CHAPTER XXIX.

DIET FOR INDIGESTION.

Indigestion is a symptom of a functional disturbance or is due to a local disease in some portion of the digestive apparatus. Therefore diet must be adapted to the sensibility of the stomach and bowels, to gastric and intestinal secretions, mobility, absorption and elimination, to the abnormal increased feeling of hunger or to the absence of the sensation of hunger.

The food should be of easy solubility and offer slight resistance to the digestive juices. It should not mechanically or chemically irritate or impede intestinal peristalsis. It should not increase fermentation or putrefaction and the greater portion of it should be absorbed.

The object of diet is not to eat less food than usual but to secure more nourishment until the proper quant.i.ty is consumed each day. The restriction of foods does not mean limitation. Regular hours for meals should be religiously observed by sufferers from indigestion. The food should be thoroughly masticated. Good judgment should be used by each individual in selecting and preparing the foodstuffs; also in the amount taken at each meal, and the proper length of time to continue the diet.

You may take:

_Soup_--in moderate quant.i.ty: Doxsee's clam juice, and little neck clams; cream of peas, etc.; vermicelli; tapioca; tomato; clear soups of chicken, beef, mutton.

_Fish_: trout; ba.s.s; perch; shad; weakfish; whitefish; smelts; raw oysters.

_Meat_: roasted or boiled beef; mutton; venison; calf s head; tongue; sweetbread; lamb chops; squab; roasted partridge; pigeon; calf's-foot jelly; Armour & Co.'s Vigoral; Valentine's or Wyeth's beef juice, or Wiel's beef jelly.

_Eggs_: raw; soft-boiled; poached; omelette; eggs on toast.

_Bread_--all over a day old: brown; graham; gluten; rye; zwieback; crackers; cracked wheat; corn meal; hominy; wheaten and graham grits; rolled rye and oats; granose; cerealin; macaroni with toasted bread-crumbs; farina, boiled with milk; Milkine; Horlick's or Mellin's food.

_Vegetables_: spinach; green peas; greens; lettuce; watercress; sweet corn; asparagus; celery; artichokes; baked tomatoes; cauliflower.

_Dessert_: baked, roasted or stewed apples; stewed pears or peaches; baked bananas; grapes; oranges; and most ripe fruits, if fresh.

_Beverages_: hot, cool or cold water an hour before meals. Drink freely of the same during meal-time, but not to wash down food.

Drink also: cereal coffee; b.u.t.termilk; koumiss; fresh cider; bouillon.

_Avoid_: coffee; tea; milk; ice-water; cocoa; chocolate; malt liquors; spirituous liquors; sweet and effervescent wines; sugar; candies; foods containing much starch; rich soups; sauces and chowders; all fried foods; hot or fresh bread; griddle-cakes; doughnuts; veal; pork; liver; kidney; hashes; stews; pickled, canned, preserved and potted meats; turkey; goose; duck; sausage; salmon; salt mackerel; cabbage; radishes; cuc.u.mbers; cole-slaw; turnips: potatoes; beets; pastry; jellies; jams; nuts.

CHAPTER x.x.x.

DIET FOR CONSTIPATION AND OBSTIPATION.

Diet is too often a makeshift for ignorance, or it may be an aid until the cause of indigestion is removed; or if not curable, a compromise effected on the best possible terms for continued existence. We have found out the almost universal cause for constipation, obstipation and costiveness; therefore until you can have the proper local treatment we suggest the following foodstuffs, trusting to the sufferer's judgment how much and how often to take the nourishment.

Coa.r.s.e foods, stimulants and laxatives unduly excite the bowels. Avoid them if possible. Be regular in your habits as to meal-times; eat three times daily, and about an equal amount at each meal.

You may take:

_Soup_: all kinds of meat and vegetable soup; broth; bouillon.

Reliable preparations of beef juice, jelly, etc.

_Fish_: all kinds, broiled or baked; raw oysters; Doxsee's clam preparations.

_Meat_: boiled or roasted; poultry; game, etc.

_Bread_: graham; brown; whole wheat; corn; rye; ginger; shredded-wheat biscuit.

_Cereals_: wheaten grits; wheatena; granose; oatmeal porridge; Milkine; Horlick's and Mellin's food.

_Vegetables_: cauliflower; spinach; beans; asparagus; carrots; onions; Brussels sprouts; tomatoes; peas; celery; cabbage.

Vegetables should be especially well cooked to render them soft and easy of digestion.

_Salads_: may be eaten if dressed with a generous supply of olive oil.

_Dessert_: oranges; melons; prunes; tamarinds; figs; apples (raw or baked); pears; plums; peaches; cherries; raisins; stewed fruit; honey; blackberries; strawberries; huckleberries; bananas.

Some may find it advantageous to eat fruit before or between meals.

_Beverages_: water--pure spring water preferably; if this cannot be had, get, if possible, distilled water that has been aerated; b.u.t.termilk; fresh cider; beer; ale.

Mineral waters like Hunyadi, etc., irritate the cause of constipation (proct.i.tis) in a way similar to cathartic remedies.

Drink a tumbler or more of hot or cold water an hour before meals--preferably hot water. If the hot water be distasteful add a little salt. Drink freely of water about the temperature of 60 during the meals, but not for the purpose of emptying the mouth of food.

On retiring at night and rising in the morning sip slowly from a quarter to half pint of water (hot or cold). In the morning be sure to rinse the mouth free of the acc.u.mulated mucus before drinking the water.

The use of tea, chocolate, coffee and alcoholic drinks is so abused by those even who consider themselves temperate in their habits, that I recommend these beverages as remedies only in certain conditions of the system.

About four pints of pure water (_i.e._, free from all salts or other foreign ingredients) should be imbibed in twenty-four hours.

_Avoid_: sweets; pastry of all kinds; puddings; rice; milk; cheese; new bread; nuts; fried foods; rich gravies; farina and sago puddings; salt meats; salt fish; veal; goose; liver; hard-boiled eggs; pork; tea; tobacco; spirituous liquors; uncooked strawberries and huckleberries. Avoid also tomatoes and peaches when not fresh, as the acid generated by keeping them a few days is very irritating to an already inflamed bowel.

Avoid substances that would inflame the tissues or cause congestion of any organ of the body. If the tongue be coated avoid sugar, starchy foods and fresh milk.

CHAPTER x.x.xI.

COSTIVENESS, DIET, ETC.

Take anything in the way of food which the unconsciously starved person can eat without the stomach and intestines protesting too much; any of the foods recommended for constipation, indigestion, diarrhea; and take yet more food if by so doing there is a gain in flesh, after exercising much patience as to time.

Irrigate the system by imbibing freely of hot and cold water at various periods of the day. Good red wine mixed with the water drunk at meal-time may serve a good purpose in helping to enrich the blood.

Keep the pores of the skin open by bathing; and all the functions of the body active by exercise, ma.s.sage, pure air, sunlight, rest, sleep and seasonable clothing.

The large intestines should be kept clean by proper amounts of water injected into them. The local cause of all the trouble should be treated by a competent physician.

And with all the efforts, continue the treatment long enough to accomplish some good and then a much longer time to get well. Do not give up treatment under which you have improved if it requires one, two or three years to accomplish what you have so well started out to do.