EDUCATE YOUR PATIENT
In beginning treatment each patient should be made acquainted with the fact that the radical change in diet may bring slight discomfort. While the system is adjusting itself to the new regimen, there is usually a slight loss of weight and a feeling of weakness or lassitude.
Curing a slow process
It should be impressed upon the mind of the patient that regaining health and strength is in reality a process of growth or evolution, hence slow and gradual; that when one has violated the laws of health for many years, Nature will not, or probably cannot forgive all these sins and repair all these wrongs in a month or two. However, when one gets in harmony with the physical universe, and conforms to the laws of his organization, Nature will construct (cure) much more rapidly than she formerly destroyed (produced dis-ease).
The patient should agree with the diet
The practitioner may have many cases that for some seemingly mysterious reason will not respond to a perfectly natural diet and will, therefore, be called upon to change the diet from time to time in the vain hope of finding combinations of food that will agree. In these cases the student should not be led to deviate too far from what he knows to be a natural and chemically harmonious regimen. If such a diet does not produce the desired results, it is not always the fault of the food, but the fault of the patient. If the food is right, and does not agree, it is the patient that is wrong, hence the logical thing to do is to make the rebellious patient agree with the food, instead of searching for a food to agree with the patient.
These facts should be impressed strongly upon the mind of the one under treatment, and he should be prevailed upon, if possible, to conform strictly to a correct diet until Nature is given time and opportunity to bring about an adjustment between the individual and his food.
It has been the custom of the medical profession for centuries to shroud its work in mystery, to write prescriptions in a dead language, to keep patients in ignorance of the remedies being applied. This seems to be necessary, probably because an intelligent discussion of allopathic drugs, their sources and their constituent elements would, no doubt, prove fatal to their administration. The food scientist should follow exactly the opposite course. He should make a very careful diagnosis, taking into account the diet, habits of exercise and exposure to fresh air prior to the appearance of the dis-ease, as well as at the time of treatment. By giving the patient a thorough understanding of your work, you gain his confidence and faith, which wield a very powerful influence over the body.