p. 044 | Swing for Physical and Spiritual Health

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 9, 1900

Swing for Physical and Spiritual Health

By David Paulson; W. S. Sadler

David Paulson & W. S. Sadler.

Fruit in Health and Disease.

Fruit, on account of its delicate and varied flavors, constitutes a dietetic luxury in health; and becomes, on account of its acids, which tend to inhibit the growth of germs, as well as the readily digestible form in which its food substances are presented, a most useful food in disease. Taking the different fruits as a general class, we may find in them the following substances: sugar, albumen, fat, starch, acids, water, bitter flavors, and indigestible substances.

Sugar.

The acidity of many of the fruits is almost completely disguised by the large amount of sugar which they contain. The sugar of fruit is practically divided between glucose, which is not as sweet as ordinary sugar, and levulose, which is several times sweeter than cane sugar. Honey owes a large per cent of its sweetness to this form of sugar. Peaches, apricots, and plums contain about two per cent of sugar; raspberries and blackberries, contain about four per cent; strawberries, blueberries, currants, and prunes, about six per cent; cherries, from nine to eleven per cent; grapes, fifteen per cent. In green fruits the starch has not yet been changed into sugar, and this largely accounts for their marked acidity.

Albumen.

If fruits contained a larger amount of proteids, they would constitute almost an ideal dietary, but they are very deficient in this important food substance. The majority of fruits contain no proteids at all; and in those which do, with only one or two exceptions, the quantity is less than one per cent. Raisins have two per cent; figs, four per cent; bananas, nearly two per cent. So these are the only fruits upon which it could be considered at all proper to attempt to live permanently. However, it is often advantageous to be able to feed patients several days upon a food that is entirely free from albumen; as, in cases where the stomach needs rest, or in some acute kidney troubles.

Fat.

Fat is another food substance in which the majority of fruits are very deficient. From the fact that nuts and fruits generally grow in such close proximity, and that nuts contain a large per cent of albumen, and are also especially rich in fats, it would seem as if nature had given us a suggestion that they would form an ideal combination, which is a fact well sustained by both careful scientific experiment and human experience. Figs contain a little more than one per cent of fat; strawberries, a small amount; while olives contain about twenty-five per cent. Unfortunately, the ordinary process by which olives are preserved renders them practically indigestible; however, a method has been adopted whereby ripe olives may be secured in a digestible form.

Starch.

Green fruits contain raw starch, just as potatoes or grains do; but, unlike the latter, as the fruit ripens, a digestive process takes place under the influence of the sunlight, changing the starch into sugar, which requires but little digestion to be ready for assimilation. One reason that children become ill as a result of eating green fruit is the quantity of raw starch it contains, which so embarrasses the digestive functions that the germs secure the upper hand, and poisons are formed, which create the severe intestinal disturbances so frequently noticed under such circumstances. The only ripe fruit that seems to contain a little starch is the banana. If unripe fruit is to be used as food, it should be thoroughly cooked, just as is necessary in the case of the potato.

Acids.

The three most common acids that are found in fruit are, first, citric acid, which gives the well-known acid taste to lemons, also found in the lime fruit and sour oranges; second, malic acid, which is more widely distributed, being found in apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, gooseberries, and currants; third, tartaric acid, which is found in its original form in grapes.

Water.

This is the most abundant substance found in fruit, and under ordinary circumstances is as pure as the best distilled water. In tropical countries, where the water is almost continually contaminated with various poisons, this property of fruit becomes of great hygienic value. There are portions of Africa where ninety per cent of the white people die within a few years after arriving, and it has been found that those who absolutely refrain from drinking the water in its contaminated form do not suffer from these frightful ravages of jungle fever. Soldiers in the most fever-laden tropical districts, who have been allowed to live upon a hygienic dietary, and eat the fruits that grow there in such profusion, have ordinarily maintained good health; while their comrades who ate the ordinary military fare, and did not use fruit, were stricken down with fever. Water is the great tissue cleanser, whether applied to the inside or outside of the body. Many who are faithful in keeping the body clean on the outside, do not drink sufficient fluid to properly cleanse the tissues on the inside, which, in some respects, is the more essential. From this point of view, fruit is valuable, containing, as it does, a large amount of water in an absolutely pure condition.

Bitter Flavors.

Green fruit often contains some bitter flavors and an astringent principle—tannic acid. Nature undoubtedly stores this in the fruit as a protection from animals that would otherwise undertake to eat it. This bitter substance is generally found in the rind.

Spiritual Lessons from Bitter Flavors.

It very often happens that many of our most precious experiences come to us with a bitter flavor just beneath the surface. This bitter flavor serves the purpose of protecting these things spiritual from the depredations of those who would in no wise be benefited by them.

Providence has permitted these bitter flavors to appear, in a greater or less degree, in almost every experience that comes to the sincere, struggling Christian. The occasional bitter experience of a Christian's life should not be interpreted as meaning that the life is not worth living; on the other hand, it should be regarded as an evidence within itself of the inestimable sweetness of experiences which lie just beneath the area of those bitter and disappointing trials, more or less of which every Christian must pass through.

Indigestible Portion.

A food could scarcely be perfect unless it contained some indigestible substances to serve as a mechanical stimulus to the alimentary canal. The skins and seeds of fruit are practically indigestible. The skins of most fruits are both waterproof and germ-proof. This is to retain the flavors and juices on the inside, and to prevent the germs from penetrating from the outside. When the outside of fruit is injured, decay sets in very rapidly.

Nutritive Value of Fruits.

From the nutritive point of view, fruits need to be combined with other foods in order to maintain man's natural strength for any length of time; nevertheless, on account of their value in other directions, they should, as far as possible, constitute a regular part of the daily bill of fare. Modern society has established the custom of eating fruit in the morning, a little at noon, and none in the evening, eating, instead, what is supposed to be “light” things for supper, but which are in reality heavy for digestion, heavy for the nerves, heavy for health, and light only on the cook. When supper is eaten at all, fruit is a much more suitable article to constitute the main portion of such a meal, as, on account of its rapid digestion, it does not tend to disturb the night's rest.

Digestibility.

Some fruits are naturally tough and hard, and contain a large amount of woody matter, and so are necessarily more or less difficult of digestion. In fact, the variety of fruits that will keep for a long time, may be generally considered hard to digest. The tough and hard russet apple can always be bought late in the spring, while the mellow, tender apple generally disappears early in the winter. The luscious, delicate pears do not keep so long as the tough, stringy ones, which can be purchased in the markets months after the season is over. The same is true with peaches. Fortunately, nature has so arranged it that there is a variety of fruits coming on the market for a large part of each year, so that it is not necessary to try to live upon fruits that are tough and hard. Strawberries, when not combined with cream and sugar, and when thoroughly washed, so as not to have a large amount of garden germs clinging to them, are very easy of digestion. Nice, ripe peaches are one of the best fruits to give an invalid. The same may be said of ripe grapes and watermelons.

Raw Versus Cooked Fruit.

Those who care for the sick are often puzzled to know in which form it is best to serve fruit, raw or cooked. It is well to remember that fruit which contains no fiber is readily digested, even when it is raw. However, if it contains much fiber, or woody substance, a weak stomach would not be able to disintegrate it, and, in such cases, it would be better to have it cooked. Raw fruit, however, contains a live principle, which is necessarily destroyed in cooking. This can be clearly illustrated by placing, side by side, a raw apple and a baked one. In a few days a luxuriant mold will cover the baked apple, while the raw apple will not be likely to show even the first signs of decay; yet the same germs must have lodged on both. The raw apple contained a live principle, which enabled it to resist the growth of germs, while the baked apple had lost the power of resistance. It is for the same reason that a dead animal decomposes, while a live one does not.

The reason that so many persons nowadays are overwhelmed with germs, is because there are so many walking around who are nearly dead. The perfectly healthy man, like the perfectly healthy fruit, is proof against germs. In the cooked fruit, a live principle has been destroyed, and it does not possess the same disinfecting qualities that it did before. When we wish to use fruit to disinfect an invalid's stomach, so far as possible we should give him raw fruit. Canned fruit frequently contains so much sugar that it becomes an excellent means for encouraging fermentation in weak stomachs. It must not, however, be inferred from this that there are not the same food elements in cooked fruit that there are in the raw. But any food substance that will more readily decay or ferment outside of the body, will be subject to the same process inside the body in cases where there is little or no digestive activity.

Spiritual Lesson.

The power of raw fruit to resist the growth of germs that may lodge upon it, conveys a most beautiful and practical spiritual lesson. The living, growing, acting Christian, in contrast with the one who is backsliding, possesses a power that enables him to go to any place on the face of the earth where God may direct, and at the same time carry with him that power of moral resistance that will enable him effectually to withstand the many darts of the enemy, and prevent the growth in his experience of the various germs of vice and sin, found in the influences with which he, in common with his associates, is surrounded. The growing Christian, the live Christian, is able by the power of the divine life, with which he is so closely connected, to live above the line of moral disaster and spiritual disease.

Copyrighted, 1900, by David Paulson and W. S. Sadler.