When called upon to treat an anemic patient, the general practitioner usually prescribes iron as a tonic. In theory, this is the correct procedure because the blood of the sufferer is deficient in the organic mineral element, iron. Practically, the feeding of a mineral or chemical iron is incorrect for this iron is an inorganic mineral substance and cannot be metabolized because the system of man is incapable of assimilating and transmuting such elements, which were created as food for plant life rather than for man and animal. There can be, therefore, no direct benefit from the employment of inorganic mineral iron, although there may be an indirect benefit, through its affinity for iron in its organic form as procured from plant and animal life.

The Natura physician and food scientist, knowing that the system of the anemic patient is starving for iron, does no prescribe the Non-vital mineral substance, but prescribes such foods as are known to contain an abundance of this vital element which can be readily absorbed and metabolized by the system. Gradual improvement and ultimate recovery are assured through the rebuilding of the system by the elements supplied in the food. One of the fruit-foods most clearly indicated in these condition, because abundantly supplied with organic iron, is the Apple.(1) This may be taken in any style - raw, between meals, stewed or baked at bed time, but always without the addition of sugar or cream.
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(1) In all conditions in which there is some form of digestive, weakness, apples should be baked in order to neutralize the irritating acid content.
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Vegetables, such as spinach, also are abundantly supplied with vital iron, and may be boiled and served as part of the regular noon and evening meals. Other vegetables rich in this element, two or three of which should always be served in combination with such highly concentrated foods as milk and eggs, are lettuce, Swiss chard, cabbage, and others yet to be described. Iron in some form is also found in potatoes, but to obtain it the potato must be consumed as a whole, as the mineral elements are contained in the outer covering.

The anemic person is not only deficient in the iron, but is likewise starving for phosphorus in a form which can readily be metabolized and taken up by the cells in need of it; and it is this deficiency which is frequently the basic cause of the gradual weakening if the lungs.

In the dietetic treatment of these conditions, milk is of great importance. But even this is likely to fail if we place all milk under one classification. Some milk is rich in phosphoric acid, while other milk is decidedly deficient in it. Milk may pass the official test for purity and even for butterfat, and yet be low in its phosphoric acid content.

The same is true of eggs. To all appearance they may be fresh and a source of rich food elements, while actually they may be almost worthless because the hens were improperly fed and did not have sufficient sunshine, and thus are lacking in Vitamin D.(2)
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(2) Unfertile eggs are of value only for their protein and mineral element. The highly desirable vital element found only in the germ in the whites, is missing, and when served to anemic or tubercular patients may do more harm than good.
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Why should these conditions exist? Experiments carried on at Beverly Hall Farm demonstrated the reason. The cow, to be normal should have fresh grass during the spring and summer seasons and as late as possible into the fall. This grass is rich in mineral elements so essential to the health of the cow and the production of milk normal in these elements. This green food must be supplemented with other food, such as corn, wheat, oats, sugar feed, and oil meal, which furnish the cow with elements not contained in the green foods.

It must be borne in mind that the farmer does not feed only the inner, finer, starchy matter of the grains to his animals, as these would quickly undermine their health and vitality. They must have an abundance of the whole grain and frequently an addition of the so-called "offal" or the portion of the grains discarded from the food used for man. These grains, rich in the life principles such as the organic mineral elements, vitamins, and nuclein, must be the basic food for food-producing animals, while the grasses, equally rich in the first two of these elements, serve them in the same manner as vegetables do man.

Food of this class abundantly supplied to the animal, will cause it to produce milk rating high in organic mineral elements, vitamins, phosphoric acid, and other essential elements, and when this milk is prescribed as a basic food to sufferers from anemia, tuberculosis and other ailments of this type, it will be digested, its constructive elements assimilated by the organism, and the elements for which the system has been starving will be supplied and other conditions being favorable, a gradual improvement will begin.(3)
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(3) In cases of malnutrition the beaten whites of fertile eggs should be mixed with milk and the yolks with orange, pineapple, and especially papaya juice in order to assure its rapid digestion.
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The organic mineral elements, vitamins, and phosphoric acid found in milk are actual life-conveying, energetic medicinal agents in the true sense, and not merely stimulating substitutes, such as the non-vital mineral elements, phosphorus, and other drugs usually prescribed.

There is another important phase of the milk question which directly concerns not only the dietitian, but every physician who attempts to treat ailments of this nature and who has the welfare of his patients at heart. This concerns the classification of milk passed by inspection as on good quality generally but actually of very little food value.

The average owner of cattle naturally seeks to derive the greatest amount of profit possible from his investment and labor and may be wholly ignorant of the results that follow the continued use of milk deficient in the various important elements enumerated, or may care little, if he does know, and not be willing to meet the expense of buying the high priced, carefully balanced basic foods. Instead, he purchases the by-products of breweries, which may be obtained so abundantly and cheaply. The large feed houses throughout the country buy this material and in turn sell it to retail feed houses which dispose of it to the farmer and dairyman, The dairyman finds it a cheap food and one that actually increases his milk supply and therefore multiplies the profit on his investment. This milk will pass both the butterfat and content test and is labeled as desirable for human consumption, consequently is accepted as healthy and a good food for the sick and well.

Herein is the secret why milk frequently fails as a body builder and reconstructor in those diseases where it is indicated as the most desirable food-medicine. The cows were fed on feed which had been robbed of practically all of its organic mineral elements and could not, by any stretch of the imagination, give them the vital substances with the expectation of being built up, or rejuvenated, were sadly disappointed.

This is not a theory, but an actual fact which may be demonstrated by any one sufficiently interested or engaged in this line of investigation. Some years ago we sought to prove certain theories and, in order to do so, secured some of the finest Guernsey cows. We placed them on a test for Advanced Registration, and fed them partly on brewer's grain and hay. Their milk not only passed the tests as to the necessary butterfat content, but also as to quantity of milk. In other words, the milk was considered as healthy, a desirable food, and the only apparent difference noted was that the animals did not continue to show as healthy an appearance or to be as full of life as when given a correctly-balanced ration: the milk, under actual use for certain conditions, did not supply the constructive material which all normal milk should.

Continuing with our experiments, we changed the regimen, gave the cows hay in winter, pasture in summer, and, instead of the deficient brewer's grain, substituted a mixture of whole-ground corn, bran, oats, sugar-feed, and oil meal. The animals soon displayed more life and greater vitality, their naturally sleek appearance gradually returned with every appearance of normality. Under test, the milk did not increase in quantity and the amount of butterfat was not considerably larger. However, what served our purpose, was the fact that when this milk was prescribed for those in need of the organic mineral elements, vitamins, and phosphoric acid, we were not disappointed in the results, whereas before, the milk was just so much ordinary food. The expense in the production of this milk was far heavier and the material returns no greater, But the benefits the patients derived from it were gratifying. The general producer of milk will naturally ask why then should he go to this extra expense when those who buy the milk, and not he, receive the benefit? Nor can we greatly blame him, all business being conducted on the principle of profit, not for the benefit to others.

Normal milk, that is, milk containing all the elements we have described, is one of the most perfectly balanced, constructive foods known because it contains all the important organic mineral elements in their correct proportion, all those elements of foods required by the body of man, with the exception of cellulose; and at the same time, is a neutralizer of all bodily acids. That it was anciently considered a perfect food is proven in Deut.26:9, wherein it is indicated that the perfect diet of man may be based on milk and honey, and the greatest promise held out to the Israelites was that they should find a land "flowing with milk and honey."

Normal milk contains rather more of the elements of potassium and calcium than are necessary to a fully matured and healthy body, and because of this and to offset it, the use of fruits deficient in these elements should be eaten in conjunction with the milk, and also such vegetables(4) as contain elements which will balance the calcium, keep it in free circulation, not permitting localization.
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(4) So far we have been able to find no vegetable more abundantly supplied with the required element sodium, than okra, and in all cases where there is an indication of calcium deposits and magnesium infiltration, indicated by such ailments as gout, arthritis, hardening of the arteries and like diseases, foods rich in sodium should be abundantly supplied through the diet.
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Victims of tuberculosis will do well to eat plenty of apples, oranges, and grapefruit between the drinking of milk, as well as to combine vegetables rich in iron and sodium and those acting as sedatives, with their meals.

Although thus far we have concentrated on milk as a rebuilder of cells and tissues in cases of anemia and tuberculosis, it is equally indicated in many other conditions, especially where the brain and nerve cells are starved, the nerves weakened or shattered, and the generative organs debilitated, and where one or all of these conditions may be the cause of the main condition.

Eggs, like milk, are both food and medicine. They contain, in the white, an almost pure albumen,(5) while the yolk is rich in fat, phosphorus and sulphur in their most perfect vital form. All these elements are medicine to the weakened system. The fats and albumen are builders while the phosphorus is an absolute essential in the successful treatment of anemia, tuberculosis and all wasting and neurasthenic conditions. The sulphur is equally important in all conditions where there is either a local or internal infection, or when the lowered vital forces have permitted germ life native to man and beneficial to him while under control, to gain the mastery and become more or less virulent and inimical to his well-being.
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(5) The white of eggs if hard boiled is difficult to digest. In some instances it is not at all digested but passes through the system in practically the same state as when ingested. It is best thoroughly broken up by the use of an egg beater, mixed with milk, and made the basis of the milk, i.e., the protein portion. This should be well balanced by the combination of several vegetables, uncooked preferred, and one starch such as a baked potato. -----------------------------------------------------

In the use of eggs either as food or medicine, certain results must be foreseen and guarded against. These are the danger of creating sulphuric, sulphurous and phosphoric acids. These acids in limited quantities, are necessary, normalizing and curative in their nature, but if they accumulate beyond the needs of the body they become dangerous to health. This surplus accumulation may easily be avoided if the correcting acids and neutralizers are supplied in the form of fruits and vegetable.

In all conditions where the stomach is weakened through one cause or another and the digestive organism below par, the egg diet must be started very gradually, the white and yolk never taken at the same time, otherwise there is a tendency to create gas, distending both the stomach and intestines, which in turn is responsible for other digestive and assimilative weaknesses and interference with the proper metabolization of the foods ingested. Should gases form after the consumption of eggs, they must be neutralized with fruit juices, though these must not be taken sooner than sixty to ninety minutes after the eggs lest there be even a worse, condition to overcome.

Eggs should not be used as food until they are three days old and not after they are three weeks old. Until they are at least three days old the mineral content is not fully organized; after three weeks, these and other elements begin to disorganize and they are no linger fit for human consumption. The digestive organism may be prepared for such concentrated protein-mineral food as eggs, if, one-half hour before the meal, the juice of one orange is mixed with the juice of half a small grapefruit and to this added a small amount of water but no sugar. It is equally true that such a fruit drink will prepare the stomach for others of the heavier or more concentrated protein foods as well as for the legumes.

As with milk, so eggs may be divided into two groups; those valuable as food, and those unfit for that purpose.

During World War I farmers were instructed to save all unused food scraps and feed them to the chickens, and that all food in any way fit for human consumption should be used for that purpose and not fed in the poultry yard. If these instructions were literally carried out then the farmer fed his birds only waste scraps unfit for human consumption and we may logically question: how could this material which was unfit as food for man, produce food, in the form of eggs and meat, fit for man? Obedience to the instructions given may have been one of the reasons why we were afflicted with the fearful epidemic which raged during that period, as we are all aware that meats from cattle were used sparingly by most people, while milk, poultry and eggs took the place of it in the majority of American homes.

Unless chicken feed is in fairly correct proportion, rich in roughage and organic mineral elements, disease is certain to result. Moreover, it is utterly impossible for the eggs to contain the various elements that should be found in them if the feed does not contain it. For, if we rob the food of the fowls of its necessary elements, we most assuredly rob the egg of the nutriment and proper constituents, and instead of it being a splendid maintaining and building food, it actually becomes a source of danger, because it is unbalanced, deficient in nutriment, and contains too great an amount of acid-and-gas-creating material, as do all unbalanced protein food substances.

Milk is one of Nature's most potent agents for the elimination of wasting diseases, but if it is robbed of the required elements, or if it never contained them, it is impotent to bring about the desired results just as the physician would not expect any great improvement in a case where he had prescribed Tincture of Hydrastis, prepared from the green herb, for some abnormal condition of the stomach or other mucous membrane, if a tincture made from old, inert roots had been substituted. Milk, lacking in any part of the nutriment, butterfat, or organic mineral elements, is as worthless in maintaining health and strength as is an inert tincture to reestablish a normal condition in any organ of the body.

To obtain the full benefit of the vitamins, albumin, and casein, the milk must be taken in the natural, unboiled state. Cooking partly or wholly destroys some of these constituents of the milk and other dairy products, the damage done them depending on the degree of heat applied.

In all wasting diseases as well as in those conditions which cannot be classified as such but where there is a low state of vitality, the iron, phosphorus, and potassium act as the builders, and it is these which help to replace the waste tissues and restore the vital forces. Unless we bring about this reconstruction we shall be unable to establish equilibrium, and a normal, healthy virile state will be impossible.

People almost universally have accepted the opinion that tuberculosis is a germ disease, instead of what it actually is: a gradual breaking down of the tissues and resistant powers due in great part to an unbalance in the organic mineral elements, and the localizing of one or more of these elements in some particular part of the body which becomes the affected, or tubercular area. They do not as yet understand that when the system is fortified by an abundance of vital force, and a sufficient amount of balanced food consumed so that it may supply the system with all the required elements, then no amount of germs of any kind will be sufficiently potent to gain an entrance or develop a diseased condition.

Neither germs nor bacteria are the actual primary cause in bringing about disease. On the contrary, it is a low state of vitality which permits the resisting forces, the white-corpuscle army in the blood, to become so weak that the bacterial life, which in health is natural, becomes virulent, an enemy which invades the system and through the manufacture of an essence native to the germs when they increase beyond a certain proportion in a given area, creates a diseased condition. In the animal body of both man and brute, there is always, or should be, an army of millions of valiant soldiers ever ready to battle against any enemy which attempts an invasion, and if these soldiers, who work by day and night, are kept supplied with a sufficiency of active organic elements, no disease can possibly become established in the body. This fact has been illustrated time and again when men and women who labored continually in the midst of those stricken by plagues, themselves remain unaffected.

Let us clearly recognize the fact that the enemy is always at hand and ready for the invasion. Examine the throat of any healthy man, woman, or child and you will find the germs of some virulent disease. Nothing is thought of this so long as there is neither irritation or soreness of the throat; it is actually a normal state because these germs act as scavengers while the system remains in a state of balance. But the moment the vital forces fall below a certain stage, the instant the army of white corpuscles become weakened due to the lack of one of the important life-giving elements essential to their vitality, then these scavengers increase rapidly, change from a non-active to a virulent type, invade the system and a diseased state exists. In other words, the enemy who is an obedient, willing slave while the master is strong, becomes the invader and conqueror when that master permits himself to lower his vitality. It is forever a certainty that "to the strong belong the spoils."

Contrary to the general supposition, it is not at all difficult to give the system an abundant supply of phosphorus, iron, calcium potassium, and other elements. All that is required is that we compose our menu of normal, natural, complete food substances, and refuse to partake, except in emergencies, of such as have been robbed of their vitalizing principles.

Every time we buy white bread, buns, sweet cakes, whenever we accept polished rice, pearled barley, and denatured corn meal, we act the part of traitor to his great army of soldiers which is constantly on the alert to protect us and ready to fight any invaders. They ask for bread and we offer them a stone and expect them to maintain their strength and efficiency. We give them a pasty starch when they ask for, and actually need, foods that contain phosphorus, iron, sodium, calcium, and thirteen other essential elements through which they maintain their life and energy. Every time the housewife or cook boils a vegetable and then drains off the water in which it was boiled, she wastes the actual food which these soldiers must have if they are to continue their fight to keep us balanced, in health and strength, and free from the fear of an invading army. When potatoes are peeled and these peelings thrown away or fed to the hogs or fowls, it is the hogs and fowls which benefit while these armies of ours are deprived. Because of this folly they - and we - are starved, while the health of the flock is maintained. When we boil milk and eggs, we coagulate the albumen and destroy the vitamins, again robbing the army of workers of the material which supply them the vital forces to keep them efficient.

In feeding hogs on brewer's grain and other offal, instead of sour milk and whole grains, we perpetuate a robbery on mankind, because we then sell these hogs as food when in fact they are not fit for human consumption though free from discoverable disease, most of the necessary food elements being entirely lacking in the meat.

When we remove the skin from the apple, the pear and other fruits of this type and discard it as unfit for us to eat, we contradict Nature who knows how to manufacture that which is natural, and we rob ourselves of active food elements which are essential to our health and vital energy.

The chemist who would macerate an herb, filter it after its active principles had been withdrawn, and then throw away the tincture, keeping the dregs to be used as medicine, would be considered an idiot if not worse. But throughout the world, countless housewives, manufacturers, and others are constantly doing this very thing to vegetables, fruits, and all kinds of foods, and we accept them as good mothers, splendid housewives, and expert chefs. How reasonable the mind of man can be in some respects!
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