug fresh as needed and scraped. A teaspoonful is the proper amount and may be taken with, or between, meals. This dandelion root may also be scraped and dehydrated and used during the entire year when required to stimulate the liver.
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In the treatment of scurvy(3), oranges, without other treatment, have proven to be a specific. In these cases, however, we recommend that the oranges be eaten between meals and that the meals be composed of a combination of fresh vegetables, both raw and cooked, plenty of whole and untreated milk, and baked potatoes with the skins.
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(3) From reports constantly received from patients and co-workers, we learn that specialists and large institutions are now employing the orange or tomato cures in treating rickets in children. Many of these specialists prohibit everything but the fruit for a period of two weeks. This is rather more radical than we would recommend. It may be truthfully claimed that our school first discovered or adopted this manner of treatment twenty-seven years ago at a period when we also applied the entire body hot pack for dropsy, syphilis and other diseases - treatments which were than called either worthless or dangerous but are now used by some of the best institutions. Without a display of egotism, we feel that our other methods will also be gradually adopted though we doubt if any credit will ever be given our school.
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Long experience has taught us that the vitamin and vital mineral elements in the orange and greatly so in the grapefruit and tomato, will cure most skin diseases, and that they are Nature's remedy in these cases. It further indicates that the food formerly consumed by these sufferers was wholly lacking in the vital principles contained in the fruits.

Oranges and grape fruit are extremely sensitive to heat and though boiling might not totally destroy their value as food and remedial agents, it is far preferable to eat them in their natural state and without the addition of sugar and with no so-called preparation whatever.

In diseases such as anemia, rickets, tuberculosis and also the nerve and waste disease known as beriberi, the vitamin most essential for a cure is found in the natural, unpolished rice and in wild rice. To this must be added a goodly proportion of whole, untreated milk and plenty of fresh vegetables. Apparently, rice, whether the cultivated or wild variety, may be boiled for any length of time without serious harm to its vital content, although it is best when steamed, thus avoiding all losses of its real food values.

Science has not yet been able to show just what these vitamins and vital minerals in rice actually do in the cure of beriberi and other diseases in which a low state of vitality and wasting are characteristics, but we do know what the vital mineral elements in rice are and what deficiency they supply. Further analysis and investigation will show just what is lacking in the system of the sufferer from these and other ailments.

Experiments formerly carried on with chickens on the Beverly Hall Farms, proved that when they were fed with white bread or polished rice, they became weak and stiff; they apparently lost all vital force, were listless, purple of comb and ceased laying. When they were fed whole grain together with associated foods, they began to change for the better and within a short period regained their healthy appearance, and began to "sing" and to lay. These are experiments that anyone can make in any little back yard, and will quickly demonstrate the value of the natural way of living so far as diet is concerned.

Chickens prepared for market, if fed on unenriched white bread soaked until soft, fatten quickly; however, if this feeding is continued beyond a certain period of time, they lose weight rapidly. Such food is wholly lacking in the elements essential to health. The fowls, lacking these balancing elements, suffer from congestion which creates the fat, but the birds sicken when the fattening process reaches a certain stage. When buying chicken meat of this kind people think that they are supplying their systems with important food elements, but in fact the meat is death-dealing, whether ingested by those who are healthy or invalids. Furthermore what has been said relative to fowl, applies as well to all animals.

Time and again we have made the assertion that because a meal is apparently well balanced there is no assurance that it actually is what it is supposed to be or that it is health-giving and strength producing. For example: many people compose their more important meals of the day of a combination of meat, potato, unenriched white bread, and vegetables. In calories - the
heat-and energy-producing units - this meal is correct but, the potatoes were pared and consequently the portion which contains the vital mineral elements and vitamin is discarded and only the starch remains. From the flour of which the bread is made, the health-giving, vital, balancing parts, namely the bran and seed-eye or nuclein, were eliminated, little else but starch remaining. The vegetables were boiled in a quantity of water and this water thrown away, they are therefore unfit for food their only actual value being the cellulose or indigestible matter necessary for bowel movement.

This meal, and all others like it, though, apparently well-balanced and correctly combined, contains the required number of calories but is totally lacking in real food value, is a starvation, disease-creating, death-dealing meal and nothing more. This conclusion, long advanced by us, is agreed with by many other investigators. Dr. C.H. Goudiss, formerly editor of the Forest Magazine, says:

"No longer can we regard ourselves as properly fed because our meals show a scientifically correct balance of protein, carbohydrates, fats and mineral elements;(4) for without that evasive element which in some mysterious manner gives the word to the forces of the body to digest and assimilate these nutrients, we might as well eat sawdust. For a time, it is true, we may get on very well, for the body stores vitamin against the time of need; but these cannot last long and without a constant renewed supply disease and death inevitably await us."
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(4) This might appear as contradicting our previous statement that the vital mineral elements, vitamins and amino acids are usually associated and that when one is normally present, the other also will be. Basically, our statement is exact but if there be heating of the food, it is easily possible that the vital mineral elements remain but that the vitamins and amino acids are destroyed. This would cause an unbalance.
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Dr. Goudiss is in error in one respect in his statement. He includes "mineral elements" forgetful of the fact that the modern process of milling cereals, for instance, which eliminates the vitamin, also denatures the flour of most of its organic mineral elements, and the family method of cooking frequently eliminates the vitamins and at other times both the vitamins and the organic mineral elements.

Mothers who really love the babies in their arms and the children by their side - and what mother does not? - think to protect them from disease by refusing to give them any but sterilized or boiled milk, unaware that by so doing they are supplying these loved ones with food which has lost some of its value. Boiled or pasteurized milk, whether done in the home kitchen or in a modern fully-equipped laboratory, is not the best food for the baby or the growing child. This treatment of milk is a business, not a public health proposition, despite all propaganda to the contrary and as it is the mass which suffers through the loss in true food value, we feel justified in being emphatic in our statements. When God or the operation of Natural Law so arranges that a mother s milk comes from the breast sterilized or boiled, then shall we believe that it is Nature s Law or God s fiat, and for the benefit of man that milk be so treated.

From the standpoint of purity nothing can be said in favor of this treatment of milk. If we admit that milk is full of bacteria and that this heating process destroys them,(5) then, instead of the stomach being an aquarium, it becomes a graveyard. As a matter of fact, the digestive juices of the ordinary normal stomach are capable of digesting "raw" milk and converting - as happens with other foods - all but possibly the most deadly germs.(6) But in the boiling of milk and other foods in which there is excessive bacterial life, the moment this boiling has been accomplished, the dead particles begin to disintegrate or putrefy, as does all dead animal substance, turning it into poisonous material. This poison, which becomes a toxin, cannot be separated from the food particles, or the milk itself, and is therefore absorbed by the assimilative organism into the blood stream.
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(5) The term "destroys" is generally but incorrectly used. All that any process now in use does is to kill these bacteria. The dead germs remain, or, possibly more accurately speaking, a serum of what was the germ, and this serum being the remains of the dead, is, like all dead matter, a poison or toxin. If the dead germs could be removed from the milk after they are killed, then the milk actually would be germless but, if the dead germs were removed, would it not be just as possible and as easy to remove the living germs? The Natura School does not admit that the germs in normal milk can cause disease but believes that a wise provision of Nature placed them there for the same reason she placed them in normal drinking water. (See note 7)
(6) There are many illustrations to prove this. The poison of snakes, for instance, if injected into the blood, is deadly, as witness the bite of the deadly snakes. Taken into the stomach this fluid is not a poison, because the digestive juices are generally capable of neutralizing it. Many physicians of repute admit that even such infectious germs as those of syphilis are destructible by the digestive juices of the stomach but when coming directly in contact with the blood stream infection results in the majority of cases. -----------------------------------------------------

Can our primary statement be verified? It can! A certain proportion of germ life, i.e., a minimum number of bacteria, in the milk, is not thought of as poisonous or detrimental to health. Because of this we know that this bacteria is taken care of by the digestive organism in some manner. It is not the native germ life in the milk that is dangerous to health and well-being, but rather the state of the milk itself. We must question fairly the health of the cow and the way she is fed, which permits the increase of germ life, and if the cow is not normal then her milk is not fit for human consumption irrespective of the manner in which it is treated. Admittedly, foreign bacteria might in some manner infect the milk when those who handle the milk are diseased or various utensils unclean, but in that case treatment of the milk will not eliminate the impurity nor render it inert thought it does kill the germs.

Because we are today no longer dealing only with the health of the present generation but with the future health of the nation as a whole, we must seek the cause of conditions, not merely seek to apply a remedy to immediate needs. We contend, basing our conclusion on experience, that if the cow is in a fair state of health and properly fed so as to be receiving the necessary elements in her food i.e., the organic mineral elements, vitamins and nuclein, then her milk will be normal in its contents, and destructive or disease-breeding bacteria not be present in over-abundance.(7) From whatever viewpoint the question of milk is considered, it is more wholesome without boiling, regardless of bacteria present. Some milk is undoubtedly unfit for human consumption but in that case, no known treatment will make it so.
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(7) The Natura School claims that man cannot exist if he continually drinks sterilized or filtered water from which all germ life has been removed, for the reason that these germs are digested and their vital principle absorbed, and that it is this essence which keeps men potent and women fertile. This school also maintains that this is the reason why people should drink no less than six glasses of water a day, and that even fruit juices, though liquid, will not serve in its place. If this contention is finally proven - and there must be some truth in it, since Nature places these germs even in the purest of natural water - then we have also a reason why there is bacteria in the best, purest and richest milk ever secured from a cow or goat or any other animal, and why soya beans, though containing all the elements found in human or other milk, cannot be successfully substituted for these in the feeding of infants. Here is an important and absorbing field for investigation.
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To obtain the vitamins in sufficient quantities, we must give careful consideration to the preparation of the goods that contain them. Milk and eggs are both rich in vitamins but eggs, like milk, must not be boiled if they are to be of greatest value.

Fruits should be eaten raw. If there is any possibility of uncleanliness from any cause, they should first be carefully washed. All edible skins should be consumed because in these skins reside the organic mineral elements needed by the body and without these the fruit is incomplete as a food.

Many of the vegetables need to be cooked so that they will be most palatable to the present taste of man. Lettuce, cucumbers, cabbage, tomatoes, carrots, and many other vegetables are by far best in their natural state.

Dried fruit should be soaked but not boiled, and in all cases the water should be used.

Dried or dehydrated vegetables should be treated in the same manner.

Cereals and legumes should be boiled or otherwise treated. Cooking does not materially interfere with the value of their content, and renders them far easier to digest and assimilate.

In making breads from any whole grain flour, baking soda should not be used unless either sour milk or buttermilk is used in combination with it. Soda without the addition of either of these liquids, appears to destroy the vitamin or active life principles whatever these may be.

In the baking of all raised breads, it is best to use a good yeast, that made from potatoes being especially desirable.

It is to be noticed that we constantly mention the organic mineral elements in connection with the vitamins. It is practically impossible for any food, whether fruit, vegetable, cereal, or legume, to contain vitamins unless it also is more or less rich in these elements, for it is thus that Nature maintains the balance, the minerals being the equilibrating agent. It also is also true that foods such as the cereals, legumes, and potatoes containing the seed or germinating cell, possess within these cells nuclein, i.e., the active life principle, in connection with the vitamins and organic mineral elements.

If the proportion of the organic mineral elements in the food is correct, then, unless interfered with by man, the vitamin content will also be in the right amount, and in cereals, nuts, potatoes, legumes, and other food of the same nature, the nuclein will be normal. If this nuclein or active life principle is other than it should be, then the seed when planted either will not germinate or, if it does, the plat will be so lacking in vital force that it will not grow to full maturity. Men, especially our scientists, might easily and readily learn a practical lesson from this simple illustration.

The nuclein or active life principle in the seed, depends for this activating force on the vitamins, just as the organic mineral elements are dependent on the vitamins for their constructive power. The organic mineral elements from vegetables and fruits are mostly burned, i.e., digested into alkalines, and these are equalizing and balancing in their nature.

In the cereals and legumes there is a large proportion of the organic mineral elements, vitamins and of nuclein.

In vegetables and fruits there is a fair balance of vitamins and organic mineral elements but no nuclein as such because we do not eat the seed, though it must be admitted that the spirit or essence of the nuclein passes through it constantly and supplies an active force, otherwise there could be no nuclein in the seed. We therefore believe that in the plant, before it flowers and comes to seed, the nuclein is present in spirit, and that this may be the reason why there is a greater proportion of the vitamins found in these than in the foods which contain in themselves the seed germ - cereals, legumes, and potatoes.

By most of the physicians of the dominant school, the value of food is classified according to its caloric value, i.e., its heat- or energy-producing units, a calorie being the amount of heat which will raise the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Centigrade or about one pound of water four degrees Fahrenheit. But, as already stated, a meal may consist of such foods as contain more than sufficient heat units or caloric value and yet be entirely lacking in actual building, constructing, or maintaining value, because of the absence of organic mineral elements, vitamins and nuclein. Refined sugars and polished rice, for example, each contain a great quantity of calories or heat-producing energy, but no one will claim that they contain either organic mineral elements, vitamins or nuclein. Notwithstanding this fact, multitudes of people daily base their rations on such articles as polished rice, pearled barley, white flour and other foods equally deficient in actual constructive substance and believe themselves well nourished and fully supplied with the necessary elements to maintain health and efficiency.

In order to understand why food prepared in one way is almost indigestible, while the same food prepared in a natural or specified manner becomes a life-giving, body-building agent, we should study the writings of the great English authority Albert J. Bellows, M.D., who tells us that:

"The experiment has been tried of shutting up a dog with good natural food, containing all needed elements but osmazone, but having been cooked and re-cooked till all taste and smell were removed; the stomach would not receive it and the dog pined away until it was evident that he would starve without this element, although all others were supplied. And this one experiment, it seems to me, is worth more than a volume of commentaries on the importance of osmazone. It shows us not only that it is a duty to eat good food, containing nutritive elements in right proportions, but it is a duty to eat it also with a good relish.

"Does any one say he cannot afford to eat good ripe fruits and berries and well-flavored meats and vegetables: Let him make a calculation comparing the amount of fine flour, butter, sugar and other carbonaceous food consumed by his family, with the requisite amount of that class of elements, and calculate the amount of money thus uselessly expended, and he will find that by bringing his commissary department under physiological rules, he will have surplus funds sufficient to procure every natural luxury which is needed to enable him to enjoy to the fullest extent the very highest gustatory pleasures of which he is capable.

"Our gustatory pleasures are not in proportion to the amount of osmazone in our food and drink. Nature's flavors are very delicate and the very choicest relish is that produced by a slight trace of osmazone. For example, take nutmeg, a very slight grating of which will flavor a large bowl of porridge. Attempt to increase the relish by increasing the quantity of the spice and you will utterly fail, instead making your beverage less and less agreeable as you increase the quantity of nutmeg till it becomes disgusting and positively injurious to the digestive process. And this is true of all other condiments and indeed all other good things. Delicate flavors are agreeable and useful in promoting digestion; but every article which is capable of protecting health and happiness, in appropriate quantities, is capable of doing harm in unnatural quantities, just as every other blessing is converted into a curse by being perverted and misused."

From this we may conclude that osmazone, which may be said to be the agreeable taste in all food, whether fruit, vegetable, cereal legume or various combinations of these, is itself based on the vitamin in the food, or if not that, then possibly identical with it. We may also conclude that the correct preparation of food either brings out or intensifies this desirable quality in it, while improper preparation destroys it.

To be palatable, easily digested, nutritious, and readily assimilable, food must be properly prepared and combined. To some people spices added to food will make it more tasty" or relishable and for that reason easier to digest though no more valuable as a food. As a general rule, however, condiments are not recommended. A good quality of food, correctly combined and properly prepared, has a natural flavor that cannot be improved. If the taste, or appetite demands condiments, than there is but one exact rule to follow: Refrain from eating until there is an actual hunger for naturally prepared, unspiced and unadulterated food. We except salt and pepper.

Food correctly prepared is always tasty and this in itself will arouse the esthetic sense. If it fails to do so, then there is lack of natural hunger and one should not attempt to create an appetite under such conditions because to do so will serve no good or constructive purpose, since it is impossible for the digestive organs properly to digest food or the assimilative organs to assimilate it when there is no actual natural hunger.

The Assimilation of the vital principles and the vitamins in the food does not in any way depend upon spices used in cooking but upon the correct combination and proper preparation of the food itself, plus a natural hunger. Spices used in cookery created an artificial appetite which tends to congestion, and as natural hunger alone is the basis of proper digestion and assimilation of food, one can readily understand the danger of an artificially created appetite when there is no hunger, therefore no call for food; when the call is lacking, the want or need, also is missing.

It is not difficult to recognize the difference between appetite and hunger. Appetite is a sensation in the stomach and is usually manifested as a faintness, a craving, gnawing, all-goneness, or empty feeling. It is caused by some form of dyspepsia or indigestion. People generally believe this to be hunger - a genuine call for food. On the contrary, it is an indication that there may be food in the stomach which has not been properly digested and which is rapidly approaching the stage of fermentation, possibly putrefaction, and to add more food to this mass is like adding oil to a flame. This is one reason why indigestion is frequently the forerunner or beginning of serious ailments or dangerous diseases.

Hunger is a feeling or desire in the throat, a keen call for food and a sense that the food will be thoroughly enjoyed. Unless this genuine hunger is present, even though food rich in organic mineral elements, vitamins, and nuclein, is ingested, it cannot be properly digested and assimilated, and, as a consequence, becomes a waste, congests the system, and induces weakness instead of increasing the strength, vitality, and well being of the entire physical, mental and nervous man.
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