Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Comment – All fruit are good in all seasons.

Score – Unverified

Why 159 – Food for Different seasons (What 145)

Moist fruits are best in summer and should not be eaten in winter.

Page 181-946 - "summer, when strong acids and much liquid are needed to counteract the tendency of the system to morbid thirst and incipient putrescence, as the currant, melon, and cucumber. But these last would be equally unadapted to the wants of the system, or the demands of the season, in the month of June."

Comment – A drink of water with a dry fruit in summer is just as good. Acid fruits have nothing to do with quenching thirst.

Score – Unverified

What 146 – Temperament

People of different temperament need different foods.

Page 182-950 - "Some regard must always be had to the temperament and habits of an individual.

Score – Unverified

Why 160 – Temperament (What 146)

Bilious or dyspeptic people should eat sour fruits and not sweet.

Page 182-950 - "Thus, the man of bilious temperament and dyspeptic habits must avoid eating too freely of the sweet fruits; for, owing to his debilitate digestion system, they will be apt either to irritate, or to run into acidity. Currants, and other sour but agreeable fruits, will suit his stomach, surprisingly as it may seem, better than sweet ones. So, too, of the extremely nervous person."

Score – Unverified

What 147 – Cold Food

It is dangerous to eat food below 50 degrees.

Page 340-1781 - "But if the food is at 50 degrees, or even below, as often happens, and is swallowed rapidly, the stomach is enfeebled"

Comment – It is only when there is a risk of hypothermia, that cold food or drink is a danger.

Score – Unverified

Why 161 – Cold Food (What 147) Eating cold food withdraws vital energies.

Page 340-1781 - "there will be chilliness afterwards." (1782) - "a call has been made on the rest of the system for help; which, by withdrawing vital energies from parts which had none to spare, has left them cold."

Comment – The eating of cold foods produces a need for more body heat, but unless there is a risk of hypothermia the body provides this heat without health risk.

Score – Unverified

Page 391-2050 - "A large quantity of heated food or drink, in the simplest form, if thrown suddenly into the stomach,” (is not good in the long term.)

Score – Unverified

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Why 162 – Hot Foods and Drink (What 148) Eating hot food drains the vital forces from the brain.

Page 391-2050 – (Hot food or Drink) "may produce some degree of exhilaration, by its effects on the brain,” (2053) - "A thousand daily errors, in civic life, have their origin in mistaken notions connected with the obvious fact that indulgences in eating and drinking give immediate strength. ....

Sudden power is derived from nervous influences; and this influence is obtained by a sudden draught upon the brain." (which drains the vital forces.)

Score - Unverified

VIII. USE OF WATER

What 149 – Thirst (W 67) (R 16) G 94 C 64 (J 76)

Drink little and chew dry bread to quench thirst.

Page 127-666 - "a piece of dry bread, well chewed, will often quench thirst better than any liquid, even water."

Page 187-975 - "Always drink before you are dry, and you will never be dry," said the half idiot."

Score - Unverified

Why 163 – Thirst (What 149)

It is eating wrong foods that causes thirst and not a need for water.

Page 190-985 - "Thirst may be natural, or it may be morbid, that is, diseased. In the present state of things and dietetic art, it is for the most part morbid. Natural thirst like natural appetite for food, is believed to have died out long ago."

Page 190-990 - "we continue to get many hot and irritating things (from our food) into our bloodvessels. In truth, they go all over us, and produce heat and dryness, and a sensation like thirst. Indeed we call it thirst. But it is morbid or diseased thirst."

Score – Unverified

Why 164 – No Water (What 149)

Eating only dry food restores the centrifugal tendencies that are needed for health.

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

Score – Unverified

Why 165 – Some Water (What 149)

As the hand is shaped to hold some water then we are designed to drink a little water.

Page 30-163 - "By a slight effort, as you know, it (the hand) may be so shaped, that we may bring with it to our mouths several ounces of fluid. Dr Lambe of London, who held that man was not a drinking animal, because, in a pure state of nature, he could not obtain drink, must have forgotten the hand!"

Score - Unverified

Why 166 – Cool Water (What 149)

Drinking cold water causes thirst and can cause sudden death if we are hot.

Page 191-996 - "When we use it (water) very cold, and in large quantities, and rapidly, we abstract too much heat from the stomach, and in many instances produce thirst;”

Appendix 4 - The Laws of Health

William A Alcott

Page 192-997 - "Men have died, almost instantly, from this use of cold water, while they were heated."

Score – Unverified

Food provides nearly all the water we need so we rarely need to drink

Page 190-989 - "Our food indeed continues to furnish it (water) as before; but sometimes the supply falls a little short, and a sensation is then felt in the mouth and throat, which we call thirst..... we should drink at no other time."

Comment – He has not taken the extreme view of Graham that we should drink no water, but he takes a very similar view of having very little water.

Score – Unverified

Page 191-995 - "Water is not only the best drink God has made, ..... but the only drink.

Page 194-1009 - "All these mixed drinks are unhealthy, if we except lemonade and coffee made from bread and other simple or farinaceous substances."

Score – Significant

Why 167 – Only Water (What 151)

Other drinks do not quench the thirst, in fact in the long run, they make it worse.

Page 191-994 - "In fact, no other drink can supply its place. When natural thirst exists, and we swallow wine, cider, beer, tea, coffee, etc., it is the water alone which these articles contain which is absorbed into the blood, and which quenches our thirst. The other ingredients ... do not aid the work, but rather impede it."

Page 192-1000 - "Fermented drinks, .... may and do, for a time, extinguish thirst; though they increase it in the end."

Page 193-1005 - "Soda water ... quenches thirst, for the time; but sometimes increases it in the end." Comment – This is true. Alcohol and caffeine, both diuretics, can increase thirst.

Score - Verified

What 152 – Rate of Drinking

If we drink water, it should be drunk slowly and not cooled.

Page 191-996 “we should drink slowly (and small quantities) and our water should not be cold."

Score – Unverified

Page 221-1144 - "hard water, by which is meant water holding in solution salts and other substances of various kinds, such as carbonate of lime, phosphate of lime, etc., (is a health hazard.)

Score – Minor

Why 168 – Hard Water (What 153)

Hard water irritates the blood vessels and the heart.

Page 221-1144 – “Water, pure and soft, does not irritate the vessels into which it is absorbed, nor the heart into which it is carried. (In contrast to drinking hard water.)"

Painting water containers with lead paint is dangerous.

Page 162-847 - "Newly painted wooden pails, such as are often used in our families, sometimes give us trouble. .... It seems to me desirable that in painting these pails some material should be used which is less dangerous than lead."

Score - Significant

What 155 - Copper Poisoning

Copper pots are dangerous to use.

Page 163-851 - "Sauce-pans, such as are made of copper and brass, if not well tinned, and kept very clean, are liable to the formation of verdigris, whenever wine, cider, vinegar, oil, or juices of fruit, are put in them. I have not a doubt that many a severe bowel complaint has originated in this very way."

Score - Minor

Page 310-1621 - "The necessity of daily bathing has of late years been opposed.”

Score – Significant

Why 169– Metabolism (What 156)

Metabolism, the burning of carbon in the presence of oxygen, mainly occurs in the skin and lungs. Page 293-1525 – “Now, one way in which the skin aids the lungs, in their work of renewing the blood and keeping it pure, is by burning up, as the chemists say, a part of its superfluous carbon. In other words, it constantly uses up or absorbs oxygen, and at the same time eliminates or throws off carbon.”

Page 293-1529 – “the skin, in addition to the performance of its own work, is sometimes compelled to work for other parts, as it were, - for the lungs, or for the kidneys.”

Comment – He considered that metabolism or heat production can only occur where air comes in contact with the body, such as the lungs and skin.

Score – Unverified

Why 170 – Perspiration (What 156)

Perspiration is excretion of the breakdown particles of the body.

Page 293-1527 – “But the skin accomplishes its great work of depurating or purifying the body, chiefly by the power it exerts of taking out dead and dying particles - so to call them - from the vessels in which they are contained, and working them up into a new fluid, commonly called the matter, or fluid, of perspiration.”

Score – Unverified

Why 171 – Centrifugal Tendency (What 156)

In health there are centrifugal tendencies which bring waste matter to the surface and remove it in sweat from the skin, the kidneys and the lungs.

Page 63-330 – “Now, in order to health, there must be, in the living system, a steady centrifugal tendency. I speak, here, not only of the great work of perspiration, which is performed by the skin,