VALUE OF GRAPES AS A FOOD.
By Daniel H. Kress
THE peach season is now about ended. During the excessively hot weather the human system especially needs and craves the pure liquid and the mild acids found in this fruit. As the weather becomes cooler, more sugar—the heat- and force-producing element—is needed. God, who supplies all our needs, has made provision for this need in giving us grapes, pears, apples, figs, dates, etc. During the months of October, November, and December, grapes can be obtained at a nominal price, so even the poor need not be deprived of this luxury. In some parts of the world there are established what are known as grape-cure institutions. Patients afflicted with various chronic diseases go to these places to receive treatment. This consists mostly of the free use of grapes—grapes for breakfast, grapes for dinner, grapes for supper—nothing but grapes. It has been found that many so-called incurable diseases readily yield to this simple remedy, and these institutions have received a world-wide reputation. It is not necessary, however, to make a trip to the Old World in order to obtain the benefit of the grape-cure. Like all other blessings, it is not far from every one of us. Every home may become a grape-cure sanitarium. But even a good thing, if wrongly used, becomes a curse. A few hints on how to use grapes may therefore be of help:— 1. Before being placed on the table, grapes should always be well washed, to remove, as far as possible, dust, germs, etc. 2. Do not eat grapes freely after eating a hearty meal of solid foods, or after eating freely of liquids. There is danger of overloading the stomach, thus delaying digestion and favoring fermentation. This finally results in chronic dilatation of the stomach, and makes it unable to do its part in converting the food into good blood. As a rule it is best to eat grapes, if eaten freely, at the close of the meal, or better still, in many cases, fifteen or thirty minutes afterward. 3. The best time to eat grapes, for those who are accustomed to three meals a day, is in the evening. At the evening meal dispense with all other foods, and eat grapes as freely as you please. This will be found an excellent remedy for chronic constipation, from which many suffer. The third meal is frequently the cause of much mischief and suffering. After a hard day's work, either mental or physical, we feel exhausted. This is because the nerve energy which was stored up in the nerve cells during the sleeping hours of the previous night has been exhausted. The great electric battery needs recharging. Nature holds out her signal, suggesting rest and sleep. Instead of heeding the signal, frequently a heavy meal is taken. The nerve energy required to digest the food has been used up, and the food remains undigested, and decays. Poisons are generated. These flood the system, and are responsible for the bad taste in the mouth, the coated tongue, the foul breath, the dull feeling in the head, the horrible dreams, the impatience, and other innumerable ills. What would otherwise have been a blessing has been converted into a curse. By eating grapes, which furnish nutriment in a predigested form ready to be absorbed, and liquids to cleanse out the waste products which were formed during the day, instead of awakening in the morning with all these horrible and disagreeable symptoms, the sleep will be refreshing, the mind clear. Everything will take on a different aspect. Things which before irritated and annoyed will become sweet music. Even the trees of the field will clap their hands.