“None of us like it.”
“Have you ever given him cracked wheat?”
“I never heard of it.”
“Send and get a package. I will show you how to cook it, and we will lunch upon it.”
Charlie ate of it, not freely, for his lunch and supper. The following day he had two natural, easy evacuations. I counseled her to give him less meat and cake, have him eat the wheat at least once a day, and partake of more fruit. Months afterward she reported no return of the constipation. Oftentimes it is the simplest things that are the most effectual.
Feast on fruits! Would that this could be a motto upon the wall of every dining room in the land! Next to the whole of the wheat, fruit is the best laxative to the bowels.
Dr. Jackson says: “I advise the use of fruit in the morning if taken only once a day; but I heartily approve of its forming a part of every meal, though I strongly condemn the indulgence in fruit between meals.”
I coincide with him, and emphasize by saying feast on fruit freely! Don’t stint the supply to sauce dishes. Use large saucers and not only once full but twice or thrice full at every meal. Acid fruits are preferable. They are the staple, and properly prepared, one never tires of them. The acid of the fruit is largely oxygen, and uniting with the carbon of other food, in this way assists in digestion.
For constipation some of the dried fruits well cooked are valuable. Of these peaches, plums, prunes, apricots, etc., that are rich in hydrocyanic acid, are preferable. Get the best, stew several hours. Never prepare a meal without it. Do not say it is expensive, and you cannot afford it. Take half the money you put in meat and lard, and purchase fruit. You will get interest and principal returned in health for yourself, in rosy, buoyant children, and noticeable absence of doctors’ fees.
Most of the garden vegetables are also valuable. Rhubarb, onions, tomatoes, asparagus, green peas, squash, cauliflower, green corn, etc., etc., are good, and should be well cooked without butter. The fruits and vegetables supply water, laxative in its effects upon the mucous surfaces. They increase the residual matter of the excrement, and supply stimuli for peristaltic action.