THE DIET IN SEVERE CASES OF APPENDICITIS
From three to four quarts of cool water should be taken the first day and all food omitted. The second day fruit-juices and olive-oil should be administered. This treatment should be continued for several days, or until the pain is relieved, when the diet for milder cases may be adopted in a reduced or limited form.
DANGERS OF INTESTINAL CONGESTION
Causes of appendicitis
All conditions of bowel inflammation are caused primarily by congestion of fecal matter in the intestinal tract. That which will relieve congestion, therefore, will, by removing the causes, relieve inflammation. Intestinal congestion has become one of the most common disorders among civilized people, because of the fact that a large percentage of the coarse material known as cellulose fiber has been removed from their food by super-civilized methods of preparation. For instance, in modern milling methods, every trace of cellulose is removed from the grain, leaving nothing but a white mass of unbalanced food material, largely carbohydrates, and the peelings are removed from all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Thus the diet of civilized man has become woefully impoverished in cellulose and mineral salts, with the result that there is nothing left in the diet to stimulate the liver and the peristaltic activity of the intestinal tract.
Evils of the civilized diet
This condition is largely augmented by flesh food, all sedative drugs, and intoxicating drinks which have become so conspicuous in the diet of modern civilization.
Why coarse food is necessary
The intestinal (digestive and eliminative) organs of man, through the millions of years of his development, have been built up on the primitive plan. They have been shaped by the process of ages to accommodate coarse food, therefore a generous amount of non-nutritive cellulose is absolutely necessary to both the digestion of food and the elimination of waste. The liberal use of cereal bran puts back into the diet that which modern milling methods have taken out of it.
Remedial value of coarse food