In general it is both convenient and wise to base dietetic corrections on the patients present daily menu. Gradually modify the diet and simplify the life and in so far as possible suggest constructive changes in the daily routine. Give each patient a health education while he is under your care. When one member of the family comes for treatment all other members should benefit in some measure from your sound and constructive professional advice. In many cases it is well to find out which meal means the least to the patient, if he had to go without one meal a day, which would it be? Usually he will specify either breakfast or luncheon. Advise him then to be very strict at that particular meal, taking some cleansing food such as raw fruit or raw fruit juice or if he prefer a raw vegetable salad. This procedure is especially advisable in rather toxic cases at the very outset and before prescribing the remedy.
In very toxic cases the no-breakfast plan may be in order or even a further restriction to one meal a day may sometimes be indicated. As long as excess of intake occurs there is apt to be more or less storage of toxic and waste products taking place in the tissues. Restriction of intake and intervals of real rest from food favor the elimination of stored toxins and the dissolving out of accumulated debris. At first such periods of rest from food will often produce a feeling of gnawing emptiness and a sensation of weakness.
It is well to explain to the patient that these sensation are in no sense due to starvation or to lack of food per se, but to the dissolving out of stored poisons from the tissues and the consequent circulation of the free toxic products through the blood and lymph channels pending their elimination from the body. The effects of fasting on the appearance of the tongue and the odor of the breath are frequently observed but seldom understood. A patient may be toxic in the extreme though his tongue may be clean and his breath inoffensive. Now place him on a short fast and follow it up with a cleansing dietetic routine and his tongue may become heavily and foully coated and his breath offensive to the last degree.
What is the explanation of this phenomenon? Simply this elimination of toxic substances from the tissues through the mucosa of the tongue, throat, oesophagus, stomach and intestines. The action is favourable if not too rapid and intense and the patient is to be congratulated and encouraged to keep up the good work. Failure to properly cleanse the interior of the body and to keep it clean is one of the great reasons for our failure to really cure a respectable percentage of our chronic cases.
There are many ways to proceed in the correction of the diet. Let each physician read widely and study deeply and gradually build his own philosophy on sane, sound principles. It will be necessary to guard against routinism in prescribing diet as in prescribing medicine. The routine way is the easy way for the physician but it is only occasionally and accidentally the best that can be done for the patient. Individualize the remedy, individualize the diet. Fit the treatment to the patient and not the patient to the treatment.
Another diet modification that often proves highly beneficial in selected cases is to prescribe a mono-diet meal once or twice a day reserving the mixed diet for dinner or supper-whichever is the hearty meal. a mono-diet meal is simply one food or one correct food combination. The great advantage of a mono-diet meal is that food incompatibilities are thus easily avoided and disagreement is nearly always prevented.
Certain steps can be gradually prescribed in the correction of the diet and can be easily carried out. Let each step be in the direction of simplicity and more natural foods and habits of eating and if possible let each step be toward the correction of vitamin and mineral salt deficiencies if any such are found to exist. Do not attempt to do too much at once unless a very threatening condition is present when radical measures may be in order. For example in case of extreme cardio-renal hypertension where uraemia or cerebral haemorrhage is a grave possibility proceed as in an acute illness. Stop all food, giving only water with perhaps occasionally a little lemon or lime juice. Rest in bed and one or two enemas a day may also be required. In less urgent cases of this type prescribe a fairly strict cleansing diet and advise out-of-doors exercise carefully avoiding over- exertion and over-exposure to the sun until the hypertension is definitely relieved.
The following steps in diet correction and simplification may prove both helpful and suggestive in the management of the average chronic case. These modifications on the daily menus submitted by the patient for the physicians inspection and advice.
1. Insure sufficient alkalinity in the diet by limiting the intake of highly acid forming foods such as tea, coffee, cocoa, meat, fish, eggs, cheese, etc.; substituting such basic and alkaline foods as fresh raw fruits, raw vegetable salads and in selected cases fresh, raw, unpasteurized milk.
2. Eliminate from the dietary all unnatural, patented, processed and manipulated articles such as the numerous breakfast foods, most of which are demineralized and devitalized to a serious degree.
3. In place of white sugar, white flour and polished rice prescribe natural brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, whole wheat flour products and natural brown rice.
4. Advise against the over-seasoning of food. Particularly restrict the use of vinegar and hot sauces, strong spices and condiments. Restriction of these stimulating and irritating substances is of decided importance not only in cases of hyperacidity and gastro-intestinal conditions generally, but also in case of nervous origin-functional neurosis, hysteria, etc. Advise against the use of iodized and so-called free running salt as these contain injurious chemical that may possibly interfere with the recovery process and the curative action of the indicated remedy. Plain bag salt may be allowed in extreme moderation although vegetable salt and celery salt are much to be preferred. Lemon and lime juice are healthful substitutes for vinegar. A well balanced normal, natural diet contains all necessary flavoring substances. Seasoning is largely a question of habit and perversion of the appetite.
5. Prohibit the use of soft drinks and artificial beverages of all kinds, including all intoxicating liquors, many of which are insidiously violent in their effect on the body chemistry. Pure water, orange juice, fresh unsweetened lemon or limeade and pure, fresh, unpasteurized apple cider are all real health drinks provided no preservatives have been added.
6. Where there is an inordinate desire for sweets, we will, of course, expect the homoeopathic remedy to correct the abnormal craving to some extent, but the habit factor cannot be ignored and medicinal action may be hindered as long as such a pronounced dietetic error remains uncorrected. Unsulphured dates, figs, raisins and sun-dried fruits may be allowed in moderation as healthful substitutes for candy.
7. Correct the habit of eating and picking between meals. Nothing should be taken between meals or at bedtime with the possible exception of raw fruit.
8. Instruct the patient to avoid eating when there is no appetite or relish for food, and if for any reason a meal is omitted there is seldom any need to make up the deficiency.
9. Drinking at meal time is largely a habit and is wholly unnecessary, although not perhaps harmful. The obese patient will do well to restrict liquids at meal time.
10. Advise a small variety of foods at any one meal but a large variety over the period of a week, and a vast variety of natural foods in a months time so that there may be no possible vitamin, mineral salt or chemical deficiency.
11. Restrict or eliminate for the most part the use of canned, bottled and preserved foods. Home canned fruits where natural brown sugar has been used for sweetening may be allowed. Canned tomatoes retain their vitamins better than most other vegetables and fruits and are often to be preferred to the hot-house product. encourage, is so far as possible the use of fresh natural foods.
12. Many patients will respond immediately when the diet is corrected along the lines of food compatibility. These rules are as follows:.
a Proteins (meat, eggs, fish, cheese, etc.) can be combined with raw fruits, raw or cooked non-starchy vegetables and with fats and nuts. (Proteins should not be combined with starches or sweets.
B. Starches can be combined with sweets, non-starchy vegetables and with fats. (Starches and sweets should not be combined with acid fruits or with proteins).
C. All non-starchy vegetables can be combined with either starches and sweets or with proteins, fats and nuts.
Starches require alkaline conditions for proper digestion. Proteins require acid conditions. Theoretically the two types of food will not digest at the same time and fermentation results. This is a sorely mooted point among authorities on dietetics. In This is a sorely mooted point among authorities on dietetics. In some cases it does not seem to matter but in cases of ulcer of the stomach and hyperchlorhydria the observance of correct food combinations according to these simple rules may become of extreme importance. Patients suffering from intestinal fermentation and flatulence will do well to carefully observe this principle of food compatibility.
Eugene passed away at his country home on Spring Hill, Tuscarora Township, Bradford County, PA. He had been in ill health for several months. His wife, the former Caroline Davis, whom he had married in Philadelphia in 1910, had passed away in 1961. They spent most of their marriage lives in Swarthmore, PA.
Dr. Underhill was a member of the United Lodge of Theosophy, a member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, and the Pennsylvania Medical Society. He was also the editor of the Homœopathic Recorder.