McCarrison showed definitely that foods and combinations of foods which are inadequate and unsatisfactory in feeding animals, are equally as inadequate and unsatisfactory in feeding man. If our foods do not contain enough of the right kinds of mineral salts, we simply starve to death. It does not matter how much "good nourishing food," as this is commonly understood, that we consume, if these salts are not present in sufficient quantities, we suffer from slow starvation, with glandular imbalance or disfunction, lowered "resistance to disease" and other evidences of decay.
In 1914, 4,000 men, engaged in the building of the Medina-Mamora Railway in South America, were killed by acidosis, beri-beri and tuberculosis, induced by an acid-forming diet of meats, white flour, degerminated corn meal, polished rice, tapioca, corn starch, farina, cakes, jellies, jams, glucose, sugar, syrups, lard and canned goods. The project had to be abandoned.
All around the workers in the woods, the monkeys subsisted on the fruits and nuts that grew in abundance. These were strong and healthy and free from the ailments from which the men were dying. The men, however, spurned the monkey food, just as the man in civilization refuses to eat celery, lettuce, etc., and refers to them as grass and fodder. The only members of the above crew of men who remained to tell the story were saved by a diet of acid fruits.
In 1925, twelve convicts in a Mississippi penitentiary volunteered as subjects for a dietetic test. Dr. Goldberger, who made the test, wanted to prove that pellagra is caused by carbohydrate foods. These twelve men were fed on demineralized and degerminated corn products, with the result that they all developed the disease and underwent intense suffering. Some of them even attempted suicide. They were placed on a normal diet with the result that their usual health was soon re-established.
It should be carefully noted that these men were fed on denatured and not natural carbohydrates. It is extremely doubtful if such results would have been obtained if natural carbohydrate foods had been used. Certain it is that it would have required much longer time to have brought about these results. Natural, whole corn is not a perfect food. As an exclusive diet it would in time produce a "deficiency disease."
Twenty to forty days on a white flour and water diet are enough to produce death in a man, from scurvy, after days of torture, bleeding gums, swollen joints, pains and other symptoms. It may be objected that we do not confine ourselves to diets of white flour or of corn and corn products, but eat a variety of foods. Mere variety is not sufficient, as was seen in the foregoing account of the Medina-Marmora railway workers. Another very striking case, which proves that even a varied diet of denatured foods will produce the same effects as those observed to follow a denatured mono-diet occured during the world holocaust of 1914-18.
The German raider, the Crown Prince Wilhelm, after having been upon the high-seas for 255 days and sinking 14 French and British merchantmen, was forced to put into port, at Newport News, because 110 of her crew were stricken with beri-beri. The crew was dropping at the rate of about two a day. The men presented symptoms of weakness, irritability, muscular atrophy, paralysis, dilatation of the heart and pain upon pressure. Their diet had been very similar to that eaten in the average American household. It consisted of fresh meat, white flour products, canned vegetables, potatoes, sweet biscuits, cheese, oleomargarine, tea, coffee and champagne. Much fresh fruit and vegetables and whole wheat had been captured by the raider from the French and English merchantmen, but these had either been sent down to the bottom of the sea or eaten by the officers. Only the "staple" foods were retained for use by the crew. None of the officers developed the condition.
The ships physicians were unable to deal with the situation. So were the American physicians. They did not know the cause of the suffering of these men, nor what to do for them. Except for Alfred W. McCann, all or most of them probably would have perished. He prescribed for them a diet very rich in basic salts, with the result that improvement was immediate and rapid. All protein, sugar, fat and white flour was excluded from the diet. In two weeks the most severe cases were up and the men rapidly regained their health. No drugs were given. How true is Berg's remarks that, "This warship was conquered by the food preserving industry."
It will be asked: Why does not the average individual, eating a diet so similar to that eaten by the Medina-Marmora railway workers and the crew of the German raider, suffer in the same way? The answer is: He does, but not to the same extent, due to the fact that he consumes enough alkaline foods--fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, etc.--to protect him to a great extent. The steady death rate from tuberculosis, the rapid increase in nervous afflictions and degenerative diseases and our constantly lowered resistance to epidemic influences, reveal that we habitually consume too many denatured and acid-forming foods.
It is not enough that we consume even large amounts of the "protective" foods with our denatured acid-formers. This is too much like taking an antidote with the poison. We should cease taking the poison. If we offset the denatured foods with large quantities of base-forming foods, this entails a hardship upon the organs of digestion and elimination.
The lesson is plain. If we desire health, we must cease eating denatured foods. The examples given may be extreme, but conditions all around us prove them not to be exceptional. Almost everyone shows signs of the effects of denatured foods.
"Orthodox" food scientists tell us that we can eat white flour, white sugar, polished rice, etc., and "offset" the deficiencies in these by eating green vegetables and fruits. Leaving out of consideration the evident folly and waste of denaturing these foods and, then, trying to offset their factory-made deficiencies; we are still left with a big problem on our hands--that of finding room in our stomachs to put the necessary amounts of "offsetting" foods to make up the deficiencies; and also that of finding the money with which to buy these foods.
If we ate but small amounts of denatured foods, we might accomplish this. But when we take white flour, white sugar, lard, polished rice, denatured cereal products, pasteurized milk, etc., all of which are denatured, they do not balance, or offset each other. They are all lacking in the same elements. One would have to eat a tub of spinach or cabbage to "offset" the ordinary meal. Even if our diet is half denatured and half natural, the excess in the natural foods will not be sufficient to compensate for the deficiencies in the denatured half. McCann estimated that it would require the expenditure of $40,000,000,000 for "offsetting" foods, to compensate for the losses which our $2,000,000,000 wheat crop of 1919 sustained in converting it into white flour. There is not money enough in the world to buy sufficient offsetting foods, even if we had capacity to consume enough of them. There can be no sensible defense of the denaturing practice.
(From the book "The Hygienic System: Orthotrophy", by Herbert M. Shelton.)
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