The Cause and Cure of Colds

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 Excerpt: ...to care for food. The digestive juices are altered, or entirely absent. One or two days' comparative fast will often assist in averting a severe siege of cold. A more convenient and enjoyable form of fasting would be to subsist for one or two days upon fruit or fruit juices, perhaps with the addition of a little toast. An exclusive fruit diet has all the practical advantages of complete fasting, while it satisfies the appetite and supplies fruit sugar, from which the liver can manufacture glycogen to sustain the white blood corpuscles in their continuous warfare against microbes. When one fasts for a day or two the system undergoes a spring housecleaning. Food is the fuel of the body, and when it is temporarily withheld, nature begins to skirmish around and burn up a lot of refuse and garbage which has been allowed to accumulate in various parts of the body. The presence of these waste products and acid poisons is indirectly concerned in producing colds, and their destruction or removal from the body can but aid in the treatment of common colds. The advantages of a fruit diet in connection with colds may briefly be stated as follows: a. Fresh, unsweetened fruit juices require no digestion; they are all ready for immediate absorption and assimilation; they have been fully and perfectly digested in nature's own laboratory by the powerful rays of sunlight; and since the digestive apparatus is always wholly or partially deranged during an attack of cold, it is evident that fruit and fruit juices constitute an ideal food for the victims of colds. b. Colds frequently result from overeating of protein. Fruits contain practically no protein, and are accordingly a perfectly desirable and safe food in that respect. c. Fasting is altogether desirable in the early stag...