Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Comment - It is a cause of gum disease, but sugar is the cause of decay.

Score – Verified

Page 104-543 - "If we use drink (with our meals it is a health hazard.)

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Why 120 - Fluid with Meals 1 (What 110)

Fluid with meals damages the salivary glands and the teeth.

Page 104-543 - "If we use drink, little saliva is furnished, and, the salivary glands become indolent, there is a tendency to furnish still less; so that the more we drink with our meals the more we may, and in fact the more we must."

Page 119-624 - "Our food is ...... washed down too frequently, but we defraud the teeth and salivary glands of their just rights, as well as the whole system of the benefits which would result from sympathy with those organs while performing, in a healthful manner, their appropriate functions."

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Why 121 - Fluid with Meals 2 (What 110)

Drinking with meals dilutes the gastric juices and stops digestion.

Page 194-1011 - "But another strong objection to the practice in question (fluid with meals) is, that it dilutes the gastric juices, so as to deprive it of what might be called its intensity. .... but when diluted with any other drink, even water, must it not necessarily fail to accomplish its intended purpose?"

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Why 122 - Fluid with Meals 3 (What 110)

Drinking with meals expends the vital energies of the stomach.

Page 195-1013 - "the vital energies which the stomach receives from the brain ..... the work of chymification is not commenced till a part of the strength of this organ is expended in another direction."

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Why 123 - Fluid with Meals 4 (What 110)

With fluid in our stomach, undigested food passes into the circulation.

Page 195-1014 - "Now, if we pour a quantity of any of our ordinary mixtures into the body to combine with this mass, (the chyme) is there not great danger that, during the work of absorbing its watery parts, some of the gastric juices itself will be carried into the circulation."

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Why 124 – Fluid with Meals 5 (What 110)

Eating dry food restores the centrifugal tendencies that are indispensable to health.

Page 64-332 - "There are several ways and means of doing this. (Restore the centrifugal tendencies) One is from abstaining from the solids and liquids to which we are accustomed; and using nothing but a very little dry food.”

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Page 144-755 - "Has not the saying, "Milk for babes, stronger meat for adults", a foundation in truth and nature."

Comment – Limited use of milk and eggs has been used by vegetarians as a source of vitamin B12. Excessive use of them is a danger due to excess animal fat.

Score – Unverified

What 112 - Milk - Drinking

If milk is drunk, it must be drunk very slowly.

Page 144-754 - "If used (milk) at all by adults in good health, it should be used as children use it. It should be eaten slowly, and with a teaspoon, or drawn through a very small tube. And the bread we eat with it, instead of being broken or cut into it, should be eaten separately."

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Page 171-894 - "eggs .... Cooked at a heat above 165 degrees, the albuminous part becomes coagulated, and is nearly or quite insoluble to the human stomach; but, cooked below that point, it is perfectly soluble. It many be cooked at 160 degrees, as long as is preferred - fifteen minutes or fifty. If not cooked in this precise way, it should be eaten raw."

Comment – The issue is not how cooked the egg is, but how many are eaten. Uncooked eggs carry a risk of infection.

Score - Unverified

Why 125 – Milk & Eggs (What 113)

Digestion of milk and eggs is too easy and thus a health hazard.

Page-142-743 - "When ..... I speak of a substance as being too easy of digestion (eggs and milk), I mean that it does not sufficiently task the organs concerned, to maintain them in the best of health."

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Page 145-758 - "It (the appetite) asks for the worst things - …cheese, ….and the like."

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Why 126 – Cheese 1 (What 114) Cheese contains disease.

Page 161-841 - "Cheese is very often diseased; but what way, has never, I believe, been ascertained."

Comment – Cheese contains saturated fatty acids, but only a little more than milk. The disease content of cheese is no greater than milk.

Score – Unverified

Why 127 – Cheese 2 (What 114)

Arsenic is put into old milk so it will curd.

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Page 162-848 - "Some dairy-women are said to use a little arsenic in their cheese. A quantity equal in bulk to half a pea, when dissolved in milk a little old, gives to the curd formed all the sensible properties of curd of new milk."

Score - Verified

Why 128 – Cheese 3 (What 114)

Old cheese is irritating and even poisonous.

Page 178-928 - "Old or salted butter and old cheese, as we have seen, are irritating, if not poisonous."

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What 115 – Fruit and Children

Children should not eat fruit.

Page 175-915 - "Fruit and milk seem incompatible with each other; children who use milk should have little to do with fruit. The fruit-juices - the wine, as I have called it - are milk of adults."

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What 116 – When to Eat Fruit

Fruit should be eaten in the morning.

Page 180-939 - "Fruits are not so good in the evening as in the early part of the day."

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Page 183-955 - "In this way a world of unripe fruit, so to say, is eaten: and a world of disease and premature death is the consequence."

Page 183-954 - "Now, I do not hesitate to say that much more sickness is caused by these unripe fruits after they are cooked than before."

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What 118 – Mixing Fruit

Do not mix juicy fruits with potatoes or legumes.

Page 182-951 - "The drier, harder, firmer fruits may go well with potatoes, and with peas and beans; but with the very juicy fruits they would not harmonize.

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Page 176-920 - "The nuts, except the chestnut and hazel-nut, may be regarded as belonging to the oily class of productions." (Thus can be eaten.)

Comment - They should be eaten, but because they are high in fat, they should not be eaten excessively. Chestnuts and hazelnuts are not exceptions.

Score – Minor

Why 129 – Nuts (What 119)

Nut are exceedingly hard to digest.

Page 176-920 - "The nuts …. They are, however, exceedingly hard of digestion,"

Comment – Because of high fat they are slower to digest than carbohydrates, but this is not a problem.

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

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What 120 - Rice

Half cooked rice causes disease.

Page 171-893 -"rice, half cooked, produce disease."

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family and individual of a particular neighborhood made sick by eating them."

Score - Minor

Why 130 – Pig (What 121)

Pigs suffer from more disease than other animals.

Page 157-822 - "No animal in general use amongst us, is more frequently a sufferer from disease, especially chronic disease, than the swine."

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Why 131 – Sheep and Cattle (What 121)

Sheep have less disease than pigs and cattle, and stall-fed cattle have more.

Page 159-830 - “The sheep is liable to disease; but not so frequently as swine and cows.” Page 158-827 - "Stall-fed cattle, no less than closely confined swine, are very often diseased.”

Comment – It may be arguably true that “stall-fed animals” have more disease, but there is not significant health difference between pigs, cows and sheep.

Score – Unverified

What 122 – Wild Animals

Wild animals and fish are better to eat than domesticated animal.

Page 159-836 - "What has been said of the diseases of domestic animals, such as are continually used for food among us, is of course inapplicable to the wild animals, the birds, and the fishes." Comment – Wild animals and fish are, as a rule, lower in saturated fats, but wild animals often carry more disease.

Score – Minor

Page 172-899 - "All unnecessary cooking is, .... an abuse. .... It involves a useless waste of health" Comment – In general terms nutrients are better preserved if the food is not cooked, but in the era before there was a knowledge of bacteria, it was safer to eat cooked food.

Score – Unverified