Conquered, but Not by Cannon or Submarines — Lived on the Fat of the Land, and Went Down
By DAVID PAULSON, M.D.
Medical Superintendent Hinsdale Sanitarium, Hinsdale, Illinois
Of all the terrible things that have happened in this European war, there is one experience that is wonderfully illuminating and instructive.
Last August, the German cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm started out on her campaign to destroy her enemies’ ships. During the two hundred fifty-five days that she was on the ocean, she sank fourteen vessels. Each time, she helped herself to the best meat, the canned vegetables, the richest food, the sweet cakes, and other “goodies” that were on board these ships. It must have seemed a pity to those German sailors, accustomed to comparatively simple rations, to let all this “good food” go to the bottom of the ocean, when they might just as well have it.
LIVED ON THE FAT OF THE LAND
As a consequence, the five hundred men on the Kronprinz Wilhelm “lived on the fat of the land” as they never had before. They took on board enough meat supplies to furnish each man three full pounds every day, to say nothing of all the “rich food.” They certainly had what too many people yet consider a “strengthening diet.”
Dr. Gray, discussing this incident, in connection with the theory that well-fed men make alert and hard-fighting men, has suggested that these men were well fed continuously. Yet what was the consequence? — Ere long, this German cruiser, carrying what had been some of the most magnificent specimens of physical manhood, was compelled to put in at an American port, not because of cannon or submarines, but for the same reason many people who live in a similar way on land have to “put in” at some hospital .
Beriberi, a disease that never occurs except when the diet is all wrong, broke out among them, and one hundred and ten soon contracted the malady. Dr. Gray said: “Some of her crew began to complain of swollen ankles; some fancied insects were crawling over their skin, or they experienced peculiar fibrillar twitchings of certain muscles; some had pains in the nerves of the legs; and still others had very curious disturbances of vision, hearing, taste, smell, and memory.” In short, they were suffering from too much acid in the blood, and it was beginning to eat up their nerves and destroy their health generally.
And the same cause is destroying the health of many on land, but there it is considered “a dispensation of Providence.” Dr. Gray, speaking of this, says: “It is this same unbalanced ration that is working havoc in our American homes. . . . For every case among the five hundred men on that ship, there are thousands of individuals in the same condition in every state in the Union. Why should there not be when the dietetic conditions are practically identical?”
The kind of food that those German sailors gorged themselves with, is precisely the diet that is used by people who are “living high” to-day, and more and more people are aspiring to live in such style.
SEEING THE EXPERIMENT REPEATED
While attending the great International Congress of Hygiene in Washington, D. C., a friend of mine invited me to dine with him at the splendid New Willard Hotel in that city. At the tables all around me were brilliant men and women who ranked high in society and in the affairs of the nation.2
I observed the waiters bringing to these diners enormous trays of food, of the same kind that so promptly proved the undoing of those five hundred husky, substantial German sailors. I saw men whose work was chiefly if not altogether mental, eating pieces of meat larger than my two fists. In addition, there were lobsters, oysters, bacon, and sausage. In fact, the meal consisted largely of protein, with little or no vegetables, fruit, and such other things as would have furnished alkali to offset the acid that was bound to result from all this high proteid diet.
Then I understood the significance of Senator Tillman’s words, spoken in the Senate chamber, when he pleaded to have the smoking of tobacco discontinued because of the discomfort it brought to him. He said that since he was elected to his high office, twenty-four senators and one vice president of the United States had died; that they had killed themselves by the way they had lived. These men in Washington broke down for the same reason the German sailors did.
It is just such habits that make most of the doctors’ business—that bring on the ever-increasing flood of Bright’s disease, heart disease, apoplexy, neurasthenia, and cancer. The patients expect the doctors to cure them without reforming them; but it cannot be done so long as the Bible declares, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Gal. 6: 7.
DIETETIC FASHIONS
Dr. Lusk, the eminent physiologist of Cornell University, says: “There is little doubt that excessive consumption of meat constitutes a grave and unnecessary economic waste. It is a part of the spirit that demands the motor car, the luxuries of life, as well as its necessities.” For the same reason that the poor man covets the rich man’s automobile, he also wants the rich man’s diet, and consequently the rich man’s diseases are on the increase.
I heard Max Rubner, perhaps the world’s greatest dietetic authority, say, at the International Congress of Hygiene, that they were facing a great crisis in Germany, because the sturdy country people who had always been compelled to live on a diet that was largely vegetarian, and had been satisfied to do so, were no longer content to live as their forefathers did. They were adopting the dietetic habits of the city people; and as a consequence, the health of the German peasantry was deteriorating. Because of similar dietetic habits, chronic diseases are increasing by leaps and bounds in this country.
HOW WE SPOIL GOOD FOOD
In order to produce the superfine flour out of which we make our beautiful white bread, the miller robs every bushel of wheat of fifteen pounds of absolutely essential mineral matter. The young wheat sprout requires everything that God has put in the kernel of wheat. So do we. And we sacrifice health for looks in our diet, just as many are doing in the way they dress, in order to be in style.
The covering of grains contains not only valuable mineral matter, but those mysterious “vitamines” which the body must secure from some portions of the food, or ill health is as certain to develop, as night follows day.
Tibbles, the English dietetic authority, suggests that when a man is fed a long time on rice, corn, white bread, pickled meat, and canned foods, certain diseases develop. That is because these grains are robbed of their coverings, which contain the vitamins. In the canned foods, they have been destroyed by high temperatures; and no amount of “drops” that any doctor can administer, can replace them in the human system.
Who has not seen a child in perfect health when it left its mother’s breast, become pale and anæmic, develop rickets, and then perhaps introduced to a long and persistent course of worse than useless drugging after living a year or more on fine flour preparations, rich pastry, meats, canned foods, and condensed milk, when it should have had whole flour preparations, unpolished rice, some simple fruits and vegetables, and, if possible, plenty of good, clean, unsterilized milk?
Dr. Woodruff has suggested what many of us are beginning to believe,—that a diet deficient in vitamins may render us more susceptible to all infectious diseases; and evidence is accumulating that children who are fed on a natural, wholesome diet are much less liable to contract the so-called children’s diseases.
Dr. Evans, formerly health commissioner of the city of Chicago, mentions the following dietetic indiscretions as among the leading causes for pellagra: too much corn bread, too much “sow belly,” too much molasses too much plum pie, too little fresh vegetables, fruit, and milk.
Lard is a deficient fat. Recent experiments made by Professor Mendel of Yale University, show that while lard can keep rats alive, they cannot grow on it, but they resume their growth promptly when furnished either butter fat or the fat in eggs. So lard cannot take the place of butter.
WOULD WE RENEW OUR HEALTH?
It is becoming increasingly evident that if we want to renew our health, we must reform our diet — return to the simple products that God originally provided for Adam. Gen. 1: 29. And we should eat these in moderation, with a clear conscience and a heart thankful to God for His abundant blessings. We should each day, if possible, use some articles of food that have not been subjected to either baking or cooking heat, such as raw fruits and green garden stuff, so that we may not fail to secure the necessary vitamins that these always contain.
These foods, on account of their bulk, also serve a valuable purpose in stimulating the activity of the sluggish alimentary canal, thus helping to prevent auto-intoxication, which is the cause of so many of our ills. We should also use more freely such cooked vegetables as potatoes, carrots, and their like, because they provide our blood with important mineral salts, which Nature uses to neutralize the natural acid poisons that are constantly manufactured within us.
We should also help to develop a more general demand for grain preparations that have not been partially robbed of their most essential elements by modern milling processes, such as genuine, old-fashioned graham flour and unpolished rice.
And then, last but not least, we should more heartily accept as a part of our daily program that brand of Christianity which will lead us to eat and drink to the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10: 31.
